Changes to Classified Ads board

[fischkopp]

The executive unanimously decided to change the current appearance of the classifieds board on the OVAS forum.

Please find out more about this here.

Feel free to ad you comments and questions to this thread.

[Brine]

Seems like a bunch of good ideas to me.

[presto]

I don't see why preventing visitors from replying in the ad itself is helpful?

Some good reasons this should remain are:
1) People ask good questions one might not think of
2) Sellers answers question in thread avoiding 30 emails asking "Will you part out?"
3) If someones price is ridiculous, saying so helps protect people from being ripped off.

The rest of the ideas are very good and reasonable.

[FocusFin]

I don't see why preventing visitors from replying in the ad itself is helpful?

Some good reasons this should remain are:
1) People ask good questions one might not think of
2) Sellers answers question in thread avoiding 30 emails asking "Will you part out?"
3) If someones price is ridiculous, saying so helps protect people from being ripped off.

The rest of the ideas are very good and reasonable.

As long as people are specific in the ad and put things like "Price Firm" or "Not Parting Out" there should be no reason for having to answer 30 emails. If people still persist, ignore them, they're likely going to waste your time anyway.

The rules state you're not supposed to discuss the price of an item in the post, it's only to be done in PM.

Personally, I like the new setup and I'll bet the moderators like it too, less posts to have to monitor.

[RossW]

This is forbidden based on another Classified rule, PM is the reccomended method for this issue

3) If someones price is ridiculous, saying so helps protect people from being ripped off.

[Adam]

Seems like people are just deleting their ads and reposting them to get around the no-bumping clause. Also, having multiple ads from the same person clogs up the space.

[charlie]

Seems like people are just deleting their ads and reposting them to get around the no-bumping clause. Also, having multiple ads from the same person clogs up the space.

The membership can report those that they see deleting & reposting 

[Brine]

OK the new rules have been in effect for a while now and I want to comment. I don't like the fact that no one can comment on, or reply to, a classified ad. I know sometimes comments got out of hand or pissed people off but I really don't like the fact that no one is able to share information.
One of our main objectives is "to promote interest, exchange ideas, and distribute information concerning the hobby" and this new policy goes directly against that.
For instance, if some one post an ad that says "LF limestone rocks for a new Cichlid tank" the poster is the only one who gets to see any replies...perhaps there are better solutions than the rocks they are looking for (Dolomite is what you need) or perhaps there is a fantastic place to get the rocks (the edge of the Grand River in Southern Ontario). No one else would learn about it though because no one can reply.
I realize sometimes discussions in the classifieds went off topic or people started flaming each other but I think that is better than being left in the dark about any discussion or hints and solutions for peoples questions.
Before you say people can post in the lounge or in freshwater discussions or something let me say that while that is true it isn't happening.
Lets share again, I learned so much from those posts and we are not getting the chance to learn now.

[fischkopp]

We may as well shut down all the other boards and let the discussion happen in the classifieds sections only. 

Honestly, I am really surprised how much this new format changed the appearance of the OVAS's website. No longer do I have through endless unread posts of the c/f. It shifted the weight back to the regular discussion board, the place where discussions should take place to begin with. No one stops you to send a PM with additional info to anybody or start a new topic to point out a few things.

[RossW]

Honestly, I am really surprised how much this new format changed the appearance of the OVAS's website. No longer do I have through endless unread posts of the c/f. It shifted the weight back to the regular discussion board, the place where discussions should take place to begin with. No one stops you to send a PM with additional info to anybody or start a new topic to point out a few things.

Do you have any post and view counts per Forums you can share of before and after?  I have wondered how it is going myself.  I feel like there is significantly less discussion but not sure if that is the season or the changes to classified.  I definitely like that the number of bumps has been reduced significantly, which is good and bad.  Good if you don't care for the item, but bad if your interest changes in a few days.

[presto]

OK the new rules have been in effect for a while now and I want to comment. I don't like the fact that no one can comment on, or reply to, a classified ad. I know sometimes comments got out of hand or pissed people off but I really don't like the fact that no one is able to share information.
One of our main objectives is "to promote interest, exchange ideas, and distribute information concerning the hobby" and this new policy goes directly against that.
For instance, if some one post an ad that says "LF limestone rocks for a new Cichlid tank" the poster is the only one who gets to see any replies...perhaps there are better solutions than the rocks they are looking for (Dolomite is what you need) or perhaps there is a fantastic place to get the rocks (the edge of the Grand River in Southern Ontario). No one else would learn about it though because no one can reply.
I realize sometimes discussions in the classifieds went off topic or people started flaming each other but I think that is better than being left in the dark about any discussion or hints and solutions for peoples questions.
Before you say people can post in the lounge or in freshwater discussions or something let me say that while that is true it isn't happening.
Lets share again, I learned so much from those posts and we are not getting the chance to learn now.

