xepio — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 19:01:58 +0000

I've considered this problem, but no offensive sites will be listed as stated in the auction. Those people who can change their URL in their control panel also require admin approval before they can change the site URL.

If they slip through the net, I'll remove their link. Easy as.

Aside from that there's not much else than can be done, I'm sure you'll agree. I've not had problems with this so far. Only a few people complaining that their country has be bought already by a foreign company. I guess its true to say that if you snooze you lose.

webmasterdebate — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 21:06:32 +0000

oops, read that wrong...I thought the whole site was for sale Good luck!

Firegirl — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 20:04:38 +0000

I have a scenario for you. I browsed your site, but didn't see any consideration for this. What if I lived in Russia and I HATED Ireland. I buy Ireland and post very, very offensive remarks about their country on it. What if you end up offending someone from another country and, in turn, they want to sue you for the remarks? Here in the US we have laws that protect us from being sued when someone else posts something on our site. But, this is not so for other countries. Do you have anything in place for this? Not trying to poke holes in your hose here (I frankly think it's a great idea), but the situation came up in a conversation I was having with a coworker....Just think about if someone bought a certain country and then put up certain religiously offensive cartoons on it?

xepio — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 17:58:40 +0000

No asking price, just an online auction. Bidding starts at $0.01 and I'm just waiting for the listing to show up on eBay. The direct link is http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120007454048&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1 for anyone who wants to see the final outcome. Add it to your watch list.

Daniel
ownthemap.com

curious....

webmasterdebate — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 17:43:43 +0000

what is your asking price?

xepio — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 17:31:16 +0000

Just a quick update.

The USA is now for sale for anyone who is remotely interested.

I've also added loads of new updates to the design of the site.

It may be worth a look.

Daniel
ownthemap.com

xepio — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 14:53:27 +0000

webmasterdebate wrote: I think this is a cool idea as well. Do the links to the owners of the countries get picked up by spiders since this is flash? I would assume not. That was one of the best things about Alex's site. Good luck!

I don't believe that search engines spider the attached countries through Flash but they do, however, do so via the Countries page and the non-flash page version. OwnTheMap.com has a high PR of 6 too, another beneficial element to having the URL listed.

mayek wrote: 1. I found it confusing that prices were listed in USD but the footnote states that countries are sold in GBP.

The website used to sell in GBP but has moved across to USD to reach a wider audience. All countries from now on are sold in USD so I felt it important for the prices to bear continuity and make it easier for comparison, which I believe I did. Maybe I need to make that clearer though.

mayek wrote: 2. Could the attractiveness of this scheme be increased if by securing a country you enable the winner to not only advertise on that countries space, but they also gain access to a regional map where sub auctions can be held to sell, for example, counties in the UK.

Good idea. I do have a couple of similar ideas in the pipeline but not that exactly. I did, however, want to avoid making the site too complex. I will consider adding this though, thanks.

mayek wrote: 3. On the countries page - the yellow link text on a blue background is hard to read.

I'll work on it, thanks.

mayek wrote: 4. The overall image could perhaps be improved by spending a little extra time on the page header so that the graphics look less like clip art.

Getting a REAL designer on the case as soon as possible.

Make sure you have a look how this week's auctions are coming along. ownthemap.com

Thanks for all of your comments!

Take it to the next level

mayek — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 08:01:07 +0000

Couple of ideas or suggestions that you may find useful:

1. I found it confusing that prices were listed in USD but the footnote states that countries are sold in GBP. Why not try listing in the currency that will be used for exchange and then supply a currency converter tool or link to an existing converter like XE (toolhttp://www.xe.com/ucc/ ) By using a single currency to list and sell you will also allow a greater degree of accuracy.

2. Could the attractiveness of this scheme be increased if by securing a country you enable the winner to not only advertise on that countries space, but they also gain access to a regional map where sub auctions can be held to sell, for example, counties in the UK. This will allow some of your peers to subsidise their own drinking (I mean study) as well - and you can take a skim off the top of any auciton fees generated.

3. On the countries page - the yellow link text on a blue background is hard to read.

4. The overall image could perhaps be improved by spending a little extra time on the page header so that the graphics look less like clip art. Try losing the shadow on the text as well - I think it will have more impact without than with, but I just have a rather conservative view of such things and dont like tacky. I am assuming it is businesses wanting to advertise to students that are your target audience, as well as students themselves.

webmasterdebate — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 03:49:44 +0000

I think this is a cool idea as well. Do the links to the owners of the countries get picked up by spiders since this is flash? I would assume not. That was one of the best things about Alex's site. Good luck!

sema4 — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 07:30:24 +0000

Very neat concept. Looks like a lot of work went into it.
I disagree with color criticisms (unless updates have been made since those posts?)
If you're going to have a screen where you let people put any image they want on there, you are going to have a hard time having any kind of color co-ordination anyways. Midas well give it a unique feel!