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IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ - Comments on Sales/trades/wanted threads

Comments on sales/Trades/Wanted threads.... Yes or no.... (Simple choice!)

  • Yes

    Votes: 129 86.0%

  • No

    Votes: 21 14.0%
  • Total voters
    150
Neil McRae said:
so the new classifieds don't allow comments from punters?
Click to expand...
But you can post feedback, even if you don't buy anything or even without interacting with the post/seller? (You may want to remove the feedback on Gary Flowers For Sale thread, I was only testing😀)

Can't find anyway of discussion for Samsung Internet here either.
 
The new system has too much sh1t going on. It's like an over engineered solution to a problem that didn't really exist. Also, because this section is so different from the rest of the forum it hugely discourages discussion which goes completely against the vote.
 
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huggers said:
The new system has too much sh1t going on. It's like an over engineered solution to a problem that didn't really exist. Also, because this section is so different from the rest of the forum it hugely discourages discussion which goes completely against the vote.
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I completely agree.

I viewed the poll question about allowing comments is for sale threads as being effectively ‘do you want to keep things as they are?’ and over 80% said yes, but now we have been given this unwanted change anyway?
 
A bit of background and then let us get to the comments being made.
Paul and a few folks have been working and testing this new 'Marketplace' functionality for a while. People put this effort in to improve the functionality of the forum and this was thought to be a good way to improve the sales experience.
As it neared being ready, this long running discussion was raised with a vote to decide if the community wanted to continue with comments on this new system or have them closed like a classified advert. As a result of this poll, the ability to comment is still possible.
But Paul did write "On the new system which will be coming in in the new year, there is the option to have comments similar to current or fire any Q's straight to PM...."
The new functionality has now been delivered and this is a change that obviously isn't the same as 'keep everything the way it was'.

What we do have is something that looks and feels very different when used in anger and this comes from someone who bought a machine using it yesterday. It may take some time to get use to, it may require some changes but it might also become more helpful in the long run.
Observations:
  • The Discussion section does allows anyone to make a comment but it is separate from the Overview section with the description and pictures.
  • The Questions section allows folks to ask questions and then these are shown at the bottom of the Overview, anyone can answer these questions and this could just become a place where people make comments
  • Ability to give indications if a question was helpful or not, and this information can be very useful to drive better content and structure.
  • Ability to add transaction details to say how much a machine sold for
  • Ability to click one button to message the seller
    • Helpful when you are in a rush to buy something
  • Support for device native apps like Tapatalk is a problem, Tapatalk doesn't support a lot of the features over the basic forum
I think we need to take some time to see how this works for us.
 
andy said:
I completely agree.

I viewed the poll question about allowing comments is for sale threads as being effectively ‘do you want to keep things as they are?’ and over 80% said yes, but now we have been given this unwanted change anyway?
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The poll was "Comments on sales/Trades/Wanted threads.... Yes or no....". Not sure how that could be any clearer??

For those that cant see the "discussion" tab... Please could you confirm...

Check this item : https://www.pinballinfo.com/community/classifieds/elvira-apron-cards.45/

Are you not seeing this..??

1609834511143.png
Ped said:
And does the listing disappear once the item is sold? (or was the BSD ad taken down?) I find it interesting to see what was sold when and it would be disappointing if that was no longer available. Did look at the filters and exclude sold doesn't appear to be one of them
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Yes it does... however as per above you can filter to show "sold" items.
 
Paul R Owen said:
@Paul Why does this new section not link to "new posts"?
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Because posts arent classified Ads - they are different content and split to make things clearer. If there is a new Ad then you can see it in the notification in the Nav Bar... like this...

1609834802087.png

This means there have been 8 new items for sale since it was last checked. Same idea as it is for posts... x new posts = a red highlight saying x new items on "whats new" ....

1609834947657.png
 
No comments still here either @Paul - I agree that people are naturally against change, I think we need to give a go.

I have my doubts about sold games dropping off, I would have preferred sold ones to just say sold, but also there is the issue with old ones where people don't mark them as sold.

Gotta give it a try as it certainly has more functionality.
 
