One of the things we are currently working on is improving the UI (user interface) for the home screen so that using the system is more intuitive. We have received feedback from several Beta testers that site is difficult to use. We the creators know the site like the back of our hands but we overlook the fact that a lot of people that are coming on to the site for the first time might not think so. We want to focus on goals, so there are several things we can do. We could relocate the tabs bar to the top or have a big entry bar for people to enter goals or just put the tabs in different sections on the page. We have a lot of options right now but it's going to take some time.
Also we are making Facebook friend invites a bit easier to use and less laggy. During testing, the Facebook accounts we used did not have over 200 friends and the system acted fine but now during Beta we are seeing a lot of users with over 500 friends. We now verified that the Facebook friend invite becomes laggy and unresponsive with Facebook accounts with over 500 friends. No worries, that is also something we are working on.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Some Statistics For Beta So Far
It's only been three days so far but so far things are looking good! :)
Below is our Unique Visitors chart from Google Analytics, Oct 25-to Oct 31 was one week prior to us opening for Beta and since opening on November 1st, our Unique Visitors traffic has pretty much doubled everyday. I don't know how long this can last but its very exciting!
The next chart shows the pageviews below before and after Beta. Very big difference as well and has been climbing.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
In Response to Facebook Deals
Today Facebook announced Facebook Deals which will allow businesses to post up deals for people who checkin. Facebook is offering this service for free, here is more details about it: Link.
My first thought is that Dennis Crowley's arrogance cost him $125 million....he could have sold Foursquare to FB earlier this year but instead decided to hold out and now he is going to get crushed. Not only him but all the other location-based apps such as Gowalla, Loopt, MyTown, SCVNGR. Remember a few months ago when Facebook announced Facebook Places and they said they weren't here to crush the location based apps, well who would have saw this coming right(sarcasm)?
But does anyone else think that FB is trying to hard to crush the competition? They recently updated their photos app to crush Flickr and now Deals which is going after all the location-based apps and Groupons. Seriously who wants to pay for Groupons or any of the location-based apps when its free on Facebook?
I personally think this whole scenario is possible because tech start ups stopped innovating, companies rather create FB apps then go up against them. While this is happening FB gets bigger and bigger and crushes all the smaller guys. This is the reason why my friends and I decided to create a new type of social network, focused on people who are adventurous, people who want to be social off the computer, people who wants to improve themselves thru creating goals.
MyLifeRank.com doesn't have the expectations of ever overtaking FB, but we believe it’s about time someone tried to make something unique and not another FB app.
My first thought is that Dennis Crowley's arrogance cost him $125 million....he could have sold Foursquare to FB earlier this year but instead decided to hold out and now he is going to get crushed. Not only him but all the other location-based apps such as Gowalla, Loopt, MyTown, SCVNGR. Remember a few months ago when Facebook announced Facebook Places and they said they weren't here to crush the location based apps, well who would have saw this coming right(sarcasm)?
But does anyone else think that FB is trying to hard to crush the competition? They recently updated their photos app to crush Flickr and now Deals which is going after all the location-based apps and Groupons. Seriously who wants to pay for Groupons or any of the location-based apps when its free on Facebook?
I personally think this whole scenario is possible because tech start ups stopped innovating, companies rather create FB apps then go up against them. While this is happening FB gets bigger and bigger and crushes all the smaller guys. This is the reason why my friends and I decided to create a new type of social network, focused on people who are adventurous, people who want to be social off the computer, people who wants to improve themselves thru creating goals.
MyLifeRank.com doesn't have the expectations of ever overtaking FB, but we believe it’s about time someone tried to make something unique and not another FB app.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Beta now open, it's been such an exciting day! But we are only getting started....
We opened our Beta today and we had a great number of signups and we have a feeling signups will quickly fill up soon! :) It's been very exciting from all of us at MyLifeRank, watching people sign up and seeing what we have blogged, tweeted and emailed about for the last few months.
Remember this is still in Beta stage so there will be a few little bugs we still need to hammer out but for the most part we haven't had much complaints. So join today and test out the site and tell all your friends! Let us know how you feel with our Feedback button and feel free to add George T, Milos G, Dylan R as a friend on MyLifeRank!
Remember this is still in Beta stage so there will be a few little bugs we still need to hammer out but for the most part we haven't had much complaints. So join today and test out the site and tell all your friends! Let us know how you feel with our Feedback button and feel free to add George T, Milos G, Dylan R as a friend on MyLifeRank!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
5 More Days Until Beta....also signed up for Indiegogo
Wow, it's getting really close to BETA time :) We are wrapping up our Token feature so that it integrates with our gaming system; we feel it will add another layer to competition and enjoyment for people. In addition, Tokens will play into our bigger plan down the road with businesses but we'll get into that later.
Everyone who signed up for the beta on the front page will be emailed on November 1st to register and they will have first priority, everyone else will be first come first serve. The video previews I have up are kind of outdated now especially the How-to use one. Many things have changed, so I will be posting up a new one probably a day before Beta opens. There will be a help guide also within MyLifeRank that shows how to use all the features as well.
Last thing is we just put MyLifeRank on Indiegogo.com which allows users to contribute if they feel strongly about MyLifeRank. For those interested, the link is here http://bit.ly/ceQShV
Everyone who signed up for the beta on the front page will be emailed on November 1st to register and they will have first priority, everyone else will be first come first serve. The video previews I have up are kind of outdated now especially the How-to use one. Many things have changed, so I will be posting up a new one probably a day before Beta opens. There will be a help guide also within MyLifeRank that shows how to use all the features as well.
Last thing is we just put MyLifeRank on Indiegogo.com which allows users to contribute if they feel strongly about MyLifeRank. For those interested, the link is here http://bit.ly/ceQShV
Monday, October 25, 2010
One more week until Beta testing!
Only one more week to wait until beta testing (November 1st), make sure you grab a spot on on front page if you haven't already. We are trying to wrap up all the features and we been networking with social media experts and social media publications to help us spread the word. The first article written about MyLifeRank was published today by Anne of Flyover Geeks. Take a look here: ARTICLE.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
MyLifeRank Search Engine Preview
This is a video preview of the Search Engine of MyLifeRank! For a bigger video check it out here.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
New How To Use Video Released!
This is a how to use video for MyLifeRank that shows the basic functionality along with some helpful tips. This video should be useful for those signed up for the private beta. The features shown in here are still in beta stage and things will probably change in the future along with new additions. Also for those who haven't seen the site yet, this should be a real treat as well :) For a bigger YouTube version click here.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
To Build Something Better...Web 3.0 Generation
From George:
Recently I read an article on TechCrunch on How Facebook can become bigger in five years than google is today and it was a very interesting read in terms of what Facebook could do within their ecosystem. With the amount of users Facebook has, they can very easily make new apps or features industry leading instantly. But what really intrigued me was how the author ended the article, it was a call for people to build something better. He questioned why no one was trying to build a better social network and said he will help as much as he can for anyone who is trying to and even offered a connection with a VC. Well unfortunately after I reached out to him, he neither helped nor made the connection for us with the VC. But we at MyLifeRank shares the same view with him in terms of why no one even tries to compete with Facebook anymore. All of the new start up sites these days are either an add-on for Facebook or an app within Facebook, seems like everyone has just given in.
