CHANGING TITLES/WHEN YOUR GUN SELLS

[NoFlinch]

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[NoFlinch]

why is this in the classified section?

I was asked to help get the word out, and I thought this would be the best place to put it to reach the highest number of readers.
Are you offended?

 

[nwo]

Well, that's no good.

 

[NoFlinch]

By whom?

by me, for posting it here?

 

[NoFlinch]

Well, that's no good.

WHAT'S no good?

 

[VinnieBoomBah]

My guess is that some folk don't like to leave a digital trail of their transactions, and by removing the ability to edit/delete info they feel that too much of their info is out there.

But that's just a guess.

 

[orygun]

I asked Joe basically the same question.
Another thing he asked was to not clear out the wording of the ad, which is something I have done for quite a while. So, for now I will just pull the contact info out of the ad and close it.

 

[tashworth1]

My guess is that some folk don't like to leave a digital trail of their transactions, and by removing the ability to edit/delete info they feel that too much of their info is out there.

But that's just a guess.

what he said about the "digital trail"
i dont really sell many firearms, however i was just going to post one today and am now going to reconsider

 

[NoFlinch]

what he said about the "digital trail"
i dont really sell many firearms, however i was just going to post one today and am now going to reconsider

I understand your concern, But;

I really don't believe law enforcement has the manpower, nor the desire AT THIS POINT, to track every person selling or buying a gun.

If you do things legally, get a receipt & verify ODL, etc., and you aren't a unlicensed dealer, I doubt you would ever have problems. Not even a blip on the radar....

But, you gotta' do what makes you feel safe.....

 

[IheartSig]

what he said about the "digital trail"
i dont really sell many firearms, however i was just going to post one today and am now going to reconsider

I hate to break it to you, but regardless of whether or not you delete information on a sale post, if someone wanted to, and had the proper tools at their disposal, they could reach out and touch you. The minute you put something on the internet, you may as well consider it written in stone.

People seem to think there is anonymity on the internet, there may be on a superficial level, but the real information is available to those who know where to gather it. Look at the NSA.....

That being said, I hardly think the government and most of its evil entities are that concerned with the comings and goings of NWF...

 

[Medic!]

When I paid money to join this site I could change my Add Title. Now I can't. Who likes to get less?
My selfish side doesn't.

I used the Add Title to show the price. And change the price. I can't do that now.

Is it a deal killer for me? No. I love this site. It's a good resource. And I feel I get more than my money's worth. Plus I want NFA to grow.

 

[NoFlinch]

I hardly think the government and most of its evil entities are that concerned with the comings and goings of NWF...

I thought that is why those Black Suburbans are parked across the street from me.

They know about my single shot pellet pistol, cause I posted about it here a few days ago...... ..........

 

[str8off187]

Just like the government, Always telling us what we Can and Can't do...

 

[2beaucoup]

I thought that is why those Black Suburbans are parked across the street from me.

They know about my single shot pellet pistol, cause I posted about it here a few days ago...... ..........

Missed your ad on the pellet pistol. How much? Pics?

 

[NoFlinch]

Missed your ad on the pellet pistol. How much? Pics?

I actually did NOT post it FOR SALE, I just referenced it, along with my Daisy BB gun in a post.

BUT, I have been contemplating getting rid of it, BUT, I really have no idea what to ask.

It's a Crossman '22, about 25 years old........ at least, rusted on the outside, needs to be rebuilt cuz it only shoots a pellet about 25, and won't pump up more than the strength of 1 pump.

I was thinking of asking $875.00, but thought that might be a little low............

Any thoughts??????????

 

[PDXcollector]

I'm confused, why the restriction on revised titles?

I found this quote; "Basically, so many people were changing thread titles that it had a very negative effect on our search engine results..."

I'm missing why a change to an ad title would have any effect on search engine results...

 

[Joe Link]

It's somewhat technical, but I'll try to simplify it. Search engines give sites points for some things, and deduct points for other things. Noticing our search engine rankings and traffic were dropping, I spent a lot of time looking into it. I came to find that the cause was all of the threads titled 'sold'. We were being penalized for both duplicate content, and keyword stuffing, two of the biggest penalties.

Titles are extremely important in search engine optimization, so much so that many forum owners actually edit the titles of threads to make them more accurate/relevant, thus enabling the search engines to know what the content is about. For example, if a member posts a thread titled "I can't believe this", which is actually about the .22 ammo shortage, the search engine doesn't know what it's about, so it won't show people the thread when they search for .22 ammo shortage.

I'm still learning the ins and outs of SEO, but one of the biggest things members can do to help us when creating new threads is to actually title the thread according to what it's about. It doesn't have to be boring, such as .22 ammo shortage, it can be titles as you would type or speak it, such as What's up with this crazy .22 ammo shortage?.

Websites live and die by the search engines. I knew there would be objections, but this was something we had to do.

 

[bbowl]

I'm confused, why the restriction on revised titles?

I found this quote; "Basically, so many people were changing thread titles that it had a very negative effect on our search engine results..."

I'm missing why a change to an ad title would have any effect on search engine results...

Because they want search engine hits - even if it's to an item that is no longer available apparently.

By clearing out "desert eagle .50 for sale" it will no longer show up in a Google search. Which it shouldn't, it's no longer available for sale. Sounds like they want the hit anyways.

 

[PDXcollector]

Thanks Joe! I liked the ability to revise, but had no idea about search engine optimization...

 

[fireninja13]

Websites live and die by the search engines. I knew there would be objections, but this was something we had to do.

I know quite a bit about SEO from some of my Business Consulting work. And yes, changing titles will confuse spiders, and yes some of the algorithms used by Google and Bing "supposedly" penalize content duplication and keyword stuffing, although the actual mechanism of their algorithms are a closely guarded secret -- in the pre Hummingbird days, the above was a widely accepted assumption, but since implementing Hummingbird on August 30, 2013 Google is supposedly much more interested in natural language content of webpages than page titles and keywords. Thus the most important SEO element of this website is likely the involved forum discussions and not the classified ads or their titles.

However, a permanent transactional trail is a significant negative for anyone doing lots of firearms transactions -- especially for your your most hardcore member base. in other words you are penalizing your most active and engaged members in the hopes that you will appeal to new users via the search engines. I can also assume that your pageload counts and unique visitor figures are interesting to your advertisers. . . In my business consulting work I often see situations where companies have to choose whether to pander to new customers, placate advertisers or maintain the best interests (and thus loyalty) of their dedicated user base.

As I run my personal analysis, I use this excellent website for the forum discussion and for the classifieds. If the classified listings turn into a permanent web accessible record of all my firearms related transactions I will likely discontinue or delimit my use of the classified portion and just come around for the forum discussions. Afterall, I can always just use the Armslist, GunsAmerica and OutoorTrader free classified listings. I prefer this community, but I don't like permanent transactional trails on the internet. . . And I doubt I'm the only one that feels this way.

Yes, most websites do live and die by search engines, but NWFA might be that rare case that doesn't -- you need to ask yourself whether the happiness of a dedicated user base -- one that even includes members who voluntarily contribute cash money to the website -- is your most important asset. Or alternatively, is exposure for your advertisers and the constant flow of new users generated by a high search engine rank is more valuable -- presuming that a shift in classified titles even has much of a SEO impact in the Post-Hummingbird "natural language" era.

I can't answer this for you. But, I think it is worth considering from a macro business perspective -- both in terms of the short and long term viability of NWFA. This answer will likely be rooted in your long-term vision of NWFA.

p.s. I do this kind of analysis for a living. I really like this website, and would be willing to chat with you about this in more detail, if you'd like