Quote:
Originally Posted by Holdfast 
Just had another couple of thoughts to try to reduce some of the concerns being mentioned in this thread. Constructive suggestions, if you like:
1) It might be an idea to have 2 separate B&S sections, just like the Men's Clothing and Streetwear & Denim forums are separate. That would reduce the number of threads (and therefore the turnover) in each forum, benefiting both buyers and sellers of both types of clothes.
2) Regular repeat sellers could have a single edited thread (until such time the edit window on that thread expires) rather than having lots of threads on the go at any given time for lots of different items arriving at different times. This has both positives and negatives for sellers & buyers. Postives are less overall threads filling the forum, so less turnover hopefully, so slowing the drift down the pages. Regular sellers will be updating that thread fairly often with new items and if we're allowed to post a new post to the thread when we add new items or sell an existing item as we currently do, it shouldn't disappear too quickly. Negatives are that when it does go off the first page, a lot of stock could remain unsold in one go, and that's scary.
3) In conjunction with the above (and I hesitate to suggest this for fear of a backlash) but very regular sellers (and I freely admit that I don't quite fall into this category myself) could have a pinned single sales thread? Extra visibility, but no other threads from them allowed. Maybe even work in a donation scheme for the board in return for the pinned thread?
In the end it's all a balance - many regular sellers here are small scale, operating on low margins as a bit of a hobby for nothing more than beer money. The free advertising we get here helps us keep margins low and move items quickly. The downside is that we're all afraid of getting lumbered with lots of stock we can't shift. We can't absorb that hit the way a big store can. So we're always trying to ensure items sell fairly quickly. Buyers get a good deal because of the ultra-low prices on offer, but the slightly fervent desire sellers have to keep their threads visible is the quid pro quo.
1) It might be an idea to have 2 separate B&S sections, just like the Men's Clothing and Streetwear & Denim forums are separate. That would reduce the number of threads (and therefore the turnover) in each forum, benefiting both buyers and sellers of both types of clothes.
2) Regular repeat sellers could have a single edited thread (until such time the edit window on that thread expires) rather than having lots of threads on the go at any given time for lots of different items arriving at different times. This has both positives and negatives for sellers & buyers. Postives are less overall threads filling the forum, so less turnover hopefully, so slowing the drift down the pages. Regular sellers will be updating that thread fairly often with new items and if we're allowed to post a new post to the thread when we add new items or sell an existing item as we currently do, it shouldn't disappear too quickly. Negatives are that when it does go off the first page, a lot of stock could remain unsold in one go, and that's scary.
3) In conjunction with the above (and I hesitate to suggest this for fear of a backlash) but very regular sellers (and I freely admit that I don't quite fall into this category myself) could have a pinned single sales thread? Extra visibility, but no other threads from them allowed. Maybe even work in a donation scheme for the board in return for the pinned thread?
In the end it's all a balance - many regular sellers here are small scale, operating on low margins as a bit of a hobby for nothing more than beer money. The free advertising we get here helps us keep margins low and move items quickly. The downside is that we're all afraid of getting lumbered with lots of stock we can't shift. We can't absorb that hit the way a big store can. So we're always trying to ensure items sell fairly quickly. Buyers get a good deal because of the ultra-low prices on offer, but the slightly fervent desire sellers have to keep their threads visible is the quid pro quo.
These are all good suggestions, some of which have been considered and rejected (for the time being), and others which are being considered seriously.
1) Not likely to happen in the foreseable future. This has been discussed ad naseum. Of course, circumstances may change.
2) This is a technical problem, but one we may be looking into
3) This is definitely a possibility - essentially, a "pay for pinning" system. We are very seriously considering this option, including the number of pinned threads we would allow, the price, and the duration of payment cycles. Remember that this option requires additional administration, so we are looking into realistic ways to implement this. Of course, this option would be most beneficial to the high volume sellers, for whom the cost of the advertising space (because that is essentially what it would be) be be worth the increased profile.
Just to let you all know that we are not unaware of your concerns.
Cheers,
Fok.
Over time I'm improving, but I'm still not the best judge of value. 
