Jan 27th 2007 09:00:49 pm

What is this little heart? It happens to be the newest feature of the Swap-bot rating system. Ratings are still based on the 5 point system, but now there is a way to reward those swappers who really go above and beyond the swap expectations. You know the swappers I am talking about – the ones who send you those super-adorable swap packages, all decorated and filled with extra goodies, or the ones who look at your profile and manage to send you just the PERFECT item. Now you can give those special swappers a heart for being so wonderful.

This is what the rating info page now says about the heart system:

If someone sends you an extra special swap package that far exceeds the swap requirements, you can give that person a heart. The option to give someone a heart only appears when you give them the highest rating (“I got my stuff and it met posted swap requirements”). Under this rating option a check box will appear that you can mark if you want to give a heart. You do not have to give anyone a heart just because you gave them the highest rating. We suggest that you reserve giving hearts to those swappers who you think deserve even more than the highest rating (more than 5 points). The number of hearts a person has collected will be shown on their profile page next to their average rating. Lots of hearts indicates a very special swapper!

And, don’t fret, you can go back to your old swaps and retro-actively give hearts to anyone who previously sent you awesome swaps!

See how many hearts you can collect!

10 Comments » Categories: New Features

Jan 21st 2007 09:58:35 am

We [released a few new feature upgrades](http://swap-bot.com/blog/2007/01/20/new-new-new/) yesterday and of all of them, I am most excited about the [new way coordinators assign swap partners](http://www.swap-bot.com/faq.php#question17). I feel like we have taken a positive step forward in eliminating bad swappers from participating in [Swap-bot](http://www.swap-bot.com/).

The idea of making coordinators manually start the partner assignment process is something I have been working on for quite a while. Before this change, the process was automatic. As soon as the deadline to signup passed, partners were instantly assigned. The problem we were running into, however, is that the scammers discovered that they could sign up an hour before the partners were assigned, which wouldn’t leave enough time for the coordinator to ban them. While I feel very strongly that we have a great community of swappers, **the average rating given is a 4.6**, I am aware that even one bad apple will ruin the swap for someone. After many email discussions with helpful members of the Swap-bot community, I came up with the process we released yesterday. The coordinator now has three days manually initiate the partner assignment process. If, after three days, the coordinator hasn’t assigned partners, Swap-bot will automatically assign the partners for the coordinator.

Swap coordinators should already be aware of this change, an email went out to the those that are in charge of swaps that ended yesterday alerting them that it was time to initiate the assignment process. I just checked and 4 of the 20 swaps that closed signup yesterday have already had their partners assigned.


Assigning partners in Swap-bot is very easy. After signup has closed for the swap, the coordinator should return to Swap-bot to view the final list of signed up swap participants. If any of the participants do not meet swap requirements, such as minimum rating, geographical location or any other requirement, the coordinator can ban the participant from the swap and ensure that they will not be assigned a partner. Once the coordinator is happy with the final list of participants, they can simply click on the ‘Assign partners for this swap’ link.

Assigning partners adds a few minutes of work for the coordinator, but I feel it will greatly enhance the swap experience for all participants. I hope you agree. Any feedback on this feature would be greatly appreciated.

9 Comments » Categories: New Features

Jan 20th 2007 08:46:14 pm

Swap-bot finally has a new look! We remodeled the home page and added a rotating selection of images from Flickr that all have the tag “swapbot”. Check it out! (If you still want to see the original home page, don’t worry, it is right here.) The rest of Swap-bot is still pretty much the same… with the addition of the awesome new messaging system.

Your faithful and intrepid Swap-bot webmaster is busy working on lots of new ideas for the site. Look for updates in the swap search system and the swap image gallery in the near future.

9 Comments » Categories: New Features

Jan 20th 2007 03:00:37 pm

We just released some great new features for Swap-bot!

You can now send Messages to all of your buddies and swap partners via the Swap-bot web messaging system. Now, when you contact other members a message is sent to their inbox on Swap-bot.com. After logging in, you can check your messages by clicking on the link at the top of the Swap-bot page.

In order to cut down on bad swappers signing up for swaps at the last minute (when it is too late for coordinators to ban them), we have made it so that every coordinator has a chance to check over the final list of swap participants before partners are assigned. It is now the coordinators’ responsibility to initiate the partner assignment process. See question 17 of the FAQs for more info.

You might have also noticed that the Swap-bot Blog got a little face-lift. We are planning on updating this blog MUCH more often about changes and updates to swap-bot. I am also going to start featuring a cool swap every week on the blog. Look for the “Weekly Featured Swap” to be posted every Sunday.

We hope you like the new features! Please keep us posted about things you would like to see on Swap-bot. We love to hear your feedback!City of Joy buy

2 Comments » Categories: New Features