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

when are we getting this no whatever you want thing then? bring it on i say!!

heavens above that is alot

I am too new here to care much either way, the buying and selling is grubby but it is easy to ignore, obviously the Swap bit should go in with all that stuff because those threads seem to come up even when I opt out of buying and selling.

Similar thread from August - Olivia gave it the old "we'll discuss it at the next meeting" line

That is my point, if more than 50% of the posts in active convos are buying and selling than that is a lot of traffic. If you look at this in a different way, mnhq are actually running a very sucessful trading board with a bit of chat thrown in

There used to be a noticeboard for selling etc - hardly anybody ever went there which is why it was turned into a topic (IIRC)

Maybe now MN is so big it is too big for this (too big for sellers to be easily monitored, and the admin cost of small fees would surely be disproportionate) and it should be removed completely - as there are other marketplaces.

Carm, if they were spun off into the existing Classified section, they could still have ads on there.

Yes but really, what harm is it to us if a million huns are peddling buggies on another section of the forum that we can't see?

so olivia when's the next meeting?!

But we can see it, half of them are drifting into Swaps

I try to use the for sale and swap shop facilitites but never get a huge, if any, response. I am much more into the talk topics but value the classifieds.
I don't think a one off fee would put off anyone who is simply using it as a cheap facility without contributing to the community as a whole.
Time-related privileges sound better, but I've been here about 10 months and would have to wait a bit longer if it was say minimum one year's membership...not really a problem for me as I use ebay a lot anyway, only post on here occasionally to sell, and things might get sold much quicker if there were fewer people on there.

Yes but when we can customise the talk section and choose which topics we want we won't have to see the swap section either. I believe that is what tech is working on atm.

If they just move swaps into the classifieds bit wouldn't that help? It's probably safe(ish) to assume that the more commercially viable mumsnet remains the better it is for members.

If it was split out into Classifieds, maybe there could be subCategories - Buggies, Clothes, Toys etc - might make selling easier! (and more like eBay all the time!)

The buying and selling did not used to be grubby. It used to be people who knew and were known by other people, helping each other out by selling on/buying the necessary and often expensive items associated with parenting. The NCT do great second hand sales and no-one calls those grubby that I know of.

The difference now is that the buying and selling threads are now almost entirely populated by people who have somehow heard that Mumsnet provides a free outlet for their minor businesses. They are using Mumsnet for this end rather than paying fees on ebay. Some of them even seem to be openly admitting this.

It annoys me greatly. But then I suppose that is only because I admit I am someone who has been trying to sell on bits and pieces and has suddenly found myself up against the professionals.

These people should not be allowed to continue this way. I have reported a few suspect threads to MN and been pleased to see them deleted. Something needs to be done to bring the selling and buying threads back to the small-time, community feel they once had.

i think 6 or 9 months would be ok if we were doing it on time limit of how long one has been a member.

By the way how would you go about defining a 'regular' poster?

mumsonline is like that. they have a separate classified section and there is sub categories for nappies, household, toys etc.

It is hard to define a regular user but we all know one when we see one.

I think there is a danger in trying to identify "regular" posters. How do you decide? Been registered 6 months? well, that's easy enough. A certain number of posts on non-Sale boards? "Yeah hun" 20 times on random threads. And what about lurkers who don't post much - through shyness, lack of time, whatever.

Who becomes the arbiter?

LOL, xposts DG

God I don't I don't recogn ise hlf the peorpl e who have been posting for a years these days

But DG do you not think that by the very fact that the Buying and Selling boards are now very busy mn is benefitting from the extra traffic?

By the way, anyone wanna buy a buggy? My shop picturetrails here

you couldn't do it from number of posts cos that excludes regular lurkers. the only way we can really do it is how long they've been registered for.