Editing Hotrodders.com classified ad issues

==Summary== This wiki entry was started to organize and formalize the discussion surrounding potential adjustments to the way that classified ads and the related discussions are handled on the Hotrodders.com forums. Hotrodders.com currently has a [http://www.hotrodders.com/ads/ classified ad system] which offers unlimited free classified ads to its members. Per [http://www.hotrodders.com/help/board/guidelines.html Hotrodders.com guidelines], it is forbidden to buy, sell, or trade parts on the forums. ==Buy/sell forum== One solution that has been proposed is a designated buy/sell forum, where Hotrodders.com members would be free to post and discuss the buying, selling, and trading of hot rod parts and services. Threads could possibly be deleted after a set time (a week, a month, etc.). If a buy/sell post appeared in a tech forum thread, the post could be split out into a new thread in the buy/sell forum. ===Points in favor of a buy/sell forum=== *A designated buy/sell forum may reduced the moderation overhead required in adjudicating the more subtle potential business guideline violations. *All questionable posts could just be placed in the buy/sell forum, and the tech forums could thus be kept clean and crisp. *Some posts are borderline commercial, or their commercial status can't be firmly established (like trying to determine if the poster is discussing a part that his brother's uncle's cousin is selling). Such posts could simply be moved into the buy/sell forum. The original poster couldn't rightly complain that their post was deleted, as it was simply moved. *The classified ads don't allow back-and-forth commenting. The conversations surrounding buying, selling, and swapping parts constitutes a legitimate part of hotrodding culture, and the classified ad format doesn't allow for it. For example, this thread: [http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/whos-got-predator-carb-laying-around-150184.html Who's got a predator carb lying around?]. *Moderators can't currently move commercial posts "into" classified ads, but they can move posts and threads in between different forums. *By allowing buy/sell discussion within the forums, more people would make use of the ability to run classified ads on the site. *Such a forum could co-exist with the classifieds, and draw more traffic to them. Any additional bandwidth is essentially a non-issue. ===Points against a buy/sell forum=== *By allowing a designated commercial forum, we leave the door open for commercial marketers to find sneaky ways to bypass policy. *We already have a designated buy-sell area, in the [http://hotrodders.com/ads Hotrodders Classifieds]. A forum is redundant, and sloppy. *The format of the classified ads is much more cut-and-dried than a discussion. This cuts down on using subtle conversational methods to game the guidelines. *Any potential commercial intrusion can't be handled lightly. The potential for abuse has to be well thought-out before proceeding. ==External links== *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright-line_rule Bright-line rule] *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balancing_test Balancing test] *[http://www.hotrodders.com/help/board/business.html Hotrodders.com business posting guidelines] *[http://www.hotrodders.com/help/board/guidelines.html Hotrodders.com general guidelines]

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