One thing I've thought about, and the moderators have discussed, that might improve things.

• Create a top level category for Listings
  
• In the category, have forums for Interesting, Wonders, Active, and Ended
  
• Each listing (eBay item, Abebooks listing, etc.) starts a new thread in one of those four forums.
  
• the bot can automatically move threads from (Interesting | Wonders | Active ) to Ended when it detects the change
  
• moderators can move threads between Interesting / Wonders / Active as appropriate
  
• people can then reply in thread about the item they are talking about - no longer have one monster thread where it isn't clear what the reply is referring to.
  
• notifications and mutes are then easy to apply to the category, forum and thread level as desired for each user
  

Thoughts?

It would be nice to break up that huge thread into more defined buckets.

I am just trying to think thru your possible approach…

So we could see threads move often? If I am responding to a few, I might have to switch forums to continue replying? And if someone imbeds another listing in a reply? Nesting.

So we would not be able to combine multiple listings in one post, right? As each listing could be in different states over time. For example two eBay listings in a single post with one still current and the other ended. It would not be moved?

We would need rules on postings perhaps…

Laurin wrote:

Mr. Underhill Could we please agree that only unsold offers are shown here^{MOD: in the interesting listings thread[1]} ? For me these sold auctions are not „interesting“ at all.

All auction listings posted to this site end up as sold or ended listings over time.

My rationale for posting to the interesting and the eBay thread, is three fold. To help collectors see what and how the market for Tolkien changes over time, alert members to items they may not have known about, and the much more short term, notify members of newly listed items for sale. The first two reasons are far more important than the third IMO.

I have changed some of the ways I approach these posts recently, for a variety of research based reasons.

I appreciate your feedback and willingness to share your opinion publicly, and while I don’t share your opinion about only active auction listings being interesting, I do concede that there’s a certain expectation for posts in the interesting thread. We want this site to be as good as it possibly can be and we are always tinkering with it to see what works and doesn’t.

The auction listings posted system and search function that Urulókë has set up is really good and should be used by all of frequent here.

Oh wow, what have I started here? That definitely wasn't my intention.

In the past I found this thread as an area for active listings, at least at the time of creation of the posting, so interesting for newer collectors looking to complete their collections. That’s why I gave it a notification. I was very grateful for this category because it enabled me to find a few rare books that I wouldn't have been able to find otherwise because I don't have the time to constantly browse through eBay and other marketplaces. So this fit my idea of ​​interesting listings. I myself have often posted interesting offers here that were still available but that I already had in my collection

The other somehow interesting but already sold listings went into the New eBay listings area, so fine for me. This also helped me to get an idea what else might be interesting and showed the actual price level. But I needed no notification here. I just went over it from time to time.

Now this has recently changed, you have confirmed it, for building up a historical price record. I should have asked yesterday why the categorisation, which in my view was very well-established, was changed.

LanceFormation wrote:

I believe (and I may be wrong) that if I post an in-process eBay listing, the way the site is configured, doesn’t the status of the listing eventually age to ended or sold or some other state?

So, if I am gone for a long while and finally catch up on past posts, wouldn’t I see many listings that are no longer active?

I guess you could have a thread for “interesting but ended“ listings, but not sure how to keep a current interesting listings thread clear of ended items…

I don't think you could keep it clear, as it will always be predominantly ended items. I think the only difference would be to use it for items that are still current at the time of adding and using a different thread for recording items that are interesting, but already ended.