Posts tagged announcement
Organize Your Goals
Tags have been a long-standing issue on Accompl.sh - they were hidden, often broken, and there was no real way to navigate among them.
They’re gone now.
Tags have been replaced with a stricter category structure that will allow for a much better browse experience. You can add categories straight from your list page.
There are a few categories to start and I’ll be adding more as I take suggestions and/or see the need pop up.
With these new categories come new ways for you to browse through what people have added: Explore Categories. This new data will also allow me to do cooler things within your list like show what types of goals you’re working on (perhaps you’re a fitness buff with 10 goals categorized as Health & Fitness) and also suggest goals and other members to you based on your common categories. Hopefully that’ll come soon!
Have an idea for a category that’s not included in this first list? Let me know in the comments!
Lots of new Activity on your Dashboard!
Accompl.sh has grown a CRAZY amount since I first added the Dashboard last April, both in terms of members and features. The Dashboard, sadly, hasn’t gotten much attention in that time, but that’s starting to change!
Until now there were 3 types of activity on your Dashboard: Someone updated the progress of their goal, someone liked a goal, and someone commented on a goal. These updates were also constrained to activity that happened TO you rather than including other activity from the people you’re following. Sadly this left out all of the awesome bits of OTHER activity on the site. Things like joining a Challenge, creating a new list, following other people, etc. were all left unannounced and unacknowledged.
Good news! That’s all changed! The new activity feed on your Dashboard gives you all sorts of new updates, and sometimes even more details on the updates that already exist. This new system not only tells you what’s happening to your goals and Challenges, but also what the people you’re following are up to around the site.
Here’s a taste of the new update types:
I’ll leave it to you to find the others. Can’t give away all the surprises, now can I?!
(Source: accompl.sh)
A New Round of Challenges
As an experimental part of the site, Challenges have been through a lot of changes over the last month. They’ve had rules added and removed, they’ve crashed, they’ve gotten stuck. Overall, they’ve had a rough life so far.
But, despite all of that, so many of you have made such fantastic progress on your Challenges. Some of the comment threads are super active and so many tips are being exchanged among the the players. It’s been so cool to watch, and I’ve done my best to keep them up and running despite being duct taped together as an experiment.
One month in, it’s quite clear what works and what doesn’t. I’ve gone into hiding these last few days to sit down and (hopefully) solve the issues with the Challenges system once and for all. And I’m happy (and relieved!) to say that I just pushed those fixes live!
Here’s what’s new with Challenges:
- The idea of “rounds” has been organized a lot more. Rounds still have the requirement of 3 or more players, but instead of being rolling or beginning when the previous round has ended, Rounds now begin each Monday. On Monday the system will check for any Round that has 3 or more players and will kick it off. This means no more waiting months (or even a YEAR!) before you can participate in a Challenge!
- Each Challenge now has a Challenge page and a Round page. The Challenge page highlights all of the important info about the Challenge and helps you get to your Round page. Your Round page is where you get to update your progress and chat with your team. Consider it your home within the Challenge.
- The Wall of Fame (pending a much better name) is new! Each Challenge page has a Wall of Fame that spotlights all of the members who’ve completed that Challenge. All the cool kids want to be on the Wall of Fame.
- Coming soon: A more organized commenting system.
There are a lot of other crazy bits behind the scenes to power this seemingly simple update, but I’m pretty confident the new system will hold up in a much more graceful fashion from here on out!
So go on and check out the new Challenges! What do you think of the new system?
Challenges are open for all!
Good news! That rule that you couldn’t join a Challenge that had already begun? GONE.
Waiting 1-3 months to take on a Challenge was a bit ridiculous. So now you can join any Challenge, even if it’s already begun! You’ll have to do some catching up though - Challengers are pretty serious about their game!
Invite Your Friends!
If you’ve been looking for an easy way to get your friends to join Accompl.sh, I have the answer to all of your problems! Just added: Invite Your Friends!
Just add your friends’ email addresses, add a note, and hit send! Dead simple.
To top it off, when your friends register for Accompl.sh, you’ll automatically follow each other! You’ll also get a notification when they register, so be sure to give them a giant high-five when you see them!
More Control Over Your Lists
Having multiple lists on Accompl.sh just got a little bit easier. Now, instead of having to choose one privacy option for all of your lists, you can control your privacy on a per-list basis.
The new control is located right at the top of your list where you’ve always been able to see that list’s privacy. Just click the “change this” link and you’ll be able to choose your new preference for that particular list.
The old list privacy setting on your Settings page has been sent to retirement. Farewell old, clunk, inflexible privacy setting. You served us well.
