What Might All You Thrifters Want From This Site?

[Good Buddy]

Ok people, I would like any ideas about what features TheThriftShopper.Com could have that you'd like to see.
There's a million ways to go with the site, and we value the thrifting populations opinion.
Let's have your suggestions...

[Thrift Shop Romantic]

Will have to think on this, GB, as the functionality and reliable administration you folks already have done has made the site great fun as it stands.

It's a positive atmosphere with interesting people void of the flaming and nit-picking that occurs so often online. That sort of atmosphere is created from the top-down, I know-- so, much appreciated.

I love the classifieds idea-- I do have one thing I'll probably submit there.

[SecondhandSophisticate]

I LOVE your site, Good Buddy. I feel safe and accepted here. As TSR mentioned, it's void of flaming and nit-picking which has kept me from consistently staying involved with any online community.  This is truly a community, an online block party of people of like-minds sharing their creativities.

1.Love the ideas of classified ads.

2.Why not our own 127 tour?  We can have an online sale, lol--we are each from different areas. Have the national thriftshopper "RT 66" thrift sale.

3,  An online 'block party' For Halloween let's say or New Year's Eve. Or just because

4. An in-person lunch or convention, in Orlando, held in February, so all those frozen Northerners can thaw out.

5. Articles from different magazines, websites, interviews, links--interview folk from eBay on how to sell, etc.

Now mind you, I am not a technical person, so I don't know how feasible this stuff is. But since you asked for ideas, I thought I'd share a few.

Ciao, Bellas     

[Other People s Junk]

So far, so good, in my opinion!  Like everyone else has said, it's a fun site.

As for added features... I know there are map links for every thrift, but is there any way to have map links for the whole area's thrift stores?  (So that all stores in that area show up on one map.)  We can figure it out ourselves, so it's not a BIG deal, but when you're in a hurry it would be helpful!

Keep up the good work, btw. 

[Good Buddy]

2.Why not our own 127 tour?  We can have an online sale, lol--we are each from different areas. Have the national thriftshopper "RT 66" thrift sale.

3,  An online 'block party' For Halloween let's say or New Year's Eve. Or just because

4. An in-person lunch or convention, in Orlando, held in February, so all those frozen Northerners can thaw out.

SeSo, They're ALL excellent ideas and we'd be willing to do them..

As for added features... I know there are map links for every thrift, but is there any way to have map links for the whole area's thrift stores?

OPJ, That has always been something I do plan on doing.
I'll keep y'all informed.

 

[Jay2TheRescue]

Ok people, I would like any ideas about what features TheThriftShopper.Com could have that you'd like to see.
There's a million ways to go with the site, and we value the thrifting populations opinion.
Let's have your suggestions...

How about when searching through the directory you have the choice of distances from the city or zip code of origin?  For example, www.gaspricewatch.com gives a choice of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, or 20 mile radius from the point of origin.  Also it would be nice to search by thrift name and state, if you don't know what town a particular store is you're looking for.  I guess all this would fall under an "Advanced Search" option.  I guess you could even sort by stores open late, or be able to exclude stores closed on certain days.  For example say I was planning on driving through a town at 6pm on a monday evening.  I could do a search for stores, and only show stores that were open late on Monday, then print that list.

-Jay

[Scott]

And beyond mapping the shops in an area code, it'd be great if one could put in a basic trip map (for example from Champaign, IL to Minneapolis, MN) that would give a map with all the shops X miles from the freeway route (using Jay's proposed point of origin distance tool he mentioned earlier). Probably complicated, but it'd be the handiest thing ever for planing those thrift store road trips.

I love me some thrift store road trips, and mapping them is always the most difficult part.

[Jay2TheRescue]

And beyond mapping the shops in an area code, it'd be great if one could put in a basic trip map (for example from Champaign, IL to Minneapolis, MN) that would give a map with all the shops X miles from the freeway route (using Jay's proposed point of origin distance tool he mentioned earlier). Probably complicated, but it'd be the handiest thing ever for planing those thrift store road trips.

I love me some thrift store road trips, and mapping them is always the most difficult part.

You know, that would be a great idea.  I know I am getting ready to travel on a road trip to Florida in a few weeks, and I've already been watching the gas prices along my route, so I can plan my gas stops ahead of time to maximize my fuel savings.  WWW.GasPriceWatch.com has a search tool that allows you to search for stations by cross street, so I selected I-95 as my cross street and I get a list of all fuel stations along I-95 in that state.

-Jay

[MrsGoodwill]

To be able to use the Classifieds section!

Also I would like to be able to ask other thrifters about my finds. Sometimes I find things -- especially vintage stuff -- and I don't know about maker's mark, value, etc.

Or can I do that already?

[Jay2TheRescue]

To be able to use the Classifieds section!

Also I would like to be able to ask other thrifters about my finds. Sometimes I find things -- especially vintage stuff -- and I don't know about maker's mark, value, etc.

Or can I do that already?

I haven't had problems using the classifieds, but it would be nice to have "wanted" as a choice.  Right now everything is technically listed with a "for sale" status.  As far as asking about your personal finds I figure you could just create a thread in the forum to discuss it.

-Jay

[MrsGoodwill]

Jay, I have a Mac and, for whatever reason, I am not able to use the Map or the Classifieds.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Another thing I was thinking of was that another forum I subscribe to has a software package that takes the thread title and makes it the HTML address.  (For example this thread may be titled "http://thethriftshopper.com/forums/shopper/481-What-Might-All-You-Thrifters-Want-From-This-Site.html"  This greatly improves your search engine ranking and will draw more people to the site, making advertising worth more.

For example, here is a sample address from another forum I use called www.wirelessadvisor.com  From the page title the search engine knows that the thread is about someone having problems with the speakerphone on a V3 razr, and ranks it higher than just by page content alone.  In search engine ranking the actual address and title of the page is most important.


http://forums.wirelessadvisor.com/razr-phones/53043-razr-v3-speakerphone-turns-off-when.html

-Jay

[Jay2TheRescue]

Jay, I have a Mac and, for whatever reason, I am not able to use the Map or the Classifieds.

Oh, Don't get me started on mac's.  They are supposed to be so easy, but an old lady (In her 80's) from my Mom's church asked me to install a new printer on her electric blue iMac and once I put the driver disk in I couldn't figure out how to get it out!  There was no eject button by the slot that ate the CD.  I didn't think that was very intuitive.  I had to call a few other people before I found someone who knew how to get the CD back out.

-Jay

[SecondhandSophisticate]

You guys have such great ideas and you are all so technical!  I admire that in a thrifter

Jay, my husband and I were just having the SAME conversation last night about Macs...about how Mac users swear they (the Macs) are sooooo intuitive.  He doesn't find them to be, in his experience.

I don't have a Mac and have never used one, so I cannot offer any comments regarding personal experience. However, I have been surrounded by Mac users in the past, and they were a snobby lot who looked down on non-technical, lil' ole me    Mean Mac users, Mean! Mean! 

(NO offense intended to the nice, sweet Mac users on this board.)

SeSo

[Scott]

NO offense intended to the nice, sweet Mac users on this board.)

Oooh, good thing you followed up with this. Those were fightin' words to a longstanding Mac guy like me.

To each their own is what I say -- be it for preference in computers or what one looks for at thrift stores!