The possibility of incorporating classifieds into this site has been kicking around for some time. This post is intended to gauge the level of enthusiasm or otherwise for the idea.
Note the following:
it’s easy to vote ‘yes’ to this, but doing so makes it likely that the flavour of this site will change. Do you want this? There are heaps of Karting sales sites around, but I know of nothing where the standard of discussion is as high as it is here. Do bear it in mind.
someone has to operate that section of the site. It’s a big deal.
what value does it bring to the users of this site really?
you have until July 31 to vote.
Thanks people. Over to you.
Awesome idea. Whomever thought of it should be knighted.
Meh.
Nup. Risk of ‘cheapening’ the discussion here is too great.
At a minimum it would have to be separate forum. Like EKN classifieds. The only worry is that somehow it drives trolls to the forums which would keep James busy. It would likely drive a lot more traffic through here, though.
I don’t particularly have strong feelings one way or another. But that’s because I’m already connected to 20 other avenues for finding kart items to purchase. At best, I’m going to end up seeing the same items duplicated here as other places I’m already looking at. So I’ll go with Meh for personal reasons.
As a newish person to the forum this year, I voted no. Although I would really like a great place for people to be able to sell/swap parts - it does take a LOT of work to police and enforce rules.
But if it is done, the seller will need rating points much like ebay, so we can see who to avoid. I have bought some stuff via FB, but that is rather hit or miss for that reason I think (mostly they post, I sent my shipping info, I think it’s going to happen, and they disappear). So mostly I buy from other people at the track, Craigslist, or ebay for used stuff. There may be other better places already I don’t know about…
I’d also like to see some guidelines for placing the ads so we know what is being sold and there doesn’t have to be 20 questions back and forth - such as “I’m selling a 26T gear”. Great, but for what size axle - and a shifter kart we assume? What’s it made of? How much has it been used? How do you plan to ship - and how long after I send you money will you take to get it shipped, etc.
Seriously, the more I think about it - not doing it makes more sense. Keep this a great discussion forum please and leave the selling to those other sites.
Personally, I’ve got several local places of getting kart parts. Most online forums show me karts that I’m never going to go out of my way to go buy, so I could go either way with this.
Someone mentioned a subdomain for the classifies. I’d be more onboard with this, so I’m not having to sift through the good discussion to avoid people selling “used” Stock Honda engines that I don’t care about.
But I know that James does like a busy work project from time to time.
When we started the forums the idea was to create a space for good discussion and info and keep it centered around that. I did make a concession with the #cool-karting-links category since sometimes good discussion can stem down from those.
Maybe classifieds should be a thing on the new site. We could offer a better experience than using the forums (proximity search, price filtering etc) kinda like an “autotrader for Karting”
It’s something I’ve wanted to do… but will people use it. That’s the question.
I think it’s inevitable that people will use it James - including people you may or may not want here. Dealing with that is the critical thing I think.
If it’s on your mind, give it a go. If it works, happy days If it doesn’t, can it.
A tough question to answer tbh. My specific scenario - I’m either searching for a specific item, or browsing for local deals. Images are not an issue for me. If I need better images, I can always reach out to the seller. The categorization is a pain, as it relies on both the seller and buyer agreeing an item belongs in the same category. I think improvements in this area could be helpful to the classifieds experience, but once again I simply search for what I’m looking for. When I’m hunting for something, I set up alerts. FB Marketplace is good for that. Links from KP would hurt that experience, as I don’t look at my newsfeed 90% of the time. I go specifically to my notifications, or straight to Marketplace to check on my searches.
Yea, I’m definitely not the target audience for classified on KP. To the contrary, I need fewer places to search, not additional ones. My input isn’t very helpful on this subject.
I’m middle of the road on it. Partly because I am not finding any deals. If it’s worth buying it’s probably worth buying new . . . The only things I bought used online were from Stu Hayner and he was an awesome guy to deal with, very honest about condition, fair in every sense, etc.There are others I wouldn’t hesitate to deal with but I’d need to have some trust going in.
As far as trolls, rudeness and the like:
It comes down to what we as members allow AND how we conduct ourselves.
What the Mods, Owners, Management or whoever is running the place tolerate is also a factor.
Gun forums have some A-holes and some rally good guys. IMHO the problems is the mods don’t handle up on the A-holes. I think the mods or owners want every member, but don’t realize how the A-holes kill participation.
I can ignore the classified if I want to. So I am going to vote yes, give it a try. Provided you can always do away with them and nuke trolls and problem people.
I think we’ll leave classifieds off the forums. It’s not an optimal platform, and I don’t think having them on the forums would add value to a buyers or sellers experience.
If we did something it would be a classifieds “system” with proximity search. Kinda like an autotrader for karts. We had a classifieds section before on the “main site”, but it wasn’t well built or promoted… because I was chasing too many rabbits Feel free to kick it around though if you like. Drop me a message if you need a login
They key question really is, how can something be built that makes the buying and selling experience better in such a way that people will use it?
Classifieds are essential of course. But I’m having a hard time figuring out if the effort to make AWESOME classifieds worth the effort (upfront and ongoing) that it would take to make them truly awesome.
Honestly, I think that most online forums that have classifieds are where people go to dump junk, and the forum just looks cluttered as a result.
Easy answer for a classified section is to make Kartpulse Classified Facebook Group, and just direct people there. It keeps the crappy stuff off the main forums, but gives people who want classified a place to put stuff for sell. (Especially for those people trying to sell equipment outside of a region, which can get tricky anyway.)
Facebook is already a black hole, so it gives people a place to put stuff without having a junky forum, and gives us a place to direct people who seem to want to use forum posts as a place for unsolicited sales.
I think the main value of the KP Forums is the quality discussion between members, not as a place to sell used stuff, but if people really want them, there are plenty of platforms that are already designed to support those sorts of transactions.
Feel free to kick it around though if you like. Drop me a message if you need a login