Regional Forum

[jennifer]

I would like to suggest a new regional forum for the Asean region (main countries: Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia & the Philippines).

We are at the GTM+08:00 time zone, 15 hours ahead of US Mountain Time, 8 hours ahead of UK time and 2 hours behind Australian time.

Communications with SOL and us were always difficult, because of the time difference. SOL's office hours coincide with our sleeping time.

I am hopeful that a new regional forum would better take care of the needs of the local merchants here, especially since we would be using MSI Singapore as our payment processor.

How do I start this new regional forum?

Note: Asean stands for Association of South-East Asian Nations

[Bethers]

I voted no, but let me explain why.

The majority of what we cover is for all and not handled in regional forums.

But the main reason I voted no is that over the course of the last few years the regional forums we have have been very under-utilized - probably because most of the issues are not specific to one area over another.

If the big area of difference is now the processor in that area, I would be more tempted to consider a room be started specifically geared to issues on that processor - however, there would need to be someone savvy about that topic to moderate it.

Time is an issue when dealing with SOL, but not on the forum - we all help each other on our own time :) - and my first year on this forum, I spent more time here during the middle of the night then during day hours for my own time zone - as that's when I could work on MY business.

Too often in the past, I've seen issues brought up in the regional rooms that really belonged in the topic specific rooms - and might not have gotten answers as quickly, or sometimes at all because of that.

However, I'm open to the idea - would like to hear more people's views - and how they come to them.

[Christine]

I agree totally with Beth.
Jennifer, you might feel isolated at the moment and think that your problems are because of where you are, believe me it has nothing to do with your location.

When you have been with the forum for awhile you will see that many hands indeed make light work. We are all here for each other no matter what time of the day or night.

[jennifer]

Thanks, Beth and Christine for your comments.

Any comments from merchants in this Asean region? Do you want your own forum? I believe there are many merchants here, especially in Malaysia and Singapore, noting that SOL came here for 2 consecutive years (2005 & 2006).

Cheers! :lol:

[Christine]

Jennifer
Anyone can start there own forum, but think about where you will get the members from and who is going to monitor it and work at it, will you be doing all the work?

[abound]

Jennifer
Anyone can start there own forum, but think about where you will get the members from and who is going to monitor it and work at it, will you be doing all the work?
Just in case you're misunderstanding her Christine, I believe that what we call a "room" is usually called a "forum" on other forums. That may be all she means. It's confusing, but that's why Lawrence first championed the use of the term "room".

[jennifer]

Thanks, everyone for your comments.

It's just so disappointing no merchants from my region is posting any comments here. Maybe they are not many merchants from this region after all (I counted about 18 merchants from Malaysia, Singapore & Philippines), or they are just not interested!

[Christine]

Jennifer
Sorry if I misunderstood your intentions. Many may not be posting because they have main jobs or outside interests, or maybe they are sooo busy they don't have time to spend on their PC's like they used to.

If you notice we now have over 1500 members and not many spend time on the forum doing postings. Some do come and have a read just to keep up to date and some learn from the posts, but that is okay because we all know it is of value just knowing it is here.

[Shoshana]

The regional rooms we have are underused and to add another one, more than likely the same thing would happen.

I think the reason for this is that most of our problems are universal. Site engine optimization, problems with shopping carts and customer service affect us all equally no matter where we live.

The Internet is a global community. I use to play bridge on line and my favorite partner was a Chinese gentleman.

Perhaps we should consolidate all of our regional rooms into one and rename it "Regional Concerns" It would be a place for people to post with concerns (like the gateway, bank, and tariffs) that were indeed problems we aren't facing in the United States.

