Could the "Classifieds" topics just be removed from Talk entirely?

[littlelapintofbloodmwahaha]

Since there is an entire Classified tab on the top menu, could we have a separate message board for those topics please? Those being

• For sale
• Wanted
• Childcare
• Swap shop
• Small business ads
• Jobs

Especially if you take up Champs' suggestion of MN Swaps having it's own topic... then we wouldn't have to worry about having No Buying/Selling, No Swaps etc. It seems like the infrastructure is already there for it.

Sorry Tech

But sites such as moneysavingexpert have fantastic busy forums but it doesn't allow any selling at all - and these are people with money problems etc.. I don't think anything is missing from the site, people just use MSE to chat and use ebay or similar to sell.
I don't think that Mumsnet needs to have a buying/selling section. If there is a gap in the market for a mumsnet marketplace then maybe they could set one up properly and link from the main MN site.

so is soupy's idea that they get charged but then if i, as a regular mner, wish to offer somethign as a swap then i'd be able to on the normal boards? i don't really understand. the NCT sale is beginning to look easier though...

wow, i still have No Idea what RD's talking about but it sounds brilliant!

Grammar

whoops - Grammar

LOL Aitch.

The idea is:

• each For Sale post costs 1 credit.
• mumsnetters who have been here more than a year get 5 credits free per year.
• you could also buy say 5 credits for £1 (or whatever price you wanted to set it to).
• you can also earn credits by checking that a For Sale post (in moderation queue) is from a genuine regular mumsnetter... say for every 2 posts you check by doing a quick search you earn 1 credit.

That way, MNHQ gets an additional revenue stream and it doesn't cost them extra in terms of staff checking those For Sale ads in moderation queue. We also don't get people who ONLY use the For Sale board. We still get to keep a cheap/free sales/swap board for the regulars.

lol. beety i see you've been promoted.

congratz hunni!!!!!!!!

Whoops - I beg your pardon - grammar, (and I normally hate bad spelling), .

my friends a regular mner and she doesn't have a debit/credit card so can't use ebay to sell her things. she loves being able to sell them on here so if you were to set up a fee for selling regulars like her would be excluded.

i think the credit system works best. then any regulars who wanted to still be able to sell for free could check others. so if you checked one persons ad then that gave you a credit to be able to post your own.

aaah, righto, i get it a bit now. (apart from the checking in moderation, but i can get a grown-up to help if it all comes to pass).

This is the For Sale board - it's like a whole new world. I hardly recognise any names, and if you pick any one and search on them, they almost exclusively post on For Sale/Swap/Wanted.

I know there are regular MNers who use those boards but they seem in the minority.

Charge em or bin em, I say

sorry RD, xposted!

Aitch: moderation queue just means that they're not posted anywhere visible UNTIL someone has checked they're valid first.

Of course, all this depends on how easy it would be for Tech to implement...

RD, you know Tech is busily getting you banned as we speak

My idea is that all the B&S topics get shifted to a dusty backwater of the site called "classified" (it's already there, left over from the Old Days).

Regulars could still post under "other subjects" when they have occasional odd things for sale or to swap. If anyone spots a For Sale post, they can easily check if it's a regular and report the post if they're not.

but then you will still get buying/selling ads in active convos which some people dislike. you can't really have a no other subjects option!!

This site is funded by advertising which is dependent on traffic through the site. It would seem to me that mnhq probably know that they could charge for 'for sale' but they choose not to and I would imagine that the huge volume of traffic through that board contributes quite a lot to the daily traffic on here. I suspect that the volume of traffic on 'for sale' actually helps mn.
I never look on it, the swap stuff is mildly irritating but is easy to ignore(I manage to ignore the fly stuff after all) and when we get the choose whatever topics we want application we can choose to ignore swapping too.
I think that the irritation that the whole selling thing represents is something that we should just ignore.

You woudn't, nappyaddict, because there would be far far fewer of them. Virtually none.

Oh. I was just going to make the advertising revenue point.

i hate b&s too - but by clicking on nob&s I never ever see it.

WHat has happened to Active Conversations? Haven't got 'no buying/selling ticked' and there are an INORDINATE number of sales - will count them and return!

Dragon, so "your idea" is basically the same as my OP?

how do people feel about posters who mainly only use buying/selling but occasionally branch out into other topics?

32 out of the top 60. Wil check that box now!