Thread: Mallorca Bargains

Mallorca Bargains

Mallorca Bargains is pretty 'plain-jane' but will hopefully 'do the business'.

It's designed to be exclusive to Mallorca in Spain and if you come in from anywhere other than Spain to http://mallorcabargains.com [note no sub folder in path of /mbc ] then you'll get sent off to a special page or get just a blank one.

This IP redirect if not a Spanish IP will first of all cut out a lot of potentially 'mischievous' people from other countries but also it is being extended to the posting sequence when I get time to code it. In other words if your IP is not the right place you don't get to post an ad. It's a local site for local folks only. But this redirection technique will hopefully have the added bonus of cutting down on the bum-posters.

All comments welcome - many thanks for looking.

i live in Murcia, mainland Spain and all i get is a white screen,

Ah, good - if you see what I mean. I'm now trying to restrict the IP access to just the Balearics but had no way of testing it. Your response shows that it seems to be working - at least for Murcia. If you would be kind enough to look at the site to comment just type in the regular URI http://mallorcabargains.com but add the subdirectory /mbc after it.

Thanks and best wishes, Peter.

I have tried using a proxy to access your site and it gives me the "Whoops Message" and so I guess your redirect is working right.

Thanks jomarkosabel - I guess it must be.

Did you gain access when you typed in the /mbc at the of the name.dot.com ??

In other words mallorcabargains followed by .com/mbc [no space in between, of course]

Yes, I could access your classipress site.

Thanks - I'm obliged to you. Things seem to be working as they should.

care to share how you did that ? could really also need a filter like that

I don't get it, man. you want to restrict the ad posting to Mallorca residents and visitors fair enough, but blocking the rest of humanity from even having a look for the sake of a few troublemakers doesn't make a lot of sense to me. you're hurting your traffic stats and quite possibly SE results. what about the outsiders who are planning to visit or relocate to Marlocca? if you do get ratbags can you not block just them instead of all and sundry?

Hi spymare and valance:

Thanks for your interest; can I respond to your points separately?

Spymare: It's a simple PHP HTTP AGENT script that goes in the root. No doubt you could write your own; this one is done for you. Unfortunately not free but, in my view, well worth it. Get it here: php-solutions.com IP Detect

valance:

Mallorca Bargains is a local flea-market online. It is an agent between people who wish to swap/sell products or services, usually of lower value, between themselves; in itself it is not selling anything, it is a local service - virtually free.

Google only needs to display its link to the site when folks type in the domain name. Experience has shown very little SEO is needed there if the name is distinct enough. Availability of appropriate dot com domain names these days ensures that's a given. People will 'discover' Mallorca Bargains by word of mouth and a small [cheapest] daily advert in the local English language newspaper. Regretfully English speakers have a tendency to expect that the rest of the world will learn English to communicate with them. This means when abroad in a non-English speaking country they precipitate into compact social groups and communities; the 'word', whatever it is, soon gets around.

You can hardly take an active part in a low-value-item flea market unless you are prepared to go and collect the item or the person selling [or even giving it away to get rid of it] delivers it. This is such an important point that it has its own custom field on the listing form - take a look. In the case of a service its unlikely somebody in London is going to need an English speaking plumber in Mallorca - until they get there.

The plus side of restricting access by IP, of course, is far fewer viagra pushers and lottery winner advisors et al. For us that's going to save a lot of filtering and grooming time. In a local service just seeking to cover its overheads that's a big plus and we'll go for it.