MeetFighters News

Hi everyone,

First of all, I have a New Old Idea: MeetFighters T-Shirts. This has been suggested before, but up until now I haven't considered it seriously. Now I do. I have a few designs in mind, here is one draft:

[IMAGE:http://www.meetfighters.com/Content/Images/Admin/shirt3.jpg] [IMAGE:http://www.meetfighters.com/Content/Images/Admin/shirt4.jpg]
Yes, I know the ❤ (heart) is corny and dated. This is just work in progress, OK?

I'm going to come up with some new ones, this is just a "working draft". I will also make several colors available. Now the new question is:

Would you buy MeetFighters apparel?

Select as many as you want. (Do not combine the "Yes" and "No").

Diese Umfrage ist beendet.

Costs are approximate, I am still looking for a good print-on-demand service. The prices do not include shipping, which could cost between €2 and €8 depending on location and number of items ordered. T-Shirts and hoodies will be printed with a flock printing technology, which guarantees good colors that will not fade after 100 washes.


In other news, the poll on MeetFighters video uploads is now closed and the results are in! The question was:

Would you upload your private videos to MeetFighters?

Yes I would No I would not Only watching
Number of votes 552 159 786
% of votes 36% 10% 52%
Weighted % 38% 13% 47%

The weighted percentage represents the individual voters multiplied by the number of their past opponents. (This is the metric that I tend to trust the most.)

Some guys have expressed concern in their comments that the videos would interfere with the operation of the site. I would like to ask them to assume that I can handle the technical challenges associated with videos. At the risk of sounding conceited, I am pointing out the fact that I managed to keep this site together with an increasing feature set, a growing membership and several upgrades over the past 4 years.

I am more concerned with the social ecosystem of meetfighters and how videos would affect our members. One legitimate concern that came to my mind is that the private videos on this site could attract people who are not interested in fighting, just want to watch some vids. (Granted, youtube is a more straightforward alternative for them. Still.)

What I see here is that the majority would like to upload or watch videos. This is cool, and I will start implementing the necessary infrastructure. It is going to take me a while, so do not expect it deployed in a few days! I will also monitor the performance of the video feature closely. If it ends up being too much load on the servers, I might end up scrapping the whole thing. We'll see how it goes!

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Letzte Änderung am 27.10.2013 20:49 von Admin; 35 Kommentar(e)
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It's been a while since the last site update, but that does not mean what I haven't been busy working on MeetFighters! Let's see what's been going on.

I've been thinking about adding video streaming to the site. It would work similar to the picture gallery: you could upload your private videos, and share it with other site members. So, the question about that is:

Would you upload your private videos to MeetFighters?

Diese Umfrage ist beendet.

The new site design garnered mostly positive feedback. Thanks everyone who participated in fine-tuning the site's look and feel, I got a bunch of useful ideas and helpful feedback. I tried to incorporate most of them into the design. I am much happier with this one than the previous one (which I now call "Orange Gym"), but if you prefer that one, you can use if by selecting it on the Administration page.

The site now uses the CloudFlare Content Delivery Network for distributing photos and other static page content. CloudFlare operates 23 data centers across the globe, and will be helping your web browser render our web pages faster. What this means for you is that the site will feel a bit more responsive, especially if you are located in Asia or Australia, abd a more modest speedup in North America. It will also lighten the load on our main server. This is a big change in how our site is operating, so there might be some snags. I'll fix these as quick as I find them.

There is a Testimonials page for your positive feedback. So far, there's two, and a lot of crickets chirping. :( If you have 5 minutes and want to spend it making me feel better about the site, give it a go.

Also, the MeetFighters Matchmaker is here for your singing and matchmaking needs. It's one of those awesome-useless features (like the Who Fought Whom page); if it makes you smile for 5 seconds, it was worth it.

Your comments come here:

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Letzte Änderung am 25.1.2013 13:58 von Admin; 23 Kommentar(e)
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Summary: There is a new site design. If you want to keep using the previous one, select it on your Administration page.

[IMAGE:http://www.meetfighters.com/Content/profile/uh/admintmofwhsugwgvejbycckyjdsfrifiaqotdvuhwmns.jpg]

Unless you have just joined or are using a braille reader, you must have noticed that our favorite website has some new clothes.

