A suggestion

14 Apr 2004

Hi,
There seems to be quite a lot of people who post their ad in the wrong category - essentially men seeking couples or women, and posting in the "Couples / Women seeking Men" category.
It seems the posting form is a bit misleading. Posters are asked to choose in which section they'd like their post to appear, and it kind of makes sense for a man to publish your ad in the "Women seeking Men" section - "Hey, I should send my message to people looking for me !"
Of course, there is an advice message about which section to post in, but the options menu happens to roll down over the message and hide it ! (besides, as any programmer will tell you, users never read instructions anyway lol

)
Maybe it might help if the "Section" part simply went like that:
Instead of "Your ad will appear in : "
Try : "I am a : "
Saw this on another site, and it seems to work fine. Less ambiguity, hopefully fewer mistakes, thus less work for our beloved admins biggrin

Oh, by the way... Thomas here, 25yo French guy in Birmingham - seeking to improve my sex life (maybe) and my English (definitely) :D Hello everybody ! wave

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Thomas,
25yo guy in Birmingham, student for life, practicing every day !

14 Apr 2004

Seconded!

14 Apr 2004

Hiya guys...
I think the idea is sound, and the problem is some people try to get a jump, so to speak over the other people by doing this on purpose. It sort of defeats the task, because a fella posting in the women side will not get noticed because the fellas read this!.. It has been noted before, and all good points. I think the idea is to use common sense, which is difficult for some to grasp. whichever system you use, some numpty will do it wrong, and the ads are forever getting posted wrong. It SEEMS a simple enough task, but then some people are really that simple to begin with...anyhows welcome to you both!

14 Apr 2004

Hello Thomas wave

:wave: :wave:
I hope you succeed in both of your aims. Join in and have fun!!

14 Apr 2004

Thomas, we'll just have to agree to differ on this one..
:small-print:

and it kind of makes sense for a man to publish your ad in the "Women seeking Men" section - "Hey, I should send my message to people looking for me !"

When I post an ad my first thoughts are (obviously tranposing gender - I'm not a bloke) "What am I?... I'm a woman seeking a man."
And when I want to search the ads, I look at the sections and think "I need to look for Men who are seeking Women because I'm a woman, not a man."
Hxx

14 Apr 2004

Seems more than clear to me too...

15 Apr 2004

Jags, Heather: Well, yes, it's very clear for 99 % of people (myself included biggrin

), but the one remaining percent is enough to cause trouble when the number of "people" run in the tens of thousands :shock:
I do believe that a lot of people post in the wrong category not to outsmart the system, but because they click a bit too fast and genuinely think they're doing what is expected from them.
I still think that just replacing "I want my article to appear in" by "I am a" is a quick and easy fix that might help a bit - but of course I'm new here and it's just my opinion wink

==========
Thomas, 25yo, Birmingham - Student for life, practicing every day !

15 Apr 2004

Your opinion is more than welcome Thomas!
However, to change the system which 99% of people use properly and without any problem to help the 1% who don't seems rather extreme.
It is also VERY simple to modify an ad once it is posted, in fact Heather wrote that is is even easier to modify than to post a new ad. AND the write above the message space is very clear about the requirements as is the rules/advice given when logging in.
In our experience most, not all, ads in the wrong place are there cos the poster chose to put them there - they usually have half a dozen ads in assorted categories!!
lol