TradingDock.org Blog

Steady Improvements

2008-07-25T19:16:00.002-05:00

A recent change broke the new user registration form for a short period of time. Fortunately a user was kind enough to alert us to the problem and I was able to fix it quickly.

Here are the latest site improvements:

more consistent layout in My Account area
more helpful notes in the Ad Details page during the Ad Placement process
revisions to the Ad Placement process that improve and normalize formatting of title and price
filters that prevent ALL CAPS ad titles and descriptions (these are unfair to other courteous typers)
drop-down menus to keep Length and Year fields more consistent
simplified Brass Bell Printed Ad Preview coming soon...

All these changes are being made in preparation for improvements to the printed version of the Trading Dock. We hope the site continues to grow and feed into the print publication, which may soon be produced separately from the Brass Bell magazine.

More Ad Placement Fixes

2008-07-18T16:51:00.006-05:00

I've been going deeper into the Ad Placement process, making improvements and fixes as I go. These improvements are harder to notice but still essential - such as, once you have passed step 3 (Upload Photos), you can return to step 3 and upload more photos that you may have forgotten. This action was broken such that photos you added after the fact would not show up in the ad, but it is now fixed.

Other improvements include general look and feel clean-up, better handling of existing line breaks in ad descriptions, etc.

Ad Placement Process Updates

2008-07-10T17:28:00.003-05:00

I have updated the ad placement process so that line breaks and hyperlinks are now preserved in the ad description. I have a feeling that this has been a sorely-missed feature - especially for ads with multiple items for sale, for links to external photo galleries, and things like that.

I have also been doing under-the-hood tuning that won't be immediately obvious, but should make the listing process a little smoother. For example, it has been the case that when you go back and forth between ad placement steps, old information will show up, forcing you to refresh the page to see your latest edits. This issue should be fixed now, so if you notice it cropping up again, please let us know.

Matt

Confused about Featured Ads

2008-04-09T11:26:00.002-05:00

In response to a recent question regarding how ads are selected to be shown in the Featured Ads box:

I can address your questions about Trading Dock.

This is the database query that displays featured listings for category 359:
select * from classifieds where featured_ad = 1 and live = 1 and category = 359 order by rand() limit 25.

There are 44 total ads in this category and 25 are randomly selected to be displayed, so you would expect any particular featured ad to show up 25/44 (57%) of the time. In my testing this is more or less what happened; your ad came up in 40 out of 71 queries (56%). You can rest assured that the sample is random.

I am going to modify the query so that the featured ads are ordered by date, with newest at the top. Hopefully that will lessen the confusion a little. We are aware that the featured / better placement / bolding system is not ideal and creates some misunderstanding, so bear with us and we will probably be revamping the system soon..

Thanks for looking out for problems on the site!
Matt

Don't Forget to Promote Your Ad

2008-03-10T17:55:00.003-05:00

After you place an ad on Trading Dock, you will be presented with the Internet address that can be used to access your ad. It'll be something like http://www.tradingdock.org/1234. Keep this link handy. Wise users will employ this link to promote their ad - sharing your link with others online is a great way to draw traffic. Post it online at forums and bulletin boards, blog it, and put it in e-mails.

Upload Limits Fixed

2008-03-05T13:37:00.003-06:00

We've had reports of photo upload troubles lately. I originally set our file size limits very high - 8 mb per photo - knowing that this limit can cause headaches for people with newer digital cameras. Well, some recent server changes (switching to PHP 5) caused this limit to get reset back to 2 mb. I could repair that easily enough. But additionally, our upload handling script itself was bailing silently because of hitting the PHP memory limitation...anyway, suffice it to say these bugs are squashed and you can feel free to upload absurdly large digital photos.

Matt

Newsprint Edition

2008-03-04T15:36:00.003-06:00

For those that like to browse boats for sale in a familiar format - printed newspaper classifieds - I've made a Trading Dock Newsprint Edition available. This page is updated with the newest ads, listed in alphabetical order. For now it shows only the Pre WWII and Post WWII boat categories. As always please let me know your suggestions.

Matt

Scam Attempts Continue

2008-01-07T15:57:00.001-06:00

Fraudulent solicitation continues to be a problem for Tradingdock.org and other classified sites on the Internet. It seems that scammers perfect their game and become profitable on large sites like craigslist.org, and then smaller sites like ours see a trickle-down effect as scammers try their sham elsewhere. The best defense for these con artists is simply to be informed and a little street smart: beware of peculiar English, money orders, cross-border deals, cashier's checks.

