Maximum thread rule

[Azure]

Aye Myshkin,

This has been a complaint of mine since the dawn of time. I'd rather have one thread than 500 threads talking about my what have you. But on the other hand, I only have 18 posts in this section I hardly use it, but it does annoy me that when I do use this section, 5 minutes later my post is on page #40

Obviously we all agree that something needs to be done. For instance, in our supplier forum I use one thread for my updates/stock status/etc. I am able to rename the thread to whatever I want, this would truly reduce a lot of the 'spam' and allow more people on the top page. Although, you'll still have people fighting for #1 but what can you do.

Another rule, this may exist and I know a lot of other forums do this. But make it so you can only bump your post once in a 24 hour period. This would resolve a lot of the 'Bump Wars'.

So Easy Fix:
-Suppliers get one thread (but they would have to be able to edit first post and thread title)
-Supplier can only BUMP the thread once in a 24 hour period

Make it happen ;P lol, but those are just my opinions.

1. In order to allow every supplier to be able to edit their thread indefinitely (without expiration), either the forum settings must be changed to eliminate the limitation, or every single supplier must be given moderator status for this section. I honestly don't see either of those things happening, so you'll have to focus on alternative changes.

2. Another purpose of this section is for suppliers to respond to general questions about their products from other members of the forum. So you must understand that this section won't just be filled with supplier promotion threads all the time.

3. The only issue with having a single thread for each supplier is somewhat obvious, every supplier will probably have one. And regardless of a bumping rule or not, if 20 suppliers update their thread after yours, you will get buried.

4. This section has been getting kind of messy, and in all honesty, some of the changes that took place in the classifieds section should happen here as well. Older threads with expired promotions need to be permanently deleted (mass pruned), and threads that have run their course should be closed (and eventually deleted).

But seeing as how this is more of a supplier issue than a regular member issue, I suggest that you decide (as a group or majority) if you would like to institute a formal/stricter set of rules for this section, or keep it to an honor system (with occasional exceptions allowed). Basically, do you want the rules and staff to regulate you, or do you want to regulate yourselves?

5. A lot of the problems that I've seen lately involves suppliers that don't have their own sub-forum spamming this section with promotions, as it is there only real way of communicating their products and company to the rest of the forum (without being banned or warned).

Personally, I feel that the supplier system needs to be updated and overhauled. The staff has discussed the issue previously, and it was stated that a new system would most likely be put in place after the legal issues surrounding the e-cigarette have become more settled.

Note: If you ever wanted to have a thread title changed, or a post edited past expiration, you could PM me a link to your thread and state the changes that you want to be made.

~Azure~

 

[SleepHater]

What if someone with more experience as a supplier, or a group of the more experienced suppliers, generated a poll, with the ideas mentioned so far that do not require a change in forum infrastructure. Like the Post limit/BUMP rule, Threads per week etc. etc.

Then we could get a sample of what suppliers think is workable. Then maybe we could just give a shot an an Honor system following the guideline(s) that received the highest agreement in the poll.

Seems like there are a lot of good ideas, some are pretty similar to each other and could possibly be combined into a single option on the poll. Just a thought.

 

[Oliver]

OK - just to add to what Azure said above...

he's quite correct about the edit function, the way it operates is forum wide, so there is no possibility at the moment of different members having different edit times unless they are moderators.

In terms of the search ("todays posts" etc) - this is quite straightforward to implement. All I need do is add the forum id number either to an include or exclude command, and the posts from that forum are thus controlled in the search. This can be done in any number of combinations, as it already is with the "new info posts" "suppliers posts" etc that we have at the moment.

I also want everybody to know that as soon as a good solution is reached I will definitely accommodate it - but we are limited to some degree by the software.