Thread: Changes to Classified Advertisements on Audi-Sport.net

Hi All,

OK; as some of you are of aware, the classifieds system we've been running at ASN has struggled to keep pace with the development of the forum software; for a while we had it running pretty sweetly, but we acknowledge that we're in need of something more robust again, so we're going to give classified-selling in a dedicated area within the forums a go again.

Some notes:

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS ARE ONLY PERMITTED FROM PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS AND AUTHORISED SPONSORS/COMMERCIAL PARTNERS - COMMERCIAL TRADING ANYWHERE ON AUDI-SPORT.NET WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE ADMINISTRATORS IS PROHIBITED, POSTING IN CONTRAVENTION OF THIS RULE IS LIKELY TO RESULT IN YOUR ACCOUNT BEING SUSPENDED OR DELETED PERMANENTLY.


IN ORDER TO POST CLASSIFIEDS YOU WILL NEED:

A contribution to the forums of 25 useful posts.*
-OR-
To make a A DONATION TO THE SITE VIA PAYPAL.


*At present you may not be able to post classified threads. We're adding the permissions to existing users' accounts in blocks - if you have more than 25 posts, or have made a donation, it's most likely that within the hour of your next login you'll be allowed to post in these sections. If you wish to be cagey, log-in to ASN, log-out 65 minutes later, log back in and attempt to post. If it doesn't work it may take up to 24 hours. If after that time has elapsed you're still having problems, let us know in a new thread in the Site Support & Announcements Forum and we'll investige.

There is more information on selling in THIS POST - please give it a quick read even if you just wish to post a wanted ad (incidentally, the same 25 post or a donation requirement applies to wanted ads).

Please be patient as we iron-out any creases in the revised system; if you have persistent issues please reply to this thread giving concise detail of the problem and we'll try to get it resolved as quickly as possible.

Thanks for your patience,

ASN Admin Team.

Will the ebay threads now be removed or stay open in each section they've been created, as I do find there's usually allot of chat on the threads that are actually meant for just advising of an item for sale, end up scrolling through loads of chunder just to see whats available.

Also, will there be an auto removal system if you dont advise its been sold, maybe something that sends a pm to the seller as a reminder they have something showing as for sale, if they dont update status somehow it will be deleted, this was the issue with classifieds, things ages old & no way of knowing its sold as people didnt update the status, was so annoying, admittedly laziness on the sellers side, but anything to prompt people to admin there gear as such.

The ebay threads can stay where they are; because, well, they're not classified-ads. Whether people read and post to them or not is entirely up to them.

As regards ads being automatically deleted, that's a good one - we'd have had to stick with the 'advanced' classifieds system which has just been mothballed, but that was another function which didn't work too well. Anyway, folks have been after having straightforward forum-based classifieds, so that's exactly what they've got. Mods and Admins will help clear out items marked sold; and we'll keep an eye out for posts which are not marked as sold and obviously ancient, deleting as we see fit; but the best way to prevent accidents happening is for users to keep on top of it themselves. If it doesn't look like a ****-tip there's no need for us to go in with the delete-a-tron

Cheers,

Rob.

Classifieds look much more user friendly now.

Thanks!

I'm about to faint!

Dodgy chinese last night Joey

TBH I think it should have classifieds areas in chassis specific forums as its all going to be full of parts for all cars, scrolling through the lot could be fun.

I dont think it matters.

MigWebs Classified section is forum based and is so busy theres 2-3 pages of threads either new or replied to each day. It also covers the whole Vauxhall marque, and theres no issue with it requiring further chopped down into small bits.

Not sure I agree tbh, look at the migwebs items for sale sub forum, it has 500,000 posts lol, now I know they're not all current & common sense prevails, but if it was to be made more useful for people, then maybe would be handy if it was chassis specific.

Now of course if the search system was good enough in that area then guess that maybe ok & help, but some people would probably like to peruse parts just for that chassis & see if anything takes there fancy, I think once they see it has all cars & nothing is of use in the 1st page, then anything further down the list may get missed & therefore potentially end up with a classifieds system that isnt user friendly & people will just use the ebay threads to list items for sale that are not actually of ebay, which is what happens now given they're chassis specific.

Anyway test of time, probably be ok, just food for thought though & another POV.

Originally Posted by NHN

TBH I think it should have classifieds areas in chassis specific forums as its all going to be full of parts for all cars, scrolling through the lot could be fun.

What a nightmare that would be for the 'Moderators' huh Nige?

I think the problem is a lot of things arent chassis specific.

If you want a cylinder head, or some wheels for example, you need to look thru each different model fitted with your particular engine/wheel fitment. Or you get someone posting the same ad across 9 different sub forums as it might apply to them all.

If its all in one place it takes 30seconds to scan down one list of posts and so long as the descriptions are good (which ofcourse is down to the seller) you can quickly filter out irrelevant stuff using your brain.

Audisrs's forsale forum is also mixed, and i certainly have no problem scanning over that every day to see if anything new or interesting has come up for sale.

Originally Posted by jojo

What a nightmare that would be for the 'Moderators' huh Nige?

I would see your point more, but moderators seem to have there preferred areas mainly, although you all police all areas, usually find most in say a chassis area, yourself an 8L man, Staz 8P, James is a B6/7 iirc, Mac is Ice.

