Keeping It Clean

[eovnu87435ds]

These are just a suggestion of things that I have seen at other trading posts, things that help keep this place easy for customers to find what they want, and easier for sellers to sell what they want.

1. Titling your post:

In order for a customer to find what they're looking for quickly and easily, they should be able to tell from the title if you are looking to buy or have an item to sell/trade, and exactly what it is, before clicking on your post for details. A page that says "eovnu87435ds's sale page" doesn't help a user, but one that says nVidia GeForce 9400 does. If your post includes multiple items, try to make it as descriptive as possible. Also, in the beginning of your title, use one of the abbreviations, which will tell people what kind of offer your post consists of.

WTB- Wanted to buy

FS- For sale

FT- For trade only

FS/FT- for sale/trade

WTT- wanted to trade

So here would be some examples:

WTB: Intel processor, LGA 1156 socket

FS: nVidia GeForce 9400

WTT: [desired item] for [your item]

FT: [your item] for [desired item]

2. Creating your ad

Golden Rule of Selling: Good Grammar. If grammar is not your friend, bullet points. Threads that sound like "Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like" will NOT be successful

when creating your ad, be sure to include information about the item, such as age, condition, warranty validity, etc. Do not copy/paste the product description off of another website, as potential buyers should know what they're looking at already if they are thinking of buying it. Be sure to include pictures at the bottom of your post, and keep them 800x600 or smaller, or as attachments, so that it doesn't break page width.

Pricing can be listed, or you can ask for an offer. If you are brave, you can also choose to post your phone number and email. If you are smart, you would have your forum options set up so that you receive email notification of new PM's

3. Posting in a thread

For those who are familiar with forums, you notice that when a thread gets a new reply, it moves to the top of the board. This can lead to a whole world of annoyance, as some people will post nonsense in their own threads every 5 minutes to put them to the top. This method is called bumping.

To stop spamming of useless posts, but to allow old posts to fall to the end of the list, each thread is allowed 1 bump per 24 hour period.

Also, please do not post in another person't thread for the sole purpose of bumping.

Posting replies should be for questions and answers about the listed item. Please do not post YGPM or you got a PM. the forum will already notify the user for you.

4. The offer/sale

All offers should be made via PM only. This way, the only replies in the thread are helpful to the customer, except for the daily bump.

OWNERS: for the convenience of the listing, if you are in a negotiation with someone, edit your listing, and on the very first line, print in bold in negotiation with [user]

if the deal falls through for some reason or another, you can delete that line.

5. sold!

Once your item is sold, please edit your listing, delete all the text, and just put SOLD in the post. This way a user doesn't have to read through to the end of a page of replies to see if the item is sold or not.

If you have multiple items, just put at the top of the post which item(s) are sold.

If you posted a WTB post, and you got your offer, delete everything in your post and type OFFER CLOSED

These simple guidelines will help keep the trading post clean and friendly!

[Zimmer]

Nice these seem like good suggestions :)

[Infiltrator]

@eovnu87435ds, very well done, this should provide a trader with some guidelines to delivering the goods in a professional manner.