For those members who originally requested a beta invite for a Lifefitter social network the beta promotion is still being honored.
As you probably remember, the offer was, “become an active beta tester, use the various features in our site, offer feedback and report bugs and get some sort of beta gift”. Although our product plans have changed over the past several months that’s still the plan.
About half of the beta invites been sent and hopefully the rest will be delivered in the next 30-45 days. We expect the actual beta development phase to last into next year but we will draw a line as it makes sense feature wise in mid to late summer, issue the gifts to those who qualify and close out the promotion.
Please note, there are some channels where we had no real traction (bowling, music and skateboarding for example) and for those user’s you will be invited to change into a different channel if you choose.
So, that’s where things are currently. We ask everyone to please read the previous blog posts linked below for more information.
Business Model Changes and How it Effect the Beta Promotion
Beta Promotion Gift Checklist
If you have additional questions related to the beta gift promotions please use the discussion board for this blog post to ask them. This will allow us to keep the information in one place and other participants who have similar questions and concerns can refer back to it later.
We will also expand this post from time to time as common questions come up to help centralize the information.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1) Why are you “forcing” me to change my start page to participate in the beta?
You are free to use the site as much (or as little) as you wish. Yes, we “require” the page to be used if you are trying to participate in the beta gift promotion but if you have set it as your start page and you’re not happy with it (and therefore you don’t otherwise use it) please change it back to something else. Simply changing your homepage will not result in any free gift whatsoever and we don’t want anyone to think that’s the case. We hope you will still drop in from time to time and see what’s up, and as the features improve maybe you will reconsider in the future. We want you to be happy and we certainly don’t want to "force" you into anything.
2) Was the whole beta promotion a ploy just to get Facebook fans?
No. It was a marketing plan to target people with specific interests to use our social network. We didn’t plan for the first iteration to fail and we expected to have closed the books on this a long time ago. There have been some delays but we continue to press forward. If we wanted to scam you out of your email address we would have already sold it off and moved on. We’re trying to build a good product and honor all past commitments.
For what it’s worth, we never tied being a “Facebook fan” to the beta gift promotion. We actually ran a few low dollar contests for the fans and that, combined with general viral promotion on Facebook, led to the fan growth. However, we often asked our fans to request beta invites so we certainly understand how people perceive the two as being connected.
3) How could you have ever afforded this promotion in the first place?
We knew all along that only a very small percentage of users would actively engage with a start-up social network, use all of the features, report bugs and offer genuine feedback and therfore the cost of the program was estimated to be managable. We have set aside a portion of our budget for these gift items and we still have it set aside. Will everyone get a gift? No, but we hope those that don't qualify will learn enough about the site to remain a user and maybe you'll come away with something much more valuable, a few new friends.
4) I have done everything to qualify. Where is my free gift?
Since we are actively in the beta period now it is impossible for anyone to have "done everything". For people asking this question please read this entire post along with the other blog entries linked above for clarification. If you still have a question, please post it in the comment section on this post.
5) What would you like me to do as a beta gift promotion participant?
Honestly? Forget about the gift and don't let it have any bearing on your use of the site at all. We're not asking that so we don't have to send you anything, we're asking because that is the absolute best way for us to have active users helping to fine tune the site. When people offer feedback just so they can "check the box" towards their free gift it's usually pretty obvious and honestly, not all that helpful. We just want to make a great product that ultimately helps you create new friendships. Anything you can do to help us reach that goal is much appreciated, and it just might end for you with a cool gift.
We will add more questions as the come up. That's all for now.
Post by: JT
Posts
9 comments:
I am not too worried about the beta stuff. I really enjoy the start page and all the pictures. Very cool way to start my day. Plus it has opened up a whole new world of places that I might have never known to hike or visit. Thanks.
good luck and keep up the good work!
i agree with james. it's nice to see a new pic every day.
I think the start page is great! I like that I can access my email, facebook, etc right from the start page, and still have a...well, freakin' awesome pic to start my day off as well. I'm very impressed thus far, but still checking out other features as time permits. Keep up the good work!!
No worries on the promo deal - I like the quick educational start with the photos. Plus, friends seem to really like them as well!
As a techno-phobe, I'm assuming I haven't received the beta invite yet (or I did, and just didn't know that was it...)
I joined way back in lifefitter last winter.
This site has been way more than I expected and have been wowed by the photos.
Keep up the good work.
This site does rock!!
I signed up for the promotion, have given a number of feedbacks and have heard nothing about a gift. Frankly, I'm bored with Startlike, and don't think any of my comments have been considered. I'm sticking it out for now because I still want the gift, but I want an update. Please contact me.
Hmmmmm Seems like not much has changed. Looooong timetable for sure, but I'm glad your keeping it up. Bad thing is, not much seems to have changed in the big picture, I'm running out of things to give FB on Lol.
I know your post is absolutely ancient, but while going through my gmail this evening, I came across the original beta invite.
And it said: " To be eligible, you must be an active participant in the entire beta process, which begins by clicking the "Get Started" link below and setting the Outdooors channel on Startlike as your homepage."
So you click Get Started, and it takes you to the main page with the picture. And...that's it. I had NO idea until about a month ago that there was anything more to your site. I had been wondering, too!
So just in case you're wondering why there are so many who set their homepage and then did nothing...there was almost nothing (other than the tiny link to "blog" on the bottom right of your page) to let a person know that there was more to do.
Hope the feedback is useful.
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