I visit daily (at least) and click the 'new posts' link on top nav to see what's going on. I find it irritating that 75% of those posts are the vendors bumping their threads (aka Ads) to the top each day. Pretty sure that's considered spam on some sites.

Is there any way to exclude the vendor marketplace from the 'new posts' feed unless there's something significant going on? This way, "new posts" only displays legitimate, community-driven content

Just my .02.

 

Realize the vendors invest a lot of time into the community and we are the ones who benefit from it. They offer better pricing to us members and I have personally found some items/deals that didn't even know existed by them bumping those threads.

If any member can bump their own for sale thread every day why shouldn't a paying sponsor of the site be allowed?

 

No, there's not. Vendors pay the bills to make this site possible. Ignore them if you like, but they aren't ever going away on a free site. No paid advertising would require the forum to exist solely on paid membership subscriptions by everyone. And it probably wouldn't be cheap. There would be far fewer member providing worthwhile "legitimate content" if everyone were required to pay because the vast majority of members are free members. "Community driven content" don't pay the rent. Spam is contributions from freeloaders who aren't paying good money to advertise. Think of them as commercials that make the program possible. Content without advertising is subscription based.

Feel free to pass them by or ignore them, it should be really easy as they are green and stand out.

 

That's fair and makes things a bit clearer - thanks for your responses.

Just thought I'd ask as I'm a new member and I noticed its a bit different than the other free auto forums I've been a member of (e46f and m3f).

 

I fully understand where you're coming from. I don't like to click new posts and see 2 pages of a vendor bumping all of their threads either, but that's a right that that they've paid for so I deal with it. On one hand I really wish the forum was a paid subscribers only format, but that's not up to me. But then if it were that way, the majority of our members would not be here and so there wouldn't be nearly as much good content because of much of the good content is posted by free members who opt not to pay to use the forum.

I'd suggest just making peace with it as one of those things that just has to be the way it is in order to sustain the best G37 forum on the web. If you can come up with a better solution that won't discourage sponsoring vendors from advertising here, I'm open to it.

 

This may be a stretch, but is there a possibility of having 2 new post sections - similar to how the FS threads are handled? Another option could be accomplished with a filter. You could click "new posts" and everything populates (vendors still get included). Then there could be filters where you can select which subforum you want to see "new posts" from. I can see both sides (vendor wants ad space, user wants functionality), but this seems like a fair compromise.

 

I'm not following you on the bolded question. Please explain.

If there is a filter or some other workaround to eliminate vendor threads being populated when clicking the New Posts link, it kind of partially defeats the purpose and effectiveness of the advertising, doesn't it? Would you pay to advertise in a medium that allowed users of your paid content to be skipped?

I am just a moderator, I don't have the juice to change that even if I wanted to. My responses are what I reasonably imagine the administrators who oversee the site will say, and from my viewpoint of having formerly been a supporting vendor for several years. However I will forward the issue to those in decision making capacities to take a look at.

 

Good thinking/compromise. It led me to realize there's an 'advanced search' functionality built in to this forum which will allow you to 'filter' results, and also generate a compromise/filter URL, as Ryne proposed.

It probably won't get added to top nav though, bc as BB noted it's unfair to bypass ads of paying vendors.

 

I was talking about how there is a "vendor marketplace", and then a "private classified" section. They both serve the same purpose, to sell items. I could not imagine how congested and not user friendly the FS threads would be if they were combined; well I guess it would look something like the "new post" section.

I don't think vendors would run away if there was a filter added, but like you said it's not even your call, I was just adding to the conversation. I think of it like DVR skipping through the commercials; if your willing to go through the extra work, you get a reward. If the "new post" section isn't user friendly, people won't use it, thus decreasing ad traffic anyways.

 

My business sense tells me this may an idea that the appropriate people would be interested in adding as a feature for PAID members. Even if it encourages a couple people to buy Premium subscriptions it seems like it would be worth it.

 

Now you're on to something. Give something to get something. However like I said before I'm not even sure if it can be done. But if it can, it makes perfect sense to offer this "perk" to the paying customers rather than everyone. Just like paying Pandora customers don't have to listen through commercials but free customers do.

 

I did some tinkering and I've got a bookmark now which seems to auto-filter consistently. I'm definitely available to help out your devs for the betterment of the community, just have em message me!

 

A bit on topic and a bit off topic, but one of my favorite features on many of the other forums I frequent is a "My Replies" button. I get to see the threads I've contributed to and therefore not miss 'conversations' I become a part of.

Beyond that, I also have the option of clicking "New Posts" and seeing what new discussions I can join.

 

Go to your Profile by clicking your name (top right corner in blue). Click the "Statistics" tab. Click "Find all posts by (your name here). This will populate all the threads you have posted in.