How can we improve group buys?

[NCTurner]

How can we make these threads easier something to remove all the reposting of buyers and to calculate the buy would be great, also maybe a forum just for them??? Any ideas?

 

[PChristy]

JMT Gary if we have a forum just for group buys I believe that we would still have the reposting - having questions about said "group buy" always will come up from members at different times and that is ok - I found that running the "Poll" option with the bottle stopper kit group buy helped me alot - If we had something to tally the total of the poll would help also - M2CW
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[TracyP]

There are a lot of tools out there in the various software that we use. Let me investigate it some and I will get back to you on this thread.
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[froglips]

Speaking as a non-Staff person, it can be really tough to figure out where a Group Buy or Lumber Run stands.

One Lumber Run going on now has 83 posts. I can't imagine its easy for Jeff to keep up with it either.

I've also seen multiple threads kick off about the same Group Buy. Heck, I caused one with the neat ruler tape a few months back. There was a prior post and an attempt at a group buy.

It would be nice to know what Group Buys are active and a way to jump in without having to spend a few hours reading through posts. Maybe a Summary Page or something.

Hats off to those who step up and organize them, sure looks like a lot of work.

Jim
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[timf67]

Sounds like the site needs another full-time position as a buyer/purchasing agent! :wink_smil
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[CarvedTones]

I am speaking as someone who asked questions and then made comments and will probably complicate matters by posting again. I PMed someone about combining to get to 5 gallons to make your life easier, yet oddly harder because then you will have to ignore our earlier posts; I will make sure we both edit our previous ones if we do it. There does need to be a discussion, so people can figure out if it makes sense for them, how much they need, etc. What I think would make the most sense is for the orders to be separate. If we could trust everyone not to screw it up, you could share a Google spreadsheet. Another possibility would be to share a Google spreadsheet as read only and have a Google form only to request to be added/removed or have the number changed. Maybe we have similar tools available in the NCWW forum software, I don't know.
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[profunctional]

I have a very practical solution for you guys. We run several group buys at www.gotogroupbuy.com. All the problems you mention have been addressed with their workflow. Here is a short youtube video we made to address essentially what you guys are trying to solve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeeZNQ8TsqU

I can help you guys get started. What do you guys think?

Vincent
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