This is the first newsletter of 2003 from the wish-fairy, (we did say these newsletters would be infrequent!) so Happy New Year to all our users. This edition contains some instructions you need to carry out to tidy up your list, so please do read them!
============ You need to do this! ==============
If you haven't done it already, now would be a good time to clean up your wish-list after the Christmas frenzy.
Please mark all 'bought' items in your list either 'archive' (if you want to keep them) or 'delete' (if you don't). The reason for this is that 'bought' items remain in the public area, but 'archive' ones don't. This means that people who bought you stuff from your list will still see those items in their printable shopping lists, and they are probably getting upset with you.
Go to the wish-list site by clicking on the link at the bottom of this message, log in, and in the 'my list' area click the link saying 'archive bought items'. Easy eh? So do it now before you forget!
============ End of stuff you need to do ==============
Right, the rest of the newsletter is just the normal information on updates, bugfixes, and other interesting stuff, so you can relax now.
Updates on the wish-list.net site since the last newsletter include:
Status of list items:
Hidden status values for when you are reading your list so you don't know what is being or has been bought for you. We've kept the original 'full status' views so you can check if you want, but you have to click on the link at the top of your list to say 'show status of public items' to see them.
You also no longer see the current status of the item when you are browsing through your list. It used to be written in big bold letters across the top, and several people said they didn't like it. Sorry about that, folks! However, when you want to make changes to an item we have to show you the current status in order for the system to work properly, so be warned. If you don't want to know what's been bought for you, don't start making changes to individual items on your list!
Publicise your list:
You can now send a message to your friends and family to tell them that you have updated your list. This may be useful if your birthday is coming up and you want to give them a gentle reminder of the fact (remember that if your friend also lists you as their friend then they may receive an automatic reminder anyway if you have set reminders up in your account settings). Log in and go to the 'my list' area to find the link to do this. (It helps if you set up your friends and family first of course!)
Friends and family menu:
Some people are just too popular!
They have so many friends and family members that the list won't actually fit on the screen. We have therefore split up the menu into several smaller customisable ones so you can view more than one page of friends and family. The number of people you view per page can be set in your account settings so that you don't have to scroll through too many pages to find the friend you want. The idea behind this is that because different people use different screen resolutions and have different numbers of friends and family we want to make the whole thing as customisable as possible. See the help documentation for further details.
Events calendar:
Just before St. Valentine's day we completed the special events reminder module and plugged it in to the main site. Just over a week before any major events like Father's or Mother's day, Easter etc. you will receive an email reminding you. You can easily opt out of this type of email by logging in to the site and deselecting the top checkbox in the 'tell me about' section of your account settings. You can also browse the events diary from the main menu to see what sort of reminders we think you need to know about.
If you know of any date coming up that we should tell everyone about why not send us feedback and ask us to put it in the diary?
Statistics collection and session logging:
We've enabled session logging on our server. Please don't get upset - all we are doing is recording log ins and page hits. We aren't spying on you for the government or anyone else! You won't see anything different at first as most of the benefit will come later once we start collating statistics on general trends. This is going to help us make the site better for you in the future as it helps us see where you go and what you want from the site. For more information on what we are doing see the terms and conditions section in the main site.
Printing lists:
The printable list of things to go and buy was put in just before Christmas as a 'stopgap'. We are currently working on doing something a little better than that, so look out for better printing and shopping list options later this year.
Well, that's about it. Sorry this newsletter took so long to put together - we are trying to strike a happy balance between too much information so people get fed up and too little when you all forget about us.
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