Replies to classified ads

I also had to vote NO on this one.

I remember when classifieds could be replied to, and it would get pretty messy and cluttered at times. There were mini-BOIs popping up regularly, and older ads were getting bumped ahead of newer ads that, in my opinion, SHOULD be at the top. Plus, I remember seeing a few of those smarta$$ comments like the last person posted. Funny though they might be, it does nothing for the site, the moderators, the sellers, the buyers, or anything. The posts saying "nice animal" or something like that are nice, but definitely not necessary. The times I've wanted to compliment someone on an animal they had for sale, I e-mailed them.

If someone needs to contact the seller, e-mail and private message links are available in all posts, so that should be no problem. To me, if you are not willing to send an e-mail or private message to the seller regarding what is for sale, then it is likely you are not thatt serisouly interested. But that is just my view.

Webslave, you and the mods have enough on your hands, I don't see any reason to add more. At least when it comes to something that is not a major benefit or detriment to the site.

Also, just thought of this...

Rich, for the classified sections, might it be worthwhile to consider removing the "Post Reply" button from the template altogether? That way you don't have to deal with the e-mails anymore.

Just a thought...in a long list of thoughts...that should probably not be taken seriously. LOL

Rob,

The idea to remove the "reply" button from the classifieds section is a very good one, but not easily done. This message board system is a template based system, so this same template for displaying threads in the classifieds section is used every else as well. While it certainly should be possible to put code into place to be able to determine if the template is being needed in the classifieds section, and therefore omit the REPLY button, it would not be all that easy to do.

Actually I am kind of surprised that the majority of the votes appear to be against enabling the reply function. Of course, only 19 votes out of 6,000 registered members isn't exactly a mandate either, I guess.

Thanks.

My feelings in general mirror the others but I will express them since my vote seems to count for a survey of about 300 members.

1.) With replys it would be hard to keep just going to new ads and not going over and over the ones you have already looked at.

2.) It takes no more time for me to hit the PM button and write a question directly to the seller than it does for me to hit Reply to Post.

3.) Maybe after several emails from buyers asking for more info a seller that doesnt want to be bothered with the stupid questions will learn to fill details in on the original ad. Granted selling and classifieds can be an art but as we have all found after hitting the post button we need to learn to proofread!

So in summary leave it the way that it is.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the way I should run this site is to just go ahead and make a change, then count the number of people that complain about it rather than trying to get a feel from polls like this.

Maybe I am just doing this all wrong. Perhaps the Captain Bligh approach is the best way....