Paul said:
Because posts arent classified Ads - they are different content and split to make things clearer. If there is a new Ad then you can see it in the notification in the Nav Bar... like this...

View attachment 129394

This means there have been 8 new items for sale since it was last checked. Same idea as it is for posts... x new posts = a red highlight saying x new items on "whats new" ....

View attachment 129395
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I don't get any of those tabs on my nav bar?
 
Paul,
Answering the question you asked, I can't see the discussion tab on my phone running android.
Dom
 
Calimori said:
  • The Discussion section does allows anyone to make a comment but it is separate from the Overview section with the description and pictures.
  • The Questions section allows folks to ask questions and then these are shown at the bottom of the Overview, anyone can answer these questions and this could just become a place where people make comments
  • Ability to give indications if a question was helpful or not, and this information can be very useful to drive better content and structure.
  • Ability to add transaction details to say how much a machine sold for
  • Ability to click one button to message the seller
    • Helpful when you are in a rush to buy something
  • Support for device native apps like Tapatalk is a problem, Tapatalk doesn't support a lot of the features over the basic forum
I think we need to take some time to see how this works for us.
Click to expand...

Which of these, besides 1 click to message (the old system was 2 clicks 😂) couldn't you do easily with the old system. There was definitely less clicks all round with the old system. I appreciate the efforts and wanting to improve and 100% people do not like change but this definitely seems like an over engineered solution.
 
huggers said:
Which of these, besides 1 click to message (the old system was 2 clicks 😂) couldn't you do easily with the old system. There was definitely less clicks all round with the old system. I appreciate the efforts and wanting to improve and 100% people do not like change but this definitely seems like an over engineered solution.
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I get it.. however....

On the old system you had no feedback at all
On the old system there was no way to insist that you included an image with a post (there is on this for machine sales at least - there's no point for parts unless you want to... but someone paying £5k for a machine WILL want to see Pics!!).
On the old system people never used to put their location, and you used to get post asking "where is this located"...
On the old system there was no way of insisting for Required information (Good bits and bad bits). People just posted as much or as little as they could get away with.
On the old system Posts would remain there for years, resulting in people asking "is this still for sale" 6/12 months after it has gone out the door
......

Thats just a few things off the top of my head...
 
Paul said:
I get it.. however....

On the old system you had no feedback at all
On the old system there was no way to insist that you included an image with a post (there is on this for machine sales at least - there's no point for parts unless you want to... but someone paying £5k for a machine WILL want to see Pics!!).
On the old system people never used to put their location, and you used to get post asking "where is this located"...
On the old system there was no way of insisting for Required information (Good bits and bad bits). People just posted as much or as little as they could get away with.
On the old system Posts would remain there for years, resulting in people asking "is this still for sale" 6/12 months after it has gone out the door
......

Thats just a few things off the top of my head...
Click to expand...

Fair points. I guess I just prefer the odd 'is this still for sale?' or lack of pics (likely corrected after comments) + a more conversational tone to a this more convoluted solution.
 
huggers said:
Which of these, besides 1 click to message (the old system was 2 clicks 😂) couldn't you do easily with the old system.
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And type in the PM subject. And start and end the message.
Sellers might appreciate 5 PM's all referencing the sales item they have, especially if they have multiple items for sale at the same time.
 
@Paul I think there is some good stuff in there - quick question though on filtering etc - by default to we see all classifieds all of the time (except sold)? And if so, how are they ordered (ie, do they come to the top if someone comments or adds a question or the ad is updated in any way) or is it always by the filter and therefore by default the created date? TIA
 
This has just surfaced on my radar, so apologies for late vote - appreciate it is way too late to influence the decision.

FWIW I'm in favour of retaining comments - I find 80% of them very useful, 15% entertaining, and 5% inappropriate or a waste of time.
I like the old layout, but am certainly happy to see how I get on with the new

It did lead me to examine my own approach to the FS section of the forum

I found that I always suggest to newbies that they look here before anywhere else when considering a purchase because generally both the fairness of the pricing and the reputation of the seller are supported by the community - for example the number of positive comments about ChrisB would make any newbie confident in buying a game off him, whilst the "rants" of a certain other seller would enable a newbie buyer to appreciate the level of hassle they might experience if buying from him. I think it is very helpful for newbies (and the rest of us) to easily see the level of discussion that goes on.

