Green Spot Antiques, GALT (Cambridge), Ontario, Canada » Vinces Blog

Vince DID IT! a fancy dancy WordPress importer IS possible

vincej — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:47:26 +0000

We started this blog/website/store with the idea of keeping with my mashup philosophy of mixing blogs, pages, products, etc all together, and leaving the sifting to the the user to target using either menus or other.

One major piece missing was some method of handling ALL the thousands of items we would be placing here online for sale, or the SOLD items for historical info. Every posting you see up till about a week ago was done by hand.

Well… not exactly by hand… We keep our products info in a database which has been custom built and allows us to input our info into WordPress with just about 6 clicks of the mouse per item… but still each item had to be input individually. If a major change, say in SHIPPING FEES came up… we’d have to go back and manually update each and every item.
Even with a simplified 6-click system, you can see that adds up to about 7300 clicks for the items we have up now… and it would only get worse over time. A solution had to be found.

But…. “We do Websites” so there had to be a better solution.

After digging around all the websites looking for simple importers I came up empty handed. Found very few that would work at all.. and even fewer that I could customize to handle OUR specific needs. What good is a tool if you can’t use it to do what you want?

So…. Vince set about creating our very own WordPress Importer.
It took a couple of days to get it right, and a week to debug and test under all conditions, but glad to announce that we now have a working IMPORTER. No more hand-jobs for us!

From now on, we can do anything we want in our database, make changes to 1000 items, and then we simply hit a button and update our wordpress blog in a few seconds.

it does allow for some pretty fancy footwork.
Like.. choosing all items with “glass” in the title, and putting them on “sale”, exporting from dbase, and uploading to wordpress — a 5 minute procedure at most. This for whether it’s 5 items, or 5000.
In fact we no longer actually POST items for sale on wordpress, we just upload a new products listing each day in wordpress.

So look for some exciting new sales, special offers, on special items, specific categories and more — all coming soon to Green Spot Antiques care of our fancy dancy importer — thanks to Vince.

Go ahead, you can cheer!
And if you want one of your own, just see our “We do Websites” page”, and shout out to Vince… happy to quote you on your specific needs.

Yes, it’s a good time to buy antiques – Chicken Little says so too.

vincej — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:37:02 +0000

We tend to be a little serious here about our antiques. And the economy is in somewhat dire straits overall….. but remember, the doom and gloom around is not always to be believed. Have some fun with Chicken Little today, and as you read remember: 1. how great the old cartoons were, the quality here is fabulous, AND sometimes how simple things last the longest.

Buy Durable, buy Carbon-Neutral, Buy Green — Buy Antiques. It’ll make you feel like the sky is NOT falling when you go to resell them. Believe it.

Note the date here, folks, 1943, A classic.

THIS is what Antiques are all about.

No, we’ve not gone crazy selling stuff. just updated our databases

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:13:44 +0000

Hi, in case anyone was wondering what’s going on here.

The SOLD area looks like we sold out the store between Aug 28 and 31st, doesn’t it?

the truth is…. we just updated our systems here to automate a lot of our product listings online…. so we did a major cleanup of the website, a redesign of some pages, and added in a bunch of new feature
So NO, we didn’t sell everything this week, but a guy can wish, right?

The NEW features are:

login now with twitter, or google using the appropriate buttons here.
When logged in you will receive an automatic 10% discount, whether it’s logging in with Twitter, Google, or our own system here.
Facebook users are lucky, they only need to be logged into Facebook, and they’re automatically members here, and receive the discount. (sorry, just a matter of technical possibilities here.)
We redesigned our pages to be faster to browse, and more informative. You can now just hit th green buybutton to land straight on the purchase box, or straight to the “make an offer” area. We hope you like it.
We’ve cleaned up the look a bit. the sidebars how have a distinct colour from the central area, and tables and boxes are surrounded by white now.. a little easier on the eyes I would think.
We’ve revamped the SOLD items to now display more information for users who are logged into our system. A full member can see all prices of items SOLD in the past. Great for research.
We’e fine tuned the “ads free” now… so if you are logged in here, you will experience a faster less cluttered site. And privacy enhancements apply.
We’ve also fully integrated FAcebook into our website now, with neat meta tags, and the LIKE button is back! – goes hand in hand with the special offer to Facebook users mentioned above. – we finally figured out how to use FACEBOOK to benefit our business. Hope you like it.

There’s probably more… but hey, just bounce around here for a bit.. I’m sure you’ll discover our website is geared to do one thing especially: make it easy and fun to shop at Green Spot Antiques.

Because — at the end of the day who really cares about all the above… you just want neat STUFF for your collection or home, right?
cheers.
Vince.

Sorry we don’t do THAT — well maybe, who knows, its kinda funky eh

vincej — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 07:21:23 +0000

just spotted on TrendHunter, Thanks to @Elsablaine

This chair leaves me breathless….

Well, actually, it leave me gasping for AIR….. how about you? Feeling Joker-Wild tonight?

We do get some pretty funky things here at Green Spot…. haven’t come across one of these.. but if you’re looking for one, let us know.

Heck if you’re looking for Anything, let us know. we’re listening.

Vince DID IT! a fancy dancy WordPress importer IS possible

vincej — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:47:26 +0000

But…. “We do Websites” so there had to be a better solution.

From now on, we can do anything we want in our database, make changes to 1000 items, and then we simply hit a button and update our wordpress blog in a few seconds.

So look for some exciting new sales, special offers, on special items, specific categories and more — all coming soon to Green Spot Antiques care of our fancy dancy importer — thanks to Vince.

Go ahead, you can cheer!
And if you want one of your own, just see our “We do Websites” page”, and shout out to Vince… happy to quote you on your specific needs.

Antiques, recycling, and historic preservation

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:24:09 +0000

Yup, we’ve been “antiques recyclers” for the past 30 years, and I presume my earlier generations, my Dad, and his parents too. It’s a glorious mission and lifestyle. It includes thrift, respect, love, determination, and the ability to see the intrinsic value of other people’s products. If anyone knows the meaning of GREEN, we certainly do.

So does the town of Aurora, in ONtario.

I came across this today. Towns like Aurora are at the forefront with some

historic conservation measures: they’ve even taken steps to EXTEND that

from just buildings to the materials too. I invite you to have a look

at the attached PDF here

/booths/info/Aurora_Architectural_Salvage_Program.pdf

A program such as this could put some antiques and salvage operations out of business, perhaps including our — but the overriding intention is too good to fight against, dontcha think?

cheers.

Vince.

if you want it, we can build it -meet a hall tree a door an organ

admin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:29:48 +0000

Yes, we can do this. We have the expertise.
We have the parts.
We have the technology.
You bring the passion and the vision,

Drop in, spend some time with us, and let’s discuss which unique parts you want on your hall tree. Pick apart from all our organ parts, old house parts, and old doors and frames.
If we can’t come up with something pretty unique and inviting….. well, probably nobody can.

We are here to SERVE YOU, with the MOST RETRO MODERN TOOLS AVAILABLE

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 13:54:09 +0000

Yup, here we are, mixing Antiques and super-cool modern tools like Skype, Twitter, Blogs, THIS FABULOUS WEBSITE, and more.

So… I ran into this today. See the original posting…. so cute.
http://socialmediatoday.com/drewhawkins/157548/what-if-facebook-youtube-and-skype-advertised-1960s

Here’s the sneak preview for your enjoyment.
What If Facebook, YouTube and Skype Advertised in the 1960s….?

Be sure to visit for some great insights.

Excuse the dust, we are catching up after Kempenfest

vincej — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:04:49 +0000

Sorry, for the dust here…. things are in flux, and a whole bunch of changes coming tomorrow.

We’ve busy unloading the trailers from our last show, at Kempenfest…. lots of stuff sold, the store has undergone a complete re-make-over…… and we have to mark stuff as sold online, and do a whole new Virtual Tour for this month…

Whew… we will catch our breath soon, I’m sure.
Join us over the next few days for all the changes, and do remember, VOTE IT! if you want it put on special on August 15th!

Wheat Weaving – a perchance discovery, WONDERFUL

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:21:56 +0000

I chanced upon meeting Joyce Banbury on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/joyce.banbury She had this pretty avatar showing.

I was intrigued, and spoke to Joyce for a moment.
Did you know there is a whole history behing “Wheat Weaving” ? there are museums, a gallery of wheatweaving and more.

Click HERE and get whisked (snicker) to Joyce’s site to learn more.

I know, when I have a moment I intend to look through this amaaing craft. You should too.

WOULD YOU ACCEPT SERIOUS BUSINESS ADVICE AS TWEETS

vincej — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 05:10:09 +0000

Here’s a quick transcript from a recent conversation I had on twitter.
The moral of the story is… if you find yourself in front of a “consultant” or advice giver who has not taken the time to listen to your actual needs or business layout — well, just walk away. You will not glean one ounce of benefit from their advice.

