posted on July 4, 2001 02:18:24 PM
Hello, I would like to announce that Internet Pioneers has officially opened its doors to the public, today. Independence Day seems appropriate to launch our little hootenanny.
Our site is just three weeks old, and already there has been good word-of-mouth support. We've received over 850 unique page views on our home page, registered over 70 members and 70 new auctions were added today. AuctionBytes has requested a press release. Now that our shelves are being stocked, I will submit our site to the search engines and send press releases to auction news services. Other promotions are in the works.
Our goal is to establish a co-op of auction sellers, and to help other groups build their own co-ops. In addition to free auction services, we provide a discussion forum and free co-op educational materials.
posted on July 4, 2001 03:26:55 PM
Congratulations Twinsoft! I took a peak earlier myself and it doesn't look too bad.
BTW, have your people get in touch with my people (which is really only me) and I'll get you a write-up in my newsletter next issue, too. Just send your info to [email protected]
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posted on July 4, 2001 09:52:45 PM
I have a question regarding bidding at Internet Pioneers twinsoft. Perhaps this is the way the site calculates bids, but I thought it was a bit weird.
I just went in a bid on an item that had no bids. The auction started at $1. I bid my max (proxy) and when it showed what the new bid was, it read $2. I went back and checked to see if maybe someone bid at the same time I did, but no, it said it had only one bid.
I thought (like eBay does) that the first bid would register $1 (the opening bid) and then when soneone else bid, it would raise to $2. But my initial first bid registered at $2. Is that a flaw in the programming, or is that how all the auctions start?
edited for ubb
[ edited by brie49 on Jul 4, 2001 09:56 PM ]
posted on July 5, 2001 12:29:56 AM
Hi, Nanntique. That is a great mascot. Do you have any graphic arts skills? Maybe you could work up some clip art and icons for us.
Brie, I saw that bid. In a few auctions today, it appears the seller placed the first bid in the auction. The second bid works fine. I know what you are talking about because the same thing happened to me when I bid on an item.
I looked through the code and fixed a couple of errors, but I'm not sure I've tracked down the specific bug that is causing the problem. This is not a huge flaw but it is a SNAFU so I will be watching to see if it happens again.
Thanks very much for bringing to my attention. Overall, I think we had a very positive opening day. In fact, I was more than a little surprised at the support we received. Thanks to everyone who helped and good luck to us all!
posted on July 5, 2001 08:33:38 AM
twinsoft -- the same thing happened to me when I was the first bidder on an auction - it didn't enter my first bid at the opening price, but at the increment above that.
El
"The customer may not always be right, but she is always the customer."
posted on July 5, 2001 12:28:06 PMtwinsoft, after thinking about that initial bid snafu this morning, I was wondering if perhaps it was because the seller had a reserve price and it jumped my bid up to his reserve, which happened to be $1 above what I bid?
Are reserve auctions labeled on the site, like eBay?
posted on July 5, 2001 12:44:18 PM
Hi, Brie. That was one of the first things I thought of but I don't believe that's the problem. At least one seller I contacted didn't use a reserve. I did track down a couple of errors in the code and I am waiting now to see if the bug reappears. It hasn't so far, so I am crossing my fingers and we will keep watching to see what happens.
. Internet Pioneers
posted on July 5, 2001 06:58:10 PM
My first complaint? I was going to list some items on the site but noticed that images can only be 200 x 200. Is that mandatory or a suggested size?
posted on July 5, 2001 07:08:04 PM
Hi, Morgantown. You can use any size image. The software we are using supports image uploading though we are not offering that feature because of limits on server space. That is why the software recommends images smaller than 200x200.
The picture is placed inside a table which also includes the bidding info, so a large image will squeeze the text to the side of the screen. I will probably redo the page soon so that the image is separate from the table.
. Internet Pioneers
posted on July 5, 2001 08:08:12 PM
Okay Steve, I have another question. I went to list some items on the site tonigh and noticed I have to have my photos stored at a web site to put in a url. Bummer!
I have a huge hard drive and store all my pics there and upload them to eBay when selling there. It is much easier for me that way because of time constraints. I know many people complain that ebay totally wrecks their photos, but I've been lucky and after all this time, they have only distorted one on my pics.
Anyway, my question is, will Internet Pioneers ever be allowing my to upload photos from my computer, or will it only be through storing at a web site with a url? Otherwise I will only be able to participate as a buyer.
if you email me I will give you the URL of a site that will allow you to up load your pitures from your computer and even offers templates that can be used on internet pioneers or you can go to the intrernet pioneers discussion board I have posted the links on that board.
posted on July 5, 2001 10:17:50 PM
Mtown, that is great. Word of mouth advertising may be our biggest ally right now. Though some media attention is nice too. I have been contacted by a couple more auction newsletters including Krause Supersellers (circulation of 55,000). Once I get the hang of this press release thing I will send a few releases out to other sources including AuctionWatch.
Brie, our hosting account provides about 50MB storage space. That's free. After that, the charges get pretty steep. There are free picture hosting services, though they compete with AuctionWatch so we can't go into that here.
