I found a bug in the site's definition of "near":
The definition of "near" is probably "closer than the 6th-closest one". Makes sense, better than displaying an empty list, isn't it?
Topic: [ANN] LocalBitcoins.com - a location-based bitcoin to cash marketplace - page 24. (Read 126108 times)
June 13, 2013, 07:04:05 AM
The definition of "near" is probably "closer than the 6th-closest one". Makes sense, better than displaying an empty list, isn't it?
June 11, 2013, 04:36:13 PM
I found a bug in the site's definition of "near":
June 08, 2013, 07:04:00 PM
I'm sorry to say that I've had a foul experience with using this service. 
Many sellers don't respond. For those who do respond:
- When the exchange rate moves unfavourably for sellers (say I buy at $60 and they're now worth $90), they'll ask me to pay "current market prices" even if I had clicked on the Buy button just a few hours ago and tried to arrange a meeting right away. (As you know, Bitcoin has sharp price movements these days.) Or they'll just click on Cancel Transaction without communicating with you, because they don't want to sell for below market value.
- When the exchange rates moves favourably for sellers (say I buy at $120 and they're now worth $90), they'll ask me to pay the price that was shown when I clicked Buy on the site.
the vast majority of them do not have escrow enabled, so it's impossible to pay for them immediately.
What they should be doing is accounting for the volatility in the prices they charge.
Other sellers don't even have the advertised Bitcoins on hand; they take orders and then buy them from Gox/BTCE/et al and charge a commission on top of the brokerage fees. They should state this in their ads.
I think the site would do better with a rule that requires sellers to honor the price they post, for at least 24 hours on weekends and 48 hours on work days. And I think buyers should be allowed to leave negative feedback for any transaction, not just escrow-enabled ones.
Otherwise, there's really not much of an incentive to use this service. With the slight inconvenience of opening a brokerage account, I get
- prices that correspond to current market rates, without the delay of setting up in-person meetings and exchange rate fluctuations
- don't have to pay commissions on top of brokerage fees (for the sellers who don't carry inventory)
- can buy/sell from the comfort of my home computer, without having to travel to an agreed location to do the transaction
- no risk of getting mugged
- no risk of dealing with poor customer service
Many sellers don't respond. For those who do respond:
- When the exchange rate moves unfavourably for sellers (say I buy at $60 and they're now worth $90), they'll ask me to pay "current market prices" even if I had clicked on the Buy button just a few hours ago and tried to arrange a meeting right away. (As you know, Bitcoin has sharp price movements these days.) Or they'll just click on Cancel Transaction without communicating with you, because they don't want to sell for below market value.
- When the exchange rates moves favourably for sellers (say I buy at $120 and they're now worth $90), they'll ask me to pay the price that was shown when I clicked Buy on the site.
the vast majority of them do not have escrow enabled, so it's impossible to pay for them immediately.
What they should be doing is accounting for the volatility in the prices they charge.
Other sellers don't even have the advertised Bitcoins on hand; they take orders and then buy them from Gox/BTCE/et al and charge a commission on top of the brokerage fees. They should state this in their ads.
I think the site would do better with a rule that requires sellers to honor the price they post, for at least 24 hours on weekends and 48 hours on work days. And I think buyers should be allowed to leave negative feedback for any transaction, not just escrow-enabled ones.
Otherwise, there's really not much of an incentive to use this service. With the slight inconvenience of opening a brokerage account, I get
- prices that correspond to current market rates, without the delay of setting up in-person meetings and exchange rate fluctuations
- don't have to pay commissions on top of brokerage fees (for the sellers who don't carry inventory)
- can buy/sell from the comfort of my home computer, without having to travel to an agreed location to do the transaction
- no risk of getting mugged
- no risk of dealing with poor customer service
Pick the guys with -otc records, like me
June 08, 2013, 01:42:00 PM
Feature proposal: discuss/non-binding mode
Currently, the only binding situation is when bitcoins are in escrow. In other situations any party can cancel the deal at any time. So, by default, contacts are non-binding. What is missing is a possibility of contacting the advertiser before fixing the amount and the price. 
