Bothered by the mechanics in FS/WTB +suggestion (in General)

Ok, I get it, in the past, we might have had some problems with people spamming in those threads, I guess, but removing the ability to post in there at all is... a bit odd, to say the least.
Sure, it's "quiet" there and somewhat orderly, but it's a bit TOO quiet if you ask me. Also, I bet you occasionally have to answer multiple times to the exact same question asked by several people. Also, auctions are a pain in the posterior to manage because of that. And let's not even think about multiple-item auctions.

So my suggestion would be to combine what's good now with what's good in a regular forum thread WITHOUT adding back any of the "bad" we used to have before.

In short, the actual threads over in FS/WTB would remain almost exactly "as is" right now, the rules would stay the same, and so on and so forth.
HOWEVER, each of the FS/WTB threads would ALSO have a subsection reserved for comments, where everybody could post (including the OP), BUT NO POSTS THERE WOULD BUMP THE THREAD UP.

Visually, a split into two parts (top the original thread, separation bar in the middle, comments in the bottom) would be the most logical way to go, I guess.
The comments section would have a "look and feel" similar to the clan wall, maybe even a bit more condensed (poster name and actual text on the same line, no post title).

In case you want to argue that nobody else is bothered by the way FS/WTB works now... all you have to do is look how many recent threads exist in there.
Then, consider people have been constantly getting drops for the past (quite a few) months, so they should have plenty of items for sale.
Let's face it, usage rates of it have dropped dramatically because everybody feels it at least a bit irritating to use.

Allow buyers to post comments, but increase the cost of creating the threads, and give them a lifespan of seven days before lock-out.

I'd rather people used auctions...

then add the ability to rent the item out while it's being auctioned (preferably using a link from the auction itself) increase max time to a month, lower fees, and allow cancellations after bids have been placed (to allow for payment plans)

Auctions have even more drawbacks. You'd need to heavily improve auctions first (starting with what was mentioned above) for that to have a chance to work properly.

Awesome!

Of course, you can only rent stuff from auctions that have no "buy it now", since that would make things awkward if somebody does use that option. You could however tweak the rental system to ALSO allow a "buy it now" option (instead of just renting).
Oh, and while you're at it, allow to put stuff up for rent for up to a year AND allow people to select multiple rental periods.

In other words, partially merge auctions and rentals, and extend the scope of both :D

Examples : say somebody puts up an item for 1-day periods at 5000$ per day, for up to 200 days/rentals, and with a BIN of 2 mil CB$. Then somebody else could just select "rent for 40 days" (pays 200k) or just buy it outright, whenever the item is available for rent.

Pretty low-key response level so far :|
I guess nobody cares :'(

I think the issue here is remembering what it used to be like. Sometimes I wish I could comment on the FS/WTB threads. But, in the end, it's nobody's business but the buyer and the seller. It simply opens up the threads to flame wars that don't have to take place.

And, with all the work the devs are putting into the game right now, is this really something that needs to be done? A place for a peanut gallery? People are quite free enough with their comments as is :)

Is the idea bad? Not really. Is it a good idea? Also not really.

Just my opinion, but I just don't see a need for this. And I don't feel a want for it either.

Then, consider people have been constantly getting drops for the past (quite a few) months, so they should have plenty of items for sale.
Let's face it, usage rates of it have dropped dramatically because everybody feels it at least a bit irritating to use.

Logic jump

There is no inherent connection between "there are sellable items" and "everybody finds it irritating"

also, I'm quite fine with the current system

I am utterly in love with threads that do not include "Hey you shut-up in my thread! I can be as stupid as I want, squatting here like a toad, trying to sell A for $B (where B is 8 times common market values)."

It's the lack of "Hey you shut-up in my thread!" that matters.

I don't see a need to encourage FS/WTB instead of auctions or rentals.

Then what about enhancing rentals and auctions beyond the current scope as described above ?