Pinkbike Update: BuySell Listings, Smart Search, & Bookmarks, Oh My!

Jun 15, 2023
by Jake  
Hello friends and denizens of the comments section, we’ve launched a couple of new features to make your Pinkbike experience as delightful as a warm t-shirt out of the dryer.

1. Search
Old and busted became the new hotness. The previous search system relied on a little company called Google, and if you were on the hunt for a Trek Session review from 2016, you’d find it, eventually. Now we’ve got a handy-dandy new search system that gives you quick and easy access to historical Pinkbike articles, right from the home page. Give it a whirl. Filter your results. Relish vintage goodness. One particular article from 2013 took me for a singletrack ride down memory lane where I was a lowly intern not doing my job and enjoying the pictures and calls for PODs.
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2. Navigation Improvements
We cleaned up some of the menu items on the desktop website to links to portions of the site that weren’t seeing much love, and to better feature parts that lots of people use. Old school zealots, douse your torches, Links to the photos and video pages, as well as forums and a new section for blogs are in a drop down under “Community.”
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3. Boosted Listings
BuySell Boosted Listings enable you to to stand out from the crowd when listing bikes and gear on BuySell. A Boosted listing appears at the top of a category list view, is called out with a ‘Boosted’ badge, and appears in a special “Related Listings” view when someone clicks on a product listing. For folks who want to sell more, and sell more quickly, consider boosting your ad.
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4. Community Blogs
We made it easier to find and follow blog posts and content from the broader Pinkbike community. You’ve always been able to find and follow individual users and their stories, we just put them all in one place. Note that Community blogs are not vetted by the Pinkbike editorial team. Please flag blog posts that violate our Terms of Service.
UCI DHI Worldcup Lenzerheide by Sebastian Sternemann
UCI DHI Worldcup Lenzerheide by Sebastian Sternemann. From a Gamux community blog.

5. Bookmarks
You can now Bookmark and save articles to enjoy later on, like when your boss isn’t hovering over your shoulder. Call it a little addition to your post-work, post-ride private reflection period enjoyment. Now ask, which phrase will lose relevance sooner: “bookmark” or “Hang up the phone”?
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Author Info:
jake28 avatar

Member since Apr 20, 2010
15 articles

143 Comments
  • 127 8
 I'm glad PinkBike has found a way to make money off of the classifieds. It provides a ton of value to me as a buyer/seller, so I want to see you guys get paid so it stays around (and keeps improving).
  • 39 0
 I would think that the Buy/Sell page also brings a ton of traffic to the website which helps other revenue streams.
  • 6 83
flag freestyIAM (Jun 15, 2023 at 12:00) (Below Threshold)
 @funkendrenchman: I'd rather we all just pay a small monthly fee for listing instead of creating a class of users who have boosted ads and a class who doesn't. I get that it's more palatable to tell the PB community, "hey, we aren't forcing anyone to pay, it's your choice, don't pay for boost if you don't want to" but what it turns the user experience into is having to review the listing that are boosted and then drill down to where non boosted starts to review those findings as well.

Dumb.
  • 89 3
 @freestyIAM: what you’re recommending is implementing a paywall to list on BuySell, affecting all users, because scrolling is hard. Bold strategy.
  • 10 0
 @jake28: let's see how it plays out Cotton

JK - let’s not!
  • 8 0
 @jake28: You forgot to mention the emoji functionality update in BuySell listings? ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅
  • 6 0
 I think the buy/sell was driving alot of site traffic, so it was helping them to get paid via their normal avenue (advertising) already.
  • 9 0
 @dgwww: Your intuition is correct. The buysell drives near half the PB overall site views, per source (google).
  • 1 0
 @funkendrenchman: this will def thicken that stream!
  • 9 1
 I am okay with the pay feature if it results in official efforts to reduce scammers in the classifieds. Currently it is self-policing which is not really that effective. I was actually ok with the self policing since the classifieds were a free feature, Community enforced for a community feature. Now I feel justified in asking for more effective measures.
  • 13 0
 Can we get rid of the scammers please!
  • 1 0
 uhhh
  • 1 0
 @finblarr gotta love sponsored replies
  • 1 0
 The bookmarks feature is cool though a little clunky on the mobile, really should have the same symbol appear on the homepage for anyone logged in, that functions like a quick drop down to select the bookmarked article you want to read.
  • 4 0
 @jake28: while I disagree with him, I do hope the sort by price ascending function still works, just placing the booster adds at the front and also in price ascending order.

