Sunday, 22nd June, 2008

Pinkspots for sale!

The development of pinkspots.net started about 2 years ago, and since then we have gone from beta release, to full release to our new iPhone application which launched earlier in the year.

However, in the past few months things have slowed down on the development side of things. This has been the result of many different factors, but has lead to me as founder and developer of pinkspots.net to come to the hard decision of possibly closing the site down, or at least passing it on to someone else who may have more interest in continuing with its development.

Top be honest, I have mostly just lost interest in the site but this doesn't have to be the end of pinkspots. So, if you are interested in taking over pinkspots.net, then feel free to contact me though the feedback form.

posted by stuart at 06:37am (GMT) :: comments(0) :: permanent link :: blog archive

Monday, 1st October, 2007

A few More fixes

A few more bugs got fixed tonight including some missing links/images plus an issue with adding a new venue. Seems that these days whenever we fix one bug, we introduce a few more. still, at least we are finding them and fixing them up pronto.

If anyone comes across any more issues or bugs, please feel free to contact us with the details, or post the issue through our feedback page (see main menu)

posted by stuart at 14:57pm (GMT) :: comments(0) :: permanent link :: blog archive

Wednesday, 26th September, 2007

Email Confirmation Bug Fix

We were informed today that there was a major bug in our email confirmation stage during the signup process.

This bug basically stopped any people signing up to the site from confirming their email address

We immediately looked into this bug and discovered some strange things happening, so we have changed the location of the page required for email confirmation!

Although any new signup attempts should now work, old email confirmation links will still cause problems. If you were one of the few that have been unable to sign up in the past because of this problem, then please send us an email, or message through our feedback back and we will correct your account immediately!

posted by stuart at 15:03pm (GMT) :: comments(0) :: permanent link :: blog archive

Sunday, 16th September, 2007

The Invites are out!

As you may or may not be aware, the Events feature on pinkspots.net is brand spanking new!

With the events feature you can set up private or public events at any of the venues on pinkspots.net and manage the guess list yourself.

Through the events you can see who is coming, and who isnt as well as keep in touch with everyone interested in the event through your own mini message board.

The problem was, when we at pinkspots.net first launched events a few weeks back, we forgot one major feature... invites!

However, as from today, we can proudly announce that Event Invites are now live and are all up and running ready for you guys to use.

So what will event invites allow you to do?

Well, once you have created a new event, or found one your interested in – you can now send out invites to this event to all your friends. Your pinkspots friend list is conveniently available on the invite screen so you can choose which friends on pinkspots you want to send your invites to.

Another quite cool feature on the invites page is the ability to invite non-pinkspots users. This is handy if none of your friends have signed up to pinkspots.net yet, but you still want to invite them to your event. Simply enter their email address and we will send them an invite for you.

When your friends receive their invites, they are given the option to mark their attendance on the site as either Attending, Maybe Attending or Not Attending. This will help you instantly see who is coming or who is not.

Why not give it a try now by setting up an event on pinkpots and inviting all your friends!

posted by stuart at 13:29pm (GMT) :: comments(0) :: permanent link :: blog archive

Sunday, 9th September, 2007

Weekend Updates

Since out big relaunch last weekend, we have had word of a few bugs, which over the course of this weekend have been fixed. These mostly involved search results behaving strangely, but should all be OK now.

Fixes included in this update:

User search page now fully working
Venue Search page now returning none reviewed venues
Venue Map also now returning none reviewed venues
Also a few dodgy links/missing pages were fixed up too

posted by stuart at 13:51pm (GMT) :: comments(0) :: permanent link :: blog archive

Sunday, 2nd September, 2007

New Site

We understand that things have been pretty quiet around pinkspots towers the past few months. But its time to confess as to why this has been the case. Basically, we have been working our arse off to try and get a new version of the site uploaded by the end of summer.

Our deadline was the end of August, and I can happily announce that we were only 2 days late, and managed to upload a brand spanking new copy of the site today!

Things are still a bit delicate, so don't expect everything to be working from the word go. In fact, a few bits of the site are still under major reconstruction, and were not quite ready for today launch, but at the same time were not deemed show-stopping important enough to have ready for this big relaunch.

