Twellow Blog

Follow @twellowup now on Twitter!

People are often asking us how they can get updates on what’s going on at Twellow. One of the first things we offer is to follow this blog. But blog posts can be lengthy and not as frequent as we’d all like. Another way we’ve told people to get updates is by following some of the people here at Twellow (like @richord, @iematthew, and @mmcdonald) using their Twitter accounts. And a lot of people have asked us why we don’t just have a Twellow user they can follow. Well, we’ve asked ourselves that same question.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here at Twellow we’re constantly working to make things better, so we’re pleased to announce the creation of a few more categories to help you find the people you’re looking for. These have been created to specifically address requests from several Twellow users, so I’d like to encourage you to contact us with any suggestions you might have for new categories.

Some of our newest categories are as follows: Read the rest of this entry »

We’re really excited to announce the release of one of the most anticipated features for Twellow: the Twellow Profile Editor. This new addition allows users to login to Twellow and edit their personal data.

In order to login a user must first verify their ownership of the Twellow profile. This is done by a user finding themselves within the system via the search feature or by going to their user profile page at www.twellow.com/user/twitter_screename (e.g. my profile page is found at www.twellow.com/user/iematthew since my twitter screen name is iematthew). Once the profile is found they can claim their profile by clicking the link on the right-hand side of their profile listing.

Once the profile has been claimed, Twellow will identify it as such and mark the listing as “Twellow Verified”. This means the profile can be managed by the profile owner. Profile aspects which can be initially edited include the following:

• Name
• Bio
• Categories
• Location
• URL

Users can then add themselves to up to ten personally-verified categories. This can be done by either verifying their listing in a category already identified by the system, or by browsing and clicking the “Add me” link found next to each category title on the site, as shown in the example below. The ten-category limit applies only to user-verified categories. Any non-verified categories automatically identified by Twellow do not count toward this limit.

Additional features will become available as the site progresses to allow for a more rich bio-editing toolset, but for now the bio is limited to 256 plain-text characters. As usual, user feedback is encouraged. Feel free to drop us a line at our contact page and let us know how the profile editor works for you, or let us know how we can improve it.

Enjoy!

Matthew Daines
Twellow Lead Developer
twellow.com/user/iematthew

We have some pretty exciting features coming online in the next few days. Twellow has definitely been a hit with a lot of people, so we’re working harder than ever to implement new features that will address a lot of questions about the service. The biggest question most of you have had is, “how can I edit my own categories?”

With this in mind, we’ve created and tested a prototype system that will allow you to have full control over how your information is listed on Twellow. Once we’re satisfied that these features are ready, we’ll make it live on the site and let you know. Keep watching the blog and be sure to follow my Twitter account for the latest breaking updates.

As for newly added features, we’ve added a simple FAQ to the site to help users find answers to their basic questions. Check it out on the website and let us know if you have any other questions you think would be good to include there. We’re always open to suggestions. After all, it’s you that makes Twellow worthwhile.

Cheers!

Matthew Daines
Twellow Lead Developer
www.twellow.com/user/iematthew

If you’ve tried to add your Twitter information to Twellow but receive an “Oops!” error, then here are some possibilities: either you do not have a Twitter account (you can create one here), you have your Twitter account set to “protected”, you have not yet posted a status on Twitter, or Twellow is having difficulty communicating with the Twitter service.

If you have set your Twitter updates to protected, then in order for Twellow to be able to import your information from Twitter you must update your Twitter settings to NOT protect your updates. This can be done by going to www.twitter.com/account/settings and un-checking the box next to “Protect my updates”. Make this change, then try again to get listed on Twellow.

If Twellow is having difficulty communicating with Twitter then there’s not much you as the user can do, ’cause it’s not your fault! If you’re pretty sure you have a Twitter account, and you’re pretty sure your updates are not protected, and you’re pretty sure you’ve posted a message on Twitter, then feel free to drop us a line via our contact page and let us know. We will look into it and let you know our findings as soon as we can.

Enjoy!

Matthew Daines
Twellow Lead Developer
www.twellow.com/user/iematthew

We’ve had a lot of requests from people wanting to edit their personal listings on Twellow. Since you know more about you than we do, it only makes sense that you should be allowed to manage your information on Twellow. I thought I’d post a repeat of the responses we’ve been sending out to folks who’ve questioned us about this.

We are working feverishly to add a feature that will allow people to verify their identity and add/edit themselves within categories. This is one of the biggest requests we’ve had, so it will definitely be coming soon. Please bear with us as we work this out.

In the meantime, a less-than-perfect alternative is to adjust your bio on Twitter to include distinct keywords that match our categories. When we update your info from Twitter this will pull your new bio and re-categorize you in the Twellow system.

Twellow is very much a work-in-progress at this point, so we do appreciate all the feedback we’re receiving and hope you continue to enjoy Twellow!

Cheers!

Matthew Daines
Twellow Lead Developer
twellow.com/user/iematthew

Update: As of July 7, 2008, users can now edit their Twellow profiles! Check it out on our other blog post.

The word is out and Twellow.com is a huge success! We’ve received tons of questions, and hundreds of comments have been posted on the web about what an “awesomesauce” tool Twellow is. We’re really pleased that Twellow has received such rave reviews, and all this attention has led to a need for better communication with our Twellow fans.

This blog has been setup to address issues that have arisen with answering all your questions, as well as providing easy access for all Twellow users to news about developments with Twellow. We will be posting new information here about feature updates, usability issues, as well as other general-purpose updates about the service.

Check back often, ’cause Twellow is really a dynamic work-in-progress, and will only get better with time.

Enjoy!

The Twellow Team