Well today Mashable put up an article showing a global map view of all social networks from 2007 and 2010 and it's truly amazing to see how things have changed in the last three years. These days with the Internet it's all about innovation, if you stop innovating you get crushed.
I am not saying that MyLifeRank will ever overtake Facebook but it does show how much things can change within a very short time. I do believe there is a place for MyLifeRank and our unique network can very well change how the Web 3.0 generation will turn out. Almost everything you seen on the social network map for 2010 relates to something a person does online, very little actually encourages or motivates people to go outside to socialize. The very term of being "social" has been defined with the Web 1.0 or Web 2.0 generation as doing things with your friends online or engaging in what they have done in the past. MyLifeRank wants to start the Web 3.0 generation by offering a network and the tools necessary to get people to get off the computer to socialize.
Recently I read an article on TechCrunch on How Facebook can become bigger in five years than google is today and it was a very interesting read in terms of what Facebook could do within their ecosystem. With the amount of users Facebook has, they can very easily make new apps or features industry leading instantly. But what really intrigued me was how the author ended the article, it was a call for people to build something better. He questioned why no one was trying to build a better social network and said he will help as much as he can for anyone who is trying to and even offered a connection with a VC. Well unfortunately after I reached out to him, he neither helped nor made the connection for us with the VC. But we at MyLifeRank shares the same view with him in terms of why no one even tries to compete with Facebook anymore. All of the new start up sites these days are either an add-on for Facebook or an app within Facebook, seems like everyone has just given in.
Well today Mashable put up an article showing a global map view of all social networks from 2007 and 2010 and it's truly amazing to see how things have changed in the last three years. These days with the Internet it's all about innovation, if you stop innovating you get crushed.
I am not saying that MyLifeRank will ever overtake Facebook but it does show how much things can change within a very short time. I do believe there is a place for MyLifeRank and our unique network can very well change how the Web 3.0 generation will turn out. Almost everything you seen on the social network map for 2010 relates to something a person does online, very little actually encourages or motivates people to go outside to socialize. The very term of being "social" has been defined with the Web 1.0 or Web 2.0 generation as doing things with your friends online or engaging in what they have done in the past. MyLifeRank wants to start the Web 3.0 generation by offering a network and the tools necessary to get people to get off the computer to socialize.
Monday, September 27, 2010
MyLifeRank going to be at midVenturesLAUNCH on Sept 28, 2010!
We will be at the mVDEMO event at midVenturesLAUNCH tomorrow, please make sure to check us out and vote for us! MyLifeRank
We hope to make a great impression and network with the industry leaders and other start ups!
We hope to make a great impression and network with the industry leaders and other start ups!
Friday, September 24, 2010
New Breakthrough Idea For the Scoring System!
Today we were brainstorming about our gaming system. Although we have a system in place we are not sure if it’s appealing enough or even fun enough for users. We talked over a few things and then we came up with a breakthrough idea, the introduction of tokens. Tokens add a completely new element and incentive for people to use the game system and we all think it's pretty good. More details soon to follow as we lay out the ground work for it. Unfortunately due to Tokens, the open beta gets pushed back a bit longer but not too much longer :)
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Business Page Preview
This is a preview of what a business page will look like. There will be three photos that can be uploaded on the side and all the goals relating to the business will be displayed within. The business will be able to add a description and locations of all their events, stores, etc...finally a list of friends. Again this is a preview, we will be working with more businesses in the future and we are sure we will probably change a few things here and there.
BTW if you haven't noticed, Akira Chicago is one of the first business to sign up :)
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Blog Redsigned!
The blog is completely redesigned, the page looks better, navigation is easier, and most importantly we have a section dedicated in explaining what MyLifeRank is and who we are as a team. Soon I'll have a preview video posted for everyone to see!
Friday, September 3, 2010
What MyLifeRank can do for Non-Profit Organizations, Assocations, and Foundations
MyLifeRank (MLR) is perfect at reaching out to existing members and drawing new members for Non-Profit Organization, Associations and Foundations. Let me go over a few basics first for those that aren't aware of how "Non-Profit" companies work.
The major difference that separate "Non-Profit" and "For-Profit" business model wise is the ability of collecting money without selling anything which is a really hard thing to do. In most cases, the "Non-Profit" companies collect money through fundraisers and private donations which combined could be enough for the company to grow or could be barely enough to survive. So in most costs, the "Non-Profit" companies minimize cost by operating almost purely on a mouth-to-mouth marketing and getting volunteers to help rather than hire people on a permanent basis. Even the people who are working in the company on a permanent basis usually work for a low salary or working for free. Don't get me wrong, not all "Non-Profit" Organizations, Associations, and Foundations operate like how I described above, but most of the smaller to mid-sized ones does and that’s where MLR can really come in and help.
MLR can help these "Non-Profit" companies in several ways starting with a centralized place of goals for members to achieve. These goals are a perfect complement for "Non-Profit" companies because they basically tie in directly with fundraising, donations, marketing and volunteering. Goals on MLR is engagement and purpose driven due to the social motivation backbone and the built in gaming system.
For example a "Non-Profit" company can have the following goals listed on MLR:
1. The existing tools in place on MLR for creating, editing, deleting goals and the verification system for achieving those goals.
The major difference that separate "Non-Profit" and "For-Profit" business model wise is the ability of collecting money without selling anything which is a really hard thing to do. In most cases, the "Non-Profit" companies collect money through fundraisers and private donations which combined could be enough for the company to grow or could be barely enough to survive. So in most costs, the "Non-Profit" companies minimize cost by operating almost purely on a mouth-to-mouth marketing and getting volunteers to help rather than hire people on a permanent basis. Even the people who are working in the company on a permanent basis usually work for a low salary or working for free. Don't get me wrong, not all "Non-Profit" Organizations, Associations, and Foundations operate like how I described above, but most of the smaller to mid-sized ones does and that’s where MLR can really come in and help.
MLR can help these "Non-Profit" companies in several ways starting with a centralized place of goals for members to achieve. These goals are a perfect complement for "Non-Profit" companies because they basically tie in directly with fundraising, donations, marketing and volunteering. Goals on MLR is engagement and purpose driven due to the social motivation backbone and the built in gaming system.
For example a "Non-Profit" company can have the following goals listed on MLR:
- Attend this years "Save the Earth Event" on March 11, 2011. Buy tickets here at a 5% discount."
- We need volunteers at this weekend’s fundraiser even in Willowbrook, IL. Sign up here."
- Refer a friend or family member to XXXXXX and get a free T-Shirt."
- Check out our upcoming events for 2011, Click here to Sign up to Volunteer."
