Upcoming Classifieds Process and Rules Changes

[normanvin]

I think people who sell on the classifieds need be paid members.

[BionicMan]

Since no one will say it, I will. Just ban nancy and other junk sellers and be done with it. .

/\/\/\ THIS /\/\/\

Better moderation is the answer, not throwing the entire Classifieds section in the trash and making our valued members buy and sell things elsewhere.

[PlumCrazy]

So exactly who are all these businesses that were trying to sell in the classifieds without being a vendor or something? Maybe Nancy in PA lol. Also deleting an old thread and posting a new one to get around it will result in a band? What are we supposed to do when we sell something then not delete it and we're not allowed to post a new thread in that section? None of this makes any sense

[bandsmoyer@yahoo.com]

Classifieds sure went dead.

[Delkal]

Classifieds sure went dead.

It didn't go dead. What you see are the actual amount of new interesting posts without the endless bumps of the crap ads.

[GunLawyer001]

It didn't go dead. What you see are the actual amount of new interesting posts without the endless bumps of the crap ads.

Pretty much. If there's no cost to running the same over-priced ad and bumping it every 3 days for a couple of years, then some folks will do that.

If you have a limited window to get some eyes on your ad, then the smart seller will price to sell.

I've seen it on auction sites where there's no extra charge to re-list the ad endlessly. They're willing to re-list scores of times, just to get that one guy who doesn't know the actual value and is willing to pay 150% of new retail for a used item.

[Xringshooter]

I don't use the classifieds all that much but I would like to see a way to put a new ad in once I sell what I am advertising if it sells in less than 30 days. My items in my original ad under the new format sold in several days and that ad is now "buried" mid page 4 and I still have 21 days before I can start a new ad. Even if I delete the items I sold and add a new item, who exactly will ever see it?

[free]

At what point does it cross from "I have some stuff I'd like to get rid of a couple times a year to my fellow forum mates" to "I am running a small business and PAFOA is a random place that lets me to dump stuff endlessly for free"?

If you want to put in the effort, you could be quantitative about it. If you give me access to the data, ill volunteer to do it. You don't determine any standards until you let the data speak for themselves.

Using the classifieds data as your dataset, either for the past x years, or it's entirety, you can "ask questions" such as:

1). How many posts (including bumps) does every user have in the classifieds? How does that compare to their non-classifieds post count? How does it compare to the median and average of all users?

2). Same analysis, but for the "top 25% of people with at least 13 classifieds posts" (more than once per month).

3). Same analysis, but with a focus on FREQUENCY of posting, rather than quantity of positing.

4). Quantity and frequency of each users's classified posts that are firearm-related and non firearm-related.

5). Peer analysis, compare classified Posting stats with people of similar account age.

6). Bump analysis...all kinds of questions you can ask about bump posts vs new threads.

That's just a sample (I'm typing on my phone). But the point is that you can use your dataset to tell you something about the users, completely objectively. With appropriate questions, the data will tell you what's normal, what's abnormal, who is here only for the classifieds, who is most likely posting crap, etc. You can point to the data and say, "look man, you're way outside the normal here, we're going to have to tone you down some", and avoid "penalizing" people who are not being obnoxious.

[JDA58]

The people posting the same crap and bumping it over and over and over and over.... as far as I can see are not breaking any forum rules.. nothing I remember when signing up said that you could not post up your ....oh lets say...used VHS tapes and have over 5 pages of bumps with no price reductions .... maybe figure out a happy medium with some new rules..that you must agree to before you can even post an add in the classifieds , adding more sub-forums... maybe splitting the Firearms to, Rifles and Shotguns / Pistols and Revolvers ---NFA---Ammunition---Firearm Accessories ---Reloading---Everything else

To post in the Everything else sub forum you must purchase a forum subscription ?

just rambling here.....

[DK23]

It didn't go dead. What you see are the actual amount of new interesting posts without the endless bumps of the crap ads.

But what you don't see are any ads that were edited with new items or price reductions.