Thank you for your suggestions!
We have had a few problems lately with the Gift Exchange, mainly with newer members. We will most likely institute a 30 day rule for members that want to participate in the Gift Exchange, that is members must be Donating Members with 100 posts and be a YT member for 30 days or more before they can participate in the Gift Exchange.
The YorkieTalk team monitors the Yorkies For Sale section very closely to ensure the rules are followed. Occasionally, a thread may get through and show up for a few hours. We do review our For Sale policies periodically. We want what is best for Yorkies and we find that many YorkieTalk members have provided for great homes for many Yorkies that were posted in the For Sale section here. Since we don't make any money at all when a person posts a Yorkie For Sale thread nor when a Yorkie is placed, we are not doing anything for financial reasons, purely so that those YT members that are looking for Yorkies can find one through YT. There are hundreds of places people can post a Yorkie for sale for no cost at all with no rules at all. We only ask those that post a new thread to follow the For Sale rules.
What more information would you suggest we have on the "For Sale" form? We definitely do take suggestions.
We do have a Featured Yorkie Products For Sale section for Featured YT Storeowners, for those that are interested. The For Sale section helps all YT members, if an item is priced too high, it usually won't sell. Members have gotten some great deals from For Sale threads. When a member does abuse the For Sale section, we do take action.
As far as Off Topic threads, any forum will have off topic threads, they are helpful, useful, necessary, and wanted by members. People can get tired of just talking "Yorkies". Many members have found great friends and learned new things from the Off Topic section. An example would be when a member has a technical computer problem and doesn't know what to do, and posts a question. Usually another YT member will offer advice or know what to do.
While you may not personally gain any benefit from those particular threads you mentioned, there are members that highly enjoy those type of threads. YorkieTalk only asks that basic YT rules are followed in those threads. We generally allow most topics to be talked about though religion, politics, or other controversial subjects may not be allowed here. Those threads really don't take up much space on YT, the server issues are more related to the number of people online at once as well as YT searches by members. Also, since you now know what those two threads are all about, it's quite easy to ignore them or go onto the next thread that you are interested in reading. The YT chat room is always available, but not everyone wants or can use it and some feel more comfortable posting in the forums only.
Thank you for your feedback, feel free to reply or PM us directly at any time. |