So what's changed?

Well, firstly I guess you may notice the redesign... We had a bit of feedback about the old site where a few of you complained the design was a little too pink, so we had a bit of a rethink and came up with this new look and feel. I think you will agree its much better than the old design, and makes thing look a bit more professional and posh!

We have also had a bit of a tidy up of the code that makes pinkspots run. In fact we pretty much took all the old code, got rid of it and started again. In the process we have cut the amount of code that runs the site down by under half what it originally was which has really made things faster and more efficient.

We also have slung in a few new features. The main one of which is the introduction of events! With pinkspots you can now create events at your favourite venues and keep track of who is coming !

Like I mentioned above, we still have a few bits to fix up and finish off, so keep your eyes peeled for these to appear in the next weeks or so!

Apart from that, the site is all ready for you guys to get your hands on and play with. Hope you all enjoying using it!

posted by stuart at 06:43am (GMT) :: comments(0) :: permanent link :: blog archive

Sunday, 15th July, 2007

Pinkspots to the rescue

the other week a few friends of mine suggested driving up to a gay bar in Suffolk for a random night out. Although I had visited this particular gay bar in question once before about a year ago, I really couldnt remember where abouts it was or where we were really heading.

About 5 minutes before we left, I suddenly had an idea – use bloody pinkspots. Thankfully, I had added the bar myself, and had even mapped it, so knew where it was from one simple search!

Hows that for a bit of self advertising!

Then on Friday I got a phone call from an old friend of mine I haven't spoke to in a while. Turns out he was heading over to New York for a bit for work purposes and wanted to pick my brain on any good gay places to visit whilst there. He mentioned to me that he had logged onto pinkspots and done a search on New York venues, but only one had been listed (note to self – add more New York Venues!)

these are two great examples of just how I am pinkspots to work and be used. If you want information on the gay scene in a particular area, or even details on a particular venue – then we hope that pinkspots will eventually become your first place to visit to get any answers.

Anyway – really must stop blowing my own trumpet and get one with trying to finish the beta2 release

posted by stuart at 06:44am (GMT) :: comments(0) :: permanent link :: blog archive

Wednesday, 11th July, 2007

Version 2

Can you believe that its been exactly a year since I started my little home project of pinkspots.net. Sure the website didn't actually go live until Jan 1st this year, but it was a whole year ago that I started work on it.

I actually got the idea for the website whilst out on holiday in Spain with some friends. Out of the 4 of us who went, two of us were gayers, and fancied a gay night out. Problem was though, we didnt have a clue were to head! We both tried looking up the resort on the internet before the holiday to see if there were any gay bars/clubs nearby, and did find a few, but just names – no addresses/maps!

Then whilst out on holiday the idea stuck me – build a website were you can search for gay venues... the whole social aspect of the site with reviews/friends and all that came later on as i thought about the idea more.

So pretty much the moment I got home, I started plans into building the site. After a few days and many searches for available names I settled with pinkspots.net, and as soon as I brought the domain name the development of the site began.

I had been looking for a project like this for a while. Since leaving uni I have found myself a bit bored not having nothing to do during my spare time, and also what with being a computer programmer for a living, I wanted to have something I could play about with and use to further my skills and build something I could almost use as a portfolio of what I am capable of.

The site took roughly 6 months to get to a beta1 stage where I felt I could launch it. Since then not much has happened with it. To be truthful I haven't even advertised the fact the site exists yet, so user take up has been slow to start with.

Anyway, I decided that the second version of the site is long overdue, so have been recently working hard to launch the next stage. The first implementation was rushed a bit, and some parts of the site are pretty basic and some don't even work, so I am planning to have the second version of the site a lot more stable and user friendly.

Unfortunately, its still going to be a while until the new version is ready. I decided that a total rewrite of the main core code was in order to speed things up and make it more efficient, so over the past few weeks I have been working on that.

I'm hoping to have the whole thing finished and re-launched by September, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

So, if any one is reading this, I'm asking you to think of anything you would like to see on pinkspots, and leave a comment here detailing any improvements you can think of. I cant promise fulfilling them all, but any suggestions would be welcome.

posted by stuart at 02:24am (GMT) :: comments(0) :: permanent link :: blog archive

Tuesday, 20th March, 2007

Gay 2.0

so since pinkspots.net has launched a good few other social websites aimed at gay people have been launched too!

