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DIRECTION
8/27/06 12:12 P
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It is a Hotmail account I use. Okay I will wait and see what happens.
I will check out that Shopping link. Thanks.(and on a Sunday!)
Big smile here. (you are awesome)
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I SEE ALOT OF LEADERS HERE SO I HAVE A QUESTION TO ASK NOT RELATED TO THE TOPIC.
I STOPPED GETTING MY SPARK EMAILS. I GET THE ONES FROM THE TEAMS BUT THE ONE WITH ALL THE INFORMATION IN THEM I AM NOT GETTING. I CHECKED AND IT SAYS I AM STILL REGISTED TO GET THEM BUT I HAVEN'T GOT ANY SINCE FRIDAY. ANY SUGGESTIONS?
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DJHEILMANN
8/27/06 11:32 A
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Thanks for the comments Direction. With regards to your questions:
- We do have a "Shopping Club" page with links to a few other sites, where if you use our link and buy something SparkPeople earns some revenue to keep the site going. You can click here for the page.
- With emails, we think we may be having some deliverability problems with Hotmail, where they are blocking some messages. Do you use Hotmail/MSN mail? We plan to get in touch with them on Monday.
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DIRECTION
8/27/06 10:45 A
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Thegoodlife has made some good points.
This site is a life saver, the banner ad may be sold to a company that provides items that could be of great value to you.
Thegoodlife mentioned
'other measures that generate revenue. '
I know I have come across different sites where there is a shopping source page and links to items.
When a member buys something through clicking through the link a portion of the revenue goes to the originating lead to site (Sparkpeople).
Personally it would save me time and trouble seeking out these items I am interested in. Most of which I have heard mentioned here on the site.
On a side note I haven't received any daily emails
since the 25th.
I have received my thread reply notices but not the daily ones. Could this be related to one of the upgrades to the site?
Thanks for everything!
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| Love the changes Dave! Especially being able to reply directly to people's blog entries. Will the community journals eventually be phased out? I haven't started one yet, but I plan on becoming a community team member next month and I know having one is a requirement.
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| Thanks Dave, don't know how I missed that one! :)
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Hi everyone
Thanks for all of your comments about the banners, we appreciate your feedback and definitely take that into account!
One of the toughest things about running a site as complex as SparkPeople is that it does cost us in the millions of dollars per year to run the site and keep improving it. Most sites aren't nearly as complex as SparkPeople to run.
As a result, we definitely need to earn revenues to keep the site running - and we do want to keep the site free because of all the people the site is helping around the world.
We will also continue to try innovative ways to do this, we're working on some other ideas now.
Thanks for all of your support, I continue to believe we could change the world and help millions of people (and start sites to help people with many other goals too)!
SparkGuy
SparkPeople Founder & CEO
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DJHEILMANN
8/25/06 9:01 A
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| Monica, you should be able to edit your signature toward the middle/lower right of your SparkPage, in edit mode.
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LAKELUREMUM
8/25/06 8:34 A
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Thanks for the banner ad that links me to the shopping page - I wish we had that link available all the time. I have made it a point to use SP for my searches and particularly for my shopping through Amazon.
~Deanne
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| The changes are nice. Thanks.
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THEGOODLIFE
8/25/06 2:10 A
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I'm OK with the banner ads for one simple reason- this site is saving my life.
I have talked to many people on the boards who wouldn't (or couldn't) be here if the site weren't free. I hope that the Spark team will consider prohibiting ads that flash or make noise, beyond that, I am happy to scroll.
p.s. I'd be willing to support other measures that generate revenue. The friends on our thread are often throwing around suggestions about health products that we find indispensable... scales, workout gear, cookbooks, etc. I'd love to see a whole section of the Spark Shopping Club dedicated to member-suggested items. There's a goldmine there.
Thank you guys for all you are doing.
-Rachael
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YAMAKARASU
8/25/06 12:12 A
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I really like the changes, particularly the blog and being able to comment on each entry. Thanks, guys! 
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I appreciate that you can now edit your Profile info and SparkPage stuff all in one place - much handier than it was previously! However... how do you change your signature now? I don't see it on my SparkPage.
