KaBOOM! Site Updates

About

Do you love the KaBOOM! website? I mean, REALLY love it?

Then your probably interested in all the changes and tweaks we make as we strive to make the site as informative, helpful, and fun as possible.

We'll be posting the changes we make to the site as well as known bugs, tips, and tricks.

Oh, and if you find a bug, feel free to post it here!

Contact

Call or email Jason at (202) 464-6189 or jcooper@kaboom.org.

Discussion

12 days ago

jcooper posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
Changes and fixes for the week ending 5/4/2012
- You can now setup online fundraising for your project! Learn more about fundraising on our FAQ page.
- "Forgot your password" links are now working correctly.
- You can disable your own project, if you don't think you can complete it. Do this on the "Edit Project" section of your project.
- Your personal profile page will show the correct location, if available.
- "Somewhere USA" is gone.
- Your project pages now have Facebook's "Like" button and a Twitter button.
- We've introduced a Help page. Go to http://ourdreamplayground.org/help.
- In search results, your progress will be displayed by an orange thermometer. If you have donations enabled, a donate button will appear. Keep your project up to date, the more progress a project shows, the better chance someone will donate to it!
- Newest entrants into the Video Contest will appear at the top of the video contest page.
- You will see alerts when you've earned a new badge!
- Lots of miscellaneous bugs and errors have been fixed.
We have many more changes on the horizon! We want to make your dream playground come true, so keep an eye out here for more fixes and feel free to let us know when something needs improvement.
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- 8 days ago
  sherrypickle commented:
  
  I'm new to this website, just registered and spent the majority of today trying to navigate my way around the site. I'm not sure if it is my computer or the website, but I'm having a really hard time. I registered a project (Armstrong Park Community Playground). It would not allow me to submit the description information (the box with character limits) after many unsuccessful attempts, and re-typing the information over and over it still would not allow me to "submit". It would just not go anywhere, I tried pressing enter, and pressing "submit" over and over....but it just wouldn't work. So I decided to disable the project and start over. This time it allowed me to submit the information (everything but the picture which still wouldn't upload) but now, when I click on my projects, and then click on "Armstrong Park..." it cannot find the page....I just get an "oops" error message, page cannot be found. I've also been looking for the area where you can enter volunteer names, and project information along with completed tasks and cannot find it anywhere! I'm not a computer expert, but usually I can figure things out fairly easily without needing tech support. I've also noticed it being very very slow (this could be my computer or my connection today). Any help or advice would greatly be appreciated!
- 7 days ago
  jcooper commented:
  
  Hi Sherry,
  
  I'm very sorry about the challenges you've encountered as you've tried to setup your project on the Our Dream Playground website.
  
  We are still tracking down and working to squash the bugs, so I really appreciate you taking the time to let us know what wasn't working for you.
  
  We are aware the site is slow, and optimizing the site for much faster page load times is definitely a top priority.
  
  The "Oops" message you are receiving when you try to revisit your project is connected to a bug with the short URL's-- they are not routing to project pages correctly and it's the #1 thing our team will be working on fixing today.
  
  The problems you encountered while editing your project are new, and we'll start investigating them right away. If you can email me the picture you were trying to upload, that would help me in the investigation.
  
  For volunteers, there isn't a place where you can manually enter the names of your volunteers. When someone visits your project's page and presses the volunteer button, they will have the option to either RSVP for your scheduled Build Day or join your project as part of the planning committee. Becoming a Build Day volunteer doesn't require becoming a member of KaBOOM!, but joining the planning team does. Both groups of people are in your project's Manage Volunteers section. New team members will appear in Unassigned Members, and you as the project's leader can assign them to the various planning teams. Build Day volunteers appear on the Build Day Volunteers page.
  
  Tasks are available on the Manage Tasks page. Tasks are organized by Mile Markers and Teams. Select a team on the left, and then move through the Mile Markers above to see the tasks throughout your project's timeline.
  
  Again, I want to apologize for the problems you've encountered. We are working day and night on the site, because we care about the future success of your project, so we all appreciate your patience with us as we work to move from Beta to a finished product.
  
  I've noticed you've already used our Help page to send us messages, and I'll be responding to them shortly. Please don't hesitate to use that tool or email/call me directly if you have any problems or questions about the website.
  
  --Jason Cooper
  jcooper@kaboom.org
  202.464.6189
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13 days ago

amf2011 posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
We were up and running on the "old site" (before May 1). We had our design day May 2nd and people are anxious to sign in and see our project. When I log in and can only sometimes see the pictures I posted-they will flash up and then go away. Also I can't make comments on anything-it shows my progress at 3%-like it didn't transfer updates I made before it was upgraded. I am worred others will not be abot to log in either. HELP! I love the site and want to make progress but I am stuck. Our build day is June 2, 2012 :-)
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- 12 days ago
  jcooper commented:
  
  Hello!
  
