eteamz - the blog : 2006 : October

Happy Halloween!

Posted by David Schwartz Oct 31, 2006

First of all, Happy Halloween to all the ghouls and goblins out there in eteamz land. Hope everyone has a happy, fun, spooky and safe holiday.

Big Congratulations to the winners of the 5th annual eteamz Spooky Site Contest. The winners earned a free year subscription of eteamz PLUS. Be sure to check out these awesomely spooky sites and leave a comment in their guestbook.

eteamz underwent some minor maintenance this morning that I wanted to share with you. Back in the beginning of the year, we added several enhancements to the calendar/scheduling functions for member sites. One of those enhancements created the opportunity to add images to calendar, game and practice events, the way that images can be attached to news articles or locations. In some situations, some members were having difficulty removing images from those events after the event had ended. That issue has been addressed, and should no longer present an obstacle.

Another change that was made this morning was to the Web Address change process. eteamz PLUS members can change their site's URL at any time by clicking the "Site Appearance" folder in the admin interface and choosing "Web Address." Previously, this change could have taken up to 48 hours. But we have made some hardware upgrades that now allow us to make this change almost instantly. Some very large sites may still take up to 10 minutes, but that's still a savings of 47 hours and 50 minutes!

We have a couple more enhancements coming as the year winds down. There will be changes to the home page, the community boards, the site building process and to the site admin interface.

Once again, Happy Halloween! See you on eteamz.

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Spooky Site Nominees

Posted by Ericha_eteamz Oct 26, 2006

Congratulations to the Spooky Site Contest nominees! Check them out at http://eteamz.active.com/company/spookysitecontest.

Winners will be chosen and posted October 31st.

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The Logo

Posted by Ericha_eteamz Oct 24, 2006

As I have mentioned in prior posts, we have a ton of exciting changes and additions planned for eteamz in the near future. One of these changes is a fresh logo design for eteamz! Check out the latest eteamz graphics from our own resident design guru, Rob Cameron.

[http://active.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/e_teamz3.jpg]

We would love to hear what you think about this new logo design. Do you love it? Do you hate it? Do you have no strong feelings one way or the other? Please email me your thoughts at eric.damassa@active.com.

Cheers,

-Eric

1,081 Views 3 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: eric's-posts, sneak-peek

Trick or Treat?

Posted by Ericha_eteamz Oct 23, 2006

Ahoy me maties! I be needin' to have a bit 'o a chat with yarselves about yet olde eteamz marketing program! What be the type o' plunder that yarselves would like to see pillaged from the eteamz coffers?

[http://active.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/pirate.gif]

Okay, as much as I love Halloween, that is more than enough pirate talk. For those of you who got about half-way through that paragraph and gave up due to the headache you no doubt developed, here is the translation.

Hi everyone! I want to talk to you about the eteamz marketing program! What type of incentives would you like to see us offer in our marketing programs? What do you find personally compelling when it comes to upgrading to a PLUS account?

So far, we have stuck mostly with discounts and free upgrades as incentives in our promotional materials, but as a team full of indidviduals plagued with A.D.D., we are looking for some new ideas to spice it up a little bit...not to mention an excuse to milk our partners a little bit for free goodies!

Without further adieu, I present to you the top 5 worst ideas for promotions that we have come up with so far. Enjoy these treats....

...drumroll...

Number 5 - The "I http://community.active.com/blogs/eteamz/2006/10/23/trick-or-treat/heart eteamz" Shirt

Got a hot date? An important business meeting? A crucial presentation? Never fear, eteamz is here with clothing guaranteed to impress! Take a peek at this beauty, the "I http://community.active.com/blogs/eteamz/2006/10/23/trick-or-treat/heart eteamz" shirt! Sign up for PLUS now and receive this must-have addition to any wardrobe.

[http://active.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/i_heart_eteamz_1.gif]

Number 4 - Lunch With an eteamz Staffer

Can you imagine a greater thrill that sitting down and sharing a meal with one of the creative geniuses who run eteamz? I sure can't. Upgrade to PLUS today and be entered in the drawing to enjoy a lunch with the eteamz staffer of your choice at any one of these fabulous restaurants: Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Wendy's. Don't forget your credit card, because you're buying!

