Closing of Classifieds - demise of Toymods

[ddeane]

Gidday all

Just thought that I should put my 2 cents worth. I am more than a little concerned that the move to facebook for classifieds and for discussions means the demise of Toymods. The forums are basically the focus of the club especially for those for those of us that live outside of Sydney. I personally find logging onto facebook a waste of time and this was reinforced recently when I tried again to get at the classified pages. They were a mess. I have been a toymods member for many years and the main reason for continuing membership has been the website and the forums. The attraction has now gone and discussions with others show that they agree.

Craig

[Imago]

Forums are definitely where the party is at.

[woggin]

another forum bites the dust. ive offered my services to the board, I am already a moderator on the jzs147 board. facebook can suck a massive wang, i hate it, dont have it, refuse to use it....

everyone seems to be fixated on it, thats why theres so many sales on there, car and non car related.

[Hiro]

another forum bites the dust. ive offered my services to the board, I am already a moderator on the jzs147 board. facebook can suck a massive wang, i hate it, dont have it, refuse to use it....

AGM is next month, feel free to put your hand up for a position

[egamirrorim]

Gidday all

Just thought that I should put my 2 cents worth. I am more than a little concerned that the move to facebook for classifieds and for discussions means the demise of Toymods. The forums are basically the focus of the club especially for those for those of us that live outside of Sydney. I personally find logging onto facebook a waste of time and this was reinforced recently when I tried again to get at the classified pages. They were a mess. I have been a toymods member for many years and the main reason for continuing membership has been the website and the forums. The attraction has now gone and discussions with others show that they agree.

Craig

another forum bites the dust. ive offered my services to the board, I am already a moderator on the jzs147 board. facebook can suck a massive wang, i hate it, dont have it, refuse to use it....

everyone seems to be fixated on it, thats why theres so many sales on there, car and non car related.

The vast majority of parts for sale are listed on eBay and Gumtree, etc. while only a small amount are on Facebook. While the closing of the classifieds section of the forum is not ideal it does not mean the end of the forums/club, if you think that or the loss of the classifieds section is a deal breaker for you then you're probably here for the wrong reasons
FB has two advantages over eBay, etc. in that it pushes new posts, whether they are cool photos of Celicas or cool parts for sale, right into your newsfeed so sellers can reach a lot more potential buyers quicker. With eBay you have to actually search for items proactively. FB is also FREE.
You can "...hate it, dont have it, refuse to use it..." all you like but you will be the one missing out

[Hiro]

FYI, the reasoning behind the closure is here
http://www.toymods.org.au/forums/thr...s-no-new-posts

In particular,

The biggest gripe we get is that forum approvals take too long (and they really do) because we need to go in and manually check addresses etc and approve every single new user. By removing the classifieds we no longer need that layer of accountability and new members can get automatically approved.

The reality is that the forum structure needs to be revised to suit the world of 2015, as social media and mobile phone use has made the old style of forums redundant. We sat down and had a think of how we would build a forum if we were making one now and not ten years ago (whilst also studying the traffic we get through various sections of the forums) and decided that for a forum to make sense today it needs to offer things facebook etc can't do very well - searchability and long term storage of info. Tech threads and members rides are the things that really work on the forums, as you cant have a searchable database of info on facebook nor can you have a detailed blog/log of your build.

Everything else on the forums is fairly irrelevant in this day and age as everyone uses facebook for general shit-talk, organising events, or selling stuff (sorry cuzbro ). Part of the reason for moving to the new software is to get the forums to work better on mobile phones as well, as the current setup is a fucking pain in the balls to use on a phone. Rationalising the number of subsections we have (if you have a look we really do have a fucktonne) also helps with this.

This is an ongoing thing and we may add or remove elements as we work out what works and what doesnt. Feedback is always welcome of course.

Toymods was not, is not and never will be focused on people selling their shit.

Toymods was and always will be about like minded people helping each other out with tech, build threads and car centric discussion. Long long gone are the days where Toymods served as a Viable marketplace for people to peddle their parts. Ebay, Gumtree, Facebook and the long long list of alternate digital play grounds are far better suited. And if you look at the Classified section - there was 7/10's of fuck all for sale or being viewed anyway.

[trdee]

it's da troof

that being said i also mentioned in the other thread that this is constantly under review and nothing is set in stone yet. we will be keeping an eye on forum usage and new applications etc over the next few months to see how things go.

[Willofan]

Toymods Classifieds is not why I am a member of this club, I rarely use it to sell something but I do use it and the search function for something I cannot find elsewhere and sometimes the item has been for sale for a few months when I need it.

To my knowledge Facebook does not have this search function, once it hits your feed and scrolls off to oblivion, then there is no way of finding it again OR you select all Sale Posts, you will get all items listed and have to scroll down to find what you might be looking for (literally hundreds as times goes on). End result, it will be free classifieds where no one sells anything unless there is someone ready to buy there and then.

Besides; I would rather buy something off another member (member helping member) through the forum than buy off a retail site where someone is selling things to make a profit.

No, it's not a deal breaker, but it will be a loss of a great service to it's members. Good luck with this discussion and we hope you make the right decision for the right reasons.

I reckon only financial members should be allowed to advertise on the forum? I guess this idea will kill that long lasting debate at your meetings...

END...

[trdee]

restricting it only to financial members could also be an option perhaps. im not sure what level of oversight that requires but financial members need to have a legit address for membership cards etc and are much less likely to be scammers so it could be a good compromise.... although im guessing i am missing something otherwise we should have done that initially

will check with the rest of the board when im back in the country

[Hiro]

restricting it only to financial members could also be an option perhaps. im not sure what level of oversight that requires but financial members need to have a legit address for membership cards etc and are much less likely to be scammers so it could be a good compromise.... although im guessing i am missing something otherwise we should have done that initially

will check with the rest of the board when im back in the country

People are less willing to pay money to sell if they have another option that is free. Also, at last count we have something like ~60 financial members TOTAL, makes for a pretty quiet classifieds if we don't get significant increases in membership.

[masterofsinanju]

While I agree with Craig's comment about faceballs being arse, Rod's comment about the focus of Toymods sums it up neatly.

I wouldn't mind seeing the parts wanted being retained. Most of us have bits lurking in the garage that we wouldn't put up for sale but would be willing to part with for someone in need.

FWIW, I don't use facebook, nor will I be, because tinfoil hat.

[NME308]

FWIW, I don't use facebook, nor will I be, because tinfoil hat.

??? Pretty sure my tinfoil hat is much thicker than yours and I use bumbook... Under completely fake details while posting nothing personal...

That said the parts section here has got me some useful stuff from time to time and the ability to support fellow members first was always good.

Cheers,
Jason

[TooQik]

Not a Facebook user myself and have no plans to be one.

99% of my visits to Toymods are to view the classifieds section, with that gone my visits will now be tech based only, so few and far between. I also view ebay and Gumtree for parts but there's usually a better chance of finding the parts you want/need/desire on a site specific to your interest.

[frosty]

So, it seems that you are banning the "workers" from advertising their stuff; but will still allow "the suits", aka Forum Sponsors, to advertise theirs ....

[Hiro]

So, it seems that you are banning the "workers" from advertising their stuff; but will still allow "the suits", aka Forum Sponsors, to advertise theirs ....

We're not "banning" anything, simply shifting the focus point for personal sales away from the forums to Facebook (which is what 90% of people have already done anyway). Sponsors (who by the way pay a LOT more per year than financial members, and are a large part of what keeps Toymods close to financially viable at the moment) have always had their own section separate from the classifieds.