All advice which applies to YOUR situation should start with an assessment of YOUR situation, and a discussion of YOUR goals and objectives. Everything else is bunk.
___________________________________________-

My participant was CashBackatEbay you can find him here.
http://twitter.com/CASHBACKATEBAY
“M.C. Nygard is a former eBay Platinum Powerseller currently helping others make money on eBay, Amazon and Google.” I am always amazed to see how much interest EX-eBay sellers devote to what happens to ebay and it’s sellers. An amusing scenario.

WELL WOULD YOU ACCEPT SERIOUS BUSINESS ADVICE AS TWEETS?

Well that’s the only way CashBackAtEbay seems to want to give it.
have fun reading his “tips” below.
—————————————
OK, so, it comes down to this, for me.

Here is an ex ebay seller, touting affiliate incomes.. Basically he lives off advertising from Amazon, Google and other forms of ad/affiliate/commision from sellers on Ebay, amazon etc. I have no problem with that.

But I found it odd that as an EX-Platinum seller, he touts his ex-standing, yet never once will identify where he sells now, if anywhere. In fact never even answered the question when asked directly.

I note one feature of this conversation. It is about eBay sales, MY sales…. and, like many of these “gurus” not once did he ask me exactly how I WISH to conduct my business, but went straight into telling me how I should CHANGE it if I wish to be successful. Kinda misses the boat.

This “advisor” was invited to extend their email to us for a more careful and detailed discussion than allowed on twitter. They were also asked to demonstrate their expertise by labelling, creating titles, categories and prices for a whole page of new arrivals here. They declined on both counts. They preferred to give advice in short 140 character chunks which is ….

WELL WOULD YOU ACCEPT SERIOUS BUSINESS ADVICE AS TWEETS?

—I’ll just let you read the posts….
created_at Tweet ID # text

Wed Jul 14 02:45:04 +0000 2010 18486993675 —————— @GreenSpotting Greenspotting: Cute name. I’m spotting all kinds of green (in my mailbox, in my google box, in my Amazon account).

Wed Jul 14 02:59:01 +0000 2010 18487906131 —————— @GreenSpotting Since closing my eBay business, I have time to write about PASSIVE INCOME because I earn it thru AMAZON, GOOGLE & REAL ESTATE

Wed Jul 14 02:59:54 +0000 2010 18487963695 —————— @GreenSpotting I still love to buy on eBay, but I won’t sell there much (except to keep my PLATINUM POWERSELLER SKILLS now & again).

Wed Jul 14 03:01:02 +0000 2010 18488049305 —————— @GreenSpotting When I sold on eBay I soon realized that I was only an employee of myself. It was a valuable lesson.

Wed Jul 14 03:02:27 +0000 2010 18488145232 —————— @GreenSpotting “explain why you have time to … write about eBay if you’re so busy on the ‘other’ sites?” Passive income gives you freedom.

Wed Jul 14 03:11:14 +0000 2010 18488730699 —————— @GreenSpotting If you’re earning any passive income: GOOD FOR YOU! If not, Ican help. Here’s wishing you residual fortunes. Get some.

Wed Jul 14 14:05:34 +0000 2010 18521619449 —————— @GreenSpotting You’re funny (& broke). I quit eBay & no longer ship boxes for $$$. I earn passive income from AMAZON, GOOGLE & REAL ESTATE.

Wed Jul 14 14:07:10 +0000 2010 18521730330 —————— @GreenSpotting eBay is a great way to learn some business skills, but if you sell there you should look for other sources of income.

Wed Jul 14 14:07:54 +0000 2010 18521780301 —————— @GreenSpotting If you give me an eBay ID I can tell you exactly how much they earned in the last 30-90 days. You can learn to sell like them

Wed Jul 14 14:10:34 +0000 2010 18521967637 —————— @GreenSpotting I was an eBay PLATINUM POWERSELLER: check it out: http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/PowerSeller/requirements.html

Wed Jul 14 14:12:14 +0000 2010 18522086512 —————— @GreenSpotting It was just a fancy way of eBay telling me that I know how to sell. I miss the good old days of eBay that stopped: May 2008.

Wed Jul 14 20:08:57 +0000 2010 18545286313 —————— @GreenSpotting If your eBay ID is “wandcan” I know how much you really earned on eBay in the last month. Do you want me to DM your results?

Wed Jul 14 20:14:03 +0000 2010 18545572505 —————— @GreenSpotting I’m not “too lazy to check you.” If I have the eBay ID correct, you sell 2.91% of what you list, 44 items & $122.64 shipping!

Thu Jul 15 16:43:52 +0000 2010 18615664188 —————— @GreenSpotting My help!? List items how people search! Item #: 360218743225 “1945 VINTAGE RARE” missing in title. It’s cheaper on Amazon!

Thu Jul 15 16:45:09 +0000 2010 18615750774 —————— @GreenSpotting My help!? First edition?! 198 people looked at that book and didn’t buy, so your price is too high.

Thu Jul 15 16:48:15 +0000 2010 18615957569 —————— @GreenSpotting Give ETSY VINTAGE a try: It costs 20 cents to list an item on ETSY for 4 months. Pay a 3.5% transaction fee when it sells.

Thu Jul 15 16:51:06 +0000 2010 18616149130 —————— @greenspotting Sell books on Amazon: .99 cents + referral fee http://tinyurl.com/2a5sesb

Thu Jul 15 16:56:51 +0000 2010 18616529152 —————— @GreenSpotting Make note of antique tupes, brands & colors that have highest sell through rates, then focus your inventory on those items!

Fri Jul 16 02:59:09 +0000 2010 18653032803 —————— @GreenSpotting Your objective is NOT to make money! You make $3000 a month from eBay. Net profit is less than $1500 or ($18,000 annually).

Fri Jul 16 02:59:51 +0000 2010 18653080279 —————— @GreenSpotting Big whoop! You’re not spotting much green from eBay and your objective is not to make friends. I’m helping you for free.

Fri Jul 16 03:01:01 +0000 2010 18653169279 —————— @GreenSpotting Hey, I’d like to help you make money, but I’m losing patience with you. Best of luck packing 44 boxes a month for $1,500.

Fri Jul 16 03:25:48 +0000 2010 18654821527 —————— @greenspotting Don’t speak for all Canadians!

Fri Jul 16 14:25:18 +0000 2010 18689518926 —————— @GreenSpotting You are someone who could be earning $15-18K NET MONTHLY from eBay, but you’ve not opened your universe to get it.

Fri Jul 16 14:26:36 +0000 2010 18689618263 —————— @GreenSpotting I will say this about you, Mr. Canadian, you are earning more than one eBay author who wants to “help” people earn on eBay.

Fri Jul 16 14:28:54 +0000 2010 18689795308 —————— @GreenSpotting BIGGEST TIP, you’re not following: List your items the way a buyer would enter a search in eBay. Vintage, RARE, Antique, etc.

Fri Jul 16 14:53:03 +0000 2010 18691615762 —————— @GreenSpotting You can shop AMAZON.CA… Look for Adam Ginsberg’s books. He was an eBay TITANIUM POWERSELLER.

Fri Jul 16 14:53:09 +0000 2010 18691623078 —————— @GreenSpotting Read “How to Buy, Sell, and Profit on eBay: Kick-Start Your Home-Based business” by Adam Ginsberg http://amzn.to/ck5XnN

Fri Jul 16 15:55:16 +0000 2010 18696320780 —————— @greenspotting Open a U.S. merchant account to accept credit cards on Amazon: http://www.cashbackatebay.com/ebay-business-license.html

Fri Jul 16 15:55:29 +0000 2010 18696336748 —————— @greenspotting Take responsibility! You’re not listening to me: you have 549 items listed for sale and only sold 25 in the last 30 days. SAD

Fri Jul 16 16:10:26 +0000 2010 18697449091 —————— @greenspotting Your pricing strategy is inconsistent: Don’t list something for $9.04 (instead try $8.95). Will .09 cents kill ya?

Fri Jul 16 16:11:01 +0000 2010 18697491778 —————— @GreenSpotting Face it: BEST OFFER just tells people that no one wants what you have or you know your price is high.

Fri Jul 16 16:12:39 +0000 2010 18697612661 —————— @GreenSpotting You need BETTER PHOTOS! You’ll take better pictures with a Photo Soft Box Light Tent Cube: http://amzn.to/c7Nmp2

Fri Jul 16 16:35:51 +0000 2010 18699289082 —————— @GreenSpotting You’re not open to making money. The classic pricing strategy of $8.95 appears a better deal to the consumer than $9.04.

Fri Jul 16 17:14:01 +0000 2010 18701951080 —————— @GreenSpotting Silly you for selling at $9.04! Price at $8.95 or $9.49 if only to get rid of it. Never sell anything without $10 NET PROFIT.

Fri Jul 16 17:24:41 +0000 2010 18702678229 —————— @GreenSpotting You have 724 items that aren’t marketed to their full potential. You sold only 25 items last month.

