Do you know if they're a club member or not? 

Yes and I was able to track the user down by searching the forum post . Just curious if there is a way to reply via chat VCCA message from the ad. 

I don't believe so. That's why they are told to provide their contact information. I could be wrong about that. The webmaster will be the one who can give you a definitive answer. memberservices@vcca.org

Every time I want to contact someone who has posted in the classified, I have to stumble and fumble until I find something that works or I give up. It is without a doubt, the stupidest arrangement that could possibly be conceived. The classified ads on the old site allowed us to ask questions that benefited everyone's understanding of the listing. Now we can barely figure out how to respond to an ad. It's pretty much the same with sending a private message. 

Proof positive that Club leadership and Peter do not give a crap about this site.

Mike

@tiny At this moment it is not a necessity.

It would certainly be handy if MEMBERS could easily respond DIRECTLY from the classified ad page, perhaps just by clicking on the poster's name.

I believe that Steve is probably asking because he wanted to contact me in response to a parts wanted ad I had posted.

I had originally put my email and phone information in the ad and, within 24 hours I received two bogus responses from folks too willing to take my money for parts they didn't have. As a result, I had to remove my direct contact info from the ad.

It may be too complicated to modify the pre-packed software the site runs on, but perhaps the vendor would see the suggestion as a valid value-add for their product.

In the meantime, perhaps we can spread the word that people can check to see if a photo presented as showing a seller's item is taken from somewhere on the web by using https://images.google.com/   Also, I "Googled" both of the email addresses I received responses from and both showed up on a "Stop Scams" page as coming from ISPs in Nigeria. (Nothing against Nigeria, but if nothing else, if they really DID have the parts, shipping would be crazy expensive!)

Just my two cents worth.

Nick 

Those scammers depend on people being willing to pay money in an unsafe method like bitcoin, prepaid debit cards and the like. I've found that specifying payment only by a protected method like Paypal or similar stops all of the scammers from even responding. Yes, it's no fun when PP takes out their fees but I just price the item enough higher to cover it. I also connect my PP account to my credit card rather than a bank account. The CC gives me additional protections.

Having to deal with scammers is a fact of life in the age we inhabit. If you make it difficult for a buyer to contact you, you're losing opportunities to sell your item. The BoD has declared the site to be an open site, meaning anyone can register to use the forums, anyone can view the 'non-member' sections like the Classifieds. That means it's up to us to find a way to operate within it. There's been talk about restricting site access to club members only, which would cut down/eliminate scammers but at what cost. The vast majority of site users are not dues paying club members so placing that restriction on access would eliminate them all. Would that then entice them to join or would that run them off?

Tiny,

I was thinking that there might be an option for members (only) to respond to a classified ad by clicking on a link whereas non-members would only see that responding to THAT ad was limited to members only. People posting ads would be able to choose if they want the ad responses limited to members only or not.

That way perhaps more folks would be enticed to become members.

Or, maybe there could be a classified section in the general access area of the forum and another in the "members only" section (which, through the magic of deft computer programming, might be able to show both the general access and "members only" ads).

Not much there to criticize but it's the BoD that you need to talk to, more specifically your area representative. I don't know if those options are, or are not, possible with the forum software. It may have gone up since, but I was told a few months ago it's costing the club $1000 a month to support the forum. I'm assuming a lot of that is leasing the software. I've been told it can get a lot more expensive really quickly if other software options are used instead.

Tiny,

I tried to send a carefully crafted email to my Area Director (Michael Howard, Middle West South #6) and the email bounced back - "Mailbox Not Found".

Do you think that the list on the "Contact Us" page is current? 

This is the email shown in his club profile: howard_l_michael@yahoo.com  That appears to be the same. Perhaps an email to Tim Larson, the current President, advising him of the email issue, will help. Also, make sure the letter used for his middle initial is correct. The "l" appears to be a lower case L rather than an upper case "I". The font used doesn't make that clear.

Thanks Tiny! I had misread that initial. I just now copied the email from the page and pasted it into an email to Michael...and it went without an issue!