# A bst psa. :)

**URL:** <https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/a-bst-psa/295613>\
**Category:** General Yo-Yo\
**Created:** [November 28, 2018, 1:41am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/a-bst-psa/295613 "2018-11-28T01:41:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 15

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**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.yoyoexpert.com/codinghorror/32/8052_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2018, 8:02am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/a-bst-psa/295613/15 "2018-11-28T08:02:42Z")

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Hmm. Consider #Buy / Sell / Trade topic replies like:

- are those dings or scratches?
- any vibe on it?
- can you add a closer / different angle photo?
- 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](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/forums-vs-social-media-reddit/84707/20) (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.

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