FaunaClassifieds - View Single Post - Notice: Deleting classified ads
Thread: Notice: Deleting classified ads
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Old 11-13-2020, 12:15 PM   #13
WebSlave
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lamprophile View Post
How about disabling commenting on ads older than say, 1-2 years. I love this site, but when someone comments on a 10-14 year old ad for my favorite, or hard to find species, and it pops up to the first page again, I get all excited, only to be let down hard when I see how old the ad is. Disabling commenting (but still allowing direct messaging) would still let people search through old ads to find contacts, but would eliminate dredging up a decade old ad to the first page again.... Just a thought.

(I'd also like to see prices & location listed on the ad listing, rather than only in the body of the ad once you click on it, but there may be reasons for not doing that...)

Otherwise, love the site!!
Members are expected to pretty much manage their own classified ads. There is a reason why advertising is free here. People are expected to do ALL the work associated with their forum based advertising. If we had to manage all the ads for everyone, well, that "free" part of advertising here wouldn't last very long.

Of course, some functions can be custom programmed, but even that would be eating away at that "free" aspect you now see here.

Requests that will cost money in custom programming are looked at in a cost versus benefit to the majority of the users type of analysis. Quite frankly, there is also the issue of some requests being too complicated and/or too difficult to implement than the effort is worth expending on them. This site is, after all, a MESSAGE BOARD site, that has been already heavily modified from the stock version of vBulletin. So the design considerations of the original developers were more in that direction rather than some of the directions I have tried to take it. There are some real good reasons why this site still uses a very old version of vBulletin.

There really are some benefits to having old ads still viable here. The original author may still be in business, and each view or reply to such old ads are potential customers. It also alerts other people that there are people interested in such animals or merchandise, and they are certainly free to contact such interested parties privately as their own sales leads. Members replying to such ads will bring their interest to public notice, which may possibly be prime examples of what I am referring to above.

So some things that people do not like, others may like, for their own reasons. And as such, programming out the things that some people do not like, often prove to be disheartening to those people who appreciated that function being available, as needed.

As for displaying more info in the ad listing, I believe each author can do so, if they desire. But quite honestly, I believe most authors WANT viewers to take a closer look at their entire ad. The listing text really should be an enticement for a viewer to open the ad and step in to look closer at what is being offered. This also trips the counter for number of views their ad has had, and I'm pretty sure most advertisers really want to know how many people have taken a look at their ad. I know I would. It gives you valuable information about how effective your marketing efforts are panning out.

Anyway, hope the explanation helps. Sorry this site isn't perfect for everyone, but that is a goal that I long ago abandoned as being an end of a rainbow not worth pursuing.