# For sale : but actually SOLD



## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

I see enough people on here ask which is a decent 2nd hand grinder \ machine and sometimes I like to link to an advert for the aforementioned machine that is for sale in the for sale section.

There are lots of machines that are sold but not marked as sold.

This is not a dig at the mods or even the people that have sold the goods, in most cases the OP has mentioned it is now sold in the last post or edited their 1st post.

But its a nuisance when you have to look for a, lets say eureka mignon and open 2 for sales to find they are both sold, which in turn drives the machines that are actually for sale back a few pages.

Is there something that can be done about this ?

I dont mind posting on these threads to notify they need closing or moving to the sold part, but am not sure that would be welcome.

I think its a bit of a mess and needs cleaning up on a regular basis


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## froggystyle (Oct 30, 2013)

Be a mod?


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

Its just an observation thats been bothering me for a while now.

The for sale section seems to be popular and needs addressing IMO.

I didnt put my name down to be a mod when the positions were open. Didnt feel I had enough knowledge of coffee and all things coffee related.

But if I was a mod id tidy the for sale section up and police it ruthlessly


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Jumbo Ratty said:


> But if I was a mod id tidy the for sale section up and police it ruthlessly


This was by far the least fun thing of being a mod ....


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

Jumbo Ratty said:


> But if I was a mod id tidy the for sale section up and police it ruthlessly





Mrboots2u said:


> This was by far the least fun thing of being a mod ....


so is it a thing thats meant to be done by the mods now but is just being neglected because its the least fun?


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Jumbo Ratty said:


> so is it a thing thats meant to be done by the mods now but is just being neglected because its the least fun?


No that's not what i said at all ...

When i was modding , it was the least fun thing , and i didn't do a effective job of it either ...

Lots of stuff gets moved as sold etc.. the function of the forum and modding is not to provide a sales area for people , its just a bi product of the forum it self

In the end this isnt gumtree , just chill a bit , if a thread is still open then someone just needs to post a mention to the OP ....


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## NickdeBug (Jan 18, 2015)

I always thought that the threads were pretty quickly updated as sold once the seller confirmed that a deal was complete.

If you look in the Sold sub-forum it looks fairly well maintained.


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

But in all cases the OP knows its been sold, they are the ones editing the 1st post or updating it to sold. They cant change the status of the thread from for sale to sold.

Only a mod can do that


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

NickdeBug said:


> I always thought that the threads were pretty quickly updated as sold once the seller confirmed that a deal was complete.
> 
> If you look in the Sold sub-forum it looks fairly well maintained.


Im talking about the for sale section littered with sold items and showing thay are still for sale,just one example.

Seems pretty blatantly sold to me. 3 weeks old

http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?31375-Gaggia-Classic-Dualit-Grinder


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## NickdeBug (Jan 18, 2015)

So, if the onus is on the vendor to post a clear request to a moderator to update as sold (absent in this case) then the problem would seem to be solved


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

That would work and be a possible solution.

Maybe the sellers dont know how to conclude the sale.

Is there a protocol in place ?

another example. OP acknowledges the sale. 3 weeks old

http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?30538-Mazzer-SJ-%A3250/page3


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## 7493 (May 29, 2014)

I've just been having a bit of a tidy up. However, I don't intend to trawl through every post in the FOR SALE section to check if the item(s) are sold. Folks usually request a mod to update their threads when the sale is agreed. If you identify any which are sold but not marked or moved then by all means forward the link(s) to me and I'll fix.


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## froggystyle (Oct 30, 2013)

Mountain/Mole Hill..


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

Rob666 said:


> I've just been having a bit of a tidy up. However, I don't intend to trawl through every post in the FOR SALE section to check if the item(s) are sold. Folks usually request a mod to update their threads when the sale is agreed. If you identify any which are sold but not marked or moved then by all means forward the link(s) to me and I'll fix.


http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?31659-For-Sale-Eureka-Mignon-Matt-Black-%A3200


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

asks mods to update to sold

http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?31540-Sage-Smart-Grinder-Brand-New-unopened-%A3120-00


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?31609-Sage-Smart-Grinder-Pro


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?31543-Eureka-Mignion-2-%A3185-00-plus-postage


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## 7493 (May 29, 2014)

OK I've done those four. If by any chance you find any more please post the link(s) here and I'll fix.


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?30598-Mazzer-Royal-151B-Titanium-burrs-new-unopened-%A369-00


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?31022-Gaggia-classics-with-wand-and-solenoid-upgrade/page2


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?31340-Mazzer-SJ-%A3250


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?31126-Gaggia-Classic-freshly-descaled-new-seals-OPV-mod-amp-Silvia-Steam-Wand


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## Phil104 (Apr 15, 2014)

Great scrutiny J R&#8230; would routinely PMing a mod be more effective? If a seller simply posts that it's sold on the thread it relies upon a mod reading the thread.


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## froggystyle (Oct 30, 2013)

Just report the thread and add text saying its sold.


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## Phil104 (Apr 15, 2014)

froggystyle said:


> Just report the thread and add text saying its sold.


Is there a button for this?


