That was Fatboooonned!!

Even with all of the backlash we've received for our skateboarding network, these guys decided to film a little Fatboneage.

Take :30 sec to watch:

Platform Progress Update

I thought I would take a few moments to go over some of the features we are working on for the platform and answer one of the more burning questions that we have encountered in the forums since this whole process began.

If you’ve been keeping up with us, you know that our goal is to help our users create strong, new friendships. One of the ways in which we hope to do that is by encouraging members to join each other on dives, bike rides, hikes, or whatever else your passion involves. I mean, who couldn’t use another fishing buddy right? To that end, we’ve created an application we call “Connections” to make it all happen. Here is a screenshot of a Connection on TrailGrind.

*Please note - we are using TrailGrind (mountain biking) as the example. If you are waiting on a different brand in our Active Lifestyle Channel everything will be customized for your affinity.*



As you can see from the other links on this page the platform has all of the basic social network tools along with the info needed to connect a group on an upcoming trail ride including the place, date, time, and a description. It also includes handy tools like a “Comments” section and a “People Connecting” area for getting to know who you might be riding with, should you decide to join.

So looks simple right? Why are we seeking beta testers so aggressively instead of just rolling it out and building as we go? Before I answer that let me take a moment and try to explain just how important Connections are to the platform and how it separates us from other sites you know.

The biggest difference between the Lifefitter platform and a generic social network is our goal to help you make NEW friends versus just keeping in touch with existing friends. To accomplish this goal the Connections application must facilitiate this process but before that can happen, it takes PEOPLE using the platform.

We have modeled the Connections application similar to match making utilities on dating websites but instead of helping you find a suitable dinner companion, we want to help you meet other mountain bikers (or SCUBA Divers, or Cyclists, or whatever your passion is).

Web history has taught us that when dating websites fail to attract a large and active membership base very quickly they fail 99.9% of the time. So to go back to the original question of: "Why are we seeking beta testers so aggressively"? Simply stated, just like a dating website we need enough members on each affinity/brand to create connections for you from day 1. If we don't have a good base of beta members there won't be any connections and you won't find much utility in the site. So, we decided to launch the beta invite process early and aggressively solicit invite requests.

Some of you who requested your invite early in the process are already getting anxious. We get a lot of "what the hell is going on?" emails. This is the first time we have shared exactly what we are up to with our Connections application and we hope you can appreciate the need for an extended beta marketing push and we ask that you please be patient. We have setup Pages on facebook for every brand and we invite you to use these pages and connect with other prospective beta members as we all await the platform.

We are doing our best to promote the upcoming release and get as many people signed up as possible and we would love for you to help. Some of you are participating in the viral MSA promotion which is really helping to spread the word and help us get that much needed large membership base. We appreciate that. For those that were not interested in MSA, we would still really appreciate it if you tell your friends by emailing or posting a link to the site...every little bit helps.

We will continue the pre-marketing push aggressively until there are enough people sitting on go to make a run at this thing. We hope you will remain excited about the platform and be ready to jump in and use it on day 1.

Here are a few more screenshots of the Connection application tools so you can view, create, search, and manage all of your connections.





So, thoughts? Comments? Dislikes? Let’s hear it. After all, we are here to provide you with an exciting, useful tool that will encourage you to grow your friendship tree tall and wide. Thanks for dropping by and checking out what we’ve been up to. Anyone in Columbia want to play a couple of sets at Hampton Circle tomorrow? :)


Post by: Josh

T-Shirts, T-Shirts, T-Shirts

Everyone loves a new t-shirt right? We love 'em even more if they are free.

We are now up to 18 brands taking beta invite requests and we need a large enough test group to populate the database and test some of our more advanced features that rely heavily on the network effect. So, we have aggregated all of our brands onto 1 page and you can request invites for any that match your interests.

http://www.lifefitter.com/tshirts/?s=6

We do ask that you only request invites for sites that match your interests because to actually get the shirt you will be required to use the site features, post some good content, make a few friends and report any bugs. It's really easy if you have a passion for the network but it would be a pain if you're just trying to score some free threads. So please be considerate and save beta invites for people who really want them.

In the next week or so we hope to post our first "Development Update" here on the blog and show the world what we have been working on. We think the features are really coming together well and we are excited to show everyone what we've been cooking. In the meantime, head over to the link above and get on the invite list for any brands you're interested in.


Post by: Jeff