Why No Classified Sticky Here?

The way things are now, if I want to sell something, I can't say so in a thread or some self-appointed guardian of the flame will delete my post as spam. The fact that people on fixed incomes and/or lacking insurance could benefit from cheaper used gear doesn't seem to be considered.

I have to wait until someone in some thread says they need something and then pm them. This is not efficient for either seller or potential buyer.

Since there are those who feel strongly about forum members offering gear for sale in the regular threads, why not have a sticky thread in which this can be done? Those who don't want to look at ads won't have to do it, and those who need something can easily find it.

That's a good idea and the sponsor can have links to their site if one cannot find what they are looking for in the classified. I wonder what the forum administrator has to say. I believe it would be to there benefit overall.

OK, I'll ask the admin.

Equipment is offered on this forum often. I don't know why your post was deleted or who did it. That said, there are existing forums for selling personal gear including yahoo and ebay auctions. I don't see any need to add another one.

The difference between eBay/Yahoo and here is that here is the population who can directly and most immediately benefit from the availability of used gear. Why, needing something, should they have to constantly check the often confusing world of on-line auctions to find what they need?

If there was a classified sticky thread here, people who were for any reason offended by for sale posts wouldn't have to look at them, and people who could benefit, would.

rgelston wrote:The difference between eBay/Yahoo and here is that here is the population who can directly and most immediately benefit from the availability of used gear. Why, needing something, should they have to constantly check the often confusing world of on-line auctions to find what they need?

If there was a classified sticky thread here, people who were for any reason offended by for sale posts wouldn't have to look at them, and people who could benefit, would.

If you owned a Used Car lot would you allow drivers to come and freely setup their own Used Car lot on your property?

Members that exchange cpap equipment here simply let others know what items they may have available or want and they the complete the transaction via private message. Since the regular members may do this they can go back and edit the post as "sold" and not waste a lot of others time. That way the forum doesn't turn into a junkyard of selling equipment.

While I don't speak for any member but myself, most prefer to know the person they are buying from. When we see your very first post is selling equipment it may get blown away as spam as there is no difference. There was an example here recently where a newbie registered just so they could sell their goods and then vamoosed it.

They didn't bother to tell the buyer they were a smoker or the items purchased were stored in a smoking environment, so when they arrived the buyer is now stuck with items smelling of cigarette smoke. Not a problem if you smoke, but it is if you don't smoke or have quit.

So when we have regular newbie members we encourage them NOT to buy from those type of posts as they seem to get burned every time. If you are a regular poster here and want to get rid of some extra gear that didn't work out, those posts usually don't get deleted.

But you have to understand this forum is generously provided to us free of charge and sponsored by a cpap equipment supplier so you have to respect their right to choose what is appropriate and not.

If you want to sell your equipment for free try yahoo auctions, craigslist.com etc. and you can list away. If you become a regular contributing member here you can easily exchange equipment member to member, there is nothing preventing that.

Well summed up, Snoredog! Jim

I would add more but you have it covered.

Snoredog wrote:

rgelston wrote:The difference between eBay/Yahoo and here is that here is the population who can directly and most immediately benefit from the availability of used gear. Why, needing something, should they have to constantly check the often confusing world of on-line auctions to find what they need?

If there was a classified sticky thread here, people who were for any reason offended by for sale posts wouldn't have to look at them, and people who could benefit, would.

If you owned a Used Car lot would you allow drivers to come and freely setup their own Used Car lot on your property?

Members that exchange cpap equipment here simply let others know what items they may have available or want and they the complete the transaction via private message. Since the regular members may do this they can go back and edit the post as "sold" and not waste a lot of others time. That way the forum doesn't turn into a junkyard of selling equipment.

While I don't speak for any member but myself, most prefer to know the person they are buying from. When we see your very first post is selling equipment it may get blown away as spam as there is no difference. There was an example here recently where a newbie registered just so they could sell their goods and then vamoosed it.

