Frequently Asked Questions

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Questions

• “Live”, “Closed”, “Hidden”, “Suspended” &mdash I am confused.
• What does “Bump” do to my ad?
• Why does pHing insists on having my mobile number?
• How can I search for ads more effectively?
• What do you mean by flagging an ad?
• How does the feedback system work?

“Live”, “Closed”, “Hidden”, “Suspended” &mdash I am confused.

We have got 4 different ad statuses which is mainly used to determine whether your ad is displayed and other behaviors.

Live

This is the initial state of an ad once it gets posted. Live ads will appear everywhere on pHing.

Closed

You can and should choose to close your ad once it is no longer valid. Closed ads will still show up in your profile page for user reference.

Hidden

Short of having a delete function, you can choose to hide your ad so no one except you can view the ad. This allows you to temporarily hide your ad while you update it.

Suspended

If your ad is suspended, it probably meant that you have violated our Terms of Service. pHing automatically suspends your ad based on user flags as well so let us know if you think we made a mistake.

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What does “Bump” do to my ad?

“Bump” is just a convenient way to bring your ad back to the top of the list as though it has just been posted! This is just an experiment to see if it will reduce the amount of duplicated ads posted for this purpose.

As of now, you can bump an ad as many times as you want but we do impose a random interval between each bump to prevent possible abuse. So if you see the “Bump” action, hit it!

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Why does pHing insists on having my mobile number?

There has been an increasing amount of scam cases and in the past, we have tried suspending possible scammer accounts but registering for a new account is just too convenient. Having a mobile number on file will add deterrence towards such behavior since it will be much less convenient to get a new mobile number. This will probably bring about mixed feelings but our goal is to build a safe buy/sell community.

However, do note that this does not mean there will be no scams. It will just possibly deter scammers and hopefully reduce the amount of scams.

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How can I search for ads more effectively?

pHing allows some basic search operators which enable you to form better queries. By default, all keywords needs to be present in an ad before it gets return as a result. E.g. searching for “acer aspire one” returns only results containing the words “acer” + “aspire” + “one”. Now try using search operators.

Make certain keywords optional (OR operator)

You want to search for Nokia E series but you are only interested in the E71 and E66. A search for “nokia” will return a whole slew of other results. Rather than making too separate search for “nokia e71” then “nokia e66”, you can use the OR operator.

The most straight forward way will be to specify your query like “nokia e71 | e66”. This will return ads containing keywords “nokia” + “e71” or “nokia” + “e66”.

Exclude certain keywords (NOT operator)

Imagine searching for a MacBook yet too many results of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro makes it difficult for you to browse. Using the NOT operator, we try “macbook -air -pro” which will return results containing “macbook” but NOT “air” and “pro”.

Match exact phrase

There are also times where you want Acer Aspire One and not Acer Aspire Desktop One. You may think of using the NOT operator. However, a better way is to add quotes to your query like “"acer aspire one"” which return results containing the phrase “acer aspire one” exactly.

Grouping

Take the OR operator example further and you can even search for Nokia E71 or Samsung Omnia with the query “(nokia e71) | (samsung omnia)”. Note the brackets in this case which groups the keywords so you will not have results containing “nokia” + “omnia” if it ever exists.

Search operators are powerful yet may be daunting for some users. If you have a particular case not covered in our examples, let us know so we can add it to the list.

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What do you mean by flagging an ad?

Flagging is a means of reporting bad ads. The different flag classes allows us to identify what went wrong with an ad. We do set various thresholds to automatically suspend an ad based on user flags so please flag with care! If you think your ad has been wrongly suspended, let us know and we will review your case.

Do note that we will not condone users who wilfully flag ads for any reasons.

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How does the feedback system work?

We employ a very simple and straightforward feedback system. Each feedback consists of a rating, a comment and optionally an ad ID. Although the ad ID is optional, we encourage users to provide them since it will make reference easier. Rating can be either positive, neutral or negative.

There are however some rules to the system. Feedback are permanent but the submitter can retract (i.e. delete) their feedback within 14 days of submitting the feedback. This will allow ample time for the submitter or receiver to resolve any issues regarding the feedback. To ensure fairness in the system, a user is only allowed to submit a feedback for the same user once every 7 days.

Never try to game the system by registering multiple accounts just to submit feedback for one another.

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