April 21 Update: User Profiles & Blogs

Administrator · Apr 15, 2009

[Scroll down to the next post, for the April 21 Update]

April 15:

Dear HairlossTalk Members -

This new tool is going gangbusters. Over 80 people have activated their profile in the last two weeks. Here are just a few of the photo albums and blogs that members have posted:

http://www.hairlosstalk.com/profiles/browse_albums.php

and

http://www.hairlosstalk.com/profiles/browse_blogs.php

Special Update:

If you have not yet activated your profile in the Social Network, its just a quick 4-page process. Go to the Signup page: http://www.hairlosstalk.com/profiles/signup.php ... pick a main photo, type your intro, and you're in!

NOTE! Your profile will not be viewable on the network unless you upload a main photo. Please don't skip over it or you're toast. A picture of yourself is best, but anything will do. No pics of your noggen please!

Thanks again to everyone. You are a part of the first Social Networking tool for hair loss sufferers of *all types*, anywhere on the web.

Admin

Administrator · Apr 21, 2009

Re: The Latest on the new Social Network System.

Update - April 21: 2009

The HairlossTalk Social Network has really taken off. We were never expecting such an amazing response. Both men and women have registered over 150 new accounts in the last 2 weeks.

The biggest surprise has been everyone's ability to treat this topic as "normal". We were concerned that a photo based social network like this would result in a bunch of hooded faces, pictures of bald heads, and blank profiles with no photos at all.

On the contrary, people seem to be treating this topic as any other topic. The days of embarrasing spray-on hair infommercials are gone. Hair loss isn't a joke, or a shameful thing anymore. Its part of maintaining your appearance. Just like caring for your teeth to avoid tooth decay, you take care of your hair to avoid "hair decay".

Younger men are looking at this as part of a well-rounded regimen to look good and stay healthy. Dressing well, working out, eating right and maintaining their appearance. Its all part of the "scene". Guys upload photos on fitness sites to get input and advice. They're doing the same here for their hair. Women seek out networks like this for the support and interaction with other women.

So thank you to everyone who has signed up and shared their stories and photos.

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System Update

1) You can now log in with your username or email address *after* you have registered and activated your profile. Previously it would only accept email/password.

2) We have implemented profile caching which means those profiles which were taking 12+ seconds to load, now should load in 2-3 seconds.

3) Numerous bug fixes have been worked out and pushed live this week.

4) We have made entering your "Story" a mandatory part of the registration / activation process. You only need to type 200 characters (2-3 sentences). So if you go to register, be willing to type just a little something about yourself, don't bail before the last step!

5) Keep in mind profiles that do not have a main photo + a "my story" will not be visible on the network site-wide (left sidebar). These two steps are part of the 4 page registration process, so its very simple and quick. We can't show blank profiles on the left sidebar because it will look very ugly, so we only show those who have filled something in.

6) Existing Forum users: Keep in mind whatever email address you registered on the forums with, will be the email address that the Social Network system has on file for you. So if its old, or fake, you wont get notifications when people leave you comments, etc. We will be putting in place the ability to update your email address just in the social network system soon.

Admin