The “condition” to get the free gift is (and always has been) to be an active beta tester. Being active means simply trying out all of the features we release, offering useful feedback and reporting any bugs you experience. We have always wanted (and needed) to find REAL users with a REAL desire to see the project be successful.
Now, this is not going to be a popular post with some people but we’re not going to provide any sort of “beta checklist”. We have asked several times that people only looking for a free gift with no real passion for the project to please move on because they would likely not qualify anyway and just end up unsatisfied. We’ve always known that only a dedicated few would really jump into the fray with us and actively participate in all stages of the beta.
Our advice to all beta promotion participants is to simply jump in if you like what we’re doing. If not, please just don’t use it and maybe the others participating in the process will help shape a product you’ll want to use in the future. If you become a truly active user of the product the beta period should end with a nice little reward for you.
Here are a few answers to some other beta promotion related questions:
How do you know if I am active?
Your beta invite included a link that was encoded to track your use of the site. We will define active members based on their usage of the product features by using this tracking code.
What if I do everything but a technical glitch causes my tracking not to report?
We’ll do our best to avoid this but we can’t claim to be perfect. If there are disputes at the end of the beta we’ll do our best to resolve them fairly but our judgment will have to be final.
I don’t like it! Isn’t this whole thing kinda arbitrary?
We don’t mean to sound arrogant with this comment at all, but if you don’t like it, please just don’t try to participate. We have not taken a penny from you and we will not spam you, infect your computer with a virus, steal your facebook login, sell your name or do anything else to harm you. Seriously, if we had to give a gift to every person that blows into our site and posts a comment that 100 other people have already posted we’d be out of business in less than 24 hours. We look forward to sending beta gifts to people who give us some honest time and feedback but if you’re only here for the gift, you’re the last person we want to send one to because you are not helping reach our common goal at all.
I’ve been waiting on a t-shirt for 6 months. It’s a scam! You suck!
That’s not really a question but we’ve heard it more than a few times. If we were a scam, we would have long ago sold our database of sign-ups to some spammers for a pretty penny and started something new. We can assure you that nothing here is a scam. That said, we made several product development missteps along the way and, as previously documented, we had to re-tool things very late in the process. We hate it and we agree that we have sucked badly up to this point. Our new direction is showing promise and we hope it works. All we can do now is try to suck less in the future.
We hope you find this information useful. We figure a certain amount of flaming will follow but, to be totally honest, if you can’t appreciate the candor and inherent truths in this post, we were really just never meant for each other :-/
Post by: JT
Posts
28 comments:
i think this is well said. a lot of people want something for nothing, but i can honestly tell you that i forgot there was even a gift involved. i just love the idea of being part of making lifefitter a really great and useful site. the people who just want a gift will eventually disappear and the ones who are left will take pride in the great site they helped create.
informative post...thanks :)
I'll be honest, my attention was grabbed by the offer of free stuff. But, watching the development of Startlike, hearing the concept of Lifefitter, and reading though your blogs, I'm impressed with what you're doing and what you're trying to accomplish. I hope that I'll be able to help in a meaningful way to get things moving forward.
jason, my thoughts exactly. one other concern i had/have was regarding security. the startlike application has access to some important info (facebook login, email login...). when the offer of "free stuff" is attached to: just enter your password here, flags go up. this blog post helped calm those fears a bit. thanks.
I am happy to see some new posts no matter what they say. I am sure that I probably will not get any of the "free stuff" as I am located in the middle of nowhere but am interested in the idea behind this site. I hope that this succeeds and wish you good luck...
Free Stuff or no free stuff, what drew me to your project was the concept behind it.
I want to find other people in my area, or who will be in my area, who share my interests. I want a way to be able to CONFIRM their level of ability.
So if post somewhere that I am doing a 3-day, 3-peak climb in my Western Maine mountains as preperation for an assent of Mt. Washington in NH, then I want passionate, fun, SKILLED people who are interested in joining in.
If I'm going to be traveling in Oregon, I'd like to hook up with a climbing/hiking party who can look at my climbing resume and determine if I am a good fit to join them.
That's what I envision. I hope that matches with your vision for your project.
So show me where I'll be able to post my hiking/climbing resume with the pics to verify, because I'm planning now for what Western Maine and NH mountains are first on my list.
