Bumping in the Classifieds

[angusparker]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

+1

[lenser]

Seriously over thought choice to wait a week between bumps. When you are selling, exposure is everything. After a week, an item could be buried 10 or 15 pages down. Three days would be more than enough and in my opinion as a seller, two days would be far more appropriate so as to keep a sale item in front of potential buyers.

Surely at least some of the moderators have real sales experience and understand that concept.

Bad choice guys.

If someone were to be bumping four or five times a day, pull the item from circulation. Don't mess up what is a very good working system.

[Sal Santamaura]

...Ken Lee instituted this ban...

Ken is only one of the moderators here. Rule modifications are done with the consensus of all moderators plus the site's owner. I'm sure they gave considerable thought to the new rule before reaching a decision. I only wish they'd give further consideration to eliminating the For Sale / Want to Buy category entirely. As you can see, it constantly causes strife.

I am not impressed.... I bumped my ad sunday night the 22nd at 1900 hours approx..... and at 2300 hours, Ken Lee instituted this ban. And removed my "bump". My previous comment was on the 15th in the evening. So applying it retroactively seems a bit draconian. I was four hours early on a rule that didn't exist at the time. Excuse me but what???? I have a really nice Ebony camera that someone in the forum will love.... I wish to sell it. I don't think this action was justified. And bringing an ad to the foreground by someone who has been a member and bought and sold gear on this fabulous forum for many years should not be a punishable offence...... yes, some will abuse it and that is why I kind of like the apug rule of three days seems a nice balance.

Although I answered Richard's question in his Ebony For Sale thread, providing what seemed like friendly input and assistance, I'm now disappointed with his behavior. He has taken to posting this complaint in multiple places, unwilling to accept the new rule graciously. It's important to note that, when the rule was instituted two days ago, Richard first posted this complaint. Ken's response was as follows:

Please pardon my poor mathematical skills. I merely calculated wrong, nothing more.

Best of luck with your sale.

...Don't the administrators better things to do with their "time?"...

I can't speak for them, but speculate that their answer would be an enthusiastic "yes!"

...I contend that 100% of the brethren we hang with here have the intellectual capacity to sort through life's many choices...

You're willing to give more credit than I am.

...If just ONE sale gets completed out of 50 because of the ability to bring an item to the visual front of the line then so friggin be it. It does not degrade nor demean the purpose of the forum one iota.

I disagree. The very existence of a For Sale / Want to Buy category has, in my opinion, degraded this forum's essential non-commercial nature from the start. However, it doesn't matter what you or I think. The only thing that counts is what Tuan decides. I'm willing to put up with the category in exchange for a free forum and suggest that everyone else paying nothing for the privilege of being here stop complaining or start their own forum.

[Sal Santamaura]

...When you are selling, exposure is everything...

This is not a sales venue. Those exist elsewhere. If selling is one's purpose for being here, they haven't grasped the value of this forum.

...Surely at least some of the moderators have real sales experience and understand that concept...

Sales facilitation is not the moderators' job.

...Don't mess up what is a very good working system.

A system that might be working well for those whose primary purpose is to use this free venue for peddling. Not one that works very well in supporting the forum's primary purpose.

[lenser]

Sal, I beg to differ in the sense that the one segment of the web site is entirely devoted to just that and is therefore titled "For Sale/Wanted". If that did not exist, you would be correct, but since it does, that portion of the forum is entirely devoted to making sales happen in both directions and I therefore completely stand on my statements about exposure being everything in sales.

[Sal Santamaura]

Sal, I beg to differ...

No need to beg. Everyone is free to express their opinions within the realm of civility. Thanks for being so civil in the face of my minority position.

...one segment of the web site is entirely devoted to just that and is therefore titled "For Sale/Wanted". If that did not exist, you would be correct...

First, a review of terms. We're at the largeformatphotography.info Web site. It has a home page

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/

with the explicit description

"Non-commercial community of large format photographers, includes a repository of primers, how-to articles, user's reviews of equipment, and an active discussion forum"

right at its top. Just below that is a link to the Question & Answers Forum. Within that forum, one of the 26 categories is "For Sale/Wanted." I stand by my opinion that this (the Large Format Photography . Info Questions & Answers Forum) is not primarily a sales venue. If you review the archive content for discussion about this subject, you'll find that Tuan agreed to allow the ads as an accommodation to members. There's no evidence of any desire to become essentially an "eBay light."

...I therefore completely stand on my statements about exposure being everything in sales.

I never disagreed with your observation about what's important in sales. Rather, my position was and remains that sales, especially enabling the repeat exposure that frequent bumping provides, isn't the primary purpose of this Web site. In fact, I believe that the very existence of a For Sale/Wanted category is incompatible with the site's own description.

[Ralph Barker]

Seriously over thought choice to wait a week between bumps. When you are selling, exposure is everything. After a week, an item could be buried 10 or 15 pages down. Three days would be more than enough and in my opinion as a seller, two days would be far more appropriate so as to keep a sale item in front of potential buyers.

Surely at least some of the moderators have real sales experience and understand that concept.

Bad choice guys.

If someone were to be bumping four or five times a day, pull the item from circulation. Don't mess up what is a very good working system.

Frequent bumping may work well for the sellers who bump, but not so well for those who don't and get pushed down in the display queue.

[Joe Smigiel]

Couldn't this viewing issue be resolved via software? I believe APUG runs on similar forum software and IIRC, there are user preference options to limit which forums are actually visible to members. IOW, it would be nice to have the ability to switch off the FS subforum if you didn't want to see it (or the digital hardware forum in my case). But, maybe the APUG version costs more to license and thus needs to have an actual subscription fee to keep afloat.

[8x10 user]

I think it would be helpful if it were possible to edit posts indefinitely in the for sale section. Then one could (without bumping) revise titles, prices, pictures, and the description as more information is found on an item, or if there was an error with the listing. Also this would allow FS items to be marked sold without a bump and in the title; where it can viewed without clicking on the thread and scrolling all the way to the bottom. The LL forum works this way.

It would side-step a lot of issues as to what is considered a bump. Obviously it's important for everyone to have accurate and detailed information on items that are being sold. I dont think it would be good to make someone wait a week if they have new information to include in the listing. Also, it would save the mods a lot of time in checking to see if the new comment is a bump or if the item is being marked sold, Ect.

Just an idea.

[Light Guru]

Bumping is only annoying when the seller has a lot of listings and they bump them all at the same time. Having to go through a page or so of bumps on the new posts feed is a bit annoying.