where's the classifieds?

[greencobra]

guys, i'm not seeing the classifieds. is that because i'm not a paid donor? from my time here before there was a thriving classified section. i'd come in at 11pm when i got off work and picked up some great stuff. i still have a lot of the pens.

 

i saw one of those necro threads that said the admin was working on them and was looking for people to test the software. holy smokes, that was 2011! things certainly bog down here, huh? so what's up with them...yes, no, put up the dough...what gives?

[ksx4system]

As far as I know it was disabled for some (technical?) reason. Please correct me if I'm wrong!

[greencobra]

47 minutes ago, ksx4system said:

As far as I know it was disabled for some (technical?) reason. Please correct me if I'm wrong!

wow, disabled 12+ years ago for technical stuff? and they couldn't find someone to fix these technical problems in that time? i remember when fountain pen network was the kick butt, premium pen site on the interweb. what the heck happened here?

[greencobra]

i went to fp geeks yesterday. no one is running the show over there. everyone is screaming at each other...i dunno, it's gotta be those wild fountain pen people. madness. well, it's good to be back i suppose.

[I-am-not-really-here]

 Classifieds were working when I registered back in 2019 or thereabouts.  
 

[inkstainedruth]

Classifieds were certainly working when I started (about 2012) but I didn't honestly look at them all that much -- a lot of the listings were for really expensive pens that I still (after a decade +) can't afford.  And then there was a problem with some guy flooding the classifieds with literally hundreds of listings (I think he was shown the door -- and not overly politely at that).  Then there were issues more recently with the new software, IIRC, as well.  

I honestly don't remember how long that Classifieds have been down, but I'll trust the memory of I-am-not-really-here over mine on this.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[Karmachanic]

10 hours ago, greencobra said:

wow, disabled 12+ years ago for technical stuff? and they couldn't find someone to fix these technical problems in that time? i remember when fountain pen network was the kick butt, premium pen site on the interweb. what the heck happened here?

 

More like around two years ago, along with the change in software, and attendant difficulties.

[AmericanMonk]

My understanding is more like Ruth's. There were enough problematic people (eg, spam from professional sellers and dishonest sales) that the mods had to choose between quitting their full-time job, opening the site up to liability, or nixing the sales.

 

See also:

 

[A Smug Dill]

16 hours ago, greencobra said:

wow, disabled 12+ years ago for technical stuff?

 

The way I remember it, the big crash of FPN's forum application platform late in October 2000, which necessitated an "emergency" platform upgrade (and brought about a prolonged system outage lasting more than five weeks), led to operational issues due to software incompatibility between the "new" (and current) forum application platform version and the ageing third-party add-on software for Classifieds. The impact of the problems kept building up, until late May or early June in 2021, when a decision was made to take the Classifieds section offline indefinitely "until further notice".

 

16 hours ago, greencobra said:

i remember when fountain pen network was the kick butt, premium pen site on the interweb. what the heck happened here?

 

It doesn't mean the site has to be a one-stop shop for everything a fountain pen hobbyist could want and/or need. There are other channels online by which hobbyists keen (and/or desperate) to sell could use,

• for (or without) a fee and/or commission payable to the platform operator(s);
• that may have "barriers to entry", e.g. minimum prerequisite "karma" on reddit; and/or
• without being able to attract or target a select subgroup of fellow hobbyists with whom there is some semblance of trust on account of (sales and/or posting) history on FPN.

I, for one, don't believe that not being "more" or "as good as it could (conceivably) be" -- including due to someone's experience or knowledge of what was available previously - - necessarily makes a platform or site fall short of "kick-ass", or less than "the best" compared to what else exists today that presents different compromises between which the user is at liberty to choose (albeit grudgingly).

[Targa]

I would certainly like to see a classified section.  Buying, selling, and trading is a big part of the fun IMHO.

[OCArt]

+1

[james3paris]

+1   It was one of the big things that originally attracted me to this site.