(And my two cents about the banners: stop your squawking people, just scroll down. We are so lucky to have all the material underneath those banners available to us! Count that uber-strenuous scrolling finger motion as exercise for the day, if that makes you happier about it!!)
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BUFFEDSTUFF
8/24/06 10:10 P
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| I really like the changes.
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REDERICA1980
8/24/06 8:59 P
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Velodev and Shariava, I totally agree with you. I do not have any technical expertise, so I could not be as eloquent as Velodev. Like Shariava, though, I was totally disgusted to see a banner ad on the site today. In fact, i even contemplated not using this site again - period.
I totally understand the need to incorporate ads or some sort of revenue generator, but why banner ads (and why an ad that takes up so much space)? I would rather see ads in my email (so they could be ignored with greater ease).
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CURVES_N_CURLS
8/24/06 7:22 P
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VELODEV,
I like the way you worded everything, so I'll just say for the record:
I agree.
I'd pay for SparkPeople, if necessary, too. So I'm not just saying "remove the banner ads" without consideration.
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I don't mind the top banner too much though... at least it's not flashing! :)
I agree with the person who posted that right navigation might be a better spot for the banners. Maybe a "special offer of the day".
Keep up the great work. This site it the best.
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Guys, I don't really like the banners either but I think this is just because we're not used to them.
I mean, I remember the huge load of posts hating on the website being moved all to the left side of our screens. Eventually we got use to it and now it's just like it is, I'm sure most of us don't even remember how it was before.
If anything, let's just consider the fact that hosting a website this heavy and with such a huge amount of traffic costs a small fortune. Let's give this a chance and if in the future we still think the banners sucks we'll let them know.
Aldana
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Banner ads. (sigh) Necessary evil, perhaps, to keep the site free...but must they be so HUGE? I don't know if I have ever been on a website with banner ads that take up so much of the screen. I'm sorry, but it is obnoxious and distracting.
I was so sad when I logged on today and saw them. I thought for a minute I was on the wrong website. Unfortunately, I wasn't.
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DJHEILMANN
8/24/06 4:07 P
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| Velo, thanks for the very well worded and thought out comments, we will definitely keep them in mind.
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I, too, would like to voice my complaint regarding the horizontal banners in the SparkPeople template. As a web usability professional, I find them to be quite distraction and also consumer a lot of real estate in an strictly vertical layout. Major content has been pushed further down and what you're asking your user to do is scroll a hundred plus pixels to actually reach the content. So, in other words, your layout has backfired in that the banner is now hiding beneath toolbars and the user is unable to focus at all on the ad. Therefore, the banner won't attract click-thrus when it isn't even seen.
I completely understand the SparkPeople principle to keep the site free. I know the ads are sometimes a necessary evil however the implementation needs to be dealt with in a well executed manner. You might not have every user heading to the forums to voice a concern but you might have user drop-off since you're taxing their user experience.
I hate to post up only complaints so I offer two quick suggestions. Please consider using another form of ad banners. Quite a few studies already show banner blindness and in this specific case the user will be scrolling the banner out of site. There is quite a bit of vertical space in the right hand column and that would be ample space to highlight an alternative format and even allow multiple ad spaces charging different rates per impression. Or, you could offer a program where someone like myself would jump at the chance. Please consider offering the site for free with ads and also offer the site for a nominal charge without ads. You could even bump it a bit and include a t-shirt, etc.
As a user of several months, let me tell you that I find SparkPeople to be absolutely necessary in my goal of weigh loss and fitness. However, it was very frustrating this morning to see a new format released today that subtracted from its usability.
Thank you for the hard work that you do and understand my post is meant for the betterment of the current site.
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DJHEILMANN
8/24/06 3:21 P
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Hi Aldana, that's not a dead link....simply a heading for the section of all the ways you can use to connect with a user....such as adding as a friend, sending a SparkMail, etc. Glad you like the new features!
Also, you're right on the "house" ads. A lot of sites do this too, when they have not sold an ad space, they show something else that they think their users will find helpful related to their own site. It's like when an ad on a TV sitcom promotes the station's nightly news or another TV show.
