*** Classified ads enhancement ***

A manner in which to make managing the classified ads easier to work with has been brought up here in the past.

My programmer just finished up a classified ads control panel.

You can access this through your USER CP. The link is just below the FaunaClassifieds logo in the upper left hand corner of the screen. When you go to your user control panel, you will see a screen listing several sections, one of which is the CLASSIFIEDS CONTROL PANEL. When you click on this, you will be presented with a listing of ALL ads you have posted in the classifieds sections.

From there, you can view the individual ads via clickable links. You also have several options you can do with each of the ads:

BUMP - This bumps the ad up to the top of the classified section it is posted in. This saves you the trouble of having to cut and paste from the old ad to a new one, then delete the old ad. Of course, this can be abused, so I will be watching this closely.

DELETE - Deletes the ad. Makes it easier to clean up all those old ads that may no longer be valid.

LOCK - This locks the thread to replies. People wanting to do their business outside of the classified forums themselves can utilize this option to keep people from replying to their ads via replies within the forums.

Anyway, check it out and let me know what you think about it.

I hope this helps you all to more easily use the classifieds section here

Great job! I went in saw all those embarrasingly old advertisements I had posted, and was able to delete them. Now when it's time to post things in three or four months, I'll be able to keep better track of them. Great!

Yay!! Those features were just what I had wanted! Thank you!!

OHHHHHHHHHH ricch i really like those options and shoot i check and there were some ads i forgot about and delted em but i found some complications... once you "lock" a ad you can not unlock it and this "locking" also includes editing the ad. i went and locked some of my ads and then went back to edit one because sale is pending and it said i couldnt because the ad is closed and im assuming that means its "locked"
any suggestions?

Let me run this by my programmer to see what the options are for dealing with it. In some respects I can see where I may want a locked ad to remain locked, especially if it is one that a moderator has locked to keep someone from editing.

Have you tried removing the lock via the admin options when you are viewing the thread? You may be able to unlock the thread that way.

This is how it currently works

You can lock an ad through the ucer cp ad classified ad panel.
Once you lock it.......... you can delete it through the same panel.

If you need to unlock it. You can unlock it by clicking and viewing your ad and going to the buttom where you see an admin panel. There you can unlock it.


UNFORTUNATELY

There are some ads that have been locked by admins.
The owners of those ads can delete their ads trhough the user cp classified ads panel.

This is something that DEFINATELY needs to be fixed by the programmer.

the admin options and this is what it said




***You do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
You do not have permission to access the page that you were trying to. Are you trying to edit someone else's post or trying to access administrative features? Check that you are allowed to perform this action in the Forum Rules.
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.
******

I wish you could "bump" a thread when it is locked, but you can't. Oh well, guess I could always un-lock it, bump it, and then lock it, some extra steps but it would be worth it.

dude once you lock it through your uaser control panel
you are SOL cuz you cant unlock it i tried through admin options and everything
'

I fixed the problem that was causing you to be unable to unlock your threads.

As far as the problem Ritchie brought up, I suppose that if someone sees an issue in a classified ad here, it will have to be treated the same as any other ad placed on another website somewhere else. Capture the image and paste it into the relevant thread on the BOI. Moderators can make a copy of the thread itself, if necessary, and post it elsewhere outside of the classifieds section where the author will be unable to touch it. If necessary, I can set up a special forum for this purpose.

Locking a thread should be the exception, rather than the rule. Let's face it, people look for ads with replies to them. Check the number of views any thread has gotten in the classifieds section with replies compared to other ads that have no replies to them.

If you want a large number of hits on your ad, well, people that are discussing you ad will simply attract attention. That's just the way it works.

Just be careful you don't heavily abuse that bumping option. If I begin to hear a lot of complaints from people crowded out due to several people continually bumping the same ads, I will have to discontinue this feature. If your product is not selling, maybe you just need to do a better classified ad and not keep throwing the same old one up in front of people thinking they aren't seeing it.

Need I tell anyone you MUST provide photos if you want to get interest? That's the way it works as well.

But without a doubt, the classifieds section will be subject to positive feedback. The more people who post ads there, the more people who will come to see them. The more people seeing the ads, the greater the likelihood that you will snag a buyer. But the sellers have to start the process for this to work. People ARE coming to this site, so YOU have to make the effort to provide the classified ads for them to look over.

And heck, it's for FREE! What more do you want?