They didn't bother to tell the buyer they were a smoker or the items purchased were stored in a smoking environment, so when they arrived the buyer is now stuck with items smelling of cigarette smoke. Not a problem if you smoke, but it is if you don't smoke or have quit.

So when we have regular newbie members we encourage them NOT to buy from those type of posts as they seem to get burned every time. If you are a regular poster here and want to get rid of some extra gear that didn't work out, those posts usually don't get deleted.

But you have to understand this forum is generously provided to us free of charge and sponsored by a cpap equipment supplier so you have to respect their right to choose what is appropriate and not.

If you want to sell your equipment for free try yahoo auctions, craigslist.com etc. and you can list away. If you become a regular contributing member here you can easily exchange equipment member to member, there is nothing preventing that.

Snoredog wrote: There was an example here recently where a newbie registered just so they could sell their goods and then vamoosed it.

They didn't bother to tell the buyer they were a smoker or the items purchased were stored in a smoking environment, so when they arrived the buyer is now stuck with items smelling of cigarette smoke.

Unless there was one I missed (Which is certainly possible) there were 2 threads where this came up.
The first was the one you commented in where the seller profusely apologized and even pointed out where they said up front they didn't know about the mask. The seller also offered a full refund and the buyer stated everything was worked out.
The second thread was a trade rather than a sale and there was no mention of where the mask came from.
So as far as I can tell no one had any problems with any new people selling or trading.

rgelston wrote:

1. The car lot analogy is poor. This isn't a used car lot or a used CPAP lot - it's a community of sleep/breathing impaired people with special needs. The likelyhood of this community being inundated by people outside itself foisting unwanted goods is, I suspect, vanshingly small. Should bad apples appear, they could be dealt with by admin.

If allowed, aftermarket sellers would inundate this forum... many have tried to post as cpap users when trying to sell their wares.

rgelston wrote:
2. I am a member who wished to sell some gear, but I wasn't the kind of member that one of you approved of (noob, not enough posts) and my post was deleted. No explanation, no warning, just an arbitrary, secret and very unfriendly act. How was I to "simply let others know what items they may have available" without posting?

As others have said, if you were less conspicuous and had a history of participation whomever deleted your post would have been less likely to do so. No members of this forum are subject to the approval of the others.

rgelston wrote:
3. Please tell me where in the posted forum rules it says that I can't offer for sale posts, or that I must wait a certain amount of time or make a certain number of posts after registering as a member to offer a for sale? I was not yet " a regular poster here" (having little to say) but I do "want to get rid of some extra gear that didn't work out" and my post was deleted.

From the rules you agreed to when you registered as a member:
"You agree that the webmaster, administrator and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should they see fit."

Johnny (the site admin) has explained many times before his position on posting used equipment for sale. If you search the posts of Johnny Goodman you will find more info on this matter.

rgelston wrote:
3. If members (of the right kind) can exchange information about what they have or what they want, why does the exchange have to be covert? If rip off are to occur, wouldn't they be more likely out of plain sight?

Members here are not separated by "kind" and there is no need to be "covert"... just demonstrate that you are a participant in this community and don't make your post with used gear look like a classified add. Something like "I bought mask X and it doesn't work for me... anyone that is interested in mask X contact me via PM."

rgelston wrote:
4. If there were a classified sticky thread or section, the forum would not "turn into a junkyard of selling equipment." And, since my post was deleted because I was not considered a "regular member" by somebony, I could not "go back and edit the post as "sold" and ... not waste a lot of others time." A dedicated wated.for sale sticky or section could be set up to delete posts after a certain time; ergo: no problem.

The owners of this site have the choice to add a "classified" section if they desired...it's their choice and it's does not exist so as members we should not try to create our own. As I said, Johnny has addressed this in earlier posts and is relatively clear on the subject if you take the time to seek out those posts.

rgelston wrote:
5. Yes, people could register here just to sell their gear. I don't see this as a big problem and bet it wouldn't happen often - but so what if it did?. You really don't know anyone here on the internet in the same way you know people in person, no matter how many posts you have exchanged.

