[simonmartin]

Hi,

I've got a problem.

Myself and a handful of others are working on a project which we think might do just a tiny bit towards changing the world for the better.

We are passionate about this thing and want it to be the best it can be. In order to do this we need to hear what people think about it. The problem is that friends and family might not give honest answers and it's hard to get perfect strangers to take the time required to have a proper look at the thing.

I thought that you guys might be willing to help us out.

You can see from my post count that I'm not new around here so I hope that you'll feel I have earned enough stripes for you to help me out, but then again you don't know me so well that you'll feel obliged to be nice.

Please would you have a look at our project, the link is at the end of this missive.

We primarily need to hear what you *don't* like about it, so we can fix it. I don't even mind if you are brutal as long as you are brutal in a way which allows us to learn from it. Of course it would be nice to hear the occasional nice thing too...

This matters to us and we want to know what we need to do to make it matter to you too.

I don't want to say much else about the project in case it affects your opinion of it, save to say that it involves email and raising money for Charities and the Open Source movement.

The site is at http://www.ippimail.com

Many many thanks to those who respond. I'd even like to hear from those who didn't feel it was worth the effort to respond... but then they would have responded...

Thanks guys.

Simon

[Mastrap]

I feel uneasy about giving you so much information. I understand that your reasons for needing it are valid, but there are other ways for me to get both free email and support the charity of my choice. ippimail is not something I personally would use, with concerns about privacy being my main reason.

[AppleOptionFour]

Originally posted by simonmartin:
Hi,

I've got a problem.

Myself and a handful of others are working on a project which we think might do just a tiny bit towards changing the world for the better.

The page loads are a bit slow.

I am on a cable modem connection in Austin, TX.

Also, I dont know that i would be privy to giving up my EXACT birthday for email. Perhaps the month and year only?

[AppleOptionFour]

Also you dont mention here that the birthdate is needed:

[RGB]

Originally posted by AppleOptionFour:
Also you dont mention here that the birthdate is needed:

Hey, nice screenshot.

[TheBadgerHunter]

Very slow.


Not ugly in that its so bland I can't really find anything ugly about a single color.


Unrealistic goals. No one likes them and no one wants to go near anyone with them.

[AppleOptionFour]

Originally posted by RGB:
Hey, nice screenshot.

Thanks! Apple-Shift-4 saves the day.

[effgee]

What I can think of off the top of my head ...

"Business" strategy:
There's a ton of email services out there already - you are going to have to provide similar features in terms of functionality as well as a better user interface if you seriously want to compete with them. A good cause alone is not enough.

• from the site:
  Each time you use Ippimail, 10% of profits go to the Open Source Community. Of the remainder, 50% goes to the charity of your choice and 50% is given back to you by way of improving Ippimail.

If I'm not entirely mistaken, the above means that 45% stay with you guys for the time being. You are aware that you give your visitors the impression that you are planning on keeping 45% of $1,000,000/day to "improve Ippimail" - right? I wouldn't want to imply anything negative - but if I had stumbled across this site and not read your post here, I'd have assumed that this is either a joke or an especially badly disguised rip-off.


Branding/design:
Fix the logo - make the strokes outlining the envelope and the halo equally thick/thin. The way it is done now looks "amateurish". The tag line "email for the good guys" is almost illegible and further emphasizes the "amateur" character of the logo. Overall, the logo is too "Christian" for me - but if that's the intent then there's nothing for me to complain about.

Even though there aren't many elements on the page, you guys managed to make it appear confusing. I recommend making more of an effort to structure the information more clearly and consistently.

- what part is branding
- what part is navigation (primary, secondary, etc.)
- what is actual content

Also, I'm not particularly fond of the rather hefty amount of baby blue - while it isn't obnoxious, it's too much for my taste. Especially since blue doesn't seem to be part of the branding per se. Why is it all blue? Is there a reason for its usage other than one of you guys being fond of it?

