Bitcoin Forum

I created a website, a craigslist so to speak for bitcoins (sorry for the us centric locations, I will update them if ppl find this at all useful).
 
Please give me some feedback so that we can improve it.
The idea for trading on it is to use an escrow service like clearcoin or another one, depending on how comfortable people feel.  I really think Bitcoin is a good idea and I want to create a place (trading post / classifieds) where people can use bitcoins to purchase with.  I know it might not be useful so I'm willing to take it down if need be. 
 
The url is: http://btcpost.com


Syirrus

I like the idea!

Consider sorting the cities by something obvious:  either alpha by just city name or by state then city.

Cool! Do you plan on allowing "adult" stuff?

Nice and simple. I like it. Your banking on craigslist not accepting bitcoins i presume.

I was considering making such a site myself to complement my feedback website, but have two other sites in progress and just don't have the time to do so.  If you want, we could form a relationship to where people can optionally hook up their feedback profile to their btcpost profile so that they have some rating to back them up.  Let me know if you are interested.

Could you add some Canadian cities?

I'm down with that.  I just thought this would be a good start.  I think the major issue is making sure that ppl feel safe with doing transactions with btc via escrow.

Syirrus

I'm certainly interested in that.  Shoot me an email syirrus@gmail.com and we can chat.

Syirrus

If that is what the people what I'm down.

Hey thanks!  It's not exactly new, but I figure there needs to be something like this so that people can exchange BTC's for stuff.

Syirrus

I hope that CL does accept BTC.  I'm just trying to get the ball rolling the best way I know how.

Syirrus

It's not that the site itself accepts BTC or not. It matters if the people selling things on the site accept BTC.  On this site you will be sure to be willing to accept bitcoins (since that's the point of the site).  On craigslist, odds are that at least today, 99.99% of the people will people you might want to deal with will not even know what bitcoins are.

In a couple years if bitcoins become more mainstream, we won't need this site anymore and can all just use craigslist and other normal sites.  But today, I think this will help people connect. 

I've been waiting for a BTC CL!!!

Why do we need a bitcoin version of Craigslist?  Craigslist isn't centered around a payment model.  Just use Craigslist and post Bitcoin as an accepted payment method.

Like someone said earlier, 99.9% of people on CL don't use bitcoin. 1) The ads get lost in the mix. 2) Some douche bags even flag ads just because they don't understand what you are posting. I don't know how many ads I have made asking for silver or anything other than dollars that have been flagged, not to mention whatever contractor mafia flags your ad if you don't have a contractor's license even if the particular job doesn't even require one by law.

I have yet to have one of my ads flagged and removed since I started accepting bitcoins on my ads. I have referred people to Bitcoin through CL though ;D

As stated earlier, I just want to get the idea (SEO) of bitcoins out there.  That is why I spent some time creating btcpost.com. 

this, at least alpha by city for now, way to hard to look in there to find one city

It just doesn't feel like there are enough BTC users to support a craigslist style site. But it has to be made sometime. I do like that it offers the option to find things in cities near you. Whereas http://www.bitcoinclassifieds.net/ trades can only really be done by mail or electronically.

I think it's better to just continue to use craigslist or kijiji.ca. Just add a mention in yours add that you are willing to accept bitcoin. This is the best way to introduce bitcoin to Joe Average. 

Any other suggestions for the BTCpost.com or should it be pulled?

Syirrus

I think it's a good idea.  There's definitely a market for having a central place to list things for sale in ONLY bitcoin.  Craigslist isn't very usable for bitcoins right now because there's not enough people using bitcoins.  For example, in my hometown in Oregon, there are no results, and in Portland Oregon, there's only one, and it's only an offer to buy bitcoins.  Basically, it's pointless to try and browse craigslist for things for sale in bitcoin.

BUT, you need to reach critical mass.  You need to have hundreds, if not thousands of items listed for sale, in order for the site to grow on its own.  You need to promote the site until you reach those numbers, and you start to see steady growth without promotion.

I would suggest promotion campaigns, such as "I will pay you 0.05BTC for each legitimate ad you place in a separate category on btcpost.com".  If you're not willing to put some incentive (or at least heavy advertising) into people posting on the site, it will not grow and it will not be successful.

if you pull it i'll take the source code :) unless it's opensrc

adult stuff you'll need offshore domains/hosting or excited usa will seize domains/threats like they did cl