Fri Jul 16 17:29:04 +0000 2010 18702970301 —————— @GreenSpotting Don’t market items under $10 UNLESS your strategy is to get rid of it. With Paypal & eBay fees, shipping time: not worth time

Sat Jul 17 02:57:47 +0000 2010 18736037148 —————— @GreenSpotting Glad I could help you with your eBay business.

Sat Jul 17 03:00:31 +0000 2010 18736215252 —————— @GreenSpotting So you sold 20 items in one day when previously you sold 25-44 items in a month!? Man, I am good.

Sat Jul 17 03:08:30 +0000 2010 18736729081 —————— @GreenSpotting More eBay tips for you: Don’t bother listing items with “Pickup only” for Ontario. Sell at: http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/

Sat Jul 17 03:19:10 +0000 2010 18737405341 —————— @GreenSpotting List oil paintings together if you MUST sell them on eBay, but know that oil paintings do better at LIVE fine art auctions.

Sat Jul 17 03:34:02 +0000 2010 18738335252 —————— @GreenSpotting Use all characters in your title listings! If you can’t think of anything use both VINTAGE & ANTIQUE in your headings.

Sat Jul 17 13:59:29 +0000 2010 18767603366 —————— @GreenSpotting You could have gem of a painting: sell it on eBay $500 but didn’t know it’s worth $50,000. Make a partnership with a dealer!

Sat Jul 17 14:05:07 +0000 2010 18767947150 —————— @GreenSpotting How’d you come up with the price $23 for vintage license plates? Competitors are selling ‘em for $9.99, no bids at .99-cents.

Sat Jul 17 15:52:52 +0000 2010 18774756695 —————— @GreenSpotting See COMPLETED ITEMS: 1 Vintage Ontario ’20s plate sold for $23.17 the rest sold mostly for $9.99 some not even for .99 cents.

Sat Jul 17 15:54:44 +0000 2010 18774873640 —————— @GreenSpotting Fine, you’re happy being a silver eBay seller! I was PLATINUM studying patterns of successful vendors & modeling after them.

Sat Jul 17 15:56:46 +0000 2010 18775003188 —————— @GreenSpotting Revise your pricing strategy $19.95 instead of $23, see COMPLETED ITEMS before listing, write headings as buyers might search

Sat Jul 17 16:07:26 +0000 2010 18775693077 —————— @GreenSpotting On that eBay for Dummies book… That woman earns more money from her book than from eBay sales. She knows PASSIVE INCOME.

Sat Jul 17 16:28:48 +0000 2010 18777043120 —————— @GreenSpotting Yes, I respect her too (for book sales & residual income).

Sat Jul 17 16:31:40 +0000 2010 18777224878 —————— @greenspotting I advise you NOT to sell low margin items (regardless of “SPECIFIC market or targets).

Sat Jul 17 16:51:58 +0000 2010 18778466257 —————— @GreenSpotting Perhaps NOT SELL “chinese wall masks.” If you look at the completed items function you’d see there’s little interest.

Sat Jul 17 16:55:11 +0000 2010 18778657502 —————— @GreenSpotting Simply: don’t sell low margin items! If you must, cluster them into 1 listing, ‘cuz 1 shipment = less fees, less time, more $

Sat Jul 17 17:04:21 +0000 2010 18779214899 —————— @GreenSpotting Yes, I admire @KnowsEbay. We’ve had our chats.

Sat Jul 17 17:07:33 +0000 2010 18779406819 —————— @GreenSpotting Go ahead Silver, but I didn’t need Terapeak or Worthpoint to make me a Platinum Powerseller. I used COMPLETED ITEM function.

Sun Jul 18 01:47:02 +0000 2010 18805680235 —————— @GreenSpotting Yes, I’m a FORMER eBay Platinum Powerseller who got WISE: now I earn PASSIVE INCOME & waste my time w/ you. No packing boxes.

Sun Jul 18 01:52:08 +0000 2010 18805969947 —————— @GreenSpotting I’m looking at a commission check right now. I pay $15 check processing fee JUST to see the numbers & feel the crispy check.

Sun Jul 18 01:53:19 +0000 2010 18806036281 —————— @GreenSpotting You should read T. Harv Eker: he would tell you instantly about your “financial blueprint” and I’d bet he’d say “YOUR BROKE!”

Sun Jul 18 01:54:29 +0000 2010 18806102068 —————— @GreenSpotting Go ahead and close the universe to more money. You think you have all the answers and yet you’re only a bronze powerseller.

Sun Jul 18 01:58:41 +0000 2010 18806338432 —————— @GreenSpotting Get wise: quit selling low margin items, pick better heads, try .99 cent auctions Sun.6-7 p.m. PST., discover PASSIVE INCOME.
__________________________________________________________—-
Would I take advice from this EX-Platinum eBay seller — well, YES, I WOULD if he had taken the time to actually pursue a conversation via email or by proceeding to a demonstration of his worth. Not having taken that step, I pronounce him FLUFF and a waste of time.

It’s too bad, I’m sure deep down below the rhetoric and bombast, there might actually be a tip or two I could learn to help my biz grow.

What facebook looked like in 1993 — a trip down memory lane

admin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:22:13 +0000

A little trip down memory lane:

so you think Facebook, Twitter, and social sharing is new?
Nope, 1993 stuff, just better tools.

here’s the text for a release of Link2-SimulNet back in 1993. mostly of techy interest. but hey, i’ts my blog, and i’ll use it as a diary some days.
from
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.cdrom.com/pub/cdrom/cdroms/infomac/00files.txt

Applications
****************************************
LINK2� Demo
app/link2-simulnet-demo-hc.hqx

Venanzio Jelenic
8 Oct 1993
Document-based network operating system.

This Archive contains a demo version of LINK2)Simulnet*. You will
need Hypercard Player or Hypercard 2.1 to run these stacks.
Macintalk, a system extension enabling speech synthesis is also
necessary. The LINK2 system will function without Macintalk, but uses
speech extensively. This is a series of Hypercard stacks which
were designed for educational use with two specific objectives in
mind. A. To act as a primer with which to enable children to
learn some basic networking and messaging skills. The stacks are
comprised of regular log-in procedures, password protection. This
system goes beyond regular text messages in that it allows the users
to access sounds, graphics, databases from within their prime
documents. The documents are presented as stories for the students to
build. The document may also be a project or presentation. These
documents are collaborative efforts on the parts of any users on the
net. LINK2) handles these documents much in the same way as PowerTalk
and Object-Oriented Operating Systems will in the near future.
LINK2), in essence, is a document-based network operating system with
characteristics akin to a distributed hypermedia system, albeit
simulated. Up to 60 users may participate. The problem often
confronted by teachers and students is that sometimes the hardware
becomes available BEFORE there is a foundation for it’s use. Thus
many a time networked systems are introduced that act as no more than
simple file and printer servers. LINK2) is designed to instill in the
students the basic desire and thinking habits necessary for effective
messaging between participants. B. To enable both the teachers
and students who do not have access to modems, phone lines, networked
computers, or funds, to start in the excitement of networking.
Because LINK2) functions on a single computer, (it is a multi-user
asynchronous network model), it requires little investment in terms of
hardware, nor training. With a simple Mac Plus, a hard disk and
printer, the students and teachers can start to investigate some of
the techniques and problems encountered with network use. LINK2) does
not simulate any single networking scheme. Rather it provides a
simple model which allows the users to network together , now, without
having to worry about learning techniques required with specific
systems, nor face the hardware constraints which are often inevitable.
It is more a model to develop the *culture* of networking than a
specific training tool. As such, it is also useful in the situation
of being a primer for the students so that they do not eat up too much
bandwith nor time on the real nets until they learn some basic skills.
This Demo version has a few parts disabled or missing.
Conferences in the BBS section are reduced to only 3. Only 3 users
are allowed on the system. Only One story is allowed. All
administrator functions have been deleted. Otherwise the system
*looks and feels* whole. You are welcome to use it in any private
capacity so long as it is non-renumerative nor commercial. Link2) is
not public domain, nor to be considered freeware, it is copyrighted
with all rights reserved to Venanzio Jelenic. I would welcome the
distribution of this Demo version by any non-commercial means you
wish. Venanzio Jelenic

______________________

Btw: Venanzio Jelenic, that’s me.

and
______________________________
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From: Venanzio Jelenic
List Editor: Venanzio Jelenic
Editor’s Subject: Re: student collaborative
Author’s Subject: Re: student collaborative
Date Written: Mon, 18 Jul 1994 13:15:43 EDT
Date Posted: Tue, 18 Jul 1994 13:15:43 -0400

In a message dated 07-17-94 George D. Scott wrote, in response to request,
from Palmer Agnew….

