Hi Members,
As you may have noticed, much of the Opal Auctions
interface has undergone a minor upgrade in the last couple of days. The
process is nearly complete, and we do not expect any interruptions
throughout the remainder of the upgrade.
All your favorite feature have remained more or less the same, however:
- Feedback Reply
Buyers
and sellers have the opportunity to reply to any feedback. For example,
if another buyer/seller leaves you feedback that you wish to comment on
(whether its a good or bad comment), you will be able to leave one
comment. The other party also may leave one comment. The replies will
be publicly visible on the view feedback page, which is available when
viewing a member profile. Additionally, if you login and click on the
"dashboard" link at the top, the last option on the left hand side menu
will also take you to the page containing all your account feedback.
You will notice that when logged in, a "reply" link is available below
each feedback if you are allowed to leave a reply.
- Navigation
The
links to various account pages underneath the main navigation (where
the home button is) has been re-jigged slightly. You can also see
straight away whether you have any unread messages on the "inbox"
button.
- Dashboard
The
"dashboard" is a new page that summarises your unread messages, item
watch activity, recent wins and recent feedback all in the one place.
We will be aiming to expand on this page in the short term to
consolidate even more of your account info (such as current bids).
Sellers can also see recent sales.
- Close account
If you would like to permanently close your auctions account (in the bizarre case that somebody would actually want to do that 
), you can now do so from your "settings" page. You will be logged out
immediately, removed from the newsletter subscription and unable to
login with your details.
- Blank feedbacks
Blank feedbacks are no longer allowed - all members including sellers must enter something in the feedback textbox.
- Picture descriptions
You
may notice on the item page where the item picture thumbnails are, this
has been reformatted so that each picture may have a description. You
should notice new items actually have a description for some if not all
pictures (if the seller enters anything). The seller can also indicate
if the image is of the actual item or if it is a stock/generic image.
Sellers will utilise the picture descriptions as a way of telling
viewers more about the item as highlighted in the photo - ie. item is
not as bright as photo or notice crack in item shown in this photo.
- Categories and Browsing Categories
When
viewing a category, we have added some extra options to the left hand
side such as price and keywords. This restructuring has allowed us to
remove the price specific categories such as "black opal under $25". To
view such items you can instead simply enter your exact price range on
the left and hit the "refine" button.
Over the coming weeks we
will be unveiling the feature we are most excited about, whereby you
will see new options on the left hand side such as weight, dimensions,
place of origin, ring size etc. Obviously we have quite a backlog of
items to update so the results will be continuously improving. Keep an
eye on the No Reserve opals category which is a perfect test case for
these improvements due to the high turnover of items.
- Gemrockauctions
Our
entire system upgrade will be applied to gemrockauctions.com in the
next week or two so don't despair if you are enjoying a function on
opal auctions that you can't find on gemrock - it will be there very
soon!
- Coming Soon
An
often requested feature from buyers and sellers alike is "report this
auction" and "report this member" buttons on item and profile pages.
This one is in the pipeline. We are also looking to do a tidy-up of the
categories, adding an "all categories" page, and having less options on
the home and "auctions" page.
If you would like to comment on any of these features or anything else on Opal Auctions, head to the forums.
Last Update: July 15, 2008