The For Sale/ Wanted boards - update from M Towers and post your ideas/thoughts here

[JustineMumsnet]

As you may know we have in mind a complete overhaul of the For sale/ wanted boards as they seem to be making many folks' lives (ours especially) a misery.

Clearly it makes sense for us to have classified ads - why not re-cycled used stuff? That should in theory be good for buyers and sellers alike (and it's very green too). But equally clearly, at the risk of understatement, it is not functioning well at the moment.

However, complete overhaul is going to have to wait a wee while as Tech's got quite a lot on... (We are hopefully bringing you improved local listings, blogs and more in the next few weeks and months).

In the meantime do give us your ideas for how you'd ultimately like to see For sale/ wanted working. (I know some of you have already posted some sensible (and not so sensible thoughts around and abou but we'd be super grateful if you'd re-post the best of them here so everyone can see, discuss and refine.)

So... what rules would be fair/enforcable and assist in the smooth working of the thing? (nb we are never going to enforce a no huns policy I'm afraid, so do be realistic - MN is for all parents even those with poor grammar and spelling.)

Should we re-house somewhere off Talk? And will it be used/useful if we do? Can we make it work on Talk if not? What would make it easier to use/ more functional?

Should we charge and if so how. What would you pay to use and how would you like to pay it?

Which other boards do this successfully and what are the best ideas/functionality should we pinch?

To ease the pain of waiting for overhaul, next week we will introduce a couple of quick fixes that might hopefully smooth the operation a little, namely we're going to insist that everyone who posts a for sale notice pays a CAT and we'll break down the boards into categories so things are more easily searchable.

In the meantime, please hang on in there and if it all gets too much there's always the hide thread/topic option .

Thanks for your input and your patience.

Peace and love,

Mumsnet Towers

oh, i forgot my

has anyone ever noticed that Aitch and Bitch are practically the same word...

MamaG, the problem with putting it on profiles is that if I - perfectly innocently - say "oh look at the scrummy pictures of DS on my profile!" and I happened to have a buggymuffle for sale, people might go "ooh! she's flogging her muff!" and have me deleted.

HOW ABOUT - an extension of MamaG's idea - a second profile type thing, where a poster's For Sale items are listed. It could be represented by a little £ sign up with the Profile and CAT symbols - so if I saw a little £ next to MamaG's name, I'd know she was flogging naked pictures of Royal Marines used pants. And profiles would stay undefiled

Surely the only way for it to NOT be them and us (given the underlying issues) would be for one side to give up completely? Or is that what is really being suggested.....

H comes after G I think.

not commenting on the yumminess of Lapin....

Actually, a prerequisite to being able to start a thread in the For Sale section should be to have a profile, with information about yourself.

But I AM yummy

ARE YOU CALLING ME A GITCH, QS? [livid]

rofl, lapin. i really do hate being told that because i'm a mum now i have to be mumsy...

I know, the old "I can't believe you are being so bitchy/callous/insightful, you are a MOTHER!" - oft followed by the classic "Shouldn't you be looking after your child?!" - to which the only riposte is "No, the nany does that"

reprise in english please rofl babe

"i have no intention of teaching my daughter to sublimate her views (if they are reasonable) in order to get along with people she isn't actually disagrees with"

or nanny even

Anyway Gitch, I wouldn't put argument ("a discussion in which reasons are advanced for and against some proposition or proposal") in with bitching, it's more in the debate line, no?

yeah i hate this why arent you looking after your kids bit

i dont have to..i finished that job

that's because you're veh veh veh old Zippi

That bit about looking after kids only seems to get posted eiteher so late they should be in bed, or at times when many are in school anyhow

Go figure.....

Now we have people touting for business - here. Scroll down thread.

well im making the most of the time i have left thats for sure lol

true, lapin, i thought i was quoting the poster, but i got it wrong, sorry. it was squabbling i should have said.

zip, i mean if my kid has strong (and reasonable) views on a subject i'm not going to teach her that she should toe the nicey-nice party line just in order to get along with everyone. drum roll... that's how fascism starts. ROFL.

Oh dear what have I started! . Gitch not at all....

The alphabet is sooo long, AItch Bitch Citch Ditch, Eitch Fitch.

But that is not what I meant. The SOUND of your name, is like the pronounciation of the letter H. So far from Bitch, but closer to G....

i rather like it, QS...

This thread has been an education for me. I have a bag of second hand children's stuff in my loft. Ex market stall stock.

If I had tried to sell it on the 'For Sale' threads, I would have changed my name for privacy's sake, so would have appeared like a new poster. I would have proudly said the stuff had come from my market stall as was. (I am quite proud of running a stall actually. Some of it was great fun at the time - I sold things to Kylie and Paula Yates ).

I would have been verbally slaughtered by the looks of it

you'd have been alright on ebay, the world's largest marketplace.

tigermoth - why would you change your name though? although maybe all those people who just seem to go on for sale are doing the same thing ... then again maybe not!!

i think to be able to post a for sale ad you should have been registered for say 6 months at least.

oh actually i can understand why people would change their name to sell. someone could work out who you are cos they would find out your real name and address and then you might not be able to post anonymously if you accidentally sold to someone who knew you in rl.

would it be possible when you scrolled over someones name it would tell you what month they joined (which would move with you if you namechanged) and also an average number of posts per week/month and maybe a topic most visited so it would be easy to spot if they did just go on for sale and regulars who do namechange to sell wouldn't get the short straw cos posters would be able to see they did infact post elsewhere?

yes, but that's the way it goes, imo. as long as you're not ripping anyone off what's the problem with them having your name? for the rest, there's ebay.