Two new things have gone live on BusOva this week, and both are open to every member: a Marketplace for buying and selling with other enthusiasts, and a Livery Designer that used to be staff-only.
The Marketplace is open
You can now buy and sell with other BusOva members. Vehicles, parts and spares, models and diecast, books and publications, tickets and timetables, uniforms and memorabilia, photography equipment - and a Wanted section for when you are looking rather than selling.
It is free to list, and it will stay free. BusOva does not take a cut and does not handle any money: the Marketplace introduces buyer and seller, and the two of you arrange the rest between yourselves, exactly as you would at a rally.
Every advert for a vehicle is checked by staff before it appears. That slows things down by a few hours, and we think that is the right trade for a section where the items are worth what a bus is worth.
It has only just opened, so there is a good chance your advert will be among the first on it. Please do have a read of the buying and selling safely notes before you arrange to meet anybody.
Anyone can design a livery now
The Livery Designer was a staff tool. It is now open to every member, and the reason is simple arithmetic: there are 79 liveries in the library against tens of thousands of vehicles in the database, and the three of us are never going to close that gap on our own.
Pick the operators a livery belongs to, choose the colours, add the bands and shapes, and save it. You can leave a design half-finished and come back to it, and submit it when you are happy. A member of staff checks each one, and once it is approved it can be put on every vehicle wearing it - so one afternoon's work on a common fleet livery can improve hundreds of vehicle pages at once.
You can browse the whole library without an account. Designing needs you to be signed in, so we know who to credit: your name now appears on the card of every livery you draw.
Where to find them
The Marketplace has its own entry in the main menu. The Livery Designer is under Community, or straight to the liveries page, where you can either browse what exists or start drawing.
Both are new, so if something looks wrong or behaves oddly, please tell us rather than assuming we already know. That is genuinely the fastest way to get it fixed.