The marketplace is for the things people around you sell, make and offer: the home kitchen that does lunch boxes, the tailor two lanes over, the nursery with the good curry-leaf plants, the sofa that needs a new home, the interior work someone finished and wants to show. It is scoped to your own area on purpose. Nobody is trying to reach the whole city; they are trying to reach the people who can walk over.
This is what a listing is, who sees it, and what happens when someone is interested.
What a listing is
A listing is a short notice with a title, a few lines, up to a handful of photos, a type (what you are selling, making or offering) and a category. You choose which areas see it. You can put a price on it or not; plenty of listings say "ask".
You post as yourself, or, if you run a business page on Zinola, under the business's name. Either way your neighbours see who is behind it.
Two things are deliberately not allowed. A phone number in the title or the body is refused, because numbers belong inside a private conversation, not on a public page. And there are no "wanted" listings: the marketplace is for what you offer. If you are looking for something, ask your street instead; that is what it is for.
Who sees it
People in the areas you picked, in the marketplace feed, ranked so that the nearest listings come first. It also has a page of its own with a link, so you can share it into a chat group or on your business page.
Listings expire. After thirty days, or on the date you set, it hides itself. In the last ten days, or after it has gone, one tap brings it back for another run. That keeps the feed honest: what you see is what is still on offer.
How enquiries work
When someone is interested, they enquire. That opens one private thread between the two of you, per listing, per person. They say what they want to know; you reply. Your number goes out only when you choose to share it in the thread.
As the seller, you mark the thread as replied, and later as sorted or closed. A buyer whose enquiry you marked sorted gets a small badge if they comment on your listing later, so other people can see that this person actually dealt with you.
Anyone can also comment on a listing in public, and you can switch comments off per listing if you would rather keep everything private.
What Zinola does not do
Nothing is bought or paid through Zinola. There is no cart, no checkout, no commission, no listing fee. The marketplace introduces you; the sale, the delivery and the money are between you and your neighbour, the way they would be if they had knocked on your door.
That also means Zinola is not a party to the deal. If something goes wrong, the tools you have are the same ones you would have anywhere: the conversation, and the fact that this person lives near you.
Keeping the marketplace worth reading
Listings can be reported. Three unrelated people reporting the same listing within a day hides it until someone looks at it — the same bar as a street post, and lower again for anything alleging hate, harassment or sexual content. It has to be three different people: one person reporting three times counts once. If your listing is hidden you are told at once, and you can appeal from your account.
Reactions on a listing are named, not just counted. People can say it was useful, that they are interested, or that they used it, and you see which.
A good listing
A clear title that says what it is. Photos taken in daylight. The areas you will actually deliver to or serve, not the whole city. A price if you have one, and "ask" if you do not. A line about who you are, so the neighbour reading it knows they are dealing with a person.
On Zinola
- Post a listing in the areas you choose.
- Browse the marketplace to see what people nearby are offering right now.
- Ask your street if you are looking for something rather than offering it.