Trade thread crowding

[Marco]

Some excellent points here, chaps, so keep them coming! I'm a little busy at the moment, so will answer properly later. However, just to tackle this.

Personally Marco, I like the Sticky thread idea. The problem with letting regular trade sales threads take their natural course is that they tend to get spammed with multiple ads very quickly (you know who you are) knocking the single entry dealer sales threads down the list very rapidly indeed.

I know exactly where you're coming from, Paul. However, the two who were really guilty of that have not renewed their trade membership this year, so given the active trade members we have here now, and how they behave, I don't think that the above would be an issue. However, I take on board the fact that you like the sticky thread arrangement.

Don't worry, nothing will be getting changed unless it is with the blessing of all concerned!

Colin, thanks for your suggestion. I'll have a look at the trade section of DIY Audio and see how it looks. My initial worry, however, would be having 25-30 separate sections in the trade room, to accommodate everyone, as it would 'pad out' the trade room too much, although it could perhaps be done via sub-forums within the existing trade room.

Leave it with me!

Marco.

[struth]

On a personal level I rarely look here now as it is difficult to see the wood from the trees.

[agk]

Marco, can it not be run on similar grounds to DiyAudio trade section?
Each fee paying trader has his own dedicated area where they can post up new threads and new products and the general members have a opportunity to add to the thread / discussion for that particular trader without having to trawl through the individual threads that can be posted for any the traders. That way if you want to check out a particular trader you only have one link to follow where all that traders posts are located by title.

One of the reasons I decided to cease my trade account. The sticky system is just not working.

Regards
Colin
(Reiver Acoustics - ex ToppSounds)

None of my business really but this seems sensible to me. I like a poke around in here but as I only browse via mobile it can be a bit of a faff.

[Marco]

Returning to Colin's idea of each trader having their own dedicated area... What do the trade members here think of that?

Essentially, it would work with sub-forums (as I wouldn't want the layout of the forum 'homepage' extended in order to accommodate all the necessary dedicated areas in the trade room for each business), just like the current system used in the Analogue Art section of the forum, where there is the Techiepedia and Idle Vice.

Therefore, similarly, when you clicked on Trade Impressions, sub-forums would appear, listing a dedicated area for each active trader. That way we could keep the main body of Trade Impressions for the odd sticky thread posted when someone wants to promote something in particular, say a sale or whatever.

Also, if someone, say Paul (RFC), just wants to keep his existing sticky thread, then they'd have that to introduce their products, instead of a dedicated sub-forum. That way, you can choose whatever you think would work best for your business.

What are your views on that, folks?

Marco.

[Reffc]

Seems like a sensible suggestion Marco.

[Marco]

Ok, would you want a sub-forum, Paul, to use as the main area for advertising your stuff, or do you just want to retain your existing sticky thread in the main body of the trade room? Remember that if you've got a dedicated sub-forum, that could also act as your 'blog'.

Marco.

[Reffc]

Ok, would you want a sub-forum, Paul, to use as the main area for advertising your stuff, or do you just want to retain your existing sticky thread in the main body of the trade room? Remember that if you've got a dedicated sub-forum, that could also act as your 'blog'.

Marco.

I'm happy to go with the flow Marco. In some ways just having sub forums tidies everything up but loses the appeal to the casual surfer as it hides topics and sales away from those who have no particular motivation to visit a specific dealer sub forum. In that respect, maintaining a sticky section allows quick reference to "what's new" whilst the sub forums can be used for specific sales threads. I don't know how this would work for others though and it sort of is the opposite (I think) to what you're saying. I will abide by what the trade consensus is though.

[Marco]

Thanks for your input, Paul. I can see where you're coming from. Thing is, as it is just now, you have to click on 'Trade Impressions' to access the content of the trade room, and then decide if there's anything in there of interest.

With the proposed new system, that click would still result in the same thing, albeit with the sub-forums/dedicated areas for traders at the top, and then the main body of the trade room underneath, which is where all the sticky threads would be. Yes, it would require and extra click then to access what's contained in someone's sub-forum, but I don't think that would too much of an issue.

Bear in mind also that most members, when logging-on, navigate through the forum via the 'New Posts' button. Therefore, no matter where on the forum you place an ad (sub-forum or sticky thread), the ad will still appear in 'New Posts', and so anyone interested in the product (or products) being advertised would simply click on it from there and not bother at all with going through the 'main door', as it were, of Trade Impressions or the sub-forums.

We could make it so that each trader gets a dedicated sub-forum [essentially acting as their 'shop window'] and the use of a (temporary) sticky thread only when they have a 'special event' that they wish to promote, outside of a normal ad (say a special price reduction on something), and once that promotion is over, the sticky thread is then removed.

Marco.

[MCRU]

This works well

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/

Vendor Forums, even a site as big as DIY audio only has a few trade members flogging their wares

AOS would only have a few even less than DIY audio so just leave Trade Impressions with 1 sticky for announcements from the management
and stickys for each trade member

so

REFFC
BERESFORD
MCRU
MARK GRANT
OSCAR
TONY C

etc etc

i cannot imagine it being any worse than what it is now?

the individual trade threads should only take up 1/3 of the top of the screen rest is for casual trade sellers and spammers!

one individual thread for each trade member

[Marco]

I (sort of) understand where you're coming from. However, see my last post and let me know what you think of what I've suggested there.

What I don't like about the layout of the DIY Audio forum is that there are so many (way too many for me) individual sections you have to scroll down through, in order to get where you want to go and/or read the forum, as such it increases the 'length' of the forum's homepage unacceptably, in my view.

That would happen to an extent if we did the same thing here, without using the sub-forums function. There are currently around 25-30 active traders here, so what I don't want is 25-30 extra sections of the forum visible all the time, meaning that members have a lot of scrolling to do, when accessing the forum's hompeage, to get from the Welcome area to Critic's Corner (from the top of the forum to the bottom), as it were.

Do you see what I mean?

Marco.