@Marc

 

"Great Deals, Bargains, Specials Alerts"

 

Gunna Happen?

 

Cheers George

Edited May 1, 20241 yr by georgehifi

6 minutes ago, rantan said:

This is probably abundantly clear to everyone except myself, but what has happened to listings which were placed more than a week in the past?

When I clicked on"view all ads" a list of about six ads came up.

 

Thanks for putting up with a fool.

 

This probably best answers that:

It's going to be a little messy during the 14 days transition from old to new. We are encouraging those with active ads to now reproduce them on the new system. There was just no real way to flip a switch from old to new without a natural transition.

5 minutes ago, georgehifi said:

@Marc

 

"Great Deals, Bargains, Specials Alerts"

 

Gunna Happen?

 

Cheers George

 

Still there, where it always was: 

https://www.stereonet.com/forums/forum/272-great-deals-bargains-specials-alerts/

 

I haven't yet considered whether that subforum, along with Wanted to Buy, will be incorporated into the new Classifieds or just within the forums themselves (where they currently are).

Longer term I think Wanted to Buy will become part of the new Classifieds and the first choice you make when you post an ad is:

For Sale or

Wanted to Buy.

Then the ability to filter between the two when browsing. This will be looked at in a week or two.

12 minutes ago, rantan said:

This is probably abundantly clear to everyone except myself, but what has happened to listings which were placed more than a week in the past?

When I clicked on"view all ads" a list of about six ads came up.

 

Thanks for putting up with a fool.

I had the same problem and despite some useless comments saying “it’s where it always was”  I eventually found it . They are under Forums , right down the bottom!!

4 minutes ago, Crakers said:

I had the same problem and despite some useless comments saying “it’s where it always was”  I eventually found it . They are under Forums , right down the bottom!!

 

Where they've always been? 🤣

The listing expiry countdown timer is interesting.

Just now, rantan said:

The listing expiry countdown timer is interesting.

 

Interesting good, interesting bad?

Just now, Marc said:

 

Interesting good, interesting bad?

Mainly good, but the ticking seconds are perhaps a little bit too much. Personally I like the idea but perhaps it could just be in days only for simplicity.

That said, it''s no big deal either way.

I really appreciate all the work that has been done here though.

I do miss the state /territory button as well

6 minutes ago, rantan said:

I do miss the state /territory button as well

 

Could you expand on that? What button?

Just now, Marc said:

 

Could you expand on that? What button?

 

In the old system there was an orange button on the listing which told the state from which the listing came.

This isn't apparent anymore without clicking on the listing in order to see where the seller is located.

2 minutes ago, rantan said:

 

In the old system there was an orange button on the listing which told the state from which the listing came.

This isn't apparent anymore without clicking on the listing in order to see where the seller is located.

 

How we anticipate most people will browse ads: https://www.stereonet.com/forums/classifieds/?do=viewAll

 

 

I did mention previously that styling was still being worked on though and that would be color coding regions to make it easier to see.

My initial feedback is the new system is horrible.

 

I’d like to put a more positive spin on it but I really can’t.

 

 

18 minutes ago, Colonel Sanders said:

My initial feedback is the new system is horrible.

 

I’d like to put a more positive spin on it but I really can’t.

 

 

It’s a beta release which means it’s still under production. And now is the perfect time to provide constructive feedback on the parts you don’t like. 
A lot of time (a huge amount of work) and effort has gone into the release. 
The idea of the beta release is to let it go in the wild and see what people like and don’t like, and to see what needs changing that may have been missed in initial testing. As @Marc mentioned we all use our functions differently. 
It hasn’t been released as a take it or leave it exercise which could happen on other forums. 
So look at it as an opportunity to shape the forum you like using by being constructive. 
 

Edited May 1, 20241 yr by Jakeyb77_Redux

Deleted with apologies

Edited May 1, 20241 yr by Willco

Seeing as though we're obviously being frank ...

1. As has been well documented and communicated by me and all throughout the process for months now (since last year, in fact), this was forced. We would have been left with NO classifieds at all had we not acted.
2. If you are going to reply to say, "don't like it", or "go back to the old", and nothing else - then please don't bother responding at all to the thread. It's just not helpful.

I'm OK with criticism, but not without your reasoning and even better, some constructive feedback on how it could be improved.

Looking good and looks like a lot of effort has gone into this so thanks to all involved so far.

 

I navigated it this morning and put up 2 Ads which went quite smoothly...except one thing which stood out was the images in the Ad were in reverse order to how they were added, except for the image selected as “main” which was first. I just reversed all the images in my Ad for now, to make them appear in the correct order…hope that makes sense ☮️

Just now, PurplePlanet said:

one thing which stood out was the images in the Ad were in reverse order to how they were added, except for the image selected as “main” which was first. I just reversed all the images in my Ad for now, to make them appear in the correct order…hope that makes sense ☮️

 

Ability to change image order is high up our priority list already. 👍

I like the new system. Yes, it will take some time for the information you've been used to seeing in a certain location is somewhere else, but waste spend enough time scrolling classifieds and your brain will re-program accordingly. I've been asking for a better way to search by type of equipment for many moons, so happy to see it arrive, and congrats to all involved. 