I was personally unhappy with how the previous design (the one I now call "Orange Gym") turned out. Those of you who have been with us for some time might have come to believe that I can make a website work in terms of functionality, but my visual web design skills are somewhat... lacking. (Yes, that is a nice way of putting that.) I started out with some good ideas and best intentions, then started to tweak it, and experiment, and in the end I could never make it look "right".

So this time, I had some help: I bought a professional website template, and carefully tweaked it to fit this site. It wasn't easy, but I am much happier with the end results than I was with the last one. I call the new design "Black Streamlined" because it is black and it is streamlined. (Could it be that I seriously lack in imagination?) Anyway, if you somehow liked the older design better, or have a low tolerance for change, you can have it back. Go to your Administration page, scroll down and find a dropdown box next to "Site layout". Choose "Orange Gym", save, and you'll be good to go. Easy-peasy!

As a lark, I also retrofitted the original "AllFighters" design to the site. Those of you who have been around long enough to remember it might get a rush of nostalgia. :)

Obviously the new design will have some rough edges, but I didn't want to wait any longer before I inflicted it upon everyone deployed it. There is a lively discussion going on about said rough edges in the MeetFighters idea box. Join us there if you find something that looks odd or you have your two cents to share.

Where do we go from here?

I have some plans for 2013. These include:

  • A dark text on light background version of the new design (I might end up calling that "Light Streamlined". Maybe not, though.)
  • A Match Invite system.
  • Continue to serve you the best wrestling website ever!! :)

That's all for today,
– Admin out.

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Letzte Änderung am 09.12.2012 17:16 von Admin; 5 Kommentar(e)
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[IMAGE:http://www.meetfighters.com/Content/profile/wh/adminkeubjauvjleepbbxmurorfbkixrrrjxcyiwhthek.jpg]

Please read this section, it contains important information about your account!

Summary: Please visit the Your Locations page, and make sure that the markers are in the correct location. You can also set date ranges for your travel destinations.

I have made a change to the "Your Locations" page: it is now possible to indicate the dates when you are there. I have also made it easier to add new locations, or reorder your locations to make sure that the topmost one is the most current. Another change involves the location selector: hopefully it is more interactive and user friendly now. It lets you place your marker on the world map and quickly enter any additional data that you might want to share.

Please take a quick look at your locations and make sure your markers are in the correct locations. This will greatly help distance-based searches (i.e. when you are looking for opponents within 10 kilometers / miles) and the World Map of Meetfighters more accurate. It will also help potential opponents find you easier.

Smaller changes since the last site update:

  • You can now switch between "flat" (ordered by date) and "threaded" view (ordered by replies) in forums and blog comments. (Tracker/2012-10-30 2)
  • The photo peer review page now shows the categories as thumbnails. The menu is also reorganized.
  • Profile pages now show past opponents that are common to you and the other member. (Tracker/2012-08-13)
  • Member body weights are displayed in stones in addition to pounds/kilos in the UK.
  • It is easier to upload and attach your photos to blog entries.
  • A bunch of small fixes and enhancements for the Communicator and the Support pages.
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Letzte Änderung am 02.12.2012 10:10 von Admin; 1 Kommentar(e)
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There have been a bunch of changes since the last update!

  • Abuse flags now require some justification to be provided by the flagger. This justification is only visible to site supporters, however, we hope that this change in the game will eliminate the use of frivolous abuse flags as a means of personal revenge.
  • I did a rather big behind-the-scene optimization of the database. Surprisingly enough, this didn't break anything (that I know of)!
  • Event organizers are now able to indicate who actually participated in the event and who didn't show.
  • Notifications (e.g. new message or someone viewing your profile) appear in a more timely manner and produce a distinct sound effect.
  • There is a new thing at the bottom of the page. I call it the "Communicator". It has a few channels, I hope you will find them useful somehow.
  • The login or update notification settings for your favorites can be modified when you visit their profiles or after you add a favorite.
  • It is now possible to reorder your photos as you want by dragging them up and down.
  • Some updates to the Help and Support page for easier reporting of moderation appeals.
  • Many, many small enhancements and bugfixes.

Enjoy the site! :)

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Letzte Änderung am 21.10.2012 09:43 von Admin; 1 Kommentar(e)
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