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I’m more annoyed I didn’t post an ad for my used twice, boxed, near new black Burgtec Mk4 Ti pedals for £80 posted plus PayPal fees just before the old classifieds were closed.
They would have stayed up at the top of the page until the old classifieds vanished.
On the bright side, that there subtle-as-a-Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster stealth ad looks destined to stay at the top of this page.
What's that bez, how much are the pile of spares I have here, what spares I hear you say but this impressive spares box I've chosen to photograph for my new thread on bike parts in photos.
Though shame the text editor can't handle text....
Can;t see classifieds... just a blank screen with search criteria - waste of time
Turn your adblocker off and the full wonder will be revealed. 🙂 They probably need to include a message for poor souls who chance upon it from some other part of the internet and wonder why it just appears broken.
Something changed then? I could see the ads a couple of days ago but not now.
Seems to have changed today. Firefox with no adblocker shows an empty page for me. Sure that it will be sorted for everyone soon.
Ironic that the ads in the sidebar are still shown 🙂
Another nail
I assumed that the web developer that made the recent forum changes was either the kid of one of STW's owners or had some sort of hold on them. Other than that, I cannot see any earthly reason why they are still in a job.
If adblocking is the issue and the response is to quote T’s and C’s, it will be an interesting research project into just how many people are prepared to compromise their systems to visit a website.
kid of one of STW’s owners
Well, they do have the same surname... 🤔
Sure that it will be sorted for everyone soon.
Very good!
<p>Working for me! (and it's not often I get to say that)</p>
^^^^ Ha, working you say!?
<p><p>Yup, working just fine.</p></p><p></p><p>The classifieds that is, not this random code nonsense.</p>
<p>Working for me! (and it’s not often I get to say that)</p>
How on earth do those tags appear when you're just typing a reply without quoting or anything? I don't think I've seen that happen with anyone else.
Well going against the grain here, I think its an improvement over the old system!
Sure its not perfect (and they have said it is WIP) but I had success quickly selling my Cotic via the new Singletrack system, whereas eBay was rife with tyrekickers and silly offers...
If you can’t see any ads try disabling your ad blocker.
Message I get from the classifieds. No I won't disable my ad blocker, last time I done that I was bombarded with dodgy pop ups and porn ads. Don't trust this site to view it in the office with no ad blocker.
Porn ads you say? You do realise these targeted ads are based on your browsing history don't you? I obviously only see ads for basket weaving supplies, jigsaw puzzles, and train spotting guides. 😉
I don't browse porn at work. Well, not since political correctness went mad anyways...
Blank for me too. I subscribe but I'm not turning my adblocker off just for this site to function as whenever I get signed out if then becomes slow and getting to the log in screen is a pain.
So no classifieds browsing for me!
Scotroutes - I have no idea, its something to do with the browser at work, it's Chrome but running via Browsium Catalyst which selects between it and IE depending what we are doing. I have raised the issue but had no response.
Interesting, it would seem adblock is the issue, we have ad blocking at work as well but it's not giving issues.
Okay so I disabled adblock. First issue was an unresponsive script that completely bored the page. Once that was stopped it loaded fine with no other ads..
Fix the script issue already, that was happening months ago! Otherwise classifieds look fine.
whenever I get signed out if then becomes slow and getting to the log in screen is a pain.
It’s like a little adventure every time.
Can you click the login link before the GDPR dialog sticks a layer over it?
Will the ad scripts make the browser keel over before the login button even appears?
At this point I was going to post a Banzai “place bets now” gif but apparently the forum won’t let me paste a URL 🙄
Frankly it’s a joke. Let’s break something that’s not broken and leave the already broken stuff...just because we ‘think’ we can earn money from it
The beauty of STW classifieds was it’s simplicity and it’s uniqueness
Just this. It was like walking through a bike jumble sale rather than going into Argos (for bikes).
I've cancelled my P it's a joke using this site these days since the site improvements. I rarely read the mag just got the P to browse a bit easier (that went well) and give some money for the site
If I have to disable my ad blocker to use the classifieds then that's the final nail in the coffin for me. I hope this is just a technical error that will be fixed on Monday.
I'm sure the classifieds will be developed over time into something we can all be happy with. Give it time.
I can't see any new posts, just the same ones that were posted days ago?
Have you scrolled down passed the pink fs bike, the skoda etc to get to the new ads? The paid ads show first with a very subtle blue shade
I quite like the new classified ads and understand STW needed to monetise the site in another way, rather than rely solely on ads and subscriptions.
They’ve been sitting on a gold mine for a while, seeing as searching for almost anything via google (car advice, home DIY, hot air ballooning etc) inevitably leads back to the STW forums. The classified section alone has had 375k topics started, across almost 5k pages. So fair play, it’s their site, and they’re trying.