This new preference lets you choose whether you’d like each list to be visible by everyone (public), just by you (completely private), or, if you prefer to moderate who has access to your list, you can set it to only be visible by the people you choose to follow!
There’s plenty more to come over the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
(Source: accompl.sh)
Challenge Yourself
Over the last few weeks I’ve been running a behind-the-scenes preview of a new twist on the old Groups section that makes working on goals into more of a social endeavor - basically a group game that lets people come together to work on a single goal.
Today I’m happy to say that the gates are open and Accomplsh Challenges are alive for everyone to join!
Here’s how it works:
- Log in (or sign up!) and head over to accompl.sh/challenges. There you’ll see a list of all of the Challenges that are currently available to join - they range from fitness goals to cooking goals to blogging goals and more.
- When you find a Challenge you like: join it! You can join up to 3 Challenges at a time.
- If you don’t like any of the Challenges listed, create one yourself!
- Every Sunday, any Challenge that has more than 5 players signed up will be activated and from there on you’ll be able to track your progress and work together to complete your goal!
Once a Challenge has started, the round is closed off and no new players will be able to join that round. You can easily put yourself on the waiting list for the next round by clicking the “Join next round” button.
That’s it! Staying motivated to complete a goal has never been easier!
Thanks to everyone who helped preview / debug Challenges! If you’d like to be invited to preview a future feature, be sure to follow Accomplsh on Twitter or Facebook!
Your goal’s story, right at your fingertips
On Accompl.sh, there are a lot of pieces that come together to tell the story of your goals: the photos you add, the likes and comments you receive, your progress reports, etc. Until now, though, nearly all of these awesome details have been buried on your goal’s own page. It would take at least a few clicks to get to see the photo you’ve added to a goal or even to see how many comments you’ve gotten.
Today I’m unveiling a new way to browse through your goals - right from your list page. These new drawers expand right below your goal and give you quick access to update the story around your goal. I’ve even added in a few new bits of detail such as how many days it took you to complete the goal!
Currently these quick views are only available on your own, locked lists. Soon, I’ll be adding the ability to pull down the drawer on any locked list (in addition to filling in that last window!).
Give it a try and let me know what you think!
—-
(P.S. speaking of right at your fingertips, if you haven’t yet noticed the “hide completed goals” toggle, I quietly added it last week. This should help you filter through your goals when you want to update your progress!)
People Like You (Second Edition!)
Back, back WAYYYY back when Accompl.sh had a nifty little feature that would recommend people to follow based on the types of goals you have in your lists. Somewhere along the line, the system stopped updating itself (yes, blame the system!) and recommendations were stagnant for older members and non-existent for nearly everyone who joined after October 2010. Finally, the People Like You page has gotten the TLC it needs and is back up and running in full force! Check it out and see if you can make any new friends!
You’ll need at least a few goals in your list in order for me to generate suggestions. For those of you who haven’t added anything to your list yet, you’ll see a list of recommended members. These are people who’ve made really neat lists that will give you some ideas for getting your own under way!
I’ll be updating the recommended members list pretty often, so if you know of a member who should be on it (or want to nominate yourself!) leave a comment on the Accompl.sh Facebook page!
Accompl.sh is more fun with friends, so go on and follow some people! You’ll be surprised how much more you’ll check off when you have a support crew around you!
Accompl.sh On The Go!
We’re all attached to our phones. They go everywhere with us. Which is perfect, really, because you’re not always sitting in front of a computer when an idea for an awesome goal to add to your list comes to mind or, even better, when you’ve just accomplished something on your list and want to check it off!
Until now, if you were browsing on your phone, you had to squint your eyes to get to the important stuff on Accompl.sh. Well squint no more! We’ve got a mobile app!
That’s right! Accompl.sh now comes in a mobile flavor that you can view on any smartphone. iPhone? Check! Android? Check! Blackberry, Nokia, Windows Phone 7? (Mostly) Check!
What does it do?
The mobile app highlights all of the most important bits of the site - being able to add goals, update your progress, check up on your friends, and explore. It’s a much cleaner experience than when the whole site was being cramped into that tiny screen!
Using the mobile app you can do nearly everything you can do on the main site! To make things even simpler, you can add Accompl.sh right to your home screen as a bookmark so you can open it up in a single tap!
How do I get the app?
If you have a smartphone, you already have it! Just go to http://accompl.sh on your phone and like magic the site will transform into the mobile version!
Now there aren’t any excuses not to update your goals while you’re on the go! Go on and check it out!