[ManOfSteal]

Hire Adam Betts.®

[SSharon]

I like the guided tour with screen shots. I like knowing in advance every question you will ask me so there are no surprises. I also like the short paragraph that explains how ippimail separates the advertisers from us.

There is a typo on the home page (sent instead of send).

Its an interesting idea, and I could see myself using the service as long as I can choose which private info I want to give out and which I want to withhold.

I also agree with the above poster about the logo.

[MilkmanDan]

Really slow load here. Horribly slow.

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by Mastrap:
I feel uneasy about giving you so much information. I understand that your reasons for needing it are valid, but there are other ways for me to get both free email and support the charity of my choice. ippimail is not something I personally would use, with concerns about privacy being my main reason.

Mastrap,

If we made all the questions optional, would you feel better about it?

Simon

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by AppleOptionFour:
The page loads are a bit slow.

I am on a cable modem connection in Austin, TX.

Also, I dont know that i would be privy to giving up my EXACT birthday for email. Perhaps the month and year only?

AppleOptionFour,

I asked for this to be done but it's apparently not an easy job. As soon as possible we'll make it month and year only.

Is that the only thing stoping you from signing up?

Simon

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by AppleOptionFour:
Also you dont mention here that the birthdate is needed:

AppleOptionFour,

No I was just giving examples of questions. I didn't mean to present all of them.

Simon

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by TheBadgerHunter:
Very slow.


Not ugly in that its so bland I can't really find anything ugly about a single color.


Unrealistic goals. No one likes them and no one wants to go near anyone with them.

TheBadgerHunter,

I'm surprised it's so slow, it certainly should't be. I'll see what our hosts have to say...

I'm amased at this

Unrealistic goals. No one likes them and no one wants to go near anyone with them.

Why do you think the goals are unrealistic? What's not to like about raising money for charity? You seem quite hostile... Why?

Simon

[Xeo]

Originally posted by simonmartin:
Why do you think the goals are unrealistic? What's not to like about raising money for charity? You seem quite hostile... Why?

Simon

You want to raise a million dollars a day using targeted advertising? If you have enough users to make that happen, the costs of running the site (and number of servers needed) will be quite high. You'd be a corporation by that point. That's why it's unrealistic.

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by effgee:
[B]What I can think of off the top of my head ...

"Business" strategy:
There's a ton of email services out there already - you are going to have to provide similar features in terms of functionality as well as a better user interface if you seriously want to compete with them. A good cause alone is not enough.

effgee,

Sure. Ippimail has only just started and is very much a work in progress. We are working hard to get our feature set up to scratch. We just want to know if people will come on board with us, we won't be able to do this on our own.

• from the site:
  Each time you use Ippimail, 10% of profits go to the Open Source Community. Of the remainder, 50% goes to the charity of your choice and 50% is given back to you by way of improving Ippimail.

If I'm not entirely mistaken, the above means that 45% stay with you guys for the time being. You are aware that you give your visitors the impression that you are planning on keeping 45% of $1,000,000/day to "improve Ippimail" - right? I wouldn't want to imply anything negative - but if I had stumbled across this site and not read your post here, I'd have assumed that this is either a joke or an especially badly disguised rip-off.

It's neither a joke nor a rip off. The 45% is to be reinvested so we can implement whatever features our users ask for. It's not to be 'kept' as such.

We obviously need to make this clearer.

For instance, we might have lot's of feedback that the site is too slow. To fix this we might have to find a host in the US and get some servers placed there. Or we might get requests for a photosharing feature. We would have to create this and pay for the storage and bandwidth it requires. We have to be able to fund all of this sort of stuff. That's what the 45% is for.

We want our users to feel that they own the site and are getting a 50/50 deal with the charities.

If this thing happens, 45% of $1m/day will be too much to re-invest. If we reach this stage the proportion given to the charities will be increased. This is in the FAQs.

