Cleaning Up The Trading Forum
As many of you are aware, the trade forum can get very messy and it makes searching it for a specific coupon difficult as traders have multiple threads listing the same coupon when they traded it a long time ago etc. I am also getting a lot of complaints about traders having more than 3 threads and multiple bumping and it being unfair to those sticking to the rules.
This morning I expired anything before Jan 25-28 (depending on if it looked like it was being used, I assume you bump wishlists etc at least once a month) and expired over 450 threads. 168 of these threads were from users with more than 3 threads - some of those came from traders who have been on SC for 2 years+ and know the rules and only a few were from 'newbies' with under 100 posts or 2months membership.
So what do we do to keep it organized?
The original intention on having 3 threads was 1 tradelist, 1 wishlist and an optional thread that allowed for auctions, highlighting a special coupon, short expiry etc. It is very clear that some users are unwilling to check to see how many threads they have and some just don't care as they bump 5+ at a time.
Some suggestions that have been made by users who PMed me (and I am certainly open to others as all of these have issues). At this time, Boo does not want to add any additional forums. The mods, myself included do not have the time to go through the forum every few days and check for people with 4+ threads or bumping.
1) users could have 1 thread each, wishlist in one post, trade list in another. 1 bump per day and a weekly thread would be started where users could place auctions. All auctions would go in that sticky so people who dislike them don't see them every few posts (all auctions would need to end by the date that thread gets expired, likely Sundays).
One thread would make it easier to moderate/notice who has more than one and cut down on duplicate threads by the same person which makes it harder for them to edit them when a coupon is traded, and therefore keep the forum tidier and easier to search.
2) users caught with more than 3 threads or excessive bumping would get progressive trading bans of 7 days to a month
I dislike this idea as it would involve extensive lists of offenders and lots of mod time when we all have more to do. It is impossible to know if the person is doing trades, may discourage members from trading plus the ban may give users an excuse to disappear with existing trades
3) Users could have 2 threads and use the 2nd only for auctions, trade and wishlist would go in the main thread and you can highlight coupons in title
4) Users could have 2 threads to use as they wish, they could do a wishlist/tradelist plus auction or highlight coupons or separate their wishlist and tradelist
I also had some complaints that users are using local sections etc to keep their wishlist and linking people to it, how do you feel about that? While I see the point that it allows for an extra thread, they could be using the about me section in their profile and still have the extra thread but having them in the forum does make them searchable. However, this is not the intention of the local sections - we have allowed for trade threads because people may meet up for short expiries etc but the threads are not expire-able so that adds to the work mods have to do
Re: Discussion - keeping the trade forum organized
Just wanted to give my two cents...
I don't see a need for more than three threads per trader. I personally have two; a wishlist thread and a trade list thread. I bump one in the morning and the other in the evening. I don't bump every day because sometimes I don't have time to trade or update it and there's really no point in bumping if you don't have time to update it first. Sometimes I start a third thread to use for auctions and once my auctions are done I am done with the thread and it is expired.
Just an idea (this is what I do)... If you have a ton of coupons FT and they all don't fit in the subject line, edit your subject line each time you bump it to advertise different coupons. Some of us take one or two minutes multiple times a day to peek at the trade forum and we see the same thread all the time and probably pass it by if nothing interests us. So by editing it each time you bump (ie ONCE a day) you are adding variety and more coupons thus more trades without having a bunch of "FT" threads. Not sure if that even makes sense lol.
I'm not even sure if this is possible but maybe someone really techy could make it so that each user has a cap. Like if you try to start a third or fourth thread in one forum it will be blocked and you won't be able to post. Maybe someone really computer savvy knows if this is possible :shrug:... Or maybe it's not possible an it's kind of like the time when I thought maybe there was an Android app where I could take my son's temperature by holding the screen of my smartphone to his forehead :P (true story)