> …Are any of you aware of any
>schools that have students collaborate across schools in real time with
>some kind of video conferencing or 2-way software such as Cornell’s
>CU-SeeMe or IBM’s Person to Person or other. I vaguely recall reading
>about some efforts in the midWest that were pilot oefforts. Also when
>there is a listserv set up is the local college of one of the K-12
>there schools usually the host for that list please?
>Palmer Agnew 71621.1506@compuserve.com

GS> That is another problem I am experiencing …… there are so few
GS> technology champions that we can’t handle all of the needs our
GS> schools have, nor can we get to the new cutting edge technologies
GS> ’cause we’re trying to get the “old” things going (it’s old and
GS> outdated if it works).
GS>
GS> George Scott St. Paul Central High School Communications Technology
GS> Center 0625csh@inforMNs.k12.mn.us

May I intervene in guise of “technology champion” for a sec?
I had developed a system on Macintosh (Link2-Simulnet) which tried to
work around the “cutting edge” needed for most collaborative work by kids.
It worked on a stand-along- or appletalk network, allowing asynchronous
work by collaborating authors. It is the type of environment which will
be available in about 2 years on Mosaic-style WWW browsers, or Xanadu (if
it ever arrives).
Put simply – a distributed-hypermedia, collaborative-authoring
environment.

At least, it allows for exploration of collaborative work between multi-
users on site, and using a simple Mac Plus and hard disk. I could easily
send more information if requested.
The idea here, is to break out of the hardware-dependency brought on by
the pilot-project to pilot-project cycle that seems to propagate itself
at intervals around the systems. (and always at someone’s generous
donations and will).

Ciao, VENANZIO JELENIC
SimulNet Learning Concepts, Ontario. Canada.
Venanzio@Hookup.net Venanzio.Jelenic@Canrem.com

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Say hello to our new BUY button – Its a lean green selling machine

vincej — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:08:30 +0000

Ok, we’re out of BETA, officially now……. the site is ready to roll on automatic now.
I can finally get around to getting a few more thousand articles online for sale now.
I’m excited, of course.

Let me introduce you to my little friend.

Our new BUY button. Hope you like him.

UPDATED: When the IRS comes shopping – do you open the door?

vincej — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:30:54 +0000

AS a Special note to all our shoppers here:

Our policy is simple: YOUR privacy is our FIRST AND ONLY CONCERN:

We will NOT accept membership on this site from anyone using clearly marked and identifiable GOVERNMENT email systems or addresses. They are free to sign on as private personal members, though, at this time.
If you have any thoughts on this article, we’d really appreciate it, but for NOW, our policy stands.

We had a very interesting experience today. The first time.

We have a NING site, up at http://greenspot.ning.com (in process of shut-down now for other reasons)…..

A new member arrived today. a certain USERX@cra-arc.gc.ca

The cra-arc.gc.ca is Canada’s equivalent to the IRS in the U.S. (Revenue Canada).

I put out the question on twitter: “Q: if you had an online sales site and someone from the IRS asked to join as a member: WHAT WOULD YOU DO?”

I got a few replies, most to the effect that IRS users are real people, not spies, etc.
but… here’s the red flags this raises for me.

1. in general, it is against office, AND PRivacy policies for govt officers, of any rank to utilize their government emails for personal business, of any sort.
There may be some occasions where some personal communications might pass with a blind eye, for convenience, but never for commercial or other business matters. IN general that includes shopping from the office. In fact, in most offices personal shopping from office computers is literally banned or blocked either by automatic means, or by policy.

2. Our site was quite prominent on the internet. So…. after 3 months of solid visits from the RevCanada people online… we got an audit visit.
We have no problem with audits…. but wonder why they take the easy route ?
So much easier to view and monitor a biz with a good online presence than chase after the many tax-evading sellers at flea markets, country markets, and private in-home sellers, of course.
Since their audit visit is a huge waste of our time (ties up days and days)….. I kinda resent the fact that they take the easy route to make MY life more difficult and tiresome.

3. We have other members on our shopping sites… and the facility for them to communicate amongst them exists. How comfortable do you think those other members would be to knowing one of the members is from the IRS office?
Don’t I owe it to the other members to keep the IRS member OUT?
(analagous to perhaps to a dissident political group discussing politics — would they openly admit , without identifying government members? )

Would YOU feel comfortable with a clearly identified IRS member on a SALES SITE as a participating member? NOTE: we have no issue with Joan@gmail.com who WORKS for Canada REvenue, that’s a real person, and they have needs and wants and even do shop online. Our question here is with XJoanX@cra-arc.gc.ca which is clearly an email within the offices of Revenue Canada.

So do tell me your thoughts on this…… it’s an intriguing problem.

At this time, we responded to the user@cra-arc.gc.ca with a note indicating we do not accept members with government email address, but they should feel free to join us using their personal email to shop with us — how can we best serve you?

Do jump in…. your comments and views are much appreciated. All this is still a huge learning curve for me, and everyone, I would guess.

So… the IRS wants to join your online store… What would YOU do?

ADDENDUM: I am now including the email I sent to our local MP, Gary Goodyear. Have not yet received a response, but always hopeful:
Asa sent June 24, 2010

_________________________________________

Hi,
I run a biz here in cambridge.
We were recently contacted by a user from the RevCanada office about joining an online group we have at http://greenspot.ning.com

It is a shopping site for antiques.
We are concerned about some privacy issues here.

The user email is A_Z@cra-arc.gc.ca ( I have anonymized this here, but can furnish exact address if required)

The group is/was an open group to the public, and it has facilities for contact between members.

I have two specific questions here:
1. what is the policy for government agencies regarding employees personal use of email, web access etc? Is it allowed to use an office email for clearly personal use?
2. I shall assume that since it is an office email, it is most probably only accessible from within the office network, and during office hours.
As such, what is the policy regarding the use of an emplyee’s idenity online at non-government sites?

For example: would it be acceptable for a Canada Revenue employee to have an account on eBay using their “government assigned and paid for” email services?

I have indicated to the above user that at this time we will not accept registrations using government based user registrations…. but am very curious as to what the actual policies in place are regarding this type of situation.

While not wishing to block access to our biz to government employees, we find it very strange that they should wish to sign on with their “government assigned and paid for” email addresses since there has been no indication that they are sourcing materials for any government approved purposes.
In this case the user indicated they were interested in a “Knechtels Limited 3 legged small table”, and does not seem to be a direct government need.

I anxiously await your reply in this matter.

Thank you.
Vince Jelenic
all contact info below.

————–Vince J.
Green Spot
49 Cedar Street
Cambridge, Ontario,
N1S 1V4
ph: 519-623 4050
Hours: year round, Wednesday thru Monday10a.m.-6p.m.
(closed Tuesdays)

Visa/MC/Cheque/Cash/accepted.
email: info@twojjs.com & info@greenspotantiques.com
website: http://greenspotantiques.com or http://twojjs.com

Please check out my other current auctions on Ebay at:

http://search.ebay.ca/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZwandcan

And our EBAY store, always filling up with great bargains.

http://stores.ebay.com/Dial-It-Back-Collectables

http://greenspotantiques.com Green Spot Antiques

Salvage, Sioux City and Corn Palaces, they do have something in common, right

admin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 05:07:04 +0000

Salvaging of old buildings has been around a long time, of course, but here’s a particularly cool story — about the Corn Palace in Sioux City.

You have to just read and enjoy this one.
http://www.siouxcityhistory.org/cornpalace/more6ead.html?id=35_0_5_0_M

The 1891 Palace was so large that it spread across Pierce Street and featured a large archway that allowed traffic to pass though. The palace featured a balcony atop the main 200-foot tower. There, visitors could take in a magnificent view of the city and the surrounding three states. ….

and here’s a great link a collector’s site with an original picture, grandpa’s pict:
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/896-grandpas-fun-pictures?in=user

Its a tough businsess some days – an example

admin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:22:10 +0000

as picked up off an antique online group. I’ll quote verbatim.

“I would love to know more about this company also, I have the twin pedestal table susan is talking about, I have 6 leaves and 6 chairs, a bolt or 2 has been replaced, but the mechanism lock still works great and has original wheels and all, no finish on the table itself, girlfriend picked it up from a lady at work because we needed a kitchen table, paid 200 for all of it, I was in disbelief when I went to pick it up. Looked around for a rough value, but found nothing. Had a professional restore guy come passed the house, and all he wanted to do was buy it. 700 was a high end for restore, he offered me a 1000 for it, but figured I should hold on to at and leave it in the condition its in. I have pictures if anyone would like to see, and still has both patent tags inside. Have a great day guys”

Need I add more? I’d love it if you do … your thoughts go here……

cheers.

A sad day in toronto #G20 Summit says NOT to peace

vincej — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 04:00:51 +0000

I hate to get political, and hardly ever do here.

But… just watch this video.
IN my youth, I was involved in a protest in Italy, and exactly the same thing happened.
I saw things were getting tense, and I told my fellow protestors to just sit down and not offer resistance, that we could that way isolate the trouble makers and let the cops handle them.

As in this video, we got charged at in the moment the protest was it’s most peaceful.

If this video does now show, please view it on youTube here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Heb9BXjYcII

A light interlude here… I think of Toronto as a MELTDOWN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_40GPnMFw4 Have a listen, I love this song.

