[eoc_Jason]

Well, the good thing about vB3 is you can create a forum section, but place it a manual link for it, so the whole classified/auction system could be self-contained and wouldn't require hacking a bunch of vB3 files. (I'm a minimalist as-is because I like to do quick upgrades).

Your idea kind of seems like the discussion that I first mentioned about just the extra link in a thread. However I think a full categorized classifieds/auction section would be the way to go for most forums that have moderate commerce going on. Also, it would draw in more people since it would bring a site to a whole new level. I guess the classifieds could also be considerd maybe a vendor section, and allow "stores" for individuals to group all their items they are selling and whatnot.

Conceptually I imagined having montly "credits" for each user, so they could post X amount of items free of charge, however people who conduct a lot of business would then need to purchase additional "credits". (Completely optional, but I think it's a good idea.)

I really can't give an ETA for anything right now, I'm currently unemployed, which I'm looking for a job (which everyone knows how time consuming that is), I also run my forum and a couple websites (also extremely time consuming), but I try to code in my spare time, I like to do general PHP/MySQL stuff, things for vB, and also my Stats Page for Folding@Home.

Originally Posted by Ted S

Here's my main idea for a classifieds system:
1) Buyer posts their offer/request
2) People post followups which can be either public questions or offers (or private ones)
3) Once the seller/poster finds an offer they like they click "accept offer" and then they can do their whole feedback thing.

This is a simple system yet much more effective then trying to hack some portion of the forum system to make it work for certain categories but not others and so forth. Again there would be an easy way to inflate #s but you know what, that's ok, people can always chat... having a recorded history of their purchases/transactions in a public forum is more than enough to let people understand the true history of any "trader".