Your Friends Tab Update

We're always trying to improve the user experience on GolfStakes.com and today I would like to give you a preview of what your 'Friends' tab will look like in the near future.

As you can see from the new layout, we have put some thought in to how this section is going to be used. First we've added a visual avatar to be displayed so that you can quickly see who you are friends with and to be able to find them just by scrolling by. Second, we have your friends screen name displayed in the center of the friends list, with the date and time of their last login underneath. Third; on the right hand side of this section, you can see a link called 'Search for Friends' this will take you to an advanced search page where you can find people you know just by typing in their email address. Four and Five; these are action buttons links that you can do. You can send a message directly to your friend via GolfStakes.com's internal messaging system, or if you no longer want to be associated with this friend, you can quickly remove them from your list.

Last, as you can see, there is a scroll bar that appears to the right of your friends list. When you have more than three friends, you will now be able to quickly scroll through your list.

A few points to notice. The green display name and the avatar picture are all hyperlinks and when clicked will take you to that user's public profile.

That's it for now, we hope that you like what you're seeing and as always if you have any comments please leave them either in our 'Community Forums' or through the GolfStakes 'Contact Us' page.

Your New Inbox

With the way that managing friends has been changed, we felt that there was a need for users to communicate between each other. From this need we've created our new internal messaging service.

When you log in to the site and go either to the 'My Game' tab or the 'My Profile' link you will see on the far right side a new tab called 'Inbox'. Clicking on this tab will take you to an area where you can see sent and received messages and can compose new
messages to send to your friends.

Status Codes

If Sending	Sent	Pending	Invited
If Receiving	Sent	Read	Accepted

Each list of messages generally show the same information except the status will be different between sent and received messages.

Clicking on the subject of any message will take you to the details of that message. Depending on what type of  message you are viewing will determine what type of actions you can take with the message. A new received message will give you the option to mark the message as read. A newly received invitation will allow you to accept the friend invitation and become friends with the sender of the message.

Clicking on the 'Compose Message' link to the far right of the inbox will take you to the the 'Compose Your Message' page.  The form displayed is very simple to use. Clicking on the 'Send To'
link next to the empty text box will bring up your personal contact last (basically the same as your friends list). From this list you can sent one person to receive your message. The contact list box will close an the message now has that person assigned as the receiver of your message.

 
You are now free to add a subject line, and a personal message to this user. When you are done, click the green button called 'Send' will save the message and send an email notification to the recipient. 

That's it for your inbox. We will be adding in more functionality in the future. If you have any feedback for this functionality or any other please feel free to leave use some feedback on our contact us page, or in the GolfStakes forums.

New Friends Tab Functionality

We've made some changes to the way friends are found and added on GolfStakes.com.

First thing is, you have a tab found under the 'My Game' which is called 'Friends'. Under the 'Friends' tab you have a list of all of your current friends. This list will display the current display name of your friend, the last time there were online and gives you a hyperlink to their profile. To the far right you will see two options
for the page. First you can now search for a friend on GolfStakes and second, you can now remove a friend from your Friends List.

Clicking on the 'Search for Friends' link will take you to the Friend Search page still located under the 'Friends' tab. From here we have given you the option of searching for a friend by your friends email address. Type in the address, and click the green 'Find Friend' button. If your search is successful, you will be presented with a display of that users display name, their location, their avatar and two action links; one to add them
as a friend and one to send a message to them.

If you notice, you will see that the display name is bold faced, you can click on this link and be taken to this user's profile page. In addition, you can also click on the avatar and go to the user's profile page also.

Clicking on the 'Add as Friend' link will take you to a page under your inbox where you can now invite this person to be a friend of yours. You can add in a personal message if you wish.
When an invite is accepted, both people are now linked as friends. They will see you, and you will see them. Being a friend means that you can now communicate with each other through the inteneral messaging system found on GolfStakes and that you can now be associated with other players golf rounds. To send the invite, click the green button called 'Send Invitation'.
A user will only be made a friend when the invitation is accepted. Once an invitation has been accepted, both users will be friends of each other.

From the friends search result page, if you click on the 'Send a Message' link, you will be taken to the 'Compose Your Message' page found under your 'Inbox' tab. From here, you will see that the 'Send To' box is already filled out with your recipients display name. You are now free to add a subject line, and a personal message to this user. When you are done, click the green button called 'Send'.

The last thing that can be done under the new 'Friends' tab is to be able to manage your friends list. Clicking on the 'Remove Friends' link will take you a section where you are presented with
a list of your friends with a 'Remove' link next to the name. If you click on the this remove link, the selected friend will be removed from both your friend list, and your friends 'friend list'.

