Announcing Villages.cc

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Ryan Fugger

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Nov 7, 2011, 8:15:14 PM11/7/11
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Hi everyone. I recently launched Villages.cc as a Ripple system that
has a marketplace and discoverable user profiles:

http://villages.cc

It's basically a social barter network with Ripple as the accounting
system. To simplify things, since Ripple is already complicated
enough the first time most people encounter it, the only units are
hours, and credit limits are set by users giving each other "hearts"
as endorsements, which is useful by itself as a reputation metric
separate from any Ripple accounting.

I'm hoping that this will be more useful and usable than Ripplepay for
most people. If it proves useful, I intend to merge Villages and
Ripplepay accounts onto a common backend server, so Villages accounts
would be accessible through Ripplepay as well. Right now, though I
want to see if Villages can grow given enough attention.

Please check it out and sign up if you'd like to create a profile.
You must be endorsed by an existing user to join, but I will endorse
anyone I recognize from this list who fills out the sign-up form.
Most likely there won't be any users in your area yet, so I'm counting
on you to invite some! The goal is to enable face-to-face
transactions, not just interaction over the internet.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Ryan

Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis

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Nov 7, 2011, 8:41:02 PM11/7/11
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It seems really cool and promising. I am excited with the news.

2011/11/8 Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com>

Ryan

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Sincerely yours, 
     Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis

Kurt Padilla

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Nov 7, 2011, 8:42:47 PM11/7/11
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I just requested an invitation. Looking forward to checking it out.


Ryan

Miles Thompson

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Nov 7, 2011, 8:43:22 PM11/7/11
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Looks great!  Clean. Simple. Super excited about this. Just sent it out to everyone of my networks that might be interested in this.

Miles
Miles Thompson 
T: +64 49 023 023 | M: +64 2153 9843 | E: utu...@gmail.com


Thomas Sherlock

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Nov 7, 2011, 11:09:55 PM11/7/11
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Glad to see that you're continuously innovating and experimenting.

Hopefully you will recognize my name when I send an invite, despite my minimal participation here.

I will also forward your note to the Skype chat, the Open Collective for Open Money and Alternative and Complementary Currencies.
You may know it.

Regards,
Tom

dwilliams

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Nov 8, 2011, 1:38:58 AM11/8/11
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Requested an invitation for dudewi...@gmail.com (also erroneously
requested one for dwil...@gmail.com, oops)

Andrew Miller

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Nov 8, 2011, 1:58:33 AM11/8/11
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I don't see anything in the market place. Do you have anything fun
planned to start us off?

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Ryan Fugger

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Nov 8, 2011, 1:58:40 AM11/8/11
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Thanks for the encouragement guys. I've sent out invitations to those
that requested them.

Note that by far the best way to get more people on is to invite them
yourself on the system rather than just sharing the link. Because if
people just come to the site and request an invitation, they're asking
me personally for an endorsement. (One feature I'd like to add is
crowd-sourcing the endorsement of invitation requests to bring people
into the system, so there would be a section where you'd see people
who want on the system and be able to endorse them into the network if
you thought they'd fit in.)

Thanks for the support. I'd love to hear more feedback once you get a
chance to play around.

Ryan

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 8, 2011, 2:01:51 AM11/8/11
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On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 10:58 PM, Andrew Miller <ami...@cs.ucf.edu> wrote:
> I don't see anything in the market place. Do you have anything fun
> planned to start us off?
>

No, as I mentioned before, it's just starting, so there's probably no
one in your area yet. Try viewing posts "anywhere" instead of within
5 km.

I did get a suggestion that I should put a couple of spoof posts in
there for fun just so there's something when new people arrive and
it's empty. Maybe I should just tweak it to show all posts when you
arrive the first time?

Ryan

Jorge Timón

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Nov 8, 2011, 3:33:53 AM11/8/11
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This is great. I'm impatient to invite people.
The "only hours as units" decision to simplify is probably going to
help in making it easy to explain and nothing more is really needed
(users can agree that ann hour is equivalent to 6€, $10 or whatever if
they want).
The focus on local trade is good too. I don't know why many LETS
advocates see Ripple as non local, but hopefully this helps them to
reconsider their opinion on Ripple.

As a little suggestion, if the system could interact with facebook,
google+, diaspora and other social networks, it could be more viral.
Inviting people on your mail address list (import from gmail, hotmail,
etc like some social networks do) would be a nice feature too.

Thank you, Ryan.


2011/11/8, Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com>:

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Ryan Fugger

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Nov 8, 2011, 3:39:14 AM11/8/11
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2011/11/8 Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>:

> As a little suggestion, if the system could interact with facebook,
> google+, diaspora and other social networks, it could be more viral.
> Inviting people on your mail address list (import from gmail, hotmail,
> etc like some social networks do) would be a nice feature too.
>

Yes, I can see that helping get more people on, but for now, I'm
focusing on quality over quantity -- getting people on who really
believe in the project and are willing to help work to make it
succeed. For that, I think considering each person individually makes
sense. When you know someone personally and can give them a
testimonial, that helps.

