New Rules for Market Square and Lost Property

[tasadam]

Please see the pink bit at the top of the Market Square forum. The rules of this forum have changed, largely to assist people in finding items they are looking for (one item per topic) and also to keep topics active.
Thank you.

EDIT I should add that while we are not going to go splitting or renaming existing topics, the rules become retrospective, meaning that any "for sale" posts not updated by the original poster 3 months from now will be deemed expired topics.

As explained in the rules, anyone wanting to keep their for sale topic open should reply to it within 3 months, so long as it adheres to the new rules.
Nothing to stop people relisting their item in a new topic should that be preferred. And if help is needed, feel free to ask.

[icefest]

I like it. I hope the brackets catch on.

[Joomy]

Would it be easier if we could edit our old posts in the market square?

[cams]

Don't get why there is only one item per post. This just means people's fs threads get pushed down the page more quickly and people need to bump more.

[GPSGuided]

I think it makes sense from a buyer's convenience perspective. The extra work may be for those who wish to package their items for a discounted price. More links and texts on their part. Good move.

[tasadam]

Don't get why there is only one item per post. This just means people's fs threads get pushed down the page more quickly and people need to bump more.

How high peoples for sale posts remain on the list is entirely dependent on how often they want to come by and post "item still available" or something like that.

Any for sale / wanted topics that have had no reply from the OP in 3 months are manually moved by moderators to the sub forum "Sold Claimed Closed and Expired".
The Market Square forum has now been cleaned up of old posts and any topics that are older have been moved. If they are still available, the people are selling them are welcome to relist their items within the scope of the new rules. If they want the old topics accessible / editable they are welcome to ask.
The purpose of one item per post is so that the title can say something descriptive, like "Tent" or "Boots size 42" or whatever, this lets people peruse the Market Square and only visit topics that interest them, instead of having to open topics titled "Garage sale", "Too much stuff" or "Lots of items for sale" just to find out what is available.
I also noticed that some of the posts with multiple items for sale were getting messy when some items are sold and others weren't, it wasn't entirely easy to determine what was still available.
This is all solved with one item per post.

If someone wants to offer shipping bundles for multiple items, they are welcome to mention that and state "check out my other items for sale in their topics if you want to bundle the freight" or something like that. You could also edit your topics with links to the other items (linking their topic) if you wanted to go to that much trouble.

We want to make it as easy as possible to -
* Allow people to find what they are looking for
* Keep topics current
* Identify expired or sold topics easily so they can be moved to the sub forum.

We hope we have achieved that with the current set of rules for Market Square.
Suggestions are always welcome.

[MickyB]

Just a reminder to all members about the rules for Market Square and Lost Property

When your topic is resolved / no longer needed, you are required to:
(a) post, to indicate that the item is sold - preferably by editing the title of the topic (edit the first post) and put a [SOLD] in front of the title;
(b) lock your topic using the popup menu and button at the bottom right of the topic page. You cannot lock other people's topics, and only moderators can unlock topics.
If you need help with the above, you may report your own post asking for assistance.

Once a topic is locked a moderator can then move it to Sold Claimed Closed and Expired. This makes it easier for members to browse the topics looking for something they might like without having to skim over old topics that contain items that are no longer available for sale.