Branding/design:
Fix the logo - make the strokes outlining the envelope and the halo equally thick/thin. The way it is done now looks "amateurish". The tag line "email for the good guys" is almost illegible and further emphasizes the "amateur" character of the logo. Overall, the logo is too "Christian" for me - but if that's the intent then there's nothing for me to complain about.

I'm not happy with the logo either... We aren't a Christian thing particularly, we just liked the idea of the halo. I would like to see a logo incorporating the Linux Penguin myself... We'll work on it.

Even though there aren't many elements on the page, you guys managed to make it appear confusing. I recommend making more of an effort to structure the information more clearly and consistently.

- what part is branding
- what part is navigation (primary, secondary, etc.)
- what is actual content

You mean the front page? The issue is that there's such a lot to try to put across.. We'll work on this too.

Also, I'm not particularly fond of the rather hefty amount of baby blue - while it isn't obnoxious, it's too much for my taste. Especially since blue doesn't seem to be part of the branding per se. Why is it all blue? Is there a reason for its usage other than one of you guys being fond of it?

No, we don't have any particular fondness for the blue Because our target audience is so broad I asked the designer for something which anyone could live with, that's all.

Simon

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by SSharon:
I like the guided tour with screen shots. I like knowing in advance every question you will ask me so there are no surprises. I also like the short paragraph that explains how ippimail separates the advertisers from us.

There is a typo on the home page (sent instead of send).

Its an interesting idea, and I could see myself using the service as long as I can choose which private info I want to give out and which I want to withhold.

I also agree with the above poster about the logo.

SSharon,

Phew... someone who doesn't hate it

So you would prefer all the questions to be optional?

Our fear about this is that no-one will answer any of them! It looks as if this is a stumbling block though...

Which questions do you think you *wouldn't* answer?

Simon

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by MilkmanDan:
Really slow load here. Horribly slow.

MilkmanDan,

That's very disappointing... Not sure what the fix is...

Simon

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by Xeo:
You want to raise a million dollars a day using targeted advertising? If you have enough users to make that happen, the costs of running the site (and number of servers needed) will be quite high. You'd be a corporation by that point. That's why it's unrealistic.

Xeo,

I still don't get it.

What's wrong with meeting the costs and becoming a corporation?

Not sure what a 'Corporation' is actually... Is that a definable US term?

If it translates to an English 'Company' then we are already a Company.

Simon

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by ManOfSteal:
Hire Adam Betts.®

ManOfSteal,

For the logo or the page design?

Simon

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by effgee:
What I can think of off the top of my head ...

"Business" strategy:
There's a ton of email services out there already - you are going to have to provide similar features in terms of functionality as well as a better user interface

effgee,

I forgot to mention that we do of course offer to forward your mail to any other address. So in effect you can have any interface you prefer as long as you have control over the 'Reply to' address.

Simon

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by MilkmanDan:
Really slow load here. Horribly slow.

MilkmanDan,

Been thinking about this...

Could it be that we're not getting cached due to not having all that much traffic?

Will this improve as we get more users? Does anyone know?

I guess the email itself will never get cached... Looks like a server in the US will be in order.

Simon

[Mastrap]

Re, optional info:

From a user point of view this would be a good thing.
From an advertiser point of view this would be a bad thing.
For me as a user you're already asking too many questions.
If I'd wanted to advertise with you, (and I might very well be interested in that, send me a PM,) I would want to have more information and better targeting.

Anyway, you have no way to verify the user data in the first place. I personally think that your business model needs thinking about. If you do want to support the service through advertising then google's model (target ads to the content of the mail) is a far better way of going about things.

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by Mastrap:
Re, optional info:

From a user point of view this would be a good thing.
From an advertiser point of view this would be a bad thing.
For me as a user you're already asking too many questions.
If I'd wanted to advertise with you, (and I might very well be interested in that, send me a PM,) I would want to have more information and better targeting.

