Thread: Can we go back to the old classifieds setup?

But I think separating buying and selling from the rest of the forums takes away from the sense of community that was so cherished in the old B/S/T - we had conversations about items, talked about other things, and had a place to egg each other on - with it being separated, it's an island unto itself, and thus far is lacking in both character and community spirit.

It may be functionally better, but like straight shaving, I liked the old way - it may not have been as efficient, but it had charisma. Adding it to the new posts, I think, would go a long way to re-introducing the community feeling existent in other areas of the forum.

Just my $0.02

Mark

I never read the new posts lists, I just go down the screen looking for what's recent in threads I'm interested in. however I did think that there was more enjoyment in the old system where people discussed the things being sold more. doesn't seem like you get much back and forth on the new system. I do like it being divided into catagories of items for sale.

Red

Originally Posted by Milton Man

But I think seperating buying and selling takes away from the sense of community that was so cherished in the old B/S/T - we had conversations about items, talked about other things, and had a place to egg each other on - with it being seperated, it's an island unto itself, and thus far is lacking in both character and community spirit.

But we can still do that in the Auctions & Ebay, Etc forum:

Share information and comments about specific items currently listed on various auction sites, classifieds, etc., including questions/comments about the description, price, and seller.

As far as I can tell, we've chosen to let the classifieds be an island unto itself out of convenience. It doesn't sadden or disappoint me, it is simply a separate and different format. It works when it is used the way it is set up to be used. Its limitations are mainly the chosen degree of involvement of its users, just like the BST's.

There is a bar at the top that lists all your old adds.

I loved the old BST forum, it was a lot of fun, but the classifieds seem “sterile”. It does what it does; it’s a “business engine”. Simply click on the “buy it now” button, confirm with PayPal and you’re done… seller gets his money, buyer gets his product… no need for small talk… (did someone say eBay?).

I remember looking at the numbers on the old BST… on a bad day maybe “5 viewing”, check the numbers on the classifieds on any given day… I suppose the “numbers” have gone to other parts of the forum.

Don’t get me wrong, i am not trying to bash the classifieds… it has its place, and I welcome it, but the old BST forum was a unique place to do business among friends.

Originally Posted by smythe

Don’t get me wrong, i am not trying to bash the classifieds… it has its place, and I welcome it, but the old BST forum was a unique place to do business among friends.

Truth be told, it gave a beginner a much worse chance to compare prices. I may be wrong, but the number of sellers, and buyers, has risen quite a bit over the last year. I bought two razors from BST that I would not have dreamt about buying from the classifieds, simply because a direct comparison (yes, there is that button, too) would have shown them to be a bit on the pricey side *cough*.

Call me an in-between-er, but there seems to be a transition phase between, as English and others put it, the old familiar forum and the "new" forum with more beginners, or at least more people interested in buying straight razors. Give the beginners a chance, i.e. stop criticising the Classifieds. Yes, they are less of a community, and they cater to a different target group. But they do it in a unobtrusive way. There are other ways to sell to a community of friends, or online family, if you so wish. And, yes, it works. Slightly different medium, but similarly familiar, or even more so.

We've discussed this in the past, but people only remember the good things about the classifieds, from the days when SRP membership was 5 times less than now.

At the end of the BST, it was creaking at the seams.
So many items were being posted every day that it was nearly impossible to find items that were unsold after a day because of the sheer amount of new threads. It was impossible to view only unsold items. And as with the classifieds now, some people used the BST as their personal free of charge storefront. That was no different then than the classifieds now.

Yes, the BSt as it existed when I started here was a charming community place. But over the last year, membership has increased exponentially. We are now at nearly 8000 members. The BST had already lost it's charm when we switched to the classifieds.

Think of it as a small village, where suddenly there is a lot of immigration because people figure out that it is a good place to be. The small and cosy market place that everybody used to go to becomes overcrowded and chaotic. To solve those problems, a shopping mall is erected with a known map and floorplan (the categories in the classifieds).

And senior citizens will always have fond memories about the old and cosy marketplace, but at the end it simply was not working anymore, except for those people who were willing to spend all of their time there, watching out for new stuff. The new place does not have that cosiness of the old place, but at least it works properly.

The same has happened here. And I personally know a couple of senior members who have left because we lost some of that 'small village' cosiness. And I think it is sad. But that is the inevitable price we have to pay for allowing new people to come here at will. The same things happened with all small villages that became big, startups that became multinationals, and homebrew sites that get popular.
Life is change and change is life.

Bruno, if there was a way to have the classifieds integrated with the "new posts" icon so that a newly listed item would be easily noticed by members I think a lot of the complaining would cease.

I see what you mean about the increased population of SRP. Good thing most are lurking, can you imagine 8,000 posters ?

Inbetweener here. i will admit to being a member of B&B and ShaveMyFace, though i don't go on them much as they seem more oriented to the DE users, maybe i am wrong. i used the B&B BST to get a DE and didn't mind it but it really wasn't the be all end all, and i do find it hard to find items i have looked at before as they go down the list pretty quick. i think the classifieds look great and work nicely, i haven't bought anything from them yet but i know i will when my funds start coming back (i just opened a small business ) but to me it would make a lot of sense to allow new items to come up on the new posts search but only when they are new, it would be crazy if they showed up everytime a comment was posted. being able to scroll down and see all the comments would be cool too, i just assumed no one was commenting. i guess people have problems with the Buy It Now thing, to me it would make the most sense to leave that but as soon as someone hits that the item show up as "pending" and once the sale is confirmed then the item is taken off. i don't see the point in leaving the items up for 2 days listed as sold. that may be just me though.

also i have scanned through all the items before and it was weird as some pages only had 2 items, others had more or less, i know someone else said the same thing, not a big deal but i would like to fix it if i could (obviously only if it is something wrong with my comuter ).

Originally Posted by chee16

[...]i do find it hard to find items i have looked at before as they go down the list pretty quick.

There is an option to watch an add, right below the "For Sale By" area - the button to the left.

If there were three things I could change about the classifieds system:

1. Integration into the forum as a sub forum of sorts. Not doable, but WIBNI? 50% of the BST nostalgia here is owed to the fact that the Classifieds are a separate entity (which is not a forum, either), and therefore discourage discussions.
2. In the same vein, I would like the comments to be more accessible.Having the at the very bottom of the page, without any indication whether there are any comments at all, is BAD.
3. Text instead of icons, especially in the area mentioned above. The icons were obviously designed by someone who previously had a career with the Spanish inquisition.

Originally Posted by chee16

also i have scanned through all the items before and it was weird as some pages only had 2 items, others had more or less, i know someone else said the same thing, not a big deal but i would like to fix it if i could (obviously only if it is something wrong with my comuter ).

I presume(!) that is due to the fact that some ads have idled out of the list, but their slots are kept open for sentimental reasons (or bad programming).