Hi Rob- I have a site suggestion/question

[loliveve]

Posted: 1/29/14 at 8:24am

I was wondering, would it be possible to make a board for selling Broadway merchandise and/or trading Playbills? I've noticed that there a lot of posts on the main board, and frequently by the same people to be honest, and was thinking that having a centralized place for selling may (1) reduce the hostility toward the users, (2) discourage the re-posting the same or "updated" lists in completely new and multiple threads, and (3) just create a go-to place for such things, other than eBay.

((And now, I'd like to apologize for posting this on the main board, but I honestly couldn't find a link for suggestions, even when I searched for one.))

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/29/14 at 8:37am

I think you weaken the message boards the more you compartmentalize them. Each time you divide it into niche audiences, you lose part of the "community" as a whole, not to mention losing the higher number of hits given to a page or a post or a board as a whole. And high numbers are what generate the revenue to operate the site.

If you break apart a "selling community," then next people will want the boards divided between old shows and new shows, plays and musicals, etc.

Just my $.02.

Updated On: 1/29/14 at 08:37 AM

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 1/29/14 at 9:08am

Can I add my 2 cents too. May I suggest that you "PM" Rob on matters like this. I believe you have a better chance of him responding that way. I'm sure he's not monitoring every thread posted on BWW, so this thread may be missed.

[tazber]

Posted: 1/29/14 at 9:08am

Since there seems to be a group of you that frequent those threads you should all agree amongst yourselves to create one thread devoted to trading/selling.

It could just continue on and on like the "adults" thread on the OT board.

As far as posters dropping in to troll, just ignore them. Once you guys get going I think you'll find most posters won't bother you.

[loliveve]

Posted: 1/29/14 at 9:41am

best12bars- that's a really good point; I hadn't thought about how it could weaken the community, and definitely wouldn't want that to happen.

Personally, I don't trade Playbills (I only have them for the shows I've seen) but just had a thought considering how often I see posts asking if anyone has a certain Playbill and what not. And I do ignore a certain few users posts- but sometimes I realize I've been suckered in when I click a thread out of curiosity... or, I must admit, when I am reading threads on BWW to procrastinate

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/29/14 at 9:50am

I like Taz's idea of creating a dedicated thread here. We have one for DVD and Blu-ray Disc Bargains on the OT Board, which works well.

Getting people to use a "market place" thread on the Main Board would be the biggest challenge. People like to make posts seemingly more important by starting new threads, rather than posting in an existing one. Sometimes that works, and sometimes it backfires on them when everyone responds by telling them a thread already exists.