Classifieds

[rdd1952]

Would making it mandatory that the location/pick up or ship be placed in the second topic description line make it better in it's current format? To me, that would make the most sense as you could easily scan the page to see what is near you along with items that may not be hear but that the offeror is willing to ship. Of course, you would think common sense would tell the poster to put it there, especially if its collection only but then again.....

 

[OscarWilde]

Would making it mandatory that the location/pick up or ship be placed in the second topic description line make it better in it's current format?

That would definitely be a step in the right direction but I expect you would have to do it programmaticaly otherwise you'll just be chasing people as you are now.

 

[shelaghfishface]

how long have we been banging on for locations to be stated in the title
as oscar says

 

[rdd1952]

I agree and it states so in the rules. Too bad some people can't be bothered to read the rules and abide by them and then get made when their thread gets removed. What's even worse is that a lot of them are long time members with plenty of posts.

 

[Tolak]

Adding the location would make the most sense, you would think the seller, wanting to make some money, would practice a little salesmanship. Let's see if this will work, as the idea may seem feasible in the UK, it would be unbelievably unmanageable in the US.

Let us take your example, Tyne and Wear & County Durham. 1200 square miles, give or take, population of 1.5 million. Compare that to Chicago & Cook County, 1600 square miles, population of 5.2 million. Cook county is one out of 102 counties in Illinois, and there are 3,140 counties in the US. At 50 sub sections per page that would give us 60 pages in the US section. If we could consolidate on the average of 10 counties together it would bring us down to only 6 pages. That would give on the average 10 times the area per US sub forum.

The UK consists of 94,500 square miles, population of 61.6 million. The US consists of 3.7 million square miles, with a population of 306.6 million. mental math gives me around 35 times the area for the US, and 5 times the population. Since our biggest concern throughout this topic had been travel distance, it would make the most sense to use the area figures.

Take whatever you envision for the UK section, and multiply it by 35 for the US section. By all rights, since distance seems to be the main concern, for a single UK section the US should be divided into 35 or so sections.

You can see where this would be counter productive to what you are looking for. I completely understand that you would like to have the location more easily available, this makes sense. Requiring the location in the topic description would accomplish this without having an absurdly huge amount of sub forums.

Understand that these numbers are rounded, and I just eyeballed the math.

 

[OscarWilde]

Adding the location would make the most sense, you would think the seller, wanting to make some money, would practice a little salesmanship. Let's see if this will work, as the idea may seem feasible in the UK, it would be unbelievably unmanageable in the US.

Let us take your example, Tyne and Wear & County Durham. 1200 square miles, give or take, population of 1.5 million. Compare that to Chicago & Cook County, 1600 square miles, population of 5.2 million. Cook county is one out of 102 counties in Illinois, and there are 3,140 counties in the US. At 50 sub sections per page that would give us 60 pages in the US section. If we could consolidate on the average of 10 counties together it would bring us down to only 6 pages. That would give on the average 10 times the area per US sub forum.

The UK consists of 94,500 square miles, population of 61.6 million. The US consists of 3.7 million square miles, with a population of 306.6 million. mental math gives me around 35 times the area for the US, and 5 times the population. Since our biggest concern throughout this topic had been travel distance, it would make the most sense to use the area figures.

Take whatever you envision for the UK section, and multiply it by 35 for the US section. By all rights, since distance seems to be the main concern, for a single UK section the US should be divided into 35 or so sections.

You can see where this would be counter productive to what you are looking for. I completely understand that you would like to have the location more easily available, this makes sense. Requiring the location in the topic description would accomplish this without having an absurdly huge amount of sub forums.

Understand that these numbers are rounded, and I just eyeballed the math.

Nice wikipedia skills but all of the figures are completely irrelevant unless there is a reason why you need to structure the UK and US subforums in the same way.

The very notion of doing the US section by driving distance is ridiculous. No wonder you've disregarded this if thats what you thought we all meant!

Why not leave the US forum as it is and try a pilot with regional subforums for the UK? It won't cost anything except some initial effort setting it up and im sure there are plenty of potential sub-mods or whatever out there if it would be too much work for you.

