Feedback Number of Active Seller Listings

[RustVendor]

EDITED: calguns.net is back up...

 

[6MMBRA]

If my sale goes through this weekend, I’ll definitely donate. Might be a lot different circumstances, but on snipers hide, you have to be a paying member to sell stuff there. Granted you do get some training material, but mostly because the owner hates the for sale section.

 

[ikeo1]

FYI We've reduced the promotional listing of more than 5 back to 5. The recent influx of users caused a surge, so we're throttling it a bit.

If you want to more than 5 listings, then please consider upgrading your account.

If you have more than 5+ now, those will not be affected. You will not be able to open a new listing.

I've seen a lot of listings and sales so please consider chipping in if you've sold or are moving things. It helps to keep everything free for everyone. If not, all good but we do have to limit the number of listings.

Cheers!

Kinda crazy we're getting closer and closer to 10k! Let's go!

 

[arm3drv]

FYI We've reduced the promotional listing of more than 5 back to 5. The recent influx of users caused a surge, so we're throttling it a bit.

If you want to more than 5 listings, then please consider upgrading your account.

If you have more than 5+ now, those will not be affected. You will not be able to open a new listing.

I've seen a lot of listings and sales so please consider chipping in if you've sold or are moving things. It helps to keep everything free for everyone. If not, all good but we do have to limit the number of listings.

Cheers!

Kinda crazy we're getting closer and closer to 10k! Let's go!

Can you remind us again how to chip in/make a donation? Thank you sir

 

[ikeo1]

You can click on the banner at the top, donate in the dm's, or in your account

https://caguns.net/account/upgrades

 

[ikeo1]

I've implemented a new warning system to let people know when you've reached the free number of listings which is currently 5.

This notification will only show if you are Registered with 5 open listings. You can dismiss the notification to acknowledge the current limits.

• Registered users have a limit of: 5 open listings
• CA Supporters have a limit of: 10 open listing
  
  
• You will not see a Post Ad button if you have reached your limit. Let me know if you see any issues with the new implementation. Hopefully this will help with some of the questions I've been receiving.

* This may be reduced to 3 if we continue to grow and there's not enough donors to cover free users. If this changes, existing listings won't be affected. You will not be able to create a new one. As of now, no plans to do this, but noting it so it's not a surprise if we have a growth spurt.

Since we run on cloud, we pay for what we use. If you've sold something or bought something for a good price, please consider donating.

https://caguns.net/account/upgrades

 

[DB>)>]

A couple thoughts -
First thing is that the way images are shown as one scrolls through listings makes it MUCH faster to browse and see consistent representations of the "offerings". I find this to be FAR superior to the random or no images too often seen on CGN. Also it means I don't need to clik through to see whats on offer, again making browsing significantly faster, and also reducing bandwidth, as one doesn't have to dig to find something...

Secondly, and I know this is a "will it work?" proposition, but maybe add a big ol' button for when a "offer" becomes a sale, the now happy seller can make a contribution along with "closing" the listing and posting feedback (maybe create a simple script for a seller to follow as well to semi-automate the process?). Sorta a "tip" button like so many joints are using in electronic checkout, and also could be several options, including a "one time", a "subscription", and an option that allows "upgraded" features for different periods of time to encourage continued use of the commerce venue.

While CGN is "mostly" running (OK, still seeing 504 Gateway errors regularly.... I'm guessing when the "reboot" script is running <wink>), I find the "marketplace" to be much more time consuming to browse than the "classifieds", and I've got a few things I really should sell, looking forward to doing it HERE, there... not so much!

 

[ikeo1]

A couple thoughts -
First thing is that the way images are shown as one scrolls through listings makes it MUCH faster to browse and see consistent representations of the "offerings". I find this to be FAR superior to the random or no images too often seen on CGN. Also it means I don't need to clik through to see whats on offer, again making browsing significantly faster, and also reducing bandwidth, as one doesn't have to dig to find something...

Secondly, and I know this is a "will it work?" proposition, but maybe add a big ol' button for when a "offer" becomes a sale, the now happy seller can make a contribution along with "closing" the listing and posting feedback (maybe create a simple script for a seller to follow as well to semi-automate the process?). Sorta a "tip" button like so many joints are using in electronic checkout, and also could be several options, including a "one time", a "subscription", and an option that allows "upgraded" features for different periods of time to encourage continued use of the commerce venue.

I'm thinking of implementing something like this once we do the shirts and upgrades. I want people to see and use the features and after we do the upgrade, if it goes smoothly, then I'll put in a button for to buy a shirt or donate if they've received or left feedback and don't have a badge.

It'll just be a simple notification like you said, but I'd like to earn it. The next migration is going to be pretty big so I didn't want people to contribute and things go wrong. We know how that goes. Instead, I'll do the work first upgrade and update, stabilize, then send out message to folks who are active on the system.

There's still a ton to do. I still have my small list of moderators I need to invite to help with the site.

 

[OCRebote78]

Sorry, probably blindness on my part, but where is the upgrade button?

 

[ikeo1]

Sorry, probably blindness on my part, but where is the upgrade button?

We only have temporary ones at the moment but will soon be offering an annual offering soon. I’m working on cleaning up a few things.

https://caguns.net/account/upgrades

 

[Seeed]

Totally fair. I would maybe have a couple supported option. Only allow 1 listing for non pay people. A couple dollars for 3 and 5 for 8 listings something like that. When money is exchanging hands I feel the platform to help with it should get supported in that transaction.

And hopefully once ad revenue covers costs you can rethink it.

