BigBeatNut Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 [quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1355211152' post='1895322'] Oh we would have loved to have done that. Problem is...there are no analysis tools available with the modules. Everything would need to be coded which would need funding. [/quote] What kind of analysis tools do you envisage would help ? I can't get involved in coding for the site itself (I can see that being never-ending and I have a full time job), but if you want some stats directly from your database (e.g. number of for sale threads, views per thread, average duration of thread) I could probably do something for you if you have a fairly focussed idea of what you want. PM me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 [quote name='BigBeatNut' timestamp='1355218899' post='1895397'] What kind of analysis tools do you envisage would help ? [/quote] We need to know more detail about what is being posted and where. We don't know much about how many new topics are being created per month in which sections, we don't know who is doing the most posting in each section, what the most popular items are...stuff like that. Stuff that could be easily bought up with targeted searches and would help us understand how different bits of the site are being used. But its a ballache to log targetted searches every month. Much better if we can run some kind of report with pie charts and animated strippers and sh*t. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBeatNut Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 (edited) That mostly sounds relatively straight forward, provided no textual analysis is required. E.g. Distinguishing sold from unsold items in the marketplace and determining prices (in the marketplace) is going to be fraught with problems and I wouldn't even want to start (not 'cos it's not possible, but because it'll never be precisely 100% accurate and it'll be a job which never finishes to everybody's satisfaction). I'm also including in that 'what the most popular items are'. Unless by items you mean something precisely identifiable like subforums. Determining if more people are discussing (or selling) Squiers or Sadowsky's will be hard to do accurately unless those are segregated into subforums. However, league tables of posters, league tables of popular forums and sub-forums, all of those things must have hard definitions in your database, and I'm sure reporting on them shouldn't be too hard ... creating a spreadsheet to which I'm sure you could add all the piecharts and animations that you wanted. If that's of use, I'm volunteering ... PM me. Edited December 11, 2012 by BigBeatNut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shonks Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 (edited) charging discussions are all very well, but the the classifieds for me has screwed with the 'vibe' of basshchat. The old market place forum was[b] fun and interesting, informative and even educationa[/b]l to a point. I know I've said all this before but my visits to the site have diminished considerably. At least on Gumtree the location of the item is obvious and you have a wider audience. [b]Will you pay to sell here when its free on Gumtree?[/b] I've sold almost all my stuff on Gumtree and some of the buyers were Basschatters. I think the 'classifieds' are cold and impersonal and boring actually - sorry guys - but that's how I feel shame.. Edited December 11, 2012 by Shonks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alyctes Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 [quote name='Shockwave' timestamp='1354625623' post='1888249'] ... I think the old classifieds section with a subscription fee and bump button is a better solution. 1 - carried on using the regular marketplace forums - Yes 2 - charged a yearly subscription fee to be able to post adverts there (~£20) to help pay for developments - Yes or a "by listing" fee. 3 - installed a new 'bump' button which only works once every 36hrs on your thread - YES 4 - develop the marketplace to allow thumbnails next to threads for everyone - No, I dont think it is needed, I would still like the classifieds to look like a forum setup. Less cluttered, more adverts on one screen. 5 - develop a better form for selling items with fields for things like location, price, etc to make adverts clearer - This is something I have been pushing for years, so yes. [/quote] I agree with this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alyctes Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 I also wonder whether the new Classifieds will make the site less intuitive, because it's hard to see where (e.g.) the eBay subforum and the Feedback would go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shonks Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 how about a fee to all members, so anyone can advertise or post anything when they like - that'll get rid of of the 'one off sellers' and you can get rid of the classifieds too!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gapiro Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Is there any sort of notification for posting a question? I sent one and the seller said they didn't recieve a notification /email to let them know, only realised after I PM'ed. (I haven't tried selling yet on there!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikegatward Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Sellers who don't state a price, or who don't provide photos or who endlessly bump their ads without any one else adding comments simply won't get a sale. End of. Sellers who provide a frim or indicative price, and provide good descriptions and photos, which attract positive comments 'great price for a great bit of kit' etc etc will have a far higher chance of a sale In short, if you put in the effort, you'll get the reward I personally do prefer the style of the For Sale sections rather than the classifieds and can see that some form of cost needs to be charged to advertisers. To stop the bumping rules being broken, why not just make those pages display by start date rather than Recent Update date ? - ideally the Recent Update option could be disabled for the For Sale forums Additionally, adverts could be auto deleted after a certain time to prevent someone replying to a 12+ month advert with 'Is this still available' - that one really bugs me especially when the thread then goes to the top of the page. Note to moderators - as an experienced and quailified software tester, i'd be happy to volunteer my services to help test out any potential changes to the site Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 (edited) It's fascinating how a second wave of interest has come along just when the issue was starting to drop off the radar. It suggests that news spreads across the forum in a series of irregular bursts, rather than a smooth flow. Something to think about when it comes to forum comms, etc. And it's good to see that people are expressing similar concerns and views to those which emerged earlier in this thread. Practically a unanimity of opinion, one might say. At this juncture, it might be useful if the admins were to post a quick recapitulation of the revised proposals which were arrived at through robust debate earlier on in the thread. And - re: forum stats - fwiw, here's something[i] very [/i]basic I did a couple of years ago: The general interpretation might be that we are four times more likely to be talking bollocks than we are to be posting in 'Bass Guitar For Sale' threads. [color=#FFFFFF].[/color] Edited December 11, 2012 by skankdelvar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wateroftyne Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 [quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1355239725' post='1895799'] [color=#FFFFFF].