Please refrain from posting in other people’s BST threads. If you have a legitimate question about the BST it’s preferred that you ask through a direct message. Posting in the thread bumps the thread which is unfair to the rest of the people using the BST adhering to the one bump/day rule.
I am not sure I agree with this rule. A lot of the stuff posted as replies are questions and clarification about the yo-yos that are for sale or trade in the topic, and having that information in the public topic benefits everyone.
But if the reply is an offer (which should be a PM) or otherwise totally random conversation not related to the yo-yos for sale, sure, I definitely agree with that.
It is fair, I think the rule is a bit more nuanced than “refrain from posting” … because legit discussion about the specifics of what is for sale in the topic is quite helpful, in the same way that amazon reviews add meaningful information to the product page for any item that is on sale.
But yeah stuff about individual offers and so on should be in PMs.
Well saying that you think the yoyos in the thread are awesome is staying on topic. In my experience it’s best to just keep the posts down to bumps by the OP. If there is a problem with a post, like the yoyo pictured isn’t the yoyo for sale… or the yoyo pictured and listed for sale has known counterfeit copies in the wild… those kinds of things are helpful to all I agree. But short of that best to send a direct message.
It’s really just to keep the BST fair to all using it.
I’m sorry, but I strongly disagree with this statement. I don’t think it helps people trade and sell yo-yos when questions about the yo-yos for sale that could be useful to many people, are forced through private channels.
Now if it’s a specific trade offer / haggling, or posting your address, yeah definitely.
I also disagree that this is an actual problem. People who are looking for yo-yo stuff aren’t going to stop at the first 3 highest up topics in Buy / Sell / Trade, they’re going to scan the top 20-40.
I can agree that a lot of rando conversation in the BST topic should be discouraged but… again… does this really happen that much? Does it really go on for a period of days such that it’s so super unfair compared to a daily bump post?
I’m here every day, have participated in probably 50+ BST transactions here, and at no point was I like “dang, that one BST topic with all the replies is constantly nagging me.” Probably best to just prune those specific topics and post a mod note in the specific topics where it happens? Heck if anything the boring daily bump posts are more irritating to me than actual questions about the BST topic…
Yes, it does. There are examples all over the BST board.
I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here. I’ve been on yoyo BSTs here and on YYN when it was an active thing since around 2008/2009. I’ve watched the evolution of bump as often as you want, once every 12 hours, once a day (seems like there was something else as well). The rule was made because it was a problem. You’re just going to have to take my word for it because I’d rather not change it to bump as often as you like so you can see that it is.
There’s really nothing to debate here. It’s worked perfectly fine for years and years. Again if something is pertinent and should be know by all members feel free to post it. But most things just don’t fall into that category.
hey, that’s a really great / rare / interesting yo-yo!
would you consider deals for bundles?
is this still for sale?
when you say you are looking for {x} did you mean {y}?
does it comes with extras?
These replies all seem helpful and useful to anyone that was interested enough to visit the Buy / Sell / Trade topic in the first place. They’re also natural, in that these are organically occuring conversational questions people would have about the thing that’s for sale (or trade).
Restricting it to the literal rule of
Please refrain from posting in other people’s BST threads. If you have a legitimate question about the BST it’s preferred that you ask through a direct message.
would …
make the forum look dead(er), as a certain percentage of natural conversational marketplace messages have been arbitrarily forced underground, from public to private. Considering this forum was literally on death’s door (no seriously, I ain’t kidding, look at those dire stats), I’d… strongly advise against it for this reason alone. We need to look like a place that is alive to attract a community, and conversation is the lifeblood of forums.
remove useful public information from the topic about the condition, status, and background of what’s for sale or trade – that every prospective buyer/trader would find helpful.
attack a problem that, from my perspective as a person who reads everything here every day for the last 4 months, largely doesn’t exist, or if it does, it’s very much the exception to the rule.
To be clear, I definitely agree that
excessive “random” conversation in Buy / Sell / Trade that isn’t strictly about what’s for sale or trade should be discouraged, but I personally feel this can be handled on an as-needed basis by posting in the topic and cleaning up versus setting up an overly broad rule that would have a chilling effect on the whole category.
anything involving haggling, specific cash or trade offers, and absolutely mailing address info MUST be sent privately
I’m guessing this kind of rule made more sense when there was a lot more traffic here, and maybe a bigger audience of younger kids that had trouble following rules and wanted to treat the forum like a chat site?
This is something I do feel strongly about for the above reasons. And also because as an avid user of the category, it’d make Buy / Sell / Trade less useful, less effective, and less interesting.
I’ve referenced other forums that I frequent and they’ve all gone to a format that when you comment in a BST thread that post is not bumped. You have to use the “Up Thread” button to actually bump the thread, and then it doesn’t allow another bump for 24 hours. That allows legitimate discussion to take place, sometimes it is necessary in the thread I feel.
That actually sounds really logical to me. So basically, all of the other categories will bump a thread to the top of the main page if it’s commented in, except for comments on posts in the BST?
All of those questions can be easily asked in a PM. I agree totally w/vegabomb that the discussions should be in a PM rather than bumping the post continually. As we limit the OP to a single bump a day out of fairness, a discussion within the post defeats that rule.
Ehhhh…I think it is fine to ask legit questions on the thread.
I mean, I agree that the conversation bumping threads could be viewed as violating the spirit of the “bump” rule. But to be honest, I don’t see it as a problem. I’m active on a couple different forums for various hobbies I have and most have similar “don’t be a jerk about bumping” rules without a “no questions on the thread” rule. And it just isn’t an issue. People sell things, everyone gets plenty of visibility, people bump the next day or two if they get pushed down too far, it works fine.
I will say that having some amount of communication happening between buyers and sellers does give a B/S/T forum a sense of legitimacy and less of a “craigslist” feel. I think that can be important. Dead forums where people just post things for sale aren’t particularly trustworthy from an outsider’s perspective.
Just my two cents. I don’t feel super strongly about it one way or the other.