textReminders v1.0

For quite some time I’ve just been randomly updating the blog with development news. I’ve decided to start versioning the changes so everyone knows what exact has changed. So while the site has undergone over a year of changes, I’m going to name this version 1.0 for simplicity. So what changed in V1.0?

• Home page change - updated the home page graphic to what you see above
• Groups - removed “recent activity” tab for the time being, status for non-members now reads correctly
• Forums - Recent activity now cites new Discussions, not just comments
• Cookies - Fixed an issue where one would be logged out if switching between www version and non-www version

TextReminders continues to improve both visually and functionally. Today’s improvements focused once again on the profile image. Any users still using the default profile pic will be presented with the option to choose from one of 13 new icons. They, as well as all members, can also choose to upload an actual picture of themselves at any time by clicking the “settings” button in the left navigation, then by selecting the “edit picture” link. All users can also access the new icons by going to the same, “edit picture” page.

October Updates

Well, it’s October and I’m finally starting to get some time to devote to textReminders again. Here are a few of the recent changes.

1. New Blog Look
2. Updated image icons
3. Black background around profile images fixed
4. Profile image zoom is not top instead of center
5. A new, “view all groups” link in the footer area
6. Groups Summary paragraph added to the, “Create a group” section
7. Incorrect Timezone fixed on the “View Reminders Calendar”
8. Default Profile Image updated
9. 2300 members. woot!

textReminders Help Forum

A new area of the web site has been created to help members use the site; the textReminders Help Forum.

The help forum is setup as a discussion group to answer common questions members might have. Members are encouraged to ask questions, leave comments and help other members as well. As time passes this area of the web site will be a valuable resource for both new and experienced members.

1k members for textReminders!

3 days ago textReminders reached it’s 1,000th member! woohoo!!

Thanks to everyone for using the service, I’m hoping that we’ll reach our 2,000th member in half the time.

I’m currently working on a redesign of the web site. It’ll be a much cleaner, professional look that should be done in a week or two.

Some members have cited a problem receiving their verification text message. If you’re having trouble getting your confirmation code, please leave a comment below or get in touch with me through our contact form. I can’t recreate the error on my side, so I’m looking for users to help me identify the problem.

Thanks everyone!

New Groups Functionality

groups-new-features

I’ve added several new features to the groups section of the site, which I’ll get into shortly. To start out, I’ll just run through all the features from left to right as depicted in the image.

• Add additional members
• Send all members a text message (new)
• Remove members (new)
• Setup textReminders for members (new, but not fully working yet)
• Edit group information (new)
• Delete group

As you can see, groups were badly lacking some necessary functionality. haha. Tomorrow I’ll be setting up the “group reminders” feature, as well as reworking look and feel of the groups pages. If I have time I’ll add some functionality for group members who are not the creator.

Feedback appreciated.

you’ve got mail

So I quickly redid the mail area on the site. It’s been a while since I addressed it, and after sending a few messages back and forth with a friend I realized I had enough of the crappy layout. So it’s more gmail like now. As with everything, it’s just a basic makeover, nothing jaw-dropping yet. More to come here.

In other news…
I’ve added first and last names under friends pics in the right nav and several other areas. I also made a few other minor tweaks.

I’d actually like to spend some time on the groups, but I’m having a hard time laying out what I want to create, and as you know, without a good blueprint it’s just a waste of time. I’ll soon finish up the “mail” area, then address a few other problem areas on the site. Feedback is appreciated.

Dysfunctional Groups

So it seems that I made a mistake to release the groups feature without proper QA, then I went on a 2 week break from the site. Sooooo, I’m afriad to say that members may have gotten a less then ideal experience with the groups. That’s the bad news…

The good news is that I fixed everything, so it should be working well now. Trust me, everything on the site will get a brand new look with new functionality as time permits, but I first want to make sure that the basics of each area of the site work well at very least.

not getting reminders?

If you’ve noticed a lack of text reminders coming out from the site today, it’s because we’re having some problems with the host right now. Best guess is that when I enabled the “you can now respond to reminders” feature yesterday, it somehow screwed up the part of the site that sends out reminders - go figure.

So I’ve been emailing my host back and forth and they finally fixed the issue, but instead of sending out reminders every 5 mins, they set it to send out every min. So where people weren’t getting their reminders at all earlier, now they’re getting their reminders every min for 5 mins - well we couldn’t have that, so I just disabled the outgoing text reminders until we can get the issue under control.

I apolgoize for the inconvenience. It’s why I insisted on adding “beta” to the logo. heh

A missing Nav spot

One of the cool things about creating a site is that I get to play with all the new features I’m building before I release it to the public. Well, I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but there’s a nice little space carved out in the secondary navigation. The new spot is for the “groups” feature coming soon. The idea is to connect with friends on the site who share similar interests. This makes it easy to communicate with everyone at once. I’m planning on using it to keep the guys in my wedding party informed about tux info. I’m also going to set one up for my weekly Bible study, so we can share ideas and discuss thing that might come up.

More to come.