Reminder of Rule #14

Cass

I am posting this across all forums so everyone can see the reminder and no one can claim they were unaware.

Lately, as in the past few months, more and more posts are asking for locations as the original post is not including it.

Rule #14 clearly lays out the four required criteria for posting an advert. They are:

For Sale Adverts.

1. Detailed description of the item(s) being sold. Condition, new/second hand, usage, history, etc.
2. Price you are seeking. No invites for offers, a definitive price. You are free to refuse any offers made on this price, but a price must be posted.
3. Pictures of the item(s). Not something you have taken from a another site (against copyright laws) but an actual picture of the item(s) in your possession. How many is up to you, but obviously the more the merrier.
4. Location. Too many times a for sale thread has post after post of people asking where the OP is based, or located. You don't need to give your address, but a county will suffice. This can be done in the form of posting where you are located or under your avatar, in the settings/profile page, filling in your location.

This rule was not enforced as strictly as other rules, but as said in my opening post it's becoming more and more common for people to "fill up" a thread with requests for the location of the item.

As the rule says you need not give out your address, or even a townland, but at the very least a county is needed so people can see if its within range for collection or if postage is needed.

As a result rule #14 will, from this evening onward, be enforced as strictly as the other three criteria for posting an advert.

We do not wish to make selling your gear difficult, but over the last week, including today, i've removed over 200 posts from various threads asking for location or other details that should have been included in the opening post. Instead of deleting these adverts they were amended, merged or edited by the Mods or myself to make them compliant. However the workload is increasing as more people disregard the rule(s). So from this point on all for sale adverts, wanted adverts, etc. will comply with the criteria as laid out in Rule #14 or they will be removed without warning.

Cass

An addendum to the above..

There is also a marked increase of people posting about sending or receiving private messages (PMs).

This is redundant. When a PM is sent the person receiving it gets one of three notifications (depending on settings):

1. An on screen number beside their username
2. A pop up window
3. An e-mail

While you may have e-mail notifications and even the pop up feature blocked, you will still have a number appear on your username. This feature cannot be removed. So posting on thread that you have sent a PM is redundant and serves only to artificially bump the advert.

There are only two instances when posting about a PM is permitted:

1. When the person has not replied to the PM within 72 hours
2. When you try to PM someone but their inbox is full and you wish to notify them so you post on thread.

Again these types of posts have been removed over the past week with a few exceptions due to one of the two reason above. Not once has anyone been infracted for failing to give their location or for posting about sending PMs and we don't want to go down that route, but the seemingly increasing rate at which this is happening must stop.

All adverts should have a low noise to sound ratio. A potential buyer should not have to wade through post after post about PMs being sent or asking where the seller is located simply to find out relevant information about the product that may come in later posts (such as price reduction, amendment to the original post, etc).

Remember there are fewer and fewer places to advertise your gear and the list gets shorter each year with social media all but banning the sale of anything shooting related, and other sites already prohibiting it.

We have a large audience and best of all its free to use so while there are rules they are few and very easy to follow. Lets keep it simple and working so we don't lose that function. After all its here for you.