HisReach.com

So some of you may have noticed tat over the last few days, we started showing Amazon.com ads on HisReach. Amazon is obviously a really cool company because they offer such a wide range of different products. So our thought at HisReach was that you might be interested in the wide variety of items they have to offer.

We decided to use a system from Amazon called Omakase which basically automatically determines what types of products to display based on the content of our website. Well, it turns out that 1) when Amazon offers everything under the sun for sale…some of it is not appropriate (to say the least), and 2) we remembered we have had limited luck in the past with automated ad generation.

Needless to say, we have discontinued our affiliates program with Amazon and have gone back to only serving ads that have been pre-approved by the HisReach team. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you experienced or any inappropriate material you may have seen on the HisReach website. We are working very hard to make sure that HisReach is the cleanest, most secure site on the web.

If there is ever anything that you see on HisReach that you disapprove of for any reason, please let us know and we will work to resolve the issue immediately.

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.

We’ve added some new Relient K profile backgrounds to HisReach.  Check them out on your Edit Background page.

We’ve added a couple of new Switchfoot backgrounds for your profile.  Check them out on your Edit Background page.

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!

We are currently experiencing some issues with sending emails to Yahoo! email addresses. We know that a lot of you out there have Yahoo! email accounts, so we are working as fast as we can to resolve this issue. You will receive all your emails from HisReach, but they will most likely be significantly delayed. The best thing you can do is add “no-reply@hisreach.com” to your address book so that Yahoo! will see mail from HisReach as mail you recognize and not mark it as spam. We apologize for the inconvenience and will have things up and running ASAP.

UPDATE 01/28/08: Yahoo! seems to be playing more nicely with our emails. Let us know if you are getting emails from HisReach after longer than you would expect.

Happy New Years! It’s time to announce the iPod Touch giveaway winner. I have to admit that I wouldn’t have expected it to be quite so easy to get all 15 invites, but Jordan Dalrymple knocked this one out of the park.

Thanks to everyone for sending out your invites. Don’t stop now (we are giving away a HisReach iPod Shuffle in January)!

Contest Winners:

1. HisReach iPod Touch - Jordan Dalrymple
2. HisReach Tee - Briah Kane
3. HisReach Tee - Sierra Campbell
4. HisReach Tee - Ryan DeElena
5. HisReach Tee - Megan S

Merry Christmas to everyone on HisReach. We hope that your holidays were blessed.

We wanted to notify everyone that blurbs now last for 7 days. After that point, they are permanently deleted. This is for a handful of reasons…but you didn’t really care now did you?

Also, just a reminder that there are still 4 days left in the iPod Touch Giveaway. Help us to finish up the year strong and continue to invites your friends. There is an iPod Touch and 3 HisReach tees up for grabs. You don’t even need that many invites to win! Invite all of those relatives you saw over the last week!

Have a Happy New Year!

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!

Christmas is here and I, as well as many of you I would assume, love this season. Christmas time is filled with decorating our houses, baking cookies, and shopping for gifts.

Well, this year HisReach wants in on the fun of giving! That is why we are giving away a totally FREE Apple iPod Touch this season. It’s very easy to win…no seriously! All you have to do is invite at least 15 people to join HisReach through our website’s invite features. Encourage them to sign up using the link in the invite email you sent them and you will get credit for their signup. The person with the most new signups (over 15) by the end of December will win. If nobody has hit 15 invites by January 1st, the competition continues into January until someone gets 15 new signups.

At this point, you might be saying something like: 15 invites…how is that possible?? Actually, it’s very easy. Invite your parents, your youth pastors, your friends from bible study or youth group, a friend that might be curious about God, your co-workers and the list goes on… It may take more than just sending the invite to their email address. Bring up HisReach in a conversation and tell them what you personally like about it the most. Your testimony will go a long way in getting them interested in signing up.

Also, If you are thinking about your Christmas shopping list and want to help support HisReach, think about buying your gifts at Amazon.com through this link. A portion of every purchase goes towards helping support the HisReach community.

Merry Christmas!