Hyena Cart Congo Information here, voting closed [Archive]

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nutmeg

07-05-2006, 02:03 AM

I thought we should vote about this, or at least talk about changing over.

I also did a banner exchange with her, so she'll have Sewing Mamas banners and we'll have Hyena Cart banners, I hope that's okay.

I opened up a Hyena Cart storefront for myself tonight and it was super easy. Here is what Karen (who owns and runs it) says about Congos on Hyena Cart:

Congo fees are $25/month, flat rate no matter how many vendors you have. And it's $10 to set up.

Other info about the congos: customers can only check out with one
item at a time. Each item can have a different Paypal addy associated
with it. Anything else you need to know?

LMK if you want to sign up and I'll send you a sign up link.

So it's 300 a year. (This would of course be paid by Sewing Mamas, so the Sponsors would get it for free.) I don't know if she would accept a one time payment instead of monthly, but I can ask her.

Do you have any questions? LMK and I'll ask her.

mommy2maya

07-05-2006, 06:42 AM

I think that is a wonderful perk of sponsorship! Are you sure that it would not be too taxing on the sponsorship money?

mc-squared

07-05-2006, 07:05 AM

FYI: It works out to 12.5 year sponsorships per year. We currently have 101 sponsors.

arasmama

07-05-2006, 02:52 PM

Our biggest expense is hosting. We pay $600 or 25 yearly sponsorships.

nutmeg

07-05-2006, 03:34 PM

all members:

How many votes should I take as a 'yes' vote? A percentage or wait a few days?

Maybe we could set up a chat tonight or tomorrow night to discuss this stuff?

Sometimes I feel like I'm just randomly doing stuff I like, but then I want to remember it's not all about me apparently :happydance

victoria

07-05-2006, 07:26 PM

oooh yeah a chat.

I don't know how to make the decision. On another site I go to they ended up deciding that all polls would be for 7 days and then the decision would be based on the number of people that voted.

countrycuttins

07-05-2006, 07:27 PM

Meg, is there a way to send a group email to the store owners and announce this poll with a closing date to vote? That way it gives everyone a chance to respond.

Personally I think it will give us greater exposure, they have forums there, that you can spam your wares, a calendar that you can list when you are stocking (some restrictions do apply to this) and so on. We have such talented sewing mamas that I think we could all really earn a little extra on our sewing.

Many congos have new stock in there store on certain nights. We wouldn't have to do this, but it does create some hype when it's done on a regular basis and really adds to sales IMO.

nutmeg

07-05-2006, 07:30 PM

actually, I think it would be awesome to have a 'stocking' day or night. :yes:

nathan_anderson

07-06-2006, 06:47 AM

I thought we should vote about this, or at least talk about changing over.

Do you have any questions? LMK and I'll ask her.

Before you jump ship on the store front. ;-)

Can I throw in my two cents.

1. In the future, my Portal site should be launching. The portal site should increase traffic across all the congocart sites. Also, as of this second 7:30am in the morning -- she has 55 shoppers on Hyena Cart, and I have 105 on my congos. You aren't "Getting" more traffic. It just looks that way since you never really see my numbers. :)

2. You will automatically get a free banner on the portal site, since you are running a CongoCart storefront.

3. I'm willing to give you the next three months free hosting on the CongoCart, as a trial to see if the traffic does increase. If it doesn't you end up with 3 months of free hosting and then you can jump ship. :)

4. I'm also willing to PROGRAM for you free one of those nifty side content boxes that will put in the 10 latest stocked products in your store...

To answer a couple questions on some of the posts:

5. CongoCart DOES have automatic "Stocking" times -- Very powerful automatic stocking system. You could literally have a product show up in "preview" mode for 5 minutes, vanish, show up purchasable for 10 minutes, vanish, show up in "preview" mode for 15 minutes, then go to purchasable for 5 minutes, and basically do whatever you want. MOST people use the system to disable old product, and preview the new products for a day, and then turn them purchasable... But you could run a special contest that has a specific products that Appears/Disappears at certain times.... ;-)

6. CongoCart portal will have forums also.

Remember here is just a couple of features you will lose if you jump ship:
1. Automatic Simple Image Handling
2. Integrated Paypal Checkout (Not just one item)
3. Automatic Restocking of products NOT checked out.
4. Proxy Auctions
5. Contests
6. Flexable Automatic Stocking Times (Fully customizable to your needs)
7. Froggle/Google: http://froogle.google.com/froogle?lmode=online &authorid=466299&cdn =Sewing+Mamas&lnk=st oreall

Nathan.
P.S. I'm also looking for someone who wants to work with me in Advertising; I need to start getting things into place to advertise the CongoCart brand/domain...

nutmeg

07-06-2006, 09:30 AM

Editing this post because this thread is for discussion of what we should do about our store, for sponsors. I'll repost my questions to Nathan in the help forum. Sorry.

nutmeg

07-06-2006, 10:26 AM

Meg, is there a way to send a group email to the store owners and announce this poll with a closing date to vote? That way it gives everyone a chance to respond.

