According to overhelming response, it appears that this was clearly erronous strategy for managing the ads. Apologies for everyone whose ads were removed.
http://localbitcoins.blogspot.fi/2013/01/advertisements-mistakenly-removed.html
Topic: [ANN] LocalBitcoins.com - a location-based bitcoin to cash marketplace - page 32. (Read 125889 times)
January 07, 2013, 06:41:19 AM
January 07, 2013, 06:07:32 AM
OK, we implemented the following:
- After 30 days from last login, warning email is sent
- After 37 days from last login, advertisement is disabled.
Well, clearly there was some errors, since we got complaints from real sellers whose ads were real. The problem is that last login is pretty bad indicator - it is possible to conduct the trades without logging in to localbitcoins via the email system etc.
Anyway, we try to put in a better system, and sorry for everyone whose ads were deleted mistakenly.
- After 30 days from last login, warning email is sent
- After 37 days from last login, advertisement is disabled.
Well, clearly there was some errors, since we got complaints from real sellers whose ads were real. The problem is that last login is pretty bad indicator - it is possible to conduct the trades without logging in to localbitcoins via the email system etc.
Anyway, we try to put in a better system, and sorry for everyone whose ads were deleted mistakenly.
January 06, 2013, 09:11:32 PM
Now it should disable the form and display "This trader is on vacation" message.
Is there a way to indicate how long ago the trader was active with all profiles? Last time logged in or last trade?In my area, there are 6 profiles listed but they all have no reviews, I got over 15 (I guess the timestap on those is in a way an indicator of the last activity). One of the profiles seems to have been active last time in August last time if I look at his bitcointalk login. Some people place orders with stale accounts and waste a week or so until they give up and put in a request at a different trader.
At least an indication of last activity would give people a clear view of which ones are stale accounts and which ones are active ones
+1
Maybe remove ads of accounts that haven't been active for more than 1 month?
January 06, 2013, 08:46:41 PM
Now it should disable the form and display "This trader is on vacation" message.
Is there a way to indicate how long ago the trader was active with all profiles? Last time logged in or last trade?In my area, there are 6 profiles listed but they all have no reviews, I got over 15 (I guess the timestap on those is in a way an indicator of the last activity). One of the profiles seems to have been active last time in August last time if I look at his bitcointalk login. Some people place orders with stale accounts and waste a week or so until they give up and put in a request at a different trader.
At least an indication of last activity would give people a clear view of which ones are stale accounts and which ones are active ones
January 06, 2013, 12:19:50 PM
One, very useful feature I forgot to mention for active traders: put your phone number to your profile settings, and you will receive a SMS message each time a new contact or escrow payment is received. For my trading this helps pretty much, because I don't watch my email that well. It helps me respond to the trades more quickly and keeps the customers happy.
January 06, 2013, 10:48:16 AM
Feedback is now enabled for the escrow transactions.
Would be great to turn off ads, not just hide them from the listing.
When I had a trouble with bank account, I flagged vacation mode. But some regular buyers accessed sell ads from my profile page and unsuccesfully tried to transfer money.
Hi, yeah, it should work like this now. Previously it worked the wrong way, only turned off the listings. Now it should disable the form and display "This trader is on vacation" message.
Great, thanks!
January 06, 2013, 10:46:41 AM
Would be great to turn off ads, not just hide them from the listing.
When I had a trouble with bank account, I flagged vacation mode. But some regular buyers accessed sell ads from my profile page and unsuccesfully tried to transfer money.
Hi, yeah, it should work like this now. Previously it worked the wrong way, only turned off the listings. Now it should disable the form and display "This trader is on vacation" message.
January 06, 2013, 10:45:19 AM
...
Also I would like to remind traders of couple of other recent features, which might come handy:
- Vacation mode - turns all your listings on/off. You can set this in the profile settings.
...
Also I would like to remind traders of couple of other recent features, which might come handy:
- Vacation mode - turns all your listings on/off. You can set this in the profile settings.
...
Would be great to turn off ads, not just hide them from the listing.
When I had a trouble with bank account, I flagged vacation mode. But some regular buyers accessed sell ads from my profile page and unsuccesfully tried to transfer money.
January 06, 2013, 10:26:06 AM
Feedback is now enabled for the escrow transactions.
Also I would like to remind traders of couple of other recent features, which might come handy:
- Vacation mode - turns all your listings on/off. You can set this in the profile settings.
- Two-factor auth - recommended if you use the wallet
- Min/max functions in the pricing - for example max(max(mtgoxUSD, bitstampUSD), USD_24h)
We have gotten lots of feedback from the escrow feature, and are improving it.
Also I would like to remind traders of couple of other recent features, which might come handy:
- Vacation mode - turns all your listings on/off. You can set this in the profile settings.
- Two-factor auth - recommended if you use the wallet
- Min/max functions in the pricing - for example max(max(mtgoxUSD, bitstampUSD), USD_24h)
We have gotten lots of feedback from the escrow feature, and are improving it.
January 04, 2013, 06:18:44 PM
Just wondering - why don't you enable feedbacks for escrowed trades?
It has been on TODO list for some time - just that small things keep coming up and I can't keep up with replying to support questions and developing the features at a decent pace.
