another for sale forum thread

[windog]

Sorry but I think someone thinks they have had a good idea but hasn't thought it through.
I realise that you want to prevent the site turning into an auction site and/or guard against nefarious practises but I do not think you have got this right yet.

I enjoy "lurking around the site" and I am here to learn. This means apart from asking questions as yet I have very little to add to most threads and I do take exception to being excluded from the ability to purchase parts from other users to improve my set up and ultimately my knowledge, or is the intention to create an "elite" who are above us mere mortals. I do post if I think I have anything usefull to add but as this is at the moment rare it may take me another 6 months to reach 50 posts. I did attempt to make this point before but noticed as a noob my comments seemed to be studiously ignored by Hexus.

Perhaps a set number of posts before you can post a "new thread" in the for sale forum might be a better idea.

Sorry for the rant but (and I note that I am by no means alone in my displeasure) but being ignored and treated as unimportant is mildly provoking!

Windog

[jcoquillon]

I think we need no more discussion on the matter. It's implemented now and will not be changed. It's a perfectly valid thing to have happened and IMHO fully justified.

So why don't we all move on and get back to enjoying the forums

[lampPost]

yeah ;/
going to have to start posting like a mad man ;o

[windog]

No I shall just have to use OC forum more since they are obviously more interested in thier members.

I do not see the sense in just submitting loads of pointless posts. asking questions I already know the answer to or answering questions I dont know the answer to to acceed to a daft traffic level rule

Windog

[smiley man]

Its a bit harsh m8 but u only gotta get 3 more posts

[windog]

You are quite right this is probably annoying me more than it should, but I am not only thinking of myself, I am fortunate to get a number of discarded bits from my brother inlaw to play with and learn from (and break!) but others must find this a usefull source of bits to try upgradeing before they bite the bullit and pay full price for the real goodies. That there should be some way of preventing someone selling on the site without a history I wholeheartedly agree with, but to prevent even viewing of this forum seems excesive. It seems this has been done very arbritrarily without consideration nor any explanation and it seems to go against the ethos of a helpful friendly community which is what I found when I joined.

Windog

[Agent]

Comon mate, its been done to death.
HEXUS = free service.
All thats being asked it that people help the community, we arnt ebay. 50 posts isnt much.

I think its unfair that the people who run HEXUS have to put up with another one of these threads, i know how much work they put in

[windog]

Okay but it does ask for feedback, and if you disagree with something........the fact that there has been so many of these threads must mean something! Dint get me wrong, like everybody else I apreciate the work that goes into this but well nobody gets it right all the time!

and anyway I only need one more winge and Ive got enough posts (wink wink!)

unless anyones got any computer related questions on boat building or carpentry?!

or maybe someone would be interested in a wooden computer case? nice bit of inlaid marquetry on the side?

Windog

[Martin]

Well I'd like to look at Forsale, but i think its a good idea that they started this system coz it just stops people ripping people off, and also that people are not just here to sell things, it shows that people want to view other forums etc

and i could go on but i ain't

[garath]

true, and its not that hard to hit 50 posts, lotsa forums around to look in

[Saracen]

Originally posted by windog
Okay but it does ask for feedback, and if you disagree with something........

It does indeed, and we DO listen. We DO want feedback.

Not everybody is happy with this, and I can see your point of view. Unfortunately, that doesn't necessarily mean we can change all decisions in line with popular demand. Ultimately, though, it is designed to be beneficial to members. The trouble is, almost without exception, whatever you do, someone won't like it. The logic behind this idea is primarily that we get people joining up JUST to take advantage of For Sale/Trade. There are two ways of looking at that.

Firstly, the facilities of the board are SUPPOSED to be for people that are part of the community of the board. Arguably, joining JUST to buy and sell bits is not taking part in the board, not becoming part of the community. By assigning a minimum number of posts, like 50, we hope to either preclude such users bothering, or make them take part in the community. Who knows, it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that they'll even enjoy the community and end up as full-fledged active members.

We even get people sign up, place an advert for their own services or products, then clear off never to be seen again. Such people are free-loading, and such posts will be deleted on sight (as they will at most boards).