- Help us reach our goal of raising $50,000! Chick here to make a donation and receive a badge."
1. The existing tools in place on MLR for creating, editing, deleting goals and the verification system for achieving those goals.
- Not every website is setup with the existing tools needed for creating, editing and deleting goals especially with smaller to mid-sized "Non-Profit" companies. Without a full time web-developer, it is really hard to get changes made to the company's website. And even those with a full time web-developer, they just might not have the time to make all the changes. The tools on MLR will be in place so that goals can be created, edited or deleted very easily and without hassle. As soon as any change is made, it goes into effect immediately.
- Verification of achievements is also done in a unique way on MLR. As soon as a 'goal' is accomplished, the status of the achievement is posted to all the friends of the user and this ties directly with MLR's gaming system. It would be in the best interest of the user to post up photos, videos or anything that proves they actually achieved the goal because the status of the achievement is always rated. If the friends do not believe that the user achieved the goal, the user will get low points but on the other hand if friends do believe that the user achieve the goal, then the user will get high points. The verification is not only shown to friends but also to the company who posted those goals. Depending on the type of goal posted, verification can be automatic and involves no user intervention.
- One of the biggest problems with any company is getting exposure and we all heard of the phrase "even bad press is good press" which simply states as a company you want basically any press you can get. A "Non-Profit" company might have a good member base but they are always looking for new members and MLR would be a perfect way of getting additional visibility. MLR will have a large user base that is interested in all aspects of life and by integrating with MLR the "Non-Profit" company will gain additional exposure from people that normally does not visit the company’s site or even be aware of the company.
- MLR's social motivation network is purely unique and nothing like it is out there on the web today. MLR's system combines a social network that’s been stripped of all clutter with a really fun and competitive gaming system. The social network can be both utilized on the web or mobile, both ways have their own unique experience. The social network has been stripped of all the pointless updates, game or application pushes, and ads. The network is in place for encouragement from friends and as a "life tracker." Friends can create goals for each other and join goals of their friends and friends also have the ability to comment and rate achievements. Because of our unique gaming system in place, users are encouraged to select friends carefully as they are the sole judge of user's scoring. We believe this eliminates people trying to get a ton of friends for no other reason than to look impressive. More on that later. But in terms of the "life tracker" users will have the ability down the road to look at all the goals they have achieved. This is another motivating feature when users can see in how much they achieved for a "Non-Profit" company or in life.
- The gaming system is the main driving force of the fun and competition on MLR. Sure a lot of the goals are done because other user wants to, but sometimes users need an extra something to get them started. Since all users of MLR starts out at level 1, the playing field starts out even. Users are ranked by level and also by attributes which show the type of goals the user likes to achieve and how fast a user level really depends on how hard they try. The gaming system is the perfect complement to any goal on MLR including those from "Non-Profit" companies because goals that seem tedious can now be turned into a game. Users that normally wouldn't volunteer for a fundraiser now have an incentive for doing so and we think that’s a pretty good way of providing motivation.
- As more and more users get mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, net books, the use of net-based apps or websites become ever so popular. The best way to take advantage of this is to be able to target people of a certain location and make them aware of what’s around them. This is where our location-based tool comes in; we can use it to broadcast goals that are relevant for a certain location. Broadcasting a goal from Chicago to people in St. Louis doesn't help much, but when you broadcast a goal from Chicago to the people within Chicago only, that just makes sense. But think smaller, how about broadcasting a goal from within a town, or a city block or even from a park? Imagine a "Non-Profit" company’s event that is happening in the middle of town square of Downers Grove, with MLR's location-based tool anyone that is close to that proximity is broadcasted the goals relating to that event. The tool maximizes the relevance and interest of the users by staying within their location.
Monday, August 23, 2010
A Preview of the Location Page
Been really busy recently getting everything ready but we know its been a long time since we posted any screen shots, so we decided to load a little cutaway into a Location Page. :) This is not finalized so it can change drastically, but it does show you what we plan on having within a Location.
We are trying to get as much wrapped as possible as we head to the midventuresLAUNCH event on Sept 27-28 in Chicago, we know its an event where we can draw in big time investors. It can literatly "make the site" just with one convention so we don't want to screw it up. Make sure to look at our twitter updates on the side of the blog for more up-to-date updates.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Progress With Goals
For the last month we been working hard on finishing Goals and the details associated with Goals. Since Goals is the most important part of MLR there was a lot to think about in terms of types of goals and how they differ from each other, coming up with a system that would prevent cheating and lame goals from being created just to level, and all the little details associated with each type of goal. We finally got it all hammered out and today’s blog is to give you guys an insight on our three main types of goals and how they differ from each other.
There are three types of goals which includes player created goals, site created goals and business created goals and each are unique in their own way. Player created goals will be the most important since it’s the foundation of MLR. Player created goals will encompass goals created for oneself, friends and peers which will affect a player’s level, attributes and rankings. The points awarded for exp and attributes will be variable and it will depend solely on how your friends or the public votes on your achievement. Player created goals must be assigned to oneself or to another player when created but the location is optional. Site created goals will be specific tasks that MLR will have up for players to achieve. These can include simple tasks such as getting to know the site more by navigating to a player menu, to more difficult tasks such as getting 10 referral friends to join. These types of goals will affect a player’s level, attributes and rankings but in a predetermined way and it is not variable (not voted on). Site created goals are considered “open” meaning they are not assigned to any player initially but players have the option of assigning these to themselves. The only caveat is that there are going to be level restrictions so that only players with a certain level can achieve them. Business created goals will act like a cross between player created goals and site goals, business goals are also considered “open” goals and will also affect a player’s level, attribute and ranking in a predetermined way but with a twist. Business goals CAN be voted upon, the twist is the votes are counted towards ranking how good the goal is for the business and not for the player. Votes for business goals will help businesses get an idea on how players like their goals and if they should change them or not. Businesses will obviously be a big part of MLR and we want to take the necessary measures in making sure the goals are worth doing and that there are enough incentives for players to achieve them.
That’s it for now, we hope that this gives a little bit more insight in terms of how goals will work. We have laid out the goal detail page and it looks beautiful, overall the site is looking really good but honestly we still need a bit more time to get beta out so hang in there.
P.S. On a side note, we submitted an application to get into a startup group called “The Brandery” from Cincinnati, unfortunately we didn’t get accepted. They were looking to accept 5 companies under their wing which they offered 20k of funding money plus mentorship for 6% stack of the company. Although it would have been nice to get accepted, we think we’ll do fine on our own. The concept behind MLR Is amazing and we have no fear that some VC in the future will see that.
