In an effort to cut down on unnecessary clutter and necroposting in the BST section, the staff has decided to create a new BST forum called the "BST Archive." This section will be, just that, an archive of old BST threads in which items have already been sold. These threads don't need to be posted in, and are only kept for people to have the ability to go back and research prices, information, etc. With the new system, necroposting will be eliminated, as posting will not be permitted in the section. It will be strictly for researching information and will be available to all members to search through freely. Most importantly, this will allow members to search the active BST section for a specific item, without being sent to a bunch of old threads where the item is no longer available. It will be much easier to find what you are looking for, and this will also help sellers that are having their threads overlooked due to cluttered search results. To be perfectly clear here, no threads will be deleted. They will all remain intact and visible to all members, only in a new section.

This new section will be called "BST Archive" and will be located directly under the current "Airsoft Items For Sale" section. This new section will be added Tuesday 3/24/09, at roughly 10pm Pacific, 1am Eastern. The BST section will be disabled during this switch, however it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes or so to be back up and running again. I will do my best to speed things along.

In addition to this, we will move threads to the archive once the item(s) have been sold, the thread has been closed, or no bump/update has been posted to the thread in 3 weeks (21 days). This will ensure that no threads are left abandoned in the for sale section. If you come back and find that your thread has been moved to the archive due to inactivity, simply contact a Moderator and we will move it back for you. If you plan to be gone for an extended amount of time, please simply leave a reply in your thread, letting us and everyone viewing your thread know that you will be gone. Doing this will ensure your thread stays in the active for sale section during your absence. Please note that the 3 week limit will be a trial run, and is not set in stone. We may change this at a later time if we see fit, though we will give plenty of notice should that happen.

What this change means for you guys is that we will need you to recreate your current sales threads by reposting them once the new section has been made. The staff feels that rather than trying to decide which of the current sales threads are still active, we should let you guys show us which are. Simply put, if you are trying to sell something, repost your thread with current information and status (ie, SPF if applicable). This can be done very easily via copy/paste, and shouldn't take more than a minute or two. The reasoning for this is that there are many, many for sale threads that have been abandoned, meaning the seller never sold the item, but also never came back to update the thread. If we moved these threads into the fresh for sale section, we would ultimately be cluttering it up again. This way, we can be sure that the only threads being added to the for sale section are ones that are currently active and updated. This will truely be a fresh start.

sweet deal, no more dead threads yay*

excellent idea Mods and Admin.!!!

I do like that idea. Glad you guys are doing this.

This is a great idea!

Only thing I would do differently (if it were me) is I'd limit the threads to one week of inactivity before being archived. In my experience, people that really want to sell their stuff maintain their threads almost daily, so three weeks of inactivity is a LONG time.

THANK YOU! This is one of the best decisions made for the BST section. The next best thing would be to have a search function that can search for three letter words such as G36 or Mp7.

Thanks for the input guys! Much appreciated.


I tend to agree with you, 3 weeks is kind of a long time.. but we wanted to start with a bigger limit, and move down as necessary. This way we can get a "feeler" idea of where the perfect time limit seems to be and stick with it. Thanks for the suggestion!



lol, in time young grasshopper, in time. Hopefully once this BST section is all said and done with, we can look into the search function itself and come up with some ideas to make it better.

Love it! great idea!
One question, can posters ask to have their threads moved to this archive? For instance, I have 2 old WTS threads that are too cluttered to save. Am I allowed to report my thread or message a moderator so they can close & move them? Then I can remake my thread with new code (pending permission) in the active WTS forum?



I also, would love to see a 3-letter search function in the near future, but I'm sure you know this by now, lol.

Thanks for trying to implement new ideas! I love it and would love to see any new ideas the admins/mods make up!

Well if the thread is cluttered, like with bumps etc, you can ask a Moderator to clean it for you. We will simply delete the bump replies and keep things organized. If your item has sold, or been taken off the market etc, but you have a new item to sell, please PM a Moderator to move the old thread, then you can make a new one. The idea here is that we are trying to preserve old for sale threads so that people can compare selling prices etc, thus we would rather move the old thread than delete all the old information to sell soemthing new.

Either way, please try to PM a few active Moderators before reporting the thread for move/cleanup. If you cannot get ahold of any Moderators via the PM system, you can report the thread.

I will be doing my best to monitor BST section a little more. Please be advised :P

ive been added to the b/s/t section beware!

Now I get to pick on you!!! JK.

It is a very cool idea and I like it.

This post has been edited by mattdk: Mar 19 2009, 02:12 PM

Perfect. Probably the best solution anyone could have come up with.

Hehe the staff are also fairly ingenious...

Hey I wonder who came up with the idea..........

I take it they're making the switch now? Everything is locked up...

Yes sorry, I will not be available tonight, so I'm making the switch now. It should be up and running very soon.

Edit: For Sale section is now active!

I told you guys this would go over well.


Be advised. I too will frequently be visiting the BST section.

I am going to be VERY NON TOLERANT, of rule violations in the BST Section. Due to the amount of people and threads active in the BST section.

The rules are easily found in the BST section in the pinned topics listings. "Ignorance of rules" will not be an excuse for infractions.
WARNINGS from me will be few, and far between.



Threads without prices posted, will be closed.

People Flaming, Baiting. and Thread crapping on sellers or their items (*unless seller/trader has been identified as a scammer) will have their posts removed, and be given a posting suspension for 24 hours.



In other words... Play nice, and don't make me get involved.

This post has been edited by OpSic66: Mar 25 2009, 12:17 AM

ok, GREAT Idea!!!

BUT!!

what is the cut-off on dead Threads?

2 days?

I think it should be at least 4 to 5 days. Give the thread time for exposure.

Heck, I was gone on a business trip, and come back to see my thread, which is barely 5 days old, in the Archive.

I came back to update the price and give it a good ole bump....

Doc, I moved your old post back. The time is set at 21 days.

There was also an announcement sent saying that ALL posts will be moved into the Archive. It was just easier, and quicker for the admin/mod team to do it this way.

How do I get my For Sale thread back into the active area? I last bumped it on 3/21 and its already in the archive.

All threads were moved into the archive. Please remake your thread.

Great.

Hey guys, theres any easier way to get your thread back without re-making it.
I made a video, here's how:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFCuom0LEKY

I'm sure you guys just didn't think of that at first.





Mods, I PMd this to DM Hackle asking him to post it wherever he thought it needed to be posted, but I figured I'd just post it here for now.

Hope it helps!

-Chip

Awesome, thanks for the video!

Edit: I went ahead and mentioned your video in the 4 pinned topics in each of the sections (FS, Wanted, both archive sections).


Lol, yea but a video speaks.. well I don't know how many exactly, must be at least 11,853 words. Its definately a lot though. More than a picture speaks.

Glad I could help

Thank you. I guess at least you understand where I would be coming from, when I could honestly say that I am aggravated, when people demand for us to move their mess of a thread back.

Posting a new one, and "quoting" your old original post, into the new one, is obviously super easy, and quick to do.

Thanks for posting a video, showing others how to do it.