Bye-Bye Post Icons, Hello Thread Prefix!

[J.Baker]

Made a simple and painless change this morning for identifying your ad types and status in the classifieds going forward.

Previously I had setup Post Icons for the classifieds to identify ads as For-Sale, Wanted, Sold and SPF. These worked great, BUT they were voluntary and as you can see looking through the classifieds not everybody could be bothered to use them as requested. Additionally, I couldn't restrict which boards the post icons were available in and people were occasionally using them outside of the classifieds.

Last night I figured out how to set and assign Thread Prefixes which are similar in nature, but rather than being a graphic like the post icon these are just a stylized text. I can choose which forums they are available in AND I can make selecting one mandatory in those forums. So this change kills two birds with one stone - everyone will have to select one when posting an ad and nobody will be able to use them anywhere outside the classified boards.


Using Thread Prefix's:

Adding a thread prefix is as simple as selecting the appropriate one from the drop-down menu.

When you click the "Start a New Thread" button in one of the classified boards and the editor page comes up, you will see there is now a Thread Prefix drop-down menu located just above where you would put in the post title. Yes, it's that simple!


This screenshot shows the location of the Prefix menu:
Attachment 6344


This screenshot shows the error you will get if you don't select a Prefix:
Attachment 6345


This screenshot shows what the For-Sale prefix will look like in the classified boards thread list:
Attachment 6346


Like the old Post Icons, the new Prefix's each have a unique color to make it easier to identify different ad types while quickly browsing the listings.


If this works out as well as I hope it will I will be adding prefix options to other boards as well but those won't be mandatory like those in the classifieds. For example, in the Savage Rimfire's board I would create prefix's for the different model lines (A-Series, B-Series, 64-Series, Mark I, Mark II, 93R, Rascal) to make it easier to identify what models are being discussed in those threads since not everyone always identifies the model in the title of their posts.