May 22, 2008
Introducing the classifieds, the UW’s marketplace
If you happened to glance to the right of our main photo on the University Week home page last week, you would have seen the first of a series of new features we’re introducing — the UWeek Classifieds. As the name implies, what we’re offering is free classified ads, open only to members of the UW community.
Posting an ad is easy. Either click on one of the existing ads, then click on “Post an ad” in the left-hand margin of the display, or go to www.uwclassifieds.org.
All ads are sent first to University Week editors, who must approve them before they become public. Once the ad is posted, you will be able to make changes in it or delete it using the “manage my ad” feature on the display.
We anticipate that UWeek Classifieds will be much like classified ads everywhere — full of cars to sell, apartments to rent and garage sales to attend — but we hope that it will be used for more than commercial transactions. Some examples: Looking for book lovers to form a discussion group? Looking for firsthand information about a software program you’re considering? Looking for a tennis partner? You could run an ad asking for any of these things. The UW is as large as many cities, and its size can make it difficult to navigate. The classifieds could be a shortcut taking you to the resources you need.
The classifieds are only the first of a series of interactive features we intend to introduce on University Week‘s Web site over the next few months. It’s all part of what we are becoming as we move from paper to Web-only publication. The Web permits easy participation by our readers, and we hope you will take advantage of that to post ads and in other ways reach out to the University community.
UWeek Classifieds are being introduced late in the academic year. We hope to use the summer as a good trial period, to get them well established so that come fall, we will be able to handle a much greater volume. However, the system has already borne fruit. The first item posted in the classifieds drew a serious inquiry within days of its posting — without any publicity. So, what are you waiting for? If there’s something you want to buy, sell or trade, some piece of information you seek, some group you’d like to form, the UWeek Classifieds are here to serve you.