This has been a tactic of the police forces for decades now.
Install undercover agents as troublemakers to incite the crowd to violence from within.
Then, once some trouble shows up… use that as an excuse to shut down the protests.

The MOST Dangerous moment for the police forces then becomes the one where the crowd can settle down and get back to a real peaceful protest.
The act of then staging a SIT IN will create a power vacuum, and the police and security forces cannot allow that. They would lose their “shutdown” momentum.

They came straight for ME…. and I took off. My friends later indicated that the word was out they were looking for ME throughout the protest and to keep low.
What crime did I commit? that of asking my fellows to calmly sit down and protest and claim their right to protest peacefully with peaceful means. Had I been caught that day, I’m sure to have been placed in some dank, dark, cellar corner of the many dungeons in Bologna to be forgotten for awhile. Some of my friends were.

YOU do NOT want to get arrested in ITALY, it practices civil law in an inquisatorial manner.
(for more info, see this article which expands on “With respect to criminal procedure, certain civil law systems are based upon a variant of the inquisitorial system rather than the adversarial system. This kind of judicial organization is sometimes criticized as lacking a presumption of innocence.” ..

A true lesson learnt that day. I was no leader, I didn’t organize anything, Hell, I wasn’t even an Italian citizen who could place an official complaint. I simply asked others to sit down, just like you see in this video.

As a tactic, it is useful, and even brilliant.
As an act, it is despicable, and unworthy of our police forces.

As to the idea of undercover agents as provocateurs? have a look at this.
It’s been done for decades this way. I have seen it in person.

But….. what can violence achieve at a #G20 meetup?

I’m afraid the answer is nothing for either side of those barricades.

Other than perhaps another $100M official enquiry into the days’ events.

A day to be shameful of being a Canadian, and hoping we can regain our reputation as a peacful warrior people again sometime soon. WE ARE BETTER than this, we MUST be better than this, and I know that the good people in Canada will somehow ensure that these type of scenes do not happen again.

Just imagine yourself in a protest, Imagine yourself in a sit-in. Imagine trying to use that FREEDOM OF SPEECH and ASSOCIATION we all think we have a right to.
Then imagine having a horde of riot police run over you like a herd of cattle — right there where you are sitting. It’s an awful feeling – a feeling of helplessness. A feeling of deep shame too.

I copy in the article here for your information:
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19928

If the video does not load, please see it here on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaeuV2RNL3o

by Terry Burrows
Global Research, June 27, 2010

Toronto is right now in the midst of a massive government / media propaganda fraud. As events unfold, it is becoming increasingly clear that the ‘Black Bloc’ are undercover police operatives engaged in purposeful provocations to eclipse and invalidate legitimate G20 citizen protest by starting a riot. Government agents have been caught doing this before in Canada.

Personally I await to hear what involvement the government and security forces had in these day’s events. Big $$ speak loudly and can turn even relatively decent men into much less.

Vince.
#ADDENDUM:

Today June 30th came across this interview on the legality of the “Public Works” legislation as applied to the #G20meeting in Toronto. Worth a listen,a level-headed assessment.

Ask us anything, we’ll answer- get to know us

admin — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 08:30:35 +0000

Mall Shopping: an antiquer dealers worst FLEA-BEAT-Bitten

vincej — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:40:18 +0000

Hi, I Buy and Sell antiques for a living.

No other job, just that. The best part of this work, for me, is in the Buying! the act of buying. Discovering what I consider the hidden potential of an item that I, and only “I” can find the right buyer for.

A part of that job entails finding the stuff our buyer is looking for… So that brings me to the occasional trip around the countryside on a buying spree.

Make no mistake, I buy with an eye to resale and profit…. so it’ s not really much of a spending spree, i’m cheap, I need to be. but I have been know to buy 1000 items in one pop if the occasion is right. Life, and the Antiques Biz is a matter of Timing.

I’ve been known to walk out of a mall with 200 dealer booths with a $4 carving in my hand because to tell the truth that was the ONLY item in there that I saw a direct potential for a profit, or wanted to deal with. Either the other stuff is crap, or there is no margin, OR, there is so much of the same stuff in that mall that I can’t for the life of me figure out how I could ever convince one of MY buyers that I’m selling them a unique and desirable item. Once you’ve seen a few million Blue Mountain Pottery penguins…….. all in one location…… well……..

Which brings me to the point: why does anyone shop at these “antique malls”.

1. they will not accept returns.

2. they will not accept exchanges

3. (some don’t pay sales taxes, or charge it), and accept only cash, no cheques, personal or biz. Heck, half won’t even give out receipts, I get scrawls on pads of paper I fill in after the fact with their info and I present that whole-heartedly to the taxman.

4. Service and knowledge are often in short supply, and you are left to your own devices to figure out what things are.

5. the majority of anything of any value is locked away in cages (showcases) where the animals can’t touch.

6. Who has time to ask staff to open 20 showcases to inspect items whose condition you are unsure off

7. I’m at the OTHER>>>>>>> end of the market and I find something I like….. now I have to carry it back to the desk a good 300 feet away or just carry it around with me

8. I can’t get a DISCOUNT: well , I can try to haggle a bit…. or I can look up their chart to see which booths have sales right now, or hope to see the “sales” signs….. but I can’t get a Dealer’s discount automatically, not even 10% at some. WE, here have a healthy dealer trade, we offer 30% with proper biz registration. We know it’s just good business.

Well today, in one mall, I had a list of 10 articles, from doors, to furniture, to a whole mess of other stuff. I was planning to fill the van. I don’t go often, and you gotta pay for the trip somehow, right?

Umm….. no. the 8 rules of mall shopping hit me a the counter, and I walked out with the 3 really good deals I couldn’t pass on. You’d probably see some of those in our New Arrivals if you frequent that area.

So….. I prefer a bloody auction, garage sales, house calls, estate sales, and just the junk picker who stops by with a truckload every now and then. I could travel around Cambridge on a Saturday’s sales and find and make more deals than the three hours it takes me to have the mall staff “help” me see and decide on my purchases in the mall. My, time, like everyone else’s , is precous.

Funny, you’d think these “antique malls” could figure it out: with such NON-DEALER-Friendly policies in general I wonder how their inside dealers, when speaking with me, could mention it’s “sort of a picker’s place, Dealers come here to buy”.

Not THIS dealer, folks. I have much better, friendlier and informed sources to do my antique shopping.

What I really ponder, though, is how it’s possible for customer to expect the same flea-market prices from a REAL BUSINESS as they get at these fle-markets? We have only ONE RULE of shopping – you, the customer, is RIGHT, and ours are the exact opposite of those noted above. If you check off everyone of those 8 rules above, we offer the exact opposite.

A pity, as these malls, with a little common biz sense could be doing much better. I’d be happy to drop some $20K on their doorstep each year for my purchases. At one large, very large, spot today, I saw at least 40 booths with “for rent” signs hung — and I see ads in Kijiji constantly from other malls looking for vendors.

It’s unbelievable, given that there is SOoooooooo MuCCCCCH stuff around for sale that these malls are short of vendors, but true. I wonder why?

As it is… they have indeed convinced me that our biz is on the right track.

How did we fare during the recession? just fine, thanks, no change to biz practices at all. We’ve been doing the same thing since the day we opened doors. Must be a hidden trick or two in there, somewhere, I guess

Green Spot Antiques, the little store with the Big heart, (and brain).

Come visit, often, seldom, whenever. Leave your shopping mall rule book behind. PUHHHHLLLLEEASSSE !

We’ll make up the rules together with you when you arrive.

Thanks.

A new virtual tour requires your visit and opinion, please

vincej — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 04:48:53 +0000

Hi, we’re testing out a new virtual tour, not sure how it’ll fit in here, but I kinda like it

Your comments, of course, are always appreciated. Do you like this one better than the current one?

I’m anxious to hear your thoughts. TRY it NOW.

Only 1 WEEK away! the Cambridge Arts FESTIVAL, next weekend

vincej — Sun, 30 May 2010 21:41:20 +0000

Running annually since 1995, the Cambridge Arts Festival strives to ensure that all local artists have the opportunity to display their art forms in a pleasant location to be viewed by members of their own community.

Our festival has been host to countless local and regional artists of all diciplines including writers, painters, photographers, dancers, buskers, drum circles, musicians, singers and actors.

Going Green……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. May 16, 2010

For 2010, we’ve taken one more step to reduce our carbon footprint: we’ve banned the sale of bottled water on Festival grounds. CAF sponsor World of Water will be supplying free water to all Festival patrons for the entire day. Bring your own re-usable cup or purchase one of ours.

Once again, recycling bins will be readily available. At this point, the Region is still not ready to provide green bin service for this year’s Festival, but we hope to be able to offer it next year.

Also, we offer bike racks and are located only one block north of the Ainsle Street bus terminal. Grand River Transit provides service to all of Cambridge, Kitchener, and Waterloo.

The Home Stretch………………………………………………………………………………………………………. May 2, 2010

All artist applications are now in and being processed by the organizing committee. Thank you to all who have applied. We’re doing our very best to find room for as many as possible.

