Thinkpads Forum

I was thinking that it would be interesting to have a SOLD subforum as a "resource" that people can refer to for the purporse of understanding the history & pricing of thinkpads in the marketplace.

It would also remove the SOLD threads into another area freeing up space for active threads.. and make them go up on the list.

It would be very easy for MODS to move it to that sub-forum.

crashnburn wrote:I was thinking that it would be interesting to have a SOLD subforum as a "resource" that people can refer to for the purporse of understanding the history & pricing of thinkpads in the marketplace.

It would also remove the SOLD threads into another area freeing up space for active threads.. and make them go up on the list.

It would be very easy for MODS to move it to that sub-forum.

I agree. I realize that a new forum or sub-forum would have to be created and someone would have to move it but it would make life a little easier as far as searching and buying goes............

Ron

Creating Sub-Forum: 1 time effort
Moving to SubForum Effort = Current Procedure for Locking SOLD Threads: Equal Effort

Benefits:
- Movement of threads that were locked but not remarked as SOLD so people can still click on it
- Since they are not marked as SOLD it is tough for people to search for historic prices in the archives
- Cleans up Active Marketplace

crashnburn wrote:Creating Sub-Forum: 1 time effort

True.

crashnburn wrote:Moving to SubForum Effort = Current Procedure for Locking SOLD Threads: Equal Effort

Not quite the same. Currently, to lock a thread, takes a simple "one-time" click. To move a thread, it's:

- one click on the "move" icon
- selection of the appropriate forum to move it to (all forums on the site, listed in a drop-down box); possibility to choose the wrong one here!
- clicking an option box "off" to leave a copy in the Marketplace
- then finally clicking a "YES" button

As far as the benefits go, yes it would tend to clean up the Marketplace somewhat but it's a lot of work to go back through the 110-some-odd pages that's currently in the Marketplace. If that's not done then you'd have a worse mess than you have now. You would have to search two forums separately to find what you're looking for. I'm assuming that you ARE already using the site's search function to locate the item(s) you are interested in, yes?

Using the "sold" threads as market research might be okay, but sometimes a different deal could have been worked out via PMs that you, the third-party reader, don't see. That would result in a false data point. Some listings have "OBO" in them; others have "FIRM". Rarely have I seen the OP (or even the buyer) post at the close of the transaction confirming what was actually paid.

I don't think that there's a restriction on the number of threads (active and inactive) in a forum, but I see the point about SOLD threads taking up some lines in each page of the listing.

The threads in the marketplace that are locked already sort of create their own sub forum for search purposes, don't they? They all have a little lock on them. Moving those to a separate forum seems reasonable, but is not as easy (speaking from experience) as one click.

I'm up for helping with the move...

I tend to agree that basing price checking on the asking price in the forum is misleading. People would be better off with eBay since that shows the actual sale price rather than the asking price.

tselling wrote:I tend to agree that basing price checking on the asking price in the forum is misleading. People would be better off with eBay since that shows the actual sale price rather than the asking price.

I agree, however, I am up for doing this as a matter of cleaning up the clutter. Moving the closed/sold posts out would clear up room for those that are still waiting for their items to sell...it will help limit the number of bumps, because the sold ones will be out of the way...

I know it probably wasn't apparent from my first post, but I'd be willing to help out as well. If two people go at it from opposite ends of some predetermined time period, then they wouldn't bump into each other.

I agree with all of you... completely But still hold my 'opinion' of what might be beneficial.. Even if all HISTORIC threads cannot be moved easily - Maybe we do it for our children... he he.. LOL

I cant help it.. Having worked extensively in Enterprise Content Management & Semantic Modeling... I am unable to hold back on anything that improves access to Contextual Information.

I personally think this is unnecessary since SOLD threads are locked and then get pushed down through the conference fairly quickly by newer threads.

Having said that, it would simpler to just rename the current Marketplace and create a new one. Then just move any current threads and stickies. A lot less work.

Hard to say what is "current". I recently bought an item that was still available that had a last post back in May.

Well, it's not like they're being deleted. You could still scan through the archived sale ads and find things.

I'd restore everything that's been posted in the last month to the new Marketplace.

Then, in the new Marketplace, I'd lock them all and any new ones coming in. All questions and negotiations take place via PMs or e-mail. Any sale ad that needs to be modified will require a moderator's intervention.

That would put a stop to the sniping about prices and the posts from people bumping threads to the top for their friends in less than the three day limit.