FerrariAds.com - Just not Cutting it...

Hi everyone. At the risk of being a malcontent, I would like to formally propose to Rob and everyone here that the classifieds be rolled into the forums. The classifieds section on my Porsche forums is really hopping, primarily because we have it setup in this format:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=5

I offer up as "factual proof" that this is a good idea. I was up until recently running the same software that Rob is running on FerrariAds.com (e-Classifieds). Just two weeks ago, I removed the software for ads for cars, and instead incorporated it into the forums. Now, posts (ads) are up about 400%, and they are getting *a lot* more views.

The "parts" section of FerrariAds is especially paltry, considering the outlet, and considering the amount of parts that you can find on eBay. many of the people who post on my site say they do it there instead of eBay because it's much, much, much easier, and there is a large targeted group of people. Plus, it's much easier to search through the ads.

Again, not to sound haughty, but I am talking from direct experience here. With postings, you can post followup info, post more than one picture, and have people ask questions and comments on the listing right there. See the "Porsches For Sale" section of my site (link above) for more clarification on what I mean...

Of course, the final decision is up to Rob...

-Wayne

 

Who is this Rob guy everybody keep talking about? I thought we owned F-Chat? Where's a Maranellodave "OWNED" pic when you need one.

 

You asked for it, YOU GOT IT, Dale!!!

And a well-deserved Rob Lay......
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You da man!

Hey, you don't have an "after" pic do you?

 

Rob,
Wayne's a good guy and a Ferrari fan, well known in the Porsche circles. I don't think he's promoting, just that his (high traffic) site has found a way that has really been effective and he's offering a suggestion with a visual aid.

I think it's a good idea, not that I'm in the market at the moment. But I rarely visit FerrariAds.com and am on Fchat several times a day.

My 2,000,000 lira....

Mark

 

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Down boy. Nice doggie. Don't bite da man, nice dogg-i-e-e-e!

Actually Rob, I remember Wayne from my P-days. His site is the F-Chat of P cars, and I don't think that he is trying to pull a JR on you. (Sorry, I didn't mean to mention that name. I'll never do it again. I promise.) I think he is just trying to help because, to be frank, I tend to forget the Ferrari ads because they are not more out front. Maybe Wayne's idea has some merit. Now Down Boy! Okay you @$#% dog, dat's it. Here comes the stick.

Dale

 

It took a little while to get it. But get it I did. ROTFL.

 

He saw the light and sold his 911SC and 356 to buy a 308GTS

Hello Everyone (Newbie, well sortof)...

.

 

I wish to offer a rebuttal to the position that the classified ads are ineffective.

I advertised my F355B and within 24 hours I had almost a dozen replies, three which followed up with subsequent contact and one who purchased my car, all within 5 days of posting the ad.

I think that people in the market, seriously seeking a car, who are F Chatters, go to the ads.

Thanks Rob - the classifieds worked very well for me.

 

You're out of line Rob. I have offered you many suggestions, and help on how to improve FerrariChat.com - mostly off line. Despite people asking for these features, you have not taken my suggestions.

I'm looking to improve the site here at FerrariChat. Frankly, I don't need to promote my own site, we already have 1 million plus posts, extremely high rankings, and are very well known amongst the Porsche circles. To suggest that I'm here soley to promote my own site - well that's an insult, and quite presumptuous. I'm here because I bought a 308, and I thought I would join the community here.

FORGIVE ME for trying to improve the forums here. Hmph, it would seem that the people here are beginning to live up to the "Ferrari Owner's Reputation." As I told Rob in an email a while ago, I have a lot of experience in running these forums, and have done years and years of tweaking and trying different combinations (including the Ad-serving software that we used to be running on our site).

This post was prompted by the sorry showing in the Parts section of FerrariAds.com, as I was looking for a few things for my 308. Other than eBay, there is no other outlet for Ferrari parts.

To suggest that I need to promote my site here is laughable. Geez, I wish people would take their head out of the sand long enough to see that I'm trying to help.

-Wayne

 

To heck with it - I'll post it.

I emailed Rob (on my own account) about 2-3 months ago, asking him if he had any questions or needed any help with the forum or customizing to let me know.