Good idea Dina, I tried to send a mass email, and hope it went through. I'm posting a question in the Help forum.

In addition, the big stocking times, like Wednesday Afternoons, are sure to generate more traffic as a lot of people in the wahm world only check on those mass stocking days. KWIM?

MamaOz

07-06-2006, 10:42 AM

Karen does provide image handling for an additional 2.50 I believe.

Also on congo cart I am not sure how accurate the shoppers numbers are since it only refreshes every 15 minutes? I am not sure though I definately could be wrong. I will say that there are always shoppers on HC at ALL hours of the night. CC has more shoppers in the morning because they have a huge aussie congo so you may want number samples from different parts of the day.

Since I have run a rather large congo on both sites I feel like I can honestly say are sales are better with HC even though HC doesnt have all the bells and whistles. Though the portal dealio may help, I am not web savvy at all.

HC has simple no snipe auction capability as well as lotteries which are fun.

**ETA** I voted other since I don't run a store through the sewing mama congo, but wanted to give my two cents.

countrycuttins

07-06-2006, 11:49 AM

I don't have a counter in my sewing mamas store, but I do have one at my hyena cart, and it seems to get decent traffic, even though I really haven't advertised at all.

I think the biggest plus in this, is that we open up to a whole different group of people that are potential customers, without really having to try super hard to get mamas to come and look. There forums are pretty active and so if you spam, they will come, even if it's just to look, and that is easy advertising! Once you get a few customers purchasing, then the word spreads and you get more traffic and hopefully more purchases!

nathan_anderson

07-06-2006, 02:03 PM

Karen does provide image handling for an additional 2.50 I believe.

Correct, but unless something has changed recently, image support on HC is in the dark ages. ;-) CC, automatically generates two additional images from the one you upload in the proper sizes -- not only to speed up browsing but they look better -- and supports unlimited images per product, and handles all the linking behind the scenes... etc... Which is why I said "Automatic Simple image handling" ;-)

Also on congo cart I am not sure how accurate the shoppers numbers are since it only refreshes every 15 minutes? I am not sure though I definately could be wrong.

LOL, wrong. ;-) What happens is a sessions time out after a period of time (on both HC & CC, and any web based program) once the user has not had any activity. Once the session is expired and the user count is decreased.

I will say that there are always shoppers on HC at ALL hours of the night. CC has more shoppers in the morning because they have a huge aussie congo so you may want number samples from different parts of the day.

She is correct, I didn't even think about the Aussie site inflating my numbers this morning... I think they were probably about 50% of the number. So we were approx the same this morning, if you exclude Ozebaby.

Since I have run a rather large congo on both sites I feel like I can honestly say are sales are better with HC even though HC doesnt have all the bells and whistles. Though the portal dealio may help, I am not web savvy at all.

The portal is imo HC's sole advantage over CC at this point.

HC has simple no snipe auction capability

Correct, HC only support one type of auction. CC supports both types, both Ebay (Proxy, Allows very limited Sniping) and Highest Bidder..

as well as lotteries which are fun.

I thought about doing those a while back, but decided against them for the sole reason that it is against the law in some states. If she wants to risk someone (and/or the government) causing her lots of trouble, that is her risk to take. I personally don't want the Feds grabbing my servers and putting my customers out of business because they decided to go after an easy fish... Which is the risk she is taking... )

Nathan.

nathan_anderson

07-06-2006, 02:08 PM

Thanks Nathan! Hey, by portal site, is this something we can move over to? I'm investigating invision and vBulletin.

I'm still not sure why my store is gone, and do you have a simple tutorial or FAQ? Oh and I was wondering if you offer a simple way I can change the look of the store without having to email it to you.

Thanks again!

