Why doesn't Wilderness Survival Forums

**hoosierarcher** · 03-27-2009, 12:20 AM

Not have a classified ads section where we could offer extra gear we might have or items we make to other forum members?
Seems like a good idea to me. Also how does someone become a sponsor? I'd like to offer ASAT Camouflauge to members at a 5% discount(sorry but the markup on it isn't huge so 5% is all I can do.) Also I have a supply of different raw materials for projects I'd like to offer.

**catfish10101** · 03-27-2009, 12:32 AM

Many sites have opted not to have these sections because of the abuse they get. People who never use the site will post repeatedly items that have nothing to do with what the forum is about. Some people feel the need to post their item 400 times a day. Companies will post their ads, or try to post under the impression of a person, but selling their products. Also, Hackers with crawler programs love to scan classified sections for emails and phone numbers (ever wonder how you win the UK lottery EVERY FREAKIN DAY?). There are other reasons, but I'm not going to get into them.
I do not know why this site has chosen not to have it, but I do understand if they never do it.

**hoosierarcher** · 03-27-2009, 02:29 AM

Catfish, I didn't know ALL that but I would be willing to be the Moderator for the classifieds and we could easily have some security made more easy by before a classified ad can be posted it has to be submitted to the Moderator, verified to be a real person not a big company via an email/phone call by the moderator. Also keep it simple and small. Not more then say 10 ads at one time. No paypal used just direct mail between parties; etc.

**crashdive123** · 03-27-2009, 07:16 AM

Chris has kind of addressed this in the past - but more specifically a trade or barter section. Here's a thread (that got off track rather quickly) that has a couple of links to other threads where it was discussed. Looks like these more addressed individual stuff rather than retail.

**Rick** · 03-27-2009, 08:58 AM

You really don't want to be the moderator of a classified or trader. It's a huge pain the fingers. As catfish said, spammers can keep you really busy. Everytime someone comes up with a "surefire" security device six spammers figure out how to get around it. Even captcha doesn't work anymore.

I had a forum on my site and despite keeping it upgraded to the latest version of software, implementing all the security features recommended and closely monitoring it every day it still got hacked. I finally took it down. What a pain in the fingers it was.

**hoosierarcher** · 03-27-2009, 11:42 AM

OK, Sorry I brought it up.

**Barefoot** · 03-27-2009, 08:26 PM

i dont know, i am on several other sites that have classified sections with lots of volume going through them. i have no idea how the moderators keep spam off but it seems to happen rarely. also, there are rarely any problems with fraud type stuff. normally it is just someone who feels like the item was not described fully or something and that rarely happens.

ever since the "charlie wenzel" incident on pirate 4x4 (google search wenzled to learn about this) people being ripped off on forums has drastically decreased.

enjoy!

**Rick** · 03-27-2009, 11:35 PM

That is an amazing thread. I spent about an hour reading through it. Sad, really 'cause he was a kid and didn't sound all that stable. Still, he was way wrong. I had never heard of the kid before. He's even part of the Lexicon. "Hey man, be careful you don't get Wenzelled."

**catfish10101** · 03-29-2009, 12:28 AM

Even if you can keep the spam in check, you will never be able to keep the crawlers from feeding off your members' information that is posted in the forums.

**Madrox** · 03-31-2009, 10:50 AM

Make it so you have to have X # of posts to be able to post in the classified section. Say 20 or 50 for example. By the time someone gets to that many posts it will be fairly obvious if they are a spammer. I'm on a few vehicle forums that do that, seems to keep spam low for that section.