Classifeds being closed?

I will very much miss the Classifieds in the forum. Every time I post I see a dramatic increase in visitors to my store. I highly doubt that I will get the same results with an in-game classified that will cost me- and if I don't- I won't be using it for long!

I agree that this is a sad day. The thing that the forums really did, that the in game Classified ads can't ever do, is to allow potential customers to ask questions about the product, and get an answer, without having to be in the game.

I really like the discussion aspect of the Classified Forums. And I don't see how that can be duplicated at all.

Did posting on the Classified forums help my sales? Absolutely!

Without them, I'm going to have to completely re-think how I get the word out, when I make new stuff. Hopefully, there will be another forum somewhere that is easy to find and use, and that a lot of people get in the habit of checking. (And remember, even 1 or 2 percent of the total resident population is a lot of people.)

Personally, I'd love to see those listed here, if anyone is hosting one, before these forums are taken away from us.

Even tho each specific post might have less than 100 views, the New Products forum itself has a total in excess of 32,000 views--much higher than "Technical Issues" "Land and Economy" "Feature Suggestions" or even the pitiful few number of views that the "Announcements" has...only "General" and "Off Topic" exceed the total number of views that New Products gets (On the Main Forum page, look to the far right of the screen to see the number of views each forum has, plus the total number of posts). New Products has over 5,532 posts, 32,979 (as of this moment) views, making it the third most active forum topic. Of the other forum topics in classifieds, all but one exceed the number of views Linden Announcements gets...if numbers speak to you, there they are.

Forum Classifieds impact sales, they allow designers to do market research and receive feedback, they identify trends for shoppers, and they save time and money for consumers who can then spend that money on other in-world items like land, charity, and hosting events. It's a shame Forum Classifieds will move to other websites, but kudos to SLUniverse and SLExchange for being willing to host them. They see the numbers, they jumped into the void and offered their sites as willing hosts, and they will probably see their active participants and memberships swell.

What? There's a classified forum here? Where?

I see the typical pessimistic general complaining is still alive and well.

The same attitude was going on about the Lindex implementation. Now the Lindex is up where it should be.

I just wish the event anouncement would have a stiff fee like the classified. Maybe then less garbage would be posted in the event section.

You people only have yourself to blame for this. Who is insisting on wanting to bring RL economy into a virtual world? There is no free lunch folks. I see people buying new clothes everyday, WHY? I have been wearing the same one for months...

Whatever...

Just wanted to participate in the complaining....

You make an effective point against how the individual forums compare against each other. It's an excellent argument if the issue was "which forum should be kept and/or removed." Although under that premise, other factors should be considered such as the expense and labor associated with maintaining each forum. It can be argued that the classified forum, which requires anywhere from one to an unlimited amount of attachments per thread, is more costly to maintain than the predominantly text based nature of the other aforementioned forums.

The fact remains, however, that each "individual" classified forum thread has an average of less than 200 views, against a population of 65,000+. Cumulative views, which more than likely consists of the same group of people viewing these threads, over and over again, over a period dating back several months, is not an accurate depiction of the overall participation of the SL population in the classified forums.

I read the new products wanted section of the classified all the time. I doubt that anyone will pay L$250 to tell people that they want red boots or a squirt gun.

I am really depressed about this.

Yay! This whole question is now moot! We are keeping the forums, just they will be post-only.

I feel like celebrating!

coco

Regardless of how many views a specific post has, sellers in these forums attest that they make a difference in their sales. If you sell a skin for $3500 and 100 people view that post and say they bought it, that's $35,000 made for the designer, which may not have happened if the skin was advertised only in world in a classified ad on page 15 of classified ads in the find menu. That's an extreme case, but the point is that forums are well organized and accessible enough for hundreds of shoppers to look daily and find what they are looking for while classifieds in world are not. Further, if some new designer sees another designer getting 100 sales from a forum post, that probably encourages that new designer to continue working to make better products so they can compete. More, better content for SL, more business for LL currency page, better for all...

Off-topic and General also have pictures posted several times throughout one thread. Some posters only post photos and/or movies/animations or other bandwidth-heavy items in those threads. Off-topic and General also have cumulative views over the life of the forum from the same people. It's not really an issue at all how many views a forum has, the issue is how effective a forum is in helping Second Lifers live their Second Life. People in support of keeping the Classifieds forum open spoke up about why it's important to them, and in several forums with several different threads, and I noticed a majority of them were polite with only one edit from the Lindens. Most of the contention, vitriol and banning in forums comes from General and Off-topic threads, but I notice they remain open (for how long, one wonders...?).

Regardless of all this, New Products Forums are staying open. Did it have something to do with numbers?

Honestly, I don't know, but...

I like to think post No. 29 in this thread...

/invalid_link.html

And post No. 4 in this thread...

/108/75/66268/1.html

might have

Oh good!

Even though I like reading consumer opinions about products, I think the decision is fair. Means no more bumping. I never did figure out what was going on when I found bumped posts. Sadly, it wasn't until I read this thread did I finally get it. (Yeah. I'm clueless like that... *edit...well, that, and I thought SL is just full of horny people. They go around bumping each other ALL the time....)

Anyway, this is great news.

The new product forums only...what about the Employment, Employment ops wanted, special attractions, services, and Products wanted? these are the things that people REALLY won't pay the $250 for.

However that definitely is progress. Glad to see we were able to make a difference

Well, I too am relieved that the New Products forum will stay. I still would like people to be able to respond to them, however. I like to see if someone liked the item or had problems with it. Response in those threads is also a good way to gage consumer response to an item. I could care less about the bumping.

I would call this a fair decision, nevertheless.

Yeah, I figured that out belatedly.

coco

Okay now that makes me sad, especially after reading the answer to that one on the hotline...