I hate it in other websites where boosted adds appear at the front but don't appear in logical order even when you set to price ascending.
  • 1 0
 @bunjiman82: Dashboard > My Profile > Bookmarks
We'll make it better.
  • 1 0
 @gclarida: nah I'm just a simp
  • 6 0
 @cpobanz: the scam accounts have gotten completely out of control here. There's absolutely no excuse that any account should INSTANTLY be allowed to make listings the moment their account is created. None.
I've reported dozens and dozens of accounts, and literally every single account is the exact same thing -- selling a product significantly below market value, account created within the last few days, and absolutely ZEROOOOOOO other activity on the site other than classified listings. So obvious and pathetic.
  • 2 1
 @cmi85: this already happens, new accounts cannot post for a day. There are 30+ checks on posting to the BuySell. What we are not to allow any new user to post? And a lot of the scammers are using compromised existing accounts that are 10+ years old. But there are lots of checks on this, like last login time, last login country. But the scammers are smart and high enough volume a certain % gets through. or they just sit dormant on accounts for months. We cannot list all the checks we do, cause would make it easier to get around, but there are many, and 4+ external services we check against as well and pay for.
  • 3 0
 @jake28: hey Jake, not sure what's going on but since these changes have been made searching through buysell on a mobile has become utterly impossible. Even if you switch to desktop version on a mobile phone it doesn't work properly. There are endless pages of boosted adds as well as wanted adds that have been included when searching for sale items. The option to search for a specific word no longer appears and items from all categories appear together all mixed up.
  • 1 0
 I don't quite follow your logic. Because something is (made) profitable for a company doesn't mean it's good/better for us the customers. Quite often is just the opposite. The fact it will "stay around" is hardly an incentive for the customers if they start charging 15% commission (a matter of time). If anything I would like Pinkbike and its investors to stay away from Buy&Sell because a) it works b) it's free and c) it requires very little maintenance & development if any on their side. They just try to figure out how to make Buy&Sell their cash cow. First "Boost" then "Super Boost" then 15% commission and what nots.
  • 1 0
 @cpobanz:
i think PB is not interested in getting RID of them

Tried Scammer is still THERE AFTER 3 MONTHS

Lost my trust
Shame
  • 74 10
 not sure the "boosted" classifieds are a step in the right direction...
  • 253 1
 Holding out for Super Boost
  • 20 1
 Especially with the way it's been implemented. I was looking at enduro bikes the other day and the first 20 something pages were exclusively boosted listings. It's not even really boosted at that point, but also good luck selling your bike without the boost.
  • 10 1
 Every change that an Outside owned company makes has to have a monetary attachment, unfortunately. I guess so long as scammers don't abuse the feature it'll be ok, but without better moderation of the buy/sell page, I'm skeptical.
  • 3 0
 Now images of bicycles can be boosted as well as stolen
  • 5 1
 Which is better? Having sex or boosting ads?
  • 1 2
 @noapathy: If you answer the latter, you are doing something wrong.
  • 5 0
 @ceecee: If it is a boosted add for a stolen bike is it then considered Super boosted?
  • 2 0
 Puts the "Boo!" in Boosted
  • 3 0
 @Phillyenduro: super boost is just $50/ad.....never mind the item is only $45, youll make it up in volume!!!!!
  • 3 3
 The fact that I get to share this is the highlight of my day: youtu.be/ay6GjmiJTPM
  • 3 1
 @Phillyenduro: Comment of the month! Big Grin
  • 1 2
 @ranchitup: if you know what you want, it’s easy to search the listings … maybe you need pick something and be a dick about it
  • 1 0
 @ReformedRoadie: You need to watch "Gone in 60 Seconds". (or re-watch if you already have)
  • 1 0
 @ranchitup: it would be great if you could search specifically for non boosted as a function.
  • 46 1
 Can y'all focus on the scammers rather than the aesthetics of the buy/sell? Adding one mod after years of issues is a bandaid that isn't fixing anything.
  • 6 0
 I'm with you man!!
  • 35 13
 Sure, wanna become a mod?
  • 36 2
 @jake28: Nope, I was a moderator for this site for years, and parted ways in an incredibly non-amicable way. If there's a paycheck, we can talk, otherwise, stop putting this issue on your users.