June 08, 2013, 12:51:12 PM
oh, wow, 1 week without replies
June 08, 2013, 12:27:36 PM
Goal: to inform the advertiser how serious the contact's offer is, and to force contacts to provide this information
It could be useful if you had 2 buttons for each advertisment:
- buy/sell - binding
- and non-binding - "maybe I am interested"
The reason for the non-binding button is that sometimes people want to ask the advertiser e.g. about possible payment methods, and only then decide whether they want/can trade. (like "do you accept paypal?" ) In this non-binding mode, you have button to enter binding mode - this would fix the price, place BTC in escrow if applicable, and both parties would be reasonably sure that they want the trade. Also, there could be automatic negative feedback if the user enters binding mode and then cancels. And it seems reasonable to enforce non-binding mode for new users , and/or ask them questions "do you really want to enter binding mode?"
To sum up:
- newbie can only enter non-binding mode, then click to enter binding mode, then receive warning
- others can do both non-binding and binding mode directly, without warning
It could be useful if you had 2 buttons for each advertisment:
- buy/sell - binding
- and non-binding - "maybe I am interested"
The reason for the non-binding button is that sometimes people want to ask the advertiser e.g. about possible payment methods, and only then decide whether they want/can trade. (like "do you accept paypal?"
) In this non-binding mode, you have button to enter binding mode - this would fix the price, place BTC in escrow if applicable, and both parties would be reasonably sure that they want the trade. Also, there could be automatic negative feedback if the user enters binding mode and then cancels. And it seems reasonable to enforce non-binding mode for new users , and/or ask them questions "do you really want to enter binding mode?"To sum up:
- newbie can only enter non-binding mode, then click to enter binding mode, then receive warning
- others can do both non-binding and binding mode directly, without warning
May 28, 2013, 11:57:18 PM
Would you be interested in supporting local meetings?
The deal would be that you get people to meet in bigger groups and connect that event with "localbitcoins.com".
For that I would like to put up an advertisement not for "MtGox+5% near the central station" but for "Meetup 27th of June at Higgins hotel in Viña". Of course at these meetups there would also be an exchange opportunity and again it would be exchanges that you would not get a share of, so again let me suggest to question your revenue model.
I would pay for each guest you get me to publicly join my bitcoin meetup (unless you get tons of fake accounts roaming your platform to use up my funds without anybody showing up)
I could imagine all users always getting invited to the closest (time and distance) 3 events and I could imagine paying 10ct. for each user that "joins" assuming 10% actually would show up. I would not run these meetups for profit but I guess some people would sponsor such fees. If this kind of per advertisement fees is still not acceptable for you, please still use your access to local users to push bitcoin events on a local level.
If anything, such a service would get your users use the site more than today.
The deal would be that you get people to meet in bigger groups and connect that event with "localbitcoins.com".
For that I would like to put up an advertisement not for "MtGox+5% near the central station" but for "Meetup 27th of June at Higgins hotel in Viña". Of course at these meetups there would also be an exchange opportunity and again it would be exchanges that you would not get a share of, so again let me suggest to question your revenue model.
I would pay for each guest you get me to publicly join my bitcoin meetup (unless you get tons of fake accounts roaming your platform to use up my funds without anybody showing up)
I could imagine all users always getting invited to the closest (time and distance) 3 events and I could imagine paying 10ct. for each user that "joins" assuming 10% actually would show up. I would not run these meetups for profit but I guess some people would sponsor such fees. If this kind of per advertisement fees is still not acceptable for you, please still use your access to local users to push bitcoin events on a local level.
If anything, such a service would get your users use the site more than today.
May 28, 2013, 03:24:51 AM
also, this needs to be an android app.
May 26, 2013, 07:36:33 AM
Kangasbros,
Is there any chance of publishing location/book data in JSON outside of page html?
Perhaps even something as simple as /country/city/book.json, even in lieu of a proper API.
