Classified cluttered with old ads

[peteNW503]

Recently I have seen a lot of old ads from 1-3 years ago popping up in the classified section.. Don't get me wrong I love a good deal as much as the next guy but the ones I'm seeing are Pre-Covid with Pre-covid prices. First thing I do is check the seller profile if they haven't been on in months the likelihood of getting a response is slim to none. This also goes for the people creating the ads please have the courtesy to lock/close your ad once you have completed your transaction doing so will save you and the potential buyer time!

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[Hueco]

I've noticed the same. Perhaps there's room here for a rule change: ads > 3 months old + last log on > 3 months == warned of imminent closure. OP doesn't log in for another two weeks, Ad gets closed.

Just an idea. How exactly it works is @Joe Link call. But, I would like to get some of the sections cleaned up too.

 

[Knute]

I have also noticed these old ads getting recent inquiries, so they show up on top of the lists but many are just dead ones with "last seen" sellers long gone many months ago.

It would be nice to have a cleanup policy or auto-magic routine in place by @JoeLink

 

[TTSX]

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A lot of these old ads would stay buried if people would take a couple seconds to check how old it is, then see if the seller is active. Seems a lot of this stems from laziness on the buyer's part

 

[peteNW503]

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A lot of these old ads would stay buried if people would take a couple seconds to check how old it is, then see if the seller is active. Seems a lot of this stems from laziness on the buyer's part

I agree but it is a domino effect which ends up affecting every member who browses the section. I feel like both the seller and the buyer are somewhat responsible for the exact reason you stated but also because it is not hard to hit the " lock ad" button. I'm sure it is a good bit of work to "clean up" the section! Have an admin send a message to the ad lister if it has been 3 months since the posting the ad; give them 48 hours to respond or ad gets taken down. I think that is a reasonable compromise!

 

[Flopsweat]

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A lot of these old ads would stay buried if people would take a couple seconds to check how old it is, then see if the seller is active. Seems a lot of this stems from laziness on the buyer's part

With all due respect, blaming the user is not an effective bug triage strategy. Products are designed around people, warts and all.

 

[Hueco]

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A lot of these old ads would stay buried if people would take a couple seconds to check how old it is, then see if the seller is active. Seems a lot of this stems from laziness on the buyer's part

Keep in mind that the system does send email - so a seller not having logged in for a bit, while probabilistically means they're long gone, is not a sure fire thing. I have seen some members come back to discuss an item for sale long after its been posted. Some people really do use the classifieds like a for sale ad on a college message board: post it, forget about it, maybe get lucky with a sale.

Though, this obviously needs to be balanced with the clutter that truly dead ads add into the site.

 

[nwwoodsman]

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Seems a lot of this stems from laziness on the buyer's part

A lot of this stems from laziness on the sellers part ...I am guilty of this. I can't count the number of times I have received a message from a months or even years old ad because I simply forgot to lock it after the item sold. Then again, I just got a notification on a 6 month old post by someone else stating that yes, the ammo is still available. Then again, again, shouldn't this thread be in the "help and feedback" section.

 

[ZigZagZeke]

If old ads (maybe 90 days old) could be automatically locked and maybe moved to a different category, with the seller being able to re-open them if the ad is still valid, it would de-clutter the classified section greatly. Send the seller an email a few days before the deadline:

"Hi there, Mr. Seller. Your ad titled 'Rare Collectible Hi-Point - Only $10K' will be 90 days old and will be deactivated in 72 hours. To reactivate your ad, follow this link and click the "Reactivate" box: [active link to appropriate screen]"

 

[Camelfilter]

Then again, again, shouldn't this thread be in the "help and feedback" section.

Moved to suggestions...

 

[crossbow5]

Why shouldn't the rules for advertisements be the same as Craigslist? The ads are automatically canceled after a certain amount of time. The ads can be re-listed, but requires the person making the ad to re-list the ad.

 

[Flopsweat]

Why shouldn't the rules for advertisements be the same as Craigslist? The ads are automatically canceled after a certain amount of time. The ads can be re-listed, but requires the person making the ad to re-list the ad.

They do way, way more volume than NWFA does. Rules that strict help their mods and devs a lot more than it would this site. They can afford to be nicer to us.

 

[deadeye]

I believe the upcoming classifieds changes ( a couple anyway ) will solve this issue whenever Joe can get to it. Often times the staff will go and try to clean up old ads but it is time consuming. This has been brought up many many times over the years but previous software couldnt fix it or was too expensive to implement. The main issues are new members digging up old ads and commenting in the ad instead of messaging the seller as well as some create an ad and then are never to be seen again.

The older ads shouldnt be getting bumped with just someone posting a comment, only when bumped by the seller. This was one of the most recent changes. If you see this happening use the report feature so we can investigate it as a possible issue.

 

[Joe Link]

I believe the upcoming classifieds changes ( a couple anyway ) will solve this issue whenever Joe can get to it.

This is correct. The upcoming classified system automatically expires classified ads

 

[arakboss]

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A lot of these old ads would stay buried if people would take a couple seconds to check how old it is, then see if the seller is active. Seems a lot of this stems from laziness on the buyer's part

I have had success with purchasing item more than a year old. The is nothing wrong with making inquiries to unlocked ads (regardless of age). More often than not the buyer responds that the item sold and locks the ad.

 

[DLS]

I've had the same experience as @arakboss. One time the ad was almost two years old, the seller had forgotten about it and was glad to be rid if the item.

Additionally I've seen great response from moderators when I simply report the old ad as a ghost ad. They lock the ad promptly, and this way they don't have to cruise the classifieds looking for outdated material.

If we all did this as we run across old abandoned ads I'm guessing that a large part of this problem would go away.

Having said that, an automatic expire would not bother me if the time frame was reasonable. I think Craigslist's one week is much too rapid.

Now if we could get folks to leave feedback ... that's my real gripe about the classifieds here! (Smile)

 

[orygun]

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A lot of these old ads would stay buried if people would take a couple seconds to check how old it is, then see if the seller is active. Seems a lot of this stems from laziness on the buyer's part

I also think that a lot of these inquiries are from people surfing the internet looking for a specific item. More than once I've been contacted by someone states away looking for a gun I had for sale years before, ad closed/locked or not!

 

[DLS]

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A lot of these old ads would stay buried if people would take a couple seconds to check how old it is, then see if the seller is active. Seems a lot of this stems from laziness on the buyer's part

I do that quite often, and when I find a ghost member / ad I let the moderators know. It only takes a few seconds and I feel it is a small way I can give back to the site other than paid support levels.