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WebWord Weblog Posting Posting Date: December 09, 2002 SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT -- For the last two months I have talked about my secret project. Well, I'm happy to announce that the secret project is no longer secret. Trodo.com has launched! What is Trodo? Simply stated, Trodo is a place to trade stuff. It is a friendly barter system. It is a bazaar. It is place to swap stuff. It is a place to share. It is a place to meet people who have stuff you want. It is a place to find out-of-date and hard to find stuff. It is a place to give people stuff you don't want, and to get stuff they don't want. Trade It On Trodo! Note: Many thanks go out to all of the beta testers. Your feedback was invaluable; please notice that we took much of your advice! Expect more positive changes based on your comments. I extend very special thanks to Adrian Holovaty for his outstanding programming help and friendship.
Reader Comments...
We still have a long way to go, but the site it live. It is such a great thrill to have dreamed up Trodo and then to have it built and launched. I really couldn't have done it without the help of a great programmer. In this case, Adrian Holovaty was my hero. I asked about 20-25 people to beta test Trodo over the last couple of weeks. The feedback was awesome. On the one hand, there were many problems. Fortunately, we expected that. I'd say we made about 10 critical improvements based on that feedback. On the other hand, despite the issues list, there were almost no critical problems. We didn't quite launch on time but we were damn close to my schedule, despite crazy schedules and a couple of major life events. I'm sure that many people are looking forward to my full report on the development of Trodo. Don't worry, I'll get to it over the next few months. I already have 2-3 important articles planned. Speaking of feedback, several testers mentioned that Trodo needed a tagline. At first glance this doesn't seem like a big deal. But, if you think about it, the tagline is critical. And, it isn't just critical for marketing and branding, it is critical for navigation, orientation, and general context. There were many other "small" issues like this that really caught me by surprise. I'll be sure to talk about them as I have time. I'll probably have more to say later today. It is 1:14 AM (EST) and I need some rest. That's all for now. Trade it on Trodo! p.s. One last thing. Right now there are 10 subscribers and 79 items are listed on Trodo. How many subscribers will sign up and how many items will be listed in 24 hours? Any guesses? Posted by: John S. Rhodes on December 9, 2002 01:17 AM
Looks like it's got a chance of catching on, it's eBay without having to deal with cash. Just a couple of suggestions - put a "More about how Trodo works" link in the Instructions box (many, if not most, users will want to read more before joining), and improve the graphic design (sorry, but that logo's dire!). Anyway, I'll certainly be letting people know about the site...
Don't change the logo ! Matt, I really love the logo. It makes me think of playing pool and reminds me of Trondheim (I'ts the thingummies above the letters). Posted by: Mac on December 9, 2002 05:39 AM
Cool beans, John! It's a great idea and hopefully a successful one too. Yes, of course it needs a tagline! (Don't Make Me Think, page 103) I think "Trade it on Trodo!" works well. I definitely agree with Matt's suggestion to put a "More about how Trodo works" link in the Instructions box. The "Learn More" - "Join Now" group of links is common for service websites. I also think the logo has much to be desired. Sorry, but a primary color scheme and a seemingly random icon don't work. Does the icon mean anything? Posted by: Joshua Kaufman on December 9, 2002 09:19 AM
Wonderful. It will be most interesting to watch this service grow.
Don't change the logo! I love the way the site looks, yummie blue links everywhere! Ill register as soon as i get home. Ill email my address book the link as well. Good luck! Posted by: Ryan Ray on December 9, 2002 11:16 AM
Oh yeah, and just a quick issue: the logo links to the home page, even when your on the home page. A simple -- if page = index -- should fix that! Im sure you guys know how to do that but as long as trodo is free, ill help with any php/mysql. Know some perl too but i haven't needed it in a while, a bit out of practice. Posted by: Ryan Ray on December 9, 2002 11:19 AM
Graphic Designer Needed.... Congrats though looks like an interesting service. Posted by: on December 9, 2002 12:02 PM
Why do you need a Search page since it looks like the Search function is present in the Masthead at top? On the Help screen, (which really is more of an F.A.Q.) it might be helpful to let people understand how Trodo makes money. Some folks will wonder why the creators made the site. Posted by: boysen on December 9, 2002 12:21 PM
Two comments: 1. If I understand the system correctly, one CD credit entitles you to someone's CD, one Book credit to someone's book, etc. This presupposes that all individual CDs and books (for example) are of equal worth; this is simply incorrect. Suppose I trade away a rare first edition harcover book worth $50. Now I have to wait until a book worth at least $50 appears on Trodo (and hope I get to it before someone else does), or take a loss. I can't see why someone would offer anything that has any real worth. On eBay, you get money for your items, and money's good no matter what. On Trodo, you have to have faith. 2. This seems to have the potential for the reverse of eBay's fraud problem. With Trodo, you don't get credit for something until the person you send it to gives you feedback. After they've gotten their merchandise, what's their incentive to give you feedback? At least on eBay, you can prosecute for fraud if you send someone money but they don't send you what they promised; what recourse do you have here? Fraud's hard to prove when no money was ever intended to change hands. Don't get me wrong; I think it's a cool idea. Right now, though, either I misunderstand it, or I can't see why I'd post anything there instead of eBay.
