Suggested change to Buy/Sell/Trade

[DanMan]

Hello!
I have a suggested change to the Buy/Sell/Trade section (as you may have gathered). I don't know if it's possible to have ProBoards set up to automatically delete old topics, but I think it would be handy to do here. While we haven't had the problem lately, in the past some people have dug up very old posts about stuff for sale or trade.

I think if every topic that hasn't had a post in a month or two could be deleted, it would clear out that forum nicely. Then there would basically only be topics that feature currently available trades/sales/wants/auctions. Once everyone knew about it, it would force people to update their topics (and post that it was updated), so that way all information is current.

Does anyone else think this would be helpful in making Buy/Sell/Trade section easier to look through and more useful? More importantly, do the mods like the idea and is it plausible?

[BuffyFanOne]

I think that it might be easier if people just deleted their threads when they end their transactions.
There would still be the replies but then people would not bring up old posts asking if things are still available because the origional post would be gone.

I do agree that it is kinda confusing in that forum.

[DanMan]

That would certainly help a bit, and it's something that I myself try to do. That wouldn't really help with guaranteeing that all posts are that current though, or streamlining that section. I mean we have nearly a hundred pages there and only the first two or so are really current.

I think that it would be less intimidating for people to look through if they knew that it was only say 4 pages or so of stuff that is current and updated in the past month or two. Speaking just for myself, I find it a bit tedious to go there if I haven't visited it in awhile because you have to then sort through everything including auctions that have ended, and trades that have been completed. In one case I contacted someone about stuff he had for sale, and never received a response because he apparently left the forum right after posting that (no posts since that one, no response to PMs). It would be good if we had a system where posts like that could be (relatively) quickly deleted.

[CMK1887]

DanMan:

I like your suggestion. I went ahead and deleted all posts older than 32 days. I know there are still some older threads in the forum from the beginning of January, but I'll have to go through and delete those later.

Perhaps I can make a post in the forum announcing that people need to rename their post "Delete" once their items have been sold/traded or their auctions are finished. Once I see that "Delete" title, I'll know to go ahead and delete the whole thread from the forum. What do you think?

-CMK

[Alyrenee]

That "delete" option works pretty well on another forum I visit often. They had similar problems with the For sale/trade thread as well. I like it.

[DanMan]

That is so much better, thanks Chad! It seems much more inviting to know that there is only stuff to look at from the last month there. I like the idea of the "delete" option too, as long as it is used in conjunction with the periodic deletion of older threads. I imagine the majority of people will be too lazy to actually go back to old threads and mark them to delete, or they'll simply forget. But I think those two steps together will help greatly to keep that section current and streamlined.

Thanks again!

[BuffyFanOne]

I love the delete idea!
Thats perfect!

[DanMan]

One other thing that I wish we could implement, but I don't think is really possible would be a feedback rating. If there was some way to use the karma points to only rate people based on trades good or bad, that would be a great easy way to figure out who is a good trader/seller/buyer. Maybe someday proboards could somehow work something like that in here.

[BuffyFanOne]

That would be perfect.
I hated those Karma points but if they could be put to good use then they wouldn't be bad at all.

[buffyville]

Im glad we arent doing Karma points, But they did change the Transaction thread to reference two seperate threads, one for good one for bad, so I think its alot easier now.


-Val

[Rogue]

Thanks Chad... I'm also glad the Buy / Sell / Trade section has been cleaned up. Not that I go in there every day, but I like seeing things being done efficiently (part of the Taurus in me)