Given how the for sale items would be less in different areas not in one lump, it would be the same amount of work, just more spread out, in theory that is, with the benefit of people able to just check there cars parts available, but also could have an additional classifieds area as is now for say parts that can be used across platforms, who knows, it may become to messy, but as this is a test afaik then its worth a thought.

Its not like you would have to clear out the areas everyday, eg. the 8P ebay thread which fills up quickly isnt cleared out for weeks at a time & thats not a dig at mods, just a fact, so kinda shows its not as big a task as maybe people think.

Or maybe I've missed what other work you're being asked to do behind the scene's to make these things run, but on the surface, doesnt seem to be.

It may or may not work, but anythings better than before, admittedly by everyone whose used or tried to use it previously.

Its a hard position for admin I guess, there's no set given solution to make everybody happy, its just a discussion how it could or not work better, but as I said its a test afaik & hopefully it will work out just fine, its just a POV.

OK, so one of my first thoughts was to spread classified areas around the various sections of the site; and I'll agree, it's not a bad idea. But like every idea there are pros and cons. Some it has in common with the way we have gone, others it does not.

Spreading things around the forum does mean that just in purely practical terms there are far more clicks, and a much more convoluted process to search within classifieds if they're broken up around the boards. Add varying levels of 'computer-confidence' within a userbase of so many people, and this has potential to become a deal-breaker as bad as any we had in previous systems.

Also, as aragorn suggests, parts being completely model-specific happens less than we all might imagine when we really think about it, particularly on a place like ASN where everyone's building heinz57 cars - driving an Ax (NOT an AX) with bits of Ay Az and Leon nailed to them. Even discounting the tendancy for our community to trawl ETKA looking for various knobs, switches and LEDs from other platforms we can blu-tak in; there are base-level every-day occurences of such complications too. Let's say I've got some 312mm discs off a TT to sell. Do I post an ad in the TT section (because that's what they're actually off, or do I post them elsewhere, because on ASN they're more likely to be bought by someone to bolt to something else. If I choose the latter, which forum? Or (<the deity of your choice> forbid), all of them?

These were a couple of the key things we had to think about; the situation is that we're going to run with the implementation we've got for the time being, because after thinking about it, it does seem the best place for our next step to land; that doesn't have to be a final step of course - another thing to remember is that while we might not be able to pile 'advanced' functionality into classifieds while they reside in forums anywhere on the board (straight away at least), the layout is a lot more maliable now; and if trends and traffic dictate further down the line, we can just do a bit of switcheroo with it all again.

Peace.

Rob.

This is a great start! Kudos to all involved for this, I'm sure it can be refined in due course when things have run their course for a while.

Not sure if this is right place or but since it seems to be a about the new Classified section i'll ask it here.

How do we remove a wanted add when the item/s is no longer needed?
I know we can change the complete post to sold but what if there is multiply items with in one for sale add and a couple of items is sold?

We have a time limit on editing posts of 24 hours, it kills my original idea of marking each item sold (if they ever sell lol). I could copy the original post to a new thread or to a new post with in the original thread but it could get messy with in the thread or sale section, people could lose interest and I dont really want to bug a mod to edit my posting each time an item is sold.
Is there any chance we can have a prominent ability to edit our forsale/wanted adverts?

What's wrong with adding an 'updated' list of things for sale post at the bottom of the thread? Kind of standard for selling multiple items in one Thread.

Originally Posted by Axios

We have a time limit on editing posts of 24 hours, it kills my original idea of marking each item sold (if they ever sell lol). I could copy the original post to a new thread or to a new post with in the original thread but it could get messy with in the thread or sale section, people could lose interest and I don't really want to bug a mod to edit my posting each time an item is sold.

Originally Posted by jojo

What's wrong with adding an 'updated' list of things for sale post at the bottom of the thread? Kind of standard for selling multiple items in one Thread.

See above.

Originally Posted by Axios

See above.

Yes, I know what you typed, but I was asking what's wrong with adding an updated post at the end? It's not messy at all, just a list of what's sold and what's still available at the end of the post.

Users using the classifieds, which is free by the way, should learn to scroll to the bottom and read. There's should be very little or no dialogue between the seller and buyer within the thread, you should be using pm's. Your job is just to advertise the product and then update on whether it's still for sale or if it's sold.

I certainly don't have the time of day to 'edit' any 'for sale' thread within the classifieds section, unless it warranted it.

If it's a major issue for yourself, there's nothing to stop you closing the original thread(Click on 'SOLD') and creating a new one totally with your list of item still available.

Originally Posted by jojo

Users using the classifieds, which is free by the way, should learn to scroll to the bottom and read. There's should be very little or no dialogue between the seller and buyer within the thread, you should be using pm's. Your job is just to advertise the product and then update on whether it's still for sale or if it's sold.

I know what your saying and I agree with you I'm thinking of past experiences of classifieds adds.

Originally Posted by jojo

I certainly don't have the time of day to 'edit' any 'for sale' thread within the classifieds section, unless it warranted it.

Of course and i would not expect any mod to do so.

Originally Posted by jojo

If it's a major issue for yourself, there's nothing to stop you closing the original thread(Click on 'SOLD') and creating a new one totally with your list of item still available.

Not an issue for me at all. I'm just thinking of other users wanting to use the classifieds and the people who delete old adverts.

i'll do what you said and see how it goes.