Are many of the boats advertised for sale still for sale or are they all out of date?
I have mailed a few people about boats and not recieved any replys.
I want a boat for under 2k and am prepared to travel, assuming a combi trailer!
(Jon, siting back waiting for a barage of offers)

As far as i'm aware they are all still for sale!

At least no-one has told me otherwise.

Try just phoning them, the post's not all it's cracked up to be.

Chris

Are we still deleting adverts over 6 months old? I used to do this when I ran the list as it seemed to be the best way of keeping the info reasonably fresh - it was fairly rare that people would inform me when a boat or gear had sold.

I think that we should have a link on the homepage to the current list.

In many ways it is one of the most important features of the site - let's make it more prominent.

I haven't been deleting adverts over 6 months old, but what i have done is a "round robin" approximatley every 12 months.

I've actually found that by and large people have informed me, but obviously there are some who don't. Anyone who hasn't replied to my emails has had their advert deleted.

I think it would help if new additions to the for sale lists were highlighteed in some way.

I had this problem when I was looking for a boat last year. At that time, at least five had been sold, mostly quite some while earlier and not removed from the forum. 

This is surely the responsibility of the advertiser, but many ads are posted on various forums.

Maybe the date listed could be added, and the advertiser required to renew if older than 6 months or so. At the end of the day it is important not to heap this responsibility onto the forum manager, and if an advertiser can't be bothered to monitor the situation, then perhaps the add should be removed.

The date listed is on the adverts at the top underneath the boats for sale logo. It is rather small text, perhaps Mags could enlarge it? In some cases i've added a date for when i've "renewed" the advert in the blub after the sellers text.

It is a difficult one as it can often take longer than 6 months to sell a boat.

Dates - so they are!

(Must make appointment with optician)

The for sale forum is a splendid resource - well run, and far superior to those on other comparable sites!

I also had the problem of "sold" boats still on the list.  I think that one of the improvements which could be made is a way to make the list with the newest adverts at the top rather than by boat number.  I know that it is flagged up at the top of the page when a new boat appears on the list but it can take an age to scroll through and find which one it is.  For those wanting to buy a boat of a particular age, cost etc  it is a matter of a moment to scroll through the numbers, prices, design etc - but, to find that elusive new addition ......  Bung it at the top of the list !!!  Just my tuppence worth.

Garys got it!
 That way you can see new ads in a blink of an eye and it doesn't really matter if the advertiser has removed the sold boat or not! and the admins can continue to do there annual round up of out of date ads.
Jon (looking eagerly at the ads page)

Actually i think being able to choose whether you sort by age, price, date posted, etc would be better, but i don't know how easy this would be to implement - it's not my area!

You can already order the boats by price, design, sail no. etc by using the arrows at the top of each column. I wouldn't have thought it would be too difficult to add an extra column for date posted.

Now I hadn't noticed that!

The Solo class website has a system where you effectively provide log on details which allows you to place your own ad, and remove it as and when required. I will mention it to Mags, to see if a similar system can be installed on our site.

Of course that is possible, but still leaves you with the problem that some people will not bother to pop back and remove the ad! I think its better that Chris keeps checking up on things to make sure they are current.

What has not been explained is that our site automatically drops the ad after one month if not renewed.  The system generates an email reminder to the seller to renew.  This places the onus totally on the seller to renew the ad if the boat has not sold, which is where it should be.  No burden on the webmaster!