Also, I've built in a limitation for new users: You can only give out
5 hearts for every endorsement you receive. This is so new users
don't get entangled into a web of acknowledgements/IOUs without
realizing what it means to be a Ripple intermediary or how this can
come about if they endorse a bunch of people and give them high credit
limits. This also means that you won't be able to invite everyone you
know right away -- you'll have to think of a handful who might really
be interested.

Ryan

Jorge Timón

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Nov 8, 2011, 3:50:42 AM11/8/11
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That probably makes sense for starting.
By the way, if you want to translate the web to spanish you can count on me.
I can also translate it to portuguese too, but that will take more
work and I can't assure that all the translations will be accurate.
Most of the people I know don't read much English.


2011/11/8, Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com>:

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 8, 2011, 4:27:40 AM11/8/11
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2011/11/8 Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>:

> That probably makes sense for starting.
> By the way, if you want to translate the web to spanish you can count on me.
> I can also translate it to portuguese too, but that will take more
> work and I can't assure that all the translations will be accurate.
> Most of the people I know don't read much English.
>

Thanks. Maintaining a translation of a developing site is quite a bit
of work. My plan was to wait until the wording on the site settled
down a bit before getting translations done, but I agree it would be
nice to have some translations soon, even partial ones.

Ryan

Jorge Timón

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Nov 8, 2011, 4:54:28 AM11/8/11
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Yes, if it's under development, some translations will appear wrong as
messages are changed.
When you think is appropriate, send me the internationalization file
or whatever contains the messages.

Miles Thompson

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Nov 8, 2011, 5:11:04 AM11/8/11
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Hey all,

Thanks for this Ryan. Sorry for sending out general purpose links. So excited about this!

Guess it would be good to have a per-person customizable link that you can send on twitter so at least if new people sign up as a result of that they are going to ask *you* for permission to join. Or something.

In other news I kinda ran out of hearts to give out with only 2 people invited.

I'm happy to wait but for what its worth I feel that I personally understand the problems I might get into vis-a-vis having to make good on those hours I've put on the line - and I'd like to put more out there. I have more people in my own local community I'd like to get on board. Please sir can i have more ? ;-)

Miles



Ryan

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Zecrets

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Nov 8, 2011, 9:02:15 AM11/8/11
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I need Spanish for my local community. We have a small English school in central America and are thinking about letting students pay partially with ripple payments. 95% have internet access outside of the school. Integrated market would be super important and give students reason to interact with ripple among themselves.
Zen

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 8, 2011, 2:01:58 PM11/8/11
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On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 2:11 AM, Miles Thompson <utu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for this Ryan. Sorry for sending out general purpose links. So
> excited about this!
>
> Guess it would be good to have a per-person customizable link that you can
> send on twitter so at least if new people sign up as a result of that they
> are going to ask *you* for permission to join. Or something.
>

Yeah, that's a good idea. I've been mulling about how best to do
this. I'll give it some more thought. For now, it's not too big a
deal for me to get all the invitation requests and route them manually
but eventually I'll need something more automated.

> In other news I kinda ran out of hearts to give out with only 2 people
> invited.
>
> I'm happy to wait but for what its worth I feel that I personally understand
> the problems I might get into vis-a-vis having to make good on those hours
> I've put on the line - and I'd like to put more out there. I have more
> people in my own local community I'd like to get on board. Please sir can i
> have more ? ;-)
>

Good feedback. I pulled the number 5 hearts per endorsement out of
thin air, and maybe 10 is better? I've set you to have unlimited
hearts, since I trust you know what you're doing, and it's not always
clear to others that they should endorse you back. (I'll have to
think on how to encourage that more too.)

Ryan

Jorge Timón

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Nov 8, 2011, 2:38:50 PM11/8/11
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Maybe only invitations should be limited and not the hearts themselves.
For example, I would have given you more hearts, but I didn't want to
waste invitations.
And if say 10 of my friends get registered by inviting themselves
between them I will want to endorse them all.


2011/11/8, Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com>:


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Jorge Timón

Jeffrey Cliff

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Nov 8, 2011, 3:54:02 PM11/8/11
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Naturally, villages.cc is blocked by websense as 'potentially damaging content'.  Perhaps a petition is in order?
jeff

2011/11/8 Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>

Jorge Timón

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Nov 9, 2011, 7:22:29 AM11/9/11
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A suggestion.
What if you could filter only the offers you can actually pay?
Or for asks, only the ones from the people you can receive hours from.
When the number of users gets big, the market place will be annoying,
with a lot of offers that don't really interest you.


2011/11/8, Jeffrey Cliff <jeffre...@gmail.com>:

Jorge Timón

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Nov 9, 2011, 7:49:45 AM11/9/11
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And another little thing. Shouldn't villages accept ripplepay donations?


2011/11/9, Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>:


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Evgeni Pandurski

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Nov 9, 2011, 11:16:54 AM11/9/11
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I've just received your invitation. Awesome work!

I could not find how can I give hearths to someone that I have found in
the list of people. Is currently a way to give hearts without inviting
the person (because he/she is already in)?

