Nov 23rd 2008 09:31:24 pm

We have now implemented a universal twenty-swap limit on ALL Swap-bot swappers. You have NOT been dropped from any swaps - even if you are signed up for 100s. You simply cannot sign up for any new swaps until your current list is less than twenty swaps. This may seem quite sudden, but we felt it was necessary to move forward on the swap limit at this time. Remember to use your watchlist to keep track of swaps that fall outside the limit.

All new users start with a five-swap limit. Now, once they receive three “5″ ratings, they are moved up to the twenty-swap limit. BUT, the watchlist is always completely UNLIMITED. (Previously the watchlist had a glitch and was being limited to five swaps for new users - we fixed that.)

This universal swap limit may seem harsh, but we have been discussing and receiving feedback on it for what seems like a long time. We believe it is necessary in order to protect good swappers from high levels of swap-lifting by dishonest people. In previous polls on the blog 82% of respondents thought there should be some sort of limit and 64% of respondents thought that limit should be twenty swaps or less. Obviously not everyone participated in the blog polls and we are still totally open to feedback. However, our main objective is to prevent massive flaking and stealing. We have plans for a tiered system in the future.

Remember to continue to come check out the Swap-bot blog. I have been posting a lot of important information as well as fun stuff like giveaways and crafty links. We do still have plans to start a Swap-bot Wiki, but for now this is the place for lots of good Swap-bot info! I think I will be announcing another great giveaway on Monday or Tuesday, so be sure to check back for that.

There is more info about recent site changes here and here. Our changes can get really confusing, but I will always try to keep you as updated as possible.

One more thing: For any adventurous beta testers out there, we have created a Swap-bot chat room! Yes, you read that right, a SWAP-BOT CHAT ROOM! woot! Travis has been working really hard on it. It is not quite ready for a full release, but we really need people to try it out. Everyone is welcome, but please keep in mind that there will definitely still be some bugs to work through… Also, it is a PUBLIC chat room, so be sure to watch yourself accordingly. Ok, if you are brave GO HERE to start chatting! Thanks for your help!

xoxo

No Comments » Categories: Announcements, New Features, site updates

Oct 19th 2008 07:50:45 pm

Two new and fairly major updates today:

(1) Rating limit on partially suspended users - Partially suspended users can no longer leave negative ratings. While suspended, the only rating option available for them to give their partners in their swaps is the “5″ rating. We have had some trouble with suspended users leaving retaliatory and unfair ratings for their partners. This change prevents that from happening. However, if/when a user makes up their poor ratings and becomes un-suspended, all of the rating options become available once again. It is still up to each individual to determine whether to send to a suspended member based on whether you believe they will fix their poor ratings and become a good swapper again. It is a tricky situation, but this change will at least stop good swappers from being “hurt” by questionable swappers.

(2) Swaps now closed after six months - All swaps will now be “closed” six months after their send date. At this time the swap will no longer be editable by the coordinator and participants will no longer be able to view their partners’ address info or rate their partners. This change prevents users’ addresses from being on view indefinitely to their previous swap partners. It also ensures that swappers can put old swaps “behind them” and no longer have to worry about things like if they are going to get a bad rating from a partner they sent to but never heard from.

This is what the swap option box will look like in a closed swap:

This change works with our automatic account suspension system (see previous update info here and here) to provide a statute of limitations on poor swap performance. Six months after a swap, a swapper can no longer receive a new rating in order to remove a “1″ from their account, but their “1″ ratings are no longer used as a determining factor in the automatic account suspension at that time. Basically, once a swap is six months old it is closed and your rating (or non-rating) is set in stone. Of course, since this is a new (and abrupt) change, we can work with any coordinators who need any assistance or wiggle room.

