This message is from: "Steve McIlree" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Let me start here by thanking everyone for all the feedback I have finally received about the classified ads on the FH-L website. I guess once again we have an example of the similarity between Fjord horses and their owners. You have to ask several times before they are convinced you REALLY DO want them to move. But once you folks move you do so in a big way. Since my plea yesterday, many of you have responded. It appears that the overwhelming majority of you like not only the idea but what you see so far. Some of you have come up with specific suggestions and questions about what to expect. First, I'll address some of those questions and suggestions. Finally, since I'm now pretty well convinced that going ahead with the actual installation of this software is a go, I'd like to outline what the future will hold.
Sue Freivald liked the ads but had a suggestion - "I would recommend somehow adding the url to each edition of the digest, because if folks are like me, they'll forget!" I thought Sue had a great idea, so if you check the bottom of this message or digest you'll see it's already happened. Curtis Pierce said, "The site looks good! Can you make web addresses and/or emails hot?" OK, now this is going to be a look at what's to come. When the full version of the software is installed, you will no longer have to include your contact information in the body of your ad. Instead, there will be a button at the bottom, that will send you an email when an potential buyer clicks it. There will be another button that the viewer can use to send a copy of your ad to a friend who might be interested. This arrangement will keep your email hidden from being harvested by would-be spammers. Right now I think this shouldn't be a big problem since only list subscribers know about the ads, and since the ad pages are built on the fly they should be safe from robot harvesters. Martie Bolinski likes the concept but asks, "Are you thinking of adding and other 'horse related' sections? I sell equine art...". That's another category I will definitely add when I upgrade. Some kind of catch-all for art, books, model horses, etc. I am wide open to more suggestions for additional categories. By the way Martie, I notice there is an ad for a Fjord calendar under Miscellaneous Equipment, you might want to put something there for the time being. People seem to like having a single categorized destination to look for their wants. I like the fact that the ads expire in a relatively short time. That means if you see a mare you really like advertised, there is a pretty good chance she's still available, as opposed to finding one in the list archives that was sold eight months ago. For advertisers, you should be aware that you will receive an email notice 5 days before your ad expires and you will be able to renew it up to five times. I will be putting a "State/Province" field on all ads. There is nothing I hate worse than finding a great horse in an ad only to figure out from the telephone area code that its 1200 miles away. So each ad will contain a field for the state from which the horse/harness/cart ships. And this field will be searchable. I spent some time on the phone today with the Chief Cook and Bottle Washer at Noah's, the software company which designed the classified system, discussing their future update plans. As I believe I have mentioned, although the ads will be browsable by the whole world, posting privileges will be limited to FjordHorse List subscribers. I will be waiting until the next revision is released which will allow registration to post ads to be coordinated with a subscriber database. In the mean time, feel free to continue to use the Evaluation version which is now running. I will let everyone who has an ad posted at the time I do upgrade so you won't lose your posting. Here are a couple goodies you can look forward to. You will be able to have an email sent when a new ad is posted in some category in which you have a particular interest. You will be able to build a "Favorites List" of ads you want to go back to for a second look. That's about all I can think of for now. If you have any specific questions, don't hesitate to ask. If you have any suggestions, please let me hear them. Especially, give me ideas for additional categories you think I should add. I'm glad there seems to be nearly unanimous approval of what you've seen so far. I have wanted to do this for quite some time, but this software is the first I've found that is as usable while at the same time being inexpensive. -- Steve McIlree Owner/Administrator FjordHorse List Important FjordHorse List Links: Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw Classified Ads: http://tinyurl.com/5b5g2f