People reading this, if you think you can step up to the plate to make the site better, this is your chance.
  • 10 0
 @jake28: What's it pay? This ain't Reddit.
  • 4 58
flag captainbringdown Mod (Jun 15, 2023 at 11:15) (Below Threshold)
 Ur a bandaid, Sherb.
  • 42 0
 Lol, PB gets aquired by Outside but still wants its users to do free labor as mods. Sorry, you only get free labor from passionate users when you are a cool up and coming media site. Not when you are the corporate behemoth. No one is passionate about padding share values for the man. But hey, you guys got better job benefits and Radek got a huge buy out, so I guess turning PB into a soulless shell of itself was worth it.
  • 8 0
 @jake28: This problem doesn't need more mods to play whack a mole with an endless stream of spam account creation. It needs better gatekeeping and automation
  • 15 1
 @hughbm: There is been a TON of new programic solutions added over the past few months. The issue is the volume of scams and spam has increased so much. We are blocking more than ever and have alerts for more than ever, but we need more human intervention still, which is being worked on adding. We also for the first time really have good analytics and reporting of all of this and can see the trends over time and what checks, blocks and alerts are working or not.
  • 7 0
 @canadaka: I’ve been assuming this has become problematic. It’s incredibly difficult to implement controls for scammers and ‘bot’ traffic. Hopefully analytics assist in being able to use controls effectively and efficiently.
However given this is a ‘Outside’ product now from what I understand certainly they can use invest in HIRING additional help. Not exactly a mom and pop operation anymore.
  • 1 1
 @canadaka: if human power is needed at proportionate scale as the growth of scammers increases, you have an arms race you cannot win.
  • 3 2
 we have been.
  • 3 0
 Why is this so hard. Just block all new members from posting. Then vet them to make sure they’re real before you let them post. Problem solved.
  • 1 0
 @txcx166: The frauds are taking over old abandoned real accounts too.
  • 1 0
 What does a moderator do on PB and how to become one (not that I necessarily want to)?
  • 1 0
 @wslee: look for scams, forum spam, and such.
  • 3 0
 @jake28: I feel like a mod already. I've reported like 50 of these accounts
  • 2 0
 @jake28: @jake28: I'm a frequent user of B&S and also constantly browsing and reporting obvious scam accounts. I'd consider becoming a Mod. Feel free to DM me.
  • 2 0
 @canadaka: IT professional here to fund my MTB addiction, here’s my simple technical suggestion for your site admin/IT team(I’m not free, so they can figure out how to implement something like this).

Automate periodic checks on known breach/password leak services like haveibeenpwned.com(I believe they support API calls). Check all usernames, associated emails, and hashed password information from those breaches and also block passwords from being used contained in those breaches. Set a period of inactivity for an account to go into an archived state that requires recovery to make it more difficult for scammers to hijack those “safe” looking accounts for Buy/Sell.

Also, it’s been said several times before in here, take a page out of Meta’s book and crowdsource your buyer/seller verification system so it doesn’t overwhelm mods. Require a public tag who the buyer is on an item for 3rd party verification along with a rating system.
  • 45 0
 It would be nice if they would implement a Buyer/Seller Rating system.
  • 5 0
 @Phillyenduro: that’s an idea I can get behind
  • 1 0
 It's kinda already here, but hidden for bike shops under the "places" tab. BuySell Rating System/ . Could youse some TLC and integration into the main buysell page linked to seller accounts.
  • 35 7
 I don't like the "boosted" feature. One of my favourite aspects of Pinkbike's buysell section is your search is never polluted with sponsored items for sale. I would prefer if you got rid of it.
  • 12 5
 It will only bias large corporate vendors over the individuals. Will swamp out good deals and only bias visibility towards high margin bad deals. Worse for the user 100%
  • 8 9
 @rbarbier12: interesting take. If only there were industry-leading filtering tools that an informed user could put to use to seek out desired deals. And those “large corporate vendors” are nearly universally local bike shops.
  • 8 0
 @jake28: Fair point. I would prefer to use the industry-leading filtering tools without a bias towards those who have the means and margins to elevate their posts to the top. Is it possible to filter out boosted listings?
  • 2 0
 @jake28: Also, greatly appreciate the overhaul of the search feature! This was one of the weakest aspects of the site for as long as I can remember
  • 3 1
 @rbarbier12: thank you!
  • 1 0
 Yeah, hopefully they don't end up getting too spammy. Worried it turns into shopping for cars on craigslist (literally hundreds of ads by dealers with zillions of keywords so when I'm looking for a manual sports car I get new minivans).
  • 31 0
 Can I boost my listing if my bike is 142mm?
  • 14 1
 Thanks @jake28
Probably not popular to be positive, but after a quick look around these seem like great updates
  • 3 0
 Thanks for the good wishes.
  • 8 0
 Great update, but you missed out on updating everyone on the whereabouts of a certain someone who was a big part of Pinkbike and has disappeared?
.
  • 5 1
 I heard a rumour levy left to work at Donut Media to officially be a car guy?
  • 5 0
 @progressioncycles: Levy and anything "donut" seems like a match
  • 5 0
 @jake28 I like the updates, boosted ads I'm not a fan of, but its not like this is the only platform that does that so I can manage.