By Portal site, I mean as in a portal to all the congos/stores. Sorry -- this portal is designed to drive traffic to the congo's and hopefully get an active forum about products... :-)

As for store being gone; if you don't have any products active, the store will vanish on your site, if I recall correctly you asked for that ability... ;-)

Changing the look, yes -- check the "file editor" option on the menu when you log in. You have full access to the templates that make up the look/feel of the site. And you can use the Site Wide images, to upload any theme related images... :)

Nathan.

nutmeg

07-06-2006, 02:28 PM

I am editing my post, as this isn't the place for help. I'l post in the help area.

I want this thread to be for sponsors to talk about the issue, I think that would be a better use of the thread.

MamaOz

07-06-2006, 04:31 PM

nathan_anderson

07-07-2006, 11:34 AM

On the lottery deal its actually a free thing where anyone can join and the cart randomly picks a winner who may then purchase the item. It was set up to help people get a fair chance at purchasing hyena items. So not illegal that I know of since its a free lottery and you pay what anyone else would when you win.

Oh, I'm familure with it. Yes, some states even have rules against "free" lotteries... Oklahoma, only allows you to have free "raffles" if you have a permit or are a charity (indian reservations might also exempt). Yes, you read that right "FREE" raffles violates state law... Her lottery is the exact same thing, except done on a computer instead of via physical "tickets".

* EDIT *

I reread the state law, and I want to clarify -- I am sorta wrong. ;-) FREE w/ no money attached is (?? I believe ??) fine based on the wordage.

FREE, with any money attached to the event is not fine. Due to the fact that the person has to "pay" afterwords for the product -- since it is in relation to a Lottery/Raffle (which allows them to buy it) -- in that it voilates the oklahoma state law since it is money and/or goods are changing hands in relation to a lottery event; which is a a misdeamor or felony depending on what they want to charge you with. For some reason I got it in my head all free raffles were outlawed, but it appears only raffles/lotteries with money/goods being exchanged in relation to an raffle/lottery are outlawed.

* END EDIT *

Problem is right now the "Feds" are doing a crack down on internet Gambling; trying to outlaw it. In all reality she makes an "easy" target to go after since she probably has no money to fight the fed or state government. Oklahoma government (not sure about any other states) could sue her right now, since she "does" business in Oklahoma. Adding lotteries to CC would probably take me all of 30 minutes. But, Like I said before, I'm not willing to put my customers under that risk of my servers being taken because some Government worker decides to make an easy kill. All she needs is one "enemy" that wants to do her in -- that person starts contacting different states Attorney General Offices, and the paperwork & lawyer fees alone would be an "easy" way to do her in.

She is extreamly lucky that I am a very, very ethical competitor. if I was unethical, I would have easily put her out of business a year or two ago... Not only via legal means, but her site has pretty low security -- I could with 99% certianty drop and/or corrupt all her store & forum databases... Can't do much business with no db's and what a pain for her to fix... Ah well, fortunate for her I don't fight dirty... :)

Nathan.

nutmeg

07-07-2006, 02:05 PM

On the lottery deal its actually a free thing where anyone can join and the cart randomly picks a winner who may then purchase the item. It was set up to help people get a fair chance at purchasing hyena items. So not illegal that I know of since its a free lottery and you pay what anyone else would when you win.

Oh, I'm familure with it. Yes, some states even have rules against "free" lotteries... Oklahoma, only allows you to have free "raffles" if you have a permit or are a charity (indian reservations might also exempt). Yes, you read that right "FREE" raffles violates state law... Her lottery is the exact same thing, except done on a computer instead of via physical "tickets".

Problem is right now the "Feds" are doing a crack down on internet Gambling; trying to outlaw it. In all reality she makes an "easy" target to go after since she probably has no money to fight the fed or state government. Oklahoma government (not sure about any other states) could sue her right now, since she "does" business in Oklahoma. Adding lotteries to CC would probably take me all of 30 minutes. But, Like I said before, I'm not willing to put my customers under that risk of my servers being taken because some Government worker decides to make an easy kill. All she needs is one "enemy" that wants to do her in -- that person starts contacting different states Attorney General Offices, and the paperwork & lawyer fees alone would be an "easy" way to do her in.

She is extreamly lucky that I am a very, very ethical competitor. if I was unethical, I would have easily put her out of business a year or two ago... Not only via legal means, but her site has pretty low security -- I could with 99% certianty drop and/or corrupt all her store & forum databases... Can't do much business with no db's and what a pain for her to fix... Ah well, fortunate for her I don't fight dirty... :)

Nathan.