That said, what I don’t like is their recent 100% increase in price for a 30 day listing. From £5 (reasonable) to £9 is a bit much, too soon. In my book it’s still in its infancy and £9 is a bit rich for a new ‘product’ that needs some serious tweaking before it justifies that. The UX and dev of the section needs some cleaning up (ads jumping around on page reload, etc) before they shoud start upping prices!
I'd have thought that the old links might have been removed by now. It must be very confusing for new/infrequent users.
Please fix it!
I thought the old one was the probably the best UK classified ads page, plus it was fair for all - free, quick and easy to skim read, no bumping (so I don't know how p-jay's bumping worked because they removed that ability many years ago).
The new one is a little bit turd, I don't even bother with it now even though I'm looking for some kit. Maybe things could have been done differently - make buying free, but to sell you have to pay a tiny fee or be a member.
Even days or weeks when I didn't have time to read the rest of the forum I would still flick through the ads and typically get sucked into reading more overview posts than I had planned to, now I pop in here maybe once a week at most.
I want everything perfect, immediately and free!!
22 FS posts today.
Pretty good going.
Love a good stat there Drac.... Is that up or down for your average Sunday? Given the old ones are turned off it's probably to be expected.
But I might be missing the obvious but when I go to look at them I don't see any ads in the main page, I click a catgagory and see nothing except the tiny list in a column on the right after the crap ADVERTS that I pay to not see. So what am I missing?
Average. Yes old ones are off but it appears people are using the new one just as much.
Not sure Mike from what I gather add blockers seem to block out the classified posts.
it appears people are using the new one just as much
To be fair, that stat only reflects seller traffic. Would be interesting to know what the buyer traffic looks like.
Good point but selling depends on items and the prices too but it's a big help if people can actually see the posts of course.
To be fair, that stat only reflects seller traffic. Would be interesting to know what the buyer traffic looks like.
This.
It'll be interesting to see what the usage is like in a month.
I'd be pretty miffed off if id paid for a priority posting with a pale blue background that nobody can see. Are you going to offer refunds ?
They have no idea if 22 ads is good or bad to be honest. No way of nowing how many people have stopped posting as a consequence. What’s clear is there is no back peddling. STW see classifieds as an income stream....long term we will see if it actually generates a revenue given the paid ads have not grown this weekend...
Not sure Mike from what I gather add blockers seem to block out the classified posts.
I assume the team found that in the testing.... as usual
What is just as frustrating is STW seem to have found a way to bypass the ad blockers and send ads to "P" users while blocking the ones from actual users...
It's not just ad blockers, doesn't show any content in some browsers too. I'm getting a very different visitor experience depending on the device and the browser.
I assume the team found that in the testing…. as usual
It never appeared in the tetsing I know that much many other bugs did, I don't think there were any reports either while it ran alongside the old one.
That might be a clue after the main forum update that some more imagination is required in the testing process.
I only want someone to buy my Pike 🙁
So it's now more broken?
When I looked a couple of days ago I could see the ads with my adblocker on. I've just been to have a looks at those Pikes and I can't see any of the ads. I'm not turning my adblocker off for anyone.
Doesn't work for me at all with Firefox. If I have blockers on using Chrome, I don't see any adverts at all - just the search form and then pages 1>whatever shortlink boxes.
I thought I'd try an ad to see what the process was like - luckily I chose a free ad 'cause I'd be p*ssed if I paid for something that's clearly not working. Zero interest anyway over the two days it was on the front page, so it'll be back to the other usual suspects for any buying or selling for me - shame, but it's STW Towers perogative so good luck to them.
Was looking for a road chainset. Search brought up 4 chainsets, none of them for road bikes. There use to be loads for sale in the old classified, so either I can't now find them, or no one is using it anymore.
This thread will be closed if it's used for stealth ads.
And cue to morons trying to get the thread closed!
Ironically more people posting on this thread this evening than listing items in the classifieds! Where as the food old days Sunday was great day for listing kit!
And cue to morons trying to get the thread closed!
Better than a load of moaning cockbags so set in their ways that they can't accept change and throw their toys out of their prams instead.
could anyone use this?
It looks better than the old classifieds which were dreadful.
Hopefully it'll encourage people to sign up and post their stuff!
More likely to use ebay or facebook I imagine though.
Better than a load of moaning cockbags so set in their ways that they can’t accept change and throw their toys out of their prams instead.
So is it moaning to point out I can't see the ads? Bar set low this evening.... It would probably be a start is somebody could post some pics of what it's meant to look like just in case people have mistaken what they are seeing for the real thing.
