Panjo and Marketplace changes part 2

timothysoong

TS Billiards
Gold Member
Silver Member
I know many will disagree with me but I'll say what I have in mind anyway:

Leave everything as is cos it's fine.

1) Subsections
I'm not a fan of this because I come on the WFS forum not looking for anything in specific. If I see a good deal I'll buy it! It could be a chalk I never knew I wanted or a cool cue at $400 that I never thought I'd need. It's like going to a garage sale not knowing what's there and finding something you like. I've made several purchases like that...
Breaking these items into subsections be it by pricing or types would eliminate the fun(for me at least) in seeing something cool that I'd buy even when I had to intentions prior to seeing.

I'd go as far as saying that the WTB section doesn't work. I don't even visit that section at all because there's nothing I'm looking to sell actively.
However there might be a user who posted to buy something that I have at a good price which I'd never thought I'd sell but I would have missed it cos I've never thought of selling it so I wouldn't be actively scouring that sub forum.

There maybe something I want that a fellow AZer has no intention of selling until he saw my post as he was just looking around the For Sale section. Perhaps he doesn't go on the WTB section either?

A good solution to this would be working on the "Subject/Title" of thread. Whereby when posting a new thread there is the mandatory option of picking For Sale, For Trade and Want to Buy. These words would automatically appear right beside the intended title on the main page so the poster won't need to repeat in the subject content. Then add the filter option on the page and if anyone only wants to view what's for sale then they can see it easily.

It could work the same for Cues, Case and Others. Just have these mandatory options during the posting of new threads and when done posting there could be small icons beside the post to indicate what's being sold and again it could be filtered accordingly if someone only wants to see cases.

No sure if these options are easy to put together though.


2) Allowing reply posts For Sale thread.

In general I'd agree that too many unnecessary comments ruin the for sale threads (guilty myself) however there has been replies that have helped other AZers from getting conned or cheated.

I can imagine a few lines that would save someone from getting tricked:

"This scammer already sold this cue to me and didn't mail the cue, now he's selling again!!!"

"This cue doesn't belong to him at all, it's my buddy's!"

"Same dirtbag that sent me a bag of dusts instead of the cue we agreed on"

"Check out this thread which he scammed a few AZers www.scammedXxxxx.com ..."

I know these are exaggerations or isn't happening often enough but having the option to question a seller in the post when he doesn't respond to PMs is one of the good thing about the forum where we try to protect each other from a bad deal. It doesn't happen all the time but some self policing is a good thing for the forum too.


3) Larger PM boxes...

I know I know there's already 500 for gold members...but I don't think it's that space consuming on the server to provide more or unlimited PMs? I mean it's all text anyways...its like emails...you never know when you want to refer to or need a specific PM...

All in all I think the place is already great so a huge thanks for all the effort :)


Totally agree on #2 and #3. I wouldnt mind the subsections tho.
 

dawgcpa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Bumping

Thanks for the changes on the bumping. It makes it much better to review.

As for the subforums, I'll use the site either way. I personally wouldn't vote for them but I will manage if that is change we make here. I just don't know if we are truly busy enough. I've seen them work well over at an archery forum I use to peruse but they have 3 times the traffic that we do here.

I think we are still small enough not to need them. Also, if you use the forum a lot, you learn the cues that are out of your price range and the sellers that always overprice their stuff. Just don't open those threads...

Thanks again for the work,

Lonnie
 

Kot_Bigemot

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I love new changes!
Items are staying on first page for more than 20 minutes.
No more idiotic bumping comments.
Thank you for great work Mike and Jerry.
 

Mr. Bond

Orbis Non Sufficit
Gold Member
Silver Member
my two cents:

have subforums for these categories:

For Sale or Trade Items: [ cues, balls, tables etc]
For Sale or Trade Services: [ lessons, repairs, websites etc]
Ebay Auctions:
Items/services Wanted:

or both..

Items Wanted:
Services Wanted:
 

aquaurchin99

Let's Make A Deal
Silver Member
I'm almost regretting renewing my gold membership. It's only been a couple weeks. Could I get my money back still? That's seriously a thought in my mind right now.