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## 7493 (May 29, 2014)

Thanks JR. I've done that lot.


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## Yes Row (Jan 23, 2013)

I think someone has too much time on their hands?


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## risky (May 11, 2015)

For the record, I have routinely gone back through months of threads marking as sold. Some of these were years old. When the Sold sub forum was created I again trawled through hundreds of threads moving and updating as required.

One issue is that in tapatalk, when moving a sold thread to the sold area, a redirect is always left (on full web browser this can be disabled) so by solving one problem, it then creates another, as the redirects litter the for sale area.

New baby in the house means I have not had the time to be trawling the area over the last few months.

If something sells, perhaps the best option would be to report the thread as needing updated/moved so that all mods get an email notification. But that's for @Glenn to decide.


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

What the eff...

If you are searching the F/S section you might find a few threads that match what you are interested in and it takes seconds to check the last post in each thread to see if its sold.

Seems like an enormous waste of mod time to me.


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## risky (May 11, 2015)

Dylan said:


> What the eff...
> 
> If you are searching the F/S section you might find a few threads that match what you are interested in and it takes seconds to check the last post in each thread to see if its sold.
> 
> Seems like an enormous waste of mod time to me.


I concur. If sellers could make the last post of a thread obvious that it was sold and to who then it should be clear for anyone reading.

As has been pointed out, you can't edit your own thread titles, so to avoid confusion, perhaps people should refrain from titling threads 'FOR SALE: Some stuff' this also gives you a whole extra 9 characters to use in your thread title.

EDIT: Just spent the last 40 minutes going through it moving stuff. Hopefully it now meets the expected standard.


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## Jon (Dec 3, 2010)

Jumbo Ratty said:


> so is it a thing thats meant to be done by the mods now but is just being neglected because its the least fun?


I proactively look for stuff in this section to update when I can (and I know other mods keep an eye on it too); having said that I run my own business, have staff, clients, 1 toddler, 1 baby and various other things to 'manage' - so things sometimes slip.

If people 'report post' (or PM their favourite mod!) when they see something that needs doing we'll get to it pretty quickly.

We rarely leave anything for long - even when it's reported at 3 in the AM!


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## h1udd (Sep 1, 2015)

Are we allowed a favorite mod ?? .... Isn't that a bit like having a favorite child ? You are secretly allowed to have one but you arnt allowed to admit it as its not fair on the other kid ... Bad parenting etc


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

h1udd said:


> Are we allowed a favorite mod ?? ....


What are you offering in return??


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## michaelg (Jul 25, 2013)

Can we not just allow a prefix that the poster can edit themselves to change For Sale to Sold? That's that some other forums I'm on have.


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## Jon (Dec 3, 2010)

michaelg said:


> Can we not just allow a prefix that the poster can edit themselves to change For Sale to Sold? That's that some other forums I'm on have.


That's an @Glenn question.


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

Rob666 said:


> Thanks JR. I've done that lot.


Appreciated



risky said:


> EDIT: Just spent the last 40 minutes going through it moving stuff. Hopefully it now meets the expected standard.


the for sale section looks much better now the sold items have been moved from the for sale section



Jon said:


> I proactively look for stuff in this section to update when I can (and I know other mods keep an eye on it too); having said that I run my own business, have staff, clients, 1 toddler, 1 baby and various other things to 'manage' - so things sometimes slip.
> 
> If people 'report post' (or PM their favourite mod!) when they see something that needs doing we'll get to it pretty quickly.
> 
> We rarely leave anything for long - even when it's reported at 3 in the AM!


This is now showing sold, but it hasnt been moved. It remains in the for sale section

http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?30705-SOLD-Cherub-Anniversary-Edition-Stainless-Steel/page4



michaelg said:


> Can we not just allow a prefix that the poster can edit themselves to change For Sale to Sold? That's that some other forums I'm on have.


But that would still leave them in the for sale section. They need moving by a mod into the sold section. Otherwise what is the sold section for?

Moving sold items into the sold section then means that items that are still for sale but would have been on page 3 are now on page 2 and so on.


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## Jon (Dec 3, 2010)

Jumbo Ratty said:


> Appreciated
> 
> the for sale section looks much better now the sold items have been moved from the for sale section
> 
> ...


Yes I do most updates from tapatalk which doesn't allow me to move SOLD posts in the right way (can explain if you're interested).

Best I can offer is to try to do this periodically when I'm in front of a PC - but realistically unlikely to be a daily or even weekly occurrence.


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## michaelg (Jul 25, 2013)

> But that would still leave them in the for sale section. They need moving by a mod into the sold section. Otherwise what is the sold section for?
> 
> Moving sold items into the sold section then means that items that are still for sale but would have been on page 3 are now on page 2 and so on.


The prefix makes it easy for mods to see at a glance which ones can be archived without having to open and read the thread and puts responsibility on the seller to update initially.


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

To be honest the mods shouldn't have to do all this work in the for sale section. *I think if possible with this forum as it is on some others. When a topic is started, if it's not bumped or posted to, the system simply moves it to the sold forum. *So it's effectively give a "time to live". Some sellers can be lazy bastards, very quick to post bump put photos up etc.. when they want to sell, but somehow completely forget to do anything once the item sells. If it doesn't sell on the forum this is especially true.

