[Dionysusigma]

I browse through the For Sale sections a bit, and on the *rare* occasion that someone in my state has something to sell or trade, 9 times out of 10 it's sold.

How about locking defunct threads where the item(s) in question is(are) no longer on the market?

[Mal H]

I'm not clear on that request. Are you asking the mods to follow-up with all thread starters in the Trading Post to determine if their item has been sold or bought? As you can see, there is only a small percentage of sellers/buyers/traders who follow up on their own with a final post indicating the item was SOLD/BOUGHT/TRADED.

If you can formulate a method to do that that entails minimal effort on the part of the moderators, we will certainly add it to our list of duties. Otherwise, it would help if all thread starters in those forums would simply follow the written rule: "3. When your gun/item is sold, post a reply to your thread stating that the gun/item has been sold."

Opening every thread in the forums on a regular basis and looking briefly at the last post to see the status of the transaction, if there is one, doesn't fall into the category of minimal effort.

[VHinch]

Another forum that I frequent has enabled the thread starter to lock their thread in the classifieds once the item has sold, and it seems to be working well. The other benefit of this option is that it prevents folks from dredging up 2 year old threads asking if something is still for sale (or at least it will eventually).

[Mal H]

Interesting! If that option is available with vbulletin without hacking the code, it would be a good solution. I'll look into it.

[takhtakaal]

While you're at it, most forums don't allow sellers to remove price information by editing posts once something has sold. In the event that there's a he said-she said, or just for the purposes of having an idea of the going rate for something, it's nice information to preserve.

Thoughts?

[Derek Zeanah]

While you're at it, most forums don't allow sellers to remove price information by editing posts once something has sold. In the event that there's a he said-she said, or just for the purposes of having an idea of the going rate for something, it's nice information to preserve.As far as I'm aware the origina post in the FS forums can't be edited, period.

[Mal H]

Nope, they have the same editing functions as all other posts - can edit for 4 days, can edit thread title for 1 hour.

[VHinch]

Mal-
Sent you a PM regarding details of the forum I mentioned.

[Mal H]

After due debate and consideration we have decided to give this idea a go; at least the suggestion about allowing thread starters to lock their own threads after an item has been sold or bought. The moderators won't be locking them.

So if you have a thread in one of the buy/sell/trade forums, please close it after the deal is done. You can access the close button in the "Thread Tools" menu.

This action is not necessarily permanent - it's a trial run of sorts to see if it will work. By that, I mean to see if members will actually follow through with the close after the deal. I will admit to a large amount of pessimism in that I don't think it's going to happen very often since the majority don't bother to even add a "Sold" post now. I would be delighted to be proven wrong in my pessimism.

[Dionysusigma]

Will a "sticky" be posted regarding this new development?

[Mal H]

Yes - working on it as we type.

[Dionysusigma]

Seems to be catching on, little by little (with a little prodding from me) ;):p

Danke schoen, Mal H, Derek, and the rest of the THR staff. :)

[igpoobah]

If it doesn't get used by a particular user, no harm no foul. For those that do use it, things will clean up a bit. I think it's a great idea!