A few words about partial and full suspensions: The computer handles all partial suspension that are based on users having four, or more, “1″ ratings. Those suspension happen automatically, so it is important that we all rate honestly and promptly so that the computer can do its job effectively. Swap-bot Admins also partially suspend users for questionable performance or for being underage. Full suspension is only used for a small number of reasons (fraudulent or dangerous behavior, using an account to spam other users, invalid or questionable address, duplicate accounts, or offensive or hurtful behavior). Now that users are able to delete their accounts, full suspension only indicates a breach of our rules or policies. Having a certain number of “1″ ratings does not necessarily mean that a user will be fully suspended. We rely heavily on our coordinators to determine who they allow in their swaps. Even if a swapper who has recevied a bunch of “1″s becomes unsuspended after six months, that does NOT mean that coordinators need to (or should) let them in swaps. Coordinators own their swaps. We are not able to reassign partners or remove participants after a coordinator has assigned partners. Please keep this is mind when choosing what swaps to join. A coordinator’s record and the swap’s wording can tell you a lot about how successful a swap is going to be. Also keep in mind that a low level of flaking is a risk we all take when swapping with others over the internet. Yep. Ok.

Thanks for listening. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

UPDATE 10/26/08: We have made some revisions to the site changes released last weekend. In response to user comments we have made the following adjustments:

Swap Closure: Swaps will still be closed six months after the mail deadline, but we have changed what it means to be closed. A closed swap can no longer be edited by the coordinator, and all participant address info is removed from view. However, you can still leave or change ratings. Ratings will always be able to be improved and you will always be able to view the Swap-bot username (and click to go to their profile page) of your previous partners.

Rating changes: Positive ratings now “lock in” after a two-week revision period. Two weeks after rating your partner you can no longer lower a rating. You can only give higher ratings after the two weeks. For example, if you give your partner a 5, you then have two weeks to change that rating if it was a mistake. After two weeks, the 5 is permanent. If you give your partner a 3, you then have two weeks to lower it to a 1 if needed, but you can raise it to a five at any time. If you give a 1 rating it can be changed to a higher rating at any time. However, you must be very careful when revising ratings to a higher level because they will immediately “lock in” if it has been longer than two weeks after you left their very first rating. The “I do not wish to rate at this time” option becomes unavailable two weeks after giving any numbered rating. Comments and hearts will always be revisable or removable, but changing either will NOT affect a rating’s time stamp and will NOT cause the rating to jump to the top of a person’s rating list.

This rating change requires that we are all more careful and deliberate about our ratings. Make sure that you are rating the correct person in each swap. Also, remember to always include the swap name and your username in each swap package so that you partners can easily rate you.

Travis will be releasing these new changes tonight. Important: All current ratings have been given the two week revision time period. If you believe you have rated anyone a 5 mistakenly, now is the time to revise it. Remember, all low rating can be revised to a higher rating at any time - only 5 ratings become totally permanent after the two-week period.

This rating change is confusing, but it should not affect most of us very often. It basically only prevents users from changing positive ratings in a revengeful manner. It ensures that we never have to worry about losing any of the positive ratings that we have earned.

1 Comment » Categories: New Features, site updates

Aug 17th 2008 06:01:54 am

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.

1 Comment » Categories: Announcements, Bug Fixes, New Features

Jun 28th 2008 01:33:23 pm

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!!

3 Comments » Categories: Announcements, New Features

Apr 6th 2008 02:23:17 pm

Swap-bot is ever-changing and we have some new improvements to tell you about:

• Biggest Deal - There is now a “latest discussions” for all of your group forums. When you go to Group Forums Home you will now see a list of the 25 most recent forum conversations from all of the groups you belong to. (Sticky conversations are listed first.) The latest group discussions take the place of the simple list of group names that used to be on the Group Forums Home. There is also now a link to your group forums on the public forums sidebar.
• Woot woot! There are now a couple of group email notifications! You will now receive email notifications whenever a new swap is created in one of the groups you belong to. You will also receive an email when a new announcement is posted in any of your groups. (Announcements are the comments listed on the group homepage. The idea is that founders and officers could use the announcements section to post things that they would like to notify the entire group about.) Both of these email notifications are completely optional. You can choose which type of emails you would like to receive for each group. Go to the new “Groups” link within the “Profile Edit” page in order to set your group email preferences. The default is set so that you DO receive ALL of the group email notifications.
• Speaking of editing your profile, in addition to the “edit” link at the top of most Swap-bot pages there is now a new link on your profile page that will take you to the edit screen. Some users were having trouble finding the profile edit page, so hopefully this will make it easier.

Have fun!

