Ads that should be "sticky"...

[Piledriver]

Went to look for Thorstens ad for tool steel lifters, but it seems to have vanished per the 3 month delete policy on the for sale forums.

Some ads should NOT be deleted IMHO.

Just sayin...

[doc]

I agree. Perhaps mods should suggest directly to For Sale mods for non-delete status?

I will look into administratively make posts non-deletable, so once something is set, we only have to worry if the info changes. In any case, this will require some management.

Thoughts welcome.

doc

[Daniel G]

If the ad is active within the past 3 months then I have been leaving it up. This is the first complaint I have heard. Deleting stuff more than 3 months old keeps the forums clean and up to date. If the seller wants the ad up more than 3 months they need to be bumping it to the top. The problem with making ads "sticky" is how to do it fairly? If I am doing a sticky for one person then why not everybody? If you ask me its not fair to treat one person differently..If they have the item after 3 months they know the ad is going to be deleted..So why not just bump it to the top letting everyone know its still available?

If anyone else has an issue with me deleting stuff older that 3 months please post in this thread so I will know..But for now I see no reason to change that policy unless Doc says otherwise...

[Piledriver]

I sympathize with your position, but let me give another example---

There is an obvious difference between a vendor offering a carb rebuilding/rebushing service...
... vs. someone flogging a set of used kads that are probably sold after 3 days.

The former (and the related Q/A/feedback that usually occurs) does not usually "expire", as it's presence is a significant SERVICE to our members.
If nothing else it allows specific feedback on the vendor/product/service, which this site needs.

Due to this rigid policy, anyone linking to such a service must link to an ad on TOS, which is an excellent argument to just stay on TOS...

IMHO Vendors need their own ad forum for this reason.
It should not be hard to maintain, as there aren't that many vendors anymore...

[doc]

You guys have nailed the issues. You both are correct. I am debating how to do this and will make some change in the next week or so. Current thought is to add another forum for Vendor Info. I am seeking the best way to manage this (anybody posts or just mods) and how much info will be allowed. As Pile points out, this will certainly be of service to members. Especially so, when it involves hard to get or single source and often non-US vendors.

Further, why shouldn't the rest of the broad line companies have their contact info displayed? After all, CIP1 and Wolfsburg West, et al, are the purveyors of most of the goods. There are often questions in the forums about available "broad line" vendors.

Opinions appreciated. Even dissenting.

doc

[sideshow]

I like the no/low profile vendors and private sales of the old/current STF. Kinda hypocritical of me as I have bought, sold, given away, and received free parts from the STF.

As part of the lifestyle, users of the STF need to have access to out of the mainstream sales chain. But I see no need to compete with craigslist, thesamba, ebay, and local BBS.

I vote only on two things;

• Ads must have location, price, and pictures.
  Ads shouldn't distract from the quality of the forum.

[Piledriver]

Just thinking out loud... it could also be a "welcome mat" for our resident members/vendors, and a good place they can link to their threads/projects already posted on the STF.

I agree with sideshow to some extent on the "regular" for sale forums, which is also why I'm not remotely suggesting duplicating what TOS offers or changing the std for sale forums well established/working rules...

I'm more inclined to suggest making a vendor forum only fully open to regular contributing members, with some possible exceptions for "non-residents" like Thorsten or Art who provide specific parts/services to all, but don't "live" here like some of us...

Min # real posts (other than ads) required or something as a bar...

This of course does not preclude a sticky with contact info for many other companies, they just don't get to customize their "message" or post a custom ad thread unless they are contributors (in at least the "posting useful information" sense)

I don't recall seeing that style of vendor forum anywhere else.

[david58]

Maybe something similar in content to this?
http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~yue/VW/VWparts.html

[Piledriver]

Maybe something similar in content to this?
http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~yue/VW/VWparts.html

For the general sticky, yes.
Might want to add links to a feedback thread on each entry.
(that could get messy if in-forum perhaps have those threads only accessible via the link or search? possible???)

[doc]

Interesting thoughts. I like the idea of 2 separate threads - one general, the other much more specialized. The thought of a "limited participation" thread is also intriguing.

Working on it.

doc

[Piledriver]

The idea of the "hidden" vendor feedback threads is to prevent drive by slaggings by non-members.

[Daniel G]

The Samba has a 90 day delete policy if the ad isn't reactivated by then it is removed, so I don't see how having one here would turn people away. If someone is offering an ongoing service they could just PM the moderator and ask them not to delete the ad. They could just send a quick message every few months letting us know its still valid. Or just bump it to the top periodically.

I personally wouldn't make a vendor forum, but its not my site. If someone ever got a bad deal from the vendor featured on STF they would blame the site too. You know how easy it is for reputable VW Vendors to end up flaking out and disappearing after a lot of bad deals, I can think of several since I have gotten in to VW's.

I would make two classifieds forums if it was my site. One would be for "Featured" ads. Users would pay a small fee which would go right back into the site, and they could post ads that would stay up forever or until they decided to pull it down. If they wanted nothing but links to their site with more info in the ad I wouldn't care as long as it was a featured ad.

Yes I know this is how the Samba works too, but its a good system for them and you see how many featured ads they do. That would mean more money to make this site better.

The other forum would be for ALL other Classifieds. 90 day delete policy if the ad was not active. Honestly the active ads in the classifieds right now wouldn't fill up a one page forum so why separate them? The Type 3 for sale forum has been empty for months, pointless to separate them when traffic is so low.

I would also add a forum for user feedback. The only posts allowed in it would be for people with firsthand experience with the seller, good or bad. Everything else would be deleted.

[doc]

Good comments from the guy who's doing it now.

doc