I'm pretty sure she's a member here, and I know many of her friends are. I'm sure she'll read this and secure things up now LOL :yes:

mc-squared

07-07-2006, 02:50 PM

An interesting read...can we specifically invite Karen to this thread so we can get both sides of the issue, i.e. give her an opportunity to respond and let us know about HC from the "horse's mouth". Anyone know her username?

nathan_anderson

07-07-2006, 05:59 PM

[quote=MamaOz]

She is extreamly lucky that I am a very, very ethical competitor. if I was unethical, I would have easily put her out of business a year or two ago... Not only via legal means, but her site has pretty low security -- I could with 99% certianty drop and/or corrupt all her store & forum databases... Can't do much business with no db's and what a pain for her to fix... Ah well, fortunate for her I don't fight dirty... :)

Nathan.

I'm pretty sure she's a member here, and I know many of her friends are. I'm sure she'll read this and secure things up now LOL :yes:

I hope she does, she has a nice site and has done some pretty cool things over the years and of course she has a good customer base... I don't envy anyone getting hit by a hacker, its can be a pita as you well know...

Nathan.

MamaOz

07-08-2006, 08:13 AM

I notified karen of this thread and asked her to join here so she could answer any questions anyone has.

nutmeg

07-08-2006, 10:32 AM

I notified karen of this thread and asked her to join here so she could answer any questions anyone has.
I'm not sure she can post in here, but we could move the discussion or something to the help forum, where she'd be able to post? I'll try to hook up with Allison to chat about it today

:yes: :heart:

MamaOz

07-08-2006, 02:28 PM

Okay Meg, she did say she was headed out of toen and she would register and check things out on monday. FTR she did say there was a difference between lottery and raffle but thats all I know. Hopefully she will be able to clear things up when she gets home. :yes:

sewdream

07-10-2006, 04:17 PM

Hi everyone,

Pam invited me to this thread, so I'm going to respond to some of the comments here. Let me just preface this by saying that my whole goal in coding HC has been to make it easier for wahm's to sell their items. I think your decision should be based purely on which cart can provide you the right services at the right price. I have actually in the past steered clients to Congo Cart because the were looking for features that HC doesn't have (like multi item checkout). In other words, figure out exactly what you want and make your decision based on that. I think most of the other stuff on this thread is tangential to that main point.

So, to address some of the specific points Nathan has raised:

1) Security: " her site has pretty low security -- I could with 99% certianty drop and/or corrupt all her store & forum databases... Can't do much business with no db's and what a pain for her to fix... Ah well, fortunate for her I don't fight dirty... "

I'm the first to admit that I'm a relative newbie to coding PHP and basically self-taught. I've tried to secure my code based on articles I've read on the web. If something were to happen, I would certainly try my best to pinpoint the cause, plug the leak, and restore the databases (I always have multiple backups). I also want to add that no personal data is stored on the HC databases other than email addresses, so there's no risk of compromising credit card numbers, home addresses, phone numbers, etc. (unless you post them somewhere on your site). Finally, I would contend that no site or piece of software is 100% hack-proof. Even Microsoft has been hacked :)

2) Lotteries: " Oh, I'm familure with it. Yes, some states even have rules against "free" lotteries... Oklahoma, only allows you to have free "raffles" if you have a permit or are a charity (indian reservations might also exempt). Yes, you read that right "FREE" raffles violates state law... Her lottery is the exact same thing, except done on a computer instead of via physical "tickets". "

This is from http://www.gambling-law-us.com/State-Laws/Oklahoma/

§21-1051.

A lottery is any scheme for the disposal or distribution of property by chance among persons who have paid, or promised, or agreed to pay any valuable consideration for the chance of obtaining such property, or a portion of it, or for any share of or interest in such property, upon any agreement, understanding or expectation that it is to be distributed or disposed of by a lot or chance, whether called a lottery, a raffle, or a gift enterprise, or by whatever name the same may be known. Valuable consideration shall be construed to mean money or goods of actual pecuniary value.

The key phrase here is "for the chance." No one in an HC lottery is paying for the chance to win something. The chance is totally free. And the "win" in most cases isn't really a win, it's just the ability to buy an item at full price which 5 other people also wanted to buy, at full price.

I thought actually winning something free would be an issue, but it seems that Nathan did more research and found that this is okay as well, so that seems to be covered.

3) Image hosting: " Correct, but unless something has changed recently, image support on HC is in the dark ages. ;-) CC, automatically generates two additional images from the one you upload in the proper sizes -- not only to speed up browsing but they look better -- and supports unlimited images per product."