There are three types of goals which includes player created goals, site created goals and business created goals and each are unique in their own way. Player created goals will be the most important since it’s the foundation of MLR. Player created goals will encompass goals created for oneself, friends and peers which will affect a player’s level, attributes and rankings. The points awarded for exp and attributes will be variable and it will depend solely on how your friends or the public votes on your achievement. Player created goals must be assigned to oneself or to another player when created but the location is optional. Site created goals will be specific tasks that MLR will have up for players to achieve. These can include simple tasks such as getting to know the site more by navigating to a player menu, to more difficult tasks such as getting 10 referral friends to join. These types of goals will affect a player’s level, attributes and rankings but in a predetermined way and it is not variable (not voted on). Site created goals are considered “open” meaning they are not assigned to any player initially but players have the option of assigning these to themselves. The only caveat is that there are going to be level restrictions so that only players with a certain level can achieve them. Business created goals will act like a cross between player created goals and site goals, business goals are also considered “open” goals and will also affect a player’s level, attribute and ranking in a predetermined way but with a twist. Business goals CAN be voted upon, the twist is the votes are counted towards ranking how good the goal is for the business and not for the player. Votes for business goals will help businesses get an idea on how players like their goals and if they should change them or not. Businesses will obviously be a big part of MLR and we want to take the necessary measures in making sure the goals are worth doing and that there are enough incentives for players to achieve them.
That’s it for now, we hope that this gives a little bit more insight in terms of how goals will work. We have laid out the goal detail page and it looks beautiful, overall the site is looking really good but honestly we still need a bit more time to get beta out so hang in there.
P.S. On a side note, we submitted an application to get into a startup group called “The Brandery” from Cincinnati, unfortunately we didn’t get accepted. They were looking to accept 5 companies under their wing which they offered 20k of funding money plus mentorship for 6% stack of the company. Although it would have been nice to get accepted, we think we’ll do fine on our own. The concept behind MLR Is amazing and we have no fear that some VC in the future will see that.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Beta Testing Soon...
We haven’t had a new blog entry in over a week so we thought we should update you guys on what’s going on with the site and some the changes we decided to do.
First off the beta opening is going to be coming up very soon! We been working hard spreading the news about MyLifeRank and so far we had some good reviews from both journalists and internet gurus. But the main concern they have is and I’m sure most of you guys reading this blog also have is without trying out the site it’s hard to see how the site is going to flow and how it’s going to work in practice. So we decided to hold off on the mobile app and challenges for now and concentrate all our efforts in getting the site complete so that we may open it up for beta testing. The beta testing will be interesting, we of course want as much feedback as we can from the beta testers but also we don’t want to overload the server, so we will be limiting the number of available spots. The beta testing will include our friends, family, and invites for journalists, internet gurus (vcs), and invites from either party.
If you want to be added on the mailing list for beta testing, email us at MLRCreators@gmail.com.
Now we mentioned we are going to hold off on the mobile app and challenges and you might be asking why, well the main reason is time. The mobile app is going to be a huge part of MyLifeRank and we are certainly not giving up on it but due to the complexities of getting challenges to work with the mobile app which includes all of our location based features, we decided to hold off until we went to beta first. Our main priorities at this point is getting the beta out so we are able to gather information from the users on how everything feels and flows and hopefully gather some interest from VCs and investors. If we achieve what wanted with the site and with gathering interest from investors, then its full speed ahead for MyLifeRank. If not, then we will have to sit down and relook at what needs to be changed and what we might have done wrong.
In terms of the site design, we originally started out with a cartoonish style layout with the graphics because we felt it would give the site a more “game-like” feel. We now decided that we are going to polish things up a little bit with more professional style layout and we must say it looks much better. We showed our new title banner to a couple of close friends and it blew their minds Just from the simple title banner change, the site feels a lot more polished already. As time goes on and we replace all the graphics with more professional looking graphics, we believe we will “wow” the world when we go into beta testing.
That’s all for now, be sure to sign up for beta testing so your one of the first ones and have a nice weekend!
First off the beta opening is going to be coming up very soon! We been working hard spreading the news about MyLifeRank and so far we had some good reviews from both journalists and internet gurus. But the main concern they have is and I’m sure most of you guys reading this blog also have is without trying out the site it’s hard to see how the site is going to flow and how it’s going to work in practice. So we decided to hold off on the mobile app and challenges for now and concentrate all our efforts in getting the site complete so that we may open it up for beta testing. The beta testing will be interesting, we of course want as much feedback as we can from the beta testers but also we don’t want to overload the server, so we will be limiting the number of available spots. The beta testing will include our friends, family, and invites for journalists, internet gurus (vcs), and invites from either party.
If you want to be added on the mailing list for beta testing, email us at MLRCreators@gmail.com.
Now we mentioned we are going to hold off on the mobile app and challenges and you might be asking why, well the main reason is time. The mobile app is going to be a huge part of MyLifeRank and we are certainly not giving up on it but due to the complexities of getting challenges to work with the mobile app which includes all of our location based features, we decided to hold off until we went to beta first. Our main priorities at this point is getting the beta out so we are able to gather information from the users on how everything feels and flows and hopefully gather some interest from VCs and investors. If we achieve what wanted with the site and with gathering interest from investors, then its full speed ahead for MyLifeRank. If not, then we will have to sit down and relook at what needs to be changed and what we might have done wrong.
In terms of the site design, we originally started out with a cartoonish style layout with the graphics because we felt it would give the site a more “game-like” feel. We now decided that we are going to polish things up a little bit with more professional style layout and we must say it looks much better. We showed our new title banner to a couple of close friends and it blew their minds Just from the simple title banner change, the site feels a lot more polished already. As time goes on and we replace all the graphics with more professional looking graphics, we believe we will “wow” the world when we go into beta testing.
That’s all for now, be sure to sign up for beta testing so your one of the first ones and have a nice weekend!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
The World With MyLifeRank
Milos and I have a grand vision of how MyLifeRank can change the world and we thought the best way to show you our vision is write about it in detail on how MLR can be incorporated into a person’s daily life. We will go through four different scenarios (blog entries), each vastly different from each other and we will show how effective and how fun MyLifeRank is within their daily lives.
Casual Student:
“…I have 3 finals today and I didn’t get any sleep at all, I’m so dead tired! I hate math, I hate science and I hate history, I guess I just hate school all together. I mean what’s the point I don’t even know what I want to do when I grow up. My stupid parents took away my internet away so I wouldn’t get distracted but they didn’t take away my phone, I was on it all night lolz! I love my iPhone, I got everything I need like my Facebook and my MLR app and I can do whatever I need to without being on the computer. My friends’ status on FB were all about bitching about the finals, no new pictures of wild parties or anything fun, it was quite depressing …so I decided to see what’s up on MLR. I saw all these achievements from Becky, Jordan, Katie, Matt about how they were done studying…give me a break I bet they didn’t even open the book! I then saw a notification pop up in my inbox, I got a challenge from Dave to a math question, wtf….I accepted and I had no idea what I was doing because that problem was freakin hard. Good thing Dave didn’t know it either so we both took our times looking it up in the book, I put in my answer and submitted and I won! I never thought doing a math problem could be considered fun….I then realized it was getting late and I needed to study. I sent myself a goal to read the chapters I needed to and got to reading. A few hours later I logged back in and saw how Becky and Jordan are now level 10…wtf I’m not even level 5 yet how the hell did they level so fast! I spent the next hour finishing up goals and I got to level 7….when I’m done studying I’ll show those losers….”
