Latest Release (v0.6) of OneEyeDeer is Up

Wow - it's only been 3 weeks since we dropped the last version of OneEyeDeer and there's already been an amazing amount of activity on the site.

A big thanks to each and every one of you who has taken the time to jump on the site.

We're well aware that everyone is attention poor these days, so whether you've popped in to view an issue or done anything from posting an issue to ranking a solution to starting a community, we'd like to say a massive, "Thank you!"

Now, while you guys were working hard on the site, so were we! The latest version of the site has been released and is ready for you to play with.

Below are the main changes we've made. I've highlighted some of the big things so you know what to look for :)

As usual, thanks for playing a part in helping make OneEyeDeer better. We really appreciate it.

If you haven't already signed up as a beta-tester, jump on the site at www.oneeeydeer.com and register and we'll send you out details on how to participate straight away.

Kim + Pat

v 0.6 Release Notes


SOLUTIONS

• Top Solutions search now available from front page Sidebar (we really like this one)

TO DO ITEMS

• To-do items (our little project management tool) now listed in Solution sidebar (no more hiding for you, cheeky buggers)
• Reference to solution when creating to-do items

POSTING

• Post Issues now available from home page
• Post process changed - only title necessary (allowing for some nice new features in upcoming releases... make sure you keep adding descriptions though)

ISSUES

• "Communities Working on this issue" now visible from link under Issue with opportunity to add to your own communities in lightbox
• Social sharing widget under every issue (let us know if you'd like another service added)

INVITING

• Personalised messages now available for invitations

COMMUNITIES

• Private Communities functionality added (only people who are invited from inside community can join for now)
• Post Issue button inside Community only shows up when you're a member of that community

OTHER

• New to OneEyeDeer announce-bar added to top of homepage when not logged in
• Source (HTML) button added to description WYSIWYG editor
• FAQ and ABOUT updated
• Frame for community icons added to make it less cluttered

OneEyeDeer v0.5 Released!

OneEyeDeer is up and running for more beta-testing and boy have we made a bunch of changes!

We’ve included a list of all the changes below but, at a high level, the changes have focussed on making the site more engaging for you - the OneEyeDeer community member.

If you haven't already signed up as a beta-tester, jump on the site at www.oneeeydeer.com and register and we'll send you out details on how to participate straight away.

Exciting Times!

OneEyeDeer v0.5 - Release Notes
-------------------------------------------

LAYOUT AND BROWSER SUPPORT

• Support for 1024x768 added
• Support for ie6 and ie8 added
• Support for Opera 9.x added
• Support for iPhone browser added
  
• Support for zoomed text added

COMMENTS

• Cascading comments added
• Commenting and replies layout improved
• Anonymous commenting disabled

SIDEBAR FUNCTIONALITY

• Top Contributors table added
• Similar Issues functionality added
• Recommended "to-do's" added
• Tag cloud added

MYPAD

• Ability to view other members' MyPad added
  
• Add expertise slidebars as part of profile in MyPad
• Points and Awards system implemented
• Avatar scaling and pixelation issues fixed

SOLUTIONS

• Stage of solution slidebar added to solutions
• Potential of solution slidebar added to solution
• Stage and Potential of solution represented on Issues list
• Explanations for Stage (RIPPA) and Awards added (lightboxes)

INVITE FUNCTIONALITY

• Invite friends to OED functionality added to MyPad
  
• Invite friends to Community functionality added to every community

COMMUNITIES

• Community functionality completely revised - now act as self-contained, mini-sites with content feeding back into main site
• Community-specific navigation (including toolbar) added to communities
• Community logos/avatars added
• Community internal layout changed

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

• "To-Do's" added to bring simple Project Management functionality to solutions
• Call for help red button removed
• Take it the next level red button removed
• Call for help process automated through recommended to-do functionality

VOTING AND RANKING ALGORITHM

• Voting buttons redesigned changed. Now more prominent and AJAX-ified
• "Bury" removed. Functionality retained in new down-voting
• Issue Ranking algorithm overhauled including addition of time decay

OTHER

• Vanity URLs added across site
• Discussions removed - functionality retained in comments
• General overhaul of site - tightening up of design and functionality
• Addition of Company name with link to company site in Company Representative user name
• Added password confirmation to Registration
• Issues per page increased from 10 to 15
• Recent Activity pagination added with 100 items per page
• Company page content cleaned up

Beta Testing Update + Release v0.3.1

Well our second round of beta-testing has been going for a week now and we've been blown away by the response! (You can still sign up if you haven't yet by visiting www.oneeyedeer.com)

Over the past 7 days we've had over 230 contributions, or more than 30 a day! That's massive from a limited, hand-selected, beta-testing list of only 85 people.