X 2

Can we get a survey going asking people what they like. At least then we would know if the majority rules or if this is the idea of the few executives. It wouldn't bother me as much if my view lost to the communities voice.

a) Ability to reply to Classified ads

b) No reply to Classified ads to simplify the forum.

[elk]

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

[RoxyDog]

I'm not entirely sure what the above "B" post is for but certainly this can be discussed/polled by OVAS members. 

I think this was implemented partly in response to the previous discussion how OVAS was all about the classifieds.  All the posting was going on in there and needed to be cleaned up.  And also maybe b/c there was so much moderating to be done...I have to assume this has reduced moderating significantly.

Anyway, discuss away!

[JD]

The "B" post I believe is choice b) from the previous post.

I support the no reply version.
Not neccessary to involve everyone for personal questions.
If you are truly interested in the item you will need to contact the individual anyways.

[audioslave_36]

I share the same views as Brine & Presto

I vote A!

[bergenm]

I have to go with A as well...

[PMurphy]

I would also vote to be able to reply to the C/F section. Personally I would like it back for the extra info gained from people's postings as well as knowing when things are already spoken for. For example, someone posts an add FF or FS at a great price. Maybe there are even multiple items. If I see this post 4 hrs after the initial post. The chances are the item is taken but I try to send a PM anyway. If you could reply to the C/F section I would most likely know that it had already been taken as I would see many posts to the effect "PM sent" or "I'll take X item" etc. The way I see it, there are an unnecessary amount of PMs and anticipation/hope for nothing. Sure you can say that the onus is on the Poster of the Ad to remove items that are sold, but in reality this just doesn't happen every time.

On the other hand, there was a lot of pointless and derogatory comments being made in the C/F section and something would still have to be done about this if replying in this section was enabled once more. Perhaps maintaining the rule that non-OVAS members cannot bump their posts (maybe allow them one "bump" per reply/question to their post) and allow only OVAS members to post replies in the C/F section. If we don't want to be exclusive to the monetary donation to OVAS, possibly a minimum post limit would suffice.

This way it might be possible to eliminate the users who show up with no posts and just want to sell/buy things on the forum, but yet allow those who try to use the rest of the forums -in addition to the C/F section- the ability to spread/absorb knowledge from that section as well.

At any rate that's just my two cents

Cheers

Patrick

[fischkopp]

Unfortunately, we have no stats for individual boards to compare the posting before and after the changes took place.

One point that I can certainly state is that the need for moderation of posts has gone down to an all time low - this greatly helps to maintain and moreover improve the OVAS website in the future.

Beside the obvious moderation improvements, the new rule were installed in order to put more responsibility into the hand of the ad poster (please note that other c/f boards work the same way). This means: whoever places an ad has to assure that he points out all important facts about his product, or he gets many responses asking the same thing; the topic poster can edit his ad afterwards to add this information. He or she is also responsible for updating the status. Assuming from other peoples replies that items have been sold is miss leading in many cases, causing additional "still available" posts.

It has been brought up that not allowing to reply might inhibit communication on this board. I do not think that that is the case: there has been no change to any of the discussion boards. Yes, discussion of any product in the c/f are not possible anymore, but it does not stop you from starting that very same discussion in the appropriate board. In fact, such replies in the c/f are well known as thread-jacking and weren't allowed by the rules that are in place since the site exists.

Here is the poll: How do you like the rules?

[Laura]

I'm fine with the cleaner look, the only downside I see is that I can't tell how much interest there has been in something, which tends to be a gauge as to whether it's scooped before I get there. 
The plus side is that it seems to create less work for our fabulous team of volunteers.

[markw]

The reason the club has an Executive is to make decisions on behalf of the membership. You can't have polls to decide every issue that confronts a club. If you don't like the decisions that the Executive make, then one should run for the positions available and make the changes they feel best represent the membership. We are all ready to see some new faces "anti up to the bar"!!
If users of the forum spent more time working for the best of the club rather than just posting complaints on a keyboard, we'd sure have a better group.