Anyway, you have no way to verify the user data in the first place. I personally think that your business model needs thinking about. If you do want to support the service through advertising then google's model (target ads to the content of the mail) is a far better way of going about things.

Mastrap,

We are between a rock and a hard place as you indicate.

Our feeling is that this is not for everyone. It's for people who genuinely want to make a contribution and *that's* why they will fill in a lenthy questionnaire and fill it in honestly. This is assuming they fully understand exactly *why* all these questions are important.
Having an ippimail address is intended as a 'badge of honour', 'I took the time to do something which will generate cash for charities and create a 'best of breed' Open Source email service *and* take control of the advertising I'm exposed to'. It's a win for everyone. The difficulty is getting the message across.

As for verifying the data, this is virtually impossible in any case, am I right?

We are open to a Google style targeting approach *in addition* to what we are currently doing, with our users' permission.

Thanks for the additional feedback. I'll PM you as well.

Simon

[kemuri]

The background color isn't very welcoming. Perhaps something a little warmer?

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by kemuri:
The background color isn't very welcoming. Perhaps something a little warmer?

kemuri,

Thanks. On the front page you mean?

I think the look and feel will develop over time to everyone's satisfaction.

I think the issue in the short term is wether people will buy in to the concept of this being a project in common ownership.

Simon

[ManOfSteal]

Originally posted by simonmartin:
ManOfSteal,

For the logo or the page design?

Simon

He is phenomenal at both; however, I'd pick the one you feel least confident in doing yourself...the logo and the design of the page need to work with each other though, so maybe getting a kickass logo could spur off some new design ideas?

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by ManOfSteal:
He is phenomenal at both; however, I'd pick the one you feel least confident in doing yourself...the logo and the design of the page need to work with each other though, so maybe getting a kickass logo could spur off some new design ideas?

ManOfSteal,

I'm on his website now as a matter of fact...

I stear well clear of anything to do with design I'm embarrassed to say, not my thing at all. This is me http://www.p4pixel.com

I'll ask Adam about a logo. His work looks good.

Simon

[kemuri]

Originally posted by simonmartin:
kemuri,

Thanks. On the front page you mean?

Yeah, on the main page. You could get away with the light blue if text and images were laid out differently, because at the moment the color seems to dominate the fromt page.

Good luck, btw.

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by kemuri:
Yeah, on the main page. You could get away with the light blue if text and images were laid out differently, because at the moment the color seems to dominate the fromt page.

Good luck, btw.

kemuri,

We'll work on it...

Thanks for your good wishes

Simon

[effgee]

Ok, since it's for a good cause and I'm waiting for a client to call me back ...

Aside from the business aspects mentioned by the folks upthread, my main quibble is your branding - you are trying to move into a highly competitive space, where you'll be facing seemingly invincible "incumbents" (Google, Hotmail, etc.) - the charity aspect, while a nice differentiator, will not save your necks.

You are going to have to put a lot more effort into the development of your brand (aside from other aspects which I'll mention briefly at the end of this post) to make it more unique, meaningful and recognizable. Using what little I know about your project I'll give an example of how you could approach the development of a proper brand strategy. This does of course not mean that you should be using my example for your site (you probably shouldn't) because I don't have sufficient knowledge of the background or the thinking you guys put into this project.

1, logo mark
Try and work out a primary logo mark, that reflects the personality of your "business" and the folks who represent it. For example's sake, we'll use the following "brand attributes":

1. the "company" name
2. the "company" is about people
3. the "product" is made by good people and targets other good people
4. the "product" is an email service

Let's start with the name - the "i" is easily recognizable. If properly abstracted, the "i" will resemble an iconized person. That's a good thing because we want to illustrate the human aspect. Like so ...

• 

Now we would like to incorporate the "good people" aspect. I'll use the halo you guys already have:

• 

The result is a logo mark that represents the company name ("i"), people ("the iconized dude") and the aspects of "good/charity" ("the halo"). So far so good ...

