New Classified feature

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For me, this has greatly reduced any opportunity I have to offer equipment for sale to this community. With postage from Oz to overseas destinations, it would always be difficult for me to offer items for sale to the RFF international community, but I would always offer any RF gear here first, just in case. With up-front fees I'll have to be pretty sure I'm going to sell, and with a reasonable margin, before I can offer for sale here. As another member mentioned, this will be the end of posts offering low-value and free items.
 
Nice idea, but the bidding system is very similar to Ebay. With the problem of ending auction times as well. If there are items wanted badly but the auction has to close, it will be impossible for me in Europe to get an item from e.g. USA or Canada because someone probably will bid a dollar over.
But, the biggest problem is small-value items. Offerting a lenscap for - let's say - US$10 becomes relatively very expensive for the seller. For more expensive items the $2,50 fee is no problem ofcourse.
Therefore this means more moderating work guarding other non-classifieds ads offferting small items.
Maybe $2,50 fee for items over $20?
 
Wow... totally opposed to this! I've been a lurker on most of RFF for a while now, and have bought and sold several Items here... I was just getting to the point where I could donate money to RFF, and would willingly do so... but having to pay??? I might as well put it on ebay!!!! one of the great things about this place was that it is free... meaning that, deals can be passed on to other RFFers.

What about those of us who want to place WTB ads? do we have to pay as well???

I sell things on Forums when I feel that I have somewhat of a deal to offer, not if I want money out of it... and at times I give things away too... this just isnt right... not right at all... If I wanted to pay fees I would join a country club.

Paying doesnt have the same effect as donations do... not at all.
 
Ken Ford said:
Jorge, IMO this is the wrong way to execute a good idea. If the $2.50 is per item, I think you're going to see a big drop in postings, particularly in lower value accessory items.

If you want to restrict posting items for sale to people that contribute financially (which I agree with), I suggest you simply provide for a new membership class. Only people of this new membership class would be able to post new ads; everybody would be able to read and reply to ads once started. If anyone wants to see how this could work, visit Talkbass.com - it's been this way for awhile and it works well.

If the $2.50 buys unlimited access to the Classifieds for a period of time, that would work (again IMO). However, I would turn off the auction feature - do we really want or need to be bidding against each other? I foresee trouble and hard feelings with auctions.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. I think this is the wrong way to go. What else is coming, Jorge?


.
 
Ok. there is no fee right now until I figure something out. I see what you mean by selling a 10.00 item. hmm. let me think about the way this will get implemented.
 
I need to think of a fee schedule. for now it's free. Let me sleep on this a few nights. Maybe it could be offered as part of the premium deal going on for the gallery. You know an additional bonus that you get when you upgrade with the previously offered gallery deal.

hmmm ...
 
Thanks for the chance to contribute on this , Jorge. One of the things I think we all like in the old system is the chance to interact and lend support by "bumping" the post. Can we keep something like that?
 
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You can comment on items just like the gallery and it will show up as most recent comments.
 
Jorge Torralba said:
I need to think of a fee schedule. for now it's free. Let me sleep on this a few nights. Maybe it could be offered as part of the premium deal going on for the gallery. You know an additional bonus that you get when you upgrade with the previously offered gallery deal.

hmmm ...
Click to expand...

Here's a thought:
Why dont you unlock the normal classifieds forum (the one that is actually efficient, and has proved to work...) until you can figure out what is going on with the new classifieds.

after all, this weapons of mass destruction we are talking about, here, George... er,uhm... Jorge...
 
I guess I am having a hard time understanding why the $2.50 fee has to be slapped on every transaction, to echo others yet again. I realize running a site such as this is not mean feat, and takes money. But isn't there a better way? Why not a yearly fee for using the classifieds? Or a smaller fee for each transaction? I think that many people here feel that contributing to RFF is good, but are unwilling to be forced into it. If there could be some way to make it easy and painless to contribute, without making RFF feel exclusive, that would be the way to go.

Drew
 
All of this and the Premium gallery membership is just skirting around the real problem. To run a site supporting just short of 5,000 members costs money. A $10 subscription from all members would raise $50,000 a year, which I imagine would enable the site to support the membership in the manner we have become accustomed - 24 x 7 access 365 days a year at reasonable speed. We don't have to stop visitors to the site, just don't let them post. We can then leave everything just as it was - no premium gallery, no classified fees. $10 per annum is peanuts compared to the value I get out of the site - I donated last year and have subscribed to the premium gallery because I value the site. If you value the site then $10 really is a small price to pay for what you get back IMHO.

Best regards
 
Jorge,

I've never seen setting a fee on a previously free service work. Not even when it's a rational value proposition where both parties would benefit..

I'd focus on additional services..

For instance, sell some advertising space on the RFF banner.

You could ask a fee for a sticky add. No need to bump. Always on top.

These do not take away the existing means to do a FS whether cheap or expensive. They add something if you want to draw attention to your items. And most important, they won't go at the expense of the traffic that you need to make such paid services work..
 
a $10+ DONATION a year to become a 'sponser' member seems much more logical, and $50,000 is MUCH more than a site like this would need... not to mention the fact that there are already so many sponsors on the site... who does all this money go to? even if only 1/5 of the members decided to donate $10 a year, $10,000 would be more than enough to support the site IMO. the classified ads saves many of us RFFers lots of money over the alternative, and Im sure we wouldnt mind (even us broke college students) chipping in a couple of bucks. but dont make it manditory... thats just asking people to leave...
 
pvdhaar said:
Jorge,

I've never seen setting a fee on a previously free service work. Not even when it's a rational value proposition where both parties would benefit..

I'd focus on additional services..

For instance, sell some advertising space on the RFF banner.

You could ask a fee for a sticky add. No need to bump. Always on top.
Click to expand...

Personally, I don't see what the issue is with subscription. In an ideal world Jorge would get more sponsors, get people to buy ad space etc, etc. However, in a recent thread Jorge pointed out that he has a day job, so I think it is a bit much to expect someone to work for a living and then spend their free time finding ways of keeping this site available to the rest of us for free. This also assumes that Jorge has the skills (Sales & Marketing) to develop external funding of the site.

How many of you guys subscribe to magazines? I get more out of this site in terms of free advice and classifieds than any of the magazines that I subscribe to. Nobody says that they should get magazines for free. I subscribe to Sean Reid's review site. Its $25 per annum and I believe excellent value, but a relatively minor resource compared to this site.

I really don't know what the problem is 😕
 
NL2377 said:
a $10+ DONATION a year to become a 'sponser' member seems much more logical, and $50,000 is MUCH more than a site like this would need... not to mention the fact that there are already so many sponsors on the site... who does all this money go to? even if only 1/5 of the members decided to donate $10 a year, $10,000 would be more than enough to support the site IMO. the classified ads saves many of us RFFers lots of money over the alternative, and Im sure we wouldnt mind (even us broke college students) chipping in a couple of bucks. but dont make it manditory... thats just asking people to leave...
Click to expand...

Why are people going to leave because we ask for a small subscription?

The problem with donations is that it is the same old people who donate and that really isn't fair. 🙁
 
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