I see you are is the US and you wont personally benefit from it but would it really hurt to give it a go?

 

[Tolak]

Structuring both forums the same way is for consistency in appearance. Distance was mentioned in some fashion in 4 posts, not counting mine. If distance were not an issue this topic would not exist, as the OP mentioned difficulty finding members near to her.

 

[OscarWilde]

Structuring both forums the same way is for consistency in appearance.

Well thats that then. I Think that if thats the only reason then a pretty weak one and UK members are losing out but thanks for the explaination.

 

[Ace Of Spades]

Less QQ is needed by members, we are lucky to have a Classifieds on this site and Tolak put alot of effort into it to make it better. I feel that all your doing is throwing all his hard work back in his face. So what you have to search a little moar, as people said its the peoples fault for not putting the location in the title.



(BTW Tolak, Is there anyway you could get a drop down menu of some kind where they could pick the place they were from?)

 

[aaronnorth]

I dont see why people cant put the location in the title, if they dont, then use the search function at the bottom of the page. Even going back to my first post makes this suggestion invalid

That would only work for collections though, if i am looking for a plant, then i would still have to look through every section as 99% of people post plants. It works for larger items, but not ideal for others.

Ok you could create a sub-forum for posted items but then that just creates more work for the Mods, they do have a life outside of here.

This is a fish forum after all so it will never be good for buying & selling which is what i think you are forgetting, you cant compare it to dedicated websites.


"Reason for edit: Dog smacked keyboard! "

lol

 

[Darkstar]

Well thats that then. I Think that if thats the only reason then a pretty weak one and UK members are losing out but thanks for the explaination.

It's not weak, it's basic common sense when designing a website. I for one and ###### glad your idea isn't being implemented...it's a bad idea with little thought for real world use.

 

[OohFeeshy]

some initial effort

Make that a hell of a lot of initial effort. It took long enough for things to be moved from the old system to the new one, it will take many times as long to move everything even into simple location sectors. And what, as mentioned, about those who don't put a location? What are you meant to do about those?

It seems to me that you've taken a rubbish idea (that I'm sure was brought up years ago but discarded as not good) and are trying to push it through for your own personal convenience. UK members aren't 'losing out' as you claim, as other users of the section can actually be bothered to look properly through the topics. The fact that you don't seem to care if your great idea isn't extended to the US section gives a good indicator of your motives.

 

[OscarWilde]

Less QQ is needed by members, we are lucky to have a Classifieds on this site and Tolak put alot of effort into it to make it better. I feel that all your doing is throwing all his hard work back in his face.

Im not disputing that and I am as grateful as anyone to Tolak and the other perople who run this site. As I've said I just think its a shame that the Classifieds were restructured without asking users what they wanted. This discussion shoudl ideally have been held then.

Well thats that then. I Think that if thats the only reason then a pretty weak one and UK members are losing out but thanks for the explaination.

It's not weak, it's basic common sense when designing a website. I for one and ###### glad your idea isn't being implemented...it's a bad idea with little thought for real world use.

Was not my idea. Glad we have a expert Information Architect on hand. Tell that to Gumtree. No need to swear either you Prat. (see ).

It seems to me that you've taken a rubbish idea (that I'm sure was brought up years ago but discarded as not good) and are trying to push it through for your own personal convenience.

As I said. I dont use the classifieds anymore. And in case you didnt notice. I was not the OP. Pay attention.

it will take many times as long to move everything even into simple location sectors.

It wont be possible because people dont put the location in! And why would they have to be moved? The nature of a Pilot is to run it in parallel with existing services and see how users take to it and which they prefer.

 

[OohFeeshy]

I was not the OP. Pay attention.

Whether you are the OP is irrelevant. It's you who is here now trying to push this, therefore it's you who all comments should be aimed at.

 

[OscarWilde]

I was not the OP. Pay attention.

therefore it's you who all comments should be aimed at.

Aimed at? What is this? A firing squad I prefer to think of it as a discussion rather than anyone trying to 'push' anything. Unfortunately its devolved in to swearing and calling peoples suggestions 'rubbish'