• PATRONS: Did you know we've a chat function for you now? Look to the bottom of the screen, you can chat, set up rooms, talk to each other individually or in groups! Click 'Chat' at the right side of the chat window to open the chat up.
  • Love Gotmead and want to see it grow? Then consider supporting the site and becoming a Patron! If you're logged in, click on your username to the right of the menu to see how as little as $30/year can get you access to the patron areas and the patron Facebook group and to support Gotmead!
  • We now have a Patron-exclusive Facebook group! Patrons my join at The Gotmead Patron Group. You MUST answer the questions, providing your Patron membership, when you request to join so I can verify your Patron membership. If the questions aren't answered, the request will be turned down.

Check out the new store - not live yet, but I need your input

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pain

GotMead Owner
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OK! The Gotmead store is here:
http://www.gotmead.com/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi

Go check it out, and those of you inclined, give me feedback, notes, things to change, etc. Some of the products aren't uploaded yet, mainly Jays stuff is up.

But, this is where it will be, so go bang around.

Vicky - who seems to have that 24-hour oogie bug thats going around
 

mouko_yamamoto

NewBee
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Oct 21, 2005
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Hmm, mine isn't lined up right. I think it might be the long string, "Auntie also a huge selection of botanicals...," that is pushing the right boarder far right, so I have to scroll over to see it.

[EDIT]: Yeah, I think it's that string, becuase the rest of the site looks great. Nice job!
 

lostnbronx

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Dec 8, 2004
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On pages with a lot of product listings, like in the Additives section, I'd rather see a longer list on one page, maybe with smaller clickable photos, or even none at all, than to just have a dozen or so items and a link to the next page. I'd rather wait a little bit longer for everything to load, than have to click multiple times -- and then have to wait for the pages.

-David
 

pain

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OK, thats what I'm looking for. The shop isn't live, i.e. it doesn't process credit cards live, so if some of you would place some orders and tell me what you think of the checkout process, I can tweak it. Use bogus card numbers, please.

::taking notes::

Thanks David!

Vicky - getting ready to go shoot black powder muskets this weekend
 

Mynx

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I'm with david, on the list of items all on one page... Nice to see a decent shipping rate to canada as well....is that a flat rate, or will that change depending on what I buy? Tried a checkout, and it all seems smooth, tho you might be able to moosh the shipping and Credit Card info into one page? Saves a click or 3...Other than that everything looks great :)
 

lostnbronx

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Okay, here's some more:

All the headers to the different sections of the store are blurry/choppy-looking. I'm looking at them in Netscape and Opera.

In Internet Explorer, the store homepage looks REALLY bad, with none of the text sentences wrapping, which causes the screen to resize and requires the reader to scroll way over. The other pages look fine in IE, though.

Continue Shopping Button
-- Drops me back to the item I just bought, rather than to the most recent product list that I looked at. Then when I back-page to get to the product list, I have to go through the shopping cart again. This is a pain.

Credit Card Payment Page
-- Should not need to scroll from side-to-side, since there seems to be a lot of extra space here. The Submit button at the bottom of the page is only a link, not a button.

Shopping Cart
-- Should have an easy way to remove an item besides making the Quantity field a "0". Having a check box beside each item that says: "Remove Item" makes it easy when you have to cull your wish list, which is a typical shopping method for many people (pick everything that catches your eye, then chop it down to a level you can afford at the end). A person only has to refresh the page then. Also, you should not have to scroll side-to-side on this page either.

Store Policies Page
-- Typos in the text, as follows (words/letters that are ommitted, but shouldn't be, are in bold):

"Ordering Online

Ordering Online with us is safe and secure!

We employ a method of interaction with our visitors that does not compromise credit card information. This online system is 100% secure.

A note about the Fair Credit Billing Act. Under this act, your bank limits your total loss and cannot hold you liable for more than fifty dollars of reported fraudulent charges. In the event your card is used in a fraudulent manner, you must notify your bank or card issuer immediately and in accordance with its reporting rules and procedures.

We encourage you to feel comfortable using your credit card to conduct commerce on our site. If you wish, you may also send us a U.S. Postal Money Order (only) or a personal checks. Personal checks will delay your order as we must wait for your funds to clear before we ship any merchandise.

Please allow an additional 7-10 business days for the shipping of your merchandise if paid by personal check. To order by check, just print the order form with your shopping cart contents from the order confirmation page and complete the necessary fields, then mail the form to the address above."

Airlock Photos
-- Obviously these are just placeholders, but they illustrate a point MANY online stores miss: make sure your pics are in focus and not too dark. Clicking to enlarge the pictures should make the pic much bigger, instead of just a little bigger.

Privacy Statement
-- Should have a plain statement to the effect of: "We will not share, sell, or reveal any of your personal information to any outside parties except where required by law." Since you're dealing with several different venders, located in different places, you need to clarify that for the purposes of purchasing from GM, these venders are all considered to be a part of GM. Obviously, this means your venders HAVE to comply with GM policies too.


That's all so far.

-David
 

pain

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Thanks guys! Good info all. I'll take it all down in my notes, and start getting in and fixing where I can. Some stuff, like altering the entire checkout process is beyond me. But others, like text, graphics, shipping, etc. I have control over.

Vicky - setting up for tomorrow
 

memento

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Aug 3, 2005
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www.flickr.com
My first comment is one that Dave already mentioned - being able to see all items on 1 page (like yeasts, etc). I'd like to comment more, but right now the site is unbelievably slow - presumably due to my proxy.
 

pain

GotMead Owner
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David,

What version of IE are you looking with? I've looked at it in IE 6.x and it looks fine. Also, what version of Netscape? I didn't test in Opera, less than .25% use it here. Right now, the browser breakdown is:

50.01% MSIE 6
31.77% Mozilla/5
1.50% Python-urllib/1.16
1.28% MSIE 5
0.24% Opera/8
0.20% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible;)

the rest are bots from various search engines. So, I'm programming for IE 6 and Mozilla 5. Beyond that, I just can't make it work for *every* browser, much as I'd like to.

Do y'all think that this will be enough? Its impossible to reach 100% of browsers, so I don't know what else to do except work with my stats.
 

lostnbronx

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Dec 8, 2004
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Vicky,

We're running IE 5.50, Netscape 7.2, Opera 7.54u2, and Firefox 5.0.

Firefox looks fine. All my browsers are old, but I have Windows 98SE, and I can't get some of the latest browser versions to run.

Personally, I feel you should tailer the site, not to the browsers that are currently the most widely used, but to the ones you feel will be the most widely used in the fairly near future. To that end, it looks as though you're doing well. I have some clunky old junk running here, and it isn't sensible to try and be super-inclusive. You'd spend all your time tinkering.

Things are looking good, I'd say!

-David
 
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