Email Delivery Delay (UPDATE: FIXED AND WORKING PROPERLY)

The company that hosts our mail server had technical issues for the last 24-36 hours. This caused a delay in the delivery of our emails . The server appears to be back up and running and all emails that were queued up during this time have been delivered. We are working hard on new solutions to ensure this does not happen again.

Please do not hesitate to contact me personally if you have any other questions, comments or concerns (Jason (at) WhichDateWorks.com).

Forgot to invite someone?

One of the most requested features has been the ability to add someone to your event after the invitation has already been sent out. There is nothing worse than forgetting to send an invitation to one or two people. It's not like they are less important...or you don't like them...but for some reason, if you leave them off of the list you become the worst friend/family member/co-worker on the planet! We've been there too! So, to avoid people feeling left out, we created the "Invite more people" link! Simply send someone the link and ask them to fill in their availability!

As always, if you have any questions or problems, do not hesitate to contact us.

Last minute fantasy football tips from the experts at Yahoo! Sports

Sports fans get ready, the NFL season is about to begin! It’s officially time to throw on your team jersey, dust off the secret family chili recipe and, of course, dominate your fantasy football league. While many of you have been preparing all summer for your fantasy football draft, we know some of you have been slacking this summer (including everyone here at WhichDateWorks.com!). So instead of trying to figure it out on our own, we asked the experts Yahoo! Sports to throw us a Hail Mary and hook us up with a cheat sheet for any last minute fantasy football draft! Be sure to check out more from the experts at Yahoo! Fantasy Sports.

WhichDateworks.com: Is it too late to join a fantasy football league?

Yahoo! Sports: No, Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football runs throughout the entire 2009 professional football regular season, which begins on Thursday, September 10 and is scheduled to end on Sunday, January 3, 2010.

Sign-ups begin in early June and continue until Friday, October 23.

If you sign-up after a Game Week is already underway, your team/league does not begin its season until the start of the following week.

However, the commissioner of a Custom League can opt to run a retroactive stats update in any league that drafts after the season has begun. Under these conditions, teams in your league can accumulate wins and losses for weeks completed prior to your league's draft.

WhichDateworks.com: Who are the mid-level and late round picks that readers should be thinking about in order to get the most value out of their roster?

Yahoo! Sports:

Sleepers:

Leon Washington: The Jets aren't offering him a nice pay raise to handle the ball a mere 123 times again this season. They realize he's a game-breaking talent that has to be on the field more. Don't be surprised if his touches top the 200 mark this season.

Earnest Graham: Derrick Ward gets all the love in fantasy drafts, but I expect there'll be a time-share in the Bucs' backfield and Graham is very likely to land the goal-line work in that split. Don't overpay for
Ward. Take the Graham discount instead.

Chris Henry: His own QB believes he's the most talented receiver on the team. He's at least the most impressive target for Carson Palmer in the red zone, where his size and leaping ability make him more than a handful for defensive backs to deal with. Henry's been on his best behavior in camp. He could wind up being a very cheap source of 6-8 touchdowns.

Brent Celek: He took over for L.J. Smith down the stretch last season and was a monster in the Eagles' playoff run. At least 12 tight ends will go before him in fantasy drafts. But it is very unlikely 12 will wind up outproducing this starter for one of the pass-happiest teams in the league.

Rookies - Flying under the radar:

James Davis: He's been so good in preseason that there are already rumblings that Jamal Lewis could be a marked man.

Bernard Scott: He's making a strong push to be the backup to Cedric Benson in Cincinnati. Again, that was Cedric Benson he's backing up.

WhichDateworks.com: Individuals versus teams: What is more important, the potential of an individual player or positions on teams that traditionally perform well due to team dynamics and strategy (example, Denver running backs typically put up a lot of points regardless of the player)?

Yahoo! Sports: The safer bet is to focus on individuals rather than the team dynamic. If you try to take a player based on how that specific position has performed in the past, it can be risky because the player may be unproven and in a case such as Denver, you might not know during your draft which back is going to receive the bulk of the carries. However, it could be worth a late round pick to snag one of those guys just in case they have a breakout season.

WhichDateworks.com: Are there any small market, overlooked teams that readers should focus their research on to maximize their roster?

Yahoo! Sports: It's good to be up to date on all players around the league, but there are a few smaller market teams with players that could contribute this Fantasy Football season:

Green Bay - Aaron Rodgers (QB), Ryan Grant (RB), Greg Jennings (WR)

Kansas City - Matt Cassel (QB), Larry Johnson (RB), Dwayne Bowe (WR)

Carolina - DeAngelo Williams (RB), Jonathan Stewart (RB), Steve Smith (WR)

WhichDateworks.com: During the season, where should readers go to stay up-to-date on player injuries and updates to make the most of their roster each week?