  I'm going to try and give you some help here amf2011!
  
  First, that issue with the pictures should now be fixed. If you look at your project and you still set it, please let me know.
  
  To make things easier for all our project leaders, we've significantly reduced the number of tasks. You are right, not everything transferred, because the old tasks didn't have a corresponding task in the new system. To move your project's progress forward, feel free to update the new task lists, but don't worry, we are well aware of your project's progress and it will not affect your grant status.
  
  Anyone can continue to use their KaBOOM! username and password to get into the new site, so your team members should have little difficulty signing in and getting back to work.
  
  I'm available if you or your team needs help, so please give me call or email! (202) 464-6189 or jcooper@kaboom.org.
  
  Make sure you check out the FAQ for Our Dream Playground as well. There are lots of good tips there as well.
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3 months ago

dfmillington posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
I'm having a little bit of trouble adding a photo to my profile page - I keep getting an error that says I'm trying to upload an unaccpetable file type - but the photo I'm trying to upload is a .jpg file - I would love some help with this issue. Thanks.
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- 3 months ago
  DiPeterson68 commented:
  
  It is probably too large. My photos were so i just chose a microsoft picture that was the right size.
- 3 months ago
  jcooper commented:
  
  Hi! Sorry you are getting that error message-- you shouldn't be seeing that for a regular jpg file. Can you email me the photo you were trying to use? My email is jcooper@kaboom.org.
  
  Sorry again for the problem and thanks for letting us know about it.
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3 months ago

jcooper posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
Updates to the Map of Play

We've recently made some changes to the Map of Play that we hope everyone enjoys.

First, we had some trouble with spammers a few weeks back that we've taken care of without taking away the ability for people to comment or add pictures to playgrounds without a KaBOOM! account. This will make for cleaner, better mapping community and will make the Map of Play less prone to comments about handbags (a frequent topic of spammers, for some reason).

Next, we recently rebuilt our "browse" pages on the Map of Play. These pages were built a few years back to help people that wanted to see a list of playgrounds in a city instead of using our map. These pages had problems keeping up with new, edited, and deleted listings. Well, that is no longer the case. In addition to browsing by state and city, you can now browse by country. If you've ever wanted to know more about the playgrounds in Switzerland, well here's your chance.

Finally, we have a new, Community Spotlight area on the Map's main page. We will feature people that are helping us map all the parks, playspaces, and playgrounds in America (or just adding really good content). First up in the Spotlight is AngieSix.

Visit the Map of Play to see all of these new changes in action!
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- 3 months ago
  bkimberly commented:
  
  Maybe the logic is: People who go to parks need handbags? Sounds like some great updates! Love all the new features/designs the past few months.
- 3 months ago
  jcooper commented:
  
  Perhaps you are right. I'm sure handbags come in handy for bringing along snacks and sunscreen. Maybe it was a public service instead of spam. ;)
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4 months ago

jcooper posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
Beginning this past weekend, http://hello.kaboom.org, has been experiencing stability issues. If you've tried to create a new profile, sign in to your project page, or visit any of our Discussion groups, you may have experienced long load times and pages that wouldn't load up at all.

We apologize for the downtime and the inconvenience.

It's our top priority to resolve the issue and we expect to by up and running at 100% very soon.

If you have any problems or questions, please feel free to call me, Jason Cooper, at (202) 464-6189 or email me at jcooper@kaboom.org.
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5 months ago

juliepandapartners posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
Is there a way to upload videos in support of our project? It would be ideal if these could featured or linked to from our project page!
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- 4 months ago
  jcooper commented:
  
  Hello!
  
  There isn't a method for you to upload or embed videos on your project page just yet, but it is definitely part of our planned features for this year.
  
  In the meantime, you can a scrapbook post that links to a video that's hosted on Youtube.com, Vimeo.com, or any other video sharing site.
  
  Thanks for the suggestion Julie!
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7 months ago

sashametro posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
Linkspam and other weird stuff in the Map of Play

I noticed an odd comment in the recent activity of the Community, and saw that despite the inability to actually create weblinks (as opposed to non-clickable text URLs) a "Guest" made some rather odd comments on the wall of a pretty basic playspace (15342) in the park along the Jefferson Davis Trail in New Orleans:

A guest posted a message
he used the same technique in the end and it worked

A guest posted a message
I am so impressed I had to save it so I continously go back and read things I may have skimmed

A guest posted a message
Good article . Will definitely copy it to my blog.Thanks.