 

I doubt my suggestions are anything new, but here goes:

1. Add a category for active speakers, or change "studio monitors" to "studio/active monitors"

2. Style-wise, shrink the adds so more fit on a page. You've already mentioned styling is being worked on, so hopefully this is the direction. This will make it easier to scroll through large numbers of ads. 

3. In the not urgent, when you have time pile...ability to filter out ads by certain fields, e.g. exclude commercial, WA, etc.

Something to consider. Yesterday morning a gentleman signed up to StereoNET to post some gear to the classifieds. For someone unfamiliar with StereoNET and the forums, to say they needed a little hand-holding would be an understatement. The old system was terribly difficult to navigate and work with. But, it was what it was, because it was a workaround, cobbled together, bunch of plugins all trying to work together to ask forum software to work like a classifieds site.

 

The point is, you are familiar with what you are used to. You learn how to use it. I recently started using Fusion 360 (3d modelling software). In the first hour I wanted to bin it and never see it again. By end of day 1, I was getting the basics. Now, 4 months later I am producing complex 3D models, and enjoying discovering new features every day.

 

We have made big changes to StereoNET over the two decades and each time so many have said they "hate it". Yet, here we are.

This will be the same - I am confident, once it becomes familiar and as we keep tweaking it based on feedback. But if you don't give feedback, then you are missing an opportunity to make the experience better for you.

2 minutes ago, Topman_Chief said:

I doubt my suggestions are anything new, but here goes:

1. Add a category for active speakers, or change "studio monitors" to "studio/active monitors"

2. Style-wise, shrink the adds so more fit on a page. You've already mentioned styling is being worked on, so hopefully this is the direction. This will make it easier to scroll through large numbers of ads. 

3. In the not urgent, when you have time pile...ability to filter out ads by certain fields, e.g. exclude commercial, WA, etc.

 

All great suggestions. Some already in play, and some taken onboard 👍

Thank you for taking the time to give considered feedback. It is appreciated.

56 minutes ago, Jakeyb77_Redux said:

It’s a beta release which means it’s still under production. And now is the perfect time to provide constructive feedback on the parts you don’t like. 
A lot of time (a huge amount of work) and effort has gone into the release. 
The idea of the beta release is to let it go in the wild and see what people like and don’t like, and to see what needs changing that may have been missed in initial testing. As @Marc mentioned we all use our functions differently. 
It hasn’t been released as a take it or leave it exercise which could happen on other forums. 
So look at it as an opportunity to shape the forum you like using by being constructive. 
 

 

I’ll only be commenting on the ads as I don’t use the forums much.

 

In my view, the old categories were fine and allowed you to quickly scan through the new ads to see if anything did suit your fancy thanks to having just a one liner to read per item. Now scrolling the new ads won’t be as quick since:

 

it’s all bundled up in a “new add category” and you need to scroll through more detailed ads and pictures (quite tedious on an smartphone)

 

If you want to search, the new categories are way too granular. Seems to me a sure way to miss something.

 

 

 

 

14 minutes ago, Colonel Sanders said:

 

I’ll only be commenting on the ads as I don’t use the forums much.

 

In my view, the old categories were fine and allowed you to quickly scan through the new ads to see if anything did suit your fancy thanks to having just a one liner to read per item. Now scrolling the new ads won’t be as quick since:

 

it’s all bundled up in a “new add category” and you need to scroll through more detailed ads and pictures (quite tedious on an smartphone)

 

If you want to search, the new categories are way too granular. Seems to me a sure way to miss something.

 

Thanks for the much more detailed feedback, it is helpful.

 

There was an overwhelming majority of feedback for being able to split products into categories over the last few years, just like every other hi-fi classifieds site. I agreed with that one. But there is also the option to View All, as you have noted. I have pointed out a number of times in this thead already the styling and further layout refinement is high on our priority list and will be ongoing. I agree with you in that it needs to be more condensed, and that is what we will be working towards.

 

The beauty of this new system is we can cater it to specific views on mobile devices also. So once we get further along, we'll be able to then focus on the smartphone version, further improving its useability. 

All these things take time, and it took months just to get to this point. Remember this is not "off the shelf". Every line of code had to be written to create this. It's been a long road to get here, and it can be refined now.

 

Regarding "missing something", have you ever explored the Search Keyword Notification system we introduced early this year (maybe last year)? That ensures you never miss anything you've got a keen eye on.

2 hours ago, Jakeyb77_Redux said:

It hasn’t been released as a take it or leave it exercise which could happen on other forums. 
So look at it as an opportunity to shape the forum you like using by being constructive. 

 

100%

 

It is really surprising ( to me anyway ) that so many are so negative. They either don't know or don't care about the countless hours of work  by so many,happening behind the scenes.

As @Marc has correctly stated , we are comfortable with what we know, but in technology, time waits for nobody and familiarity will come sooner rather than later.

I have just tried to place an advertisement in the Pre Amplifier category.

It’s a diy unit by another on Stereonet it wouldn’t accept DIY as a brand then tried to add a new brand  but would not permit  DIY as a brand. Is it me or the system hasn’t included this as an option?

 I can see that I will hit other hurdles as I proceed with the advertisement.
Thanks

There's no real reason why DIY should not be able to be added as a brand, but I'll take a look at that now.