Quick announcement! I am going to be interviewed LIVE tomorrow for the TerriO Radio Show about Swap-bot. TeriO is the spokeswoman for the Craft & Hobby Association and she hosts an online radio show called “Empowering Creativity” on wsRadio.com. I am going to be on tomorrow’s show (Thursday, September 25th, 2008) which is broadcast live from 1-2 Pacific Coast Time (4-5 EST or 3-4 Central). If you are by the computer tomorrow afternoon, listen to the program here. I will be interviewed during the final segment (last 15 minutes) of the program. It should be fun! (The show is also archived as a podcast for a year, so I will post a link to that later.)

UPDATE: You can download the MP3 of my exciting interview here. Swap-bot was featured in the fourth segment and the interview is only 6 minutes long. Check it out!

Associated press reporter, Holly Ramer, interviewed me a few weeks ago for an article about internet swapping. Her article has now been released online on MSNBC and other news outlets. Read it here. Thanks for the coverage, Holly! We love press!

The swap-bot section of the article:

At Swap-bot.com, a site devoted exclusively to swaps, the most popular ones tend to involve artist trading cards — small works of art that let participants share their artistic styles with others. At any given time, the site features 500 active swaps, and it has hosted more than 20,000 since 2005.

Swap-bot uses a computer algorithm to mix up participants and assign partners, sends out reminder e-mails to participants, and includes a feedback system to deter “flakers” or cheaters who don’t send their packages.

But why go through the trouble of making something for someone you don’t know?

“I think the number one thing is that the lure of getting a package in the mail is pretty strong,” says Rachel Johnson, 27, of Eugene, Ore., who founded the site with her husband. “But I like to think it’s also a way of connecting physically with someone you only know as a screen name. People are meeting and connecting with people from different countries and different cultures.”

Due to the most recent of many arguing matches in the Swap-bot Forums, many users have questioned our policies of non-censorship and requested that we work toward a more pleasant atmosphere on Swap-bot. There are a few avenues that we can explore in order to make Swap-bot “nicer.” I need your help in determining which new policies we should adopt. Please complete the following polls and leave any comments. Our main objective is to provide a quality website and helpful service to our users. Your opinions are very important!

Profanity filter?

Ban foul-mouthed users?

Ban mean forum people?

Thank you for your help. There is more discussion on this topic going on in the forums. Click here to check it out.

A few baby step-type site changes to tell you about…

The details: Founders can now make officers and members co-founders. Any founder can demote or remove another founder, but you cannot demote or remove yourself from a founder position. Also, group swaps should now still stay on the group homepage through the sign up deadline instead of being removed the day before. Finally, the list of users on the Manage Group Members page is flowing into three columns now instead of just one. That last one is a small change, but it makes viewing members a little easier.

BIG CHANGE: We have made a reversal of policy and now allow members to delete their own accounts. Threats of legal action led to this change. Now, when a user deletes their account ALL info (except username and past comments made throughout the site) is removed from our system completely. Deleted accounts absolutely canNOT be retrieved. However a special “address token” is created and kept in our database which prevents users from creating new accounts with the same address. So, only delete your account if you are completely sure. Fraudulent and rule breaking accounts will still be fully suspended, not deleted.

We all know about the online auction giant Ebay, and almost everyone is loving Etsy for buying and selling handmade goods online, but what if you want an alternative option for finding cool, independent artists and crafters or selling your own crafts? I have discovered three more websites where you can buy or sell handmade items: Lov.li, DaWanda, and Made It.

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Lov.li

Lov.li is a community of people who love art, crafts and handmade products. On the site you can buy cool stuff, share your art, sell your products, create groups, promote events, share video, and of course, make friends. People from all over the world use the site to sell their handmade crafts and to interact with other artists and crafters. You can create your own blog on the site and join groups based around specific crafting interests. Jewelry and accessories seem to be the most popular items being sold on Lov.li, but there is a wide variety of items to explore. Although the site seems somewhat simple, there are many interesting ways to search for products, including by maker, tag, and by those being made closest to your own location.