How about the "product" - email? For the current logo, you guys used an envelope. In itself that is not a bad idea - problem is however, that it's next to impossible to incorporate any logo mark into an envelope since that is nothing people could easily recognize. How about something else, then? Borrowing from Apple's "Mail" app, I'll be using a stamp ...

• 

To further enhance the charity aspect, let's pick a color that's usually associated with "helping" (hint 1: not blue, hint 2: a nice shade of green would work as well)

• 

Now, let's put those two together ...

• 

There ya go - "mail" aspect integrated, "charity" part further emphasized - put together, it would look like so:

• 

2, word mark/font:
Choosing a font as part of your branding is not that easy. In your case, there's three primary aspects (that I know of from looking at the site and reading your posts here) to consider:

• your product and/or -delivery vehicle is the website (as in: the only property you guys have on which to display your brand)
• the "business" has a strong charitable background
• you are adressing a broad audience

That tells me you guys should be using a sans serif font (friendly, easy to read, down to earth, modern), keep the name entirely in lowercase letters (CAPITALS = shouting, lowercase = modest, lowercase = spelling of URL's). To make it even more friendly, I'd choose a font that runs relatively wide ("extended") to enhance legibility as well as the "round" (= friendly) character of the name ...

• 

3, assembly/layout:
Next step is creating some sort of a header (= "primary branding area") that can be used consistently throughout the site. Stick with white as a background color. It's "airy", leaves neutral space for your brand elements and gives the page "room to breathe". The upper left corner of a page header could look like this:

• 

A horizontal header gives the page layout an anchor and provides you with room for additional (secondary/tertiary) branding elements (illustrations, photos, etc.). It's also easy to incorporate a consistent primary navigation - either horizontally or vertically.


4, secondary branding elements:
In addition to your primary branding element, the logo (consisting of logo mark + word mark) you could also develop secondary branding elements to further enhance the communication of certain brand attributes ("mail", "charity", "good", "people"). For this example I chose (because it was the easiest to do) to emphasize the "mail" part.

• 

This element could theoretically be used in situations where you can't and/or don't want to use the tagline ("email for ...") due to design and/or space constraints. Combined with the logo mark, it could look like so:

• 

Things that come to mind are: use on the front of a business card, letterhead, etc.


5, miscellaneous stuff
Aside from the branding, you guys also need to work on the general site structure (content areas, naming, hierarchy) as well as the navigation system and the page layout. Having a decent brand only will not do. Especially the areas of information architecture and usability are vital to a site like yours. Mess those up and your "business" will turn to shit in no time.


Keep in mind that all the stuff above is derived from very little knowledge of what you guys actually want to do using fairly obvious and well known elements (since I don't have that much time to spare). Above all, this post is intended to illustrate the thinking and one possible way to approach the (initial) development of a brand strategy, not to give you a bunch of graphics to run with. And of course, there's a lot more that's part of the process outlined above than what would reasonably fit in a post on an internet forum - we're skimming the surface here, nothing else.

Hope it helps a bit.

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by effgee:
Ok, since it's for a good cause and I'm waiting for a client to call me back ...

There ya go - "mail" aspect integrated, "charity" part further emphasized - put together, it would look like so:

• 

2, word mark/font:
Choosing a font as part of your branding is not that easy. In your case, there's three primary aspects (that I know of from looking at the site and reading your posts here) to consider:

• your product and/or -delivery vehicle is the website (as in: the only property you guys have on which to display your brand)
• the "business" has a strong charitable background
• you are adressing a broad audience

That tells me you guys should be using a sans serif font (friendly, easy to read, down to earth, modern), keep the name entirely in lowercase letters (CAPITALS = shouting, lowercase = modest, lowercase = spelling of URL's). To make it even more friendly, I'd choose a font that runs relatively wide ("extended") to enhance legibility as well as the "round" (= friendly) character of the name ...