The second point is financial. Like it or not, the board is expensive to run and needs to be paid for. Hosting is expensive, as are servers, as is the provision of the main Hexus review site. Even the vBB licence is not free. You wouldn't believe how expensive it can all get.

So, like it or not, we have to try to balance between providing free services for members and going full-on commercial.

Running a small bulletin board or website is pretty cheap. As the site grows, so the costs go up. The more members you get, the more the bandwidth bill goes up and the more the CPU loading on the server goes up. That small site soon requires a dedicated server, or you get booted off a shared server as the site is adversely affecting other shared users. At THAT point, you start talking about real money. Thousands of pounds to buy good servers, and large bills for co-location and bandwidth.

The decisions, therefore, are designed to try to encourage members to be full, active members, and not just to take advantage of the facilities offered by forums like For Sale/Trade.

Most forums, after they get to a certain size, have to take hard decisions like this. One forum where I'm a moderator requests donations to the running costs of the board. We could do that. Trouble is, only a small proportion of members will pay up. If all members were prepared to pay a nominal annual fee, or rather, make a nominal annual donation, we wouldn't have to worry about issues like this, or about adverts on the board.

Other boards have ordinary and 'premium' members - the difference being whether you've paid an annual sub. Premium members get access to extra areas of the board. That's another option, but we'd rather not go down that line. Ultimately, all we ask is that in order to access the For Sale/Trade section, a member demonstrate a nominal committment to the board by making a small amount of non-spam posts. Even those members that do not have technical expertise to contribute can still join in, by taking part in debates in Question Time, chats in GD or even commenting in gaming forums, motoring chat, and so on.

In truth, making 50 non-spam posts does not actually take that much effort. It could be done with a couple of hours browsing, spread over a few days or a week, without much effort. It just means joining in a bit. That's all.

We probably didn't handle this very well, and for that, on behalf of the entire team, I apologise. But I hope this helps you understand WHY we did it.

PS. A reply to this post will get you your missing 50th post, Mr Windog.

[windog]

Thank you. This is what most of us have been concerned with is an explanation of this decision. Put like that we can now see the reasons for it and yes....tentatively I can agree with you. Perhaps there may be other ways to have done it but now seeing exactly what you are trying to achieve I (we?) can see the difficulty.

Windog

P.S. Hooray! look youre right I've got 50 posts!

[malfunction]

Originally posted by Saracen
In truth, making 50 non-spam posts does not actually take that much effort. It could be done with a couple of hours browsing, spread over a few days or a week, without much effort. It just means joining in a bit. That's all.

I have to say that I didn't like this at first - but instead of spitting my dummy out (well for more than 5 minutes anyway) I actually went through the forums tonight and posted back on some threads... I found it harder than I thought I would - down to my knowledge and interests - but the more people that make the effort the more interesting things should become... Bit-tech's forums are good but I'm not much of a modder - and most of the other forums I use have a huge US bias - so it would be nice to have a decent (mainly) UK oriented forum.

[lampPost]

i haven't posted on forums other than just for support in years, this is wierd/fun

[skirkham]

only a few more posts and i will be able to use it again

[Saracen]

Originally posted by malfunction
I have to say that I didn't like this at first - but instead of spitting my dummy out (well for more than 5 minutes anyway) I actually went through the forums tonight and posted back on some threads... I found it harder than I thought I would - down to my knowledge and interests - but the more people that make the effort the more interesting things should become... Bit-tech's forums are good but I'm not much of a modder - and most of the other forums I use have a huge US bias - so it would be nice to have a decent (mainly) UK oriented forum.

Didn't like what - the rule or my comment? If the latter, I'll be on the lookout for an explosive-tipped supersonic dummy being spat in my direction

It's true what you say about things getting better the more people make the effort. Even by sticking to discussion-type forums like QT or GD, it isn't THAT hard to come up with new threads. All it needs is a seed of an idea. And that could come from an item on the evening news, something you read on a news site or just another web site, or even something that came up in conversation with mates or at work. One new thread is likely to generate the possibility of several replies to comments, and the presence of a number of people all posting new threads gives everyone ELSE the opportunity to get a few posts by replying to other people's threads.

Then, everyone benefits from having a wider range of topics and opinions to discuss.