Yahoo! Sports: During the season it's important to read as much as you can in order to stay up on current player news, reading local newspapers is always a good idea, and team specific blogs. You can also get all your information within your Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football league. If a player is injured or gets demoted to second string, there will be a news alert within your team page letting you know and keeping you up to date at all times. Also, with the new Yahoo! Sports iPhone application, you can manage your team from anywhere.

WhichDateworks.com: This was awesome. We would like to thank Yahoo! Sports for finally giving us a fighting chance of winning a fantasy football draft. If you have not scheduled your fantasy football draft be sure to check out WhichDateWorks.com to take the hassle out of figuring out everyone's schedule!

Play Fantasy Football on Yahoo! Sports

WhichDateWorks.com Tips and Tricks - Specifying a date range

WhichDateWorks.com does a great job helping you figure out when to plan your events. But what about events that can only occur within a specific window of time? For instance, a monthly book club meeting or getting your remote sales team together to discuss results before a quarterly presentation to management.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could specify a specific date range so your guests are not filling out dates in October for your September book club meeting? Well you can. While selecting your dates on the calendar (Step 3), click the check box labeled: "Only select dates between".

It is located here (scroll past photo for remainder of article):

Be sure to specify a beginning and ending date, like this:

In our example, guests will only be able to select dates between today and the end of September. This way we can plan our September event much easier and ensure that our guests do not waste time filling out dates outside of the necessary date range!

We hope you found this WhichDateWorks.com Tips and Tricks segment helpful. We will be posting more tips and tricks each week so be sure to check our blog regularly and follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Summer Fun

The WhichDateWorks.com team has already started making plans for the summer and thought we would share some of the things we’ll be doing:

Baseball Games:  Grab some bleacher seats, get a couple cold beers and work on the tan (or try not to sunburned!).    Nothing screams summer like a day at the ballpark.  When is your hometown team playing next?   www.mlb.com

Hiking/Camping:  It could be for a couple of hours or an entire week, but either way you’re outside, in the fresh air with beautiful surroundings.  For us getting out of the hustle and bustle of New York City is must in the summer!  www.dynamicoutdoors.com

Paintballing:  If you have been paintballing, you know what a rush it can be.  If you have not yet been, what are you waiting for?!  Get a group together (I’d suggest using WhichDateWorks.com of course) and do it!  www.skirmish.com

Concerts:  This is a must, especially at outdoor amphitheatres or festivals.  Bonnaroo anyone?  www.bonnaroo.com

Rafting:  The trip that never happened, inspiring the creation of WhichDateWorks.com!   Whether it’s the class IV in Colorado or Maine…or the “white water” of the Delaware River in NJ…a day out on the river is always a memorable one.  www.kittatinny.com

Donate your time:  Giving is always better than receiving, so give your time, your money or both!  www.volunteermatch.org

Hope you have lots of fun plans for your summer too!

UPDATED: Technical Difficulties

Turns out our database crashed and our host was having trouble getting it back up and running.  What a nightmare.  The site was only down for a couple hours during (11-1:30).  We apologize for any inconvenience!

-Jason

-----------------------------------------------

We have been experiencing technical difficulties on and off since 11:30am this morning.  We have been working hard all day to figure out what is causing the problem, however we have not been successful as of yet.  We will continue looking into the problem this evening and promise to do everything we can to have WhichDateWorks fully operational as soon as possible.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.  Feel free to email me personally if you have any questions or comments.

-Jason

jason[@]whichdateworks.com

twitter.com/whichdateworks

Thank you!

This week has be a fantastic week for WhichDateWorks.com!  We would like to thank all of the new users that have been using WhichDateWorks, sharing it with their friends and talking about it on the internet, you rock!  

An additional thank you goes out to the following blogs, we couldn’t have asked for better press!

AppScout.com: http://www.appscout.com/2009/04/which_date_works_helps_plan_gr.php

Business Hacks:  http://blogs.bnet.com/businesstips/?p=3325

Lifehacker:  http://lifehacker.com/5218394/whichdateworks-takes-the-guesswork-out-of-event-planning

KillerStartups:   http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/whichdateworks-com-setting-the-right-date

Please continue to send us feedback.  We have setup two methods, one through the “Contact Us” link and one through the feedback tab on the left-hand side of the screen.  That tab will let you vote for new features and functionality with other users of the site.  It’s a really cool tool and we hope you enjoy using it.

A ton of new users!

Wow, what a day!  We had a huge spike in traffic thanks to articles on AppScout.com and the Click Chick at ktar.com.  We were thrilled to have so many new people come and check out WhichDateWorks.com yesterday.  It was great to receive two positive reviews right off the bat. 

