Enough is enough with the classifieds (*or* Why you cannot reply to classified ads)

I've been made aware of the BOI fairly recently and just today took time to read some of the entries in this; as well as remembering half the negativity in the classifieds over time as I followed the market on a certain couple of species I've been researching care for, and I honestly don't know why any of the moderators are wasting their time with "explaining" themselves. As I understand, the "classifieds" are meant for "selling", and that THIS area is meant for "reporting" aka "bitching" aka "whatever else you call it". I think that if you aren't mature yet enough to know the difference between courtesy and being on one, then you shouldn't deserve the privelege of having your comment acknowledged. I'm 30 years old and am more often these days becoming embarrassed by the conversations I step into. I like that there IS a place to report some bad business, especially with the herp trade being a seller's market and often dishonest; it seems that for the money I plan to invest, there are some people otu there who, for their own sake, would be best reported so I personally didn't waste say, a grand or two. Sad that such immature individuals are even allowed to be here once they show their colors, and I personally hope that whatever happens to clean up this function and restore it to what it's intended to be happens. It would surely be nice to find a site that doesn't cater to childhood playground games.

And I state the prior comment because within some ads I find info that is actually useful, and I was VERY frustrated at times having to sift through crap just to see whether someone actually posted useful info there, only to have been mislead often.

Originally Posted by nvrc51

I try to post a reply but for some reason I can't. I keep getting this message

you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.

Someone please help, thank you.

Bravo, WebSlave. I'm not yet fully familiar with you, but I love the effort I've seen so far in the classifieds alone. Why you wasted your time even replying to this is beyond me, many cudos to your patience.

I 100% love the irony of the above comments being made by the very person who cannot follow the rules of the BOI without getting "butthurt" when they are pointed out to him =)

Learn to read the rules people...and stop being so darn offended by having to follow them

Originally Posted by Willow

I 100% love the irony of the above comments being made by the very person who cannot follow the rules of the BOI without getting "butthurt" when they are pointed out to him =)

Learn to read the rules people...and stop being so darn offended by having to follow them

AMEN!

I think that the ban on replying to classified ads except those that are paid members should be reinstated. If you look at some of the classified ads right now, people are replying to ads years old. These ads then get bumped all the way to the top. I don't know, but it's kind of a hassle to when you're looking at an ad and then realize that it's from 2010. Just my two cents.

I saw someone asking if a free snake was still available. The ad was from 2009... Talk about necro-threads... Ironically, Josh, you too revived a necro thread from 2012. Too funny.

Well I remember the poll that was up somewhat recently, and a majority of people who replied to said poll wanted replies enabled on the classifieds again. I think it was working fine with just paid members being able to reply.

Originally Posted by joshtrout

I don't know, but it's kind of a hassle to when you're looking at an ad and then realize that it's from 2010.

I'm on some forums where if you bump a thread over 120 (or a given number) days old, you get a notification "This Thread is more than 120 days old. It is very likely that it does not need any further discussion and thus bumping it serves no purpose.
If you still feel it is necessary to make a new reply, you can still do so though. " To post, you then have to click a button acknowledging
"I am aware that this Thread is rather old but I still want to make a reply." Just a thought, but it seem to work pretty well on these sites.

Well, people still have the option of closing their ads, so other members cannot post replies - rest assured I will be utilizing that feature when I start advertising this year.

As far as Josh dragging up an ad from 2012, that must have been well before the ability to reply to ads got reopened (I looked at his posts). Everybody has those moments; and, for those that dislike posted replies, it can be used as an argument for not allowing ANY replies.

Regardless, ads are opened to posts (unless closed by the member posting the ad; and we're going to give it a reasonable chance to see if it has any impact. I don't doubt that there were people who registered because of interest in an ad, and subsequently left when they couldn't reply...without bothering to figure out why, or explore other options (like the Contact button)

If it is easily added to the current format; I'd love to see ads over 6 months have some sort of hurdle to posting.