These are typical text for blog comment linkspam - I am guessing that some automated bot posted these - perhaps there needs to be some kind of Captcha for guest (non-logged-in user) comments? I know that may cause problems for the iPhone apps - but perhaps the Captcha could be disabled for certain User-Agents?

Also, and this is probably unrelated, but the hierarchical navigator for Louisiana shows some pretty strange cities:

Iuo Itc Pmv
Kp Pb Tz Hp V Ie
Kw O Tf Ev V Jv
Lmd Cpmts Q Fh Bmy Ea
O Lv Gj E Racs Ddw
O Ug Ixp Ry Ct
W Nje Dh Skti Iozj V Itv
Xs Wubk Uvexk Fw O Ge
Y Gto Tk U Xjsv Ee

None of these appear to have any playspaces associated with them. There were some other typo cities with playspaces that I fixed and no longer have any playspaces:

New Orleans (with leading space sorts to top!)
New Oreans (-> New Orleans)
Pontchatoula (-> Ponchatoula)
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- 7 months ago
  jcooper commented:
  
  Thanks for catching these. We clean them up right away. We've had a huge uptick in bots adding spam comments to the site. We'll get rid of these right away.
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8 months ago

jcooper posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
New ways to control your playground project in the Project Planner
We've recently released two new ways for you to control your playground project in the KaBOOM! Project Planner.
First, we've added a Disable Project button. We hate to see anyone leave our planner, but we understand that sometimes the time is not right for a playground project.
Project Leaders can now see the "Disable" button on their project's Edit page. When pressed, users will no longer be able to find the project in search, complete tasks, post to the scrapbook, join, or volunteer for the project. It will also disappear from the profile pages of any members that joined.
To disable your project:
1. First, go to your Edit Project page:
2. Then scroll to the bottom of the page and press the "Disable This Project" button.
Next, we have the new "We're Done!" button.
When pressed, a new message will appear at the top of your Overview page that says, "Congratulations on finishing your project!" You can still add content to your project, like photos and stories from your build day too. This button will also alert us here at KaBOOM! that you have finished as well.
Let us know what you think of these changes in the comments below!
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9 months ago

cjmpathfinder posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
If I want to comment on a blog/article in Play Today, why do I have to use a social media plug in? I don't use any of those options listed there and I rather just comment directly on the website, however, there's no way for me to do that as far as I can tell.
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- 9 months ago
  jcooper commented:
  
  Hi there! Thanks for the question.
  The decision to remove our old commenting system to the new Facebook commenting system was a tough one. On the old system, you had to login to your KaBOOM! account or comment anonymously. We kept seeing conversations about our posts popping up on Facebook or Twitter, but we weren't seeing those same conversations appearing in the comments area.
  That's why we made the switch. Our old system was just too much of a barrier to sparking conversation. Many people that use Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail are signed into those services on a daily basis. The same can't be said for KaBOOM! (yet-- we are working on it).
  In the end, we made the switch so we could see more conversations around our posts unfold on the posts themselves, not just on Twitter or other websites. Since we've done it, it's been very successful, not only for bringing new voices into Play Today but for creating conversation between people as well.
  I understand your frustration, though. It happens to me as I surf the web. I find an article I like (or hate) and want to comment on, and all of a sudden they want my Facebook name or Twitter handle. I just want to make one lousy comment!
  We'll keep petitioning Facebook to add more services to their list, and to add a Guest Commenting service. Maybe after some time they'll make some changes.
- 9 months ago
  sashametro commented:
  
  I don't have a Facebook account, and the "alternate service" options like Yahoo! or AOL "succeed" but then when I start typing it pops up a Facebook logo and says I need to login. I have been able to use my Yahoo ID to post to the comments on playborhood.com, which also switched over to a Facebook comments system, so I know it is possible, but it just doesn't work on kaboom.org for some reason. I had this problem with both Firefox and Safari.
- 8 months ago
  jcooper commented:
  
  Hi sashametro!
  
  We did some investigating into the problem you discovered, and we think it's a problem on Facebook's end. For some users, depending on what version of Firefox they are using, using capital letters can cause the pop-up issue you had. Hopefully, Facebook has since fixed it since you made the comment. If not, let me know next time you try to comment and have a problem, and I'll write to Facebook's bug team.
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10 months ago

jcooper posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
It's been a few months since our last update, but rest assured, your KaBOOM! Web Team has been hustling all over the site and on our apps to make many, many improvements.
- Comment notifications - You will now receive an email when someone comments on your posts. You can control these notifications on your account editing page.
- Profile picture stories - Now when you update your profile picture, a story will appear in the community activity feed.
- Cool new header on Play Today - Everybody knows Play Today is the source for all things play. With our cool new header (and lots of little changes) it now looks like it. (Blog roll coming soon!)
We have lots of other things in the works too that I can't wait to tell you about. I'm not going to to spoil them right now, but I think everyone's going to dig the upcoming changes.
If you have trouble with any aspect of our website, feel free to post it to the Website Updates group or email me at jcooper@kaboom.org.
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- 10 months ago
  A guest commented:
  