Evgeni

Jorge Timón

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Nov 9, 2011, 1:17:14 PM11/9/11
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Yes, you click in her name to go to the profile and then, on the left,
you click "endorse".


2011/11/9, Evgeni Pandurski <epand...@gmail.com>:

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 9, 2011, 1:31:38 PM11/9/11
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2011/11/9 Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>:

> A suggestion.
> What if you could filter only the offers you can actually pay?
> Or for asks, only the ones from the people you can receive hours from.
> When the number of users gets big, the market place will be annoying,
> with a lot of offers that don't really interest you.
>

Yes, good suggestion. This is a planned feature.

Ryan

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 9, 2011, 1:33:53 PM11/9/11
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2011/11/8 Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>:

> Maybe only invitations should be limited and not the hearts themselves.
> For example, I would have given you more hearts, but I didn't want to
> waste invitations.
> And if say 10 of my friends get registered by inviting themselves
> between them I will want to endorse them all.
>

Yes, this is a tricky one. Part of limiting the hearts themselves is
limiting the credit limits people can set initially, so they don't end
up owing a lot without realizing that can even happen to them as
intermediaries.

If anyone here wants unlimited hearts to give out, let me know
privately and I'll set you up, because I trust you all know what
you're doing.

Ryan

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 9, 2011, 2:56:43 PM11/9/11
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On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 11:01 AM, Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 2:11 AM, Miles Thompson <utu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Guess it would be good to have a per-person customizable link that you can
>> send on twitter so at least if new people sign up as a result of that they
>> are going to ask *you* for permission to join. Or something.
>>
>
> Yeah, that's a good idea.  I've been mulling about how best to do
> this.  I'll give it some more thought.  For now, it's not too big a
> deal for me to get all the invitation requests and route them manually
> but eventually I'll need something more automated.
>

I've added a "Share" page (bottom right sidebar) that gives you a link
to share so that you will receive the invitation requests. I've also
added facebook and twitter buttons. If someone is a twitter user,
could they test that button and let me know if it works OK for them --
I'm not a twitter user. (No need to post the tweet, just see if the
suggested tweet is OK.) Thanks.

Ryan

Jeffrey Cliff

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Nov 10, 2011, 2:12:52 AM11/10/11
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There needs to be a 'help' for every screen, or at the very least a screen from every screen back to the main screen - kind of like ripplepay is lacking.  Otherwise people are going to have *no idea*

Otherwise, i like it so far, good work ryan
Jeff

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 10, 2011, 3:42:01 PM11/10/11
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On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 11:12 PM, Jeffrey Cliff <jeffre...@gmail.com> wrote:
> There needs to be a 'help' for every screen, or at the very least a screen
> from every screen back to the main screen - kind of like ripplepay is
> lacking.  Otherwise people are going to have *no idea*

Thanks Jeff. I agree, the user experience needs to be as intuitive as
possible, but there should always be a link to more explanation when
people are confused. Right now that link is the "About" link at the
top, mainly the "How it works" section. I'll keep developing more
helpful copy as I work on the site. If you have any specific
suggestions, please send them to me.

Ryan

Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis

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Nov 11, 2011, 6:23:41 AM11/11/11
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I think it would be better if you could choose the radius of maximum distance that a service is offered. 

It makes more sense if the center of the circle is in the person offering the service as is done in ebay etc.

2011/11/10 Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com>

Ryan

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Kevin

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Nov 11, 2011, 6:38:55 AM11/11/11
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Also, some of us have more than one location. Many have exactly two, but
some will have more than that. It would be nice to support that somehow,
if it can be done without adding too much complexity.

Kevin

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Jorge Timón

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Nov 11, 2011, 7:13:43 AM11/11/11
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Yes, I have two locations separated by little less than 100 km.
I was thinking about asking Ryan for one more value in the distance
selector, but your proposals are more generic.


2011/11/11, Kevin <kev...@peakhope.com>:

> rippleusers...@googlegroups.com.


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Ryan Fugger

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Nov 11, 2011, 2:20:57 PM11/11/11
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Good thoughts about locations. What I have now is a home location for
your profile, and then a session location, which you can set to
something other than your home location by unchecking "Save as Home
Location" on the locator page. Right now, posts can only come from
your home location, but I think they should rather come from your
session location, so you post from wherever you currently are.

Right now, posts maintain their location when you change yours, but it
might be nice to have the option to have a post follow you.

For people with multiple locations, it would be nice to have a
dropdown to select from them when posting, and when updating your home
or session location. I'll have to think about how best to do this.
Maybe a "My Locations" page to manage multiple locations? Ideas?

Ryan

2011/11/11 Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>:

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 11, 2011, 2:35:05 PM11/11/11
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On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 3:23 AM, Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis
<xeko...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I think it would be better if you could choose the radius of maximum
> distance that a service is offered.
> It makes more sense if the center of the circle is in the person offering
> the service as is done in ebay etc.
>

Hmmm... To me it seems like the person doing the searching is more
likely the one who is going to decide how far away they want to look.
I can't imagine blocking a post from someone 11 km away just because
the poster decided that the post radius ought to be 10 km.

