ONE STEP AT A TIME
From a design to a working community.
You handle the accounts and choices that belong to you. I’ll guide the technical setup and build the connections. Nothing here requires you to purchase a plan today.
1. Settle how members sign in
First decision: independent email accounts or Sign in with ChatGPT?
Independent email accounts are my recommendation for AHR’s general audience. People could join with an email address without needing a ChatGPT account. The current Sites host supplies Sign in with ChatGPT; a separate authentication service is not yet confirmed for this host. We must resolve the hosting and sign-in arrangement before asking you to create a backend account.
| Your part | My part |
|---|---|
| Choose the sign-in experience you want for members. | Confirm the supported hosting path, show the service choices and costs, then give you the exact account-creation steps. |
The existing private Site access gate and the proposed AHR membership system are separate. Public browsing will also require an intentional publication/access change later; this preview does not change access.
2. Create the selected service accounts
After the hosting decision, we’ll choose storage, secure sign-in, photo storage, automated email, and scheduled jobs. Some of these may be included together.
| Your part | My part |
|---|---|
| Create accounts in your name using an email you control. Enable two-factor authentication for administrator accounts. Keep recovery codes somewhere private. | Build profiles, private messaging, permissions, listing storage, expiry checks, reminders, and moderation tools. Explain how each account connects. |
| Review the free allowance, monthly/daily limits, and any billing request before proceeding. | Estimate usage, add usage alerts and limits, and avoid optional paid upgrades without your approval. |
3. Connect automated email to your domain
Your existing [email protected] mailbox and feedback/technical/questions forwarding addresses remain your contact system. Listing reminders need an automated email sender.
Resend is one candidate to evaluate, not a service that has been selected or connected. Its free plan has sending limits; paid overages are optional on eligible paid plans. Review the current limits before signing up.
- After choosing the sender, create its account and choose the agreed plan.
- Add a sending subdomain, such as updates.americanhomerange.com. This helps separate automated mail from your regular mailbox.
- The sender will generate DNS records. In Porkbun, add those exact records; I’ll guide you through the fields when we have them. Do not replace your existing mailbox MX records or add a second SPF record at the same name.
- Verify the sending domain. Set the display name to American Home Range and, for ordinary listing reminders, use [email protected] as the reply-to address.
- Test delivery and replies before activating reminders. Member-message notifications should direct members back to their private conversation rather than inviting a reply to your support inbox.
Sender documentation: domain verification and sending subdomains. Records must come from your own provider account; this guide does not contain guessed DNS values.
Delivery choices and listing photos
Sellers can save delivery defaults on their producer profile and choose whether an individual ad uses those defaults or its own options. Options include door-to-door delivery, named towns/ZIP codes, a radius from a public town/ZIP, meeting in town, local pickup locations, and shipping. Search should include the areas a seller serves, not only their home town. A live radius search needs a location lookup service; the preview matches named towns and ZIP codes.
Directory and Marketplace cards use the original playing-card proportions with consistent sizing at a given screen size, the same full-width featured-photo space, and a short description. Clicking opens the full description. Photos shown in this design are illustrative examples; the intended source is the seller’s own uploads. Text-only listings are permitted. Sellers may alternatively choose the AHR farm-family illustration, clearly labeled “AHR generic image,” or upload their own photos. The generic illustration is never applied automatically. Seller photos allow one featured image and up to four additional images (five total), with small indicators for additional photos. A card with no photo keeps the same space. The full gallery preserves the original image proportions.
Your part: review the choices and sample cards. No image account is required to try the local photo preview.
My part before launch: private authenticated uploads, server-enforced five-image and file-size/type limits, safe image decoding, metadata/GPS stripping, photo storage access rules, featured-image selection, and photo retention when ads expire.
Preview before publishing
The seller flow is Create or edit → Preview card and full listing → Back to editing, Save draft, or Publish. Drafts stay private and a preview does not publish. In this prototype, saved drafts and simulated publication last only until you leave or reload; permanent owner-only draft storage and real publication require the backend.
4. Turn on the listing lifecycle and seller email delivery
Prepared in source: shared renewal, inquiry, and ISO email templates and preference controls; repeat-safe eligibility rules; a server-only delivery adapter; and an outbox schema. Before launch, connect these to permanent member accounts, saved messages and listings, the chosen transactional email sender, and a scheduled queue processor. None of these emails are being sent yet.
Review the three seller email types →
- Listings last one calendar month. Sellers can renew during the final 14 days.
- Renewal extends from the current expiration date and preserves the original Listed date. A separate Availability confirmed date updates.
- Reminders are scheduled 14, 7, and 3 days before expiration. Renewal cancels old-cycle reminders.
- Expired listings disappear from public results and remain privately saved for their owner.
- Relisting reuses the saved ad, optionally edited, with a new Listed date and one-month expiration.
- “Mark sold out / End now” removes an offering immediately. The producer’s directory profile remains visible.
Your part: review the reminder wording and date policy. Proposed expiration cutoff: midnight at the start of the displayed expiration date, using America/Denver for the initial system. We can choose a different policy before launch.
My part: enforce expiration in public searches even if a scheduled job is delayed; run repeat-safe reminder jobs, record delivery results, and stop reminders for ended or renewed listings. Emails link to a signed-in review screen; opening a link alone never renews an ad.
5. Test with a small group before opening registration
| You’ll test | I’ll verify |
|---|---|
| Join as a buyer and producer, receive emails, publish a sample listing, send a sample inquiry, and decide whether the experience feels right. | Ownership permissions, privacy, email confirmation, blocked accounts, expired links, spam limits, report handling, scheduled-job retries, renewal dates, archived ads, and relisting. |
| Approve community rules, privacy wording, reporting expectations, and the people invited to the pilot. | Provide moderation tools, backup/restore and retention arrangements, deletion flows, and a launch checklist. |
When the pilot passes, we’ll connect the agreed public domain and open browsing intentionally. Private contact details stay protected by account permissions.
Owner moderation & signup rules
Review hiding posts, private warnings, suspending accounts, removing account access, and a private action history using fictional examples. New-member signup now shows the complete AHR Community Rules with the handshake image and requires acknowledgment before continuing in the preview.
Try owner moderation controls →
Live owner-only authorization, stored acknowledgments, moderation enforcement, and private notices must be connected before launch.
Where things stand today
Ready to review: member screens, a Looking For form based on the buyer template, seller request-alert preferences and matching previews, two discovery paths, a sample seller dashboard, calendar-month renewal/expiration rules, saved-ad editing and relisting, and reminder email previews.
Still to connect: production hosting/sign-in, database and photo storage, messaging, automated email, background scheduling, moderation, and public access.
Guide prepared October 29, 2026. Service plans and limits should be rechecked when we connect them.