When in search for game, a feature that excludes threads started by now inactive traders from search results would be beneficial for making a trade happen.
Thanks. Long time lurker, first week user - as they say.
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the problem is with what would constitute "inactive". We can all agree that "more than a year" is highly unlikely to ever come back, but at the same time, just about anyone can blank out for "a month".
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The aim is to raise the probability to find active traders and with that elevate user friendliness upon this bazaar. Yes, a trader could have been logged in the same week and show up in search results set at "active within 1-7 days" only to be inactive for several weeks after that and not react to correspondence anyway - hence the choice of word is probability. As of now, the search results are sorted after other users activity and has as I understand it no base whatsoever in activity/rep/other of thread starter. All forms of sorting abilities are non-existent. I believe this is wrong and find it rather aggravating. It is not user friendly nor fair say to 'energetic traders'. Features that aims to raise probability and/or elevate user friendliness should in any case be user optional. Users not looking for snappy hassle free trades may choose not to use them. Not all gamers/users sit with games already paid for and wonder if those could be used to obtain game X for this weekend with the pals / for the pal that does not have it, und so weiter. Not to mention the aspect of ticking clock on store sales. Some gamers/users has several months and cares not. C'est la vie :)
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The script is nice, but implementing the same little line next to a trade thread by site default would be nicer. (If only because not all people who visit the trade section even see the forums, so the script would have a much lower visibility, sadly.)
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we have lots of still open threads that are months old, from long gone members. so yeah, i think this is a good idea. question is, what do we consider inactive. some games take very long to sell, so i wouldn't go as far as excluding threads that are just some weeks old. and i am not sure if we should tie this to the users themselves. i guess it makes more sense to see how long a thread is inactive. a member might still be active, as in entering giveaways, but maybe has long forgotten trade threads.
EDIT: and what i also very much dislike is trade threads where people cross out their sold games instead of deleting them from the list. of course, those threads will always come up if you look for one of those games. so you open the thread and search for the game - just to see that it's long sold. ugh...
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Or if there's good reason to crossout, do this:
Deep Dung0eons of Do0om
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A thread may have the age of 25 years and still be maintained fresh as some form of store front by an active trader, putting it in search results to be found by gamers/users looking to make a trade happen. What I as gamer/user want is the ability to exclude inactive traders. I do believe that a trait of an active trader is a login once in a while to check up on things, and that the login timestamp very well can be used for a feature we are discussing and paired with core features such as automatic archiving of threads were starter has been inactive (read: could not be arsed to login) for X months - for sake of argument say 1 year.
About the strikethrough I would agree such practice should be verboten, because "I have" & "I want" is currently the only base for search input on the bazaar. I have also seen threads with external links to Google Docs/Steam Wishlist and what not, underlining how totaly outdated the information in "I have" & "I want" was. Some traders I've seen even had written something to the effect that "look at the exernal link because the only search input fields of this bazaar that brought you to this thread is most likely outdated". Not cool.
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sure, i understand what you mean. i just think it might be possible that a member stops trading, leaves his trade threads inactive, but regularly logs in to check giveaways. in that case your method would not work. but if you check when a trade thread was last bumped instead, it will work. for both the inactive trader i describe, and the completely absent member you describe (with the exception that other people might bump the thread, but from my experience this doesn't happen too often with old threads).
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Valid point.
Thread Starter Activity in thread is logged for "last edit" and the such, maybe for example '200 days since last edit' can be used for 'automatic purge' / 'lock and hide away' until thread starter actively is clicking unlocking..?
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you don't think last bump date will be sufficient? if someone bumps the thread, that signals he is interested in keeping it open, even if the contents haven't changed. the downside is of course that other people might aswell bump the thread - and in case of a "dead" thread that is unfortunate. but i don't think this will happen too often. but this way we would make sure we don't close threads that should be left open.
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No, I do not. This is along the lines of what the problem actually is. When you search for GameX, you are presented with search results that has no base whatsoever in Thread Starter Activity/rep/etc nor how fresh (last edit) the Thread is - and the list is as of now sorted after other users bumps to the thread. For example last night I was looking for something, went into top thread in search results and the entire last page of that thread was comments from past 24 hours - but Thread Starter havent even been logged in here for the past 8 months. Ticking some box for "7 days", "2 weeks", "2 months", "likely dead" or draging a slider to appropriate number of days would resolve such cases. In fact, setting a default for that in user profile would be a welcome feature.
I am a tad amazed that there seems to not be any auto purge / locking in the Trade/Sale sections to begin with.
I found an easy field example. Search "Day of Defeat Source" in Trades/"I have" and tell me what you make of the results. We se 6 results of which 3 are user purged. Let's have a look at those other 3 threads that are open. First 2 is by users that havent been logged in here for the past 9 months. Those threads are on top 1+2 due to comment bumps. The third thread was started 1 year ago and has never changed since then, not even commented. Thread Starter is a user that has been logged in here past 2 weeks. I argue that all 3 threads should have been auto purged / locked away on the basis of inactivity to raise general user friendliness of the bazaar - and if not per auto then via features that we can use to exclude them.
This was an easy example. We know how "not fun" this is when there are many similar cases among search results that span several pages.
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It would be nice to have a SG implemented solution since people who keep reviving long dead threads...
I mean how hard is it to check if the person who made that has been online in the past year before bringing the tread to the top?
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I think many people just search the game they want, then paste their offer text into every thread that comes up, without checking the contents of the thread at all.
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They do. I have some DLC for assassin's creed listed and get offers for the game.
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Welcome to SteamGifts, fellow "Västergötländare" ;) Are you from Gothenburg?
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Thänks! I am not from Gothenburg, men jag visit Scandinavium every once in a while to see Kungliga Djurgår´n whip them Indians :)
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Yeah the Indians aren't good, Färjestad is the team that you should support. :)
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Started using this site for real recently, and have by wasting time learnt that one has to above all first check last login here and on steam profile before even going into looking through wishlists etc. A feature for excluding Thread's started by now inactive users from search results would thus be extremely useful. For example exclude inactive for "7 days", "2 weeks", "2 months", "likely dead" - or maybe a simple but neat day-slider. The probability for making a trade happen shall rise sky high!
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