A free website for passing on unwanted stuff to new owners for free

flattea2 said:
A central govt agency could have built this site for 5k.
Click to expand...
I think you may be underestimating the effort involved somewhat.

I've no problem with RPS doing the work. To my eyes it's not hidden or obfuscated that they are involved. I would not expect this sort of web development to be done in-house in any Govt agency. I just don't think it should be done at all when it simply duplicates a pre-existing service.

Ok it provides competition then to existing sites and maybe does a better job. It shouldn't be competing with existing sites. It shouldn't be doing a better job. By using a budget which is not driven by the costs involved you can create the fanciest web site around but it's a somewhat pointless exercise.

http://www.Jumbletown.ie and http://www.gumtree.ie have ads to cover the costs of hosting and maintenance. The lack of ads on this site would indicate that Joe Taxpayer will be picking up that (recurring) bill.
 
A bigger concern I would have is that in a few minutes it is possible to harvest names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of anyone who has registered and advertised on the site. Also passwords are stored in the database in cleartext, registration details are not verifiable, privacy disclaimers are very subtle and there are no clear indicators to people about how public your details really are.

I'm sure some time went into the site and associated app developments but why is security always last? Why do you need to show email addresses and phone numbers ?

PS. I wonder what type of security testing goes into sites like these? Is it verifiable and how detailed is it? I haven't tried any type of test yet but I wonder how it would respond to a full on black hat pen test?
 
Howitzer said:
Ok it provides competition then to existing sites and maybe does a better job. It shouldn't be competing with existing sites. It shouldn't be doing a better job. By using a budget which is not driven by the costs involved you can create the fanciest web site around but it's a somewhat pointless exercise.

http://www.Jumbletown.ie and http://www.gumtree.ie have ads to cover the costs of hosting and maintenance. The lack of ads on this site would indicate that Joe Taxpayer will be picking up that (recurring) bill.
Click to expand...
Given the success of the website in passing on items, and the subsequent savings to those people that have used it, what has been saved is greater than the website costs.
There is scope to carry ads on it to allow the website to pay for itself or even raise revenue. The nature of the ads would need to be teased out but it has been considered.

As an aside, I'm not trying to give the 'site the hard sell and I apologise if it's come across like that. I actually just think it's a really good website and provides a better service than similar ones and I just happen to believe in it. But that's a personal opinion and if no one were to agree with me, so be it.
 
Howitzer said:
I think you may be underestimating the effort involved somewhat.
Click to expand...

I'm a professional internet consultant and web developer and I'm happy to state that a competent agency could turn in a project like that for less than €5k, and there's no reason even an internal over-resourced government development team should need to spend more. In fact, if you really wanted to get it up and running quickly and cheaply, you could do it for the cost of a software licence - which can equate to €0 for free software - web hosting, and a single admin.

These websites get expensive when you bring in generic consultants to do something that's essentially bog standard. There's absolutely nothing innovative about the site, in fact if anything because it's been custom built, it's probably lacking on features available in licenced software. It's certainly lacking in data protection and safety and security, as has already been pointed out.

As you say, this is just another example of Gov.ie spending money on something that's already being done in the private sector. Money that could be spent on a leaking water infrastructure that I'm expected to pay for after I pay for a meter to measure my waste and not theirs.
 
bmcintyre said:
Given the success of the website in passing on items, and the subsequent savings to those people that have used it, what has been saved is greater than the website costs.
Click to expand...
I may not be making myself clear. I don't care if that this is a good site. I don't care that Users have saved money and resources by using it. They would have made the exact same savings by using pre-existing services.

I don't think Govt agencies should be spending any money duplicating pre-existing services. The quality and cost of the new service provided are somewhat irrelevant. It is unnecessary expenditure.
bmcintyre said:
There is scope to carry ads on it to allow the website to pay for itself or even raise revenue. The nature of the ads would need to be teased out but it has been considered.
Click to expand...
This is something of a zero sum game. Traffic which goes to this site detracts from the other sites. Their viability is 100% determined by the revenue they generate. The viability of this site isn't. Putting up some adds to cover a proportion of the cost is a fig leaf. The site won't live or die based on the revenue it generates.

