The marketplace is our most active subforum, so I'm suggesting to bring some more structure and prominence:

Marketplace takes over the blue "Other" forums, "Other" subforums will get a new black section.
Geekhack currently has this for marketplace:
Great finds (ebay links and such), classifieds (buy/sell/trade), group buys and vendors.

I don't want exactly the same, and I also want something improving on that. It seems sane to at least make a separate subforum for group buys, so the categories within it can be set to "interest check", "order stage", "billing" whatever.

I want to implement this at some point together with the category tabs. So for instance for group buys, the default page and tab shows all posts with the category as prefix to the title, and there are interest check, order stage, etc. tabs with only the matching topics. OTD style.

Any input on which subforums (and categories)? I want a limited number because one of the advantages (and disadvantages) of entering the marketplace as it is, and of the new "all" tab in the future, is that you get everything going on at once. Should be stuff with its own subcategories like the group buys.

General (great finds and general questions like where you can buy stuff)
Group buys (interest check, order, payment, waiting, ended)
Trades(wanted, for sale, trade)

Do we need a vendor subforum?

xbb wrote:Do we need a vendor subforum?

If we can get some vendors to join, sure.. I might ask Unicomp tomorrow.

acfrazier wrote:

xbb wrote:Do we need a vendor subforum?

If we can get some vendors to join, sure.. I might ask Unicomp tomorrow.

I'd make that separate from Marketplace then
More like a support section.

xbb wrote:

acfrazier wrote:

xbb wrote:Do we need a vendor subforum?

If we can get some vendors to join, sure.. I might ask Unicomp tomorrow.

I'd make that separate from Marketplace then
More like a support section.

I got around to asking them today, I spoke with Don Bowman and he said they'd take a look at our site and would more than likely love to be involved (even geekhack has a section for them!).

I'll let you know how that progresses if everyone thinks that's a good idea.

Mockups of possible implementations.

First picture what I first had in mind. The default All tab is like the current topic overview page.

With the second picture I added another layer. Possibly making it too complex? Would be harder to implement in any case. But gives much power to organize and filter stuff without creating many subforums, and with "all" tabs.

Third is just a variant of the second. I think I like the second better.

Let me know what you think.

P.S. This can be used on all forums, not just marketplace.

If that works out, I think it will be pretty awesome. No need for the sub-categories I think... you will only ever need to find all sold items so often. As for visuals, we gotta change the look of the tabs before launch, the round corners don't work with our otherwise sharp look.

Great idea on this, can't wait to see it implemented.

The usefulness of an extra level is probably better demonstrated by other tabs. For example: Group buys -> Interest check | Order | Pay | Shipping. And eBay -> eBay.de, eBay.nl, etc. But to keep it simpler, the more complex ones like group buys can alternatively be moved into a separate subforum.

I like the second option.
Extra level is okay I think if there are not too many subforums,how you going to implement this?
Level 1 is a subforum and Level 2 is a prefix?

Not sure yet. If we decide for the simpler one we can just use prefixes, unless we also group some more prefixes under one tab. There's also the possibility to make it a user option. Simple tabs by default, with the option for Advanced tabs. Besides doing it with subforums I guess there's the possibility to do it with subprefixes. The first mockup with one dimensional tabs is actually based on code I quickly wrote in a test.

I was thinking to make the tab look a bit like the buttons with the bottom border removed.

webwit wrote:...
Third is just a variant of the second. I think I like the second better.

Let me know what you think.

P.S. This can be used on all forums, not just marketplace.

categories2.jpg

I like it, but can we add Active Group Buys?

Not that you always get old group buys listed messed up with new ones.

This way, I don't think we need any split up like on that almost dead other forum.

While you are at it, please add a way to sort messages and posts by username, so some things are easier to find.

I think we don't need a split up into ebay.at, ..., ebay.vn

7bit wrote:While you are at it, please add a way to sort messages [...] by username, so some things are easier to find.

I do support that.