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DaWanda: Products with Love

From the DaWanda site: “DaWanda is about people and their products: it is a place where you can discover original and quality products as well as the people who have a passion to create and to share their creations and where you can contribute by sharing your ideas and what you like and by giving inspiration.” DaWanda is based in Europe and the site can be viewed in English, French, or German. Independent artists and craft people sell truly awesome fashions, home products, and supplies on the site. The products being sold on DaWands seem to have an especially high level of quality and uniqueness and the site seems clear and easy to navigate. The site also includes discussion forums in all three languages that anyone can participate in, even if you are not selling or buying.

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Made It: buy, sell, and talk independent

Made It is an Australian shop and directory of independent designers. Selling is restricted to Australian residents, but buyers from overseas are welcomed. Everything from stationery to bath and body products to clothing is sold on Made It. Made It also has discussion forums, but the highlight of the site is the comprehensive independent Australian designer directory which profiles hundreds of indie businesses.

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Have you bought or sold items at any of these sites? Did you have a good experience? What other handmade marketplace sites would you suggest?

If you are interested in indie artists, crafters, and designers, you must check out PurplePinkandOrange.com. The site’s curator and creator, Amy, reviews fabulous indie shops, products, and designers on a daily basis. Readers of PurplePinkandOrange have access to an impressive monthly list of promotions and exclusive sales from indie retailers. Plus, there are always amazing giveaways going on. Definitely go sign up for those giveaways!

PurplePinkandOrange was one of the first sites to organize public swaps through Swap-bot over three years ago. Amy was a great supporter of Swap-bot and we have missed her fun monthly swaps… but guess what! A new PurplePinkandOrange swap is going on right now! Sign up for the Friends of purplepinkandorange.com postcard swap! The swap is international and everyone is welcome. Each participant will send postcards to three partners by the end of August. The sign up deadline is August 15th. Have fun!

In addition to trying to correct some of the glitches caused by moving to the new server, we also created some new ways to view ratings and made some Swap-bot graphics available today.

Ratings

There is now more info in the upper right Ratings section of the profile pages. You will notice that you can now quickly see how many ones, threes, and fives each user has received by looking at the rating box on their profile page. The number of ratings listed at the bottom of the profiles has been limited to the most recent twenty, but all ratings are viewable on each member’s rating page.

On all profile pages you can now click on the numbers under any of the profile rating box categories to see all of those types of ratings displayed in the center column of the page. (For example, you can click on the number of hearts to see all of the ratings given to the swapper that contained hearts.) You can then click on the swapper’s name to be taken back to their profile or continue browsing their ratings using the rating filter options in the upper right corner. Play around and try out different viewing options!

You can now view the swaps for which you (or others) have received coordinator stars! When you click on the number of stars on any profile, you are shown a linked list of the star swaps. We promised that feature a long time ago, and now it is finally possible!

STUFF

We finally have a “Stuff” page! There you will find links to all of Swap-bot’s web presences (like MySpace and Facebook) as well as tons of cute graphics that you can use on your own blog or website. Feel free to take any of the graphics or link directly to them, but make sure to link to Swap-bot.com.

Have Fun!

Having trouble figuring out how to mark a swap a sent, rate your partners, or view participants?

The yellow swap option box on all swap info pages is now located in the upper right corner of the page under the main blue links.

Some people (especially those using Internet Explorer) are still having layout issues and the right column flows below the middle column, making the yellow swap option box appear below the swap comments. That should not be happening and we will hopefully get it fixed asap. see image below for clarification.

The yellow option box is the same as it has always been, it is just in a slightly different spot. You should find all of your usual options in it.

The new layout changes should not be extremely drastic. If the site is looking terrible, try refreshing a few times. It might take a while to get the full new format loaded if you have the old version cached. We will also continue to work on the IE problems and adjust the text sizes and spacing throughout the site. Have patience.

