WTS: Jacks for Lancair 235/320/360, Legacy, or IV

[Erno Ovari]

Yes. It is posty.

[John Cooper]

No. (Just kidding)

[Steve Cantarutti]

This is Test Post.
Does it work?

Nope, nothing to see here.

[Steve Cantarutti]

This is Test Post.
Does it work?

Nope, nothing to see here.

[Bob Mackey]

Well, it turns out that editing a post in these Classifieds makes the post invisible until the Admin approves it again.


That's really not convenient when the contributor just want to add a photo or correct a typo.

[Bob Mackey]

Editing a post appears to remove it.
Hmmph.

[admin]

Bob, why do you think this is a spam issue? What makes you an expert at telling people this reorg of the classifieds is for monetization? How about so that we don't end up with 500 old posts and nobody actually selling or putting prices or clearing out the deadwood? You aren't paying me enough to insult my objectives here of supporting the parts and availability. If you want to sell on FB then go do it and stop acting like a petulant and inconsiderate jerk.

[admin]

Here are real reasons behind this mess up of approvals and reorganization of classifieds:

1) The primary problem is that we are using 20 year-old software that works and continues to deliver the basics. It has some features like post approvals that were an attempt to try and ensure standards were met with classifieds and that each party would list pricing and then get notified at the end of the listing period. That might be 30 days or permanent for things like brakes or jacks or other items manufactured by the group.

2) The software does not notify admin when a post is made that needs approval. Yikes, I will work on changing the code to do that. I thought it would allow better classifieds but it obviously delayed some posts.

3) The goal is to have an automatic listing by owners. Then they get notified that expiry is imminent automatically and decide to continue or let it be delisted. They can re-list or the listing is dropped. That way, the list stays clean and current. VAF works almost in that manner but it has an army of moderators that seek donations, fees, enforce advertising rules and it has a ton of scams. We don't have that or the costs or revenue base to hire mods like that. Bob posts and sells on FB which is great but FB gets billions in advertising. LancairTalk doesn't allow advertising.

4) Resources are spread between moving to the new site software and working this site. Both require custom Lancair code to suit our group's unique situation. At the same time we have people who need to sell, some who want to buy, people wanting to make things to sell, lots of scammers trying to get into the site daily and it does take time to deliver a product that is mostly safe and secure and Lancair-specific. The main goal for me is to keep things running recognizing the technology is again changing. Email delivery is now problematic so we need a better solution. Uvalde and captain highliner are completely dead in the water so we need to focus on our own parts and ingenuity (like jacks and other stuff) more than ever. There is nobody to do this work except for a few people and everyone is busy. Some are even pissy at times, me included.

5) The bottom line is that we need to to stay positive and helpful with ideas and suggestions and parts and cooperating strategies. If it doesn't work, find out why and suggest alternatives or fixes. Anyone who uses this site for free and then complains that they are losing opportunities needs to calm down and work on the real issues of expanding the mission of reaching more Lancair people in a positive and productive way.

Give me some specifications to work with on coding the system for people to list parts and I can do that. Otherwise, it is best efforts, trial and error and "when I have time". Nobody should be bitching here. Go send that noise to those who let us all down over the last ten years. We'll get things fixed but don't shoot at the wrong target.

[admin]

I have a solution to get this Classified for parts done. My focus is trying to maintain housekeeping, allow things to be sold, have a fair share for the work and resources to connect to owners and be able to buy parts and pay bills. There are a lot of tasks still to be done here. Bob wants to sell stuff and help the community without a lot of hassles to get his pieces out to owners. Here is how we can solve this upgrade issue which is long overdue:

Bob, you define how this classified area for parts for sale should work. Sketch out the requirements. Who can post, if there are any restrictions or requirements (price, duration of ad, categories) and I'll code it within a few days. If you think it should be free or have a price or percentage or some other compensation then specify that and that becomes your design. Airplanes for sale are different and don't apply here. Address how long the ads stay, what notices if any should be given and when and what indicate if replies to posts are wanted and if newcomers are able to post stuff. Do you want a separate area for one-shot sales versus parts that are continuously for sale? If Bob designs that structure, I can put it into action fairly quickly, like 3-4 days.

Go ahead and post the outline here, take comments if you wish and then let's get it working and try it out.

[Bob Mackey]

Here are real reasons behind this mess up of approvals and reorganization of classifieds:

Thanks, Admin. Lots of great suggestions there. I will try to help as you suggested by laying out a specification of how the Classifieds section could work. I'm not an expert on coding dynamic websites, but I am somewhat of an expert on user interface design. I'll see what I can do.