4 Comments » Categories: Announcements, New Features

Mar 2nd 2008 12:06:42 pm

We have been working on a few small site changes this weekend. Here are the details:

• Swap partners are no longer auto assigned. This has been a confusing subject mostly due to my own mistakes and bad info, however we have now come to a solution which we believe will be most effective. Coordinators are now completely responsible for assigning partners for their swaps. The Swap-bot computer will NOT auto-assign partners at any time. Coordinators have one week (7 days) to assign partners for their swaps. If partners are not assigned within one week the swap is DELETED by the Swap-bot computer. All participants will receive an email letting them know that the swap was deleted.

  Side note: If a swap has been deleted because the coordinator has not logged in for over a week and never assigned partners, we consider it perfectly acceptable for one of the swap’s participants to start a similar swap.

• You can now drop from swaps at any time before partners are assigned. Before you could not drop from a swap if the sign up deadline had passed, now you can drop after the sign up deadline if partners are not assigned.
• I have revised the FAQ to reflect these changes, but as always let me know if you notice any errors.
• One more little change for group founders: We have added the date that users requested to join a group under their info on the group “Approve Join Requests” pages.

We hope you like these changes. Happy swapping!

UPDATE: My wording above may be slightly confusing. Coordinators do not actually have to pair up the participants in their swaps, they simply have to initiate the process by clicking the “assign partners” link. The Swap-bot computer still matches all partners. It just does not ever initiate that process automatically. Sorry for any confusion.

No Comments » Categories: Announcements, Bug Fixes, New Features

Feb 24th 2008 01:42:00 pm

We finally just jumped in and did it - we have publicly released the Swap-bot Groups system. The system is still a bit clunky and definitely not perfect, but if we waited for perfection nothing would ever get done!

So, what does this mean? It means that everyone can now (easily) create and search for groups! The “Find Groups” link is now located on the left sidebar of non-forum Swap-bot pages. There you can search for groups that match your interests and go to their homepage to request to join. Or, you can create your own group! Have fun!

GENERAL GROUP INFO

Swap-bot groups were created to better enhance the swapping community. You can create groups around any interest, demographic or anything you choose! Multiple groups may be created that address similar interests. That is ok. Everyone is free to create any groups they want. However, kindness and consideration are always appreciated. If you plan to create a group that is identical to one already in existence, it would be best to contact the other group’s founder first…

Membership Levels

There are three different levels of group membership:

1. Member: Group Members join group swaps and participate in the group-specific forum.
2. Officer: Group Officers have the same privileges as Group Members, plus they can create group swaps and invite other Swap-bot members to their group.
3. Founder: Group Founders have the same privileges as Group Officers, plus they can approve group join requests, remove Members or Officers from the group, promote or demote Members and Officers. In addition, Group Founders have swap coordinator privileges for any group swaps (even if they did not create the swap). At this time each group can only have one founder. In the future we hope to make it so that there can be multiple founders.

FYI: In the future we hope to make the group membership levels more fluid and changeable…

Groups Swaps

Only those Swap-bot members that belong to the group can join a group swap. (The Swap-bot computer prevents non-members from signing up.) Group swaps are not listed on the public search page or any of the swap lists. However, group swaps are listed on member profile pages and are not meant to be hidden from non group members.

Accepting new members

In addition to forming niche swapping communities, Groups can be used to ensure you only swap with other members you trust. If you are a Founder or Officer in a group it is your responsibility to the group to ensure that only trustworthy swappers make it into your group. Swap-bot admin cannot help with any group conflicts.

—–

We are very excited about Swap-bot Groups… but it has proven to be a much larger endeavor than first thought. There is still much work to be done. Please explore the system and give us any feedback you have. Like all of Swap-bot, Groups are an evolving and constantly improving entity.

The Group Beta Testers have been an awesome help. They have given us tons of suggestions, many of which we are still working to implement. If you are a member of the Swap-bot Beta Testers group, please go to the homepage for information about adding a special beta tester badge to your profile.

Thank you to everyone for your help and patience!

Happy swapping,

Rachel
Swap-bot Admin

No Comments » Categories: Announcements, New Features

Jan 19th 2008 11:45:52 pm

I have a few updates to tell you about…

1 - “Your Swaps” has been changed to “My Swaps”. It is just a word change and the link still goes to the same page. It is a change which lays the ground work for the site to be consistent as we add features in future.