[MariaMenetti]

Jennifer,
Just curious. You did not really clarify if you mean a seperate forum like onlinemerchantforum.com or do you mean a new Asian forum room like

http://www.onlinemerchantforum.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=19&sid=91d0b26683b94ec10dc47f001b493c59
http://www.onlinemerchantforum.com/forum/viewforum.php?http://www.onlinemerchantforum.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=22&sid=91d0b26683b94ec10dc47f001b493c59f=21&sid=91d0b26683b94ec10dc47f001b493c59

I know that those of us in the USA do not fully understand the isolation of those in Asia, etc. However, I think you would be more isolated if you created another forum in place of onlinemerchantforum.com . Shoshana's suggestion of one International room was interesting. But, I don't think it is fair for me to make a judgement call on it as the results do not affect me.

Best to you, Jennifer.

[ExcaliburBrothers]

May,

While I agree it is a good idea as I felt the other regional rooms were a good idea but I also agree that they have been underused for the above mentioned reasons.

I'd say the lack of comment by others indicates they don't feel the need for a room either but that's not to say that won't change. If it does I don't see why a new room couldn't be added.

The good news is that I've looked at your store and you've done a good job with a lot of the on page optimization. Not to say you're done (I don't think we ever are) but you have a wonderful start.

I don't know where you are on the HTML curve but as you learn it and how to customize the template you will be able to do more like indicate the price is red is the sale price on the product list, move the search and browse closer to the top of the navigation, etc. It's almost all been discussed in here but sometimes it's buried and you need to use the search function or go to page 35 of a room. :)

If you can't find an answer feel free to ask and we'll either answer your if we can find a thread that discusses it already point you in the right direction.

Good to have you here. Looking forward to seeing your posts in the Success Stories room. ;)

Lawrence

[jennifer]

Dear Maria


Jennifer,
Just curious. You did not really clarify if you mean a seperate forum like onlinemerchantforum.com or do you mean a new Asian forum room like


A new Asian forum room, that's what I meant - just like the regional forums for Australia aka Up Over, UK - England - Britain, and Canada.

Sorry for the confusion, I did'nt know it was supposed to be called forum room, and not regional forum.

Thanks, everyone!

Cheers!

[jennifer]

Thanks, Lawrence!

I am still new to HTML, depending a lot on my husband's help, unfortunately he is not always available!

I would like to ask one thing: how to I put a strikethrough on the normal price, to avoid confusion why there are 2 prices?

And, it would be really nice to push the search and browse buttons to the top, to be on the same line as my Shopping Cart and Order Tracking, as you suggested! How do I do it?

Thanks so much, Lawrence!

P/s: BTW, My name is Jennifer, not May. I used the word May's House because in Chinese "beauty house" is pronounced as "mei wu" which translated to May's House.

Cheers! :lol:

[ExcaliburBrothers]

Jennifer,

Sorry about the name. My oops. :D To create a strikethrough you would have to edit the page-productlist.html file. The only thing is you can add the strikethrough but it will strikethrough every price not just the ones on sale. I had tried that originally and when it didn't work I added the Reg Price and On Sale labels instead.

If you copied and PM'd me the current page-productlist.html file I could show you were to make the changes but I have to see the file from the backend before it's rendered by the storebuilder to display the pages.

The search / browse feature is in the page.html file for the main pages and the product.html file for the product pages, form.html for the order form, track.html, verify.html and receipt.html for the other misc pages that are seen.

Basically you'd find the area that starts with to and move it to above where it calls for the navigation.html file. Only thing I was expecting to see it in the left bar area and it didn't appear until the footer area so it might have to be tweeked until you get it to display properly. Customizing the templates is possible but doesn't always go exactly as planned so it's hard to say exactly what steps you need to do. :)

The good thing is if you make a mistake and need to delete the file it goes back to the default file so you can never totally mess it up. You've always got the default look. That's why whenever I make a customization that works I keep a backup copy of it so that if I make more customizations and they don't work I can always go back to the last working copy rather than all the way back to the default. :)

Lawrence

[jennifer]

Hi Lawrence

I have added the Reg Price and On Sale labels, and also made the On Sale price "bold" and changed the color to "red". But, I notice, the On Sale price seems of a smaller font than the regular price. How do I fix that?

Thanks!