• 

3, assembly/layout:
Next step is creating some sort of a header (= "primary branding area") that can be used consistently throughout the site. Stick with white as a background color. It's "airy", leaves neutral space for your brand elements and gives the page "room to breathe". The upper left corner of a page header could look like this:

• 

A horizontal header gives the page layout an anchor and provides you with room for additional (secondary/tertiary) branding elements (illustrations, photos, etc.). It's also easy to incorporate a consistent primary navigation - either horizontally or vertically.


4, secondary branding elements:
In addition to your primary branding element, the logo (consisting of logo mark + word mark) you could also develop secondary branding elements to further enhance the communication of certain brand attributes ("mail", "charity", "good", "people"). For this example I chose (because it was the easiest to do) to emphasize the "mail" part.

• 

This element could theoretically be used in situations where you can't and/or don't want to use the tagline ("email for ...") due to design and/or space constraints. Combined with the logo mark, it could look like so:

• 

Things that come to mind are: use on the front of a business card, letterhead, etc.


5, miscellaneous stuff
Aside from the branding, you guys also need to work on the general site structure (content areas, naming, hierarchy) as well as the navigation system and the page layout. Having a decent brand only will not do. Especially the areas of information architecture and usability are vital to a site like yours. Mess those up and your "business" will turn to shit in no time.


Keep in mind that all the stuff above is derived from very little knowledge of what you guys actually want to do using fairly obvious and well known elements (since I don't have that much time to spare). Above all, this post is intended to illustrate the thinking and one possible way to approach the (initial) development of a brand strategy, not to give you a bunch of graphics to run with. And of course, there's a lot more that's part of the process outlined above than what would reasonably fit in a post on an internet forum - we're skimming the surface here, nothing else.

Hope it helps a bit.

effgee,

<I did a big snip to save space>

I'm speechless... The above looks great!

I have mailed a couple of people including Adam Betts. We'll see what comes of it.

Many thanks for all the feedback you have given.

If we all worked together like this, just imagine the email service we could create for ourselves and the rest of society...

Very cool mate, thanks.

Simon

[effgee]

Heh, thanks Hope it helps you guys a bit to get to where you want to be.

Another quick idea ...

• 

Because simple is good.

[SSharon]

Originally posted by effgee:

some damn nice work.

To answer that other question about private info the one I am least inclined to give away is my income, don't ask me why I just hate giving that out.

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally posted by SSharon:
some damn nice work.

To answer that other question about private info the one I am least inclined to give away is my income, don't ask me why I just hate giving that out.

I agree.

Whenever faced with the question (where leaving it blank isn't an option) I always pick the lowest possible.

[Yose]

You might want to investigate establishing yourself as a foundation that fundraises for other charities. It would lend some credibitlity to yourself and also give you a plausible reason to draw salaries as, if it becomes successful, will be a full-time job. You would also be ellible for benefits as a non-profit to help run the foundation and also issue tax-receipts to people/companies who do pro-bono work for you (your corporate identity, for example).

[Xeo]

Damn effgee, you impress me with stunning work every time you post something.

[ManOfSteal]

Originally posted by Xeo:
Damn effgee, you impress me with stunning work every time you post something.

Amen, and to think this was "without much time to work on it" work of his...WOW!

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by Yose:
You might want to investigate establishing yourself as a foundation that fundraises for other charities. It would lend some credibitlity to yourself and also give you a plausible reason to draw salaries as, if it becomes successful, will be a full-time job. You would also be ellible for benefits as a non-profit to help run the foundation and also issue tax-receipts to people/companies who do pro-bono work for you (your corporate identity, for example).

Yose,

It's a full time job already believe me...

Here in the Uk the rules about charities etc are probably different to those in Canada but I'll see about a foundation.

The Uk government is keen on 'Social Enterprise' which is what we are. Basically a regular business which exists for a social purpose.

Simon

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by SSharon:
some damn nice work.