 

[OCRebote78]

We only have temporary ones at the moment but will soon be offering an annual offering soon. I’m working on cleaning up a few things.

https://caguns.net/account/upgrades

So at the moment I can't put anything else up for sale? Since I've reached my limit? How can it go back down?

 

[ikeo1]

So at the moment I can't put anything else up for sale? Since I've reached my limit? How can it go back down?

If you click the link, you’ll see the option for $10 for two months. That’s will bump you up to 10 for two months. We don’t reduce it, so after 2 months you keep your 10 as they get sold you just can’t open another one.

To open a slot, close or mark sold. That will reduce the number.

 

[ikeo1]

Totally fair. I would maybe have a couple supported option. Only allow 1 listing for non pay people. A couple dollars for 3 and 5 for 8 listings something like that. When money is exchanging hands I feel the platform to help with it should get supported in that transaction.

And hopefully once ad revenue covers costs you can rethink it.

We’re going to move down to 3 free soon. That’s always been documented as we’ve grown. Now that we’re close to 16k users. The costs have risen dramatically.

I’ve tried to put donation markers when you mark sold or close but that hasn’t really helped. I’ve seen an increase in feedback with folks who don’t help out so I’m going to have to reduce the number of free listings.

I’ll be putting in tiers and annual options which was why I removed it so it could be cheaper if you don’t want certain features since I’ve added quite a few since the beginning. Until now anyone who supported got everything. Everyone who has an active subscription is grandfathered in and won’t see any changes and will see increases in some limits as a thank you. Some people who donated $10 last year got up to a year of perks since they helped out early and I didn’t have anything else in place.

People will have the chance to get into that one more time before we start. It’s something I’ve been working on how to think of the tiers. So I can offer a cheaper version to help support platform maintenance costs.

The infrastructure and traffic’s continues to grow but unfortunately our subscriber base is actually getting smaller while number of listings go up. The ads have been kind of inconsistent too.

I’ve put a lot of thought into how to keep it a good value. Even with as many listings as you get free there’s still people who take advantage of the system too. All part of the growth process. We’ll see how it goes. I recently had to bump up web/db specs because of the growth.

 

[han_solo]

With the recent increase in signups and increased listings. I have to look at cost structure to get ahead of costs. Obviously, this might be a sensitive subject but I am running this site out of pocket without any advertisers at the moment.

I'm building out an advertisement system but until I can implement it, I wanted to ask the community what your thoughts are on limiting the number of active listings.

• Currently the limit is set to 5 active listings per user with 3 images each.
  • The file size is limited to 150kb per user which we shrink on the backend one the user uploads.
• 5 listings x 3 (150kb) images = ~2.25 Mb per user
• At our current scale if everyone had a listing 1500 * 3(150kb) = 6.7Gb of images + bandwidth to serve to users.

Proposed

• The thought is to limit the listings to 3 active for registered member where its 9 images * 150kb = 1.5Mb free + transfer .
  • I may need to limit it to 1 image .

I'm being super transparent with everyone because why not.

If you want more listing or would like to help out the service sign up for a membership to receive 8 10 listings x 5 images for $5/mo.

• Benefits of a subscriber program
  • Supporter Badge
  • More listings
  • More images
  • Banner for your profile
    • Avatar is free
  • Fewer ads once they get implemented
  • Early access to new features and documentation
  • Other things as we continue to build out the system.

I'm alright now, but I'd like to get on the same page with the most active users so that when this does go down, its not a surprise and well discussed.

Let me know your thoughts. I'm alright right now, but if we get to 10k-20k its going to start to cost some meaningful $ and I'd like to be prepared vs. surprised so that we can continue to build all the way to 50-100k users without an issue.

I hope its obvious, I don't expect everyone will pay or want to. I just need enough who believe in the platform to help foster its growth and keep it going.

You can leave a suggestion below and readers can upvote what you think are good alternatives.

Thank you for reading and contributing!

Is there a link somewhere for that $5 subscription dealyo

 

[ari_d_sparki]

Is there a link somewhere for that $5 subscription dealyo

It took me a few minutes but I found it under user account and over to account upgrades.

 

[Striker62]

I feel a limit of 3 ads and 1 image per ad for non paying. Paid subscriptions or vendor = 5 ads with 2 images. Communications and additional image requests can and are usually taken offline. This is the norm for most all transactions. Buyers / Sellers do not normally rely on the images posted on a forum and want to see more prior to committing. Otherwise, posting of links to outside photo hosting sites (imgur, google photos, etc.) . Data storage costs do nothing but increase, so limit it sooner than later or purge history.

 

[Buncheong]

The thing is, I only need to make one listing per forum in which I can list everything.

But the way this site is currently set up, I am forced to make one listing for each individual item, one by one, by one. It's a waste of bandwidth. TBH Classifieds is way over-engineered.

Recommendation: drop the entire Classifieds template and streamline it. It needs to be much, much simpler.

 

[Ryan Gosling]

The thing is, I only need to make one listing per forum in which I can list everything.

But the way this site is currently set up, I am forced to make one listing for each individual item, one by one, by one. It's a waste of bandwidth. TBH Classifieds is way over-engineered.

Recommendation: drop the entire Classifieds template and streamline it. It needs to be much, much simpler.

i mean, you dont need to make one listing for each item.

I just make a list in a post, like my current ad, and then cross em off as i go

 

[Buncheong]

i mean, you dont need to make one listing for each item.

I just make a list in a post, like my current ad, and then cross em off as i go

I will try that, but at the top where it's citing price what do you put? If I try to leave it blank, the post won't save.