Can we have a limit to the number of active threads a user can maintain in the Trading section?

[TheOneOmega]

I'm in favor of a rather generous limit, in case a user has very different items for trade, but in cases where you have oodles and oodles of items, I think multiple items should be grouped together to reduce the total number of threads.

An example of a possible policy: A user may only create or explicitly bump a thread in a sub-forum of the Trading section if he or she has fewer than five threads on the first page of that sub-forum.

This means that under usual circumstances, one user can have no more than five threads on the first page of the Selling sub-forum, no more than five threads on the first page of the Buying sub-forum, etc. However, it is flexible enough to allow the thread creator to update a (potentially 6th or higher) thread with new information about a product, respond to a question asked by another user (who was interested enough in the thread to bring it back to the first page), etc. This would be considered implicitly bumping the thread. Just as with our "one bump per day" policy, Judgment would be required on the part of the mod team to determine whether a user was adding useless bits of information to threads to gain extra bumps (i.e. selling ten guns in different threads and adding one TIR to each thread every day).

This policy would prevent "batter ram bumping" (yes, I made that term up ), where one user covers the first page of a sub-forum with threads, and pushes every other thread back a page.

 

[Elford]

Anyone in particular you might be referring to?

Yes a good idea. It is getting annoying.

Although I did my part by buying something from him, so that sales thread disappeared.

 

[Skippie]

hey i am selling an umbranoid symbol.
hey i am selling an adjusted pixie set.
hey i am selling a blah blah blah.

tbh, junking up the sales threads with needless and worthless bumps for MONTHS, is sorta stupid.

post everything you got in one thread, unless the item warrants a separate thread on it, or put the shit on in game auction. but a full page of worthless bumps once a day for MONTHS is too much.

 

[Uniqu3]

Everyone knows who has highlighted this flaw in the current rules. I would have no objection to XXX amount of threads being made, then 1 thread with links to all those individual threads. Then the main link thread can be bumped and relevant offers being made in the linked threads, its just common courtesy not to clog up the forum so its unusable for others.

 

[Elford]

...I would have no objection to XXX amount of threads being made, then 1 thread with links to all those individual threads. Then the main link thread can be bumped and relevant offers being made in the linked threads...

Best solution I've heard.

 

[kislany]

I know I'm still new around here with hardly any voice at all, but yep, it is annoying as heck. Every time I come to the forum to learn something (sure I know about the 'search' option) or just read what people have been posted, the first thing I do is check for New Posts. I can hardly see anything relevant from the many Selling (and some days Buying) posts...at a first glance it looks like the forum is 90% a marketplace...

 

[711]

I agree that such behavior is annoying, and I am considering some adjustments to the Trading forum rules to address these issues.

Some of the suggestions in this thread are good ones, but would require (expensive) custom coding to achieve.

It's much easier, faster and safer to devise a solutuion that can be implemented using either the forum default features or those of an already existing plug-in.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Ludvig|MindArk]

It's much easier, faster and safer to devise a solutuion that can be implemented using either the forum default features or those of an already existing plug-in.

How about starting with a "If you have multiple items to sell of the same type, make one thread for all instead of for example 8 different threads for 15 different armors"?

 

[sky west]

There should be an app for the auctionhouse by now. With EU being an economy and the rise of the handhelds and smartphones it should have been an easy decision. Having access to the auction outside of the game is a real asset I think.

For a small fee loads of players would be interested and could be an extra souce of income for MA. Sure there are some security issues, but with security linked to the avatar it should be managable.

Having a website plus android with iOs app and you could have something nice MA. Maybe direct some of those cld $ towards that objective. Maybe take it slow and start a website with an offline auction for active avatars and take it from there.

 

[w d roberts]

It's much easier, faster and safer to devise a solutuion that can be implemented using either the forum default features or those of an already existing plug-in.

Here are a couple of suggestions:

1) change minimum bump time rule from 24 hours to 48 hours. This would reduce the number of trading threads vs other threads when one is looking at "new posts".

2) change the headline color of trading threads. Right now a red "selling" followed by a blue headline makes the posts stand out. I'd suggest changing the entire headline of buying/selling threads to a gray color. This would let users skip over them visually when scanning the list of "new posts".

Note that I do think that the constant stream of trading threads is good for the economy so I would not want them to vanish from "new posts" altogether.

 

[TheOneOmega]

Here are a couple of suggestions:

1) change minimum bump time rule from 24 hours to 48 hours. This would reduce the number of trading threads vs other threads when one is looking at "new posts".

2) change the headline color of trading threads. Right now a red "selling" followed by a blue headline makes the posts stand out. I'd suggest changing the entire headline of buying/selling threads to a gray color. This would let users skip over them visually when scanning the list of "new posts".

Note that I do think that the constant stream of trading threads is good for the economy so I would not want them to vanish from "new posts" altogether.

The percentage of new posts from the Trading section is not the main concern here. What types of posts a user wishes to see while browsing the new posts is a matter of personal preference.

I would also question whether changing the tag color to NOT stand out would actually make it easier to skip over the posts visually. Wouldn't that make it HARDER to discern between different types of posts?

 

[Bernz]

Rule of 1 thread you can bump with links inside for your 40 others selling threads will be ok I think.

And another rule to "force" you to put a buyout price so you wont bump it for 100 years or until you get your secret buyout.
I mean, no more "Taking offer" threads. You have something to sell? So you are a seller, you must set a price on your items. If not it belong to the auction forum. I dont know for the others, but where I live there is no shop with no price on items.
Taking offer? WTF? Are you selling or not?

 

[kislany]

The percentage of new posts from the Trading section is not the main concern here. What types of posts a user wishes to see while browsing the new posts is a matter of personal preference.

When I log on here I first click on the Forum link and then to New Posts in the menu below that. 2 clicks to read new posts. Not sure how I could customize that though.

 

[Oleg]

If the new trading rules are enforced as well as the old trading rules, they will be worthless.

 

[w d roberts]

I would also question whether changing the tag color to NOT stand out would actually make it easier to skip over the posts visually. Wouldn't that make it HARDER to discern between different types of posts?

I agree that if they were changed to the same color it would be harder. What I was advocating is that they have a different color, but not a bold one like the red color, but rather a gray color. This would differ from the normal blue color of other post titles so that you could still easily discern the difference.

 

[ruslan]

I think its all fine as it is... well, other than the "!!!WOW!!! BEST DEAL EVAH!"
maybe 1 bump for Capital Letter thread in a period of 2 days.

1 bump a day rule is fair. Sometimes additional info is required on rare occasions.


But, generally, people know what they are looking for.. so makes no sense to stop the flow of trading, buying selling.. just my 2 cents.. activity is a good thing..