As far as the swag - I have a pretty nice collection of packs from L.L. Beans. I won't say no to gifts, but... I'm geared up already. lol
I greatly enjoy your candor. As said above, I will be thrilled by any free stuff that comes my way. But really, I'm just a huge fan of the outdoors and love the idea of sharing pictures, stories, and advice with like-minded people. In between trips, I hope this site will help feed my hunger and give me ideas for what to do and where to go next!
A few questions:
How do I leave comments so that you know who I am as a beta tester? I did not register as a beta tester with a google account...
Also (a question and general feedback), how do I know what I should actually be testing? The emails I have received have only mentioned trying the starlike homepage. Is there something else I should be checking out? Communication seems to be a little poor (or I'm just missing something).
Thought we were getting bcd's but still like the site. Photos are great (except the snake)
Thought we were getting bcd's but still like the site, except the snake!
This is a great beta test for people who love the outdoors. case and point you need to be passionate about this stuff to care.
bri
This page is great for those only wanting "something" for free. What about the great pictures daily, or the info given, the chance to be a part of something that is totally helpful to those of use that actually love the outdoors and our lives revolve around them? Isn't all of that "free" stuff. LOL It's all in the way one looks at things.
I just don't see many "features" at all. The pictures are great and it is a handy portal to Facebook. There just isn't much else.
The features are coming as fast as we can devlop them. Currently we have search, news, my links, discussions, save & share and upload your own photos.
As for the methods to providing feedback, we are active on the discussion boards and we also have a feedback link at the bottom of each channel page where members can post feedback/questions/praise etc and vote on the feedback posted by others.
Hope this helps.
I agree with Jordan. The whole point is to provide as much feedback as possible to get this site as good as possible. For some reason, I check this site multiple times daily, but I keep forgetting about that darn gift. I must have some glitch in my selfish circuits.
Its sad that some people sign up for things simply for the :free stuff". What drew me to be an active beta user was the idea that this would be a website dedicated just for the outdoors. Its great fun to hear people's stories and comment on the pictures. Truthfully, the participation in this whole process to me, is much more fun than just getting some free stuff for doing nothing! Great Job guys and keep it up!!
I'm glad you guys pointed this out. It all does seem a little arbitrary, but in your defense, this method pretty much will make sure that only the people who care about the site will actually participate.
im new to the site it seem cool
I love the beautiful pictures and the fact that it actually tells you were it was taken. The idea of creating a blogging network right on a homepage is great. I joined meetup groups and other clubs trying to meet new people for outdoor activities but no one ever actually comments or blogs on those pages so there is little interaction. so far so good.
Being a female Hunter I enjoy seeing the pictures of the deer and wildlife. Wonderful Photography by some!
Thanks so much for makign this possible and as far as a checklist goes?? Who needs it if you really are interested in the things you say you are!
Thank you for saying this! I think you are headed in the right direction. It would be nice to know what kind of feedback you want, but I use your home page and love the pics and the little ditties about the features on the pic. I do agree with other posters though, that a full-size page would be nice, and that a toolbar would get more hits. Hope this is helpful!
Communication is everything!
The Blog reads fine and it seems like a rehash of what has been said over the last 6-months. I think many of us are upset that the Beta Testing has gone one for, what seems like, forever and with no clear end in sight or definite date when Beta 'gifts' will be delivered. Not that it's all about the the free sh#t. And, as far as beta testing, I agree...it is hard to deciifer what actually constitues 'beta testing'. I have Startlike as my home page and love the new picture everyday but do I need to post "Yup, got the new picture today" everyday in order to make my Beta Test quota? Free stuff or not, I am at least getting some great ideas of places to visit via the Startlike page and, for that, I am thankful.
Okay. Here's one thing I'd like to see.
Photo categorized/labeled database. At the FB portal, I uploaded a Glacier NP panorama, but am hesitant to post photos to a site (FB) that claims to own MY pictures!
Could you do a similar feature through Starlike.com where I can upload cool NATURE/SCENIC photos with location labels, and maybe see where other folks have been? [I think there's value in pre-viewing a planned camping/hiking expedition]. Plus, fun new photos to copy and paste for my Wallpaper, etc.
feeling stupid after "discovering" the Startlike Image Archive.
How do I get a pict in your archive???
I don't even know if i have that link anymore I waited like a month for the link in the first place and then nothing was ever really posted and I had no idea where to post comments/notes when I found glitches so i think the development of this site/company was pretty low quality
Post a Comment