Matt, you write: You are missing the point. The value being dealt here isn't money, it's other values. A CD that's worth fifty bucks to someone (a rare bootleg with say Backstreeet Boys) isn't worth a dime to someone else (a jazz aficionado). This also made me think of a thought experiment I do once in a while. What if albums were priced according to their quality? For me that means the vendor would have to pay me money for me to touch a Backstreet Boys album and New Order albums would be infinitely expensive hehe. Posted by: Rikard Linde on December 9, 2002 07:08 PM
Markets are conversations I couldn't find the name of the person/people running trodo. The service is faceless, the site is faceless. The site needs a discussion forum or any other means where the owners and registered users and possible users can discuss the service. Posted by: Hanan Cohen on December 10, 2002 05:23 AM
Excellent comment, Hanan. I can already see many users having the same questions that Matt had above. It would be a great for Trodo to have some sort of forum where the creators and the users could come together and have a constructive discussion. Posted by: Joshua Kaufman on December 10, 2002 08:37 AM
Joshua, Hanan, and others... Your suggestions are excellent. We will probably have a forum set up in about 2 weeks. We already have the software running for the discussion board, but it needs a serious facelift, we need to do more configuration, and we need to seriously test it. Once the discussion board is available, people can go hog wild! By the way, folks will be interested to know that the very first Trodo item was requested yesterday: Rebecca Blood's -- The Weblog Handbook. I'm the owner and I'm shipping it today! Keep the suggestions coming. We're listening. Posted by: John S. Rhodes on December 10, 2002 08:46 AM
Good luck, John!
I don't like that you can't ask for something unless you've offered something in the same category. I'm sure there's a good reason for this, but I'm not seeing it. To me, an old game, cd, book, dvd, all carry the same weight, so why the restriction? Posted by: Thad on December 10, 2002 03:23 PM
There's a site called Makeup Alley that does the same thing with cosmetics (not exactly sanitary, but I guess some people don't mind): http://makeupalley.com/swap/ One good feature of their "swap" is that people can post wishlists for items they want. You can browse people's wishlists, so if you spot something you have and want to trade, it gives you incentive to sign up. Does Trodo have that? If so, I missed it, as might others. I also agree with Thad, above, who thinks you should be able to trade a CD for a book or a DVD for a CD, etc. Posted by: alice on December 10, 2002 03:48 PM
Another suggestion: it would be great if the registration allowed new users to list items later, but still save their name, address, etc. Then, they could come back and list their first items whenever they were ready or when they were required to. I've recommended the site to several people, and at least two of them didn't complete the registration the first time just because they didn't have items ready to list. I think NetFlix does something like this. They save your registration information even if you don't ask them too. You might want to use this as an example to work from. See Design Not Found for 37signals' write-up on this. Posted by: Joshua Kaufman on December 10, 2002 04:15 PM
You might want to ignore anything 37signals has to say. :) But i do agree with that, i diddn't register untill today because i could not remember what I had at home, while i was at work. Posted by: Ryan on December 11, 2002 02:39 PM
LOGO: Ketchup and Mustard. But seriously, I think it's fine. FAQ: My #1 question (and its not in the FAQ). Who says that the person you shipped your stuff to will give you the credit you deserve? FACELESS: I agree with above point! I *ALWAYS* at least SKIM the "About Us" pages (Who are these guys? Where are they located? One dude in his dorm or a REAL company?) Posted by: anthropocentric on December 12, 2002 04:19 AM
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