The start of a participating artist list is now up on our Artists page. It will be updated as more artists are confirmed. Also, we will tell you more about a different artist, band, or group every day leading up to the Festival.

Application Deadline Looming………………………………………………………………………………… April 27, 2010

With 4 days left until the application deadline, we already know this will be THE best Cambridge Arts Festival yet. The number of people participating has already exceeded our expectations. In response, we’re expanding our borders, making the event bigger than ever before. That means we still have room for YOU!

Don’t miss your chance to be a part of history. Apply now:

Culinary Artist
Dance
Literary Artist (poetry, prose, storytelling, public speaking, comedy, theatre…)
Musician
Performance (busker, anything other art form not specifically on this list)
Visual Arts

Volunteer
Vendor
Concessions
Sponsor

Want to give a workshop or have some other idea about how you’d like to get involved?

Email us: mail@cambridgeartsfestival.com

Poetry Slam …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. March 23, 2010

For more information, please see our Events page.

Word Up! Poetry Contest – Call for Entry ………………………………………………………….February 10, 2010

Do you have what it takes to win our Word Up! Poetry Contest? Fill out an application and send us your best shot.

Winners of the competition, now in its third year, will be announced at the annual Festival, scheduled for June 5, 2010. Prizes will be awarded for poetry in two age categories: 14-17 and 18+. Winning writers will receive a prize, recognition in an awards ceremony at the Festival, and inclusion of their winning entry in our Festival program and on our website.

Submission Guidelines (Complete list on reverse of application form)

The competition is open to Cambridge and area writers 14 years of age or older
Submissions must be the original work of the poet, written in English, and not a prize winner in a previous competition.
Entrants must complete an application and mail it along with a cheque in the amount of $5 for one poem or $10 for 3 poems (submission fee), payable to The Cambridge Arts Festival.
Submission deadline is April 16, 2010.

June 5 chosen for 2010……………………………………………………………………………………. January 20, 2010

Planning is now underway for the 15th annual Cambridge Arts Festival. The event will be held on June 5 in and around City Hall (50 Dickson Street) in downtown Galt. We would like to welcome back many of the artists, volunteers, and sponsors that have participated in past festivals, the new faces that have already joined us, and those yet to come. We hope to see you there as a patron or a participant too.

2010 will bring severa l new and exciting enhancements for this already fabulous free Festival. If you would like to be a Festival insider, join our Volunteer Team or become a Sponsor.

Check back here, join our Facebook group, or follow us on Twitter for more news as it happens.

And say hello to all the great SPONSORS THIS YEAR.

Platinum Sponsor


Gold Sponsor


Silver Sponsor


Bronze Sponsor


	CAMBRIDGE TIMES	Towcon Holdings Inc.

Friends of the Festival


		Clippers
Value City		Grand Cafe

Knitting: Volunteers Needed for a World Record Attempt

vincej — Sun, 30 May 2010 18:03:40 +0000

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR A

WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT!

To celebrate the important history of the knitting industry in the Cambridge area and knitting as a vital contemporary art form, on Saturday, June 19 Artist-in-Residence Sue Sturdy is inviting knitters to attempt to set a new world record for the most people knitting simultaneously!

A team of volunteers will be needed to assist with this event to:

Count people coming into the record setting area (civic square)
Officially witness the record attempt
Provide information and directions to participants
Assist vendors
Assist with on stage activities including a knit fashion parade and knitting games
Help with event set up, teardown and clean up

If you are interested, please contact Sophie McCann at mccanns[@]cambridge.ca or call 519-740-4681 ext. 4367. Full orientation provided.

Join the World Wide Knit in Public Day event on Facebook!!

www.cambridgecentreforthearts.ca

Posted originally on: http://wendyhoo.posterous.com/volunteers-needed-for-world-record-attempt

Do contact Wendy for more information and with your comments or offers of participation.

cheers.

Vince.

Facebook 10, Vince 3, but super-PERSONA comes to the rescue

vincej — Sat, 29 May 2010 23:34:24 +0000

Persona4, the blog/game

I signed up for facebook months ago.

A confusing realm. I have little patience for poorly designed stuff, especially software systems.

Facebook, today, is as confusing to most as back in 1993 when I was designing simulated social networks software for Apple Mac education applications.

Picture this: try explaining Facebook (& more) to people in 1993, and then tell them your simulated netowrk runs on a single computer simply because MOST COMPUTERS were NOT connected to the internet at that time. just TRY!

So in the confusion which now overwhelms me, a veteran “social network constructor”, I give up, Facebook wins.

I don’t understand it’s privacy policy. I can’tmaster it’s mix of private/fanpage/biz page postings/walls/feeds etc.

Let me rephrase that. I WON’T. I DON”T want to , because….

Stubborn
too smart,
not enough time,
not enough interest,
just don’t like the name.

pick whicever reason suits you. Usually with software systems I have about a 10 minute threshold. I do give it my best for 10 minutes to understand the concept as a whole, and if I can’t it’s trashable. I have thrown more software out over my history as a systems administrator for a large design firm than most have ever loaded onto their computers in a lifettime.

I pride myself in keeping a small but efficient toolkit avaialable for producing real results.

To the point:

Facebook has hundreds of millions of people using it.

Many locals have a presence on Facebook, as do some local businesses.

I have spoken to many people who find that facebook for “biz” uses is redundant. There are better means of contact, but it does pose some possibilities for inital contacts which can develop into relationships later.

These days, people with to intereact with you on their most comfortable turf. Seems like a lot of people are comfy on facebook. That is a large audience to leave out of my contacts list.

So….. in all, facebook is too big to ignore, too bloated to master, too messy to deal with as a biz or person, in my OPINION!

I thought long and hard about this…. and here’s my solution. Feel free to criticize it… because I don’t have a clue if it could work… yet.

Objective: to connect with people and friends who may have an interest in my small biz: that of selling and restoring antiques.

Strategy: I will become a persona on Facebook: Vince Jelenic the “Master Restorer of Find Junk”. And I will pepper my PERSONAL page with anecdotes pictures, photos, movies, descriptions and step by steps of what I do in terms of finding junk, restoring it, re-using it, whatever crosses my path on a daily basis. NO form , no structure, just ramblings.

If you want to get to know me as a person, as a business, as a craftsman, wouldn’t this be splendid?

To me it sounds like fun.

And our Fan page (Or Liked page, or whatever flavour it is this week) will continue to auto feed out tweets from twitter about my thoughts, our items for sale on ebay and in store, newest arrivals, etc.

Heck my FAN PAGE will become a FAN of my PERSONA page, promoting the heck out of Vince Jelenic “Master REstorer of Fine Junk”.

So whatcha think, Zany enough to just work?

Planning to start this next week, I hope, so stay tuned. I’ll even muddy up the waters by posting RESULTS of what I see HERE as comments to this post, so Bookmark it now, and come back to visit soon, y’hear

And in case you’re wondering, my PERSONAL stuff? Well a lot of me goes into our biz… but for that real ME side, there’s always a phone, skype, googletalk, email, comments on my blog, or just hunt me down somewhere in our extensive antique builing.

I’ll be happy to shake the dust off of me, wash my hands and extend a welcoming handshake and smile anytime.

Please note: all of the above is ME being ME, this was not written by that other Vince, (the Master one), because he doesn’t exist yet… but from now on, watchit, as I juggle biz, persona, and personal, I might find a Mr.Hyde trickle through occasionally at the least expected juncture.

(ps. the realm of persona research in marketing is a large one, and many treatises have been written. I will acknowledge to never having read one yet… so I’m making all this up as I go, but the general idea of creating an identity which identifies you with your intended audience is a sound one. It can also be a difficult one to pull off well. Plus the “actor” risks losing themselves in the role. One of the major benefits, is that the “role” can be handed off and handled by other, perhaps less busy parties at a later date.

Does sound like a movie soap, I know… but hey, isn’t it a ” wonderful life on Facebook “…. isn’t it?

Cheers.

Vince.

rings nice in all with my italian background too:

from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona

A persona, in the word’s everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. This is an Italian word that derives from the Latin for a kind of mask made to resonate with the voice of the actor (per-sonar meaning loosely “to resonate by side” or “to sound through”).^[1]

The latin word derived from the Etruscan word “phersu”, with the same meaning, and its meaning in the latter Roman period changed to indicate a “character” of a theatrical performance.

Excuse the downtime, we looked everywhere, but it was our ISP after all

admin — Thu, 27 May 2010 07:13:58 +0000

Hi, we’re really sorry for any downtime anyone has encountered on our site lately. Our…. ahem… server farm is very extensive and we had a bit of a ptoblem tracking down the problem.

Turns out it wasn’t our servers at all….. so be happy. It was our ISP at Teksavvy just swapping out a few routers.

YOU can now connect up here (well, you wouldn’t be reading this if we were still down, right? ) as well as ever again. We kinow all our customers here and on eBay are happy to hear this.