If you upgrade to hosting images directly on HC servers, then you can upload images directly from your hard drive and they are automatically resized. If there were a high demand for an allowance for more images, I could certainly add that capability, but generally 4 images is plenty and you don't want your customers to be sitting around all day waiting for 20 images to load. However, I do have to correct the pricing that was mentioned here -- image uploading is an additional $12.50 per month for congos.

4) "The portal is imo HC's sole advantage over CC at this point"

I disagree. In fact, I've always thought that the *main* advantage of HC is that its coder and creator is also one of its clients. I use HC to sell my own stuff, so I see it from the user's end quite often and have tried to design things to be as simple as possible. HC is not complex or sophisticated. That's its strength. You can sign up for an account and be listing your items within a few minutes. Most of the add-ons over the years have stemmed directly from client and customer request.

Finally -- I'm not going to try to convince you to switch to HC. That's because I honestly don't know which cart is better for you -- only you can decide that. I won't offer free time on the site, and I can't guarantee that your sales will increase. I will offer you someone whose main intention is to help you sell your items in the manner you want. I have added features, customized code, based on client request. I have to admit that as my to-do list grows, my response time has increased, but I am always working to make improvements. The traffic and size of HC has been a completely unplanned and unexpected event but it has worked to strengthen the entire wahm industry. That doesn't mean everyone 'makes it'. But it does mean that if you have a killer product, you have a great chance to let over 6500 potential customers see your stuff.

If you have questions about comparisons between the carts, I would urge you to talk to the admins and members of any of the congos that have switched (sometimes back and forth) between HC and CC:

http://hyenacart.com/universalmama
http://hyenacart.com/necessitae
http://hyenacart.com/momsboardwalk
http://hyenacart.com/SeasonsOriginals

If you have more questions, please feel free to contact me at karen2@hyenacart.com .

Thanks!

Karen

nathan_anderson

07-11-2006, 11:10 AM

Hi everyone,

Wow, I want to say you handled this issue with more class that I did. I should not have let Pam bait me. My apologies if I offended you.

1) Security: " her site has pretty low security -- I could with 99% certianty drop and/or corrupt all her store & forum databases...

I'm the first to admit that I'm a relative newbie to coding PHP and basically self-taught. Finally, I would contend that no site or piece of software is 100% hack-proof. Even Microsoft has been hacked :)

Correct, no site is hack proof. Some software is more prone to it (can we all say phpnuke!). I've been in the Security aspect of software for a long time; I find it to be the most problem some because it is easy to "overlook" something... PM, me if you are interested and I will send you a couple vulnerabilities in your multicart you made from the free plaincart source. I perused the free plaincart source, in curiosity, to see if it had product locking of any sort; for a couple minutes a while back and saw several holes. As I said before, I hate it when sites get hacked and you've done some nice things over the years.

2) Lotteries: " Oh, I'm familure with it. Yes, some states even have rules
This is from http://www.gambling-law-us.com/State-Laws/Oklahoma/

§21-1051.

A lottery is any scheme for the disposal or distribution of property by chance among persons who have paid, or promised, or agreed to pay any valuable consideration for the chance of obtaining such property, or a portion of it, or for any share of or interest in such property, upon any agreement, understanding or expectation that it is to be distributed or disposed of by a lot or chance, whether called a lottery, a raffle, or a gift enterprise, or by whatever name the same may be known. Valuable consideration shall be construed to mean money or goods of actual pecuniary value.

The key phrase here is "for the chance." No one in an HC lottery is paying for the chance to win something. The chance is totally free. And the "win" in most cases isn't really a win, it's just the ability to buy an item at full price which 5 other people also wanted to buy, at full price.

Yes, I agree with you on 21-1051. Which is why I said "free" is in. I noticed the "for the change" and realized they excluded free items (Hense the edit the other day).

However on the legality, I disagree, ya missed this:

21-1060
Every person who insures or receives any consideration for insuring
for or against the drawing of any ticket, share, or interest in any
lottery, or for or against the drawing of any number, or ticket, or
number of any ticket in any lottery;

and every person who receives any
valuable consideration upon any agreement to pay any sum, or to
deliver any property or thing in action in the event that any
* ticket,
* share,
* or interest in any lottery,
* or any number,
* or ticket,
* or number of any ticket in any lottery
shall prove fortunate or unfortunate,
or shall be drawn or not drawn on any particular day
or in any particular order;

and every person who promises, agrees, or offers to pay any sum of money
or to deliver any property or thing in action, or to do, or forbear to do anything for the benefit of any other person, with or without consideration, upon any event whatever connected with any lottery, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

I split it into three sections. The first part deals with "taking" money in relationship to a lottery (which you aren't doing),

The second part basically if my legalspeak isn't too wrong is: every person who agrees to pay any sum (they are agreeing to purchase the item) to deliver said property in (random) event is a misdemeanor.