We’ve been developing WhichDateWorks.com slowly over the past couple of years, sharing with friends and family at various stages in search of feedback.  We avoided media attention while constantly iterating on our design until we felt it was ready.  After yesterdays reviews it shows the hard work paid off!

While there were a lot of good things that happened yesterday, we still ran into a number of problems.  Our host decided to make some changes to the database in the middle of our big traffic spike.  So a number of users ran into errors when trying to activate their account or send out their plans.  We apologize for these and any other inconveniences you may have encountered.  Joel was up late last night working out all of these bugs and everything seems to be running OK today. 

Making group plans can be frustrating and hopefully we were able to make some lives easier through our free service.  If not, send an email to Jason {at} whichdateworks.com to let me know what we can do better.

More and more features and UI improvements

We asked for feedback and you responded! 

Here is what we’ve been working on the past couple of months:

• The biggest change we made over the last few months is switching the site over to Amazon EC2.  You might be asking….What does that mean?  Did anything change?  Don’t worry, nothing has changed.  Your account and account history is safe, secure and intact.  We shifted over to Amazon to help keep the site running fast, no matter how many people may be using it.  If you have any questions or concerns about this please do not hesitate to contact us.
  
• Increased the size of the “Save Changes” button on the calendar. 
  
• Changed the font color of the link “Click here to select or change your dates” on the sidebar.  New users seemed to be missing that link so we wanted to make it more visible.
  
• Added the option to plan multiple dates.
  
• A lot of changes to the architecture of the site that will make it faster, more stable and more flexible for new features in the future.  
  
• A tour of the website to give new users a better idea of how the website works and how it can help them make group plans.  
  

The word is spreading

Wow!  WhichDateWorks.com is growing…and without press, PR or any other publicity.  Thank to everyone who has used the site, talked to your friends and family about the site and have written us with your comments and feedback.  We have received A LOT of feedback and we’re working hard to incorporate as much of it as possible.  Over the next month we’ll be implementing the features and improvements that we hope will make your experience with WhichDateWorks.com even better.  In the meantime, please keep the feedback coming!

Scheduling Multiple Dates

Scheduling a weekend or nice long vacation with a group of friends? WhichDateWorks.com now lets you finalize your plans with multiple dates (and it’s really really easy to do!). To use this new feature, invite your friends to plan with you on WhichDateWorks.com just like you would for any other event. To finalize the plans, hover your mouse over the first day of your plans and click “Final Date”

After clicking on the final date link you will see that the date you selected has become the final date.  To finalize plans for more than one date, simply add an additional date to indicate how long the event will last.

Here is an example of what finalized plans over multiple days will look like in your calendar:

We Continue To Make WhichDateWorks.com The Easiest Way To Make Plans Online!

It's been awhile since I've posted anything on the blog, but we’re still working hard on the site and we're still dedicated to giving you the easiest way to make plans online!  

If you’ve made plans with your friends and family recently you may have noticed some of the new updates:

• Finalize the date.  We added a “finalize your date” feature that locks the voting and sends everyone in your group and email with the final date and any additional information you want to add. 

• Added a “Recent Contacts” feature that lets you quickly add the emails of people you have previously made plans with.  Very cool feature that works automatically, however it is one of those features you need to log-in to use.

• Re-formatted the emails.  We made it easier on the eyes by breaking out the title of the plans from the details.  We did some different fonts and added a box around the details text.  Small changes but we feel they are quite effective.  We also added a tag line at the bottom of the email to let your guest know what our website is all about so they are less likely to think it’s SPAM. 

• Added text to the landing page Some of the feedback we received was regarding users being confused about what our website does when initially landing on the homepage.  We’re still working on that but we tried to give people some more information about what WhichDateWorks.com does and how we can help them.  What do you think…did we accomplish this?

• Expanded the FAQ.  While we love hearing from you personally and we’re more than happy to answer any questions you may have, most people prefer a well documented FAQ, so we’ll keep updating it as your questions roll in.  We have always focused on simplicity and ease of use, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have questions.

• Moved the log-in boxes.  We moved the log-in boxes to the top right hand corner of the screen.  This will free up screen real estate for future features and functionality. 

• Squashed bugs Every now and then we find some glitches….every now and then we find some more.  We are constantly building and improving to make your experience quick, simple and easy but every now and then there will be a hiccup.  So we turn the website upside down and make it drink water for 10 seconds….works like a charm every time!
  

So that’s the latest for now, MUCH MUCH MUCH more coming soon.  We’ll be working over the holidays to bring you some really cool new features and functionality.  I’m personally really excited about what’s coming out and can’t wait to share it with you! 

Stay tuned and come make plans with us:  WhichDateWorks.com

 

Don't forget about WhichDateWorks.com this weekend!

