Christmas Closure Of The Market Place

[Admin]

Dearest members of the Fountain Pen Network,

 

Lately, the amount of work required to keep the Classifieds and Market Watch Section, aka the market place, running smoothly and according to the market place rules, has become such a huge effort that we need to take a bit of a breather. We are all volunteers here, and the amount of work involved to manage these forums has now become a burden too heavy on all the people involved – it is rapidly becoming a full job. If it paid well that wouldn't be a problem, but unfortunately we cannot survive purely on the gratefulness from people who appreciate what we do – we all still have our day jobs. Do note that since its inception the Classifieds and Market Watch Section only has been an additional service to the real intention of this board, namely discussion of all things writing instrument and their paraphernalia, with emphasis on fountain pens and inks. Therefore, we feel it is necessary to take a few measures, at least temporarily, namely:

 

1 ) The Classifieds and Market Watch Section will be closed for the period from Friday, December 24, around 07:00 hrs GMT (02:00 hrs EST) until and including Tuesday, December 28. We do need a break, and our families deserve to see us a bit more as well .

 

2) From Wednesday, December 22, it will be possible to only post a new topic in the market place. This means that no replies will be possible to what now essentially become advertisements only. This is meant as a temporary measure, for a period of a few weeks to start with, unless we like it so much that it becomes the new standard. In the mean time we are looking for other solutions for the market place.

 

3) Revival of topics in the market place forums older than a month will no longer be possible. This is meant as a counter-spam measure.

 

4) Members who post in the Classifieds and Market Watch Section are requested to clearly state the email address at which they may be contacted for the item(s) offered or wanted, whether in counter-spam format or otherwise. Using the PM system was never recommend to contact sellers or buyers, and as we found out recently, PM-ing a member is not a guarantee that a request will arrive at its destination, unfortunately.

 

5) Please do consolidate your posts - it actually makes for more sales anyway, to buyers who wouldn't be reached otherwise. A person looking for a certain pen may well be seduced by another if there are more pens of different brands and varieties in a single topic, after all. Do note that there now is an automated mechanism in place to prevent more than three posts a day in each of the market place forums. If you do have problems with posting many pictures, i.e., more than the board software allows for uploading, please do contact us through the Members Helping Members or Pictures & Pen Photography forums. We'll gladly assist you with the 'how to" of creating the possibilities to use more pictures.

 

6) Please do read and adhere to the market place rules, make sure you know them and are aware of them. Also read the FPN rules and guidelines you have signed up for when registering here, please. We don't want to annoy people, but we do expect all members with posting rights in the market place forums to follow the rules. Any posts that do not adhere to these rules will have to be removed, sadly enough. All of this again in order to keep the workload manageable.

 

7) The bump feature will be removed temporarily as well in order to prevent the drowning of topics started by occasional sellers. This means that in conjunction with point 2 and 3, advertisements will be current for one month only, and will stay in the position where they are as posted originally.

 

As a reminder, although this is stated in the market place rules, only Gold Members, i.e., those members who joined prior to January 23, 2010, and members who joined thereafter with more than 30 (i.e., from 31 and upwards) relevant posts and who are members for more than 30 days (i.e, 31 days and upwards), can actually start new topics (new adverts) in the market place forums.

 

Finally, we all would like to wish you and yours a marvelous and enjoyable festive season, and a great New Year!

 

Warm regards,

The FPN Moderator and Admin Team

Edited December 28, 2010 by wimg
wrong date

[jde]

Bravo!

 

Happy Holidays to all of you who keep FPN running so smoothly!

[redbike]

My best wishes to the FPN Administrators and Moderators for a wonderful, and relaxing, holiday season. Thank you for all you do to make this a wonderful place.

 

jim

[Doug1426]

Wow, what I shock. I had no idea the moderators were organic life forms, with lives of their own. I just assumed with all that they did and had to do, that they were automatons, robots or other mechanized machines.

 

I join Julie and others in thanking you for all that you do, and hope you can truly enjoy the holidays.

[Clancy]

Thanks FPN admin team for all the diligence and hard work over the years. Happy holidays!

Edited December 22, 2010 by Clancy

[dizzypen]

[Lloyd]

While I like these new rules, I wish I knew of the changes prior to today; I would have added my email to my current sales post.

 

luckily, it may be sold as of this morning.

[dnb]

Happy Holidays the all of our FPN Admin and Mod teams! Thank you all for EVERYTHING you do to keep us happy, satisfied and fulfilled! Enjoy your time off! You deserve it!

Mele Kalikimaka and Hauoli Makahiki Hou!

Aloha,

David

PS Will you be "pinning" this thread?

Edited December 22, 2010 by dnb

[Aysedasi]

Many thanks and compliments of the Season to all the mods and admins here - you do a great job - enjoy the festive break.

[UkeDan]

A very Merry Christmas and best Holiday wishes to all the mods and admins and thanks for doing such a good job and a valuable service to pen lovers worldwide.

[blopplop]

Good job Mod's. Have a blessed weekend.

 

Dave

[pb2]

Many thanks, blessings and kudos for your most excellent and wonderful service. You are very much appreciated and please be encouraged to know that you provide a very generous and valuable service to me and so many of us who look forward to sharing another great year in 2011.

A 21 thumb salute to you all!!!!!

Pendleton alias pb2

[tknechtel]

I hope these new rules do give you hard-worked people some relief! We are all so grateful for this site - many thanks!

Tom

[elpaninaro]

Love the site and appreciate all the effort mods!

 

If it is ever helpful- this exact same situation arose on a wine forum where I once was a regular poster. Happy to share the changes that brought about improvement (one of the biggest ones was one you have already done- single posts only and no ability to have conversation threads in the sales forum.)

 

Happy Holidays!

[jniforat]

great job, admin team! i love the new rules.

 

one point i'm curious about: is the new market place going to be more like pentrace, where all the topics are static so you have to scroll down to see the sales, thus no being able to put a post (bump, but that button is away for the time being) back on top after a day or two?

 

 

either way, thank you for taking our suggestions seriously to make fpn a place that is discussion first, sales second, and not the other way around

[talkinghead]

Thanks for all the work that you do admins!!!!

 

Happy Holidays and a Very Happy New Year!

 

 

Rick

 

Edit:

Did just think of something with the new rules....how does a seller communicate to the masses that the particular item(s) have sold, if we can't post in the original topic? Would hate to have to reply to every email once the item is sold. Could there be some automated response from the mod/admins, that we as sellers could communicate to a mod/admin that the item is sold and then they could mark the item(s) sold or some how communicate that in the topic/thread?

 

Thanks..

Edited December 23, 2010 by talkinghead

[Russ]

Thank you, administrators and moderators, for ALL that you do! Take a well-deserved rest!

[wimg]

Thanks for all the work that you do admins!!!!

 

Happy Holidays and a Very Happy New Year!

 

 

Rick

 

Edit:

Did just think of something with the new rules....how does a seller communicate to the masses that the particular item(s) have sold, if we can't post in the original topic? Would hate to have to reply to every email once the item is sold. Could there be some automated response from the mod/admins, that we as sellers could communicate to a mod/admin that the item is sold and then they could mark the item(s) sold or some how communicate that in the topic/thread?

 

Thanks..

We are still thinking about this one, and may come up with a solution soon....

 

Warm regards, Wim

[Readymade]

Thank you for all the hard work you put into making FPN great Hope you all have a well-deserved rest.

[Apotheosis]

u guys should just take the whole festive week off up til the new year.

happy holidays by the way to everyone !

 

rgds

Leo