However, when selling I hardly ever use the forum.
That's partly because I'm more frequently selling EM games which seem to be disparaged and undervalued here, but also because Ebay provides the best answer of what a game is actually worth - more than once I've listed games there recently which I would have been told were overvalued (or ignored) had I'd posted them here (or had Courtney commenting EM games were too difficult for people to maintain) but have gone on to have people fighting on Ebay to pay me far more than I'd expected.
The last time I listed an EM game on here I don't think I had a single enquiry (and it was not overvalued)
More than that, the last three machines I sold on Ebay were to newbies (who would probably never even have discovered the forum), and two of them have already been back to me asking if they can buy another game off me - one of whom (being in the South) I have directed to Flip Out and to another forum member.

To be fair, if I was selling a £5k machine my response would have been different as I'd want to be comfortable as far as possible with the buyer, and I would be more likely to achieve that here - but games I sell in the main go for £0.5k - £2k, with anything more expensive usually going to someone who has already asked me directly to buy it.
 
Ok - I get it's not perfect... and if i'm honest i didnt expect this directly off the back of a second "do we allow discussions or not" vote....

It's a few more clicks, and a little more structure. However, as an example, I can post a machine for sale in under a minute if i have the pics on my desktop... however it has the info there thats really needed (and reminds people... Hence why the "good" and "Bad" bits...).

It is fairly new, and is constantly being updated.

One issue is that it is designed to cover a LOT more bases than Sale/Trade/Wanted.... we are just using part of it.

At the end of the day, if we stood still then we would still be on the old Yahoo forum (Or maybe not due it Yahoo Groups Demise)... If it works then great... if not will have to think it through again...
 
MartinY said:
@Paul I think there is some good stuff in there - quick question though on filtering etc - by default to we see all classifieds all of the time (except sold)? And if so, how are they ordered (ie, do they come to the top if someone comments or adds a question or the ad is updated in any way) or is it always by the filter and therefore by default the created date? TIA
Click to expand...

Standard view is to view only any Active current items for sale. Anything sold or expired disappears from view as default (as they arent "available").

They are ordered in order of "Last update"...

There are several options....

1609841759880.png
 
As someone with nothing to sell it hasn't really impacted me although I am in the market for a new machine so I'm clicking on the classifieds.

I just wonder if it will reduce conversation or forum interaction generally? If the new system yields less chat/banter/dialogue as a net result across the forum then it's not worked.

If the forum remains busy and listings and interactions remain similar to previous months then it's a success.

Personally I liked clicking on For Sale threads and would check the site several times per day just in case.

I didn't think the previous system required fixing because it wasn't broken but I'm happy to give the new classifieds a good go.
 
Gonzo said:
As someone with nothing to sell it hasn't really impacted me although I am in the market for a new machine so I'm clicking on the classifieds.

I just wonder if it will reduce conversation or forum interaction generally? If the new system yields less chat/banter/dialogue as a net result across the forum then it's not worked.

If the forum remains busy and listings and interactions remain similar to previous months then it's a success.

Personally I liked clicking on For Sale threads and would check the site several times per day just in case.

I didn't think the previous system required fixing because it wasn't broken but I'm happy to give the new classifieds a good go.
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This is where I'm at. Easily my most frequented part of the forum has become over formalised and a bit convoluted. I dunno, seems an error to me but I've been wrong in the past!
 
On a semi related point, is Gary really selling trims from Nebraska and @Bod wanting a pop bumper LED in Nova Scotia? The full map is handy but I'm guessing only when location is accurate...
 

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MartinY said:
On a semi related point, is Gary really selling trims from Nebraska and @Bod wanting a pop bumper LED in Nova Scotia? The full map is handy but I'm guessing only when location is accurate...
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Never realised - sorry 😞! Never asked me to confirm W.Yorks or Canada.
Re comments- don't see that tab either. I use my phone (android) 99% to view forum.
 
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