On ebay, the seller decides where they can/will ship to, but the buyer
decides the geographic scope of their search.

On the other hand, I do see how it might be nice to be able to
differentiate between posts that required face-to-face interaction
(location matters), and posts for transactions that can be
accomplished remotely (location doesn't matter). My initial idea was
to let the searcher decide based on what they were searching for. I
don't think I'd want to add more options on post and search unless
this really doesn't work for some reason.

Ryan

Kevin

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Nov 11, 2011, 7:22:38 PM11/11/11
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My posts would probably be specific to a location, and I would not want
them to follow me around. But I could see the other case as well. It
seems like having a flag in the post to go one way or the other would be
helpful.

Or...posts could always have a "permanent" location, but then you could
have a batch "move" of multiple posts to a different location. It
depends on how often people would change locations and want to bring
their posts with them.

A "virtual/no location" flag for posts also seems useful.

A "My Locations" page sounds good. Any search should allow you to pick
your location, as should any post (as you said). Hopefully for the 90+%
of people who have only one location, all of that can be unobtrusive.

Kevin

Jorge Timón

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Nov 12, 2011, 8:41:14 AM11/12/11
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I guess an editable location for posts and an integer box instead of a
list for searching would be enough for now.
My concrete needs:

1) Be able to post separately for two different cities.
2) Be able to search in both cities (they're 100 km from one another)

I also like the "no location" idea for some offers.
Maybe a list of locations for some offers too?


2011/11/12, Kevin <kev...@peakhope.com>:

Jeffrey Cliff

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Nov 12, 2011, 3:53:48 PM11/12/11
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1) Just a low-priority suggestion but would it be possible to eventually get a map of your local 50Km/100Km and all the ripple users therein, give or take?

2) it might be time to put it in the ccdb  http://www.complementarycurrency.org/ccDatabase/
Jeff

2011/11/11 Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 12, 2011, 4:06:30 PM11/12/11
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On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 12:53 PM, Jeffrey Cliff <jeffre...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 1) Just a low-priority suggestion but would it be possible to eventually get
> a map of your local 50Km/100Km and all the ripple users therein, give or
> take?

I've considered this, but I'm not sure about it, for privacy reasons.
I want users to feel safe putting in their actual home address without
worrying that someone will be able to stalk them. (Technically it's
possible to triangulate someone's exact location by varying one's
location and search radius, but that would take a bit of doing.)

I also personally don't get a lot out of seeing users located on maps,
but I appreciate knowing if others do, and what it is that they like
about it.

> 2) it might be time to put it in the ccdb
>  http://www.complementarycurrency.org/ccDatabase/

Done, thanks.

Ryan

Alessio Stalla

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Nov 15, 2011, 3:26:54 PM11/15/11
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On Nov 8, 10:27 am, Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com> wrote:
> 2011/11/8 Jorge Timón <timon.elvi...@gmail.com>:
>
> > That probably makes sense for starting.
> > By the way, if you want to translate the web tospanishyou can count on me.
> > I can also translate it to portuguese too, but that will take more
> > work and I can't assure that all the translations will be accurate.
> > Most of the people I know don't read much English.
>
> Thanks.  Maintaining atranslationof a developing site is quite a bit
> of work.  My plan was to wait until the wording on the site settled
> down a bit before getting translations done, but I agree it would be
> nice to have some translations soon, even partial ones.

When you think you're ready to accept translations, I can do it for
Italian. I think it's very important for Villages' focus about local
communities that there are as many translations as possible, even if
they're not 100% accurate or up to date.

Keep up the good work!

--
Alessio Stalla

Jorge Timón

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Nov 16, 2011, 4:45:59 AM11/16/11
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I've been thinking...
Why everybody needs an endorsement to join the web?
A group of people totally disconnected with us could join and endorse
themselves.


2011/11/15, Alessio Stalla <alessi...@gmail.com>:

Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis

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Nov 16, 2011, 8:19:43 AM11/16/11
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I think that it ensures that each person will always have at least one connection. Any person that joins without connections will find the tool useless and they will leave. It feels natural to me if the projects growth spreads in this way, through friends of friends but we should find a sufficient number of seeds.

I dont think that connectivity should be required, is it?

2011/11/16 Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>



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Sincerely yours, 
     Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis

Jorge Timón

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Nov 16, 2011, 9:34:12 AM11/16/11
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I just think it could be useful for people who don't directly know any
of the users.
Why do we need to be all connected within the site?
Doesn't seem very pro-local to me.
I guess a page to find users that are already registered but not
connected to you would be necessary if that's allowed.


2011/11/16, Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis <xeko...@gmail.com>:

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 16, 2011, 2:39:54 PM11/16/11
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2011/11/16 Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>:

> I've been thinking...
> Why everybody needs an endorsement to join the web?
> A group of people totally disconnected with us could join and endorse
> themselves.
>

The idea was to try to get people who are really committed to the
concept initially, and who won't be put off by the fact that there's
not much there yet. You're right, there's no technical reason why
everyone needs to be connected. There could easily be separate
groups.

I have been thinking about removing the requirement to be invited
sooner rather than later...