. Internet Pioneers
posted on July 5, 2001 10:47:34 PM
twinsoft, just registered with your site. I have a question. Do you have a catagory for more expensive sportcards, or sportcards in general? Morgantown, would that be where I am from? W.V. Thanks! Hillbilly
posted on July 5, 2001 11:08:00 PM
Hillbilly, You are from WV, aren't you? I had completely forgotten that. I know this is completely off topic but some of my family hailed from WV. Namely one fairly well-known 5-x-great-grandfather.
I'd guestimate that if you're familiar with Morgantown you might know quite a bit about him.
Okay, now back on topic. Brie, for me using an off-site image hosting service is actually easier than an on-site host. It makes things more manageable and if I'm listing on multiple sites I don't have to worry about uploading images more than one time. No matter where my auctions go, the images can follow.
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posted on July 6, 2001 02:27:29 PM
I posted some stuff last night (well this morning technically) and so far so good! I'll be doing some word-of-mouth advertising too...it's a co-op after all, I want to do my share!
posted on July 6, 2001 04:14:40 PM
Hi, CAgrrl. Internet Pioneers is not a co-op and I want to make sure everyone understands that. AuctionBytes called us a co-op, and I wrote to them and they said they will publish a correction. We are a free site. There is a discussion board for planning and building a co-op, there will be educational co-op materials, and the free site will serve as our model, but at this point there is no membership, no charter, directors, etc.
What we *have* done is show the auction community that by working together, we can run our own site at cost and participate in managing that site. I believe the support we've received shows that sellers are tired of being bled dry by big corporations masquerading as auction "communities." Right now everyone is enjoying the free listings but as soon as possible, I would like to encourage discussion, and especially talented volunteers who can come forward and help us to become a legal co-op.
As one poster put it, organizing sellers is like herding cats. That is the task we are facing right now.
posted on July 7, 2001 08:04:49 AM
I've been celebrating the start of Internet Pioneers, a new auction venue, in several threads and posts.
I've clearly referred to it as a co-op. In fact it is not presently a legal co-op and becoming a co-op is only one of several options that the owner/users/members of IP will have to decide upon in the future.
In my enthusiasm for new opportunities for independent online sellers I personally ignored the specific details, thought of it as a co-op and posted in a way that could lead others to believe it was a co-op, which is currently not true.
The truth is presently available on the site for anyone who is interested. It is not my purpose to explain them.
I, and apparently others, have had more than enough confusion and deception regarding all sorts of online businesses.
I've spoken out against the practice and now find I've contributed to it. It was unintentional on my part but that doesn't make it any less wrong.
I still strongly support Internet Pioneers, will try to be more careful and specific when I make statements in the future, hope I've learned a useful lesson and apologize for stating incorrect information.
posted on July 7, 2001 08:53:32 AM
Twinsoft- I can understand why legally you don't want to be labeled a co-op.
But, without some financial and manpower base what will you do when you have 5,000 auctions and can't handle all of the tech support and continue to build the software as needed and answer all problematic emails and deal with legalities and a million other things that comes with owning and operating an online business? You still need to earn a living with your own listings somewhere. What happens when AW or other forums will no longer be a place to "talk about your business" and you have to advertise or perish?
The reason you start with a cooperative group first is that way you have a group of people to share decisons and responsibilities and later share the benefits. You have a lot of enthusiasts and supporters- why not ask them to join you in this in a cooperative effort. Form a
co-op planning committee and share the work load.If two heads are better than one- think what you can do with 20 working on this auction!
I feel IP has enough people who were interested from the time of beta testing this site That everyone could volenteer with support and help for new users at the discussion board that IP has set up.
Even many of the technical things can be handled remotely by trusted volenteers through there web browser.
the only side of this sight that would need to be handled locally is script upgrades, programing and trouble shooting a program glitch.
Right now IP is not a Co-Op in fact an auction site its self will never be a Co-Op
But IP will have to be ran with Cooporation of its users volenteering when they are at the message board to feild new users question about listing and so on.
It will also be the registered users there that Use IP and its message board to form any auction sellers Co-Op The Auction site can serve as the model but its self can do nothing its not liveing it cant support or promote its self and even more to the point a web site cant build a co-op it can serve as a model and a spring board to build friend ships and gives a point for talk and discussion .
look at IP as a thumb on the left hand the people who help to build and run the site the thumb on the right hand and the message board as the fingers and hands them selves the registered users make up the rest of the body.
Thumbs, finger and hands are all usefull for sure but with out the rest of the body uniteing with them to complete the picture of become (the co-op) as use full as hands with fingers and thumbs with out the body they just lay limp.
The auction site right now as it is , is a working model of a cooperative as it was built with the cooperative efforts of many users its not a co-op the paper work is missing but with out the help of each and every person this site would not be posiable.
it also shows that a Auction sellers co-op is posiable it was all built by sellers who came to agreements even were able to agree on sacrifices due to limitation in software server restrictions and all.