And while I’d be happy to have a server farm as shown above…. our REAL server is run off our little office Imac. Does a pretty good job, eh?

And rest assured, we’re on this 24/7 always ensuring our bits are of the highest quality when we can send them out.

Seller, you are a broken link- Venue say thanks.

admin — Thu, 20 May 2010 17:27:31 +0000

I am an independent seller.

I have my own website, and I work hard at promoting it.

one of the reasons I sell on my own website if because I can control what happens here, ensuring my customers get the very best treatment without any of the silly rules some venues have, AND for stability.

I’m here today, was here yesteryear, and will be around a long time.

Our business owns our home, our building, our website domain, our own servers. Unless I get booted off the net, MY website will be here for the foreseeable future.

So….. I have friends who I would love to promote, I trust them, and am happy to forward potential buyers their way. Heck even provide free advertising or mutually beneficial contacts both ways. We, as a business thrive in both cooperation and competition. No problem there.

But some of these “friends” sell on the larger venues… you know the ones, eBay, RubyLane, Bonanzle, Etsy, etc.

So, they promote my stuff, and I’d love to promote theirs, but there’s a glitch.

if I promote their items, or store, I send you to their “venue”.
When on that venue, there are a thousand other stores for you to shop at, so i’m actually promoting the entire venue, not just my “friend”.
If the item they were selling, that I promoted, is sold and gone, well the link ends up on the error or home page of the venue, not their venue store directly, not gain for friend.
If the “friend” leaves the venue, guess where my now “broken” link goes to? yup, home page of the venue they used to sell on. and the search engines have long memories don’t they ?

Thus, our policy is to NOT promote items or stores of our friends on “venues”, but I hate that policy.

Can anyone help on figuring out a way to kinda bypass this rather “ethical” issue I’m having? I want to share, cooperate AND be friendly, yet it is definetly NOT in my best interest as a business to do so, well beyond the simple “competitive” factor some would think.

Tell you what: if you’re an online seller, on a venue, and you promise to commit to that venue for a full 2 years i’ll promote you too? does that sound fair?

Alternatives anyone? please. I need some before my “friends” think I’ve turned “unfriendly”.

Help, comments welcome, brainstorm with me please.

A primer on selling online, what do you think?

vincej — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:04:33 +0000

what do you think?

I was going to write a primer on selling online, then I figured, why not let you write it for me ?

don’t be shy, lots of space below to fill in, the comments area here is quite nice, takes pictures, movies, slideshows, embed anything, have some fun?

Make an OFFER comments from testers

vincej — Wed, 12 May 2010 18:15:22 +0000

With a little help from my friends, I was able to discard a whole bunch of bad ideas quickly…. and our final result for our OFFER system is, I think, quite acceptable. (and now, check out our new MEMBER PRICING scheme, it’s wonderful.

Keep in mind, we have a busy internet presence, and can receive up to 300 emails per day. Having the BUTTON in a comment is good communication for US more than the reader, and I’m sure it’ll help speed up our response time on any questions. It also adds that nice touch of YOU being able to decide whether we should keep this communication PRIVATE or not. Thanks to all — Vince.

Latest iteration shown above.

Whoa, that was cool. Sent a request to some friends to check out our new MAKE AN OFFER system here, and they quickly responded with some GREAT criticism ! — yah, go ahead beat me up folks, I can take it — Cause I ASKED for it

Some great points here which I will think through and attempt to address later today. Fact is life is different strokes for different folks, and the input of those noted below will help me hit that “sweet spot” that much faster.

“execution is 90% of the job”…. so thanks to all here for ensuring I get it “right enough to work, as quickly as possible”.

Ps. feel free to add a comment to this posting, if you wish to add YOUR observations too, I woud sincerely appreciate any and all criticism and ideas.

I love the idea of being able to use communications to more effectively and efficiently serve my customers better. Even tiny steps go a long way for a Bricks & Mortar business like ourselves, who’s really a Mom & Pop trying to take on the Big Guys

To test the system, just use this link here, pick ANY item (all these are for sale), and the full system shows up.

NOTE: it does not get activated on NON-SALE items, such as this “blog post” here.

http://greenspotantiques.com/wp/accents-decorator-items-for-your-home-with-character

have fun, I think I’ve got it down right now.

SiteByJames

@GreenSpotting – Or I guess it’s called Bargaining. Not Bartering. Whoops! – Either way… it’s a good Idea… about 5 hours ago via web in reply to GreenSpotting
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Vince says: excellent point. I’m working on adding our “trading post” button soon. might look like this.

SiteByJames

@GreenSpotting – It sounds like a good idea. The concept of bartering is lost. I did enjoy your article on that concept a while back. about 5 hours ago via web in reply to GreenSpotting
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Vince Says: Glad you liked it…. offers, lowball or not, are still offers aren’t they? Opens the door to the deal.

andotherstuff

@GreenSpotting Done. btw, don’t know if it’s public, but I can see my comment on page (and you may want to clear,I used as suggestion box!) about 5 hours ago via web in reply to GreenSpotting

attheboutique1

@GreenSpotting unable to do so on mobile. Will test later when on pute about 7 hours ago via TweetCaster in reply to GreenSpotting
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Vince says: OOPS, don’t have mobile here… hadn’t planned for it, thanx for head’s up.

darrylkraemer

@GreenSpotting Just tried it out – seemed to work oK. Maybe add a note about “Please enter offer below” to make it more clear. about 7 hours ago via TweetDeck in reply to GreenSpotting
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Vince Says: thanks Darryl, got it. That does sound more pleasing. I think I’m leaning towards making three buttons. Make an Offer, Layaway, and Trade-IN. Perhaps add exact shipping quote. Might have to do this with checkboxes, that should certainly be cleaner… I hope.

Goldyfinch

@GreenSpotting Sounds a good way of accidentally offering to buy antiques? :/ about 8 hours ago via UberTwitter in reply to GreenSpotting
@GreenSpotting I didn’t like having to remove the text. It wouldn’t accept it from a blackberry- must be it can’t recognise its identity. about 8 hours ago via UberTwitter in reply to GreenSpotting
@GreenSpotting also not poss to hold person to offer, so unlike Ebays ability to make someone pay, you could waste SO much time on offers. about 8 hours ago via UberTwitter in reply to GreenSpotting
@GreenSpotting but that’s just what I think… about 8 hours ago via UberTwitter in reply to GreenSpotting
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Vince Says: never thought of it accidental buying, but as you noted, impossible to hold a buyer to an offer, so accidents may happen, but they don’t hurt. I’m not sure I agree with the wasted time aspect of handling offers, even if not binding. Yes, some may be fluffy, but so what. Responding usually only takes a few keystrokes. and I’d rather be busy with flakey offers than not. We’ve been quite successful in counter-offers with many customers in the past. that’s why we want the make an offer system to really work well. We know it means a large increase in sales to us.

benjaminbach

@GreenSpotting ? i dont understand the Q about 8 hours ago via HootSuite in reply to GreenSpotting
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Vince says: SEE ? not only is my make an offer cryptic, so is my explanation….. I see it panned out in the end. thanx.

mommysbazaar

@GreenSpotting you mean you want me to think this early in the am, LOL I will pop over in a few about 8 hours ago via TweetDeck in reply to GreenSpotting
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Vince says: it’s cool… anytime is fine… i’ll be fine tuning this next couple of days, I guess.

SiteByJames

@GreenSpotting – It doesn’t work for me on FF unless I type text into the textarea first. Prefill it and then use a textarea.focus(); ? about 9 hours ago via web in reply to GreenSpotting
@greenspotting – Or move images below the text box, suggest people to make an offer THEN drag the image? It did confuse the way it is now. about 9 hours ago via web
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Vince says: thanks James. I went with the idea of a prefilled text area, but I’ve noted some people still don’t ge it… having to delete buttons is still clumsy, and I have multiple options. Whatcha think about using checkboxes for input? i’m kinda leaning that way.

benjaminbach

@GreenSpotting i clicked make an offer, took me to comments? feel free to delete my comment, didn’t know that was public about 9 hours ago via HootSuite in reply to GreenSpotting
Vince Says: I have to admit, it is a little confusing…. working on that… and yes, i’ll delete comments after done with setups. thanx
And from Cliff: Hey Vince, sending a test offer as per your tweet. Couple things I noticed re: user experience on the page — I found myself clicking the big red Make an Offer button down here in the comments box because I thought it was a magic button of some sort.Especially since I just noticed the Offer button at the very top of the page does link down to here. Idea on that button too, if you can, perhaps you may want to stick one to the right of the price too–it’s not like it’s hiding w/it at the top of the page, but honestly I missed that first time through and was wondering why there was no reference by the price.Oh, one more thing before I was getting ready to click–notice just the “Submit Comment” button below, brought up a couple more ideas: 1) can you change that verbiage to “Submit Offer” and assuming so could you add a second button that reads “Preview Offer” as the single button might make some buyers nervous (might have them thinking “ok, so is this it then?”)As always just ideas, some free user testing for you, take it or leave it as you wish ClifF
Vince says: Ok,a bunch of things there.

click red button in comments because you thought active. — YES, that is what I had expected….. have to rethink…. a button should be active, and in this case might use the “make offer” icon beside a checkbox might help. That way it is informative AND active.
The top OFFER button is a flag. I made it link to the comments area, where you can make an offer, to make it functional shortcut. That part I think still works. Having the Button NON-Active in the comments is the potential problem.
Due to our system, not sure I can place the offer button next to the pay button too easily. Yes can be done, and perhaps you have a good point.. I will puzzle on this one a bit. I’d have to do a “replace” on current listings…. and work it into our database for all future listings, but doable. It would be the most logical place for the offer button, if not the trade-in and layaway.
building “submit offer” button might be doable… but the crux of the matter was I wanted to find easy way to just use WordPress’s built in comments fields to activate this. What you say about a ‘preview” is valid, and i’ll investigate. From what you’ve said, I’m almost leaning towards a pop up lightboxed form which the user can use to send an email directly.