Number 3 - The Angry (and potentially rabid) Ferret Speed Trainer

Bob and weave. Any boxer will tell you that training to move quickly and be light on your feet is essential in any bout. Strength and speed are two of the most important characteristics in any athletic endeavor. Behold! The angry ferret speed trainer! This eteamz exclusive is available only to those who sign up for a PLUS account. Train your team to be the fastest in the league by setting this little bundle of fun on them! The ferret's speed and erratic movement will no doubt guarantee almost immediate athletic improvement in whichever participant he decides to chase first.

[http://active.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/ferret.jpg]

Number 2 - Custom Meat Prints

What says "team" better than a ballpark hotdog or a big juicy hamburger? Not a whole lot, right? Well, now eteamz and our partners are bringing you a special promotion...custom printed meat products! Put a picture of your little all-star on a hotdog and chow down. Print a picture of that championship-winning play on a hamburger and celebrate! Sign up for a PLUS account today and receive 15 free meat prints!

Number 1 - The eteamz Urn

Is sport your life? Does your sweat pool in the form of the ESPN logo? Sign up for a PLUS account today to share your love of sport with the world and receive your very own custom eteamz urn! Continue your love of sport into eternity after your mortal presence is long gone. Be remembered the way you deserve with a custom designed eteamz urn featuring your choice of photo printed on the exterior courtesy of our partners. Supplies are limited, so act now!

In all seriousness, please send any ideas that you would like to see made into a marketing reality to eric.damassa@active.com. We would love to hear your opinions. Otherwise, look forward to your face on a hamburger patty!

Cheers,

Eric

P.S. A private company actually does offer MLB themed urns, check it out here.

1,031 Views 1 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: eric's-posts, musings

Brief eteamz Down Time

Posted by David Schwartz Oct 18, 2006

Greetings to all eteamz members and visitors,

eteamz will be undergoing some minor maintenance early Friday morning, October 20, 2006, from 1:00am to 2:00am EDT. During this time, eteamz will be unavailable. When it returns, you should notice an improvement in performance, specifically on the message boards.

We apologize for any inconvenience and we thank you for your understanding.

David

1,115 Views 0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: technology

5th Annual Spooky Site Contest

Posted by Ericha_eteamz Oct 6, 2006

Grab the neighbor��s cat, borrow the kitchen broom and give us your best cackle because it��s that time again! Halloween is coming up fast and will be here before you know it! Break out your spookiest images, backgrounds, sounds or whatever you can find and spooktify your site! We're giving you the chance to show us just how creepy and terrifying you can be. So get in the Halloween spirit and join the fun!

Submit your site via the Support icon in your Message Center no later than October 24th. First, second and third place will win one FREE year of PLUS! Nominees will be posted to eteamz on the 24th and winners will be selected and posted on the 31st.

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Working Under the Hood

Posted by David Schwartz Oct 2, 2006

Every few months, you probably take your car to a mechanic for some routine maintenance: change the oil, check the levels of various fluids, check the pressure in the tires, etc... When you take the car home you probably don't really notice much of a difference, but you know that if you don't keep up with it, you're asking for something to go wrong (and if you're like me, the bad things happen at the worst possible time).

A Web application is really no different. eteamz requires routine maintenance just like your car does. But the good news for you is that you don't have to take your eteamz site in because we handle all of the maintenance ourselves. Most of the time, you wouldn't even notice that we've made changes under the hood.

Of course, where car manufacturers can build new cars, once they build them they're pretty much hands off. With eteamz we're doing both parts, building in new features and enhancements AND doing the maintenance. Our challenge is to find the right balance between those two tasks. In the last couple of months, for instance, we've done some new features (the eteamz albumz Shutterfly integration) and some maintenance (moving servers to newer/faster network and some tightening up of the code on the eteamz home page).

In the next couple of months, we'll continue to try to balance the new features with the hidden stuff. And most importantly, I'll be keeping you up to date on what we're working on as it comes up. So, the next time you take your car in for an oil change, think of us here getting our hands dirty under the hood of eteamz.

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