Isaac Z. Schlueter's dashboard

I've been on chi.mp for a while, and I did some data importing back before things were as nice and clean as they are now.

Here's what I want:

1. Delete all my contacts.
2. I'll upload my AddressBook data.
3. If any of those people are chi.mp users, let me know.

I have hundreds of duplicates, and now it only sees 3 of my chi.mp connections (I still see myself on their pages, though. ??)

It's getting better, but it's still pretty broken.

Let us add our city if it's not on the list. If it's close to something that a lot of other people use, suggest that.

Saying that I'm in San Francisco is a bit wrong, since I hardly ever leave Silicon Valley.

I frequently dream of using chi.mp domain as my url shortening service. This is what I dream of when I use tr.im and bit.ly. It is a dream that makes my heart rejoice, and my eyes weep the joyful tears of a thousand happy spring mornings.

This is how my dream goes.

I load up http://isaac.mp/urls/minify?url=http:...

Occasionally, I am greeted by a "log in" screen, where I have to enter my password. This is a minor annoyance, but well worth the security of keeping ruffians from using isaac.mp as if it were their own. If I'm already logged in, of course, in my dream, it skips to the next step.

Sometimes, rather than use my web browser at all, I instead send an authenticated request from a software application. I curl to http://isaac.mp/url/minify?url=...&fo... and I specify my username and password in the -u parameter.

As if by magic, the long url is stored to a database. In the status box, I see a tiny url, like http://isaac.mp/x. I type my comments, and post the status update to Twitter and Facebook and, of course, my chi.mp status as well. (When curled, it simply outputs the shortened URL in a convenient format.)

When my friends and family and lovers and stalkers see my words of encouragement and delight on Twitter and Facebook and Chi.mp, they wonder, "What is this site that Isaac has said such witty and interesting things about? Yea, I shall click the link and investigate!"

They click the link, which links to http://isaac.mp/x. Lo! they are directed, by way of a great and mighty 301 status and a Location: header, to the original URL, the one that I'd longed to tweet!

Hours, days, perhaps even weeks or months pass by. I begin to wonder, "What ever happened with that site I'd been so inspired by? How were my comments received? Which of my friends saw that funny video, with the cat running its face into a piece of cardboard?"

And, wonder of wonders! I log into http://isaac.mp/urls/data, and I can see a list containing each url that I've shortened! Next to each, I see the number of redirects that have occurred (excluding my own clicks, of course) complete with referrer tracking and date/time trends. I also see like-minded chi.mps who have shortened the same link, and perhaps even view the comments that they made.

I awake from this dream refreshed and inspired. Then, with the deep regret of losing a dear friend, I remember that I do not live in this friendly personalized world. Nay, my url-shortening tasks are relegated to the cold gray world of tr.im and rurl.org and bit.ly and even, on truly terrible and lonely occasions, (gasp!) tinyurl.com.

The tears I weep upon waking are not the joyful tears of a thousand happy springs, but rather the sad tears of the saddest sadness.

Chi.mp's contact management is embarrassingly bad. I have a feeling it'll never compete with some of the other contact management systems out there. Here are some ideas that would make it screamingly awesome like a monkey on fire.

1. Integrate with my Addressbook using iSync, or Outlook using ActiveConnect, or with Google/Yahoo/Plaxo contacts using either OpenSocial or whatever APIs they expose. Not just a single import, but a true sync that does a two-way update every so often. Then I could update things in the addressbook that I already use, and have it update in chi.mp automagically.

2. Look for people that I might know based on the people in my contacts in chi.mp. Every so often, do a search based on my contacts list, and send me a message telling me that some people on my contact list are in chi.mp.

2a. Allow me to opt out of being discovered, so that I can "hide" from contacts if I'd like. The flip side of this should be that then I don't get the auto discovery, either. (Ie, publicity should be a community that you must be part of to gain benefit from.)

2b. Of course the "message" telling me that people are available should also be opt-out-able, so that I can choose to either get an email or a message on the site, etc.

3. Export my contacts easily as either a big blob of vcf goodness, or using OpenSocial restful APIs, or an OPML feed of anyone who has a url or chi.mp page associated with them.

4. When I add a connection on Chi.mp, make sure that my addressbook gets updated with their info. This is key! The whole idea of chi.mp should be that identity and contact information is managed by each individual, and not by all the recipients. If you can sync with my addressbook, then I don't have to be annoyed whenever a friend gets a new phone number; it'll just update, and I'll have the right one in my phone without any effort.

It would be good if you could update a data service's settings without having to delete the whole thing.

I just changed my twitter username, and now have to wait for it to re-import all that stuff.

Similar to: http://getsatisfaction.com/chimp/topi...

I'd like to upload an image to be used as the favicon on my chi.mp domain.