Ryan

Jorge Timón

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Nov 16, 2011, 4:12:59 PM11/16/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
My point is that I'm not comfortable endorsing people I don't know
from communities that I want to invite because I think they may be
interested in experimenting or using the site as a tool for their
local trade.
Say people who already use local currencies, time banking or barter
clubs; permaculturists, squatting social communities, etc.
They may even prefer not being connected with us initially.


2011/11/16, Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com>:

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 16, 2011, 5:03:36 PM11/16/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
Yeah, good point. For now, I'm just inviting people with a
1-heart/hour endorsement, which is a pretty small trust level. But I
suppose I needn't worry too much about keeping the quality of the
initial userbase high if it's getting in the way of getting people on
the site...

2011/11/16 Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>:

Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis

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Nov 17, 2011, 8:45:57 AM11/17/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
I think communities could have one person endorsed by Ryan as a seed after they introduce themselves to him.

2011/11/17 Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com>



--

Sincerely yours, 
     Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis

Jorge Timón

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Nov 17, 2011, 3:56:03 PM11/17/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
You may be right.
That way he can make sure that the site is not misused at an early
stage, which could be bad.
I just want to put the link everywhere I think there's people that may
be interested but I fear two things:

1) My friends thinking this is facebook and following me in endorsing
lots of people I can't trust without risks I'm willing to take just
because of my faith in the project and they should not take.

2) Outsourcing all those risks to Ryan and having him welcoming
heterogeneous people from all the spectrum of "monetary reformists"
and "localists" that I find to spam.

What's the best thing to do for my case?
If you think I should wait to look for people I don't trust but have a
strong incentive or a good "trust infrastructure" to start to using
village, I can do it.
I just want to know I will be able to do it.


2011/11/17, Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis <xeko...@gmail.com>:

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 18, 2011, 1:24:19 AM11/18/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
2011/11/17 Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>:

> You may be right.
> That way he can make sure that the site is not misused at an early
> stage, which could be bad.
> I just want to put the link everywhere I think there's people that may
> be interested but I fear two things:
>
> 1) My friends thinking this is facebook and following me in endorsing
> lots of people I can't trust without risks I'm willing to take just
> because of my faith in the project and they should not take.
>
> 2) Outsourcing all those risks to Ryan and having him welcoming
> heterogeneous people from all the spectrum of "monetary reformists"
> and "localists" that I find to spam.
>
> What's the best thing to do for my case?

Just go to this page:

https://villages.cc/share/

and distribute the link you find there to wherever you wish. Use your
own judgement on the invitation requests you receive.

Ryan

Jorge Timón

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Nov 18, 2011, 2:29:43 AM11/18/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
Yes, that's what I'm doing now.
I guess a page for searching registered friends would be necessary
before letting people resgister without endorsement.
Of course, this isn't necessary nor urgent. But It's the way I think
the site should end up working.


2011/11/18, Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com>:

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 18, 2011, 12:50:11 PM11/18/11
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2011/11/17 Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>:

> Yes, that's what I'm doing now.
> I guess a  page for searching registered friends would be necessary
> before letting people resgister without endorsement.
> Of course, this isn't necessary nor urgent. But It's the way I think
> the site should end up working.
>

Do you mean importing contacts from other sites like gmail, facebook,
etc. and seeing if any of them are registered users?

Ryan

Jorge Timón

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Nov 19, 2011, 6:33:16 AM11/19/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
No, I mean a "member" page or the like with a textbox to search.
If one can register without endorsements, that would be important to
search for friends to endorse and ask endorsements from.

But that would be nice too.


2011/11/18, Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com>:

Jorge Timón

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Nov 19, 2011, 6:33:33 AM11/19/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
"members"

2011/11/19, Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>:


--
Jorge Timón

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 19, 2011, 12:38:55 PM11/19/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
2011/11/19 Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>:

> No, I mean a "member" page or the like with a textbox to search.
> If one can register without endorsements, that would be important to
> search for friends to endorse and ask endorsements from.
>

Yes, this is how the "people" section of the feed works. You can see
everyone, not just those in your network.

Ryan

Jorge Timón

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Nov 20, 2011, 10:28:06 AM11/20/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
Oh, great.
Then there's no technical reason to not allow registrations without
endoresements.

2011/11/19, Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com>:

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 22, 2011, 5:35:27 PM11/22/11
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2011/11/20 Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>:

> Oh, great.
> Then there's no technical reason to not allow registrations without
> endoresements.
>

Correct. I've actually just opened up the site to registrations
without invitation. I've also added a setting on the Account Settings
page to give yourself unlimited hearts if you know what you're doing.
As well, you'll now receive emails when someone accepts your
invitation or registers through your shared link.

Ryan

Jorge Timón

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Nov 22, 2011, 6:48:04 PM11/22/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
Thank you Ryan. Now any community can start using it even if they're
not connected in any sense to us.