Third part is in relation to a "lottery" again.

However, the key is in the second group of items. I believe they may have "meant" it to be all related to the definition of "lottery", However group #2, is not clear enough "legally" to say it all points to the above defintion of "lottery". And we have all seen the court cases where you loose because of stupid technicalities. So, imho, a raffle in relation to taking any money is a no-no in Ok. I can't tell you how the other states read; but based on the "fludity" of the law, I'm not willing to take the risk. Loopholes kill us all.

Oh, and by the way, I thought your lottery idea was brilliant. I'm just not going to risk it. ;-)

3) Image hosting: " Correct, but unless something has changed recently, image support on HC is in the dark ages. ;-) CC, automatically generates two additional images from the one you upload in the proper sizes -- not only to speed up browsing but they look better -- and supports unlimited images per product."

If you upgrade to hosting images directly on HC servers, then you can upload images directly from your hard drive and they are automatically resized. If there were a high demand for an allowance for more images, I could certainly add that capability, but generally 4 images is plenty and you don't want your customers to be sitting around all day waiting for 20 images to load. However, I do have to correct the pricing that was mentioned here -- image uploading is an additional $12.50 per month for congos.

Coolness -- I take it all back, you aren't in the Dark ages anymore! I didn't realize you had that capability now. Thats pretty cool, so do you just do a thumbnail or do you also create a lower resolution images in addition?

4) "The portal is imo HC's sole advantage over CC at this point"
I disagree. In fact, I've always thought that the *main* advantage of HC is that its coder and creator is also one of its clients. I use HC to sell my own stuff, so I see it from the user's end quite often and have tried to design things to be as simple as possible. HC is not complex or sophisticated. That's its strength. You can sign up for an account and be listing your items within a few minutes. Most of the add-ons over the years have stemmed directly from client and customer request.

Guess we will have to agree to disagree on this point. I have a very active customer base and my development log of wanted features is growing way too quickly from ideas from not only my customers but my wife who also uses CC. CC, you can get an account and list items in a few minutes also. Imho, I believe the portal is the only major "missing" piece in my system.

Karen, Thanks for your response and clearing up a couple misconceptions I had of your cart and for your attitude. If you weren't my competitor -- I would recommend you for Sewingmamas based on your attitude. However, I would like them to stay for a three more months and if they decide at that point the traffic hasn't increase to what they want; I'll say go with my blessing. :D

Nathan.

maryalene

07-11-2006, 12:50 PM

I am new to sponsership here at Sewing Mama's and have yet to 'use' the priviledges provided by sponsorship, but I wanted to put in my 2 cents.

I personally have two hyenacarts and I think they are wonderful. I've been in business for 2 years and could never find any type of cart that was simple enough for me to use. It's not that I'm not computer savvy at all, I simply couldn't be bothered to take the time away from my family (and from sewing!) to spend time learning all about a new cart. When I came across hyenacart though, I finally made the plunge! It is VERY simple to use, Karen was a great help if I did have any questions she has always responded as quickly as possible.

MamaOz

07-11-2006, 04:14 PM

Anonymous

07-11-2006, 04:48 PM

Wow, I want to say you handled this issue with more class that I did. I should not have let Pam bait me. My apologies if I offended you.

How did I bait you Nathan? Because I stated my opinion after having experience with both carts? I am a paying sponsor here and I felt I had input that was important on this issue.

Technicaly it was pretty tacky of you to weigh in on this at all. way to back pedal.

I'm not going to get in a fight with you; you were an excellent customer -- which hopefully someday will decide to come back.

I didn't back pedal. I'm glad she came and set the record straight on the image issue. Her site is still insecure, and I still believe her lottery can get her into trouble. I never should have gotten into it with you about the legality or hacking, that was in poor taste on my part. I should have pm'd Meg and Alison and let them know those items and let them talk with Karen and handle it, I shouldn't have put it into the public arena.

As for weighed in, it is because I do have a interest in this, and I do know what is coming up at least with CC -- I would hate to see them jump ship when if the only reason is because of "percieved" traffic. IMHO, they would be losing out by making the jump now. As I said before, I am asking for a 3 months. If it doesn't improve to the point that they want they can do whatever they want and I will heartily give my blessing.

