In order to promote local commerce, Charlottesville launched www.shopcharlottesville.org an online directory of sorts for anyone selling anything in town. It is pretty comprehensive in that you can find most local stores online but the information it offers on each store is very brief. Getting your business name and description is free, but anything more than that requires some sort of advertising arrangement. I can see the Yellow Pages guys turning red in the face…
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Go to that website and it looks nothing like the photo up above.
I know Charlottesville Media. This guy worked with me at another web design company. He knows nothing about this stuff. This new site is crap. Should have left web design to the big boys. Not impressed City of Charlottesville. I for one will not support anything Charlottesville Media touches. [removed by admin]
Is this the REAL darren, whom i reverence above all mankind?
If yes, apologies: before i saw your comment warning us away from their website, i sent in a listing.
Should i try to have my entry pulled, or will the company just fail or the shady owner go to jail before any harm can come of my having given out my shoe-size, etc. on their business-listing form?
businesses are only allowed TEN WORDS to describe themselves.
that seems arbitrary, idiotic, and a strong-arming ad-scam. What the hell difference would it make to server-space if each were allowed a paragraph or two, and what business would be content with only ten words. so this Comprehensive Website lists everyone without asking permission, then leaves their listings blank, forcing them to sign up to amplify what the business does, then forces them to pay money because ten words isn’t enough to describe even a shoeshine stand.
Ten words is practically haiku:
website snarks upon
local news art and drinking
enflames Kyle stalker
There is an unlinked site called buycharlottesville dot org, but you need a password as its just for developers.
@1 When I clicked on the link to go to the site I got a page that looks exactly like the image above. Maybe you got to a different site somehow?
As regards the site itself….it looks to me to be crap. The tag-line is “Comprehensive Online Guide To Every Retailer In Charlottesville.” It is not comprehensive. The first business I searched for, Sammy Snacks, wasn’t there. I figured a local business that makes its signature product in their store/bakery would definitely be listed. Clearly I was wrong on that count. Something about a city sponsored site that purports to be comprehensive but leaves businesses off the site really seems crappy to me. And perhaps a bit shady. Hopefully it will turn out to be a case of the site having been made live before they were done compiling the database and missing businesses will be added quickly and it really will be comprehensive. Then it would just be a stupid roll out of a new site.
I saw they have Charlottesville Players. Isn’t that the Eco Dry Cleaners?
Why can’t sites just post their advertising rates? I’m not giving some sales person my email and phone number.
grr
seems to be about 15 bucks a month for the enhanced listing (logo, website, featurecd products, inclusion in the newsletter, etc.).
Charlottesville Players is a hip-hop clothing store located near Continental Divide. They used to have a fucking amazing commercial that said, “Spend a hundred dollars get a free mix tape…”
Nice facial hair Thursty.
Looks like the City of Charlottesville wasted tax payers money once again. The site gives nothing additional that other sites in the area provide. The local papers provide the same information. As a web designer myself, I find this site unappealing to look at in terms of eye-catching content. Very low budget expression engine programming. Not impressed with Charlottesville Media. Regarding comment #8, this does not sound like a smart company for the city to be involved with anyway.
i suppose my hope reposes in that the alliance between the company, however dubious and inadequate Darren (whom I trust above all men) and yourself indicate it is, and the City will make the website the natural go-to point for this kind of thing? The City’s endorsement lending support to the legitimacy of the whole? One assumes the Chamber of Commerce is behind it somehow, or will get behind it, and the Downtown Business Owners’ Association, and the Small Business Whatever (S.C.O.R.E.)? I can’t imagine anyone in the City would approve funding this thing w/o those three organizations HEAVILY involved?
must say that before i saw Darren’s note and signed myself up for it, it seemed ‘nice’ if not glamourous, if not super-different from other sites as you say.
since though, in follow-up dealings with someone there, i’ve been happily impressed with how attentive-solicitous they are in customer-service and flexibility in the presentation of one’s listing. I’ll be curious to see how it goes. My business is neither known nor successful, and i don’t imagine this will change anything, but it’s nice to have the opportunity to pay to be listed in this year’s Who’s Who in Cville Commerce.
Shame that Spicy Bear couldn’t have snagged this contract with the City first, of course, and replaced MUSE with this potentially lucrative side-venture.
Well, upon some checking I have found out the 3 organizations you listed are not working on this project. The Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Business Owners’ Association and S.C.O.R.E have no hands in the pot whatsoever. This is strictly the Charlottesville Economic Development Dept. I am surprised other companies were not allowed to get in on the bids for the project. Would have been nice if other small web design firms would have been given the opportunity to bid on this project. The opportunity was never made available to anyone. That gives me the impression that there is something underlying there, in addition to the fact that Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Business Owners’ Association and S.C.O.R.E are not involved in the project. Something is not right. My girlfriend is at Cat 4 and she said Charlottesville Media is a very questionable company. Crooked in and crooked out.
people always perpetuate rumors about their competitors, but unless we have actual facts associated with CM, these accusations need to stop, or else I will delete this post.
as above, i trust Darren absolutely (assuming he is the REAL darren)–he has no axe to grind and is miles above any pettiness in his personal or business dealings; so something is or was up if he says it is or was.
Same, though, i must say that all my dealings with the sales-end of the company have been terrific—they are super-friendly, very flexible and very efficient in responses to queries/requests.
it’s a shock that SCORE/CoC/DBOA have nothing to do with it. I wonder though if that isn’t the fault of those three organizations rather than of ShopCville? Orgnanizations—take PCA for example except in their dealings with Kyle whose suasive charms brought them into the fold—are usually sluggish to respond to outreach from the private sector, and usually suspicious and jealous of initiatives not their own.
I don’t know that of those three groups, maybe nobody approached them—i always admired SCORE/DBOA though have been flatly denied assistance from both, and was churlishly refused admission to CoC—but they’ll probably get in on it soon.
Could someone contact all three and suggest this to them by e-mail or phone, please?
To Robbie, below— I’m really happy with what they’ve done so far and the rates (assuming the site does take-off). They plan to do monthly give-aways of products of all retailers who want to participate in that program, and will have a newsletter highlighting companies in rotation.
To Thor—I searched for Cvillain and Spicy Bear and couldn’t find either. Could you le us know when you guys get your ad up on the site?
The site looks plain but well done. Everyone is so critical and ready to bash new companies. Give this company a break. My company will consider advertising on this site as we are on the Mall. There are many sites that give free advertisement, guides, newspapers, etc. This is just another way for businesses to get their information out there. Give it a try fellow retailers.
What’s up with the bashing comments people? Site looks righteous enough. Kind of brown and home grown looking. Yo Belmont, sweet ride dude. Or is that the city’s new media bus? The avatars on this page are kind of creepy looking when you have a buzz.
I have had excellent experiences with Charlottesville Media. The guy that runs it works hard, is responsive, professional, and is a good listener. I would recommend it to anyone. Sound to me like someone lost a contract or two to a hard worker and is now out to slander. Very immature.