2011/11/22, Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com>:

Sepp

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Nov 23, 2011, 7:01:43 AM11/23/11
to Ripple Project
Ryan,
I registered on villages but have a complaint to make ;)
The messages/choices/explanations I got when going through the sign-up
process did not really tell me what this is all about and how to use
it. Actually, they left me kind of dazed, although I have been close
to Ripple for quite some time. Someone should go through those
messages/choices with the viewpoint of a new person arriving, who has
not heard of Ripple before.
Then there is the user interface on the page, which you see once
you're registered. It isn't really intuitive.
I know I may not be of much help here, but an overhaul of the
interface design - I believe - would be in order.
Kind regards
Sepp

Ryan Fugger

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Nov 23, 2011, 9:00:18 PM11/23/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 4:01 AM, Sepp <se...@lastrega.com> wrote:
> Ryan,
> I registered on villages but have a complaint to make ;)
> The messages/choices/explanations I got when going through the sign-up
> process did not really tell me what this is all about and how to use
> it. Actually, they left me kind of dazed, although I have been close
> to Ripple for quite some time. Someone should go through those
> messages/choices with the viewpoint of a new person arriving, who has
> not heard of Ripple before.

Thanks for the feedback Sepp. I'll keep working on making the purpose
of the site and the whole sign up process more clear.

> Then there is the user interface on the page, which you see once
> you're registered. It isn't really intuitive.
> I know I may not be of much help here, but an overhaul of the
> interface design - I believe - would be in order.

I've actually received a lot of feedback that people are finding the
interface quite intuitive, but your opinion is definitely noted.

Ryan

> Kind regards
> Sepp
>
>
> On Nov 22, 11:35 pm, Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com> wrote:
> I've actually just opened up the site to registrations
>> without invitation.  I've also added a setting on the Account Settings
>> page to give yourself unlimited hearts if you know what you're doing.
>> As well, you'll now receive emails when someone accepts your
>> invitation or registers through your shared link.
>>
>> Ryan
>

Jorge Timón

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Nov 28, 2011, 6:31:11 AM11/28/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
I've been thinking lately that categories and/or labels will be needed
for posts.
Maybe offers and wants posts should be in different pages first, but
that's another question.
One of the first labels that will be required are language labels.
Show me the posts written in...english, spanish, italian, whatever...
Other labels/categories could be "agriculture", "childs", "computers",
"graphic design and photography", "books", etc.

What do you think?
Should the language of the posts be implemented as one more label or
through a separate field?
Is it better a selector with fixed categories or just user defined labels?


2011/11/24, Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com>:


--
Jorge Timón

Jaro Larnos

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Dec 6, 2011, 5:01:37 PM12/6/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
A late reply from me... I just wanted to know if villages.cc is going
to supercede Ripplepay.com, and what kind of future plans do you have
for it? Can payments made on Ripplepay.com eventually become obsolete?

I just joined Villages.cc through Jeff's invitation. What now? :)

2011/11/8 Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com>:
> Hi everyone.  I recently launched Villages.cc as a Ripple system that
> has a marketplace and discoverable user profiles:
>
> http://villages.cc
>
> It's basically a social barter network with Ripple as the accounting
> system.  To simplify things, since Ripple is already complicated
> enough the first time most people encounter it, the only units are
> hours, and credit limits are set by users giving each other "hearts"
> as endorsements, which is useful by itself as a reputation metric
> separate from any Ripple accounting.
>
> I'm hoping that this will be more useful and usable than Ripplepay for
> most people.  If it proves useful, I intend to merge Villages and
> Ripplepay accounts onto a common backend server, so Villages accounts
> would be accessible through Ripplepay as well.  Right now, though I
> want to see if Villages can grow given enough attention.
>
> Please check it out and sign up if you'd like to create a profile.
> You must be endorsed by an existing user to join, but I will endorse
> anyone I recognize from this list who fills out the sign-up form.
> Most likely there won't be any users in your area yet, so I'm counting
> on you to invite some!  The goal is to enable face-to-face
> transactions, not just interaction over the internet.
>
> Let me know what you think.  Thanks.

Jaro Larnos

unread,
Dec 7, 2011, 6:12:24 AM12/7/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
Oh, my... I seem to have read the initial announcement kind of badly.
Sorry about that. I assumed Ripplepay might end up unused and all.
Well it seems everything is fine.

I do find it a bit disheartening though, that when I was making a
public invite in Diaspora*, one of the people following my notices
replied he's not going to be using it because the Google integration.
I guess he meant the usage of Google Maps on Villages. I've noticed
the Diaspora* people in general are what you would call privacy
conscious and there's not much trust towards the big players like
Google & Co. So it made me wonder if it were possible to use something
like OSM (http://www.openstreetmap.org/) instead of Google Maps for
showing the locations of the users?


2011/12/7 Jaro Larnos <dignifi...@googlemail.com>:

Melvin Carvalho

unread,
Dec 7, 2011, 7:08:33 AM12/7/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
On 7 December 2011 12:12, Jaro Larnos <dignifi...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Oh, my... I seem to have read the initial announcement kind of badly.
> Sorry about that. I assumed Ripplepay might end up unused and all.
> Well it seems everything is fine.
>
> I do find it a bit disheartening though, that when I was making a
> public invite in Diaspora*, one of the people following my notices
> replied he's not going to be using it because the Google integration.
> I guess he meant the usage of Google Maps on Villages. I've noticed
> the Diaspora* people in general are what you would call privacy
> conscious and there's not much trust towards the big players like
> Google & Co. So it made me wonder if it were possible to use something
> like OSM (http://www.openstreetmap.org/) instead of Google Maps for
> showing the locations of the users?

