Let me start off this post by saying that I absolutely love Morphmarket and its forum as well as all the work that @john has put into the marketplace but isn’t there a point to where a site can have too many options? I by no means think there are too many categories or filter options as of now but when I see all the request about subcategories, filter options, and so on I do think there can be a point where too many additions or info to a site can make it seem like a bombardment of info or things to look at and just make it overall overwhelming. So do all of you think the same or differently? interested to read everyone’s opinions and just to rephrase, I think the site is great but i just created this for future consideration whenever updates or additions to the site are being made.
I agree with you on this one, there’s a lot of people requesting that sellers be required to add “X, Y and Z” to ads, and it just seems like overkill. If there’s something you want to know about the snake, just ask. This isn’t Amazon, you’re buying a live animal with its own set of needs and history, some discussion with the seller before purchase should be warranted. I’m a big fan of simplicity, it keeps the site intuitive and easy to navigate.
Exactly. I like the example that it is not like amazon. Every animal is unique and does not always fit into preset categories and actually requires a conversation with the seller to figure out how to best suit the animal. I also think that if just becomes a drag for the seller to post info they wont enjoy the selling and interaction part of this hobby like they should. A hobby should never be something you don’t look forward to doing like adding in every little detail about a animal.
This is super important, because think about the large scale breeders who post dozens of snakes at a time. If it becomes too time consuming, tedious and involved to list snakes on MM, they’ll just pull out and sell on their own sites. They have a big enough reputation to do it. That would be detrimental to the community as a whole, because the main advantage of MM is that there’s tons of snakes for sale, from both big and small breeders, and you can pretty much find anything all in one place. If the large scale breeders pulled out, there would be a lot less available on the site and it would likely draw in less customers, as many would just go straight to the breeder’s website, making it harder for smaller customers on MM.
Interacting with the seller is a key part of buying a snake, and by trying to cut out some of that process, I feel like you’re only depriving yourself. It allows you to get a glimpse into how they run their business and raise their animals. If you message two sellers asking about weights and feeding habits, and one of them sends you their record keeping sheet and another refuses, they’ve made it very easy for you to decide who to buy from.
I agree…thanks
I get that now
Well, there are different things here being mentioned, and we shouldn’t conflate them.
- Categories
- Filter Options
- Ad Options
The conversation started with 1 and 2 but shifted to 3. However, we don’t get many requests for adding to 3. Most of the requests are to promote items in 3 to 2.
So are there too many filter options? Yes it’s getting messy. In fact we have redesigned the filter choices in a way that I think is more organized and it will be released in a day or so. (See below). I don’t think this is much more than I see on other marketplace sites.
Finally for categories, there a few new ones being requested, but they are mostly asking for cats to be elevated, not new ones added all together. There are like 300 cats and subcats, but we just improved that field so you can search through them instead of a just a huge list like before which was a big problem. Elevating categories doesn’t add to the length of that list. However as we elevate more we probably need more structure at the top level.
So as we add more stuff we are trying to rearrange, reorganize, redesign to keep it under control and not overwhelming.
But if you have feedback about one of these getting out of hand let’s be specific because otherwise it’s not a productive conversation.
Sorry if my post was not specific enough but in particular I meant filter options but also if you were required to add additional info for ads by sellers. Furthermore, I was also making this post just for future consideration when making changes to the site because lets be honest, not every single thing that is requested is necessary. This wasn’t meant to sound like I was criticizing so if i came off as so i apologize.
To address issue 1, while I agree it could get out of hand if we start creating categories for every single species, we can avoid getting to that point by emphasizing tags (#) and using them wherever relevant.
For example if we were to tag this thread as “#filtersupport” when you click that tag it will bring up only threads with that tag. This creates category of its own of sorts.
Edit: I now realise this is marketplace specific, sorry my brain is half asleep today 
. I’ll still leave my comment as I would still like to emphasize tags.
Ps. John, that screenshot made me blush 
It looks extremely clean and tidy compared to what it currently is -
