Small change to [FS] Threads

[Sofistocat]

It's been a topic of discussion that has been voiced in so many different threads, often getting away from the topic and potential sales. I include myself in this pool of those deviating from the sales topics.

I would like to propose a suggestion to mitigate the opinions voiced on the "For Sale" threads. Whether prices should be posted or offers be solicited has become an addage that probably has no place in the "perfect" world. They tend to deviate from the goal of the poster, which is to sell or barter goods.

I propose a small addition to the [FS] bracketing to include something that suggests whether the seller posting the thread has assigned pricing to their items, or is soliciting offers, or both. I don't think there are any other variances aside from these three, but will not conclude these three are the only ones.

In my opinion, something as simple as the following may prevent conflict within the threads, something that happens on the regular. You all know what I'm talking about... Regardless what side your on, we can all benefit from an intervention. Sellers are missing sales and buyers are missing buys when the opinions start being posted.

My idea is to change the bracketing to suggest what will be contained within a sales page.

My thoughts look like the following:

[FS/S] = For Sale / Soliciting

[FS/P] = For Sale / Pricing

[FS/S&P] = For Sale / Soliciting and Pricing. And I thought the Standard and Poor reference came off quite academic.. wink wink
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These are only my thoughts and I can't speak to the coding changes required. My basic knowledge of HTML suggests it may not be too difficult. And in all honesty, I would compensate the time of those involved to facilitate the removal of the bickering, whether it be on the defensive side, or offensive side. If there is a disclaimer before one opens a sales thread stating the intentions of the seller, prospective buyers really can't oppose or support as much as they do, and the purpose of the sales threads can be maintained without conflicting parties making opinionated statements which ultimately can thwart the efforts of the seller and buyer.

I'm definitely stating all of this on the Reginald Denny mentality...

Thank you for the time and consideration

Mike

EDITS: grammatical errors, big thumbs suck...

[Mayhem]

Or maybe just force everyone who wants to sell to put prices in their threads, like a number of other forums I'm on have in the rules. Or is that too much work to enforce here?

[Sofistocat]

Personally, that's how I feel. But I do believe it would be a huge deterrent to some. Each forum is unique and I'm led to believe this forum's market is a free one.

Trying to be as mindful to all parties as possible.

[Powder]

I support this idea. Even though I have been guilty of the whole "Make an offer" thing before (a habit I am trying to break) I admit that listings here of that nature always turn me off. I fear that I will offer too much or too little or that the seller isn't sure of themselves.

[MiamiTurtles3434]

I'm on board and support that fact that if a item is being sold it should have a price.

[Peter Palmer]

I'm on board with this idea. I also feel that items for sale should have a selling price associated with them, but this suggestion allows those that wish to only solicit offers from prospective buyers to do just that. It saves me from wasting time on such threads without even opening them.

This is a nice idea that I think would work out for everyone. :tsmile:

[Krang]

Good idea! I would prefer to leave [FS] as it is, but a new prefix for soliciting would be fine with me. Should we still call it [FS/S]? Or maybe [MO] for "Make Offer"?

[Powder]

[MO] seems pretty clear cut, I dig that!

[papa_smurf73]

I see this quite frequently in other forums:

FS = For Sale (Prices must be set, and in this case are not negotiable.)
FO = For Offer (Prices are not set, taking offers from dromers.)
FT = For Trade (For trade only)

These rules could be bent by combining the options above. We could see combinations like:

[FS/FT] = For Sale or For Trade (Prices are set, but willing to trade)
[FS/FO] = For Sale or For offer (Prices are set, but they are negotiable)
[FS/FO/FT]...

I think you get the point. Lots of combinations, but they follow the same initial rules. If we were to go this route, we could better define the combinations.

I don't care either way. Just making a suggestion. I'm a fan of folks setting a price on their sales rather than asking us to offer something. It's a quick level set when prices are available. This just helps to govern for sale threads I suppose.

[Sofistocat]

Good idea! I would prefer to leave [FS] as it is, but a new prefix for soliciting would be fine with me. Should we still call it [FS/S]? Or maybe [MO] for "Make Offer"?

Though I didn't want to detract from the [FS] that generally corresponds with a sales page, I am always one to try and simplify things. [MO] is just as acceptable in my book. Ultimately, I figured whatever would be easiest for the coding aspect would be the way to go... I know it's a PITA sometimes with the smallest work-arounds. Bottom line was attempting the smallest change possible to eliminate the large amount of in-thread opinions that we have all been guilty of... At least if there is some form of disclaimer before opening a post, members may not have such a biased opinion. It was their choice to enter and they would be entering with more insight. Holds them to the choice to walk through the door a bit more IMHO. Though, there are still going to be consumers who walk into the store and have outspoken opinions....

Whatever you think is best for the community. Thanks for the consideration!

mike

[Krang]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I added the [MO] prefix.