Hello,

We've made changes to how many Classifieds listing slots you have access to. Sometime last year a change was made that universally doubled (and in the case of Premium users, quadrupled) listing slots. This was not communicated outside of the announcement and all references to gaining listing slots were actually incorrect. You would actually receive 2 listing slots per $1 donated, for example.

The reasoning for this change was a community request - there not being enough ways to increase the amount of listing slots you have access to. The solution was rather simplistic and did not really address the concern very well. Additionally, we've seen users make alt accounts* so they can take advantage of the immense amount of free listings (200) available. This is being rectified through the use of a new algorithm, described on the FAQ page.[backpack.tf]
* Bot accounts were generally not affected negatively by this change because they also tend to have a substantial amount donated, which now means they'll actually have more listings available than before.

In short: (base + group-bonus + twitter-bonus + 5 * donated-amount + 0.2 * accepted-unusual-suggestions + 0.1 * accepted-other-suggestions + 2 * premium-months-gifted + donation-bonus) * premium-multiplier.

Additionally, Premium users will always have at least 200 listings, so they do not have to join the group or connect their Twitter.

For many users, this will be a net reduction in listings available (we may seek to remedy this, most likely by assigning additional donation bonuses to lower donation tiers, not just $35). Users who donated more than $35 will see a significant increase in listings available to them.

Users are now however also rewarded more for contributions to the site's voting mechanism (whether that'd be by donating, or accepted suggestions). For example, Black Belts (with 750 suggestions accepted) will receive anywhere from 75-150 additional listings (* 2 if they are also Premium).

As a bonus we'd also decided to reward generous users who gift Premium to others. As it is right now, they essentially "receive" an additional $0.40 in donation value to their account, should you see it that way. By the way, gifting Premium with keys (and bulk discounts, similar to how we give discounts for lump sum purchases right now) will be available in the future.

We feel this better accomplishes the original intent, to add additional ways to increase your listing cap.

New services that will give additional incentive to donate/get Premium (by increasing limits) will also be available in the not-so-distant future. One such feature should be live this week, namely listing alerts. Similar to price alerts, you will be notified if a listing is posted (or updated) for a specific item. This will allow you to stay competitive with other sellers or buyers and therefore make more out of your listings.

We do take feedback into consideration, so leave anything you'd like to share below.