  Neat.
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12 months ago

jcooper posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
Change in our navigation
Frequent visitors to the KaBOOM! website may have noticed a slight change in our site navigation (those tabs at the top of each page) today.
We've removed the News & Talk section which was the home to our community and to the KaBOOM! blog. We felt that the section didn't clearly explain the contents within. Removing it has simplified our website and made things easier to understand. At least we think so. If you disagree, let us know!
The good news on this change is that none of the links to your profile or the KaBOOM! blog has changed, so chances are you didn't even notice. Please let us know if you see or experience anything strange while using the updated navigation. Thanks!
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12 months ago

jcooper posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
KaBOOM! Website Tip: Browse the Map of Play by City, and Zip
Did you know that you could browse all the entries in a specific City or Zip without using the map?
It's easy! Follow the steps below to find our handy playground lists.
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- 12 months ago
  sashametro commented:
  
  This is nice to know, but I have to say I really love the maps best. One thing that occurred to me would be that it would be great to have something like a walkscore (see walkscore.com) for play - a rating algorithm for geographical locations based on proximity to playgrounds and other sites for outdoor activity. Perhaps some kind of collaboration with the folks at walkscore.com would be possible? I guess your concept of "play deserts" http://kaboom.org/map_play/what_play_desert fits in with this, but it's not clear if that is still an active project. It would be amazing if you could create "Play score" maps along the lines of http://www.walkscore.com/DC/Washington_D.C. showing the play deserts as red areas, rather than walkscore deserts. Something like that would be a powerful graphic when going before city planners and others to argue the need for playgrounds in underserved neighborhoods.
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about 1 year ago

ehamilton posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
Updates to the photo galleries
If you've been interested in seeing photos from KaBOOM!-led builds, you may have noticed that some renovations have been under way. All the albums in the KaBOOM! photo galleries have been migrated to Flickr! Don't worry, you'll still be able to see them all at http://kaboom.org/gallery (as well as comment via Facebook comments), but if you're a Flickr fan, you can also see everything on our Flickr page.
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about 1 year ago

jcooper posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
Profile picture uploading has returned
We've restored the ability to add and change your profile picture! Just go to your profile page and look for the blue button that says 'Edit'.
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about 1 year ago

jcooper posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
Update to comments on the KaBOOM! blog!
Today, we've launched a new way to comment on Play Today, the KaBOOM! blog. We've added the ability to comment on posts using your Facebook profile. If you are logged into Facebook, you can quickly comment on a post and quickly share it with your Facebook friends.
As other people respond to your comment, you'll receive notifications to your Facebook profile as well. Check it out now on the latest Play Today entry: Saving play across the pond.
While this new system does replace the older commenting system, any of your older comments will be preserved. They are just placed lower on the page. Please let us know what you think of the new system!
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- about 1 year ago
  A guest commented:
  
  Will you also be adding the Facebook "like" button so can engage without writing? Thanks
- about 1 year ago
  jcooper commented:
  
  Good question! We do have a like button that's on each blog post. It's near the top of the post near the headline.
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about 1 year ago

jcooper posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:

What do those little icons mean?

If you've taken a look at the main Activity page or your own profile page, you may have noticed some candy-colored icons next to the stories coming out of the community.

These icons represent the location, from different points on the KaBOOM! website, that the story originated.

KaBOOM! Project Story Icon This is the Project icon. Stories from the projects you have joined or are leading will appear next to this icon.

KaBOOM! Community Story Icon This is the Community icon. Stories from the discussions you've participated in or groups you have joined will appear next to this icon.

KaBOOM! Playspace Finder Story Icon This is the Playspace Finder icon. Stories from the playgrounds you are a fan of will appear next to this icon.

about 1 year ago
A guest commented:

I Like It Highlandtown Middle School Welcome Back.

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about 1 year ago

jcooper posted to KaBOOM! Site Updates:
Soooooooooooo? What does everyone think of the new site?
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- about 1 year ago
  matador1 commented:
  
  The site plays.
- about 1 year ago
  lmims commented:
  
  I like, I like. The layout is much cleaner. I am still trying to find where everything is on the new site, but that is all part of the fun!
- about 1 year ago
  bethanybob commented:
  
  Yep, I'm still pretty lost, but I'm getting there :)
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