This is a general view and nothing to do with this site in particular.

To be clear, I have no connection to any of the sites I have mentioned.
 
The fact that you can carry out searches based on type of item and location. You can save the searches and you get an alert when an item matching your criteria is posted.
Only the items still available are on the 'site.
The immediacy of the image of the item appearing alongside the ad when you look at all the items available.
The smartphone app.

They're just what I've found better in my own experiences and like I said, it's just an opinion. I'm not stating it as fact that it's the best out there.
 
Class, should rocket when students come back in September. Extra couches are always a good thing.
 
bmcintyre said:
The fact that you can carry out searches based on type of item and location. You can save the searches and you get an alert when an item matching your criteria is posted.
Only the items still available are on the 'site.
The immediacy of the image of the item appearing alongside the ad when you look at all the items available.
The smartphone app.

They're just what I've found better in my own experiences and like I said, it's just an opinion. I'm not stating it as fact that it's the best out there.
Click to expand...

Thats gas, sure any site can do that. There's lots of opensource/low cost licenced software that easily does all that.

And when I said 5k I was being generous. Possibly 5/600 euro on a decent licenced software package - 3/4 days for a designer/developer to skin it up and off you go.

I just really feel this is another example of a complete waste of money. I may actually do an FOI on the costs of this site. Howitzers point about it being a zero sum game are absolutely spot on. The private sector already provide the service.
 
flattea2 said:
Thats gas, sure any site can do that. There's lots of opensource/low cost licenced software that easily does all that.
Click to expand...
I didn't say there wasn't. I just gave an opinion based on my own experience. I haven't mocked yours.
 
Well I didnt mean to mock, apologies if it came across that way. The way you stated the benefits of the site seemed to me to imply that other sites could not do it.

As you've been 'selling' the site to us - can you tell us a little more what kind of work you do on the site?

Also who is the relevant public body that is in charge of the site - its a little confusing to see who from the site - there's no physical address or phone number on the site?

I'd really like to see who got paid what to get this online.
 
I wasn't stating what it does that other sites can't. I haven't come across a site that can, though but that's not to say there isn't one. I've just found it best for reusing stuff in the past.
On the bottom left it says who's in cahrge of the website.
 
bmcintyre - please don't take any of the comments personally - I understand you're just trying to promote a site that you see as useful, and indeed Brendan is the first one to champion it on here ;)

However - Identity Theft is costing the general public millions every year and to see a Government Agency aiding it by providing a poorly thought out site is just criminal in my book.


From the Privacy Policy - Mayo Co Co are the Data Controllers.
"
8. How Do We Protect Your Information
For the purposes of data privacy, Mayo County Council is the data controller of the personal information processed in relation to the Website.
When you provide us with your personal information, we offer the use of a secure server. We have security procedures covering the storage and disclosure of your information in order to prevent unauthorised access and to comply with applicable data privacy law. This means that sometimes we may ask you for proof of identity before disclosing any personal information to you. "
But it's a joke - I have pointed out earlier the I don't think the site looked secure from a cursory glance - right now I know the site is susceptible to Cross Site Scripting and possibly SQL Injection as well.

Flattea2 - let us know how you get on with the FOI request.
 
I'll be putting in an FOI request tomorrow/ Monday. I'll post up the results when I get them. Anything I should add to this?

I request all the costs involved in the setting up and running of the site freetradeireland.ie

These should include but not be limited to:

-Cost of all consultant fees (including the fee paid to RPS Consulting)
-The ongoing cost of consultant fees
-Cost of web design and logo design
-Cost of web development
-Purchase cost of any software licences and recurring fees of such licences
-Cost of hosting the site
-Marketing and advertising costs
-Please also provide details of the costing estimates which would have been made at the initialisation stage.

I also request details of the tendering process detailed as follows:
-The number of, and names of, the companies who tendered for the work
-The pricing quotes which were provided by these companies to complete the work
 
Perhaps also the selection criteria they used to select RPS as the winning tender - that should throw up how their technical expertise was evaluated.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top