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Stolen Comic Book site about ready to launch

Started by ivegotneatstuff,

52 posts in this topic

ivegotneatstuff

ivegotneatstuff

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Great idea, props on doing this.

 

Was your FF 49 damaged after he removed it from the slab? If he wasn't a collector he probably wouldn't have bagged and boarded it or treated it well?

 

Actually for whatever reason it appeared to be in the same shape as before..I guess he was careful when he removed it.. (perhaps he looked it up on the internet?)

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ivegotneatstuff

ivegotneatstuff

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Would it make sense to have users receive an e-mail alert whenever a missing book is posted, or is that info provided through the Twitter updates?

 

Whenever a missing/stolen book or comic book art is posted, I immediately receive a email (I'm working on getting a text message to my phone as well... I know that sounds a bit nerdy but most thieves try to sell these things immediately.) - and I am going to be adding a few other admins who will receive the same email, etc.

 

I then log on asap (usually within a minute as I work on the computer for a living) and make sure someone isn't posting spam and that it is indeed an actual comic, that the title is written properly, etc.. and then I approve it and the stolen comic becomes live.

 

The announcement of this is also posted right then to www.twitter.com/stolencomic and www.facebook.com/stolencomic. However, its through Twitter where this site becomes more powerful. If every comic book dealer at a show has this app on their mobile devices..and a comic book gets stolen at Booth A.. then simultaneously everyone at the show knows about it.. and if the thief goes across the show and tries to sell it at Booth B... the potential buyer already knows about it.

 

I am adding more functionality to the site.. like users receiving stolen comic notices if they want .. where they could opt in for that feature.. but as this is a site I'm doing for free.. I'm trying to cut back my expenses a bit..

 

 

 

 

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Buzzetta

Buzzetta

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Interesting concept and a demonstration of your generosity in creating the site. The site's growth and success though is contingent upon the participation and honesty of the community. You are correct in your belief that this site should be promoted through word of mouth and at shows.

 

Stolen slabbed copies that remain slabbed will be easy to spot based upon their serial numbers. I would guess though that raw copies in the 9.0-9.6 range (unless they are keys) would be tougher to trace.

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comicwiz

comicwiz

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The announcement of this is also posted right then to www.twitter.com/stolencomic and www.facebook.com/stolencomic. However, its through Twitter where this site becomes more powerful. If every comic book dealer at a show has this app on their mobile devices..and a comic book gets stolen at Booth A.. then simultaneously everyone at the show knows about it.. and if the thief goes across the show and tries to sell it at Booth B... the potential buyer already knows about it.

 

This is a great idea and it's nice to see your dedication over the years in making the community safer for collectors.

 

The one thing I want to better understand is how the Twitter "alerting" is intended to work.

 

I'd consider myself an advanced user of social media, and I just want to get a better handle on how you are planning your co-branding with social networking platforms to deliver the notification/alerting for your site.

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ivegotneatstuff

ivegotneatstuff

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Interesting concept and a demonstration of your generosity in creating the site. The site's growth and success though is contingent upon the participation and honesty of the community. You are correct in your belief that this site should be promoted through word of mouth and at shows.

 

Stolen slabbed copies that remain slabbed will be easy to spot based upon their serial numbers. I would guess though that raw copies in the 9.0-9.6 range (unless they are keys) would be tougher to trace.

 

This is why high resolution scans are necessary...which is also why we have a 5 mb image size allowance... So people can look for "micro defects" if there is such a word..

 

But if we feel the scans being supplied will not allow anyone to be able to logically identify a book...we might not allow it to be posted..I.e. if the scan is too blurry..etc...which is why we suggest everyone scan their high value books in advance!

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ivegotneatstuff

ivegotneatstuff

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The announcement of this is also posted right then to www.twitter.com/stolencomic and www.facebook.com/stolencomic. However, its through Twitter where this site becomes more powerful. If every comic book dealer at a show has this app on their mobile devices..and a comic book gets stolen at Booth A.. then simultaneously everyone at the show knows about it.. and if the thief goes across the show and tries to sell it at Booth B... the potential buyer already knows about it.

 

This is a great idea and it's nice to see your dedication over the years in making the community safer for collectors.

 

The one thing I want to better understand is how the Twitter "alerting" is intended to work.

 

I'd consider myself an advanced user of social media, and I just want to get a better handle on how you are planning your co-branding with social networking platforms to deliver the notification/alerting for your site.

 

For the moment...we are just using twitter and facebook...but focusing on twitter as they have an app which can be downloaded to most mobile devices...iPads...etc... Which I believe can allow "pushthroughs" to let users know a book has just been stolen..

If the site gets busy enough, we may develop an stand alone app to go with the site so we can do the push throughs ourselves

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comicwiz

comicwiz

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The announcement of this is also posted right then to www.twitter.com/stolencomic and www.facebook.com/stolencomic. However, its through Twitter where this site becomes more powerful. If every comic book dealer at a show has this app on their mobile devices..and a comic book gets stolen at Booth A.. then simultaneously everyone at the show knows about it.. and if the thief goes across the show and tries to sell it at Booth B... the potential buyer already knows about it.

 

This is a great idea and it's nice to see your dedication over the years in making the community safer for collectors.

 

The one thing I want to better understand is how the Twitter "alerting" is intended to work.

 

I'd consider myself an advanced user of social media, and I just want to get a better handle on how you are planning your co-branding with social networking platforms to deliver the notification/alerting for your site.

 

For the moment...we are just using twitter and facebook...but focusing on twitter as they have an app which can be downloaded to most mobile devices...iPads...etc... Which I believe can allow "pushthroughs" to let users know a book has just been stolen..

If the site gets busy enough, we may develop an stand alone app to go with the site so we can do the push throughs ourselves

 

I don't know of a way to "push" notifications in this manner through Twitter. The only semi possible way would involve mentioning all your followers in your tweet, which isn't 100% (as user settings will trump your intent) and will annoy users.

 

Similarly with facebook, depending on each users profile settings, you might be able to push notifications via wall post or a "status update", but if they're anything like me, they'll have their notification settings turned off.

 

Even in the best case scenario, they are hit and miss approaches, regardless of whether its a mobile app or if people are using a monitoring platform on their PC. If it's an interim plan, I would try to move away from the cross-functionality strategy as it may produce more harm than good (i.e. alerting gaps, timeliness, and unapproved consent).

 

Best way would be to develop an alerting feature through the site. Perhaps upon registration, there could be a checkbox which asks each user "would you like to be notified by email of any new incidents of stolen comics?"

 

Shouldn't be hard to develop this feature as it would basically be a rework of a newsletter type of website function, or a notification sent to blog subscribers.

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cheetah

cheetah

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Dang, this is such a great idea, it almost makes me want to go out and steal a comic book from someone just to try it out!

 

Seriously, great idea and a great contribution to the hobby.

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comicwiz

comicwiz

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One wish list feature would be a "Patrol" section, which allows guest/registrant contributions. The Patrol section could be crowd sourced links to stories related to criminal activity in the hobby. A scrolling patrol side widget would then show user sourced stories. Here's an example:

 

PONTIAC: Thief makes off with cash from comic book store.

Story

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