Everyone here at WhichDateWorks.com would like to wish everyone a fun and safe 4th of July weekend!

And don't forget to mention WhichDateWorks.com when that friend or family member inevitably suggests, "let's get together soon"...which we all know means, "I'd love to hangout but I will most likely give up trying after emailing back and forth 3 or 4 times without being able to agree on a date to get together". Yea, we've been there too! Make it easy for everyone to get together, use WhichDateWorks.com.

Now...when are we firing up the BBQ?!

COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION!!

After using WhichDateWorks.com with our friends we realized that comments and other communication directly on the website is much more important than we (or at least I...) initially thought. We always wanted to add some sort of communication feature on the website, but it was never a high priority because we were so focused on making sure that the users had a simple way to plan with their friends. Personally, I felt that the majority of people using the website would not need to communicate on the website because they already have a primary method of getting in touch with the very same people they're planning with. However, I have realized that when you are planning an event it's great to have everything in one place, so WhichDateWorks.com is not just a simple way to make plans with friends and family, but also a central location for everyone to comment, suggest and plan the ultimate event! Be sure to check back often for new communication features being added over the summer!!

Summer Rafting Trip Planning Experiment

So I have been REALLY excited to send out my first large group invitation. The whole idea for WhichDateWorks.com started because of a rafting trip that never got scheduled. We all know how great summer is and unfortunately, how fast it flies by. Everyone tries to fit in as much fun as possible between Memorial Day and Labor Day, taking advantage of summer hours, vacation days and of course "sick days". This, however, can make planning anything a logistical nightmare! So with WhichDateWorks.com up and running I decided to FINALLY get that rafting trip organized. While the results were as expected (everyone is really busy and all over the place this summer)....we did manage to find one day that worked for everyone! I'm not only happy that the website was super easy to use and a simple planning tool, but I'm also happy we're going rafting this summer!

We got some great feedback, found a pretty big "bug" and added about 10 new, very high level feature requests to our running list of future feature additions. We have gone out of our way to make sure that providing feedback is as easy as possible. Please do not be shy to drop us a line and ask for features, report a bug, tell us something doesn't make sense, comment on the design, the user interface....anything and everything is welcome! We have a great little note pad at the top of every page that will email us your thoughts/comments directly. Please use it knowing we will get it and enjoy hearing from you :-)

Small user group testing

We have slowly started using WhichDateWorks.com with some close friends and family. The reason being that we want to begin getting user feedback, but do not feel like we are ready to open the flood gates just quite yet. We just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to provide us with such great feedback! The positive feedback really helps keep our enthusiasm high and reminds us just how necessary and helpful our website is becoming.

More Personalization

We've neglected the "personalization" a bit in the past, and have now been working toward a couple of features that will make using WhichDateWorks.com a bit easier. Although the address book is not up yet, we've made "create new plans" and "view your recent plans" bigger and added icons! Ha! Wish it was more? We also added a "welcome" message with your name in it! Ok, so that is not that exciting at all, but I promise we have some sweet additions in the works, that you'll really appreciate!

We've got a long road ahead of us, but have been making many improvements. Your feedback is very important to us, so please let us know what you think of WhichDateWorks.com!

Yet Another Batch of Updates...

We've been on a roll! With the new redesign and a never-ending list of updates, we're trying to crank out a bunch of little bits here and there. A lot of them subtle, but worth it. We've mainly been rearranging the forms and making the flow of everything smoother. We actually added something to the FAQ page, which now has 2 specific technical notes. Have also been testing JavaScript functionality and how the site works in other browsers.

Let us know if you have any browser issues. Check out the latest at WhichDateWorks.com!

Icons, icons, icons

Our goal is to make the website as visually appealing and straight-forward as we can. We've added graphics that we hope will clearly explain each step of the process!

And as usual, the calendar interface was cleaned up a little bit again, by moving around some of the links and text around the calendar. Hopefully it is better organized and more self-explanatory. Selecting your dates is also a little smoother: we fixed the flickering when you hover over each of the days.

Check out the latest updates at WhichDateWorks.com!

WhichDateWorks.com Redesigned!

WhichDateWorks.com has come a long way over the past six months! The site was long overdue for a face-lift! We're happy to give you a cleaner look, new logo, and easier to use website! Along with the new redesign, we have a couple little updates we made to the functionality of the website to make it even easier to make plans with your friends and family:

• The calendar highlights the day in red if you can't make it, and green if you might or definitely can make it
• Not only does the calendar highlight who can make it for each day, now it highlights names in red, green, or blue based on their response!
• We finally added a "Feedback" form to the top of every page! Now you can let us know of any issues every step of the way!

Check out the latest updates at WhichDateWorks.com!