Maybe I just need to get used to these new changes, but I just don't like the way they are personally. I didn't have as many issues with the way this forum was before. It feels so dead now. I guess that's why the Facebook groups exist. I'll try my best to just live with the way things are I guess.
 

Palmerfan

AzB Gold Member
Silver Member
Mike since I would be one of the guys posting in the "other" areas I really don't see a problem and realize the area I will be in will likely have less overall traffic than the cue area but from an organizational standpoint I think it's great... You can look for what is on your mind... And since you are doing a subsection I would likely go further....

Cues: $499 and under
Cues: $500 to $2499
Cues: $2500 and up
Cues: Jump, Break and Masse

Cases (yes all by itself... If you just bought a cue you know you are going straight in.. They don't belong with the cues and because of price point they don't belong in the accessories)

Tables, Lights and Man Cave Furnishings

Accessories, Balls, Books and DVDs

I think you may actually see more postings if it was done this way... People don't list items if they don't think there will be a decent market since they will be pushed off the front page in a few hours... This way at least they are in a section people will dig thru if they need something now... Like a table light... I have been looking for months but nothing has caused me to go wow and I don't dig thru the for sale looking because I doubt I will find any based on experience.....

Chris

So far this Post looks like the best option.
 

buddha162

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Subsections will kill traffic.

Keep it FS/Wanted, that's it. Definitely do not section by price.
 

justadub

Rattling corners nightly
Silver Member
Subsections will kill traffic.

Keep it FS/Wanted, that's it. Definitely do not section by price.

If you don't section it by price, make sure the price is listed in the post title.

I have tried to use this forums For Sale section before when I wanted to buy a cue. 99.9% of them were out of my price range, and having to click on each post just to see if it was even within my budget is a major time waster. Combined with the old way the forum used to work, with so many posts and the bumping, it became far too frustrating and time consuming to even think about using.

I bought online from somewhere else.

I would rather support this forum, if I could.
 

timothysoong

TS Billiards
Gold Member
Silver Member
The good thing would be to create subsection for posts like that.

And when people are posting about scam, mods should move it to appropriate place.


Great idea! A sub-forum for that will do great! So people can reply without moving down other sale threads.
 

BigNBeefY

Just Stopping By
Silver Member
thumbs up

now this is a step in the right direction. thank you for all the thought and time put into making our community a better place.
 

buddha162

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have tried to use this forums For Sale section before when I wanted to buy a cue. 99.9% of them were out of my price range, and having to click on each post just to see if it was even within my budget is a major time waster.

I'm interested in cues, so I look at all of them. After awhile you get a sense of what's in your price range, what sells, what doesn't, what's considered under/over priced. Many sellers have no clue what their cues are worth anyway, so I wouldn't be too quick to skip over cues with high asking prices. Give it a couple of weeks and those prices will come down.

In any case, I'm all for listing price in titles (if you can edit titles as price drops), but I'm not sure how big a problem this is for most people. With the changes already in place, overall bloat of the FS forum is already down drastically; I think your issues with pricing is a non-issue at the moment. Subsections can only hurt legitimate traffic. Just mo.
 

classiccues

Don't hashtag your broke friends
Silver Member
I don't like the idea of sub-sectioning cues because some people feel schons and pechauers are customs, and there would be to much in policing them. I do think there should be cues, cases, books/videos, accessories, other....

JV
 

RCLane

Cue Buyer Of What I Like
Silver Member
I know I'm outta context here, however Does this Panjo Market Place offer anything like if a Sale goes bad, buyer gets stiffed an the Seller says, HaHaHaHa...You Big Dummy. I got you well, I wanted to buy The Pete Tonkin Chevron Cue & The Seller Managed to just used Pictures he found by luck for this Question. An he never actually had physical possession of the Cue.

And me, For being the Giant-Sapp, Idiot. Because I did not Question the Seller better an ask for a Video or anything to prove he had possession of the Cue.

Well, I end up paying this Seller probably 25K for the Awesomeness of the Chevron Cue Pete Tonkin built for some guy.

This is where it gets GOOD. So, I paid in full over the internet an he mails off the Package with Tracking number an Insurance so it all looks legit. Then here comes the Postman open door, signs for package. Open the Package. Then I discovered something, I discovered that Mr.Slickster Fast Eddie AKA "Sticky Fingers" The Con-Man.