Read more at http://www.tradingdock.org/scams.php.

Trading Dock A Hit in 2007

2007-11-15T11:04:00.000-06:00

Judging by the feedback we've received so far, the Trading Dock is off to a great start. Hopefully this is just the beginning . If you have a Trading Dock "success story," please share it with us here on the blog...and tell a friend.

Database Hiccup

2007-11-05T10:46:00.001-06:00

Over the weekend we had a brief power failure to our server and this caused a corruption in the database that drives the Trading Dock. Luckily we were able to repair it without restoring from an older backup. We are fairly certain no information was lost, but if you are aware of anything that is amiss please let us know. We apologize for any inconvenience this incident has caused. Thanks for understanding as we continue to grow and build the site.

Matt

Put a YouTube video in your boat ad

2007-10-31T17:04:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody. Today I've been working on a new feature for the site: embedding YouTube video in classified ads. Users can now add any video from YouTube to enhance their listings. We're hopeful that video will help our users buy and sell even more effectively.

Check out a sample here: http://www.tradingdock.org/680

You will see the "YouTube Video URL" field when you place your next Trading Dock ad.

The video will be embedded in the ad below your ad description. The YouTube URL should be in the form of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABCDEF123456, as shown in the URL box underneath your video's YouTube description (the letters and numbers after the equal sign are the important part that identify your video).

If you encounter problems or need help posting a video, please contact us with the feedback form on the Trading Dock homepage. Let us know about any bugs you find so we can patch them up right away.

Matt

Known Scammers

2007-07-04T10:19:00.000-05:00

I am advised by one of our advertisers that an alleged buyer "Frank Drachman" is not well-intentioned. Please be advised, and steer clear of any emails from him.

Also, Tom Moore. See below.

have been out of town.........just back for business ........regarding to the mail sent to me ealier i will like to tell you to forward your name and address with your phone number so that a check of the agreed price could be sent to you as quick as possible......

I will also like to let you know that the check wil be an excess check so that my bussines representative can get to you and finalise the transaction as the check clears....

Please kindly mail me with the required info.

Tom moore

Donation Option

2007-07-03T10:05:00.000-05:00

We have just added a "Donate to TradingDock.org" option on the site. You'll find the link in the menu to the left. We are starting to see quite a number of boats sold as a direct result of ads placed on Trading Dock, and as you all know, placing an ad on Trading Dock is free.

We strongly believe this site serves a great purpose in bringing buyers and sellers of classic and antique boats and related items together. The more we can grow this little site, the more it will benefit everyone in this niche. Hopefully, the "Donate to TradingDock.org" option will quietly fund a few enhancements on voluntary donations. It works for public radio, your local barber, and your waiter. Maybe it can help this project as well?

Who is 'Club Ad Manager'?

2007-06-29T16:21:00.000-05:00

Thanks Matt for setting this up. I think it will help get questions and suggestions for enhancements out in the open.

For those of you who are browsing this site, there is one question that I field fairly often, and that has to do with ads that have been posted by the user, "Club Ad Manager." Club Ad Manager is actually me. When we launched this new site, we sent emails out to all parties who had ads on the old Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club Trading Dock pages. We asked all of our prior advertisers to migrate their ads over to the new TradingDock.org site. Of course some did and some did not. As a service to those who did not migrate their ads, I made the decision to post their ads here on the new TradingDock.org site. This seemed logical, and a better approach than simply removing the ads entirely. As I posted them, I created an alias, "Club Ad Manager. " If you see ads posted under that name, please note that the "Contact Seller" links back to me. While I am happy to forward any requests that I receive to the actual seller of the item, a more expedient approach is to contact the seller via the information included in the actual ad description. On these ads, you will see phone numbers and email addresses in the description copy.

These ads will expire mid July, so this will soon become a moot point. Thanks for the understanding and thank-you for using TradingDock.org.

Bill

Starting A Blog

2007-06-28T18:45:00.001-05:00

Hello, my name is Matt, and I am the lead developer working on TradingDock.org. I am starting this blog to record progress as we continue to improve the site and to establish a public place where users can always go to post questions and feedback. It will also be a place where we discuss broader topics relevant to the antique boating community.

We hope you find the Trading Dock useful and I want to thank everyone who has given us feedback so far.