allurstuff.com/blog

Crosspost Bug

allurstuff — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 00:38:53 +0000

Sorry about the recent crossposting bug. (they’re bound to happen once in a while as craigslist updates their site) It’s fixed now and all the posts that were rejected I’ve resubmitted.

Accounts

allurstuff — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:35:36 +0000

Virtually everything on this site to be done can be done without ever creating an account. This is by design. But for those of you who don’t mind, several additional features open up:

no more confirmation emails (assuming you’re using your account email)
manage all your posts from one page
answer all questions from one page
manage all your search alerts from one page
… ?

So check it out: https://allurstuff.com/my_account.html

And tell us what you think.

Pr0n

allurstuff — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 07:08:31 +0000

Well you know you’re for real when the first porn ad is posted. :-/

So I’ve implemented a “safe search” function. It’s on by default, and can be turned off under the advanced search options. And there is a warning if you happen to be tricked into navigating to an adult oriented post if you haven’t already said “ok” to it. As always, let me know if you find any bugs.

HTML Support / Live Preview

allurstuff — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 23:54:12 +0000

Hey all, I’ve added HTML support to your posts. The following tags are supported:

a, blockquote, br, b, center, code div, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, img, i, li, ol, pre, p, strike, strong, sub, sup, table, td, th, tr, ul, u

and obviously everything else is torpedoed. There is a little tiny bit of a security concern with the img tag, which could allow posters to track by IP address viewers, but craigslist allows it so I’m following their lead. (if you disagree and think it should be blocked, comment below or PM me)

Oh yeah, one more thing… I’ve added a “live preview” feature to the post page. It’s pretty cool – check it out.

Love ya all!
Derek

1999 Bottles?

allurstuff — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:55:03 +0000

Hah! 1,000 in 4 months…..2,000 in 10 days! And 10,000 searches!

Lucky 2,000 was pittsburgh, pa 15203, usa. Search 10,000 was for “furniture”.

Craigslist Categories

allurstuff — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 21:43:50 +0000

We’ve added support for finer-grained craigslist categories. So now you can search for say just “auto parts” instead of “all for sale/wanted”. Conversely, where before you could only crosspost to subcategories of “for sale/wanted”, now you can crosspost to any category of craigslist.

Note that is is still somewhat experimental. If you can’t crosspost to craigslist, please send us an email about it!

999 Bottles of Beer on the Wall…

allurstuff — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 00:20:02 +0000

Or more precisely, 999 unique search locations worldwide! I wonder where lucky 1000 is going to be?

The most popular so far, btw, in order are:

['dallas, tx, usa', 'richardson, tx 75080, usa', 'plano, tx, usa', 'plano, tx 75023, usa', 'new york, ny, usa', 'seattle, wa, usa', 'san francisco, ca, usa', 'plano, tx 75025, usa', 'jacksonville, fl, usa', 'bedford, tx 76021, usa', 'wylie, tx 75098, usa', 'beverly hills, ca 90210, usa', 'fort worth, tx, usa', 'miami, fl, usa', 'dallas, tx 75248, usa', 'austin, tx, usa', 'frisco, tx 75034, usa', 'plano, tx 75075, usa', 'texas, usa', 'garland, tx 75044, usa']

So still very texas-centric (my newly-adopted home state, so no shock there), but others are coming along. Also, we’re fast approaching 5000 searches… It’s pretty neat watching the traffic tick up like this, with all I’ve put into this site.

Check out the location’s page to see it all graphically.

Update: and the winner’s are…

1000^th location: “griffin, ga, usa” (searching for lawnmowers)
5000^th search: “breastpump”

Now, I’m no expert, but shouldn’t that be two words?

And for the statistically curious, the top 5 searches are:

['car', 'computer', 'furniture', 'house', 'boat', 'jeep']

Any requests for other interesting stats?

Search Alerts

allurstuff — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 04:30:05 +0000

So I was going back and forth as to whether or not to add craigslist support to the query alerts. On the “pro” side, it would be an incredibly useful feature. On the “con” side, it could be a bandwidth/database buster if it’s too popular. But in the end I decided “what the heck” and voila: search alerts now notify you of new craigslist posts, as they are created, checked on a daily basis. But I reserve the right to cut down the frequency of the checks if it looks like it’s going to bankrupt us. =P

If you haven’t seen the search alerts yet, check it out. (click the email icon to the right of the search bar) I think it’s the coolest feature of the site, after the actual maps of course!

Lots of changes!

allurstuff — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 23:09:36 +0000

Hey all, I thought i would give a rundown on what’s changed at allurstuff, if you haven’t been here in a while.

From the major-new-features dept, check out the following:

Searches can include data from craigslist. We have the entire db of which CL cites are located where, and we can automatically search the craigslist site closest to you when you search allurstuff. There is a checkbox under the “advanced search” feature that turns this on and off, but it is turned on automatically whenever we have nothing matching your search locally. (there is also a “add results from CL” at the bottom of the search list) CL ads display below allurstuff ads (obviously – post here first! ) and show less information than allurstuff ads, but we do try our best to make sense of CL locations and put them on the right spot on the map for you.
Speaking of CL, crossposting is now much more robust. We support a LOT more of their servers (over 400), and can auto-pick the closest one to you. If you haven’t seen the crossposting feature, it lets you post your ad and your pictures here, and we automatically upload them all to craigslist for you too. Just saving you time…
The advanced search options are also cool. Every search is run through a formula to decide the order all the ads should appear in. But some people may have different preferences (say you live on campus and don’t have a car….distance may be much more important to you than other considerations). Just adjust the sliders and reclick the search button.
Speaking of the search page, check out the “big map” view. Like? Think it’s useless? Let us know.
The search alerts are my personal favorite change. Search like usual, click the email icon to the right of the search bar, and type in your email address. We’ll automatically email you any new posts that match your search, whenever they happen to get added. Very handy if want to jump on some new deal, but don’t want to come and see us every day. (sniff)
Check out the locations page. You can see everywhere anyone’s used the site…

After that, just lots and lots of bug fixes. (over 5000) Keep emailing your suggestions! And thanks for stopping by!

Site Launch

allurstuff — Sun, 20 May 2007 00:02:56 +0000

Hey everyone, allurstuff.com is finally up! For those of you who don’t know me, this started with an idea last summer (that idea being “craigslist sucks”), was the motivation for me to seek my PhD at UTD, and something I’ve put a lot of myself into these past 8 months. So please, go, use it, and for pete’s sake let me know what bugs you find.

Also, I want to say thanks to those who tested for me (esp. those who were unabashed in their criticism), and of course to my investor.

Enjoy,
Derek

P.S. Obviously there isn’t much data available yet other than the real estate information I’m pulling dynamically, so if you’re just checking it out for the first time I recommend searching around Plano, TX for say “house with pool”.