Zenith Aircraft Builders and Flyers
Online Community of Zenith Builders and Flyers
Do NOT Place Ads in the Open or Type-Specific Forums!
Recently, we added several engine forums which unfortunately used-up our 15-tab allotment for forums, necessitating eliminating the Classified/For Sale forum tab. However, the Classified/For Sale listings did not go away, they are still accessible (and have always been accessible) by navigating to the Home page (or any Forum page) and scrolling down the right-most column to the "For Sale" box which will contain the Classified Listing link.
We are suddenly having many members post ads in the Open and Type-Specific Forums (701, 750, Cruzer, 801, 601/650). I assume this is due to the absence of the Classified forum tab and they don't know where to find the Classifieds any more. Please do NOT post ads in the Open and Type-Specific Forums! The reason for this is that if a number of ads are placed in these forums, the ads and the responses will "push down" the page the current discussion topics. The Open and Type-Specific Forums are for discussions of topics of interest and not advertisements! "Looking for" and "want to buy" posts are also considered ads and should also be listed in the Classifieds.
There are some ads being placed in the Engine Forums, too. While it would be preferable to place these in the Classifeds/For Sale forum, too, this will be allowed to continue unless the volume starts to dominate these less-used forums. I would point out, however, that an ad placed in the Classified/For Sale area will likely have greater exposure for potential sales, etc.
I have always tried to notify members when a posting has been deleted and the reason why. Due to the volume of inappropriately-place ads, I am going to start deleting them without explanation as I have done everything possible to notify everyone of the problem!
I am going to post this notice across all the forums in hopes that everyone will be notified - as we normally don't allow multiple duplicate posts, I think it is necessary in this case to notify everyone possible. If you feel you must respond to this post, please make all responses in the Open Forum to cut down on cluttering-up the other forums.
I will explore with Sebastien potential solutions to the 15-tab limit and/or more prominent placement of the Classifieds/For Sale forum. I would appreciate your cooperation and understanding.
As always, thanks for your active participation in the Zenith.aero Forums!
John
Zenith.aero Forum Moderator
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ramesh Nori on
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Hi John,
For past few months, the classifieds forums is hidden and has no direct link from menu bar.
Can you help with this ? I remember you mentioning that there were multiple forums opened for engine suppliers and hence the classifieds got lost in abyss.
Perhaps, A hard link to the "classifieds" section can be placed on the main "Forums" page when a user enters.
It is really hard at present for many users to visit this.
Thanks for considering this request and helping many of us on these forums
- Ramesh Nori
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Permalink Reply by John Austin on
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Please re-read my post above. As stated, potential solutions are being explored! For the time being, I have included in my post multiple links to the Classified/For Sale page and will keep this "Featured" in the Open Forum so it should be easy to find.
Thanks,
John
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Permalink Reply by Todd Osborne on
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Hey John, the lack of a link to the classifieds is very annoying, and I suspect most people think it disappeared. I'm not sure why every type of engine needs it's own forum, but the lack of direct link seems to be killing the classifieds, one of my favorite parts of the site. now I realize this is your site and I'm not trying to tell you how to run it, but as a software engineer, people won't use what they can't find.
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This is not my site! It is every Zenith builder's and flyer's site! :>)
Please understand, I simply am a volunteer (actually, Sebastien "volunteered" me!) that acts as a moderator, which means I try (and sometimes fail) to get members to stay within the rules and encourage participation and discussion.
I make no claims to any technical abilities and I do not serve as "webmaster" or have much to do with the construction or modification of the Ning Labs forum template. As I understand it, Sebastien primarily modifies the template as necessary. We are well aware of the problem (that's why I brought it up on the forum!) and are exploring possible solutions.
Some history here: It appears the Ning forum template is not a particularly good one vs other popular forum templates - it's rather clunky with poor search engine features, etc. In the past, there has been discussions as to migrating it to another platform, but then there are issues with losing or archiving all content of these forums. OTOH, Zenith pays the bills and quite to their credit, largely stays out of the forums to let the builders and flyers have discussions without interference or a hard sell from Zenith! So, I, for one, am grateful for what we have!
It would be easy to drop some of the engine forums, but I can assure you, I would be inundated with complaints. The truth is, we are victims of habit and the Classifieds have always been listed with the discussion forums, even though in truth, it is not a really a true "discussion forum." I completely understand that ease of access and placement of the link is critical. This is in discussion, but it takes time since occasionally Sebastien has to build some airplane kits! ;>)
Obviously, we'll have to deal with the tab limit as who knows, tomorrow someone may introduce the "WhizzBang 2000" engine that is the perfect engine for the Cruzer and we'll need a forum for it!
My original posts with multiple links to the Classifieds is just the "band-aid" for now.
Thanks again for everyone's participation in the Forums!
John
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Permalink Reply by Steven Ward on
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John, thank you for all you do here, as moderator and member. You are an incredibly talented builder, I am huge fan of all the "Austin mods" you have shared with us. Keep up the great work!
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Permalink Reply by Joe Scheibinger on
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John, has there been a fix for the classified forum? Now is the time I am looking for some instruments and an engine package. What is the future of the classified section or if there is one, how do I access it?
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Joe,
The Classifieds are alive and well with new ads popping up very frequently! If you'll carefully read my first post in this discussion, there are no less than 5 links to the Classifieds. Also, on any page of this website, you can scroll over to the right-hand column and scroll down till you see the box "Zenith Aircraft for Sale" that also contains the link "Classified Listing." Clicking either of the blue links in the box will take you to the Classifieds.
Happy bargain hunting in the Classifieds!
John
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Thanks!
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