Diaspora folks are far from security conscious, as evidenced by their
abandonment of end to end encryption pretty early on.

Retroshare does however have end to end encryption

http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/

The good news is that the lead dev or retroshare wants to implement
ripple when they get some developer resource, which would be kind of
*awesome*

Jaro Larnos

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Dec 7, 2011, 4:13:10 PM12/7/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
2011/12/7 Melvin Carvalho <melvinc...@gmail.com>:

> Diaspora folks are far from security conscious, as evidenced by their
> abandonment of end to end encryption pretty early on.

You mean the end-to-end encryption of public posts as opposed to
private posts? Well, the definition of public is that it's public, so
it's pretty much nonsensical to encrypt it. I'm not too sure where
they are presently with the implementation of server-side data
encryption though. But it is still alpha so I am not complaining, yet.

> Retroshare does however have end to end encryption
> http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/
>
> The good news is that the lead dev or retroshare wants to implement
> ripple when they get some developer resource, which would be kind of
> *awesome*

Retroshare is an interesting project, and I will be keeping my eyes on
it, but I suppose I'm really looking something that I can install on a
plug server and "forget", in a similar way as I could a Diaspora pod,
or maybe in the not too far future, a FreedomBox. That way I wouldn't
need to carry my PC everywhere I go. As I understood, Retroshare is
only a p2p client of sorts, that needs to be installed on whatever
computer you want to use it on. It will use the resources on the
computer, and while it works when my computer is turned on, it ceases
to work as soon as I'm off-line. With a plug server I can go off-line
and my "shared" stuff doesn't disappear in the process, unless
Retroshare is actually more like Freenet where everything is uploaded
to a "cloud" of peers. And even that is not very reliable when
disconnecting while in the process of uploading.

Interesting nevertheless.

Melvin Carvalho

unread,
Dec 7, 2011, 4:58:10 PM12/7/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
On 7 December 2011 22:13, Jaro Larnos <dignifi...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> 2011/12/7 Melvin Carvalho <melvinc...@gmail.com>:
>> Diaspora folks are far from security conscious, as evidenced by their
>> abandonment of end to end encryption pretty early on.
>
> You mean the end-to-end encryption of public posts as opposed to
> private posts? Well, the definition of public is that it's public, so
> it's pretty much nonsensical to encrypt it. I'm not too sure where
> they are presently with the implementation of server-side data
> encryption though. But it is still alpha so I am not complaining, yet.

Diaspora are good at promotion, not so brilliant at tech, imho. My
great hope for them is that they spread the idea of distributed social
nets.

>
>> Retroshare does however have end to end encryption
>> http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/
>>
>> The good news is that the lead dev or retroshare wants to implement
>> ripple when they get some developer resource, which would be kind of
>> *awesome*
>
> Retroshare is an interesting project, and I will be keeping my eyes on
> it, but I suppose I'm really looking something that I can install on a
> plug server and "forget", in a similar way as I could a Diaspora pod,
> or maybe in the not too far future, a FreedomBox. That way I wouldn't
> need to carry my PC everywhere I go. As I understood, Retroshare is
> only a p2p client of sorts, that needs to be installed on whatever
> computer you want to use it on. It will use the resources on the
> computer, and while it works when my computer is turned on, it ceases
> to work as soon as I'm off-line. With a plug server I can go off-line
> and my "shared" stuff doesn't disappear in the process, unless
> Retroshare is actually more like Freenet where everything is uploaded
> to a "cloud" of peers. And even that is not very reliable when
> disconnecting while in the process of uploading.

Yes, if you turn your machine/plug server off, retroshare will will
turn off too

>
> Interesting nevertheless.

Freedombox and retroshare are a marriage made in heaven, since both
use GPG, it's on their todo list to evaluate.

If it includes ripple it could be that much better, since it already
has a front end for a web of trust.

Ripple is on the roadmap, but not yet resourced, If anyone wants to
build a ripple module for RS, get in touch!

Jorge Timón

unread,
Dec 22, 2011, 4:27:51 PM12/22/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
Every time a message is edited, it appears the first in the lists.
I've corrected "Is" for "It's" in an endorsement and I feel like I'm
bumping it or something.
In other cases it may be useful but maybe the edits should just leave
the messages where they are.
What do you think?


2011/12/7, Melvin Carvalho <melvinc...@gmail.com>:


--
Jorge Timón

Ryan Fugger

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Dec 23, 2011, 3:28:17 AM12/23/11
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
I think it's OK for now, especially since there's not a ton of activity.  Eventually it may not be useful though, you're right...

Ryan

2011/12/22 Jorge Timón <timon....@gmail.com>

Jorge Timón

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Feb 8, 2012, 3:29:25 PM2/8/12
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
2011/12/23, Ryan Fugger <a...@ryanfugger.com>:

> I think it's OK for now, especially since there's not a ton of activity.
> Eventually it may not be useful though, you're right...

