HisReach.com

As if Yahoo and Microsoft weren’t making a big enough wave lately, I’ve got a bone to pick with mega-corporations…

Why is it that so many of these companies that “define” the Internet get that privilege? I realize that they are worth billions of dollars and also are revolutionizing how we use the Internet, but they are so inflexible. They create everything they do to fit their individual needs. Where does that leave the rest of the Internet? Either a) scrambling to fit to mega-corporations standards or b) developing a “from scratch” solution. The issue with this is that when designing to corporation’s standards we are at their whim. Change a function name, we are scrambling for a fix. Discontinue an offering, we are scrambling for a fix. Frankly, it sucks…

Enough ranting and down to my point. We are continuing to experience some issues with sending mail to Yahoo email addresses. What types of issues? Namely, up to 5 day delays on the emails that are sent out. Now, I would ask you…is that a reasonable delay time? I realize Yahoo receives millions of emails a day and that they have to incorporate spam control and malicious attack defense. My issue is that you all have asked for these emails and you want to know when you get new friend requests and mail messages. As a Yahoo email user, don’t you deserve to get those in a timely fashion?

The solution: We’ve chased down their maze of automated customer service and online request forms for several weeks now with little to no response (this is another spot that bugs me to no end about mega-corporations…simply horrible customer service). We are still working to get our mail server whitelisted with Yahoo so they will stop delaying HisReach emails. In the meantime, I have two solutions:

1. MOVE TO GOOGLE’S GMAIL - I’m just waiting to hear someone contest what I have to say, but Google is so amazingly flexible. They fit themselves to what the Internet needs. They aren’t worried about making it impossible to export me email addresses (Hotmail) or forward my email to another provider (Yahoo) because they know I will appreciate that as a user and might just have a really good reason to do that. I could go on for an hour about how much more developer and user friendly Google is as a company, but in short I will say…GET A GMAIL ACCOUNT … YOU WILL NEVER LOOK BACK! So why am I endorsing Gmail?
   1. They do no block or delay HisReach emails. This means that you will actually get your email within seconds of when it is sent.
   2. They do not have crazy standards for what an email needs to look like to be considered a legitimate email.
   3. They have the best SPAM filter on the Internet (yes, this is an opinion).
   4. You will be supporting a company that is all around Internet friendly (another opinion).

   After you move to Gmail, you can change your address on HisReach in your account preferences.

2. The second solution is to add “no-reply@hisreach.com” to your webmail address book. We realize that there is nobody behind that email address and you will never email it, but with the way Yahoo works it may help. By adding us to your address book, this tells Yahoo that you know who we are and are accepting email from us. Your results may vary, but I have read that it helps.
3. The last solution is really a request. If you don’t want to receive notifications from HisReach, that is totally fine. We would just ask that you PLEASE not mark our emails as spam. In truth, it isn’t spam because you actually did sign up for it. If you would like to discontinue receiving emails from HisReach, no problem. Just turn off all your notifications in your account preferences. If you mark your emails as spam, you may be actually causing other people’s emails from HisReach to be marked as spam too.

So, in summary, sorry for the email delays. Know we are working on the situation, but also think about the switch….it will be totally worth it.

If you haven’t heard, January 30th has been declared as “International Delete Your MySpace Account Day”. Don’t plan your family get-away yet though since this isn’t a government holiday (although that would be cool!). Internet blogger, Simon Owens, declared the special day and decided to catalog the many ways in which MySpace had failed him:

1. You rarely log in to Myspace except to delete spam friend requests from nude webcam girls.
2. You spend five minutes writing a wall post only to hit an error message when you try to post it because of all the website glitches.
3. You’re a girl who constantly gets marriage proposals from random men in the middle east.
4. You visit someone’s Myspace profile only to suddenly have music start blasting out of your speakers. Bonus points if it happens to you while you’re at work.
5. You have to make redundant clicks to perform simple tasks because Myspace keeps taking you to advertisement pages where you have to click on “return to myspace profile” in order to continue what you’re doing.
6. You visit someone’s profile only to have your eyes bleed because of terrible page layout with non-matching designs and font colors.
7. Your experience is hindered because of intrusive banner ads that either talk to you or try to reach out and block your view of what you’re trying to look at.
8. You read yet another news account about how some child predator using Myspace has abducted a little girl or that some hoax myspace account has caused a teenager to commit suicide.
9. You’re frustrated with the fact that Myspace doesn’t allow you to post your contact info, meaning to contact someone you can only use Myspace’s glitchy Instant Messenger, message/email system, or wall commenting.
10. You’re tired of seeing Tom stare out at you from millions of friends lists and just wish he would change his [...] profile picture.

Fed up from all of the MySpace mess, Owens has declared Jan. 30th as “International Close Your MySpace Account” Day so that others can join him in making a statement to MySpace that they are fed up.

If you feel compelled to delete your MySpace account on Jan. 30th, that is awesome and we totally support you =). We are here to support you through your withdrawals and promise that everything will be ok. The good news is that HisReach is here to fill the gap. Join us in our new group to celebrate this special day: I Deleted My MySpace On Jan. 30th or if you aren’t a member yet sign up now!

For all of you out there interested in theological discussion, GodRides.org is the newest website on the net to provide a place for you to learn more about all world religions through discussion and free sharing of thoughts.

From the site:
“GodRides.org exists to encourage and facilitate a discussion about God and Life. Whether you’re Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Jewish, Buddhist, Agnostic or have never thought about it, GodRides.org provides an open environment to think, discuss and connect.”

The goal of the site is to encourage deeper thought in those that haven’t thought about foundational questions in life or perhaps don’t even understand why they believe what they do. At HisReach, we obviously support and encourage the Christian perspective on life…at the same time we encourage you to understand why you feel the way you do and to be able to support it in a conversational environment. Go by and check out GodRides.org and contribute your thoughts.

See you there!