Mark's dashboard

Mark set one of Mark's replies as an official response to "SSL certificate expires today (June 20)" in Shizzow

Mark replied on June 20, 2009 23:06 to the problem "SSL certificate expires today (June 20)" in Shizzow:

All fixed now, thanks for the heads up!

-Mark

Mark replied on February 26, 2009 00:17 to the idea "Feature request: List of favorite places by number of shouts by individual and city" in Shizzow:

Rick,

Awesome ideas! Definitely great! This is -exactly- the kind of thing we were hoping to be able to fuel with our API (hint to any developers looking for an idea)!

Mark set one of Mark's replies as an official response to "Can't shout from Holladay Park" in Shizzow

Mark replied on August 28, 2008 22:07 to the problem "Can't shout from Holladay Park" in Shizzow:

Ah, I see the confusion.. Just because a place shows up in the list doesn't actually mean it's in our database already. We do a little bit of internet scouring if we don't have a place in our database and then give you the option to fine tune the information before saving it in our database (can't believe everything you read on the internet).

It's in there now, enjoy a beautiful day in the park!
http://www.shizzow.com/places/CFx0va

Thanks,
-Mark

Mark replied on August 28, 2008 21:41 to the problem "Can't shout from Holladay Park" in Shizzow:

Sure enough, we'll have to take a deeper look into what's going on here.

Thanks,
-Mark

A comment on the idea "flag for 'come join me'" in Shizzow:

Yes, but it's all in the hopes that people will come buy us drinks and distract us from work! – Mark, on August 22, 2008 16:57

Mark replied on August 19, 2008 06:16 to the idea "Elsewhere" in Shizzow:

We hear ya, and we understand. We have a laundry list of various cute "null" places to fulfill this idea (Mars, A picture of the solar system with an arrow pointing at the Earth, Your personal space, sector ZZ 9 plural zed alpha, Nagrand, Alpha Complex, off the grid, Black Mesa research center, Aperature Science Computer Aided Enrichment Center, etc. etc. etc... Somehow we completely missed "elsewhere" (which I like, and we would not have to worry about IP infringement or lawsuits).

Look for some sort of "not available" type of functionality in the future (and keep the fun names coming).

Cheers,
-Mark

Mark replied on August 19, 2008 01:34 to the idea "flag for 'come join me'" in Shizzow:

The main point of Shizzow is helping people find more quality time with their friends in a world where that seems harder to manage every day. The general idea with a shout is that your broadcasting an opportunity to connect with your friends if they are nearby and available. Generally, if people know each other, location provides some basic context (I'm at work, etc) and for something ambiguous a message can add additional context (someone shouting from a favorite location, but with a message that they are on a date celebrating their 5 year anniversary may be wanting a little privacy).

So, our take, shouts are invitations and let context lead you from there.

Cheers,
-Mark

Mark replied on August 19, 2008 01:22 to the idea "Integration with Yelp or Citysearch" in Shizzow:

I like it! I was talking with someone the other day who mentioned the same kind of thing but with a places wiki. I believe it was wikimapia.org (it's on a note in my iPhone). I like the idea of community managed datasets.

Cheers,
-Mark

Mark replied on August 19, 2008 01:12 to the idea "Option to expire shouts older than a few hours" in Shizzow:

Yes, we've thought about this and came to the conclusion that there's going to be people on both side of the fence. For example someone who's holing up for the weekend at home and doesn't want to be bothered with remembering to re-shout every 12 hours.

We decided to (in general) not do things a user hasn't specifically requested. When we get the API available people can make all sorts of apps to automate things this way and that (and everyone can choose among those apps), but we (shizzow) aren't going to force a certain way.

Cheers,
-Mark

Mark replied on August 19, 2008 01:04 to the idea "Associate places with specific computers." in Shizzow:

We've considered this idea (also that of an access point or wireless network identifying your location). As far as priorities go, I'll admit this isn't at the top of our list. However, when we get our api rolling (a higher priority) it wouldn't be too hard for someone else to tackle this kind of functionality either.

Hope that helps,
-Mark

Mark replied on August 18, 2008 18:03 to the question "Will you be using oauth for your API?" in Shizzow:

We will be requiring authentication for API calls, exactly which methods of authentication is still being discussed (oauth is definitely in consideration).

Thanks,
-Mark

Mark replied on August 13, 2008 16:17 to the problem "Shizzow bot sends messages when user is offline" in Shizzow:

Same here, bot always appears offline.

Mark replied on August 12, 2008 23:49 to the question "Managing Listeners and Listenees more effectively" in Shizzow:

I agree, that is nice functionality. The only potentially tricky part would be making the necessary database queries lightweight enough that we aren't creating a "fail whale". That's not for you to worry about though. Consider the feature request officially logged (with beta just opening, we are focusing on bug fixes over feature requests right now, but it's in the system).

Cheers,
-Mark

Mark replied on August 12, 2008 19:57 to the question "Places: Editing Tags" in Shizzow:

Our current design allows you to edit tags which -you- have given to a location, but not tags created by others. This can be done the same way new tags are added.
From the "place" page click the "Tag this place" link under "actions". In addition to adding new tags you can remove tags you have previously applied (with removing an erroneous one and adding the correction the equivilant to editing). Admittedly we could tidy this up a bit. Perhaps "Tag this place" should be changed to "Add and Edit Tags" and it would be nice to be able to edit and submit a change to a tag (making notes of all this), but the basic functionality is there.

Cheers,
-Mark

Mark replied on August 12, 2008 19:34 to the idea "Use for the "/places/" page" in Shizzow:

We are currently working on a RESTful API for the system (which would work much as you describe). We plan for end user improvements like this to be backported to the website.
The better we can present information for people to make use of, the better the system for all. Thanks for the suggestion and it's definitely on our roadmap.

Cheers,
-Mark

Mark replied on August 12, 2008 18:32 to the question "Adding a Place (Public vs. Private)" in Shizzow:

Hi Amy,

Another person asked roughly the same question this morning and I just posted my response (which I'd originally been thinking of after reading your post). Please check it out for more infomation.

Cheers,
-Mark

Mark replied on August 12, 2008 18:24 to the problem "Multiple shouts showing up as one shout on user's home page." in Shizzow:

There was a "forward looking" design decision in which we filter for "shouts, from the same location as the previous shout, within a certain time period and without a message". The reason for this is to support future devices which can auto-shout your location.
If I have a device that auto-shouts my location every 2 minutes, I don't want to spam my listeners with notifications every two minutes that I'm still where I said I was two minutes ago.
As our specs go, if you shout with a message it will bypass this filter. If a certain amount of time passes (something non-spammy where people might wonder if you are actually still there, 2 or 4 hours I believe) it bypasses the filter. Otherwise it's considered to be the "same visit" and filtered from notifications and lists.

Hope that sheds some insight,
-Mark

Mark replied on August 12, 2008 18:09 to the idea "When I click 'Listen' I shouldn't be taken away from the page I'm on." in Shizzow:

Yes, we've noticed that one as well (and even the javascript should degrade gracefully and not take you off the page). Expect a fix for that one fairly soon and thanks!

-Mark