[/color] [/quote] There's a thing - restrict off-topic to contributing members. Read-only for everyone else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 (edited) [quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1355239959' post='1895805'] There's a thing - restrict off-topic to contributing members. Read-only for everyone else. [/quote] Not a bad idea at all. The thing about all this fee / donation thing is how to determine the deterrent effect on newbies entering the community. TBH, I don't mind paying to sell or sucking up a few quid when I buy. And that's probably the case for many of the established members. But if the supply of fresh chicken dries up, what then? Who's going to post topics like 'What's the best bass for metal?' I suppose we'll just have to try the exercise and find out. [color=#FFFFFF].[/color] Edited December 11, 2012 by skankdelvar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_bass5 Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 I didnt even know about the Classifieds. I just read the whole of this thread and thought what the hell is going on, as the for sale forums don't look any different. So, now i can see that there are two different ways of placing adds can someone explain to me why, and more to the point where should i be placing an add? Can we place a for sale add in both? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Guess it depends what you come here for.... and what the site hopes to achieve in the future. If you value the 'community' then you might want to put that first.. if you need to get revenue...for whatever reason... then you might want or need to sacrifice the community to a degree. Whether that will get people to stay is the 'trick'... FWIW, I don't got to TB much these days.. I find the format very clumsy and not really enticing, and that is before you get to the content so if that is your model...????? One thing to consider ...IMO... is that a forum/chat site is only as good as the contributors it can attract and retain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Lizard Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 I liked the "basses for sale" section as it was. The classifieds section isn't needed imo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shonks Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 [quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1355241225' post='1895828'] One thing to consider... is that a forum/chat site is only as good as the contributors it can attract and retain. [/quote]agreed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 [quote name='mikegatward' timestamp='1355234039' post='1895695'] Additionally, adverts could be auto deleted after a certain time to prevent someone replying to a 12+ month advert with 'Is this still available' - that one really bugs me especially when the thread then goes to the top of the page. [/quote] Personally, I like how one can track down previous transactions. It can be very useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rumple Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 [quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1355250908' post='1895982'] Personally, I like how one can track down previous transactions. It can be very useful. [/quote] Good for tracking the history of a bass when it's been sold or traded a few times on here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wateroftyne Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Yip - I never quite understood the need to make an ad 'disappear'.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted December 11, 2012 Author Share Posted December 11, 2012 It's important that we get the BIG things right. Realistically there are VERY few problems on the sales forums as long as users check the T&Cs, and it's that loose vibe that makes it a natural extension of the forum. We're looking at implementing the subscription fee, one off fee and free listings section asap, so we'll probably hide the new classifieds section soon as to ease confusion. The transition has been a bit messy, but when we're working full time on top of this it's not going to be 100% smooth! As it stands I'm meeting bank people next week to set up a card payment system so those of you who don't use Paypal can use that (though you can also use a card through our paypal as it's a business version). So things are moving on. Thanks for all the detailed replies, it's given us a lot to discuss in terms of additional support as we go on with (hopefully) some cash to throw as the site. ped Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rumple Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Thanks for the update Ped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteb Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 [quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1355239725' post='1895799'] It's fascinating how a second wave of interest has come along just when the issue was starting to drop off the radar. It suggests that news spreads across the forum in a series of irregular bursts, rather than a smooth flow. Something to think about when it comes to forum comms, etc. And it's good to see that people are expressing similar concerns and views to those which emerged earlier in this thread. Practically a unanimity of opinion, one might say. At this juncture, it might be useful if the admins were to post a quick recapitulation of the revised proposals which were arrived at through robust debate earlier on in the thread. And - re: forum stats - fwiw, here's something[i] very [/i]basic I did a couple of years ago: The general interpretation might be that we are four times more likely to be talking bollocks than we are to be posting in 'Bass Guitar For Sale' threads. [color=#FFFFFF].[/color] [/quote] I would be interested to see Skank's table showing the number of hits rather than actual posts. I'm not sure how advertising revenue for the site is determined but I assume that it is connected with the amount of traffic the site gets rather than the number of members' fascinating posts on what side of the stage you should stand! I would guess that restricting access to the for sale sections would significantly reduce this traffic (but stand to be corrected)! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shonks Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 and ......i have several ads in the classifies and apart from 'my content' not displaying my ads, I was just pm'ed with a question on one of them because I wasn't notified of a question to an ad which I hadn't answered ......because I didn't know it was there.....how could I????!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted December 11, 2012 Author Share Posted December 11, 2012 [quote name='Shonks' timestamp='1355253985' post='1896041'] and ......i have several ads in the classifies and apart from 'my content' not displaying my ads, I was just pm'ed with a question on one of them because I wasn't notified of a question to an ad which I hadn't answered ......because I didn't know it was there.....how could I????!!!!!!!!!! [/quote] Classifieds show in the 'new content' if selected. Also you can have notifications of questions on your items if you set it via your preferences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shonks Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 (edited) [quote name='ped' timestamp='1355254326' post='1896049'] Classifieds show in the 'new content' if selected. Also you can have notifications of questions on your items if you set it via your preferences. [/quote]oh...now you tell me.....hahha! thanks!!!! Edited December 11, 2012 by Shonks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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