First up in a beautifully designed site called social butter! A bit like a gay myspace this site allows you to meet new people, become their friends and message them. You can also add your favourite places you like to visit to your profile giving your friends a glimpse at where you like to hang out! - its a nice site that I feel could really develop into something really cool – its clean, crisp design also makes it stand and easy to navigate! - I can obviously tell the developer has put a lot of time, effort and love into getting it up and running.

Next up is a social publishing network I have been following the development of since last year Queensspeech. Based around the idea of social publishing of articles, blogs and gay cultural information - Queensspeech is aiming to become the gay digg. Personally, I like the idea and can see it becoming an on-line rival to gay magazines such as gay times and attitude – but instead of the editors deciding what appears in the magazine – the readers and contributors decide!

However, the major problem I did find with the site was the complexity! - first of all the design is a tad on the loud side! The black background with coloured text can work well on some sites who manage to pull this off, but the design here is not very pleasant on the eye. The backgrounds used are quite outrageous, constantly change and often clash with the text, and make some parts of the site unreadable. Also the navigation and use of random coloured backgrounds on various sized text makes the site confusing and difficult to use. I feel bad for slagging it off, but its is a shame really because the idea behind the site is good – but the actual construction of it spoils the experience.

Last but not least is the most recent of gay sites I have come across. Clickpink was forwarded on to me by a friend who came across the site and informed me about it. Basically its a bit of a mix of all the sites reviewed above including pinkspots. There is a very myspace feel to it, but they also have other feature too. One of these is a small scene guide which mostly seems to be centred around the London Gay scene, and like pinkspots – clickpink allows you to see a map, images and add reviews. Like queenspeech, the site also has a magazine/publishing side which seems quite nicely done! - although the magazine is basically a blog, it seems to be done well. Also they have pulled off the darker colour scheme quite well, and have some nice imagery and design going on too, giving the site a quite young and modern look to it!

Although it could be said that some of these sites are rivals to pinkspots.net, I personally like to think of them more as friends of ours. Social networks have exploded in popularity in the past few years, and although many of them are simply clones of myspace and such – its nice to finally start to see some more niche market sits appearing catering for more small, more generalised needs. Particularly those of gay people.

posted by stuart at 12:34pm (GMT) :: comments(1) :: permanent link :: blog archive

Friday, 16th March, 2007

Email Notifications

We have noticed that during this initial beta period, many of the people who have signed up to pinkspots have played around with it for a bit, then have suddenly disappeared never to return again!

Well, we cant blame you... when we first launched, features were a little thin on the ground to say the least! - but over the past 3 months we have introduced a whole shed load of new features including friendships request, user photos, venue photos and most recently – private messaging!

This is all very nice of us, but the problem is that you guys were always totally unaware of any new friend requests/comments or private messages sent to you unless you logged on to the site to check for yourself! - well, as from today, that has all changed! - why? well we have decided that you should receive email notifications sent to your registered email address when ever something exciting happens.

That mean that each time a event such as someone commenting on your profile, adding you as a friend or sending you a private message happens– we will kindly send you a little email informing you about it, and also give you a handy little link that will take you straight to where you can read/find out about that particular event!

Of course, we have been a little cheeky assuming you want these email notifications, but we believe it will help you out, and also help us build a bigger, better pinkspots.net. We promise to make sure your email address is safe - but if you wish to change your privacy settings so that you no longer receive such email notifications, then you can easily do this by logging into pinkspots and going to your User details and Account Settings page.

posted by stuart at 10:24am (GMT) :: comments(0) :: permanent link :: blog archive

Sunday, 4th March, 2007

Messaging goes live

pinkspots has been up and running in its public beta stage for 2 months now. Things are still a little quiet, but we understand that apart from review venues, there is not much else to do on pinkspots.

So, to to help with this, I am proud to announce that as from now, the feature to message other users on pinkspots is now active.

Sending messages is pretty straight forward. Firstly, find the profile user you want to message, click the 'Message User' button, type your message and press send – job done!

