Spam in the Classifieds

Wondering if this is the proper place to post this , if not admin please move to the right section Thanks !


As of late I've been noticing many more ads in the Gecko section are containing one gecko which there's nothing wrong with that if you only have that gecko to sell , but then the next 3-10 ads will be same type of gecko possibly the clutch-mates posted by the same person . It's not only a waste of space, but it's irritating as a customer to have to click through so many ads to see so few geckos. I believe there's 25 threads per page and if two people do this with say 10 geckos each that's 20 of the spaces taken up leaving 5 for the day, it's starting to become spam-like to have to check out ads. Most time it's done by people who don't contribute to the site which is not surprising, but can there be anything done about this ? I know it sounds like a rant, but it's annoying to have to weed through all those ads, obviously it's tacky on the part of the breeder/company doing it, but they don't really seem to have any consideration for anyone else when doing this so I ask the forum can we implement some kind of rule like "if it's the same species post it in the same ad unless you can't upload any more photos".

Same happens in the bearded dragon forum.

One person will post individual ads for each and every clutch mate all with the same visual looks.very annoying to say the least, but hey! what cha gonna do.

I believe there's 25 threads per page and if two people do this with say 10 geckos each that's 20 of the spaces taken up leaving 5 for the day

I don't understand your point. Are you under the impression that only one page of ads total can be posted in a category, per day?

While, on a personal level, I agree with the idea of having some limitations on registered members; I understand Rich's position as it has been stated many times. If a seller feels his needs are better served by posting animals individually rather than as a group, that is his choice. As a seller, I can attest that it is much easier to showcase one animal in an ad than to have to respond to multiple requests for more photos because I chose to post multiple animals in one ad. Some sellers don't even post photos for whatever reason - we aren't going to tell them they have to, but how many people buy without pictures? If people want to accept lost opportunity (because people don't bother asking for pics), and don't mind having to send the same pics to dozens of people, why would the site interfere?
If you don't like somebody's advertising practices, scroll past their ads. There's nothing wrong with initiating a constructive dialog with a seller, either...as long as one can handle the indifference that might be encountered. There is no IDEAL way to advertise that will always be effective and that everybody will be pleased with - some people don't like looking at numerous ads with single animals, others prefer that over trying to figure out which animals are pictured or having to ask for more pictures.
We also aren't going to prevent some people from aggressively marketing their animals because other people don't want to put the same effort into selling theirs.

Heck, we've gotten reported posts for people posting a whole list of animals in a single ad. There is always someone who doesn't like something.

Seriously guys, the world can't be just peachy keen perfect for every single person who frequents this site. We try to give everyone as much freedom as is humanly possible, but that certainly is going to mean that someone is going to do something that you don't particularly like. In the same hand, perhaps some people don't like the way YOU advertise. So how would you feel if we made rules that went directly against your preferred methods? Put out, maybe?

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Heck, we've gotten reported posts for people posting a whole list of animals in a single ad. There is always someone who doesn't like something.

Seriously guys, the world can't be just peachy keen perfect for every single person who frequents this site. We try to give everyone as much freedom as is humanly possible, but that certainly is going to mean that someone is going to do something that you don't particularly like. In the same hand, perhaps some people don't like the way YOU advertise. So how would you feel if we made rules that went directly against your preferred methods? Put out, maybe?

It's your site Rich so you should run it the way you feel (and I don't mind one way or the other) but the above posters may be referring to the fact that ad views drop off once you are off the first page, if one person is using 10 adds to display the same kind of gecko/dragon it monopolizes a lot of space on that first page.

You might be surprised at how many pages people view; especially when they're really buying something rather than taking a casual look...but, if somebody really wants/needs to stay on the first page, it just takes a little effort.

Originally Posted by leisgem

It's your site Rich so you should run it the way you feel (and I don't mind one way or the other) but the above posters may be referring to the fact that ad views drop off once you are off the first page, if one person is using 10 adds to display the same kind of gecko/dragon it monopolizes a lot of space on that first page.

I seriously doubt that someone looking for something in particular who does not find it on page one stops at that point rather than continuing on to more pages to keep on looking. Or, quite likely, they may just use the search function if it is something with a unique label to find it no matter what page it might be on.

The classified ads are for free to all members. If I have to snazzy it up for every suggested change to suit every whim and hire someone full time to manage that section, that *free* part would have to change. Nobody, including me, wants to see that have to happen. Certainly not inclined to do that to the extent of actively inhibiting people who chose to post ads one way rather than another way.

Oh, and ad views differing from page one to the other pages might not really have a thing to do with actual views relative to the posting date. Many of the ads on the front page just might have been bumped to be there, which carries over the CUMULATIVE number of views, but the appearing DATE of the ad reflects the last bump, not when it was actually originally posted. Some of those ads on the front page might actually be months old.