I've noticed you have already changed it, thank you.

Another thing I would like to have is an additional option for the
distance select like 100 km, to be reach Cáceres (the city we're I've
lived most of my life and which I visit very often) from Badajoz (the
city where I live now). A perfect option for me would be to have
values like "Extremadura" (the "Autonomous community" of both cities),
"Spain", "Portugal" (It's really close). But that would be much harder
and I guess it wouldn't add much to most people.

Of course, I'm still impatient about the translation of the web and
I've increased the bounty:
https://villages.cc/posts/88/

Rational System

unread,
Mar 1, 2012, 4:59:01 AM3/1/12
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
Hello

I have developed a program that promotes local development in even depressed areas. This has been adopted by Bracebridge EDC and Burks Falls is looking at it and the GP in Manitoba. It has a special section on its use by Native communities. The booklet is free and attached if you have any problems downloading email me for a copy. I also would be more than pleased to assist you in implementing the program.

 

This booklet is designed to be used by groups of all kinds to promote community development by use of a cooperative business structure and cc. It especially focuses on use by council. The system can be used even in the most impoverished areas and is of course adoptable by any group using either a local currency or the cooperative business model.

Robert

 

 

I
Community Development Book 29.doc

andrewed

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Mar 13, 2012, 10:41:36 AM3/13/12
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
Hi, Ryan,

First, thanks for your great job with Ripple and Villages. My interest is in getting my whole network onto a good currency system. I've been intensely examining currency systems for a month (http://bit.ly/wbccsl). I find Ripple extremely compelling because your genius solution to the LETS accountability problem. This makes it newby friendly and stable long-term. It accurately models how people use credit in groups. This familiar feeling is its great strength. I just can't overstate how impressive and sensible I find this. My only hesitation with using it was the asocial vibe of Ripplepay.

So I'm very glad to find Villages.cc, which takes a huge leap forward from Ripplepay. Awesome. It is one of three systems I have found that meets Thomas Greco's standard for a viable web-based credit clearing system, which must have:

1. a marketplace
2. a social network
3. a means of payment
4. a measure of value or pricing unit

Villages's social network is deep, too, like the highly cool/social acknowledgement function.

That said, Ripplepay has some things going for it that I wish were also in Villages. The main thing is the terminology. It's all familiar. So it is not a stumbling block. Pay, receive, offer, and credit are all instantly understandable terms.

In contrast, I find endorse and acknowledge unclear. Acknowledge could even have been used in place of endorse. I figured it out in principle, but still have to wrap my head around it from scratch everytime I see it. Request credit and accept request for credit would work for acknowedgment. Reputation is partly clear, actually. It means total credit.

Time-based currencies have no legal issues. I wish we could just the regular, clear, short words we are used to. The good feeling you are trying to evoke with the words will come from simply using such a fair, sane system. Plenty of alternative currencies have nice words but feel terrible.

It is also not clear what the currency is called. Heart would be fine. Hour is actually not good. Charging x "hours" per hour for labor is confusing.

I wish the currency were based on the minute or at least could display as minutes. An hour is very big and clumsy. It's equivalent to having no fives, ones, quarters, or dimes. A percentage of an hour is, again, unfamiliar. In contrast, a minute is universally and easily measured. Its passing can actually be felt. And it corrolates well to the smallest usable denomination in many currencies. I learned this living in US and Greece—where pennies are loathed and nickels are bothersome—then in Guatemala and Sweden, where the currencies are worth 12-15 US cents. In Guatemala, use of centavos is infrequent, and in Sweden, amounts are officially rounded. I would also like to be able to offer credit in amounts less than one hour.

This is my main feedback.

Small suggestion:
Ratio in Mayan number system (1, 5, 20) is very efficient for denomination. Maybe use it for:
- number of posts to show in feed (10, 50, 200),
- search radius: (1km, 5, 20, 100, 500, 1000, any)?
- if Ripple ever goes paper

Ok, thanks again.

Andrew Durham

independent investigator in philosophy, health, & design
http://andrewdurham.com — the darkness conjecture
541.210.8470 vm

andrewed

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Mar 13, 2012, 1:59:09 PM3/13/12
to rippl...@googlegroups.com
Oops! Reputation is not total credit. And now I see there are two kinds of acknowledgment. Gotta study this. Can't wait to see it develop. Ryan, is there a to do list/roadmap for Villages?

Andrew
Message has been deleted

andrewed

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Mar 31, 2012, 6:18:52 AM3/31/12
to Ripple Project
> Oops! Reputation is not total credit.

Oops, I was basically correct the first time.

It's cool how the number changes in relation to each trading partner.
I love how Ripple's paths of credit eliminate tons of arbitrary
administrative work and control necessary in LETS, which proves quite
dictatorial or burueacratic. People determine their own debt exposure
on a case-by-case basis, just like we do in real life. And then tons
of useful data could be mined from these basic numbers. It's like the
simple rules of a fractal.
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