Nathan.

MamaOz

07-11-2006, 05:01 PM

I am sorry for getting pissy, baiting you was not my intent. I was just sharing my experience.

countrycuttins

07-11-2006, 05:37 PM

[smilie=yum (9).gif]

mc-squared

07-11-2006, 05:53 PM

xheathers

07-11-2006, 06:06 PM

nutmeg

07-11-2006, 06:31 PM

I don't know how to close the poll, I'm going to try though. Since we moved the thread here so Karen could respond, I'm pretty sure we're done -- the vote is 24 to 0, so I'm fairly sure we'll be changing shops in the future. We need to work it all out.

There is a lot of other work to be done on the site right now, including our anniversary! Woo hoo! Just wait till you hear the awesome prizes Allison is cooking up.

Anyway, if anyone has questions about HC or CC, I'm sure you could start a post in the help forum or even in the Material Girls forum. :yes:

Anonymous

07-11-2006, 11:49 PM

I am sorry for getting pissy, baiting you was not my intent. I was just sharing my experience.

NP, was just as much my fault. ;-)

Nathan.

nathan_anderson

07-12-2006, 12:07 AM

I don't understand all the ins and outs of carts but I do feel like this thread is not one where the sponsors, who are the one that this thread is addressed to, are having the opportunity to honestly discuss the issue.

I agree this thread got hijacked, and I am sorry for it happening; never should have happened.

Megan posted: I thought we should vote about this, or at least talk about changing over.

And if you read my original post:
http://www.sewingmamas.com/PHP-Nuke/modules.php?name=For ums&file=viewtopic&t =20225#202940

It was in line (imo) with the question as I was trying to outline some information before sewingmamas deciided to switch carts. As I said before I'm sorry it got hijacked, and I recommend Meg starts a new post in the board room; I'll stay out of it since I've already posted what was needed to be posted.

Nathan.

nathan_anderson

07-12-2006, 12:47 AM

I don't understand all the ins and outs of carts but I do feel like this thread is not one where the sponsors, who are the one that this thread is addressed to, are having the opportunity to honestly discuss the issue.

:yeahthat

Nathan, I don't believe you are a paid sponsor. Only paid sponsors are supposed to post in the board room or to weigh in on subjects which involves the spending of the money that is contributed. You are a vendor to us and as such, you have the right to provide feedback when solicited for said feedback or information.

Heh, your right as a "vendor" I'm not paid to contribute unwanted feedback, I'm not even paid to answer question on the help desk, fix, or upgrade software. I'm just paid to host Sewingmamas and keep the machines running.

However, despite what you think is "proper" for a "vendor" to do -- I happen to care about my customers, and I want them to succeed and so I attempt to fix issues as they are found in their software, provide software upgrades on their software and answer issues in the help desk area. That to me is Personal Customer Service.

I was informed that a poll was being taken about moving carts. I happen to know what is "upcoming" in CongoCart -- I felt it was important information for you all to have before you made the final decision. Making a decision without all the "facts" is pretty silly, wouldn't you agree?

I appreciate the help you and your husband have given Sewingmama's and it has been quite a help for the owners as phpnuke is pretty "buggy" -- but unless the owners tell me to "but" out -- I will continue to lend a helping hand and "advise" when I think it will be helpful -- its all part of the "personal" in personal service.

Your friendly Vendor, :-D
Nathan.
P.S. I never voted on it, because THAT WOULD be out of line...

starkl

07-14-2006, 08:15 AM

I know that I don't have a store up yet, but I'm planning on stocking stuff soon. Here's my question about the difference between what we have now and Hyena cart. What we have now there's a list on the side with each shop and you click on the shop name to open just those items, with HC, it seems like everything is listed one shop after another. Is there a way, with HC, to have the shops on the side like that, instead of people having to scroll down through them on one page?

Cracked_Baubble

07-14-2006, 08:45 AM

The traffic is not the reason we are looking at other options.
then what are the reasons? Since it hasn't been discussed...

Lorriane as far as I'm aware no you can not just list the store fronts, I'm also not sure if you can have stores disappear when they are out of stock.

starkl

07-14-2006, 09:28 AM

Lorriane as far as I'm aware no you can not just list the store fronts, I'm also not sure if you can have stores disappear when they are out of stock.

:chinscratch Hmm, well those are two really good options of the current cart. Is there a way to change the look of the current cart per shoppe? or maybe a more neutral outer to go with all the different logos that everyone has?

