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

some people like to keep anonymous on here? there might be someone on here who knows them in rl but doesn't know their mn name. say i was selling something and then my next door neighbour who is also a mner said oh id like those so i say ok, this is my address to send the cheque to. oh shit now my next door neighbour knows my mn name and i can't post anything personal ever again. i can understand why some people would want to remain anonymous. fwiw i don't care personally but that's cos i am naive enough to think no one i know in rl comes on here

that is just another reason why the for sale boards should be ditched

or have mumsnet and hunsnet separated so that you can be mummyoffourbootifulhobbits2006xxxx on hunsnet and preserve you anonimity on mumsnet- for those who do actually post anywhere other than for sale

oh i can totally understand why some people would want to remain anon, definitely. but i think they should suck it up and go to ebay.

ooohh can hunsnet have tickers they'd like that- they could list their pram collections so that we could all be jealous of their farkaboo with posh-shite covers!!

10 minutes 18 seconds and 11 nano seconds until i sell my next 3 wheeler

11 minutes until i buy a bugaboo

12 minutes until the bugaboo goes on ebay

Well here's my bit of research - my 2 Leappad books that I bumped at 5pm yesterday have now totally vanished off the For Sale topic list.
The For Sale board still contains items Wanted & shout outs for sellers.Grrrrrrr

Right, MN Towers listen up:

Whizz's experiment proves beyond reasonable doubt that the For Sale board is no longer suitable for the purpose it was created. Only shouty, bumpy, asterixy huns get their wares seen. Normal (Whizz are you normal?) MNers who wish to sell the odd item are unable to, unless they too join in with the shouting, bumping an asterixing.

So, scrap For Sale. It does not work. Please?

I can confim I am normal

I also wouldn't mind helping to monitor the FS boards if they do stay (although I already spend far too much time popping in & out of MN!)

thats why you need MY idea

it would work if there weren't any of these i only come on mn to go on for sale. which is why there need to be rules as to who can be a seller - ie someone who has been on longer than 5 seconds and contributes regularly to the rest of the mn community.

also whilst i don't think a fee system would work i do think a credit system like the one i described could work. regular mners can check the odd post to earn a credit and sell for free but it would put off the non-regulars coming on here to sell. (not all of them are traders - some are mums just like us but only use it to sell their grown out of stuff)

mamag - what's your idea i think i missed it.

If you have something for sale, you put it in your profile (in a special box to be added by Tech grin)

If you want to buy something, there is a Sales Search button on the main board - NOT a for sale topic. You click on the button and choose from a list - feeding/prams & pushchairs/clothing/adult clothing/music & audio/toys/misc - you get the idea. You also type in a keyword, so in prams & pushchairs, you may type "quinny" = then, you get a list of what is available. Possibly, we have a private messaging system, and all deals should be made through that, so MN can have a nosy look in case of dispute "you said it was blue!" "no, I said it was aqua"
justinemumsnet "no, you did say blue" etc

PROS - no endless bumping, regulars can sell if they want to, MNHQ can keep an eye (via the private message thingy) without having to actively be involved in every blardy sale. Could still pay a once yearly fee to be able to have the "sales" box in your profile - £5 a year like cat?

CONS - more work for Tech!

ISNT THIS A FANTASTIC IDEA!

You can thank me later hunnis

Can we ban MamaG for blatantly bumping her good idea and repeating herself?!

No, she should be banned for saying hunni.

oh and lapin, I beat you in yummynes, let that be said.

but I win in yummyness

Yes that is right. Because you can spell. I am just a wannabe yummy pedant.

you can't be a wannabe with a name like Quintessentially

thing is... you do need a board of some description, for browsers. i did not, for example, realise i needed an age 2-4 swimming vest with floats until i saw it advertised on here.

is that Aitch in a gimp suit or a completely different person?

I think a sales search button - or a sales search device of some sort - is a fab idea. Hope it's workable for tech.

Gitch, you say 'oh i can totally understand why some people would want to remain anon, definitely. but i think they should suck it up and go to ebay'.

Why do you feel mumsnet should be intolerant of sellers preferring to be anonymous, keeping their selling name separate from their mumsnet discussion name? What is so wrong about having a separate seller profile to verify that the seller is known to the mumsnet community and posts on other threads? What is so terrible about that?

(As I've said further down) a reputable seller will put their address on any parcel they send out as a safety measure against loss by Royal Mail. Sellers might also end up giving buyers their real life name, email and phone number. Sellers don't choose who buys their stuff, so their RL details go out to anyone who asks for them.

Imagine a mumsnetter was being hounded by a someone not very nice on a discussion thread and that same person decides to get the mumsnetter's RL details to hound them some more, by buying something they are selling.

A mumsnetter can change their name to buy a product, so it's fair IMO that a seller should be able to change their name to sell a product.

it's aitch in a gimp suit, foxy.

tigermoth, i just think that ebay currently provides all these facilities. all the rest of it is just so much hot air while MNHQ decide whether they can be arsed spending the time and money on putting together something that isn't going to be as good as ebay. it's a shame, because before people started ripping the holy piss out of it, the sales boards on here were great. plus ca change...

I think there should be some sort of "approved seller" thing. So if you change your name, it's irrelevant because on your profile it says "this seller is registered with MNHQ" or summat which signals you have registered your details with them and have been around 6 months or whatever they decide should be the criteria.

so much faff,though, lapin, for a parenting site.

Ebay, gumtree, craiglist, AdTrader are for selling and set up to do so - with anonymity, easy set up for cover losses, rules regarding selling, etc.

Depends on how much revenue mumsnet can get from the 'for sale' side of things balanced against how much work it takes tech.

A simple seller profile might not be too much faff, if sellers pay fees. It's a question only mumsent HQ can answer I guess.