MERLIN ROCKET FORUM

Topic : Second Hand List Tidy Up

It would appear that there are several out of date boat adverts on the boats for sale page so.... around the Whitsun weekend if your advert is over 12 months old and you have not e-mailed me to say it is still relevant I shall be removing it so as we have relatively upto date adverts only on the list.
Thanks.


Posted: 14/05/2013 19:33:55
By: 2nd Hand Boat Man
I keep an eye on the For Sale list here and also on the Solo and OK Websites. Whilst ours is allot clearer to glance at it does tend to be out of date allot. This is by no means Martins fault as people just don't remove/inform him them when they are sold.

On the OK Website when you place an advert you get a pin number so you can alter or delete it when it is sold this seems to work reasonably well.

On the Solo website the advert is on there for a month, in date order, and then automatically falls of the bottom of the list after a month. It is then up to the seller to relist it if it is not sold. This seems to work well as there is no adverts on there for boats that were sold an age ago and even the boats that are sold seem to be updated as such. Maybe this is something we should consider? even if it was 3 months.

12 months seems a long time to leave an out of date advert up. We all know that Merlins are popular and that if they are priced right they seldom remain on the list for more than a month.

I would also apply the same to the second hand list.


Posted: 15/05/2013 09:03:26
By: Jez3719
I currently have a listing on the Solo site and can confirm that one is requested to confirm extension of the one month advert.

It seems to me that it is a proactive way of managing the list.

(Solo 4310, good condition, wood, £3000 ono)


Posted: 16/05/2013 13:58:54
By: steve w
On the Y&Y website we send people an email every 2 weeks - if they don't click the link to confirm the boat is still for sale, then the advert disappears.

If you are an ASP developer with some spare time, I'd love to have you modify the code we use for secondhand adverts.

http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/community/classifieds/list.asp?map=no&ebay=no&keyword=merlin

Posted: 16/05/2013 15:13:44
By: Mags
As someone currently watching the board for MR's for sale, I would have personally found it really useful to have a date added on the listings page. I know it's on the advert, but if I could filter by date added I could at least focus on boats recently added.

On a note to the previous comment regarding development.
Unfortunately I'm not an asp developer, nor do I have asp developers in my web team (I run a marketing agency). Have you considered running the site on an open source PHP based cms system such as wordpress, drupal, concrete5 or drupal? It's usually much easier to find developers that are experienced in these systems.

Piers


Posted: 17/05/2013 10:02:33
By: Piers Barrow
I'll second that.  I've been watching the Second Hand List for a while and it's really dispiriting to find a boat that suits one's requirements and pocket only to be told, 'Oh, is the advert still there?  I sold her AGES ago...'

Well Sir, if you didn't make any effort to remove the advert, where else did you think it would be?


Posted: 17/05/2013 10:48:20
By: Derik Palmer
That is the trouble with all systems where one relies on the owner to remember the 10 different places where he advertised his boat and contact them all! 

Hopefully the Y&Y system avoids this muddle, and hopefully one extra email a fortnight isn't too much for the owners.

P.S. Sorry my email address was wrong above - it should start "web@"


Posted: 17/05/2013 16:02:57
By: Mags
I wasn't asking for a debate, I was mearly stating my intent to tidy it up, I I work with the system I have,  The equipment list is even less user friendly, it is not editable each time an alteration is made the whole advert gets taken down altered and the new one re posted.
12 months too long ? Would 6 or 3 months be preferred ?
Interestingly not one single e-mail has been received,
Please note I am also unable to upload boat photos those have to be passed on and are outside of my control.
Seriously if you know how to modernise the way it works and make life easier for those who try to manage it please speak to mags as I am sure we would all welcome it.


Posted: 17/05/2013 21:54:28
By: FBS
Classic ASP or .NET? The government pays me to sit in an office and write them :-) 
PHP and WordPress are for the hobby sailing club sites that eat up the spare time!
If you really are stuck I'll have a look but no timescales.
Changing something that works as well as the Merlin site over to a completely different system would bring more problems than it solves and take quite a while to set up so I really wouldn't recommend it. We'd have to find or write so many extra bits to manage secondhand and so on it would be a pain.


Posted: 18/05/2013 19:31:09
By: Pat2121
@Pat - Are you serious with that comment or not? I would completely agree with your comment regarding wordpress - however it is exceptionally user friendly and in recent years has become quite a powerful tool in the commercial world. And really easy to use for none web admin savvy users - ideal for websites run by enthusiastic hobbyists. :)

Is there anyone in the association I can discuss helping out with the entire site? I could offer some assistance with sorting the site to a more user friendly and easier system to use. I own a marketing agency that implements websites for global healthcare organisations (I'll pass my details on for review should you want some help). :D


Posted: 24/05/2013 23:53:21
By: Piers Barrow
I administer a number of websites. Mags MR site is excellent and I for one would not like to see it changes significantly; it serves the membership very well. The sh lists may be tricky to handle but I'm sure they are not that difficult!!!! 

The forum is probably among the best I've seen.

I also have experience of clever website people putting websites together for clubs and the like, then never being around when there's a problem. Mags has done us proud and supported us in all respects.

Don't break it just so you can fix it; voluntary help and long term commitment like this is very hard to find.

(I use joomla a lot, but I wouldn't recomend it here, or wordpress for that matter, fine systems though they are)


Posted: 26/05/2013 11:39:27
By: thirty-six
1170 is now sold so can come off the list.


Posted: 26/05/2013 12:31:27
By: Hywel Jnr
Can you please remove the trailer


Posted: 27/05/2013 09:01:42
By: Barnsie

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