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Hey, first of all, thanks for all the new features, they're very handy!!
Also, I saw a dead link to something reading: "Connect to 'username'" what's that about?! IM maybe??
I think they're leaving the banner showcase SP info while they get some sponsors, so not to show a dead space with the sign: FOR SALE on it.
Aldana
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SAKUYA3834
8/24/06 2:32 P
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| Yeah, I agree about the banner ads. I have quite a large resolution on (1024x1280 or whatever it is) and the ads are still quite large and distracting. They are especially distracting when they are advertising the site... I would understand if they were all third party ads to generate money, but why do you need to advertise the site that we are on on the banner ads? I just think that's kinda distracting and doesn't make much sense.
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REDERICA1980
8/24/06 2:26 P
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| I have to agree with NAPPYHEADED! I cannot stand the banner at the top of the screen. Is there any way for a user to disable this feature? I love the SP site otherwise!
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SHOPSWAFIST
8/24/06 12:36 P
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| I would like to keep a link to my Community Journal also, I much prefer the Community Journal, and used the link to find it myself. With all the time and effort already invested into my journal, I'd just rather not use the "blog".
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NAPPYHEADED
8/24/06 12:19 P
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i realize that Spark probably has to try to generate income but i find the banner ads take up a considerable amount of screen real estate and are thus very distracting.
thanks for all that you do, though!
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LAKELUREMUM
8/24/06 11:27 A
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Such quick response! It's working now.
Thanks,
Deanne
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LAKELUREMUM
8/24/06 11:25 A
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One other slight problem, the link to my Community Journal thread is no longer available on my SparkPage. This was the quickest way for me to get to this thread. I am not sure I want to "blog".
If I choose to make a journal entry and add it to "my blog" - does it make just that journal entry part of my blog, or does it open up my entire journal to the blog?
I think the enhancements are great - as a team leader, I really like being able to send one spark mail out to all members of my team!
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Hi!
I think this should be working for you now...give it another shot!
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DJHEILMANN
8/24/06 11:14 A
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| Thanks for the note Deanne, we should be able to fix that in the next hour or so.
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LAKELUREMUM
8/24/06 11:06 A
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Dave, I cannot edit my Spark Page as of this morning - I keep getting a no HTML error message when I have not made any changes other than to ask that My Spark Page be my default Start Page.
~Deanne
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CAROLWILSON
8/24/06 11:01 A
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Wow Thanks!! I love being able to mass sparkmail, I also like the fact we can make comments on each others "blogs". It is also wonderful to be able to do more from our sparkpages, it makes them more useful.
Thanks again,
Carol Wilson
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DJHEILMANN
8/24/06 10:48 A
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Hey everyone
We launched a few enhancements today that I wanted to let people know about:
1) Ability to send a SparkMail message to your SparkPage friends
When editing your SparkPage (or viewing your page when you are logged in), you can click the "Send SparkMail to Friends" button on the upper right of the page. This will bring up the page to compose a SparkMail message, with the usernames of everyone who has added you as a friend listed. You can unselect anyone you don't want the message to go to. We hope this helps you stay in better touch with your SparkPeople friends. Also, if you add new pictures or make other changes to your SparkPage, you can use this feature to announce your changes to your friends.
2) Making the public journal a Blog
The main change here is that there is now the ability to leave comments on individual journal entries, in addition to comments on an entire SparkPage. We are renaming the public journal to a "blog" as part of this, since blogs allow comments. If you also use the message board Community Journal Forum, you can feel free to still use that. However, we're recommending that people start using the blog on their SparkPage instead.
3) Ability for Team Leaders to send a SparkMail to everyone on their SparkTeam.
This works very similar to sending a SparkMail to your SparkPage friends. Team Leaders can click the "Send SparkMail to Team" button when editing their Team page, or when viewing their Team page while logged in.
We also made a few other smaller changes. First, on the main SparkPages tab/page, we redesigned the page to have a featured page each day, and also show more recently added SparkPages. Second, you can now edit your Message Board Profile fields (interests, board signature, boa | |