If something gets moved for no activity after say 1 week, then the seller has either sold it, or forgotten about it.

e.g. something like this http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=275314&highlight=auto+move+threads


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## Dallah (Jan 31, 2015)

@Jumbo Ratty have a word with @Glenn I'm sure he would be happy to have someone so devoted to monitoring one sub-forum. Normally we fritter away our time with the fun and frivolous work of eliminating SPAM and phishing posts.


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

Id be quite happy to.

Im on here most weekday mornings, weekends not so much.

Im available if needed,,,, but just how much work is there involved in moving a thread? I dont have to be very tech savvy do I ?


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## Drewster (Dec 1, 2013)

Jumbo Ratty said:


> Id be quite happy to.
> 
> Im on here most weekday mornings, weekends not so much.
> 
> Im available if needed,,,, but just how much work is there involved in moving a thread?* I dont have to be very tech savvy do I ?*


Apropos nothing in particular - Wasn't Boots a mod?


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## Dallah (Jan 31, 2015)

Jumbo Ratty said:


> Id be quite happy to.
> 
> Im on here most weekday mornings, weekends not so much.
> 
> Im available if needed,,,, but just how much work is there involved in moving a thread? I dont have to be very tech savvy do I ?


The work is not in amending the title of the thread. The work is in keeping track of all changes as well as reported posts. My inbox overflows with alerts. So keeping track of all the changes in the sale section might slip.

This isn't a full time or paid job. We all volunteer to keep the community going. I learn alot here and I want to contribute to give back. So if my response seemed sharp, it was only meant to highlight that there is a lot of work happening that most members don't know of and never see.


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

Dallah said:


> The work is not in amending the title of the thread. The work is in keeping track of all changes as well as reported posts. My inbox overflows with alerts. So keeping track of all the changes in the sale section might slip.
> 
> This isn't a full time or paid job. We all volunteer to keep the community going. I learn alot here and I want to contribute to give back. So if my response seemed sharp, it was only meant to highlight that there is a lot of work happening that most members don't know of and never see.


I didnt think your response was sharp or snarky,, if it was it went over my head.

And no, I wouldnt have thought your inbox overflowed with alerts either, so now im aware.

Maybe then there is too much work for the amount of mods given the time they spend on here ?

Good job keeping the site spam & phishing free mods


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## Jon (Dec 3, 2010)

Jumbo Ratty said:


> Maybe then there is too much work for the amount of mods given the time they spend on here?


I think all is fine. No mod has to be a mod - if it gets too much for any of us we can resign at any point.


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Thread Prefixes have been added to this forum so that new posts will be able to show as [For Sale] or then be marked as [sold] using the thread prefix function


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## Jon (Dec 3, 2010)

Glenn said:


> Thread Prefixes have been added to this forum so that new posts will be able to show as [For Sale] or then be marked as [sold] using the thread prefix function


Is this an automatic thing? Or do folk need to manage it? Is it mods or users that'll manage it?


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

I have just enabled the requirement to select a prefix [For Sale] or [sold]

Members should be able to self manage these


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## DoubleShot (Apr 23, 2014)

Jumbo Ratty , it would appear your prayers have been answered! 

Thanks Glenn.


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

We love feedback and if there is something that can be fixed for the greater good then I'm usually willing to give it a shot.


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## Jon (Dec 3, 2010)

Glenn said:


> I have just enabled the requirement to select a prefix [For Sale] or [sold]
> 
> Members should be able to self manage these


Does this work on tapatalk?


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Yes - you are prompted to select [For Sale] or [sold] before the main posting screen appears


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## Jon (Dec 3, 2010)

Hmm. Not seeing that. Ok! Let me look again.


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Although, you cannot change the prefix in Tapatalk once you have posted.

Tapatalk is a third party tool and they quite often do not interact fully with the vBulletin platform.


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## Jon (Dec 3, 2010)

Glenn said:


> Although, you cannot change the prefix in Tapatalk once you have posted.
> 
> Tapatalk is a third party tool and they quite often do not interact fully with the vBulletin platform.


Ah. Ok. So how do we update something once it sells in the Web version?


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

You can't until we find a way...

Tapatalk should not be used for moderation - it is not a design of the system at all.


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## Jon (Dec 3, 2010)

Glenn said:


> You can't until we find a way...
> 
> Tapatalk should not be used for moderation - it is not a design of the system at all.


Sorry - I mean as a seller how do we (how does anyone) update the prefix in the non-tapatalk web version of the forum?


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Click on Edit Post then change the prefix from [For Sale] to [sold]


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## Jon (Dec 3, 2010)

Glenn said:


> Click on Edit Post then change the prefix from [For Sale] to [sold]


Ta!


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

Glenn said:


> Thread Prefixes have been added to this forum so that new posts will be able to show as [For Sale] or then be marked as [sold] using the thread prefix function


 @Glenn,

Thank you for taking the trouble to address this issue.

And thanks for adding the 2000 club badge to user name, I wear it with pride


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