Category: All HC Users

As I mentioned, I will be shutting down some of HC functions to keep the site running somewhat well. That includes the calendar, possibly the users on-line numbers, and maybe even the entire left-hand navigation for the calendar pages (including, ‘where are the hyenas’, etc.) If you could, please hold all your technically related questions until I send an ‘All clear’ message indicating that I think everything should be running normally. Thanks again for your patience!

Hi everyone,

The HC server is not happy. I think I’m close to isolating the problem. The main database that tracks most of the traffic, etc. for the site seems to be getting overloaded. To fix the problem, I’m going to have to split that database’s duties among several other databases. Unfortunately, to do that is a sizeable chunk of work and we have a pretty full weekend planned family-wise. I’m going to do my best to get this done tonight, but we’ll have to see. In the meantime, the forums seem to be working okay, but many of the pages on the main site are running very slowly. Also, the calendar is not showing all the stores correctly. I may temporarily shut off some functions of the site so it’s not so frustratingly slow to load. Thanks for your patience everyone!

I’ve just set up a new space on HC called Spots’ Corner. It’s a place to buy and sell used hyena fluff as well as other well-loved kids’ items. Come check it out: Spots’ Corner and tell all your hyena friends! There’s a $5/month charge to be able to list as many items as you like (much like individual HC stores), but to get the ball rolling, I’ve given everyone free listing time until June 30. So come on and list all the fluff you’ve been meaning to clear out.

Also, just FYI, there has never been a policy at HC against selling used items in your stores. However, just so you know, customers do tend to get turned off by it.

Thanks everyone!

Hi all,

Hope you’re having a great holiday weekend!

I did manage to finish up a few minor things yesterday and today:

• The Java uploader on HC Multi has been fixed. It was just a matter of the images being uploaded at 100 px and then displaying at 125 px that made them so ugly. I have gone ahead and set the size of uploaded thumbnails to 125 px. That goes for HC Standards as well as HC Multis
• I’ve cleaned up the way HC Multi handles shipping. It should be more obvious to both you and the customer which shipping option has been chosen. It shows up in the comment field as well as in the invoice table (the latter only works for orders placed since this afternoon). Also, it should identify the correct shipping option every time now. It was a bit haphazard before.
• I’ve added some documentation on the Banner Manage page. A few of you had mentioned that the help link leads you to a site that no longer exists. Banner Manage seems to have gone out of business. So I added some FAQ help as well as links to the Banner FAQ thread on the HC Forums.
• I’ve added feedback links to all the congo stores. The main feedback link from the congo page leads to a list of all the congo stores. In addition, on the one_store pages, there’s now a link to feedback. Remember, if you need to have feedback linked. please respond to this thread: http://hyenacart.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=28941 . Again, many thanks to the forum mods for entering all the existing links. They are awesome mamas 🙂

Have a great holiday!

First of all, I’d like to welcome Michelle of Elemental Muse as the second member of the HC tech support team (the first was me 😉 ). Many of you already know Michelle from her own webhosting/graphic design business. She’s also been helping a lot in the HC Questions and Bugs forum under the username *snowflake*.

With the addition of another support person, I’ve also installed a support ticket generator. What this means is, when you send email to any of the hyenacart emails (support@, karen@, karen2@, and now michelle@), it will go into a queue that both Michelle and I can access to process your request / question. You’ll get an automated reply with a ticket number and we’ll respond to you as soon as we can. I know a lot of times when I email a tech support site and get the “Support ticket #blah” email, it feels to me like, “Yeah, whatever. We’ll answer your question if and when we feel like it.” Please don’t take it this way! It’s just the best and most efficient way for us to organize ourselves and track what questions have and haven’t been answered.

So from here on in, if you have a tech or general HC question, I would appreciate it if you would direct it to one of the hyenacart.com email addys listed above, or use this form to put a question into the queue: http://hyenacart.com/helpdesk/. Conversely, if you have a personal email that you would like to send directly to me, please use my gmail addy at kfegelman at gmail.com .

I am really excited about this new process. I think it will free up my time to work on bugs and upgrades, and also get you your answers much faster. Please give us a few weeks to work out any kinks in the system. If you’ve emailed and not received a reply within 24 hours, try posting in the HC Questions forum: http://hyenacart.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=3 . Sometimes emails do get eaten.

I’ve got the day off work today to do some bug fighting so hopefully you’ll hear from me soon on what got done today.

Thanks!

This one’s a quickie: previously, on the calendar, stores were sorted in order — first the HC Standards were listed by join date, then the HC Multis. I just changed the coding so the stores are sorted purely by join date regardless of whether they are HC Standard or Multi. I’ve also added a drop-down menu that allows customers to sort stores alphabetically. I know some of you have been concerned about dropping down the list after switching to Multi, so hopefully this addresses that concern.

