Soft launch - New website

I may get my hand slapped for shameless self promotion, but it isn't for evil purposes, so maybe not.

The concept is simple: take the car communities CL car finds (or really any listing) and aggregate them onto a single site. Then add in a bit of filtering and sorting. You end up with:

http://www.craigscarlust.org

It was inspired by CL Lust of the day and "Bring a Trailer". It's nothing fancy, it is not to make money or self promote.

It is to help the car community find and keep cool cars.

I'm "soft" launching the site here, because frankly I copied most of the content from the existing threads. I'm still waiting on some of the graphics to be complete, and the look may be tweaked over the next couple days while I get it exactly how I want.

But if you have a few minutes, take a look, tell me what you think. If no one is interested in it, it didn't cost me anything to setup, and it won't cost me anything to shut down either.

If it goes over well, I'll reach out to other online car communities and invite them to participate as well.

Thanks!

I like it, but you should add something to the main descriptions listing where the cars are located so I don't have to click through.

Yea, location listed and an option to filter by location would be nice. Cool idea though.

Yeah maybe offer the option to sort by location too, I'd recommend coordinates instead of place names. Looks good otherwise.

Makes sense, let me see what I can do.

I've added a "Car Hot Spots" link at the top to show where the listing are coming from, I haven't decided if I want this to be a cumulative map or show progression. Still a work in progress.

very nice!

BradLTL wrote: I've added a "Car Hot Spots" link at the top to show where the listing are coming from, I haven't decided if I want this to be a cumulative map or show progression. Still a work in progress.

Oh no, it's all going to be Atlanta!

EvanB wrote:

BradLTL wrote: I've added a "Car Hot Spots" link at the top to show where the listing are coming from, I haven't decided if I want this to be a cumulative map or show progression. Still a work in progress.

Oh no, it's all going to be Atlanta!

Actually Cincinnati is winning.

I should mention that this is a soft launch, and the site is technically live. So if you find a car you aren't planning on buying for yourself, use the submission link and I'll get it on the site.

Also, I'm looking at using some custom fields to display location and if the listing has been sold or removed. I'm planning on keeping the ads and pics up for reference.

Maybe I need to start finding some listings...

"Potentially parked domain" Work filter says no go... whaa waaa

Sky_Render wrote: I like it, but you should add something to the main descriptions listing where the cars are located so I don't have to click through.

came here to say that too. I like it though.

Great. keep it up---

How about daily emails like BAT?

I set up a twitter feed so that it will send out instant updates for each find or submission.

I will look at an Opt-In email digest. I just don't want to spam everyone's inbox.

So are you trawling these websites to list stuff automatically, or do you have to manually enter everything?

Because I've found some entries that are expired. Which is a shame, because I really liked the $2,500 FC with a 5.0 V8.

Right now I am manually finding these and posting. I'd like to move towards using the submission function. That doesn't scale very well, but I want to maintain the quality of listings. So if this site starts getting a lot of traffic I will probably write a small application that pulls all that data to me and gives me a quick approval option and automates the creation of posts on the site.

On that FC... I debating posting it. The ad is "expired" but the conversation around it seemed to indicate that is was still available.

yeah I think the future success depends more on the efficiency and scalability of the idea, more-so than the idea itself.

The concept is great. It's like BaT for the low budget car nuts.

That said... even if you're manually aggregating the data, the first automated fix would probably be a application that tests the viability of the link after it's posted.... so, if it gets deleted or expires, it is removed from your page automatically.

I think the posting of content has to be submissions or your own posting (or a small team of content finders). If it's pure submissions, it may eventually get over run with the same garbage that over runs Craigslist / spammers / etc. The charm of the site is that all the "finds" are something interesting.

My 2 pennies.

would be nice to see more listings per page. Other than that, its pretty cool. Nice job

One thing you might want to put on the Submissions page (and/or elsewhere on the site)... what makes the cut?

Basically you can cut down on what gets fed your way if your target is more clearly defined up front.

What makes the GRM "CL Finds of the Day" posts so interesting is the eclectic nature of the GRM community (I say that in a good way... :) But, what happens when your typical VW Vortex user or Jalopnik'er gets ahold of it? I think it would be a neater tool if it maintains some semblence of all the really odd junk (err.. I mean gold) that's on CL. Maybe you could have submitters include key words, or their own sub-label... maybe that's getting all too complex, I'm just thinking out loud. I guess I'd just hate to see it end up a whole bunch of average "sport" car listings, at which point the truly cool/weird/glorious stuff slips through the cracks.

That said, I'll put some submissions in... as I'm sure plenty of us spend way too much time on CL as it is.

Lastly, in the submission box, do you just want the CL link? Or do you want a bit of a description? why we're submitting... etc. Maybe that would be a good way to alter the submissions page... two different text boxes. One for "why?"... and one for the link itself.

EvanB wrote: Yea, location listed and an option to filter by location would be nice. Cool idea though.

also, this ^ - you cant tell where the car is until you click through. It would be great to filter all results so youre looking only at a specific area/City

Awesome feedback. I'm working on all of your suggestions. Updates coming soon!

Sultan wrote: How about daily emails like BAT?

When you setup a new user account or update your profile you can now Opt-In for daily email updates...

The Pontiac looks to be a snake skin wrap ala fellers sign Supply GTO

this is dangerous as all get-out, a bunch of super car guys feeding super projects into an interactive website that sends out daily updates, all you need now is a mobile app setup so we can get it on the go. Seriously, this means trouble...