Person Trying to Lose Weight:
“….I couldn’t wait to wake up this morning since today was my weigh day. I haven’t weighed myself in over a month and I couldn’t wait to see my progress. I already knew I lost weight since my clothes were much looser and I looked much better in the mirror. In either case, I wanted proof and to see for myself on the dreaded scale. After stepping on the scale my eyes watered up. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing - an 18 lb loss in weight! I got pretty emotional because I’ve been struggling with weight loss for a long time now and nothing worked. But then I found something that motivated me and kept me on track. Back in the day I never had to worry about my weight. I always ran around enough to make up for the eating but the past few years have been different. I now have a 8-5 job, a mortgage to pay, and kids to worry about. I simply don’t have the time I used to. My friends introduced me to MyLifeRank - a website that motivates people to do things through achieving goals. At first I thought it was kind of silly to join a website for weight loss but I found the tools it provided was a great help. The whole social thing and the fun spin they put on things really kept me motivated. Every week I created goals for myself whether it was to run a mile or hit the gym. Once I achieved it, my friends were able to see it and congratulate me. The more praises I heard about me achieving my goals, the more I got motivated. Another cool feature I used on MLR was the goal search feature. I would be able to find goals other members have created for certain outdoor locations. For example, last week I was taking a walk thru the forests preserve with my 4 year old. I logged into MyLifeRank on my phone and searched for goals within the area. There was a user created goal of “Reach the old mill house northeast of the yellow trail.” I followed the trail until I hit the old mill which turned out to be some kind of historical figure. I had a great time walking there with my son and I was able to take a picture and post it as an achievement. My friends were all interested in the place after seeing me achieve it, now they all say they want to do it. Honestly, I don’t know if I could have kept myself motivated and interested in weight loss if it wasn’t due to the social motivation and tools MyLifeRank provided.”
A Pizza / Pub Owner:
“…Ever since a few years ago I noticed the other restaurant owners from around the area have been going with online advertising. I’ve considered doing the same for a long time but never thought it was worth it. I looked into advertising in the yellow pages and had some marketing people come in but both options were very expensive. I wanted something that was cheap or possibility free with instant results (don’t we all) and my kids told me with the internet anything was possible. My kids helped me start a Facebook page and also got me a Twitter page for my place but neither one really seemed like it brought in any additional customers. I encourage customers to go to our Facebook page and post up positive things they like about the place. Many do and many give me the “like” push but it seems like the customer has to come in first before visiting and not vice versa. I’m also having a hard time keeping up with Twitter, I post up messages which no one seems to be viewing and I was limited with what I could say. Luckily one day, I had someone come into the store and ask me if I was interested in getting into something new and free called MyLifeRank. I gave the sales guy 5 mins to do his pitch and I liked what I heard. Basically, it seems like MyLifeRank is built like Facebook where users and businesses can interact but MyLifeRank implemented a gaming system within the site that encourages people to send and receive goals to complete which includes businesses. They said to me that I would be part of their location-based app so that users within the area can find me when searching for goals, all I have to do is create goals for people to achieve. The sales guy gave me examples and said that I should have incentives that people will want to take advantage of, like “Try out our new beer and get a 10% discount off of a pizza” or “Join our mailing list for special weekly coupons.” I decided to give MyLifeRank a try, I had my kids create a page for me and then set up a few goals with incentives for customers. At first I didn’t see anyone come in but as time went on I started to see people gradually coming in and achieving those goals I set. The set up MyLifeRank has for businesses is the best I seen so far, it provides a direct way for businesses to attract customers and giving customers and incentive to do them. Thanks MyLifeRank.”
Online Gamer:
“…it’s starting to get boring on my favorite MMORPG. All my friends and my guild members left. All I can do is play with noobs these days. I remember playing with my buds 24/7 but after they reached Level 80 they all got bored and didn’t want to pay for monthly fees anymore. I haven’t touched my dwarf hunter nor my elf knight in over a month and I’m thinking about cancelling too. I recently discovered another type of game. Well it’s not really a game but sort of?? MyLifeRank claims they are the world’s first RLG (real life game) , I guess that means it’s like a MMORPG but you’re playing yourself because that’s what it is, it’s like a site dedicated to yourself. I found this site by accident when searching for new games online and after I joined, it was kind of interesting. It’s like any other site, all the new user registration crap but then I was given a level, rank, attributes, etc…I had no idea on how to actually level or anything since there was nothing to kill or hunt but I discovered thru the site goals within my mailbox that the point of the game is to achieve goals, like real life goals. I’m like ok, I’ll just start creating goals for myself and achieve them…but then I found out if there are no friends to vote on your achievements, then you don’t get any scores…smart of them to do that! I had to get some of my old buds to join and I also found some new friends within the site and we started our adventure. We created goals for each other and challenged each other thru the site and later we discovered we can challenge each other thru the mobile app which is totally cool. Now we are always searching for new goals to do so that we can be the first ones on the site to level 60. Seems like most people on the site are pretty legit or MyLifeRank has found a good way of stopping cheating because no one seems to be moving fast on the rank scale. I also love creating goals for some of the local joints I hang out at, after all it’s my hood. Overall my friends and I are having a blast and I hope MyLifeRank can continue on and add new features so we don’t get bored. That would probably take a long time though since I can go anywhere with this app and always find something new to do!
Casual Student:
“…I have 3 finals today and I didn’t get any sleep at all, I’m so dead tired! I hate math, I hate science and I hate history, I guess I just hate school all together. I mean what’s the point I don’t even know what I want to do when I grow up. My stupid parents took away my internet away so I wouldn’t get distracted but they didn’t take away my phone, I was on it all night lolz! I love my iPhone, I got everything I need like my Facebook and my MLR app and I can do whatever I need to without being on the computer. My friends’ status on FB were all about bitching about the finals, no new pictures of wild parties or anything fun, it was quite depressing …so I decided to see what’s up on MLR. I saw all these achievements from Becky, Jordan, Katie, Matt about how they were done studying…give me a break I bet they didn’t even open the book! I then saw a notification pop up in my inbox, I got a challenge from Dave to a math question, wtf….I accepted and I had no idea what I was doing because that problem was freakin hard. Good thing Dave didn’t know it either so we both took our times looking it up in the book, I put in my answer and submitted and I won! I never thought doing a math problem could be considered fun….I then realized it was getting late and I needed to study. I sent myself a goal to read the chapters I needed to and got to reading. A few hours later I logged back in and saw how Becky and Jordan are now level 10…wtf I’m not even level 5 yet how the hell did they level so fast! I spent the next hour finishing up goals and I got to level 7….when I’m done studying I’ll show those losers….”