I also saw people requesting multiple image posting, at which time I emailed Rob my own custom-written script from my site that allows you to post multiple images in a thread (and keep them out of the database and keep the database size down). After emailing back and forth, I guess Rob decided not to implement it because in his words "I want all images stored locally." I disagree with this, but this is his site. There is no problem with non-local hosting on my site, and because of this restriction, people can't post multiple images to a post (annoying).

So, does this sound like someone who fits this description?

"And what interest do you have in FerrariChat.com besides promoting your own site?"

Rob will probably end up deleting this thread now anyways.

-Wayne

 

Whoops, my bad. Like my mama always said, "Der's at least three sides to every story." I didn't realize that there had been some prior discussion on this point. Putting tail between legs and heading to bed...

 

I certainly don't "know it all" and if you check my own board, I continually (almost annoyingly) ask for suggestions and feedback from my users. I by no means intend to be condescending. By posting comments like "millions of posts", etc. it is simply to quantify my qualifications for making a recommendation. Everyone one and their uncle (on these types of boards, mine especially) seems to have an opinion on how things should work. The only reason I mention anything having to do with Pelican is because I've been down those roads before, and learned a few lessons which I'm willing to share.

As for the broken images thing - I have found that about 95% of the people using the board have posted images locally. So, you're talking about the potential for 5% of the archives to be missing images, versus the ability to post multiple images. I guess we disagree here, but I would rather have multiple images in posts than worry about the potential for broken images on 5% of the posts).

Getting back to the original discussion of the Ads section, I've been running e-Classifieds to post the car ads, and it's been very sparsely populated over the past 2 years or so. In direct contrast, our parts classifieds has been extremely active. Feedback from my users is that this is because the forum is much easier and quicker to use than the e-Classifieds, especially for used parts ads. We just canned e-Classifieds altogether, and the feedback from my users has been good. My suggestion would be to try it out on the used parts ads - when I checked there today, there wasn't much there, and when I checked last month, there wasn't much there either...

My advice is only worth what you pay for it - nothing in this case. Do as you will with it. I did go back through my old emails to Rob, and noticed that I never did mention that I had picked up a 308 (still own 2 other Porsches and way too many BMWs).

-Wayne

 

I can see both sides - U both run nice sites.

As for the images, I think it is very important to save all the images. How many times has someone asked a quetion and the answer was, "It was discussed before, check the archives." I think the information is great & the pictures are golden & I would hate to see them replaced with x's. I'll spend some extra time posting images for that.

 

I'm surprised that none of the "old-timers" of F'Chat mentioned earlier on, that there was a "Classified" page, within the home page alongside all of the other topics (ie: "Gen. Discussion", "Tech Q&A", "Racing", "Classifieds", etc...).

The whole idea of the separate site was to handle the load of all of the ads that were pouring into the "Classified" section, thus, Rob created: FerrariAds.com... As far as I can remember (since I'm one of those "old-timers"), it worked well.

 

...Actually, now that I think about it, the section was named "For sale", not "Classified"...

 

Greetings:

I have to say that I had been about to make the same request that Wayne did.

I had noticed that some other boards had classifieds listed just as the other topics, i.e, general dissusion, technical, and had much more selling & buying activity. I won't go into exactly what boards, so as not to step on anyone's toes...

However, I don't know if that's because of the way FC has it set up, or simply because there is less interest in buying and selling used Ferrari parts compared to say, a Fiero. Yes, there is a very large forum for Fieros.

After the change in the board format, (and after I returned) it did not appear immediately apparent just where to find that feature...

 

Rob, how about if we can upload our images to YOUR server instead of some photohosting site or our own provider webspace. Then use the IMG tag.

 

Just my take on this - I can see both sides too.

My suggestion would be to make FerrariAds into a forum as well. But the sponsors would get dibs and any commercial reselling would necessitate sponsorship. This would ensure that not just any random commercial reseller or manufacturer can come along and post.

I believe as individuals it should be a quick and easy thing to say: WTB and FS (wanted to buy & for sale, if you couldn't tell) and then a particular part or item. This can be an easy way for 1) people to locate parts and 2) for sponsors and others sell of items with ease by posting it. Sometimes items are bought under impulse, and others are bought under time and patience. So, for this reason, I can see someone like X-vendor posting up a deal or a two day sale on X-product.

It just an idea. But then again, if you did this, you'd have to divide it up between cars for sale/wanted and parts for sale/wanted.

I don't mind the format of FerrariAds at all, I just don't think it is viewed as much as a for sale/wanted forum would be.