Getting ready for the public beta.

So the last week has been pretty rad. With less than 50 people in here, it's starting to feel like home again. In the next day or two, I'm going to flip the switch and bring Putter Talk back to life publicly. Still beta. Still invite only, but for the world to see. All the content here moves over to the public site too. Your logins will work there same as here. You may need to log in again, but then you'll be good to go. The marketplace mechanics are all pretty solid from my tests, so that'll go live with the rest of the site too. I'm granting "Supporting Member" status to all of you, as well as the next 150 people to sign up for the next 6mos to get things rolling and proven out. After that the marketplace is "Members Only" although all the listings and auctions will be public facing. you just wont be able to bid or list or buy if you're not a member. That's how we keep things safe as possible around here. You can't do any of those things unless you've had your identity verified by a 3rd party and we gate that to Members. The Community always has been and always will be free to use. Speaking of Auctions, I ran the first one tonight and it went really well. Auctions here are run a little differently than you've seen elsewhere. There are no fees taken by the house at all. All chatter and bids are public, and there's a 2min cool-down at the end of the auction so you can never be sniped at the last second. Everyone sees all the bids and who made them, and only Members can bid so that should cut down on shill bidding that's plagued eBay forever. I'm pretty proud of the system we've built and hope it resonates well with the Community. Marketplace listings are as you'd expect, but also with comments enabled so you can interact with the seller. I'm pretty happy with the system, but we're not done building yet either. Lots of new stuff will happen in the coming weeks as we get closer to lifting the invitation only requirement and open Putter Talk up to the public.