Part of those contributions included the identification of bugs and suggestions, many of which have formed the basis of our latest release. That release (0.3.1) has now gone live, so why not pop into the site and check out the changes (there's a full list of release notes in the previous post)




It’s Time To Recognise!

While we thank each and every one of you who has contributed to the site, we'd like to especially recognise those who have been working the hardest to make OneEyeDeer better. Below is a list of the hardest working people on the block!


Top Beta-Testers

1. The Professor
2. sly
3. RJHunter
4. Kim
5. oridental
6. gevason
7. clint
8. Tim Bull
9. lacreme
10. Paul Annesley

Top Bug Finders

1. RJHunter
2. Paul Annesley tied with gevason


Top Suggestors

1. gevason and Tim Bull tied
3. frodosghost tied with Paul Annesley


If you're one of the top 3 in any category, you might want to check out your name next time you log in. We've added a little something to make sure everyone knows how big a help you've been.

If you're not on the list, don't worry, there's still a chance to get in on the goodies.

• We'll be rewarding our best contributors for the next release
• We're going to be rewarding the first 1000 active members of OneEyeDeer with a permanent symbol of your status on the site. Active means you’ve done something (other than sign up or visit) so get cracking!
• At the end of beta-testing, we've got some one-off, never to be repeated goodies that we'll be sending out to our best helpers




Special Request For This Release

This release we're asking that in addition to the stuff you've already been doing (which has been fantastic) you pay a little more attention to 2 particular features:

• The big red buttons that appear in the right hand sidebar when you click on an issue or a solution
• Communities

We would also like to know your thoughts on whether these features are useful and, if so, how to make them more usable (seeing as nobody really used them in the last release!)



That's it for now. Thanks again for all your help and hopefully we'll see you on the site soon.

OneEyeDeer v0.2 Released

We've just made a range of updates to OneEyeDeer.

Thanks to all the people who took the time to post / email us with suggestions.

In particular we'd like to thank the following people for their efforts: -

• ct8im
• dr.nic
• Rat Boy Snakey
• lacreme
• sally84
• z0rba
• rach3
• ronron
• oridental

Below are the latest release notes. v0.3 is well one the way and should be released in the next week or so.

As always, if you'd like to see anything in particular you can add it to the suggestions community on the site or email pat [at] oneeyedeer [dot] com.

v0.2 Release Notes

• Solution Ranking added
• Display number of votes added
• Registration compulsory to perform most tasks
• When sending people to register/log in (i.e. if they click post and aren’t logged in) return them to what they were trying to do after they’ve registered/logged in
• One page for login and register
• Fix session length (no longer need to keep logging in every time you return)
• Password retrieval
• Display poster’s name at bottom of issue detail
• Auto-add community creator to community
• Put numbers on solution tabs to show number of discussions/edits etc.
• One solution raking slider: how good is this solution
• "Please login" message on login page
• Removed all summaries

So near - yet so far...

Just as we were about to launch our latest round of testing a couple of weeks ago, Firefox 3 released and broke our open-source WYSIWYG editor :(

We could have just gone ahead, but at just over 25.6 Million downloads (check out the current count here)it's not something we could ignore.

Ahhhh - the perils of open-source...

It's a constant conversation we have while developing the site - how much should we build ourselves and how much open source should we use? The pros and cons of each are obvious, often favouring open-source. Except in situations like this.

Anyway, I'm sure a fix is just around the corner - so those of you who have signed up, stay tuned for a release some time this week.

If you haven't signed up but would like to help us build something special, please pop into www.oneeyedeer.com and leave us your details.

We promise not to spam you or do anything else rude like that :)

More news to come...