I have been working and discussing this Idea with various people for over 6 months and this is the most cooperative work any group has done 100% totally togeather and actually can show its results to the world.
I am not saying this to knock down any other organizeing group at all or any other who may be thinking of trying to put togeather groups for other auction co-op efforts but IP right now is totally interactive users can not only discuss the forming of a sellers co-op and from one but they can actually promote list sell and buy at Auction site that was built with a cooperative effort Or (as Twinsoft says Ip is a working model).
in fact I invite other sellers or buyer anyone in the auction community who wants to build other working models to Join us all in putting togeather a net work of cooperatively built auction sites.
The only rule is that we all share the same goals and dedication to the cooperative principles.
The larger the group gets the more support the stronger the whole Idea will be and the stronger the whole cooperative movement becomes.
let all the registered users of the sites form a single auction seller co-op.
posted on July 7, 2001 09:56:40 AM
Ray, particularly in view of your clear enthusiasm for the project, it's an easy mistake to make. Especially considering the thread started in this forum by its founder titled "New auction co-op site in beta testing", and the fact that the URL contains the string "coop". Deception rolls downhill.
-gaffan-
Oops, I hit the submit button before I was finished!
We welcome Customer Reps and encourage you to respond in a non-promotional way to the membership's questions. We just need to know who you are
[ edited by joice on Jul 7, 2001 10:16 AM ]
I hate to disagree
The URL of IP is http://oasc.hypermart.net
where is the word co-op in this URL ....
and the thread post about this site beta testing did use Co-op as in cooporation effort the thread was calling for people to feel free in help beta test the software.
in fact this whole discussion started in a theard posted by a user who receive an email with some flash persentation about a co-op that didnt work.
The beta the lead in page for the auction site started out as OASC Online Auction sellers Cooperative and was changed dureing the first few days of beta testing to Internet Pioneers to avoid confusion.
the site its self is not a Co-op but built with cooporation also was changed with advise from a user on the discussion board the feeling was the use of the word Co-op leads in to some legal technicalitys with out the paper work.
I can see where many might make the mistake of calling this a co-op as for months everyone interested had been refering to this as the auction seller (co-op movement).
The site its self when it opened was very clear Internet Pioneers is a site dedicated to cooperative principles.
It is a part of a seller cooperative movement its a working model of a auction site built by sellers cooporateing to build it.
in every way this is a cooperative effort of sellers and users But legally can't be a co-op till the i's are doted and the T's are crossed.
There are cooperative efforts and there are Cooperative legal businesses this site is a cooperative effort.
posted on July 7, 2001 10:42:49 AMCo-op as in cooporation effort
Oh, please.
From the first post in the referenced thread:
[i]The free co-op auction site is located at:
http://oasccoop.hypermart.net [/i]
(bold mine.)
"Co-op" clearly has a much narrower meaning than the word "cooperative" in this context, and it is that narrower meaning which was obviously represented. The URL of the site may well have been changed since, but that certainly appears to be due to the founder's realization that by labeling a site -- which he clearly intends to run for the forseeable future as a sole proprietorship -- as a co-op, he faced the possiblity of legal challenges.
-gaffan-
The name changed because even though the word co-op writen this way does have norrow meaning and is regulated and is a legal trade mark.
im glad my use of the term (cooperative effort) pleases you.
I myself have no fight or argument with you in anyway or shape or forum.
I do know that you and some others have Personal difference with twinsoft, What I will ask of you is that you try to keep your personal difference with Twinsoft separate from this cooperative group effort.
if you feel speaking negitively about IP is a way to get even with twinsoft for your differences you are mistaken.
internet pioneers is a large group of people working togeather some even people you think of as internet friends.
Right now Internet Pioneers is a group of over 100 registered users and growing hourly working togeather your posting negitive opinions is about the Idea is one thing but to post just to get even with twinsoft won't hurt him as much as it will hurt many others who are trying and working hard.
you wont be hurting twinsoft so much as the community that built it.
Try and keep your personal feelings and differences with twinsoft separated from what is a group effort.
keep your personal feeling for one member in email and in personal threads why hurt many people over misunderstanding with one.
I have seen the fight with you and others on other message boards its not a pretty site to see Keep these things privite and let this group have a Chance this whole thing really is a built with group cooporation.
Its not hard to see that your post on this thread has to do more with twinsoft who is working with the auction software and not with the auction site and the group as a whole.
be honest with yourself do you really want to hurt the whole IP community or is it about getting even with twinsoft ???? ..
I am not a modorator here at AW and I am not a organizer of any one seller cooperative movement.
but as a member of this community of users and a member of the online auction community its self I am asking you to keep personal feeling separated from group business at hand.
I don't know for sure myself if you are an sell at auction sites but this is also very good advise as a auction seller to keep personal differents with one buyer separate issues why speak negitive of all your buyers because you have a fight with one.
As a father I couldn't give better advise to my own kids in such matters, and hope that they would pass such values and advice on to there kids.
Just send your info to 