Choosing a Marketplace Layout

[Kestryll]

As much as I like the idea of splitting the Marketplace I'm not sure I'm happy with the Long Gun/Handgun split.
There are several threads that have both a handgun and a long gun, what happens to them and do we make/allow multiple threads per user one in each forum?

I need to think about this a bit, as difficult as it is I think a North/South split might be better in the long run.

I can see it working one of two ways:
A stated line, if you're above Fresno it's Nor cal, below Fresno it's So Cal.
Or a seller based option, if you consider where you live So Cal post it in that forum, same for Nor Cal Calgunners.

I'm going to discuss this with the Mods but in addition to that I want to see what the people who use the marketplace prefer.

[seal20]

I think a type of firearm split is more user friendly. Yes, users will post in each section if they have a long gun and a pistol for sale. Just like now, posting accessories and the firearm in separate sections with multiple threads.

[tbblizzard]

NorCal/SoCal split would be preferred.

[SanDiegoMan]

I agree a regional split makes sense. Most sellers these days don't want to ship.

[DocSpaulding]

Yeah, the log gun/handgun split is nice but with most people posting multiple firearms it dose not make sense to kill space with the two while if you split it geographical/seller choice(might be out of town for the month.) you make it a hole lot easier for the end user to figure out weather he is in a location that even allows for the meet. After all how many times have we all seen the infamous "location?" bump.lol

[thomashoward]

I had a pistol listing that ended up in long-guns. I had to migrate it myself.
Long gun /short gun split is OK. people still do not put North or South in their post heading though. cant have everything or there would be 50 forums

[Gryff]

Geographic split makes a LOT of sense, since anything more than 100 miles away from a buyer is pretty much a deal breaker since it takes two trips to buy the gun/take possession of it.

[Mr. Magoo]

Option 3 is for me.

[DrjonesUSA]

I'm torn, I like the long gun/handgun split, but it's true that many sellers don't want to ship.

Then again, it's also kind of nice to just see everything in one forum too...

[STR8 Shooter]

Metro area filtering

Geographic split makes a LOT of sense, since anything more than 100 miles away from a buyer is pretty much a deal breaker since it takes two trips to buy the gun/take possession of it.

I agree, but it needs to be limited to major metro areas, like how Craigslist is set up. I wouldn't travel half the state to make a deal happen.

[CSACANNONEER]

It really needs to be split up into only two categories, What CSA is going to buy and everything else. I'm just tired of looking through adds for items I don't want and this would help me to stop wasting time.

BTW, I've driven to the Bay Area and Sac. to buy items and even to deliver them so, I don't like the idea of a geographic split at all. In fact, I tend to drive 6-8 hours North far more often than 2 hours South. Since I'm usually just looking for a deal, I'd rather not have to look too many places for it. I say, leave it in one big forum.

[bender152]

I like the split between handguns and long guns. Just as we do now, allow one active "for sale" thread in each section.

As for location, are there any vbulletin mods that would require the poster to specify location before being able to create a new thread?

-edit- Here's an idea... if you can make the "post icons" required (these are the icons that show up to the left of the thread title), you can edit the icon images to represent different sections of CA. (Make them images that say "norcal", "socal", "central", etc.)

[micf3e]

I voted for the long gun/hand gun split. The more I think about it the north/south split is probably better. I have found many guns I would have jumped on but they end up being to far to meet.

[BlackSpork]

IMHO leave it one big forum or hg/lg split. My reasoning is this, sometimes when I'm looking for something, I come across something else I want that I wasn't looking for and end up buying that. This happened when I was looking for my next glock, I found the perfect deal on my xds.

MODS;
It's like accidental advertising. Also, if we enforce "location" somehow that would solve that question. Or maybe make "location in heading" mandatory.

[2nab]

I think there is a large enough market to see a rimfire only split. Allow a user to have one thread in each rimfire and centerfire.

North vs South CA is tough but possible (many travel both or live in middle, will ship, etc.).
but I see the handgun vs long gun working as long as users can post in each. It is more work for those browsing to buy.

I do think that rimfire vs centerfire is a cleaner line to split the forums with.

Previous poster referenced location. While location in title is visible, a drop down catergory for "region" within the same forum would be extremely valuable for searching or browsing. Simply require each sale thread to pick from a predetermined choice of region.