Any thoughts on creating a regional portion for Community? I'd love to see more localized articles
  • 8 0
 in 4 SuperBoosted listings
  • 47 2
 SuperBoosted listings coming soon for $157, x 12 months.
  • 9 0
 Do you, when you search, get to flip the display order so that the boosted ones go at the bottom?
  • 2 0
 @vinay: Sure, for a small fee. Wink
  • 1 0
 Edit: Oops, I thought you responded to a different comment Wink .
  • 3 0
 Can we get a feature added to the buy/sell that allows us to selectively block certain users from appearing in our “near me” search? I would prefer never to see a set of ads that somehow get refreshed to the top of my feed. I’m convinced That he has some kind of script running that initiate the ad refresh at the instant it’s allowed.

I’m looking at you Mr. 2015-front-grill-for-Chevy posted and refreshed since July of 2018. No one wants your car parts my man. Not to mention the garage sale ad he has refreshed since 2012. Goodness.
  • 3 0
 The Chevy grill would be sick apartment art.
  • 5 0
 @jake28: something similar I have been thinking about a lot would be the ability to hid specific ads. When looking for a bike I am just scrolling through the same bikes day after day that I’m not interested in. Saving the filters was a great addition that speeds up daily searches, but the ability to hide specific ads would continue to speed up the process.
  • 6 0
 @tjbiker38: This 100%. A 'never show me this ad again' button would be awesome to have
  • 3 0
 @blazekelly: yeah or even just filter out specific manufactures. Every day I have to look at these trek bikes for sale that I will never buy.
  • 4 0
 Can you make a filter to search for titles of a buy/sell only, like maybe if the term is in quotes? It's hard to find Time pedals when everyone puts "only used a couple of times" in their posts.
  • 5 0
 @artistformlyknowasdan: you can do this today on desktop and mobile; no quotes needed. Next to the search bar, you have the option to search titles only or titles and description.
  • 1 0
 @jake28: Could we increase the listing title character limit from 56 to around 80?
  • 1 0
 @nowthatsdoomage , @jake28 replied
“you can do this today on desktop and mobile; no quotes needed. Next to the search bar, you have the option to search titles only or titles and description.”
  • 4 0
 One of my favorite pasttimes is browsing the pinkbike for sale section. I bought my last bike off here and will probably buy my next.
  • 1 0
 Glad I'm not the only one
  • 2 0
 I've got two ideas that others have also mentioned, both lifted from bikehub.co.za

- notifications for new items (generally, paid members get these immediately, while free members can get a list once a day showing new listings matching their 'wishlist'')
- user reviews: should be straighforward with a one liner. Any user who gets something like 3 poor reviews in a row should probably be suspended or somehow investigated, could be a useful anti-scam measure as well.
  • 2 0
 I was annoyed by the Boosted ads to the point of just scrolling past all of them until I got to the old-school, non-Boost ads. (I was looking for an ad that I had posted and couldn't find it.) Then I saw your first Boost is free, so I did it. Now I feel like a hypocrite and if this frame never sells, I'll assume it's due to the Boost feature and doing exactly what I was doing (not my lousy ad).
  • 3 0
 I'm guessing in a few weeks once everyone's free boost is used up there will be a lot less boosted ads
  • 1 0
 @matt-15: the F? I was charged for my first boost..
  • 1 0
 @pargolf8: people with Outside+ get 2 free boosts
  • 1 0
 Not super pumped on the Boosting of Boost, but whatevs. Would like to see the search option for "Material" come back for things like seatposts and handlebars. If you know you want carbon or aluminum, it sure would cut down on search results that must be manually culled through.
  • 1 0
 @jake28 - feature idea that may be too specific to Vancouver Island. Is there anyway to specify "island only" and exclude the mainland in our searches? Even a small search radius will include all the Vancouver items, but miss ones just outside our local area.

