Discussions

A note this afternoon about a few new updates that have been put into place in the classifieds.  
 
The first and probably most exciting one is that the vast majority of ads will be posted on the site instantly as soon as they're confirmed by their seller. This will be great for both the buyer and seller.... with the buyer seeing new ads show up all the time in stead of every couple hours, and the seller having their phone ring that much sooner than before.  
 
One of the unique things about eBrandon that folks in bigger cities don't have access to with their classified sites is that we're able to make life extremely difficult on both out-of-province scammers and out-of-province spammers. The odd one will always squeak through, but it is extremely rare. It was very important to maintain that with this change. As part of the site's new ability to instantly post an ad, there is now a check to verify that an ad is being posted by someone that is local. As long as you are using either a local internet provider, OR are using a local email address (just one of these two. doesn't have to be both), your ad will be instantly posted. If not, it will be subject to screening first in the same way ads were screened for the past 4+ years.  
 
I will still be actively reviewing ads to ensure there are no duplicates, re-posts of the same ad, or business ads. If you happen to notice one, your assistance would be greatly appreciated in tipping me off. Simply click on the "Report this ad" link and I'll be sent everything I need to take a look, and will never reveal your identity to the poster of the ad in question unless you have specifically asked me to.  
 
This change couldn't be made without also integrating the ability to delete ads from the Edit Ad page. When logging in, you'll now see a delete button on your ad's login area. Please note that this is not intended to be used as a way to delete an ad and re-post to bump it back to the top. We have to do our best to make sure that the time of those browsing the site is respected... and going part and parcel with that is their being able to know that an ad is new. The site now uses a duplicate detection system to make sure that the same ad for the same item is only posted once every 30 days. I will also be scanning manually for duplicates. If you notice someone double-posting, let me know.  
 
Also new a few days ago is an upgraded search page. There were some issues with search result accuracy, so the entire search algorithm has been re-written and will be tweaked in the coming weeks. Also coming in the next couple of days is the ability to use eBrandon's unique ad tagging system to zero in on what you're looking for. So for example you could search the Cars category for "all vehicles 1996 or newer made by Ford that use a standard transmission." Since we're over 10,000 active ads now, this functionality is very important.  
 
Enjoy!  
 
Edited by Adam, 2009-08-26 13:49:47