This new messaging feature also brings a few other new bits to the website. If you visit your dashboard page, you will now see a option to check messages. This takes you to your messaging page where you can view your inbox, outbox and even compose a new message.

Its all a bit basic at the moment, but it works – so feel free to try it out! - Messaging – like the rest of pinkspots.net is completely free, and there is no limit to the amount of messages you can send between users!

Anyway – I have been working all weekend to get this up and running, and now its done my eyes could do with a rest! - enjoy the messaging!

posted by stuart at 15:48pm (GMT) :: comments(0) :: permanent link :: blog archive

Saturday, 24th February, 2007

Add us to myspace!

Pinkspots.net is still very much in its early stages, and at this moment in time we need as much publicity as possible just to get things rolling. Now there is nothing better than free publicity, so we decided to sign up to myspace and add our own little profile which if you like you can add to your friend list. This isnt a whole lot of point in it, but may help spread the word on the site.

Anyway, to add us to your myspace friend list, visit our profile, and click the add to friends button. When you have done that, add us to your top friends - otherwise we will come round and bitch slap you!

posted by stuart at 06:10am (GMT) :: comments(0) :: permanent link :: blog archive

Sunday, 11th February, 2007

Profile Photos at last!

Each and every member signed up to pinkspots has their very own profile. The point of having a profile is to have somewhere where people can find out a little about you – be this your name, your location or age. Its also somewhere were people can see all the venues you have added/reviewed on pinkspots or called a favourite or regular of!

We understand that when the site first launched, our profiles were a little boring – the truth is, we still have a lot more planned for them, but just haven't got round to do it! - These future changes will help make pinkspots more of a community, but you will have to wait a little while longer until you get to play with them!

Anyway – in the mean time we have made a small improvement to the profiles this weekend what you can start playing around with right away! - basically, we have finally let you guys upload a photo of yourself!

To do this, simply log in to pinkspots, and you will be taken to your dashboard page. On your dashboard you should see the option to add a photo, simply click that and choose a file – upload and your done!

Its only the one photo allowed at the moment – the option to add more will be available soon, so make sure you choose wisely and pick the one you look best in! - if like some people, you would prefer to remain anonymous, then please feel free to upload an alternative/funny picture of your choice!

Just try to keep things cleans people – we don't want pinkspots turning into some slide show of cock shots and boobies! - any naughty photos will be deleted!

posted by stuart at 15:40pm (GMT) :: comments(0) :: permanent link :: blog archive

Saturday, 3rd February, 2007

Updates

A few small changes to the site today - Mostly fixing up a few minor bugs reported to be occurring in with login/logout. The whole processing of logging in and out should be much smoother now, and you will also notice that when you login, you are now taken straight to your dashboard page!

The dashboard page is a replacement to the settings page, and is now your starting point on pinkspots once you have logged in. This gives you a quick glance at your status on pinkspots including lists of your currently outstanding friend request authorisations and your bookmarked venues/users.You will also notice a stats section – which at the moment is currently under development, but should be up and running soon!

Activity on the site has slowly died down since launch – and I guess that this is down to the fact that features are still pretty thin on the ground in pinkspots! - hopefully I will be able to get round to adding a few news ones within the next few weeks! As some of you know, the site is still very much in its beta stage at the moment – this a public beta which is open to anyone to join now! - During this stage we still really need your feedback on the site so far! - this just gives us an idea of problems you may be face, or features you happen to like! - all of this really helps with developing newer features in the future and growing a bigger and better pinkspots!

Once we have built up a few more important features such as chat/forums/messaging and recommendations we will officially launch the site properly in its live stage out of beta testing!

Thanks for everyone who has signed up and taken part so far – I guess it shows all this effort we have put into the site hasnt been a complete waste of time!

posted by stuart at 10:24am (GMT) :: comments(0) :: permanent link :: blog archive

Sunday, 28th January, 2007

More photo goodness

A quick update tonight, after adding the function to add your flickr photos to a venue page, you will now also find that recently uploaded photos are displayed on the main home page, and also there is a new photos page, that will display the last 30 photos uploaded by members.

posted by stuart at 15:12pm (GMT) :: comments(0) :: permanent link :: blog archive