I have to admit that Panoiki has been a real source of fulfillment for me. To watch it grow the way it has, and to really take on a life of its own has been great to watch. We started this site not knowing what to expect. We weren’t sure if anyone would ever use it, and if they did, we weren’t sure how long they would stick around.
We currently have 118 members, of which about 50% are active, which, in my eyes, is a pretty good ratio for a site like ours. We would still like to see more people here, though, which kinda goes without saying.
We’ve noticed that over time that the two most used features on Panoiki seem to be the “Status Updates” and the “Blogs”. Our blogs have been a real source of release for a lot of our users, and the updates have become the place where people start small talk, but there’s a problem with that because that’s pretty much where it ends. We don’t currently have a way for people to respond to those updates, other than posting an update of their own. Well, we aim to fix that!
We have begun development of Panoiki 2.0 based on the most used features of the site, and based on your comments. We will be asking for feedback from you guys quite a bit as we go through this process, because this site is for YOU! Sure, we use the site, too, but we didn’t build it just for us.
We actually need a bit of feedback right now, but I need to set it up a bit first…
We are planning on expanding the “Status Updates” and making them into more of a “Conversation”. Basically, your main feed would consist of these “Conversations”, and these would include all conversations that you or your friends are participating in.
Our question is this: Would you like a separate “Blog” feature, or would you rather just be able to post anything that you want (i.e., status updates, conversations, blogs, etc.) in this “Conversation” box?
The problem with this is that any entry posted in the “Conversation” box would disappear after a certain amount of time, so there would not be the option to save your “Blog” entries anymore.
We don’t have a preference one way or the other, this was just something we were considering, but because the blogs are such a big part of this site we wanted to get YOUR opinion before we made the decision.
Thanks for being such a vital part of this site, and thanks for supporting us over the last 9 months that Panoiki has been around.
We are excited for Panoiki 2.0, and we hope that it will only increase the opportunity for openness and honesty that has permeated this site so far.
Please take a quick second and fill out this survey: Click Here to take survey, and let us know what you think about the blogs. We will share more as we get further into the process.
Jerad
Come Chat With Me!
You may have noticed a few new features as you were browsing around the site. We took some time yesterday to knock out a couple of “to-do” items on the list that you all have provided for us.
First of all, and most simply we have added a Comment Notify feature that will now allow you to see when you have a comment by notifying you on your home page. It should look something like this:
When you click on the notification, it will drop down and allow you to see who has commented on your page. You can then click on the date of the comment (below the person’s picture) and it will take you to your comment page so you can view the comment.
Keep in mind that this is only for profile comments and does not apply to picture or blog comments. We’re working on that!
Also, we have integrated a brand new Chat feature. This one excites us the most! John and I have used this thing like crazy over the past few nights, and it is a very cool and useful feature!
This new Chat feature not only features a fully customizable chat program, but also allows you to IM (Instant Message) other users in the chat rooms! So we not only added chat features, but an IM program, as well.
When you get time, go check it out. Be warned, there is so much that you can customize that you could litereally be in there for hours and not talk to a single person! Haha!
There are a few other things being added piece by piece…
We also added an Events feature, which allows you to post events that are happening and to notify your community of those events. It features a fully functioning interactive calendar, which is nice.
Also, we’re working on adding a forum and the bulletins plugin. It’s quite possible that both may be up before the end of the week, but we’ll let you know how that goes.
Finally, as John mentioned in the last blog, we are working on redesigning the site a little bit. I just finished the mock-up for it last night, and we are working on getting that integrated as soon as possible. We are both very excited about it, and real feel that it will make the site look more sleek and modern.
For those of you who fear change, be comforted in knowing that not much of the content will be moved around. You will still be able to find things where they are now, it’s just that everything will have a different backdrop behind it and the text colors will be different.
Again, we just really want to thank you guys for using and enjoying the site! It means a lot to us that we have created something that people actually use and enjoy doing so!
We hope you will continue to enjoy the growth taking place here right along with us, and keep inviting your friends!
Jerad & John