- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
The Classifieds was a very generous concept, but it seems to be failing at its true intent. Advertisements are usually directed to the classifieds, which helps keep the forums clean, but once there, nobody sees the advertisements.
Before today, the only time I ever went into the classifieds was to post an advertisement for a group I had started. I suspect this to be true of many other members as well. Today I went there to look at some ads. I found a couple of groups that I didn't want to join, some clans I didn't want to join, and some external Halo forums I didn't want to join. That is a perfectly acceptable conclusion.
However, there are some problems. The obvious problem is that more people go to the classifieds to advertise than to read advertisements. Don't call me on fictitious information :) . However, on an aesthetic note, there were still problems.
The forum's set-up, while well conceived for discussion, doesn't seem to work so well for advertisements. The advertisements are all over the place, and once they sink below the first page, they're effectively lost forever. The more worthy, well-written advertisements sink below things like this:
bump please someone join.
***BUMP***
For the most part, the advertisements tell me nearly nothing about the group (or clan). All I have is the poster's word that "we're active". Testimonials would be nice, if not for the bumping.
It would also be nice if advertisements had updates. Some groups really grow from the lame advertisement they place in the classifieds, but you'd never know that from the ad. I would love updating advertisements (if I visited the Classifieds more often), but that would be either bumping or completely ignored (since edits don't bump posts).
I don't have any comprehensive ideas for a better system, but a rotating advertisement would be nice (with proper precautions to avoid advertising dead groups), along with updates and testimonials of some sort. Thoughts?