Better than a load of moaning cockbags so set in their ways that they can’t accept change and throw their toys out of their prams instead.
Better a moaning cock bag with an opinion then a douche bag without!
Looks good to me
So as you can see bit of a problem here
Obviously not going to be that helpful to anyone who wants to sell stuff, or those conned into paying for invisible ads. But still this is just whinging and all that isn't it.
Looks good to me
I can see those fine. It's the rest that don't show up.
I don't mind change if it is a an improvement. Websites that don't work for the users tend to end up without users which is good for no-one. I'm not going to buy your bike, even if it is exactly what I want, if a) I can't see it or b) I've given up and gone to pinkbike. Okay everyone on there thinks their 4 year frameset is worth 98% of it s new value but at least I can see that over there.
Not to mention the first page of absolute overpriced garbage! If and when you actually get on to the ads....but don’t worry STW won’t turn off the exsistingbclassified forum until these issues are fixed....oh wait! Sorry as a moaning cock bag perhaps I expected more for my subscription
Same as this for me too. Plus neither the search or clicking on the categories listed bring up any ads.
Is it too soon to blame the E-bike that's apparently been listed?
😉
and the deals of the day which aren't adverts in stw eyes, but they are paid for adverts which P users still have to endure
FWIW, I'm not too fussed about the layout of the Classifieds section. I can see that there are pros and cons (Bez covered it really well). However, if I'd paid to have something listed and then found out that a significant portion of the readership weren't seeing the ad due to a poor implementation I'd be looking for a refund.
<p>It never appeared in the tetsing I know that much many other bugs did, I don’t think there were any reports either while it ran alongside the old one.</p>
<p>As said it worked fine before the switch.</p>
Looks like Gumtree to me... I'll be equally disinclined to use it as i am Gumtree.
The great thing about the old classifieds was scanning 50 adverts in about 30s for the parts you wanted, you could be in and out in 45s and know whether anyone had advertised the bits you wanted. Now you're scrolling through Gumtree'esque rubbish instead.
I don't like it at all.
The great thing about the old classifieds was scanning 50 adverts in about 30s for the parts you wanted, you could be in and out in 45s and know whether anyone had advertised the bits you wanted. Now you’re scrolling through Gumtree’esque rubbish instead.
+1
And I’m not sure its me but the front page has been the same for about a week now, so I’m not actually sure if the listings are changing... how do I refresh it?
And I’m not sure its me but the front page has been the same for about a week now, so I’m not actually sure if the listings are changing… how do I refresh it?
The ads at the top are paid for ones which will stay there for a set out of time.
Thanks
How do I easliy get to a list of new ones each time I log in?
How do I easliy get to a list of new ones each time I log in?
By scrolling past the ones with the blue background
Bit annoying that people are putting one item in clearout ads!!
geex
Same as this for me too. Plus neither the search or clicking on the categories listed bring up any ads.
*Ahem* adblocker. Mine did the same.
It shows a blank page for me too, always has. I thought this was because people hadn't started using the new system yet.
Perhaps it is a good thing and will stop me buying shit I don't need?
It would be much better IMO if there was the option to filter out those boosted ads.
But then why would you pay to Boost your Ad if it's not at the top ?
I assume you lot don't go into the supermarket when they've put a display of Christmas chocolates at the front and you're there because you want to go to the bakery section?
It’s a really odd system because (a) £9 or whatever it is is a lot of money for an ad and (b) the more boosted ads are sold, the wise the forum becomes for buyers, and fewer buyers means less demand means fewer sellers means less competition means less point in spending £9 for an ad. If boosts sell well enough, they’ll occupy the entire first page, and then people are really going to think no-one’s posting new ads any more. As it stands, success dooms it to failure.
I have to wonder whether it would work better to intersperse the boosted ads—semi-randomly—with the main list, but make them visually prominent rather than barely distinguishable (and therefore confusing, because it seems many people, myself included, initially just assumed the listings were broken—you don’t get introduced to the concept of a boosted ad until you actually try to create one).
That way (a) the ads would stand out more (google the pop-out effect, and also try viewing the current visual treatment on a low-rent monitor where the top end of the tonal range often gets clipped…), (b) the listings wouldn’t appear to be broken, (c) the concept of boosted ads could be made explicit as part of the visual emphasis, (d) buyers wouldn’t have to scroll through the same crap every time just to look at the list, (e) the inconsistency from one visit to the next would mean boosted content won’t get skimmed over anything like as much, and thus (f) people wouldn’t be paying £9 to have their ad filed in a section which, for many people, is the one they look at least: for browsers like me, people are paying £9 not to have their ad looked at. Currently the visual treatment and placement for sold items is more effective than for boosted ads, which is a whole world of boggle.