That's it for managing friends. You can now add, remove and communicate with them easily through the GolfStakes user interface. If you have any feedback for this functionality or any other please feel free to leave use some feedback on our contact us page, or in the GolfStakes forums.

Rebroadcast of Radio Show

Kyle had a great time doing the radio show last Saturday. For all of those who missed out on hearing live the first time, the show will be rebroadcast Friday April 3rd on 1140Am and 1160AM at 6pm in the Kansas City metro area.

Tune in to hear Kyle talk about GolfStakes.com!

Personalization Added

I know it sounds like a simple thing, you would really like to have a picture up that identifies you on GolfStakes.com. Now for the past couple of months we have had a graphic up, but you had no way of personalizing this graphic or to add your own. Now you do.

Introducing Gravatars

Gravatar.com is a web site which provides globally recognized avatars and allows a user to sign up for free and to upload as many avatar images as they would like to have and manage all of these images from one spot. GolfStakes.com has taken the unique approach of taking the Gravatar.com provided path and linking that in with our system so that you too can have access this this great service.

Steps to putting up your avatar

There are a few steps that need to be completed before a GolfStakes.com user can have an avatar posted on the web site. First you need to visit Gravatar.com and signup for a free account on their web site. You will need to provide an email address to them, and you will  need to be able to verify this email address.

Once you have your Gravatar.com account login to GolfStakes.com and go to your settings page.

Two things you should notice. A gray golfer image is displayed next your profile control panel. This is where you new avatar will be displayed. Second, you should see that under the profile management heading there is now an option to add/remove an avatar. Click this click to add your Gravatar.com image.

You're now on the avatar management page.

We give you short introduction of what we're doing with Gravatar.com, how to get a Gravatar.com account, and what we'll do with the email address that you provide to associate your Gravatar.com account with a GolfStakes.com user account.

Clicking the 'associate accounts' tab will now take you to where you can actually associate the accounts.

Now the only thing that we need from you is the same email address that you used when you signed up for Gravatar.com. What we're going to do with this email address is that we're going to do a one way encryption of the email address and then use that as part of the path way for your Gravatar.com identity icon. We will have no way of knowing what email address you have entered and the email address is no longer human readable (the encryption used can not be used to un-encrypt this address). When you click the associate my email address' button you will be sent back to the settings page and if the email address you entered on GolfStakes.com is found on the Gravatar.com servers, your new image icon will be displayed in the upper left corner.

Now we know that there are times when you no longer want to have an icon identifying yourself. You can easily go back to the settings page, and click the 'add or remove avatar' link. You will now see on the avatar page and option to remove your Gravatar.com email from our servers. Once  you click the button on this page, we no longer know which email to use, and the GolfStakes.com default icon will now be displayed in place of your custom image icon.

Summary

We hope that you like this new feature of GolfStakes.com. As you start to use the site more, you'll notice that the new avatars will start to appear in new areas. Right now you will see your new avatars on the profile page, and on your handicap page. You will also be able to see your friends avatars, and soon you will be able to see avatar images when you search for friends, and on some of the golfing statistics pages. Let us know how we're doing and we hope that you enjoy this new service on GolfStakes.com

We're On the Radio

This Saturday morning (3/28/2009) Kyle is going to be on the radio in Kansas City Missouri. Listen to 1510AM @ 8am and hear Kyle talk about all the great features of GolfStakes.

Hot Talk 1510 KCTE - Programming

KC Sports and Fitness 8 am - 9 am
Hosted by: Steve Fisch and Jim Potoski

User Profile Section Updates

Your account settings page now has a few more items that you
can control.

Account Management is where you can control specific items associated with your GolfStakes membership. You can change your password, your email address and your security question from here. If you feel that GolfStakes.com just isn't for you, you also have the option to close your account with us.

Profile management does exactly what it says it does. From here
you can update your personal information like your name, your display name, your GHIN index and write some open text about yourself. You can also add or change a mailing address and a phone number.

These new options can be found under the settings link next to your profiles avatar.

Speaking of profiles, you now have several ways of reaching your profile while on the GolfStakes.com web site. First, there is a global link found in the upper right corner of the site. Click your name will always take you to your profile. Second, when you click on 'My Game' you will see that a profile link displays on the left hand side near a gray and white golfer avatar. Third, when you're inside of the 'My Game' section of the site, you will notice that there is a prominent glossy white button or green button
in the middle of the page. This link will also take you to your profile.

In the future, we're looking to adding a number of other features and additions to you profile section. This will enable you to find your friends faster and to make new friends easier.

Hope this helps, and enjoy using GolfStakes.com.