Cracked_Baubble

07-14-2006, 09:38 AM

:chinscratch Hmm, well those are two really good options of the current cart. Is there a way to change the look of the current cart per shoppe? or maybe a more neutral outer to go with all the different logos that everyone has?
No, CC can't change the look for each individual shoppe it has to be on a whole congo basis.
The colors and graphics of the congo is totally up to the admin. These are the graphics that were decided on back in the beginning.

Anonymous

07-14-2006, 04:25 PM

Lorriane as far as I'm aware no you can not just list the store fronts, I'm also not sure if you can have stores disappear when they are out of stock.

I'm pretty sure Meg & Allison has the feature turned on that stores w/o stock are hidden.

Is there a way to change the look of the current cart per shoppe? or maybe a more neutral outer to go with all the different logos that everyone has?

In a simple answer; yes -- easily.

Long answer -- each store could have its own unique look in CC. The site wide pages would be either in the default sitewide theme (or optionally the last store visited theme). Going into Megan's shop could have the pictures all at the top with a red theme. And then going into your shop could have the pictures down the right side and a purple theme. CC doesn't really care if every single product had a different theme.

The admins has full control over every page and pages can be added/removed. CC treats every page the same. Most people just use the default pages and do a sitewide theme. The current sewingmamas congo is themed the way the owners wanted it. Before they sent me the theme they wanted -- I had themed it to look exactly like phpnuke. :)

The design of CC was to allow integration into your site, not to make you work around it.

Nathan.

nutmeg

07-14-2006, 06:10 PM

Cami, I when I had the thought to move, it was discussed on this thread:
http://sewingmamas.com/PHP-Nuke/modules.php?name=For ums&file=viewtopic&t =20187

The vote was 17 to zero. We also discussed it up in Washington a little bit. There were over 25 mamas up there, and a lot of sponsors with the same concerns about the cart. Many of our members are opening up Etsy shops or Hyena Cart shops, even with a free (to them) one here they chose to pay for HC.

So I investigated, and posted the second poll, where members voted to move stores by 24 with one 'other' vote that was very well explained. Since we had to move this to the Help forum, the voting was cut off at that point. I will delete the poll or freeze it or something.

As far as I'm concerned we already voted, but you can post more polls I suppose -- but I'm dealing with other aspects of the site right now and this is causing more trouble that I truly thought it would.

Second to traffic, the biggest drawback for me with cc is the difficulty of use. I found it very difficult, and there wasn't any tutorial. I was told many times it was coming but it didn't while I was using the store. For some reason my store was removed, although I had products in it. I couldn't easily change the look of the site, I had to e-mail the information, and wait for it to be changed. When I wanted it to look a certain way, that was really difficult. That may be changed now. I don't know, I don't have time and I don't really even want a store anymore, so it's up to the Sewing Mama owners.

The owners are our Sponsors, not me and not Allison. We just wanted to have a site where we can come to chat about sewing, and thougth it would be FUN to have perks like a free store for sponsors. If it's proving to be too difficult we don't even have to keep any storefront at this point. Or we could have two stores. Or an eBay group. Many options I suppose.

FWIW, I don't care if someone wants to change the look of the store, if someone wants to do that I'm 100% fine with it. I just can't investigate if we can use html to make it the way we want it. Since we're moving the site later this month, I really don't have any time to do it. I'm pretty overwhelmed, and have spent enough time away from my kids (and sewing machine LOL) and Allison will be offline this weekend.

Cracked_Baubble

07-14-2006, 06:28 PM

Thanks Meg, I had thought I had seen traffic brought up as the primary issue but Heather had mentioned otherwise...

I'm sorry this has become a big issue, I really wish it hadn't.

Is there anything I can take over to make things a little easier for you?

nutmeg

07-14-2006, 07:13 PM

Thanks Cami! I'm sure I'll be needing help once we switch over. ;)

starkl

07-14-2006, 10:00 PM

FWIW, I don't care if someone wants to change the look of the store, if someone wants to do that I'm 100% fine with it. I just can't investigate if we can use html to make it the way we want it. Since we're moving the site later this month, I really don't have any time to do it. I'm pretty overwhelmed, and have spent enough time away from my kids (and sewing machine LOL) and Allison will be offline this weekend.

I was just curious about the look, thing. I hadn't followed any other threads about the cart/shoppes, so I thought I'd ask a few questions. I'm sure the site move has got to be totally overwhelming. :hug I know all us members are so grateful to you and Allison for all that you've been doing for the site. :yes: