Transaction Manager Installed!

[Mike]

Today I've installed the first version of our Transaction Manager. If you're a member of some other sites, you may be familiar with how the transaction managers work, and ours isn't much different. Just create a transaction with another member, have them confirm it, and way you go. The primary difference on our site is the fact that we have full transparency here. All other members will be able to view all the details about your transaction, except for private information such as addresses, tracking numbers, etc. In fact, other members can even comment on your transactions in the active discussion thread that will be in our transactions forum.

Please let me know if you encounter any issues with using the transaction manager, and I'll work to get them fixed as quickly as possible.

Please note, that in order to use our transaction manager to track your transactions, you will need to have your mailing address filled out in your account details.

 

[Mike]

Just as an FYI, I'll be making a few changes to the way the Transaction Manager works, in regards to the transaction threads, after it was brought to my attention that the threads could cause some clutter on some pages, namely the "Your threads" page (thank you to @Mechjo16 for bringing this to my attention) and possibly the "What's new" and "New posts" pages too, especially once the site is more active.

So here are the changes that will be made:

• All the automated posts in the threads will be posted by @Sports Card Arena. That's just a user that I created on the site to handle the news feed items, but I think it will work better for the automated transaction thread posts too. This also means that all the transaction threads will be started by that user, instead of by the person who creates the transaction, therefore the threads won't show on anyone's "Your threads" page. This change will take place in the next update, which I plan on installing on the site later this week.
• I'm going to make it so that none of those threads show up on the What's new or "New posts" pages. This change, since it doesn't require additional coding, is effective immediately.

 

[Mike]

Just as an FYI, the Transaction Manager has just been updated. Here are some of the changes, along with bug fixes, that were made tonight:

• Changed the TM landing page - Now, if you're logged in, the main "Transaction" navigation link will take you to your personal transactions, rather than a full list of all transactions. Thank you to @Calsp3 for this suggestion.
• Automated posts made by SCA user - All automated posts in the transaction threads will now be created by @Sports Card Arena, to help keep your own post/thread lists from filling up with posts you didn't actually write. I'll edit the user on all the previously created posts soon, but it will take time since it must all be done manually. Thank you to @Mechjo16 for this suggestion.
• Print page option - There is now an option to print your own transactions while they're confirmed. Thank you to @Eliatack for this suggestion.

As always, if y'all notice anything broken, please let me know so I can work to get it fixed. If you would like to make any suggestions about the Transaction Manager, or anything else on the site, please post those in the suggestions forum.

 

[Eliatack]

For bumps, could we do a short time than 24 hr because if I were to bump right now, I would have to wait until this
time tomorrow for the thread to come to the top again which is a long time.

 

[Mike]

For bumps, could we do a short time than 24 hr because if I were to bump right now, I would have to wait until this
time tomorrow for the thread to come to the top again which is a long time.

The idea isn't to keep any specific individual's posts near the top of the "What's new" all the time, but to give members with threads that may have been forgotten about a chance to revive them while also keeping the quality of the thread high. Members want their content visible, but sites like this need the content on those posts to be worth reading, and especially worth indexing in the search engines. Having multiple 1-4 word posts in a row, that all say basically the same thing, doesn't help sites like this much in that regard.

Important to note that the bump tool doesn't just bump threads up on the What's new page, but also on the forum listing page. On your main topic, for example, you're still sitting on the first page. So, if someone goes to the "Baseball group break" forum, yours is definitely one that they'll see.

Also keep in mind that, for every bump on the site, that's one more person's thread moving down the list. Especially once the site is a lot busier, with a lot more active members, having a shorter bump time will be even more chaotic. On super busy sites, if they allowed bumps just every 24 hours, it could lead to hundreds of bumps per day, meaning an actual thread that's getting replied to could keep getting pushed down the list all day long by threads that might not have had a reply for multiple days.

I think it's a lot more important to be strategic with the time of the bumps, rather than the frequency of the bumps.

 

[Mike]

A lot sooner than I anticipated, but I've been hammering away on the PC for the last 8 hours straight with only a dinner break. Here we go with another update to the Transaction Manager.

Here are the notable changes, along with a few bug tweaks...

• I've added a new Rating overview page. It will show a member's rating totals from the last 12 months, 6 months, and 1 month, plus it will show the last 10 ratings left for that member.
• I also made it so that clicking on the transactions number in member profiles will go straight to that overview page.
• Finally, I also added a new ratings page, which simply lists all of the ratings that have been left for a member. This page has filters to filter by rating, or by the member who left the rating(s). There will be more filters added in a future update for time.

To get a look at what the overview page looks like, check out @grapler135s's overview here:

grapler135s's rating overview

grapler135s's most recent rating history.

sportscardarena.com

You'll also notice that the Overview, Transactions, and Ratings listing are all accessible from each other by the use of a tabbed navigation menu.

Also, in a future update, I do plan on making the numbers in the rating total table clickable, so that you can see all of the ratings there. Right now there aren't filters that filter by date so that's not possible quite yet. Soon, y'all!

 

[Eliatack]

A lot sooner than I anticipated, but I've been hammering away on the PC for the last 8 hours straight with only a dinner break. Here we go with another update to the Transaction Manager.

Here are the notable changes, along with a few bug tweaks...

• I've added a new Rating overview page. It will show a member's rating totals from the last 12 months, 6 months, and 1 month, plus it will show the last 10 ratings left for that member.
• I also made it so that clicking on the transactions number in member profiles will go straight to that overview page.
• Finally, I also added a new ratings page, which simply lists all of the ratings that have been left for a member. This page has filters to filter by rating, or by the member who left the rating(s). There will be more filters added in a future update for time.

To get a look at what the overview page looks like, check out @grapler135s's overview here:

grapler135s's rating overview

grapler135s's most recent rating history.

sportscardarena.com

You'll also notice that the Overview, Transactions, and Ratings listing are all accessible from each other by the use of a tabbed navigation menu.

Also, in a future update, I do plan on making the numbers in the rating total table clickable, so that you can see all of the ratings there. Right now there aren't filters that filter by date so that's not possible quite yet. Soon, y'all!

I appreciate it, good job!

 

[Mike]

Once again, a little sooner than originally anticipated, but I've got anther update to the ol' Transaction Manager installed today.

Here are the most notable changes in this update:

Your status icons

This was something I'd added into Transaction Manager I'd written in the past, but had forgotten about. Next to all of your confirmed transactions, you'll notice some status icons. These icons are meant to represent your actions on that specific transaction.



The delivery truck icon represents whether, or not, you have marked your end as sent if it's a trade, or if you sold an item. The mailbox icon represents whether, or not, you have marked the transaction that you have received your end (or if you've marked it as complete). The hand holding a dollar sign represents whether you have marked the item as paid, in any buy/sale transaction.

The icons will be greyed out if you have NOT completed that specific action, and they will be "on", or orange, if you HAVE completed that action.

Thank you to @zlw1 for the suggestion/reminder to get this added here on SCA.

Links in the rating overview

No doubt most of you have probably seen the member ratings overview page, the top of which looks like this:



What you'll notice now is that where there are numbers other than 0, it is now a link that will take you to the ratings that are represented by that number. For example, if you click the "2" next to the "five stars" and below "6 months", you'll be taken to a page that will show you all of that member's ratings from the last 6 months that are five star ratings.

New filters for ratings/transactions pages

I've added new date filters to use whether you're browsing transactions or member ratings. Along with the other filters that are available, you can now choose to only show transactions created on, or after, a specific date or on, or before, a specific date.



Fixed print transactions in Safari

Finally this update includes a fix for the Safari web browser that makes it so that the "Print" option works as intended. Thank you to @Eliatack for letting me know about that issue.

That's it for now. As always, if you notice any issues with the Transaction Manager, or have any other issues with the site, please let me, or one of the moderators, know so we can work to get it fixed as soon as possible.

 

[Mike]

I wanted to give everyone a heads-up as to some changes that are coming to the Transaction Manager this evening. The plan was to get these installed Friday or Saturday evening but I wasn't able to quite get done everything I wanted to in this update so I was waiting to see if I could finish. I still wasn't able to get it finished on Sunday so I'm just going to push the remainder of the changes until the next update because I wanted to get these out now, mainly for the USPS tracking change.

Anyways, here are the changes you can expect to see starting this evening:

• When you're viewing a transaction, the USPS number will be automatically converted to links directly to the USPS website to view tracking details. Thank you to @zlw1 for that suggestion.
• When you click on "Mark sent", you'll now be given an option to submit the tracking info in that step rather than having to add an additional step to add tracking after it's been marked sent. Again, thank you to @zlw1 for that suggestion.
• The wording for "transactions" has been changed to "ratings" in some places on the site. For example, next to member's posts, and in your profile "popup", it will now say ratings instead of transactions, since the number actually represents the number of ratings you have received instead of the number of transactions you currently have.
• When viewing a member's transaction overview page, you will now only see their latest five ratings, but you will now also see the latest five ratings they have left for other members.

Here's how the ratings, next to posts, will look after this update:



As always, if anyone notices any issues after the update, please let me know and I'll work to get them fixed as soon as possible.

 

[Mike]

This update has been installed, which includes all the things mentioned in the previous post.

Also, I'd forgotten to mention it, but I've also added the "Transaction leaders" blocks to the site. On the forum home page, you'll find the current month's overall transaction leaders. On the site's home page, you'll find the previous month's leaders for each category. Thank you to @Eliatack for the suggestion there.

 

[Mike]

Here are a few more updates that were added just this morning:

• Members must provide a reason for cancellation. This is so that we might easier identify if folks are regularly creating transactions with other members that haven't yet been agreed to, for example. Thank you to @Prosefan1 for this suggestion.
• When a new transaction is created, members will now be automatically set to "Watch" the corresponding thread. This is so you will get notifications when there are replies to the discussion thread, such as if your trade partner posts an update in the thread. If a transaction is cancelled, or once a transaction is completed by both members, the "Watch" state will automatically be removed. You can "Unwatch" these threads at any time using the "Unwatch" button on the discussion thread page.