In fact I thought that feedbacks were already enabled for the buyers, but that seems not to be the case currently. I will try to look at it tomorrow.
January 04, 2013, 06:02:34 PM
Just wondering - why don't you enable feedbacks for escrowed trades?
January 04, 2013, 05:41:42 AM
Bug: I just saw my contact #4080 claiming we were discussing a 56000€ deal. That's not my league. I had it configured to be a 56000CLP deal and as I added € deals later, it must have changed the old CLP deal.
Hi, should be fixed now. Thanks for reporting. The bug caused for some old ads to show wrong currency, if the advertisement currency is changed.
January 03, 2013, 11:06:22 AM
Bug: I just saw my contact #4080 claiming we were discussing a 56000€ deal. That's not my league. I had it configured to be a 56000CLP deal and as I added € deals later, it must have changed the old CLP deal.
January 01, 2013, 08:59:15 AM
Bug:
Working with "Escrow" - I receive my own messages to email, but not buyer's.
Working with "Escrow" - I receive my own messages to email, but not buyer's.
Thanks for the report, will fix ASAP!
December 31, 2012, 05:24:14 PM
Bug:
Working with "Escrow" - I receive my own messages to email, but not buyer's.
Working with "Escrow" - I receive my own messages to email, but not buyer's.
December 31, 2012, 02:23:27 AM
So let's say I didn't print (or write down) the secret/authentication key and did lose my phone. Is the loss of access to the account permanent (i.e., funds gone forever)?
Please consider offering the ability to give an exit address where there is a sane method of recovery if both my phone and the securely-stored authentication code is lost.
- http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Exit_Address
Please consider offering the ability to give an exit address where there is a sane method of recovery if both my phone and the securely-stored authentication code is lost.
- http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Exit_Address
Thanks for the idea again, I will implement it.
I have been thinking also about auto-withdraw-address or more optimal would be auto-withdraw-master public key so that it would offer better privacy.
December 30, 2012, 07:47:23 PM
updated the 2-factor authentication to production. Works with google authenticator.
From the site:
Quote
Important notice
Always write down your authentication key! You will not be able to log in to your account in case you lose your mobile device.
Always write down your authentication key! You will not be able to log in to your account in case you lose your mobile device.
So let's say I didn't print (or write down) the secret/authentication key and did lose my phone. Is the loss of access to the account permanent (i.e., funds gone forever)?
Please consider offering the ability to give an exit address where there is a sane method of recovery if both my phone and the securely-stored authentication code is lost.
- http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Exit_Address
December 28, 2012, 02:46:35 PM
There is always the plausible deniability when you got "hacked" and the daughter that got cancer kind of urgency. Sorry but bitcoin is designed to have you get away with any scam. When I feel like you are earning 100€/day I wouldn't feel save if there were 300.000€ laying around on your servers. If you earn 1000€ per day with 100.000€ on your server, I would feel very confident that you would not risk loosing that business through neither a fake nor a real hack.
I realize the risks and issues, I have been pretty long involved with bitcoin.
The original question was, if you should trust us, and the answer seems to be no. We are not advocating trust towards us in a way or another, if people think that we are trustworthy they can use our services if they want.
We understand that there is possibility for business models which require less trust than escrow & commission (for example green addresses and multisig escrows), but I don't believe in the viability of these at least in the short-term. Our focus and mission is to enable bitcoin economy for the newcomers and newbies. Most of these don't know what is a green address, or multisig, and probably don't care either.
In fact, we removed the "bitcoin address" option from the contact form because it was causing us constant support questions. People didn't understand what the bitcoin address meant, some put the wrong address there etc. We try to make the processes simpler and streamlined so that some day my grandma could by her first bitcoins via our service.
December 28, 2012, 01:38:30 PM
Maybe use the reply times of users and publicly show the average or median reply time.
There is always the plausible deniability when you got "hacked" and the daughter that got cancer kind of urgency. Sorry but bitcoin is designed to have you get away with any scam. When I feel like you are earning 100€/day I wouldn't feel save if there were 300.000€ laying around on your servers. If you earn 1000€ per day with 100.000€ on your server, I would feel very confident that you would not risk loosing that business through neither a fake nor a real hack.
The trust issues are understandable. However I would like to say that we are not in any way anonymous, but a registered company in Finland (and I'm pretty public figure myself as the head of the company).
There is always the plausible deniability when you got "hacked" and the daughter that got cancer kind of urgency. Sorry but bitcoin is designed to have you get away with any scam. When I feel like you are earning 100€/day I wouldn't feel save if there were 300.000€ laying around on your servers. If you earn 1000€ per day with 100.000€ on your server, I would feel very confident that you would not risk loosing that business through neither a fake nor a real hack.
December 28, 2012, 12:09:15 PM
How about at least purging old ads once in a while? I still see the ads that I responded to with no reply more than 3 months ago. It almost feels like some kind of twilight zone. Several ads for my region, but my messages are always is just being ignored, and now I've pretty much given up. Most of them have text that seem too localized to be fake, so I'm not sure if it's just because nobody wants to trade with me.
Hmm weird, if the accounts are not active for one month, the ads should be removed. I'll research the case. If you want to help, send me the ad ids by private message.
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