Ok, i’ve kinda digested a lot of this…… have thinking cap on… and hoping for solution later tonight.

update: I’ve reconsidered placement of offer button. I’ve decided to create a bit more “friction” to using it right next to the buy button.We’ve started special member pricing dicount system…. so a signed on member gets 10% off automatically….. if they intend to make an offer there are various points on the page pointing to that option now. In short, I’ve decided either they are ready to buy, right now…. or are willing to make an offer and await a reply. I’ll let the buy button predominate, as our experience is if you put them together offers supercede and indicate an almost automatic push toward offering instead of buying. We don’t mind either scenario, of course, but will keep them slightly seperated.

Sunday morning brings more comments.

Latest: @Goldyfinch jjust say – does it work? I’d love 2 hear from others, I think not… but need data. buttons work, not sure for offer yet 4 minutes agoLatest: @Goldyfinch jjust say – does it work? I’d love 2 hear from others, I think not… but need data. buttons work, not sure for offer yet 4 minutes ago from HootSuite in reply to Goldyfinch

Goldyfinch

@GreenSpotting wouldn’t it just be easier to say “we will accept a sensible offer” ? Rather than a button? 8 minutes ago via UberTwitter in reply to GreenSpotting
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Goldyfinch

@GreenSpotting well, I think its probably quite an issue I can’t use it from Blackberry. Its because it doesn’t show an ip address. 8 minutes ago via UberTwitter in reply to GreenSpotting
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Vince Says: I think that was a good problem you pointed out. We’ve reconsiderd our spam filters and deleted the one we were using. That one did rely on the IP address. We’ve substituted with a simple captcha for now till we can figure out other solutions… very good Catch… I was NOT aware of this issue before. Looks like testing our OFfER system pointed out another flaw in our system previously… Thank you very much.

GreenSpotting

RT @Goldyfinch: @GreenSpotting sorry not to have found it easy…:( – appreciated… any suggestions? I’m all ears.

Some excellent comments arrived from Martin also known as

Goldyfinch

@GreenSpotting In my experience, it doesn’t work. This is a very small country. 5 minutes ago via UberTwitter in reply to GreenSpotting

FineEstate

This Guy @GreenSpotting is working hard on his sites shopping cart…This is not an easy job…I think he’s going to make it…Cool Stuff… about 3 hours ago via HootSuite in reply to GreenSpotting

Here are some suggestions….hope they are useful.

Make offer and layaway form separate and distinct from a comment form.

Vince Says: No, we have decided to keep it within the comment form for many reasons. The most important of which is that it ties the comment directly to a specific item when possible.This is important to us.

Is it possible to have mouse over text appear when a user mouses over your “Make An Offer, Layaway Request, Trading Post. and Keep Private Buttons.”

Vince Says: Good suggestion, DONE.

Have Mouse Over Text Explain action to be taken.

Vince Says: Good suggestion, DONE.

As a new user to your site I have no easy way of knowing what “Trading Post” is.

Vince Says:I think this is done,, i’ve added picture example of trade comment….. but may end up having pointers for “more info” later to the actual pages on our site which explain… as sooon as I can figure out how to lightbox it.

Keep Private: I assure you that this is confusing and may prevent people from buying – Private? To Whom? How Come?

Vince Says: I may be wrong but ‘m leaving it to the client/customer/commenter to decide if they with it public or not.All comments are “moderated” on our site… so private is the default setting. If the comment should be private, we contact the person by email (they filled in email to leave comment)… otherwise we approve it and it goes public. There are cases where even offers (multiples) could thus work in our favour online, or show history offers declined… being creative here.

To cut down on confusion perhaps the links from the product page that suggest “Make An Offer, Layaway Request, Trading Post” should take a user to a form which is specific to one of your buttons actions.

If this is not practical consider changing your prompting text.

Eliminate “Please use the area below for your comments and questions.”

Change: Drag in any button which applies here to – Drag and Drop Your Request To Box Below.

Vince Says: I think our new big red arrow, and new prompt now solves those issues…. let me know what you think of latest rendition It looks like this

You are doing awesome, by the way, and taking on a huge undertaking. It ain’t easy.

Good Luck,

Martin

Vince says: thanks Martin, it’s a tough job but someone has to do it….. somedays wish it wasn’t me

Cheers.

Vince.

Member discounts? how or do you use? Would this work?

admin — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:17:52 +0000

Final result now…

Previous versions

we’ve worked on a “make on offer” system on our website recently, and i’m pretty happy with it now. It’s a simple system, based on WordPress’s built in comment system.

If you wish, have a peek at http://greenspotantiques.com pick any item for sale…. or “browse items” categories…. the button should show up.

Feel free to test and leave comments, of course. eVery page has a comments area.

Now we’re ready for the next step.

We wish to offer pricing based on customer membership.

I.E … if you are a customer, your price is $9 if public, price is $10.

The end result is I want to sell to public at all times, but offer the discount only to registered members at all times too.

guiding principles:

1. site is open to public at all times, all items visible, for sale, sold and blogs. Entire site open to google and spiders.

2. payments is by paypal, and accepts credit card,so no paypal account required, accepts all major credit cards.

3. Make offer system is open to public, no limitations. no membership required.

4. Discount prices are AUTOMATICALLY applied to members, but public will be aware that members receive discount, but payment buttons show public price only. They may, of course ask for discount via our OFFER system, at our discretion

so I’d love any comments or ideas on this.

1. are you using a member discount on your site? if so, how is it managed? Point to your site as example if you like, I’d love to see it in action.

2. Is your site open to public and members for purchases at all times? or do you keep a special area for members only with any special merchandise ?

3. What do you think of the idea , might it lead to confusion if a MEMBER logs in, and sees the price as $9. Next day they pop into sight again, and see the price at $10 because they are NOT logged in…..

(I guess this could be solved by highlighting “log in for member pricing”…. but).

At this time I have ONE live listing testing this. please go to

http://greenspotantiques.com/wp/vintage1950s-60s-gadget-rand-specia…

We have added another test page here at
http://greenspotantiques.com/wp/white-walnut-cupboard-two-doors-and-drawers-1870-ontario-2

You will see the price to public. 20.76

If you register you would see the member price. of 19.76 (just a test)

for this test, I am using

user: dumpygloat

password: dumpygloat

go to the item page first as a public visitor, then as a logged in member…. You will see a slight difference in the payment box.

comments extremely welcome. We don’t mind criticism, ideas, comments, or even hard critiques. We have only ONE aim in this… to make our selling systems better, and perhaps it might help others too.

Always happy to share back with commenters on whether a system works out

nts,

The general idea is this, note the two different prices in the pay button area.

Same retail price is alwa

ys shown to public in all cases.

A picture, is worth everthing above, of course, any comments?

Swell, eBay tells us we meet the grade, we’re POWERSELLERS baby!

admin — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:00:19 +0000

What can be said, except…. cool.

this will not turn our heads, of course, we’ll still continue to provide the great service we always have, whether on eBay, or our own website here. There are great things in store as we ramp up to trying to get up to 10,000 items online this year.

Wish us LUCK…. that’s a lot of work, not even talking about the shipping part

Have fun, drop by, and shop often at Green Spot Antiques.

triple threat, website, ebay AND STORE! Antiques galore

vincej — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:28:14 +0000

Just a quick reminder.

At Green Spot antiques, we BUY antiques, of course, and we love to SELL them too.

We also offer an excellent consignment arrangement for those who have one or many items for sale.

Contact us, we’ll be happy to let you know how we can help you to profitably disperse of all those items you have for sale.

We sell to locals, treasured customers, collectors, and world wide through our websites and ebay stores.

For one low price — $0 you get exposure world wide for your items.

We don’t sell it, no cost to you, ever, that OUR service guarantee.

Contact us now. and put cash in your pocket, or trade-in your items for more great stuff now.

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Make an OFFER comments from testers

Member discounts? how or do you use? Would this work?

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