It would help you guys directly in terms of caching and more importantly allow others such as us to begin utilizing local transaction data. Not to mention those of us who may be interested in running our own localized exchanges using localbitcoins.com for book and escrow services.
Is there any chance of publishing location/book data in JSON outside of page html?
Perhaps even something as simple as /country/city/book.json, even in lieu of a proper API.
It would help you guys directly in terms of caching and more importantly allow others such as us to begin utilizing local transaction data. Not to mention those of us who may be interested in running our own localized exchanges using localbitcoins.com for book and escrow services.
May 14, 2013, 08:17:19 PM
I find it annoying that I can receive bad feedback from someone based simply on the fact they contacted me.
May 14, 2013, 07:34:54 AM
kangasbros,
- latest site does not keep user location, I mean, I go to "Buy Bitcoins", I enter my location, I go to "Sell Bitcoins" it does not remember my location. It does not remember my location when I return the next day... annoying.
- on some browser/platform when I login a white pop up window comes out... browser (mostly firefox) does not remember user credentials inside this popup... annoying.
- listed online sellers/buyers per country contain sellers/buyers from other countries than the one of the user, maybe there should be a checkbox to include them/exclude them, I mean, I could not be interested in buying/selling to someone from the other side of Europe when there is someone near me/which speaks my language.
My 2c
spiccioli
- latest site does not keep user location, I mean, I go to "Buy Bitcoins", I enter my location, I go to "Sell Bitcoins" it does not remember my location. It does not remember my location when I return the next day... annoying.
- on some browser/platform when I login a white pop up window comes out... browser (mostly firefox) does not remember user credentials inside this popup... annoying.
- listed online sellers/buyers per country contain sellers/buyers from other countries than the one of the user, maybe there should be a checkbox to include them/exclude them, I mean, I could not be interested in buying/selling to someone from the other side of Europe when there is someone near me/which speaks my language.
My 2c
spiccioli
May 13, 2013, 02:11:08 AM
is there a way to completely remove an account from the site?
If you go to the edit profile -> bottom, there is a links via which you can remove your profile. However it is not complete removal - your username will stay in the trade receipts, and also the username you will have will be reserved indefinitely.
April 30, 2013, 02:07:17 AM
is there a way to completely remove an account from the site?
April 29, 2013, 01:41:03 AM
Gone back to getting logged out after every session, already cleared cookies/cache, still happening.
We recently made the session cookie age much smaller - now users get logged out much easier. This was done because of security. We might add option to modify this in the settings soon.
April 25, 2013, 08:33:00 PM
Still don't keep BTC in LocalBitcoins.
April 25, 2013, 04:24:27 PM
So many advertised "buyers" who are completely clueless. I have had my funds stuck in escrow for 18 hours the past 2 days due to idiots either not realising they are buying from me and not selling or because they decide not to buy but don't cancel the transaction. So infuriating! 
April 21, 2013, 01:10:00 AM
Gone back to getting logged out after every session, already cleared cookies/cache, still happening.
April 18, 2013, 01:56:45 AM
Now that Bitfloor is gone I had to come up with a new formula. Incidentally I found a way to stop people from trying to snipe me when there is a sudden, momentary dip in the price that caused the old formula to generate a price that ends up being below spot within a few minutes.
Code:
max(max(mtgoxUSD, USD_24h), USD_24h+(1.5*(mtgoxUSD-USD_24h)))*commission
i usually just go (max(mtgox_USD*USD_in_EUR*commission,70) and never sell below 70.
April 17, 2013, 09:45:53 PM
Now that Bitfloor is gone I had to come up with a new formula. Incidentally I found a way to stop people from trying to snipe me when there is a sudden, momentary dip in the price that caused the old formula to generate a price that ends up being below spot within a few minutes.
Code:
max(max(mtgoxUSD, USD_24h), USD_24h+(1.5*(mtgoxUSD-USD_24h)))*commission
April 14, 2013, 08:12:28 AM
I use .
Code:
max(max(mtgoxUSD, bitfloorUSD), USD_24h)*commission
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