I will state that I have never been one of the most active traders on the site, but I have not done a normal trade resulting from the forum since the listings were taken off the main page. I’ve only done March Madness for beer (because puzzl knew I wanted in and signed me up) and a trade through a local forum and I feel this is largely because of the change.
I know everyone laughed about it only being one extra click to go to the Trade forum, but to be perfectly honest I don’t do it. Unless there is a specific beer I’m looking for or looking to get rid of, I don’t bother with the Trade Forum.
Prior to the change, the majority of my trades would come when I would see an "ISO: something I have" thread pop up on the main page and I’d click it and see what they are offering and see if I’ve got anything else on their want list I could hook them up with, etc. I didn’t sign on to RB that day thinking about doing a trade, but here I am BMing someone to set one up. I think with the threads being off the main page you’ve lost that sort of spontaneous trading which I really enjoyed.
The solution is simply to find a way to allow users to choose which forums show up in their main page feed. I really don’t know how difficult of a task this would be, but I suspect it could be done in half the amount of time that has been spent bickering about this decision.
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i think eveyrone knows how i feel.although unless something is going to be changed.i dont even see why we are discussing it.
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Just imaging all of the DL Day threads plus all of the DL ISO/FT threads both on the main page at the same time!
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I was for taking the trade threads out of the recent topics before it happened, but I was never for doing it the way it was done. Personally, the solution above does seem like it would be a pretty good thing to me. Something else that might work though would be to shorten the Recent Topics on the main page to ~15, and then create a Recent Trade Requests below that, which would only show recent trade forum threads. Not a huge deal to me either way, but I think that it could help bring a little attention back to the trade forums.
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That would be the best!
ukin013
I will state that I have never been one of the most active traders on the site, but I have not done a normal trade resulting from the forum since the listings were taken off the main page. I’ve only done March Madness for beer (because puzzl knew I wanted in and signed me up) and a trade through a local forum and I feel this is largely because of the change.
I know everyone laughed about it only being one extra click to go to the Trade forum, but to be perfectly honest I don’t do it. Unless there is a specific beer I’m looking for or looking to get rid of, I don’t bother with the Trade Forum.
Prior to the change, the majority of my trades would come when I would see an "ISO: something I have" thread pop up on the main page and I’d click it and see what they are offering and see if I’ve got anything else on their want list I could hook them up with, etc. I didn’t sign on to RB that day thinking about doing a trade, but here I am BMing someone to set one up. I think with the threads being off the main page you’ve lost that sort of spontaneous trading which I really enjoyed.
The solution is simply to find a way to allow users to choose which forums show up in their main page feed. I really don’t know how difficult of a task this would be, but I suspect it could be done in half the amount of time that has been spent bickering about this decision.
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It could look something like this.
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Sounds like a good idea.
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i dont understand what the big deal is. is everyone here too lazy to clikc "trade forum" to see what is being offered up??? wouldnt it then be your fault the forums are dying as you say, since you are relying on the main page to tell you whats in the forum as opposed to actually looking in the trade forum.
i will admit...since the change whenever ive posted a ISO thread i havent gotten as many BMs (i never got many responses in the thread anyway), but thats not my fault. im putting it up there for all of you to see...but because you wont go into the trade forum on your own im being ignored.
also, the trade forum has shifted from trading for beer to trading for rare or obscure beers. seems like the only thing anyone wants is the newest hot release (darkness, sexual chocolate, DL, etc) and not anything else...and in turn people are getting turned off by what they have to give up just to get those beers. it shouldnt have to be rare beer for rare beer...it should be good beer for good beer. not everyone across this country has access to a brewery with new special releases, but as a community we should be willing to share these beers with everyone...not just those who are willing to pay a huge price (generally more than its worth) for it.
p.s. the BA forums are busier in general...homebrew, trade, whatever...so dont compare it to BA. if you like BA more, go there...otherwise...you can stay here with us. i personally cant stand there forum layout, and a lot of the people there rub me the wrong way...which is why im on ratebeer 95% to 5% on BA
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I’d like to see a subscribe feature, personally.
In the interim, I like the new "look" of the trade forums. There’s been much less bullshit since the trade forum disappeared from the side bar and it hasn’t had any impact on the amount of trading I do.
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It’s also nice to see topics on the side bar that are actually about beer and not see a million ISO and FT side bar topics anymore and I’m more inclined to use this forum now than I was before the trade and have done less behind the scenes trades since the change and I need to see how much further I can take this run on sentence with no punctuation.
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