Simply Printed off a Good Sized Picture of "The Chevron Cue" then I'm just sitting there, contemplating finding the nearest cliff or RailRoad Tracks Because, I Had just cashed in on a Major Chunk of my Retirement Package.


So what is a person to do if they get into a Situation where they've been ripped off or lied to or they bought a product that wasn't what was described or agreed upon to finalize the Sale.

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk
 

RCLane

Cue Buyer Of What I Like
Silver Member
Any Help would be appreciated guys thank you.

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk
 

RCLane

Cue Buyer Of What I Like
Silver Member
Mike since I would be one of the guys posting in the "other" areas I really don't see a problem and realize the area I will be in will likely have less overall traffic than the cue area but from an organizational standpoint I think it's great... You can look for what is on your mind... And since you are doing a subsection I would likely go further....

Cues: $499 and under
Cues: $500 to $2499
Cues: $2500 and up
Cues: Jump, Break and Masse

Cases (yes all by itself... If you just bought a cue you know you are going straight in.. They don't belong with the cues and because of price point they don't belong in the accessories)

Tables, Lights and Man Cave Furnishings

Accessories, Balls, Books and DVDs

I think you may actually see more postings if it was done this way... People don't list items if they don't think there will be a decent market since they will be pushed off the front page in a few hours... This way at least they are in a section people will dig thru if they need something now... Like a table light... I have been looking for months but nothing has caused me to go wow and I don't dig thru the for sale looking because I doubt I will find any based on experience.....

Chris
Very Good Points Sir. I can visualize exactly what you're suggesting.

Making it similar to how a Businesses Catalog, Organize and Break absolutely everything they've got FOR SALE into to Sub-Categories an then the User Can Select the final Forum an be EXACTLY WHERE THEY WANTED TO BE.

It is a VASTLY BETTER SYSTEM, Because it increases Efficientsy

And like the previous gentleman Saulyscit will help The Posters stay at the top or near the top longer an that's something you can highlight an use as part of the Sales pitch for becoming a Member on AZ Billiards an then you could also use that again by Highlighting it that each of those
Sub-Forum will be more user friendly by the use of the Systems design by breaking down into more appropriate categories for the Sub-Forums you'll need & want.

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk
 

Poolplaya9

Tellin' it like it is...
Silver Member
Half the people want sub-forums because it takes too much time to scroll through all the threads in a single forum and they also end up having to open tons of threads they have zero interest in just to find out for sure what they were selling. All a huge time waste. The other half of the people do not want sub forums because it is a traffic killer and with a single forum lots of sales end up occurring from people that didn’t know that they wanted that item until they saw it and they might not have seen it if it had been in a different sub-forum. Both groups have very good points and either way you go there is a very serious drawback.

There is a way to make both groups happy with very little drawback though, and that is to keep just the one main for sale forum but list the price first and the brand second in the title of every thread. If you don’t list price first and brand second your thread gets deleted--period. So perusing the for sale forum threads would look something this:

$650 Schon 4 point ebony yada yada yada
$15 Sniper tips or 3 for $40
$1,800 Judd 8 pt amboyna burl with yada yada yada
$75 McDermott E-B5 with two shafts
$375 Justis 2x4 case brown with black accents
$6,800 Ginacue monster with yada yada yada
$160 Viking cue with yada yada yada
$110 various authors group of ten books on billiards
$825 Jerry Olivier cue cocobolo forearm with 6 curly maple points

Now not only do you not have to open a million threads that you have zero interest in just to find out for sure what they are selling, but you don’t even have to read the whole long thread titles in most cases. Just reading the first two words will usually be enough to let you know if you might have an interest because you can effectively weed out 99% of what you would never have any interest in with just the price and brand alone.

Have no interest in production cues? Now they are easy to identify and scroll past. Have no interest in cues over $1,400 due to budget constraints? Now you can skip past all those that are outside of your budget. Looking for a custom case? Now they are easy to spot without having to open a million dead end threads. But the nice thing is that you still get to see everything so people will still have their eye caught by things they didn’t specifically set out to look for. Everybody benefits by doing it this way.
 
Top