Person Trying to Lose Weight:
“….I couldn’t wait to wake up this morning since today was my weigh day. I haven’t weighed myself in over a month and I couldn’t wait to see my progress. I already knew I lost weight since my clothes were much looser and I looked much better in the mirror. In either case, I wanted proof and to see for myself on the dreaded scale. After stepping on the scale my eyes watered up. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing - an 18 lb loss in weight! I got pretty emotional because I’ve been struggling with weight loss for a long time now and nothing worked. But then I found something that motivated me and kept me on track. Back in the day I never had to worry about my weight. I always ran around enough to make up for the eating but the past few years have been different. I now have a 8-5 job, a mortgage to pay, and kids to worry about. I simply don’t have the time I used to. My friends introduced me to MyLifeRank - a website that motivates people to do things through achieving goals. At first I thought it was kind of silly to join a website for weight loss but I found the tools it provided was a great help. The whole social thing and the fun spin they put on things really kept me motivated. Every week I created goals for myself whether it was to run a mile or hit the gym. Once I achieved it, my friends were able to see it and congratulate me. The more praises I heard about me achieving my goals, the more I got motivated. Another cool feature I used on MLR was the goal search feature. I would be able to find goals other members have created for certain outdoor locations. For example, last week I was taking a walk thru the forests preserve with my 4 year old. I logged into MyLifeRank on my phone and searched for goals within the area. There was a user created goal of “Reach the old mill house northeast of the yellow trail.” I followed the trail until I hit the old mill which turned out to be some kind of historical figure. I had a great time walking there with my son and I was able to take a picture and post it as an achievement. My friends were all interested in the place after seeing me achieve it, now they all say they want to do it. Honestly, I don’t know if I could have kept myself motivated and interested in weight loss if it wasn’t due to the social motivation and tools MyLifeRank provided.”
A Pizza / Pub Owner:
“…Ever since a few years ago I noticed the other restaurant owners from around the area have been going with online advertising. I’ve considered doing the same for a long time but never thought it was worth it. I looked into advertising in the yellow pages and had some marketing people come in but both options were very expensive. I wanted something that was cheap or possibility free with instant results (don’t we all) and my kids told me with the internet anything was possible. My kids helped me start a Facebook page and also got me a Twitter page for my place but neither one really seemed like it brought in any additional customers. I encourage customers to go to our Facebook page and post up positive things they like about the place. Many do and many give me the “like” push but it seems like the customer has to come in first before visiting and not vice versa. I’m also having a hard time keeping up with Twitter, I post up messages which no one seems to be viewing and I was limited with what I could say. Luckily one day, I had someone come into the store and ask me if I was interested in getting into something new and free called MyLifeRank. I gave the sales guy 5 mins to do his pitch and I liked what I heard. Basically, it seems like MyLifeRank is built like Facebook where users and businesses can interact but MyLifeRank implemented a gaming system within the site that encourages people to send and receive goals to complete which includes businesses. They said to me that I would be part of their location-based app so that users within the area can find me when searching for goals, all I have to do is create goals for people to achieve. The sales guy gave me examples and said that I should have incentives that people will want to take advantage of, like “Try out our new beer and get a 10% discount off of a pizza” or “Join our mailing list for special weekly coupons.” I decided to give MyLifeRank a try, I had my kids create a page for me and then set up a few goals with incentives for customers. At first I didn’t see anyone come in but as time went on I started to see people gradually coming in and achieving those goals I set. The set up MyLifeRank has for businesses is the best I seen so far, it provides a direct way for businesses to attract customers and giving customers and incentive to do them. Thanks MyLifeRank.”
Online Gamer:
“…it’s starting to get boring on my favorite MMORPG. All my friends and my guild members left. All I can do is play with noobs these days. I remember playing with my buds 24/7 but after they reached Level 80 they all got bored and didn’t want to pay for monthly fees anymore. I haven’t touched my dwarf hunter nor my elf knight in over a month and I’m thinking about cancelling too. I recently discovered another type of game. Well it’s not really a game but sort of?? MyLifeRank claims they are the world’s first RLG (real life game) , I guess that means it’s like a MMORPG but you’re playing yourself because that’s what it is, it’s like a site dedicated to yourself. I found this site by accident when searching for new games online and after I joined, it was kind of interesting. It’s like any other site, all the new user registration crap but then I was given a level, rank, attributes, etc…I had no idea on how to actually level or anything since there was nothing to kill or hunt but I discovered thru the site goals within my mailbox that the point of the game is to achieve goals, like real life goals. I’m like ok, I’ll just start creating goals for myself and achieve them…but then I found out if there are no friends to vote on your achievements, then you don’t get any scores…smart of them to do that! I had to get some of my old buds to join and I also found some new friends within the site and we started our adventure. We created goals for each other and challenged each other thru the site and later we discovered we can challenge each other thru the mobile app which is totally cool. Now we are always searching for new goals to do so that we can be the first ones on the site to level 60. Seems like most people on the site are pretty legit or MyLifeRank has found a good way of stopping cheating because no one seems to be moving fast on the rank scale. I also love creating goals for some of the local joints I hang out at, after all it’s my hood. Overall my friends and I are having a blast and I hope MyLifeRank can continue on and add new features so we don’t get bored. That would probably take a long time though since I can go anywhere with this app and always find something new to do!
Friday, July 2, 2010
Gamers + Social Networkers + Self Improvers = RLG?
We have been getting some good feedback about what we have shown so far but we get the feeling a lot of people still don’t understand the core of MyLifeRank. We believe with what we have posted so far, people are only understanding “why” and “how” but not “who”. So for this blog entry we will concentrate on the three target audience that MyLifeRank is specially catered to: the gamers, the social networkers and the self-improvers.
For Gamers:
Generally people play games because they are fun and the sense of accomplishments are rewarding and we decided those two elements are exactly what we need to motivate players on MyLifeRank. We are trying to make the gaming system robust enough so that players ranging from casual to hardcore can all enjoy MyLifeRank equally. The reason we feel we can do this is due to the fact that MyLifeRank will be the first “Real Life” RPG game or as we like to call it RLG. For those not-familiar with RPGs (Role Playing Game), they are games where players control a fictional character with special abilities and attributes. As the character does things in the game such as kill monsters or complete quests they gain experience points and level up. After leveling, the character gains new attributes, more special abilities and is able to complete more quests. There is really no end game for RPGs since it’s a virtual world that your fictional character lives in. Even if you reach the highest level or complete every single quest, there are still fun things in the game for you to do. MyLifeRank’s RLG is based on the same concept with a twist; players will not be playing fictional characters, the users will be playing a character based on their own lives. The characters will follow in the footsteps of what the player is doing in REAL LIFE. The quests that the characters are striving to complete are created by the player or by the players’ friends and family members. Cool huh? Just like in a RPG, RLG’s players will start every new player equally at level 1 with the same attribute points so that every player starts on the same playing field.
