Just wanted to clarify this one. Our technique so far has been to handle all prospective purchaser questions within the original For Sale thread. Obviously, this can "mess up" those pretty posts, but the strategy is intentional. Here's the thinking:
-One of the biggest impediments to purchase is peoples' fear that "it's a scam", "it's fake", etc. This is very common online. When people post in the thread, and we answer them, it proves that our customer support is real. Similarly, you may have read that even online products with negative reviews sell better than products with 0 reviews.
-New posts bump the threads. This moves the thread to the top of the subforum, to the "What's New" page on the forum, to the forum frontpage, and a few other places too. When threads are bumped legitimately (and Q&A with a prospective customer certainly is legitimate), more plans are sold.
-Unlike more common online storefronts, we sell in real forum discussions, posted by real people. That medium has advantages, and we should use them.
Obviously, this strategy can open us up to subterfuge by trolls and competitors. For example, someone can post something like: "I have these plans for free, don't pay for them everyone!". This actually happened recently. In this case, I will move the suspect post out of the thread, into its own new thread in a separate part of the forum. Strangely, this poster has yet to post the supposed free plans.
That's it. If you're cringing at the notion of your For Sale discussion being polluted, don't. Just keep replying to all concerns and questions. If the threads get so large that they're unwieldy, we'll deal with them at that point.
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