2 - We have implemented a new user swap sign up limit. All new users of Swap-bot now start with a five swap limit. They can only sign up for five active swaps at a time at first. This limit lasts until they have received three positive (5) ratings from their swap partners. Once they have received three positive ratings, the swap sign up limit is completely removed and they can sign up for as many swaps as they would like. This is the first time we have implemented any type of swap limit, so we may make adjustments as we receive feedback. Also, this new feature is not retroactive.

3 - Swap-bot Groups are slowly being tested and released. To learn about being a group beta tester go here. There will be much more info about groups provided once we get closer to officially releasing the system. They will basically be a way to organize swapping and chatting among communities with similar interests. Any members with over five “5″ ratings will be able to create groups, and each group will have a home page, private forum, and group-only swaps. Pretty cool. We are excited about the possibilities!

4 - The FAQ page is constantly being updated, so check it out when you have questions. If you don’t see your question there, please let me know so that we can add it.

Ok, that is about it for now… but stay tuned for info and announcements about GROUPS!

2 Comments » Categories: New Features

Jan 12th 2008 01:10:25 pm

Hi swap buddies!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we have created a few new swap and forum categories. Here are the additions we made:

• New “Ephemera” swap category
• New “Children’s Items” swap category
• New “Tag and Trade Problems” forum sub-category under the “One-on-One Trades” main category
• New “Real Life/Off Topic” forum sub-category under the “Fun” main category

These are all in response to user suggestions. Thanks for all of your help!

Also, we are currently working on a new user swap limit and a groups feature which will hopefully both be released in some capacity on Sunday. For more info on the groups feature, check out this forum thread.

Happy Saturday!

No Comments » Categories: New Features

Dec 2nd 2007 03:53:17 pm

We have been working hard this weekend to release some pretty cool site updates for you today. The site changes/improvements are listed below. Check them out and let us know how you like them or if you notice anything weird going on. Thanks! xoxo

• Most important: The automatic account suspension system is now completely operational. This means that if a swapper receives four, or more, “1″ ratings within the past six months, their account is automatically partially suspended by the Swap-bot computer. They are dropped from all swaps in which partners are not yet assigned and they are not able to sign up for new swaps until they get their low ratings rectified. This means that if you have four, or more, “1″ ratings from the past six months on your account right now, you will not be allowed to sign up for any new swaps until you are able to improve some of those ratings.
• There are three new email notifications that you will be receiving: (1) when/if your account is partially suspended due to four, or more, “1″ ratings; (2) when a rating you have given receives a response; (3) when you receive a comment on your profile. The last two email notifications have been requested by many users, but we have also made them optional if you prefer. To “opt out” of the rating response and profile comment email notifications, go to the new Preferences section of the profile edit screen. You can also choose not to receive the email notification for new ratings on this screen. The default is set so that you DO receive all email notifications. You must edit your profile preferences to stop receiving any of the three optional notifications. (Many Swap-bot email notifications, such as those for swap deadlines, are not optional at this time.)
• Your country is now listed on your profile page under last login. This is NOT optional at this time. Your country is listed exactly as you typed it in you account address.
• Your current swaps on the “Your Swaps” page are now listed by mail deadline instead of sign up deadline. This makes it so that the “Your Swaps” list matches the “Currently In” list on the profile pages.
• You can now mark swaps as NOT sent if/when you accidentally mark them as “Sent” before you mean to. This option is located in the swap’s info box on the swap’s main page to the right of the “Sent Items Status:” field. You cannot perform this option from the “Your Swaps” page; you must view the individual swap page to do it.
• The date that each participant marked a swap as “Sent” is now visible on the “View complete list of swap participants” page. This information is visible for both participants and coordinators of the swap. However, this new bit of information cannot be displayed retroactively, so all swaps that have been marked “Sent” prior to today will not have a date associated with them. Sorry.
• Lastly, the list of recipients you have sent messages to in the Swap-bot message center are now listed in alphabetical order. However, the alphabetical ordering system is not perfect as users who have not logged in for months (and still only have their old display names) are not sorted alphabetically. Their names will appear at the end of the list.

We hope you enjoy the new changes. Happy swapping!

2 Comments » Categories: Announcements, New Features