Players will receive experience points and attribute points for every achievement; experience points are varied and attribute points are not. Experience points are varied because for every achievement a player has, it has to be voted upon by friends otherwise the player gets no points at all. We like this system because we don’t want people to abuse the system by posting up hundreds of worthless achievements; we want hard working and great achievements to be posted! Every achievement can be voted from a scale of 1-10 stars and has a time limit of 7 days for votes. Friends can only vote once and the total experience points earned will be based on the number of players that vote and the score that they give. Levels are based on a predetermined amount of experience points, once a player crosses the threshold, they move up in level. Attributes on the other hand will not vary and will be based on a set amount per achievement. When an achievement is posted, the attribute it relates to will give X amount of points towards that attribute. To add in a bit more fun and challenge, achievements will not only be based on a player’s own goals but also goals and challenges created by friends, peers of the players and MyLifeRank’s system goals as well.
Some might be thinking if the characters are based on the player’s real life then why does everyone still start out the same way? Shouldn’t they start out differently? We also thought of the same problem. We originally wanted to start every player out differently based on their current standing in life but there were a few problems we thought of that at this point we are just not ready to tackle. First off, if we truly wanted to start people off differently, it would require us to collect an enormous amount of data from the player and we are not sure players are ready to give it up, nor would there be any way for us to be able to verify that information. Things such as education background, current job/salary, family history, medical history are just a few are things that players would require to give up and we would have to find a way to verify them….we feel things would just become difficult and messy. Another reason why we thought starting players off on a different level would be bad would because we feel some might be discouraged by it. Players signing on the site might find it unfair that they start say with a level 10 while others start out at 20 or 40 and would discourage them from even trying. After all MyLifeRank is supposed to motivate and we thought this would be a big problem. We decided that even though the RLG is based on real life, we would base it on what we consider a players true core including socialness, values and drive. We hope even if the player lacks in any of the three things, MyLifeRank will hopefully motivate them to improve thru our RLG.
For Social Networkers:
So we just talked about how MLR caters to the gamers, next up would be the social networkers. Nowadays it’s hard to find anyone that isn’t using some sort of social networking tool. The big ones of course are Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, but even the location based sites like FourSqaure, Gowalla, BrightKite and connection sites like Linkedin are considered social networking. Social networking is a very general term that basically can be summed up as a group of people aiming to build relationships with similar interest or backgrounds on the internet. Even bloggers with followers or internet forums can be considered social networking. There are countless forms of social networking that I haven’t even mentioned. You get our point, social networking is a big part of people's lives these days and MyLifeRank is of course built with social networking in mind. We built MyLifeRank with all the features most people are already familiar to limit any new learning curve, having a personal account with profile and background information, the ability to email and receive notifications, and the ability to search for friends and get status updates from them.
We added on the gaming info within the profile to show the players, level, rank, attributes, and medals, and navigation tabs show the players achievements, goals, challenges, in addition to friends and settings. We tried to make things flow as smoothly as possible. Under the achievement tab players are able to manually add in any achievements they have and they are able to see all the past achievements. Under the goals tab, players are able to create new goals for themselves or for others and have the ability to see what goals the player is currently working on and see the goals that the player has created. Challenges tab has almost the same features as goals, a player can create challenges for other people and can see current challenges and challenges the player has created in the past. The profile will also have a Recent Updates wall on the left side which shows all the new achievements, goals and challenges from the player’s friends or for important site messages.
One big difference with the Recent Updates wall and all the other status walls out there is there are no random or pointless status updates. Players do not have the ability to just type in whatever they feel like, it is only used for showing you what your friends have on their plate in terms of what goals they accepted or quit, or shows their results in some form or another. Players will have the ability to comment, vote and join status updates they see from their friends. Comments cause the usual praise or embarrassment from friends and we know people are used to the casual “like” button Facebook implemented, but voting is a very crucial thing for MyLifeRank players. Without votes players do not receive the experience points for their achievement so we wanted to stress for all players to vote. We don’t stress that the votes have to be high in score, in fact if the achievement is something ridiculous like “I threw a stone into the lake,” it should be voted very low. The voting system is in place to reward those with great achievements and punish those who don’t. A very cool thing about the join ability is that if a player sees his/her friend is attempting to do a goal the player likes, the player has the ability to join the goal. We believe this in itself will motivate players to get involved with goals they never would have in the first place.
For Self-Improvers:
Now on to the last target group for MyLifeRank, the self-improvers. We don’t know anyone in this world that is perfect. There is always something everyone is trying to improve on. The self-improvers might be the biggest target group we're going after because MyLifeRank is in fact what we like to call a social motivation site. The site is built to help people achieve their life goals. We built the site with gaming elements as well as social networking elements to help promote fun motivation and we believe it is much easier to achieve something with a group than by yourself. Of course if there are some things that a player finds easier doing by himself/herself we certainly won’t limit it, the player can use MyLifeRank as his/her life tracker. The whole system of adding and showing your achievements as well as status updates on new goals and challenges just adds in a type of social motivation that blogs and forums just can’t compete with. Add in the fact that you can instantly join your friends with their goal and vice versa, and see goals by peers sorted by location just make the whole experience even easier. Other social networking sites provide a means of connecting with other people via online communication and status updates, however, none of them provide the framework to support actually going out and doing things together like MyLifeRank does. We don’t believe there is a better system out there than MyLifeRank for social motivation.
As a bonus feature, MyLifeRank will store all your achievements and later on we will have a one page display that you can use to print out or show online all the things you accomplished within your life. Are you scratching your head thinking “why would we want this?” This is something our mutual friend came up with and we really like this idea. Why not have a feature where you can use your information on MyLifeRank as a reference for your character on job applications, service nominations, or anything else you would need it for. We won’t have this initially since there wouldn’t be enough information anyways, but down the road we like to have a “make reference” link somewhere in player’s profile that creates a one page document of all the past achievements nicely put in a reference list format. We would have options of sorting the achievements by attribute, date, etc. There would be options of posting pictures on there as well as all the other elements you would want to include in a reference letter. It can be printed or be passed on and shown to anyone with the link provided.
We think we achieved our goal of explaining the three target groups of MyLifeRank, the gamers, the social networkers and the self-improvers, now hopefully when the site is up and running, you guys can vote on how we did! :) We purposely left out location-based explanations from our previous entries about challenges, locations, app, etc…we will explain it in full detail on our next blog entry. Stay tuned!
For Gamers:
Generally people play games because they are fun and the sense of accomplishments are rewarding and we decided those two elements are exactly what we need to motivate players on MyLifeRank. We are trying to make the gaming system robust enough so that players ranging from casual to hardcore can all enjoy MyLifeRank equally. The reason we feel we can do this is due to the fact that MyLifeRank will be the first “Real Life” RPG game or as we like to call it RLG. For those not-familiar with RPGs (Role Playing Game), they are games where players control a fictional character with special abilities and attributes. As the character does things in the game such as kill monsters or complete quests they gain experience points and level up. After leveling, the character gains new attributes, more special abilities and is able to complete more quests. There is really no end game for RPGs since it’s a virtual world that your fictional character lives in. Even if you reach the highest level or complete every single quest, there are still fun things in the game for you to do. MyLifeRank’s RLG is based on the same concept with a twist; players will not be playing fictional characters, the users will be playing a character based on their own lives. The characters will follow in the footsteps of what the player is doing in REAL LIFE. The quests that the characters are striving to complete are created by the player or by the players’ friends and family members. Cool huh? Just like in a RPG, RLG’s players will start every new player equally at level 1 with the same attribute points so that every player starts on the same playing field.