To answer that other question about private info the one I am least inclined to give away is my income, don't ask me why I just hate giving that out.

SSharon (and mitchell_pgh),

Ok, I take that on board. I thought the secrecy surrounding income was an English peculiarity

So... if the questions were all optional you would sign up to the project. Yes?

Would you still take the time to answer them all or would you just skip though to the end? If you do this you would obviously represent a 'cost' to the rest of us.

Simon

[SSharon]

Assuming all the info I provide is kept securely and that my real name is not in the same file as everything else, so that I am assured that those from marketing can never see my name I have no problem answering the rest of the questions.

Realizing that you are operating in another country (even if servers do end up in the US) it might be worthwhile to look into legal rights in the US. I want to be assured that no one other than yourself has both my name and private info regardless of what country they are in and what laws their country has against stealing or buying people's private info.

So after filling out the questions I think a random number should be generated just to go with the info to prove to the marketers that you aren't making people up and lying to them, and that my name should only be used for the Mail aspect of your site. In fact I don't even see the need of a master file that has everyone's name and number in it.

[simonmartin]

SSharon

Originally posted by SSharon:
Assuming all the info I provide is kept securely and that my real name is not in the same file as everything else, so that I am assured that those from marketing can never see my name I have no problem answering the rest of the questions.

Ok cool. We actually don't even ask for your real name but you may be using it in your address of course... We would also never show any of our advertisers any of your details. There's no need to. This is in our terms of use.

Realizing that you are operating in another country (even if servers do end up in the US) it might be worthwhile to look into legal rights in the US. I want to be assured that no one other than yourself has both my name and private info regardless of what country they are in and what laws their country has against stealing or buying people's private info.

Sure

So after filling out the questions I think a random number should be generated just to go with the info to prove to the marketers that you aren't making people up and lying to them, and that my name should only be used for the Mail aspect of your site. In fact I don't even see the need of a master file that has everyone's name and number in it.

You lost me here... Nothing you tell us about yourself is given to advertisers in any way, not your address, not your info, nothing. We couldn't make people up as there wouldn't be the ad impressions to go with them.

Have I misunderstood you here...?

Simon

[budster101]

whois.

[SSharon]

Originally posted by simonmartin:
Have I misunderstood you here...?

No, I guess I misunderstood you actually. If my name doesn't exist anywhere (other than my address book and/or e-mail address) then I am happy.

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by SSharon:
No, I guess I misunderstood you actually. If my name doesn't exist anywhere (other than my address book and/or e-mail address) then I am happy.

SSharon,

Great.I'll consider you a convert We obviously need to make the privacy issues clearer though.

Did you go through the FAQs in our forums btw?

Simon

[historylme]

Originally posted by ManOfSteal:
Amen, and to think this was "without much time to work on it" work of his...WOW!

I thought the same and I am always impressed by effgee willingness to help and amazing skills.

Effgee, my hat to you on all accounts.

[SSharon]

Originally posted by simonmartin:
Great.I'll consider you a convert We obviously need to make the privacy issues clearer though.

I was always a supporter really.

Originally posted by simonmartin:
Did you go through the FAQs in our forums btw?

Umm, I will now

[kalcim]

Looks like a good service. I would certainly consider using it.

I had one thought. If people don't like some of the questions, maybe you could require people to only answer a set number. Like for example if there were ten questions, you can answer nine of your choosing. This way you get good information, but people don't have to answer individual questions they are uncomfortable with.

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by kalcim:
Looks like a good service. I would certainly consider using it.

I had one thought. If people don't like some of the questions, maybe you could require people to only answer a set number. Like for example if there were ten questions, you can answer nine of your choosing. This way you get good information, but people don't have to answer individual questions they are uncomfortable with.

Kalcim,

That's an excellent idea!

Perhaps we could have a 'No answer' option on every question but set a 20% limit on the number of questions you can answer in that way. If you set too many questions to 'No answer' you don't get an account.

Workable?

Simon