Thanks for your help. I promise things will keep on improving!

Swap-bot looks different - what’s going on?

In order to improve the speed of Swap-bot we had to switch to a better web hosting service. We made the full switch to the new server on Saturday night. This switch required some slight infrastructure changes which led to a few more changes that we think are an improvement. Following is a list of the site changes:

• Faster service - Swap-bot should now load much faster and we hope to never have periods of extremely slow service like previously experienced. Sweet!
• Layout changes - In order to pay for the new hosting service we have to publish more and better ads. The new layout includes a standardized center column that allows us to show display ads in the right column. The new size of the center column is smaller for the Find Swaps and Dashboard (previously My Swaps) pages, but larger for the profile pages. This change may affect your profile layout. You may have to adjust how images flow on your profile. We are sorry for that inconvenience. (The new profile column size is 490 pixels… that info could help when making graphics.) You will also notice that the large left sidebar links have been moved to the top right of all main Swap-bot pages. There are additional links to many main site pages, including the Terms of Use and FAQ, in the new footer at the bottom of all pages. You probably also noticed our new, cute airmail mascot in the upper left corner. Yippee!
• Dashboard = My Swaps - We have changed the name of the My Swaps page to “Dashboard.” Eventually the Dashboard section will contain more info (groups, friends, updates, etc), but for now it simply contains all of your swap lists: Current Swaps, Sent Swaps (Previous Swaps), Archived Swaps, and the new Watchlist. The swap lists also look slightly different. The number of total swappers is now located in the top left corner and the beginning of the swap description is no longer shown. Also, all group swaps and private swaps now have that designation automatically added to the title.
• Watched Swaps - Due to popular demand (and because it is a great idea) you can now watch swaps. Under the sign up link for each swap there is now a link to watch the swap instead. By clicking the watch link the swap will show up under your Watchlist on your Dashboard. You will not be officially signed up for the swap, but you will be better able to keep track of those swaps you are thinking about joining. You can receive email alerts about your watched swaps (sent one week and two days before the sign up deadline) by going to “Preference” under the profile “Edit” screen and checking the last email preference box. The default is that you do NOT receive email notifications for watched swaps. Also, you will not be automatically signed up for your watched swaps. You must log in and click on the sign up link for your watched swaps in order to be officially signed up.
• Twitter - Swap-bot’s Twitter works again! If you are a member of Twitter you can sign up to Follow Swap-bot here. You will then get a tweet every time a new swap is created.

These new changes - especially to the layout - will take a little getting used to, but we think it will be worth it. All of the same site content is still here, there just might be a slightly different way to get to it. We realize there is still a lot to do and we promise to keep improving everything as quickly as we can. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

I am sure everyone is aware of the “slow downs” in Swap-bot service that we have been experiencing periodically. We have been having difficulty with our current web hosting service and are in the process of switching to a higher capacity service. The final switch to the new server will happen tonight. The switch will require about 15 minutes of downtime which will occur at approximately 10 pm US Pacific time TONIGHT. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but it is necessary.

In conjunction with the switch there are some significant changes that you will notice on Swap-bot. There will be a few layout changes and a few feature additions - including a swap “watch list.” Mostly you will hopefully just notice that the site is running much quicker. More info about the site changes will be released soon. Please have patience as there will surely be a few little glitches as the changes are implemented.

Also, Travis and I are doing our best on this site. I wish we could provide the kind of service we all expect from large sites like Facebook or MySpace, but frankly, we cannot. I am extremely (disgracefully) behind on answering support email, but I am trying to catch up. I am sorry. We really enjoy running this site and providing a fun tool, but we must do it on our own terms. If it is no longer fun for you to use or visit, I am sorry. Like usual, I will suggest using groups if your want to interact with an exclusive set of users.

Ok, so thanks for your patience as we switch to the new server. It is a big job, so wish us luck!!