I think we don't need a split up into ebay.at, ..., ebay.vn

I do support that.
Most of us won't care where something has been found as long as they can get their hands on it

This is more space-economic:

ps: Maaaarktplaaats.nl can be written shorter

Maybe just "Elsewhere" for non-ebay auction/marketplaces elsewhere. Not much posts for marktplaats alone.

i wouldn't split it up too much,
one general with finds and discussion
and one classifieds with member sales and gb is sufficient imo
maybe a vendors subsection too
more subsections = less overview (is that word correct ??)

webwit wrote:Maybe just "Elsewhere" for non-ebay auction/marketplaces elsewhere. Not much posts for marktplaats alone.

Turn it into markt.nl and everybody will know what it is.

xbb wrote:General (great finds and general questions like where you can buy stuff)
Group buys (interest check, order, payment, waiting, ended)
Trades(wanted, for sale, trade)

One problem is that 'great finds' might end up as groupbuys; and that some people are open to both trades as well as sales (, and perhaps that some great finds are selling from members?). Another that to me 'trades' does not fit cashtransfers, so a different title would be preferred as far as I'm concerned.

and rest:
I like the look of the second mockup; but maybe change the text inside the searchbox to reflect that it'll 'search posts in current tab', so you'll have the clarity of function of both the second and third mockup combined.
And regarding the look of the actual tabs, though rounded corners might mash worse with the rest of the style (although the logo has rounded corners), it does help quite a bit for visual seperation imho.
Another thing with the categories, having 'ebay' seperate from 'online stores'; there's for instance qtan (on amazon, ebay, taobao and his own site *afaik*)

And lastly, I definitely second 7bit's request for sortable forum display (including pm, bookmarks; the works); but I feel that will be quite a bit of work, seeing how it's not there atm (i.e. guessing not standard so needs hacking in).

Buuut, awesome idea, looking very good.

*edit: markt.nl sounds like ****, perhaps just '.nl', but then it'd have to fit dutchie trade too, and we don't wanna become secluded like ZE GERMENS
**kidding**
and yes, that's worded perfectly mb-c. also, I kinda agree on that.

I didn't see it before!

I like a lot the second picture Webwit. It looks like a great idea and will make searching really easy.

off wrote:..
One problem is that 'great finds' might end up as groupbuys; and that some people are open to both trades as well as sales (, and perhaps that some great finds are selling from members?). Another that to me 'trades' does not fit cashtransfers, so a different title would be preferred as far as I'm concerned.

No problem!

Just edit the title (choose a different category.) Maybe there should be an option for both.

off wrote:...
*edit: markt.nl sounds like ****, perhaps just '.nl', but then it'd have to fit dutchie trade too, and we don't wanna become secluded like ZE GERMENS
**kidding**
and yes, that's worded perfectly mb-c. also, I kinda agree on that.

what about: m9s.nl
(like i18n)

7bit wrote:Just edit the title (choose a different category.) Maybe there should be an option for both.

meaning there should be two prefixes? [cat]+[subcat]+title?

7bit wrote:

off wrote:markt.nl

what about: m9s.nl
(like i18n)

You lost me there, I really can't see anything in those (mnines nor ilatan or ieighteenn or ioneeightn, or somesuch)

It's a silly programmers thing; i18n stands for internationalization, where 18 chararacters got removed in the middle. It's instant-jargon!

off wrote:... meaning there should be two prefixes? [cat]+[subcat]+title?

More like [cat,mouse,elephant].

7bit wrote:More like [cat,mouse,elephant].

Will create such a ruckus when moving threads... :/

Moving threads?

moving like mentioned for instance from 'great finds' to 'group buys'

I got this response from Unicomp today

Don Bowman wrote:Also, if Deskthority.net develops a vendor response area on their website, Zach Menchhofer and/or I would be glad to serve as moderators for a Unicomp entry.

To keep the flood of offers at least somewhat at bay (marketplace already is our most active subforum) I think we should ban non-keyboard related sales.

Not sure I'd agree, it is a nice community and making sure your unused stuff gets to someone who appreciates it is always nice.. but it should probably be a subforum though, perhaps not inside marketplace but next to it (so it'll be clear by the icon, and at some point we'll be able to filter it out of spy; if so inclined).

I think it looks awesome with the tabs, would make it far easier to traverse the marketplace to look for stuff (in my opinion)

Looking forward to seeing it develop

Making some progress... big mod.
Not a mockup, but a screenshot of my dev clone of deskthority.
Shows marketplace with eBay as selected tab and eBay.de as selected subcategory.