I need to apologize for some of the archaic rules that were on the classifieds. It has been years since we've really reviewed these rules. We haven't it since we incorporated contributing members to the classifieds I believe. So, we made some changes to make the Classifieds more user friendly for all Contributing Members....
Some of those rules did not pertain anymore. Some rules were applied, activated, or amended for the sole purpose of reeling in all the insanity of the classifieds at the time. Many have no idea to the history of the classifieds. The classifieds were started back in 2003 when Tradgang started. Then things started to take a turn for the worst, not just on Tradgang, but a lot of other classified forums as well. As we tried and tried to rectify the many issues, it took up more and more of our time as more and more people bombarded our site.....
We grew and grew and some of the classifieds problems had become so bad that we were tired of dealing with it. It was taking up most of our time trying to run Tradgang...to the point where we actually shut the Classifieds down. Many people don't even know that this happened, but we went without the classifieds for probably 2 years before we started it back.
Then everything seems to be great for quite a while as we set a precedence, and people were real quick to turn in people so everyone knew who the scammers were. Then people came on and became more literate to the computer and the scamming and spamming started in new ways. Then the fake names- fake people- fake Sellers and fake addresses started to run amuck. So most of our work was done on these classifieds once again, to the point to where we couldn't take it, but we didn't want to shut down the classifieds. So, we started giving those who had contributed to Tradgang for years the access to the classifieds to make a little more private and hassle-free.
Well, I have to tell you folks that was one of the best things we did on Tradgang. We probably have one problem a year and its either miscommunication or shipper lost something or what not.... nothing major since we've Incorporated contributing members into the classifieds. All the people that were scamming and spamming cheating others were weeded out. However now there is no hostility at all in the classifieds, therefor some rules need to be done away with. Again, I apologize for them lasting this long as we've had so much other stuff on our plates for the last few years that this just slipped by.
I'd like to thank our moderators for continually caring out these rules and bringing them to my attention so I can make a change on this to better facilitate and accommodate people that use the classifieds.
I will have these rules revised tomorrow as I'm still making sure I get everything right so its MUCH more beneficial to those that chose to participate. I will be posting a thread on the classifieds as to the changes.
Thanks again all....and carry on!