Monthly Archives: February 2012

What is Audiogon doing about Fraud?

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Shopping online should be just as safe and convenient as shopping at your corner store.   Accomplishing this goal requires a team approach between site administrators and our community members. In this blog we wish to share some innovations which Audiogon has recently deployed to stamp out fraud.  This has been an ongoing objective, dating back to our launch in 1998.  Fortunately, we have better resources today to combat internet hijinks. Our recent system update launched in January of this year had built in security improvements, which are just now being implemented.  Listed below are categories of improved security minus detailed descriptions so we don’t give up our secrets to the “bad guys.”  This isn’t CIA stuff, but it’s close.

1.       We added security validations in regards to new member sign ups, listings, offers and communication in an effort to reduce spam and the creation of fraudulent accounts.

2.       We have strengthened our security flaggings in order to reduce fraudulent activity.

3.       Some members (thank you) raised concerns about malware and viruses originating from third-party links, and these have been squashed.

4.       We have responded to community suggestions (received through posts on the blog) to change feedback scores for new members as no feedback instead of 100% positive. (What were we thinking?)

Our next blog will outline things that community members can do to help us squeeze out the “bad guys.”

Thank you to all the members who consistently provide us with constructive feedback and suggestions.  We look forward to working together for continuous improvement.

Stay posted!

Growing Pains and Moving Ahead

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Think back to when you were 13 or 14 years old.  For most people, it is an awkward time, filled with big changes, big dreams, and more often than not, bumps in the road as one tries to grow.  These growing pains are normal, and successfully overcoming obstacles makes us stronger.  Audiogon is now 14 years old, and we are experiencing some growing pains too as we strive to grow into a more dynamic, responsive, safe, and interactive marketplace.

Despite rumors to the contrary, our ownership has not changed during these 14 years.  The same people who brought you this marketplace in the first place are committed to rescale and enhance it today.  We have been working hard to respond to your feedback, implementing your suggested changes, and in some cases, bringing back features that you missed from our old site.  As good as the old site was, we are confident that the new one will be better, and we are counting on community feedback to continue to help shape it.

Looking forward, we have some exciting updates to share with you this week.

  • New Feature: Friendly URL’s are now live, Your listing title will now be displayed in the URL, friendly URL’s are used to provide more-relevant links to web pages. Therefore your listings will be more prominent on search engine results.
  • We have improved your ability to manage your listings.  You can now easily re-list and sort expired listings by date.

What we are working on:
  • Application Errors-how frustrating, we have been getting these too.  Since our launch in January, search engines have been re-indexing the pages (not just current listings, but past listings) on our site, sometimes creating an overload on the system.  These application errors are a temporary problem (i.e. a growing pain) while this rendering takes place, and we are working with the major search engines to minimize the disruption.
  • On-site Messaging is coming soon.  Protecting our community from fraud and providing a secure marketplace for our members is a top priority here at Audiogon.  We know that our community wants to communicate with one another and our new on-site messaging system will provide a secure venue for that interaction.  We are not trying to monitor your communications with one another or create an enforcement mechanism for sales commissions.  Instead, we are trying to protect our members from fraud.  Audiogon will continue to mediate disputes between members when they engage in on-site transactions, but we cannot be held responsible for communications and transactions that take place off-site.  The community made it clear that being able to message one another is very important, and we are working hard to facilitate this interaction.

What else would you like to see?

We firmly believe that you, our members, are the true reason Audiogon has been such a wonderful marketplace and community for audiophiles alike.   We would like to give you a chance to help drive the direction of the site and are working on a suggestion box so you can easily reach out to us.

  • What else do you want to see from Audiogon?
  • What  would you like to see us doing better?

For now we would love to initiate a broader discussion here on the blog.  Let us know what you think in the comments.

New site features and what is to come.

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We are pleased to announce that Featured Listings will now be more prominent.  The most recent featured listing will now display at the top of each sub-category page, such as speakers.  In addition the most recent featured listings will rotate through the home page, giving you guaranteed homepage coverage.

Launched last week Sort By Category:  Now when you perform searches, your search results will now show the sub category listed instead of classified or auction.   Many of you requested this to better identify the type of equipment listed.  If you would like to sort the results by category, simply click on Category on the column header.

New Members and Increased Site Traffic: Since our launch the new member sign up rate has increased by 20%, our community is growing to provide you with more buyers and sellers.

As we shared our Google analytics results with you a few days ago.  We are pleased to see that our traffic has increased by approximately 10%  since our launch.

Security and Fraud: We have added more security and fraud tools to our systems to better safeguard our buyers and sellers.  As always please notify our customer service department if you see any fraudulent behavior on the marketplace.  

Features You Are Asking For….we are working to bring these to you in February and March.

Messaging System: Many of you have asked about being able to email one another, we are excited to share that we are working on an onsite messaging system that will provide you with an Audiogon Inbox to view messages. We realize the sense of community and communication member to member is very important.  On your listings, you will be able to communicate back and forth with a buyer before you accept a counter or reject an offer.

Listing Management: We are working on advancing our sort features, so you will be able to efficiently organize your listings, expired listings and being able to sort by date and search.

Improved Customer Service:  Our goal is to be responsive to you, and to offer a best in class customer service experience.  We are working on improving this process now and look forward to continuing to improve our service to meet your needs.

Please if you have any outstanding support issues, put in a ticket at suppport.audiogon.com, this is where we will be able to address your issues and get a response back to you.