The Free Economy v2.0 - Explorer, Firefox and Safari

[Scotness]

Hi all,

With some assistance of a database programmer I've now go the Free Economy site working under Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox.

As you may recall this is a service to link supply and demand with out money - but it was only working under Firefox earlier.

The main interface is here:
http://www.mango-a-gogo.com/scot/econ/free-econ.htm

and this instructions are here:
http://www.free-economy.org/

Please have a look and give me any feedback - you'll note at this stage there's still a lot of junk test posts in the database at the moment - I'll go through and delete them shortly - but the service can be used for real to post and find things - and there are genuine posts in amongst the tests.

Please test it out, give me some feedback - and most importantly use it for real!

Thanks

Scot

[mamos]

Cool

What if I want to offer a service that is not in your list?

What if someone wants a service that i have to offer but does not have something I want

mamos

[Scotness]

Thanks for checking it Mamos - the answer to question 1 is - tell me and I'll add it to the list -- the answer to question 2 is it doesn't matter - everything is done for free - not for barter or trade - so it doesn't matter - but obviously you're under no obligation to give something away for free if you don't want to.

[MKG]

Hi Scotness - nice idea. I can't help feeling though, that your seven (?) day limit for display is a bit on the short side.

Mike

[Scotness]

Thanks Mike - good tip - I'll extend it - do you think 2 weeks would be sufficient - maybe 3??

Scot

[MKG]

Difficult one - how long is a piece of string?

But it did strike me that if anyone is offering a service rather than goods, maybe such an offer should stay indefinitely (until the service provider asks for it to be taken down or until it's known that the provider has disappeared into the great Internet hole, never to be heard from again). Or maybe add a line in your form asking for a termination date - that would solve all problems, I would have thought - and you could write a database query automating removals.

Mike

[Scotness]

Hi Mike,

I think I'll set a termination date option where the person can just select a certain amount of weeks from a pulldown menu.

Thanks for the tip

Scot

[Scotness]

The system now also allows for requesting things you need and searching for what other people are requesting too!

- That time out function suggestion will be added in later

Scot :-)

[wulf]

My first thought is that WHERE is the most important place to start. It doesn't matter if a service is free if it is too far away but negotiations with local people who want to be involved might open up all sorts of opportunities that weren't initially even thought about.

Could you have an option to choose a location and gauge the level of local activity?

Wulf

[Scotness]

Hi Wulf - definitely - you do have to pick a location - first your country and then town - the town comes in a pulldown box (for some countries) or can be entered manually.

Scot

[wulf]

It says "OR manually enter the town, suburb or nearest locality" but won't let me proceed without also filling in other boxes. What I'd like would be an option to just give a location and gauge the level of activity. If there is not much going on, you could always then bring up a page suggesting some ways to get things moving.

Also, don't forget the first S in instructions in the text on the front page!

Wulf

[Scotness]

Hi Wulf, I see what you mean - I'll take that on board for a change further down the track. That would require a bit of a major rewrite as the system at the moment is built around someone wanting to give or find things - or alternatively request, or search requests for things.

It is a good idea though, and would provide an overview as you say.

Also you've pointed out to me how that field is kind of sitting out there at the beginning - it probably really shouldn't come up until the country field appears.

Fixed the typo - thanks for that

All the best

Scot

[daithi]

Hi Scott,

I have published ideas for something similar at http://habitat.us.to/ - which I have temporarily dubbed "helpnet".
I want to provide people with a recourse for situations or needs which fall outside the scope of projects such as justfortheloveofit.org and couchsurfing.org - and such as your own.
(That shouldn't necessarily be construed as a negative criticism of these projects by the way. I don't think these projects were intended to cover all bases anyway.)
At the moment it's essentially just a forum plus a map - and is more general in its scope than similar efforts.

Anyway, part of the reason I mention it here is to pose the prospect of collaboration.
I don't want to cramp your style, or steal your thunder, but if you want to work together at any stage let me know.
Collaboration could be as formal or informal, as central or peripheral, as you like.
I just wanted to seed the thought.

Sorry for taking this slightly off-topic.

[Scotness]

Sorry daithi for taking to long to get back to you - I've been a way for a while and busy with other things.

Anyway checked out your site - it looks good, but I don't know if I'd be much good at collaboration - my computer skills are severely retarded and I've struggled to get the Free Economy to where it is (I had to pay a programmer at one stage). However I'm more than happy to link to your site - and will set up a link page for that on mine soon.

Scot

[Scotness]

The latest news on the Free Economy is that it is now available on Facebook as a Facebook Application

The site is slowly growing - someone donated some money recently which has helped with the hosting fees -- but it will get there - I'm determined - we don't need a money based greedy economy and we will get there!!

Scot :-)