User:Peghead/Listing proposal

New listing proposal.

Problem: current listing system incentivizes a creator to both rate their item down to be cheaper and up to get prominence. If an item is well-rated and a creator wants to update it, they must raise the price or make a whole new listing. Also, the new&hot formula rewards people who take down and re-list.

Proposal:

New&Hot changes to something that sorts by a score computed as:


 * -3 points for each week since the last time the listing fee was paid.
 * 0,1 or 2 points for the listing fee level.
 * rating

Examples:
 * something was listed 2 days ago at the lowest fee level, has 4 stars. Score is (-3 * 0) + 0 + 4 = 4.
 * Something was listed 4 days ago the mid fee level, has 3 stars. Score is (-3 * 0) + 1 + 3 = 4.
 * Something was listed 9 days ago at the lowest fee level, has 5 stars. Score is (-3 * 1) + 0 + 5 = 2.
 * Something was listed 8 days ago at the highest fee level, has 3 stars. Score is (-3 * 1) + 3 + 3 = 3.

Basically, things are segmented into groups according to how many weeks it has been since they last paid a listing fee, and then their rating is added, and the "listing fee level" can pump them up 1 or 2 stars, artificially. These are simplified because in reality the ratings are a floating point number.

Alternate: once over a week old, the listing fee level ceases to matter and things just sort by rating.

Min pricing: I think it should match the fee. Alternatively, it can work like it does now, matching the fee for the first listing or using a minimum based on rating for relists. Bleah. Either match the fee or have global defaults: 100 min for avatars, period.

Listing fees: as I said, 3 levels. Could be more. For an avatar, you could pay [ 100, 2000, 5000 ] to select your level.

Anyway, that's the starting point. This could be adjusted, but the basic idea is that the listing fee has nothing to do with the rating, and a creator can visit their items each week to give them a "bump" by simply re-paying the listing fee. If you listed something 2 days ago at the mid fee, and upgrade now to the high fee, no refund/credit is given, you just bump up and reset the 7 day counter.