Maybe someone has a good workaround for that?
  • 4 0
 Thanks Jake! Looking forward to MX wheels as an option for listings in the future Wink
  • 1 0
 Absolutely. Wheel size matters!
  • 1 0
 Haven't looked in a few weeks but seems like last time I checked a few bikes so many ads were already sold (not useful) that it was annoying...seems like if its sold, just yank it. But surely there's a much better reason for that (?)
  • 3 0
 We fixed it
  • 7 0
 @jake28:
sold listings is extremely useful when trying to price your item if you aren't sure what the market will pay for it. please give us an optional way to see them.
  • 1 0
 If ya pay to boost your ads, you will get more views. I just sold one kids bike pre-booat now an almost identical listing is swallowed up but all the paid boosted ads and it is barely getting views. That's fine, but I will not be contributing - will use Facebook instead.
  • 2 0
 There is not many boosted ads as a % of active listings. And many people are using their 2 free boosts with an Outside+ subscription, so probably higher atm than when it levels out. And you can boost ads on Facebook as well.
  • 1 0
 Is awesome the amount of response(defence?) All the mods are paying into the boost thang.
  • 1 0
 @canadaka: Well it seems like these 30+ checks are not working properly. I've been trying to post an add for 3 days and I keep getting the following message:

Your last PB Buysell posting was suspicious. As a security measure we have sent you an email with a link you must click to verify your account before you can post.

I am not getting any email to "verify my account" so at least that part of the security is not working. Who can I get help from?
  • 1 0
 For whatever reason the search result on my iPad sucks now - only the top 1/3 of the picture shows with each item. It is fine when I click on an item, but a bummer before because I can't tell if already looked at that item.
  • 1 0
 Nice shame there are still scammers here and its impossible to kick them out/report them with a simple click , Had to spend 2 HOURS to find HOW and he is still Scamming people.
  • 2 0
 Users still have to repost active ads individually. A "repost all" feature should have found its way into the mix 10 years ago. As well as an inbox search.
  • 1 0
 So after trying to shop for some parts over the past 4-5 days, I've decided the boosting feature is total BS. As a shopper (.....and occasional seller), I hate everything about it.
  • 1 0
 Thanks for the update to search! I complained about this years ago and told it was fine, and I was using it wrong. All good updates!
  • 1 0
 That 2013 photo article was awesome. I'd love to see more content like that. For me that era from 2010 till 29r's came along was peak mtb style. Love it.
  • 1 0
 May i suggest a new search option on Pink bike buy sell for those concerned or interested - a Weight entry - for parts, frames, bikes, etc.
  • 2 0
 I've bookmarked this article to enjoy later please no spoilers!
  • 1 0
 Love the insights into dev updates. Here's my genius idea: start doing the whole target="_blank" thing for inline links
  • 1 0
 @jake28 the search looks so much better! Thanks man for keeping this place running
  • 1 0
 Great! May be few years down the line you will pay per minute for browsing pinkbike. Great job Outside+
  • 1 2
 Now all your need is a page showing us the GPS map location of Mike Levy at any time, and maybe some info about what his upcoming holiday schedule is and what time he showers at night. Jokes aside this looks good.
  • 1 0
 One feature I've wanted to see for a long time is a button on parent comments to collapse all replies.
  • 3 0
 I've added it to the desktop site!
  • 1 0
 We have been waiting for the death of all things resembling Pinkbike. Thanks outside
  • 1 0
 @jake28 This “Boosted” thing has take over and all but destroyed some of the catagories. This makes me sad.
  • 3 3
 Boosted buy/sell listings are less justifiable than the boost axle dimensions. Not even a theoretical benefit to buyers.
  • 1 0
 Love it that’s all I can say.
  • 1 0
 Bring back fantasy league!
  • 1 0
 I would really like to see a buyer/seller feedback function.
  • 1 0
 Can't wait to see the "Super Boost' ad option.
  • 1 0
 The new buy and sell is terrible
  • 1 1
  Boosted buy/sell listing, badbadbad
  • 1 1
 Boosted buy/sell adds doesn't sit well with me.
  • 1 0
 Someone buy my bike
  • 5 0
 someone buy Nick's bike.
  • 1 0
 @jake28: Thanks Jake Smile
  • 1 0
 I got a GTI brother!
  • 1 0
 @Mtbdialed: Oh really?
  • 1 0
 Thank you, Jake!
  • 1 2
 Got a smoking deal on an XL Yeti 5.5 listed. Somebody grab it!
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