Ok looking back on my latest classifieds thread I defin see that there was too much "bumping" on my part but in all seriousness what is considered a bump.
If the seller says "All Pm's Replied" is that a bump?
Is answering someones question when it was asked within the thread and not by PM a bump?
Is updating information about cost change or new items added or sold a bump?
The problem is people treat the buy/sell area as a chatroom instead of a ad posting. There's a reason why we have a READ ME FIRST sticky in that section stating it's not a discussion forum. Ideally your buy/sell/trade thread should have your initial post and your initial post only (save for the allowed weekly bump). Updates/clarifications/whatever should be done as modifications to the original post. Questions about the ad should be PM'd to the person who created the ad. Obviously you have no control over people responding to your ad, but conversations about the ad should be handled by PM. If it was a Craigslist post, would you be making a new ad just to tell somebody you returned their email/call? There's two reasons for this.
First off, we don't care if you responded to a PM or answered somebody else's question. When I look through the first page of the WTS area, I (and I would assume the rest of you) expect to see new ads or at least ads with new content in them. I don't want to see a week old ad because somebody decided to ask 20 questions one at a time. Even if it's an offer on your item. It's none of my business what Joe Blow offered to give/trade you for your item. If I made an offer you either accepted it or you didn't. If you want to give me (or whoever) a chance to counter offer, that should be done by PM. Once again, it's none of my business who else is interested.
Secondly, it keeps threads clean and fair. This especially goes for you younger members and doesn't apply strictly to the buy/sell area. This is a forum, not a chat room. That's an important distinction. You may know Joe Blow personally, but I don't and I don't want to read through some mindless banter that I'm sure makes sense to people who were actually there at the event being referenced. If you know the seller and think he's an idiot for selling an item, tell him in person, don't waste forum space letting everybody know you think he's doing something stupid. If calling him on the phone or waiting until you see him in person is too much to ask, send him a PM. Once again, I don't care what your opinion is on the matter. More importantly that banter is unfair to the rest of the community because your banter with your BFF is bumping his ad to the top while somebody else's falls to the wayside because they are following the rules.
For example, this thread (I'm not trying to single anyone out, I just needed an example):
http://www.airsoftarizona.com/index.php?topic=32794.0Basically 2/3rds of that thread is questions (some stupid) which should have just been PM'd to the seller. Once again, at the risk of sounding harsh, I don't care what Joe Blow wants to offer you in trade. If I'm interested in what you are selling, I'll make you an offer. Either accept it or don't. That's the only thing that is of any concern to me.
exactly!! i took all this time out of my day to update one of my ad's and it just got deleted. all i did was post new pixctures
Your's got deleted because you've got like half a dozen different ads. Consolidate them into one ad and one ad only.
It's better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission doesn't fly here. The rules are (I think) pretty clearly stated and REALLY easy to find. If you aren't sure on something, I would far rather you ask before hand than wait until you get yelled at then ask for clarification. That said, I personally try to enforce the spirit of the law, not necessarily the letter. If I think it was an honest mistake, I'll send you a warning and that's the end of it as long as you follow the directions. A warning is about the same as a slap on the wrist. It's a slap on the wrist that we have a record of however. When I look at an account, I can see all the warnings a user has received. If I see you've been warned half a dozen times for the same thing, then it's time for a harsher response.
I have no problem with you asking for clarification on the warning. However, given the rules are clearly posted, if I think you are just blatantly disregarding them then you are going to get a much harsher treatment. If anyone feels the rules are not clear, by all means ask for clarification on what you aren't sure on. Claiming you didn't see the rules does not excuse this, it just shows you are lazy. You'll note that we don't go overboard on stickies. That's because we feel stickies are reserved for important information which means you should be at least looking at the titles of the stickies in the section you are posting in to see if they apply.
Since we are on the topic of the classifieds, here's some related stuff.....
