So Long, Farewell.

This post has been a long time coming. I’ve started it a thousand times and every time say “maybe next weekend.” The final “next weekend” is here. It’s time.

I’ve decided, with equal parts heavy heart and sense of relief, that it’s time to shut down Accompl.sh.

It’s unfair to you, the loyal few who’ve stuck with me from the very beginning, and the new friends who’ve joined along the way, to have to trudge through the miscellaneous bugs and quirks that have piled up as I’ve had less time and enthusiasm to work on the site.

Accompl.sh began as a little project for me to entertain myself and to hone my development skills. Before I knew it there were 10,000 users and me holed up in my apartment trying to keep up. It was an amazing run. I learned SO much and had a lot of fun in the process. But eventually, it became clear that I needed to get a ‘real job’ again and Accompl.sh began to suffer.

Rather than let it stay online and decay into a spam-filled mess, I’ve decided to take Accompl.sh offline.

Beginning today, for the next 30 days, you can email jenn@accompl.sh from the email address associated with your account and request an export of your goal list. After those 30 days, the database will be wiped and goals and other personal data will be irretrievable.

I’ve had an amazing time getting to know you all over these last few years and I continue to be inspired by you as I read through the goals and achievements you’ve shared with our community. I’m sad to see it go, but I know it’s the right thing to do.

If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch.

Thanks and good luck!

Jenn

Introducing the NEW Accompl.sh!

I’ve been locked away for these last few weeks (months?) giving Accompl.sh a MAJOR overhaul and it’s ready to be unleashed to the world!

Ready?

Here goes:

Bye, bye locking! The idea of locking your list was a remnant from when I first built the site as a tool for my own new years resolutions. It’s a great exercise, but as time went on I realized it was preventing us from reaching our goals over the course of the year instead of giving us the tools we need to be more awesome. I’m relieved to say, locking is gone and you can start working on your goals the second you add them!

Lists for the super-organized: Now that locking is gone, lists kind of became unnecessary. So they’re gone too! Well, not completely gone… if you’re a little OCD about your goals (I know I am!), you can still organize them into lists with a PLUS account. If you had multiple lists from Accompl.sh Credits, you’ll be grandfathered into the new system.

Goals for all! All goals on Accompl.sh have been public by default from the very beginning. Sharing your goals and getting them out into the world is proven to increase your chances of achieving them. With that in mind, I’ve made the option to make your goals private into a PLUS feature. Again, if you had private goals before, you’re grandfathered in.

PLUS is even better! With all of these new changes, PLUS got a major facelift. PLUS members can have private goals, organize your goals into lists, and set shorter deadlines for your goals, and more! Go on and upgrade!

The list goes on and on… I could keep going, but I won’t! You’ll just have to dive in and try it for yourself! 

As you can tell, the main objective in this overhaul is to remove the barriers and fluff between you and reaching your goals. As always, I can’t wait to hear your thoughts / feedback. If there are bugs, you can report them on our GetSatisfaction page.

To being more awesome, one goal at a time!

-Jenn

Introducing: Visual Lists

Today I’m excited to unveil something that I’ve been working on behind the scenes for a while now: Visual Lists!

Visual Lists are a great new way to show off your goals. They strip away all of the extra details that are probably only interesting to you (and maybe your mom) and show off your goals in a whole new way. Have a look:

With Visual Lists everyone can get a quick idea of where your goals stand without having to read every single line of your list. Each block leads right to your goal page where your supporters can get the full scoop on that goal.

You can get to the Visual List for any public list by clicking this new button on the list page:

A List with Personality

There’s one more awesome thing about Visual Lists: They’re customizable! PLUS members have access to a widget that will let you set your list’s colors to suit your fancy.

Visual Lists are available RIGHT NOW! Head over to your list page to get started!

Pin Your Favorite Goals!

With everyone raving about and obsessing over Pinterest (myself included!), it felt like Accompl.sh was being left out of all the fun!

Not anymore!

Starting RIGHT NOW you can pin your favorite goals to Pinterest! Just click the “Pin It” button on any public goal on the site (You’ll find the button on the goal page where you add comments, etc.):

That’ll let you share your favorite goals with your friends on Pinterest (and Facebook and Twitter if that’s your style!)

And because every goal on the site is its own unique little snowflake, so are the goals that you share to Pinterest: the colors will change to make your boards nice and bright!

As always, private goals are safe from being shared.

Since this is just an experiment I put together in a few hours, if you guys like it, I’ll spend more time allowing you to customize the appearance of your goals when they’re shared!

So go forth and Pin! And let me know what you think in the comments below!

(P.S. - need a Pinterest invite? Email jenn {at} accompl.sh and I’ll try to get one sent out to you ASAP!)

(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?

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!

Now go Challenge Yourself!