Tell you what..I voted big no. I do not post in the classifieds hardly ever. I am not opposed to fee's for classifieds. I am opposed to other rules like Joe Blow is selling rocket propelled pen parts and I think that's whicked cool as hell, so I can't resist but type into the post how I feel about it, and since my thoughts are not negative, I should be allowed to say...Dang Joe, you are insanely cool my man...but oh no, now I need to be deleted. I don't know what's ok to say and what's not. I am not partial to any vendor. If I by Joe Blow's rocket propelled pen parts and my pen launches out of the yard and I want to let the world know it rocked my world, I should be allowed to say so, right there, way to go Joe..oh but that's a violation, I'm bumping his thread, oh my dear lord, where's the black copters? Yea...this is what drives me mad about it. I feel like the classified sections are a bunch of egg shells I dont want to crush. I understand you need rules, but the rules around here have taken over. Pretty soon it'll be like a bible. There was nothing wrong around here before these changes, other than a few whiners that decided life is not a numbers game, it's a loudness game. He who makes the most noise gets what he wants to shut him up...to heck with the happiness of the masses. Yes..we need rules, I understand that. Yes this is a privately owned web site, the owner can do as he wishes, I get that. You ask for an opinion, so this was it... I say it's CRAP. You got a couple rabble rowsers, show them the door. Give us a feeling of freedom even if it can't totally exist, we can at least feel like it does. That is how you get back the numbers of people and the activity levels.
I appreciate your candid comments, Jeff. I'll try to be just as candid.
One thing I have to say is that the mods, the managers, and I see the entire spectrum of complaints from members. What you see happening in the forum doesn't tell the whole story. You don't (fortunately for you, let me tell ya!) get to see all the PMs we get from camp A complaining about camp B, and seller X telling us that so and so post by his competition is out of bounds or reporting someone shilling product, and on and on.
No matter what decision we make there are nearly an equal number of people on either side of the fence. For example, right now the poll in this thread is 26 better and 26 worse (and a bunch about the same). For every guy like you, there is one who applauds more rules. You might not be partial to any vendor, but many, many people are.
Personally, I'm a fan of far less rules than we have. I'm also a fan of not having to legislate common sense and good behavior. Unfortunately, over the past couple years, the classifieds have degenerated due to the lack of common sense and the increase of people behaving in ways that selfishly benefit themselves and their friends.
One of the things you apparently miss in the classifieds is a little bit of input from buyers. Like "great product" or "hey here's the cool thing I made with what you sold me". I miss that too. However, we were constantly bombarded with reports from people in competition that so and so was getting his thread bumped by shills - i.e. people who got free stuff or people related to them, or whatever. Some threads get 100% honest feedback from buyers, many don't. One of the things we've tried to do here is have a level playing field where everyone is treated fairly. It would be great if that could happen with no rules, but it doesn't.
I probably should have waited a few more weeks before asking my question. I think we'll settle into the new way of life in the classifieds, and I certainly expect rule adjustments in the future.
As I repeat often, if you can tell me specifically how to change the rules to do what you want AND maintain a level playing field without depending on people just playing nicely (which doesn't happen), I'm all ears.