Please let me know if the calendar is acting weird after this change: support at hyenacart.com.

Thanks 🙂

Hi all,

A few of you have remarked that you are getting comments on your store that require a response, but you are unable to contact the customers. I have just added a link to your vendor pages called “View comments” which allows you to view comments to your store and respond to them. Hopefully that’s helpful 🙂 Let me know if anything’s acting weird — I was just doing the code edits but my connection kept timing out and I’m not positive everything went through as it should have.

ETA ~ I also added the ability to delete comments, so you can clean up old ones that no longer require a response.

Also — I added java upload capability for the HC Multi stores a few weeks ago. I’m finding that the thumbnail images uploaded this way do not turn out well, so I’ll be looking into that this week.

Thanks everyone! And happy mother’s day!

Karen

I had forgotten that the HC Standard folks might want a bit more detail on what these new features are. So here are the descriptions of the stocking options in HC Multi now:

The HC Multi Cart offers 5 different ways to stock an item:

• Standard

This is the default stocking method. Items in this method remain in-stock until the customer checks out with them. Multiple customers can cart these items simultaneously, leaving the possibility of overselling. However, this is the only method that allows customer choices and product quantities greater than one. In most cases, Standard listings are the typical choice. The other four methods are used in high-demand situations.

• Hold

With this method of listing, only one customer will be able to cart the item. The item will be held in that customer’s cart for 10 minutes. If the customer does not complete checkout within that amount of time, the item automatically restocks. Pending items are marked “Pending” in the store, with a count down to let other customers know when to expect the item to be restocked if payment is not completed. In general, this is a good option for high-demand items. However, there is a slight chance of overselling if a customer is still in Paypal completing checkout when the restocking time occurs.

• Buy Now

This is similar to HC Standard’s Buy Now-style listing. The first customer to click “Buy Now” is committing to purchase the item. It is immediately taken out of stock. In the event that the customer does not complete payment, the seller can restock the item from the Modify listing view.

• Auction

This option allows you to offer your item by auction. See the Fake Auction for more details.

• Lottery

This is another way to offer a high-demand item. Customers may enter their name to have a chance at purchasing the item. At the specified end time, a lottery winner is randomly chosen from the entrants.

For each of the last 4 options, the buyer (or auction or lottery winner) will be the only customer able to cart that particular item. The customer will then be able to shop the store for more items to add to her cart before completing checkout.

The option to shop without logging in is only available for Standard style listings. All other listings require the customer to log in. Finally, these options do not work correctly with MO or check payment. Payment must be completed via Paypal in order for the inventory updating to work correctly.

Essentially, HC Multi can now do everything that HC Standard does, and more. Once we get all the bugs worked out, I will probably stop offering HC Standard to new sellers, except for congos and stores with several different sellers. Unless anyone thinks otherwise?

Hi everyone,

You know it’s been on my to-do list all year. Well, we finally have lotteries, auctions and Buy Now’s on HC Multi. Auctions and lotteries you’re probably already familiar with. Buy Now’s are HC-standard-style listings that prevent overselling. But, true to HC Multi, they also allow the customer to put more things in her cart after the Buy Now purchase and check out with everything at once.

I’m also working in a Hold type listing, that lets a hyena put something in her cart and basically reserves it for her for 10 minutes, then restocks the item if payment isn’t completed (that’s payment via Paypal, not check or MO). I figure this needs to be a Paypal-only type feature. Hopefully I’ll get the bugs worked out of this in the next few days. ~ ETA: I think this is working now. Please post to the forum thread below if you find any bugs ~

You’ll see new features on your vendor pages as a result of all these changes. I won’t explain them all, hopefully they’ll be pretty self-explanatory. Please post questions here. The Buy Now option also has a restocking feature which allows you to automatically restock an item.

You can see the new features in action at the HC Multi test store.

I also changed the listings a bit so that shipping options are clearly listed for all items.

One other note: I pruned the HC Forums a few nights ago and totally fogot about the feedback forums. So older threads were deleted. I do have them archived. I just need to do some database work to get the old threads merged back into the current forums. I do have it jerryrigged so the feedback links from the stores should reflect even the pruned feedback.

I think that’s all for now. Give the new features a try and let me know how they work 🙂

Hi all,

Just a quick note to HC Multi users — customers can now purchase pattern downloads without registering for an account or logging in. Each order is assigned a unique key which will be sent to them in their order confirmation email and will allow them to view the order page for their order once it’s paid for. Let me know if you have any problems with this.

Also, if you are experiencing any storefronts or HC pages that constantly refresh over and over again, please email me at support at hyenacart.com and let me know what page has the issue and what browser you’re using.

That’s all for now. My next major to-do’s are congo feedback threads and adding BIN, auction and lottery options to HC Multi. Look for these updates in the next few weeks.

Thanks!