When you see somebody violating the rules (classifieds or otherwise), use that handy "Report to moderator" link on their post (or send them a PM). Replying to their post telling them what they did wrong just makes them feel stupid (which admittedly, they often should) and more importantly seems hostile. If you are trying to be nice, then just send them a PM kindly letting them know what they did wrong or give them a link to the rules. When using the "Report to moderator" all you need to do is click the link and choose submit. Using the comments field on that page to rant about how you think things are run is going to piss me off more than the original offending post. I don't want to discourage people from using the "Report to moderator" link, but if you come across as an asshole every time you do it don't be surprised if you get a slap on the wrist too.
I would also like to again strongly encourage people to use the Trader Feedback system on every deal you make even if it falls through. This keeps people honest and in some cases might improve their behavior in the future. If both parties agree on a price, time, and date and then one party backs out, leave them feedback accordingly. If one party simply forgot, then I personally would probably let that go unless it's a repeating issue. But if one party agrees to a deal and then changes his mind because he got a better offer, you should absolutely leave them feedback. You made a deal, that should be the end of it. This applies to late/no shows as well. I know things happen, but if you are going to be late/not show up, you should be making an attempt to contact the other party either via phone or PM BEFORE the agreed upon time. Sending a PM an hour after you were supposed to meet letting the other party know you couldn't make it is just stupid. Even if the deal went through, if you discover the item wasn't as described, leave a negative feedback. Don't be afraid to leave feedback just because you are new or worried about repercussions. I'll tell you right now, one member has a perfectly justified reason for leaving negative feedback for me because I didn't realize the gun was missing a rather important part when I sold it to him.
Understand that feedback can be removed. If you leave a negative feedback for somebody for not showing up and then they call you an explain what happened and you want the feedback removed just send me a PM and I'll remove it. That works both ways however. If somebody leaves you feedback you don't agree with, send me a PM and I'll investigate. If I can't find any evidence to support the claim and the party making the complaint can't provide some sort of PM/email record to support their claim, it's probably going to get deleted. However, as long as I can find reasonable evidence to support their claim and don't see an indication of a personal disagreement between the parties, it's going to stand.
This isn't just a method of keeping people honest, it's a method of saving time and frustration. If you don't want to drive to Gearbox/Vanguard/Fightertown/whatever just for giggles, then you probably don't want to agree to meet somebody there when they have multiple negative reviews for not showing up as agreed upon. Do everybody a favor and take a couple of minutes to leave feedback (good or bad) when you arrange a deal on the forums.
Here's a couple of other tips. These are guidelines, not rules but I hope you'll consider them.
1) Post some fucking pictures. If you are too lazy to spend 5 minutes posting pictures, I'm going to assume you are probably going to be too lazy to show up to a meet on time or describe the item properly and I'm not even going to bother making an offer. If you honestly don't know how then
here's a pretty simple walk through on how to do it. Saying "text me for pictures" is personally just about my biggest pet peeve. First off, I have no reason to give you my phone number at this point in time. Secondly, I want a picture so I can actually examine the item. I can't really do that on a 4" screen. On the same note for pete's sake if you don't have a camera get off your lazy ass and take the gun outside in the daylight to take a picture. This isn't rocket science. Once again, if all I can see in your picture is a black blob, it really doesn't do me any good.
2) Take 5 minutes to figure out what you are actually selling. Posts like "I'm selling my gun, it's electric" makes you look stupid and wastes everyone's time. In most cases, it would take you 5 minutes to find your gun on a retailer's website and figure out what you have. Your gun is made by JG, not Stag Arms, list it accordingly.
3) Maintaining communication is your responsibility. If you have an active ad, you should be checking your PM's. Don't be waiting for a popup/email, you might not get one for a variety of reasons. It takes 15 seconds to choose "Read your messages" and see if you have any new ones.
4) "This is the best gun ever" and "this gun has a million dollars worth of upgrades, none of which I know what they are" types of posts once again make you look stupid and/or like you are trying to rip somebody off. If you really spent $500 on upgrades, then you should have some idea of what said upgrades are. Replacing a failed part with a new stock part is not an upgrade either. If you stripped the piston in your JG and replaced it with a new JG piston, that's a repair, not an upgrade.
Now get off my lawn.
