adding more items to the site

this is a big topic, many features can come out of it, I will describe some ideas.

so:
first are growing a community - getting the site useful to the first group of users.
the next step is to make the site more useful - increase the amount of items suggested on the site, so people will have more stuff to find there.
and we're there now, discussing our next steps.
so - first ideas I've been discussing with my favorite users:

* make adding items a more "active" part of the registration/"starting to use the site" process.
add a task list to complete registration,
suggest specific items to lend: books, DVDs, CDs, Games, Tools.

* let the users select some existing common items ("hammer", "drill", "old computer") etc. this way people only have to first mark some check boxes on one page, and the items are generated.

* allow users to make some items visible to everyone. for people who aren't afraid to lend and borrow from people they don't know yet. this was requested by some users, and could be very good also to show new users the potential of the site, and also for visitors. we could even let visitors search for items, and later login to request to borrow them (while keeping the users privacy).

* let your friends (and people) know about stuff you are looking for - "I'm going on a trip and need a backpack"
your friends could receive the request and let you know if they have one. (by adding it to the site of course).

* wishlist - stuff you want but don't need urgently and you don't want to send a message to your friends - for existing and non existing items - "yonatan wants 'the never ending story / Michael Ende'". for an item in a wishlist friends could add several "instances" of the item. if three of your friends have it for instance, in different names like "book: the never ending story (eng.)" etc, we could show a list under this item. if you just want to remember that bob has a book you want - you can add it and there will be immediately one instance of the item. when the time comes and you want to request it, you can go over your list and ask any of your friends that have it to lend it to you.