Players will receive experience points and attribute points for every achievement; experience points are varied and attribute points are not. Experience points are varied because for every achievement a player has, it has to be voted upon by friends otherwise the player gets no points at all. We like this system because we don’t want people to abuse the system by posting up hundreds of worthless achievements; we want hard working and great achievements to be posted! Every achievement can be voted from a scale of 1-10 stars and has a time limit of 7 days for votes. Friends can only vote once and the total experience points earned will be based on the number of players that vote and the score that they give. Levels are based on a predetermined amount of experience points, once a player crosses the threshold, they move up in level. Attributes on the other hand will not vary and will be based on a set amount per achievement. When an achievement is posted, the attribute it relates to will give X amount of points towards that attribute. To add in a bit more fun and challenge, achievements will not only be based on a player’s own goals but also goals and challenges created by friends, peers of the players and MyLifeRank’s system goals as well.
Some might be thinking if the characters are based on the player’s real life then why does everyone still start out the same way? Shouldn’t they start out differently? We also thought of the same problem. We originally wanted to start every player out differently based on their current standing in life but there were a few problems we thought of that at this point we are just not ready to tackle. First off, if we truly wanted to start people off differently, it would require us to collect an enormous amount of data from the player and we are not sure players are ready to give it up, nor would there be any way for us to be able to verify that information. Things such as education background, current job/salary, family history, medical history are just a few are things that players would require to give up and we would have to find a way to verify them….we feel things would just become difficult and messy. Another reason why we thought starting players off on a different level would be bad would because we feel some might be discouraged by it. Players signing on the site might find it unfair that they start say with a level 10 while others start out at 20 or 40 and would discourage them from even trying. After all MyLifeRank is supposed to motivate and we thought this would be a big problem. We decided that even though the RLG is based on real life, we would base it on what we consider a players true core including socialness, values and drive. We hope even if the player lacks in any of the three things, MyLifeRank will hopefully motivate them to improve thru our RLG.
For Social Networkers:
So we just talked about how MLR caters to the gamers, next up would be the social networkers. Nowadays it’s hard to find anyone that isn’t using some sort of social networking tool. The big ones of course are Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, but even the location based sites like FourSqaure, Gowalla, BrightKite and connection sites like Linkedin are considered social networking. Social networking is a very general term that basically can be summed up as a group of people aiming to build relationships with similar interest or backgrounds on the internet. Even bloggers with followers or internet forums can be considered social networking. There are countless forms of social networking that I haven’t even mentioned. You get our point, social networking is a big part of people's lives these days and MyLifeRank is of course built with social networking in mind. We built MyLifeRank with all the features most people are already familiar to limit any new learning curve, having a personal account with profile and background information, the ability to email and receive notifications, and the ability to search for friends and get status updates from them.
We added on the gaming info within the profile to show the players, level, rank, attributes, and medals, and navigation tabs show the players achievements, goals, challenges, in addition to friends and settings. We tried to make things flow as smoothly as possible. Under the achievement tab players are able to manually add in any achievements they have and they are able to see all the past achievements. Under the goals tab, players are able to create new goals for themselves or for others and have the ability to see what goals the player is currently working on and see the goals that the player has created. Challenges tab has almost the same features as goals, a player can create challenges for other people and can see current challenges and challenges the player has created in the past. The profile will also have a Recent Updates wall on the left side which shows all the new achievements, goals and challenges from the player’s friends or for important site messages.
One big difference with the Recent Updates wall and all the other status walls out there is there are no random or pointless status updates. Players do not have the ability to just type in whatever they feel like, it is only used for showing you what your friends have on their plate in terms of what goals they accepted or quit, or shows their results in some form or another. Players will have the ability to comment, vote and join status updates they see from their friends. Comments cause the usual praise or embarrassment from friends and we know people are used to the casual “like” button Facebook implemented, but voting is a very crucial thing for MyLifeRank players. Without votes players do not receive the experience points for their achievement so we wanted to stress for all players to vote. We don’t stress that the votes have to be high in score, in fact if the achievement is something ridiculous like “I threw a stone into the lake,” it should be voted very low. The voting system is in place to reward those with great achievements and punish those who don’t. A very cool thing about the join ability is that if a player sees his/her friend is attempting to do a goal the player likes, the player has the ability to join the goal. We believe this in itself will motivate players to get involved with goals they never would have in the first place.
For Self-Improvers:
Now on to the last target group for MyLifeRank, the self-improvers. We don’t know anyone in this world that is perfect. There is always something everyone is trying to improve on. The self-improvers might be the biggest target group we're going after because MyLifeRank is in fact what we like to call a social motivation site. The site is built to help people achieve their life goals. We built the site with gaming elements as well as social networking elements to help promote fun motivation and we believe it is much easier to achieve something with a group than by yourself. Of course if there are some things that a player finds easier doing by himself/herself we certainly won’t limit it, the player can use MyLifeRank as his/her life tracker. The whole system of adding and showing your achievements as well as status updates on new goals and challenges just adds in a type of social motivation that blogs and forums just can’t compete with. Add in the fact that you can instantly join your friends with their goal and vice versa, and see goals by peers sorted by location just make the whole experience even easier. Other social networking sites provide a means of connecting with other people via online communication and status updates, however, none of them provide the framework to support actually going out and doing things together like MyLifeRank does. We don’t believe there is a better system out there than MyLifeRank for social motivation.
As a bonus feature, MyLifeRank will store all your achievements and later on we will have a one page display that you can use to print out or show online all the things you accomplished within your life. Are you scratching your head thinking “why would we want this?” This is something our mutual friend came up with and we really like this idea. Why not have a feature where you can use your information on MyLifeRank as a reference for your character on job applications, service nominations, or anything else you would need it for. We won’t have this initially since there wouldn’t be enough information anyways, but down the road we like to have a “make reference” link somewhere in player’s profile that creates a one page document of all the past achievements nicely put in a reference list format. We would have options of sorting the achievements by attribute, date, etc. There would be options of posting pictures on there as well as all the other elements you would want to include in a reference letter. It can be printed or be passed on and shown to anyone with the link provided.
We think we achieved our goal of explaining the three target groups of MyLifeRank, the gamers, the social networkers and the self-improvers, now hopefully when the site is up and running, you guys can vote on how we did! :) We purposely left out location-based explanations from our previous entries about challenges, locations, app, etc…we will explain it in full detail on our next blog entry. Stay tuned!
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