Please critque our site www.guncanyon.com

[Tobzy2p +]

Hello All,

We would like to have suggestions and criticisms on our site please. We've worked on it for about a year now and still have some work to do. We are runnning 4.1.6 Developer.

We are also seeking help to install a shopping cart (we already have a firearm friendly equivalent of Paypal.com plugin comleted and ready to install) and a few very minor polishing touches that a 68 Classifieds familiar coder would probably be the best to help install.

If anyone could recommend a 68 Classifieds familiar programmer to help us out with data imports from our distributors, that would be great. Please let us know if you've had good service from a programmer/coder.

Our Network Engineer is a close friend who is Amazon.com's Network Engineer. We've developed some modules and features that we are willing to share with the 68 Classifieds community once the site is completed and announced, including latest technologies on search queries across multiple databases, multiple image uploading and wave over magnification.

Don't worry about the nature of our product, we are fully licensed, permitted, and incorporated and we strictly adhere to the US Federal codes, as well as the state and local laws and ordinances.

Thanks in advance for your critiques, and please don't hold back on the criticisms and suggestions. We have tough skin and try to look at all the angles.

Thank You!
Barry
Guns For Sale @ GunCanyon.com


.

[BigOrange +]

Nice website! Looks great. Tons of great features. I really like the mouseover photos. Very detailed search... maybe too detailed for me.

Now if you don 't mind a little criticism I have to say that in my opinion there are way too many categories. Looks like maybe 75% of them are empty. I think it clutters up an otherwise well thought out website. It also makes your search page cumbersome to narrow your search by having to select from so many categories. You could have got by with a half dozen main categories and a few subs in each one. Extra fields should have been used for manufacture names instead of categories to cut down on the number of categories. It takes way to much jumping in and out of different categories when all you want to do is look a a list of say, shotguns on your website. If I want to narrow my search to one brand I will select the brand from an extra field on the search page. Having main categories with names like: "1911 Pistol Copies (non-Colt)" makes no sense to me.

To me the categories should be more like:
Main category- Shotguns
Sub categories- Pump, Auto, Bolt action, etc.
Then if what I'm looking for is shotguns I can easily find them without going in an out of each and every category dedicated to to just one brand.

Where are your featured listings in showlistings.tpl? I see nothing that distinguishes featured listings from regular listings. Maybe I just failed to see them. If I were considering listing on your website I would not pay extra to just get a random featured listing on the home page. I would want to see my listing at the top of the category where I posted my item.

Bottom line is you have a great looking website that has great features. Only problems I see are related to it being more user friendly.

[bowers01 +]

Good layout with good features but i think the text in the top menu is too large, and the red around the search could use some work. It just doesnt look right.
Nick

[Tobzy2p +]

Thanks a bunch guys for your compliments, help and input. Much appreciated. It's inspiring to us amateurs.

At the request of some of the older collectors, we made the font sizes on the home page slightly larger for older eyes. :-)

I'm trying to figure out where I change the large font size on the home page where it says "FEATURED LISTINGS." Anyone know where that file is?

The idea of reducing the manufacture categories is a good one and a tough one. If sellers don't see the category where their less-than-popular make of firearm is listed, they may not go forward with listing it. If you notice on the left menu, we've listed the Top Categories that are heavily populated, mostly with the most common manufacture listings. Also, the distributor import script that runs nightly is going to be looking for the proper manufacture category to place the fresh model listings. I'll speak with my coder (I call him The Weapon) to see what we can do about simplifying and better organizing the clutter.

Can anyone suggest a good 68 Classifieds familiar coder that can install a shopping cart and help us with the fee schedule implementation? We have a mirror test/practice site set up if anyone wants to give it a shot? We are willing to pay for and/or barter for this help.

Thanks again,
Barry
Guns For Sale @ GunCanyon.com

[seymourjames +]

Sorry to be critical but the menu looks broken in safari. The search bar looks like it has jagged edges as opposed to rounded edges. Also the words appear to squashed in the menu tabs. The barely fit.

[Tobzy2p +]

Originally Posted by seymourjames

Sorry to be critical but the menu looks broken in safari. The search bar looks like it has jagged edges as opposed to rounded edges. Also the words appear to squashed in the menu tabs. The barely fit.

Thanks for the head's up on Safari.We configured for Firefox, IE 7, and AOL. This is a good suggestion for fine tuning, thank you!

[Bronxgodzilla +]

Originally Posted by BigOrange

If I want to narrow my search to one brand I will select the brand from an extra field on the search page. Having main categories with names like: "1911 Pistol Copies (non-Colt)" makes no sense to me.

Hi BigO
Thought I'd just say the above cats which make no sense to you (or other non-firearm users) are specialized statements intended for the actual target market, Firearms Sportsmen and Collectors, who totally understand what the terms mean and would be galvanized by them.

In fact, the biggest problem with Firearms in a classified selling machine like the Internet, is there are hundreds of crossover models and manufacturers, and years. The long hard route is the one taken by Tobz2p here, because without very intense re-programming, the 68C family of tools leaves little recourse to adequately express the industry's needs. Secondly, it is very cumbersome to go into a million categories in order to do a search -- another problem with 68C here. What is needed, and what cost me mucho moolah to perfect, was a true total search of the entire system, without ever having to select a category or parent/child extra field. But it is costly and is a custom install, not "plug and play" (else I'd be selling it to everybody). In my humble opinion, 68C is most ideal for many industries, but one with tons of categories needs important mods to be financially adaptable and renumerative.

You make very good suggestions, otherwise.

BarryG

[seymourjames +]

Same problem in all browsers and not just safari. The graphics do not look sharp.