You would be surprized...if you hang around here long enough you will be surprized what you can learn about some folks.

rgelston wrote:
6. A dedicated section or sticky could be set up as a form, so the seller would have to identify smoking or other common problems, give the current settings of the gear, number of hours on it, etc.

See response to number 4.

rgelston wrote:
7. I think that informing noobs about rules, procedures, pitfalls, problems is a kindness and a good idea. However, I also think that everyone here is an adult and can make their own decisions. It's patronizing, paternalistic and autocratic for you or anyone else to decide what's good for me and not allow me to act in my own behalf.

See response to number 3.

rgelston wrote:
8. I do understand this forum is "provided to us free of charge" and that it is "sponsored by a cpap equipment supplier." In so doing, CPAP.com provides a really good service to our community. But friend, this doesn't occur out of the goodness of pure hearts. CPAP.com probably gets most of their sales from us, and likely gets some advertising revenue from equipment manufacturers as well. I do not have any problem with this - I hope they do well and stay in business for a long time!

I don't see any manufacturers ads on this site... do you???

rgelston wrote:
9. I agree that providing the site gives them the "right to choose what is appropriate and not." But as far as I can see, CPAP.com did not chose to delete my for sale post. They have not even made a rule against for sale posts. No, I suspect it was some (busybody knows whats good for the forum and community if there isn't a rule about it there should be and I'll enforce it) well meaning but misguided individual.

Everyone that has the ability to delete or edit you posts is an owner or employee of cpap.com, so considering that your assertion is incorrect.

I sold used masks that I couldn't use and made some trades and nobody deleted my post's or asked me to stop or I would have honored the request without a problem, I am not sure why your post got deleted.

wading thru the muck! wrote:Everyone that has the ability to delete or edit you posts is an owner or employee of cpap.com, so considering that your assertion is incorrect.

Every registered user has the ability to delete a post.

Well summed up Snoredog and Wading thru the muck!

Anonymous wrote:

wading thru the muck! wrote:Everyone that has the ability to delete or edit you posts is an owner or employee of cpap.com, so considering that your assertion is incorrect.

Every registered user has the ability to delete a post.

Not permanently... the site admin is the only one who actually deletes the post. If a legitimate post is wrongly marked as spam it will be restored and the member who deleted it will likely lose their ability to mark posts as spam. This happened to a poster who had inadvertently hit the delete spam button. She had posted about this occurence a while back.

Well, Wading, there was an ad for insurance right up there at the top, and now clicking the ad will take you to cpap.com, the commercial mother of this forum.

If there was a dedicated classified section, only it would be inundated by aftermarket sellers. And would that be a bad thing?

The "spam" button in the forum proper could be freely exercised. As it can be now by anyone to delete a post - I don't think it takes a CPAP.com person to do it. We could test this - post something and see if I can delete it.

My conspicuousness and participation history should have nothing to do with anything. I'm a registered member and therefore entitled to and demand the same treatment as anyone else. Otherwise I'm being discriminated against, and I don't like it. If I'm not subject to approval by other members, then don't delete my posts.

As far as I know, my post was not removed by a webmaster, admin or mod. It was deleted by someone in the forum who hit the "Spam" button.

If Johnny has posted about for sale posts many times before and doesn't want members to do it, he should state this clearly in the FAQ. And he should apply the rule consistently which is not being done. Some people get bumped - others don't.

Don't make the post look like a classified ad - use code words, I guess.

All our posts and information in this site are what is important - we add the value here. The site itself is merely a shell without us. Thus, as members of this community we should always be willing to ask the site owners to serve us in better ways. And we should never just tug our forelocks and bite our tongues to anyone.

I get the feeling that some people here feel that buying and selling stuff is a bad thing that's beneath us. But beneath us as what - aristocrats, mandarins, monks? I don't know, I thought we all just had a health problem that can't be fixed without resorting to gear.

_________________

CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): cpap.com