Loading Profile...
SMS users can't see my location name?
My friends who are using this service via SMS say they can't see the name of the place where I'm checking in.
Some background: I've been using Brightkite for awhile now. All my friends use Dodgeball. I tried to get them to test out another service, but they weren't interested. Then google dropped the news that Dodgeball is getting canned, so they all were willing to sign up for Brightkite again.
On Dodgeball, when you check in from a location, your SMS friends get a message saying "Kimberley has checked in at Remedy Teas." and the address follows. My friends are saying that all they see is the address of where I'm checking in from, which is useless to them since they of course don't have the addresses of different bars/coffeeshops/etc. memorized.
I've only used Brightkite via the iphone app or the mobile site, both of which show the names. But my friends don't have data plans on their phones - they require a service which will show the location name via SMS vs. the address.
I have them all set to trusted friends and have my privacy set to public for everything, so I don't think it's a setting I can change on my end. Is there something they'd need to change on their end to see the location name?
If not, I hope this is a pending feature for the future... 'cause without a name displayed via SMS, none of them are willing to use Brightkite :/
Some background: I've been using Brightkite for awhile now. All my friends use Dodgeball. I tried to get them to test out another service, but they weren't interested. Then google dropped the news that Dodgeball is getting canned, so they all were willing to sign up for Brightkite again.
On Dodgeball, when you check in from a location, your SMS friends get a message saying "Kimberley has checked in at Remedy Teas." and the address follows. My friends are saying that all they see is the address of where I'm checking in from, which is useless to them since they of course don't have the addresses of different bars/coffeeshops/etc. memorized.
I've only used Brightkite via the iphone app or the mobile site, both of which show the names. But my friends don't have data plans on their phones - they require a service which will show the location name via SMS vs. the address.
I have them all set to trusted friends and have my privacy set to public for everything, so I don't think it's a setting I can change on my end. Is there something they'd need to change on their end to see the location name?
If not, I hope this is a pending feature for the future... 'cause without a name displayed via SMS, none of them are willing to use Brightkite :/
I’m confused
1
person has this question
I have this question, too!
Tell me when someone answers.
The more people who ask this question, the more it gets noticed.
The more people who ask this question, the more it gets noticed.
Create a customer community for your own organization
Plans starting at $19/month
-
Inappropriate?Hi groovinkim, can I get your Brighkite username?
1 person says
this answers the question
-
Inappropriate?ah yes, i'm xaotica. http://brightkite.com/people/xaotica -
Inappropriate?Okay, I sent you a friend request. When you get a chance can you checkin at one of the locations that isn't sending the place name over SMS?
1 person says
this answers the question
-
Inappropriate?ack, sorry... after further grilling a friend via IM, i misunderstood their problem. apparently the issue is one that you likely already know about... when i check in from one of the places that is not already in brightkite's database (for example, oddfellows - http://www.yelp.com/biz/oddfellows-ca...) or my house, which is one of my placemarks, they aren't seeing the name.
it just occurred to me that from what i can tell you guys just pull from google, so i could just add the missing places to google maps myself. i just did that for oddfellows.
my friends don't have data on their phones though, so they wouldn't be able to go to google and submit that data while they're out and about. so they need a way to check in via sms using the name of a place which does not yet exist in the database. dodgeball would let users do this, keep a record of the name they'd used, and then they could go back later on and when they added the place via the web it would automatically link it to their checkin.
this has probably already been floated as a suggestion and i missed it, but it would definitely mollify them if they were allowed to check in via a name that doesn't exist yet.
there could also be a public running list of places that people had signed in from that don't exist in the database yet, and a link to google local and a description of how they could add that place to the google database themselves. that way people who have free time on their hands could be put to work entering locations in the database and it'd make brightkite easier to use for everyone ;)
in dodgeball everyone was used to checking in from their house to indicate that they wanted people to come over. a lot of us live in large houses (ie i have 6 roommates) and we regularly host movie nights, video game nights, etc. so for example i'd check in from zhouse with a comment, and dodgeball would send all my friends @zhouse, 988 21st ave, "come over and watch movies at 8pm!"
unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to do this on brightkite... nobody sees my placemark names, they just get the address. -
Inappropriate?Oh, I see. We do have an option for users to create custom labels via the website and this label will share over SMS when you check in there. To do so you would just enter the following in our place search:
1234 address [insert custom label here]
You can do this to label your home address or to label businesses that don't show up in the search yet, but the addresses are available. Then you can placemark these labeled locations to make future checkins much easier.
We're looking into the option to create these labels over SMS, but unfortunately we don't have an ETA on that just yet.
EMPLOYEE
