Blog Entries
Slide Show Feature Now Available

A slide show has been one of our most often requested features. As with any feature development we put a lot of time and planning into what implementation would make the most sense. Here are the key points:

  • Simple to setup, just choose Slide Show as a View Type on your element.
  • Does not use Flash, for the highest compatibility.
  • Auto Sizing based on room available, it will fit to the correct width for where ever you place it on your site.

The Slide Show view option is currently available on the Member Photo Box element and the Member Box element. All other options on these elements work as they did before, so you can fine tune exactly what is being displayed.

 



New! Wiki Feature Released!

It has been a long time coming between delays and other priorities taking more focus, but today we have a new Wiki system you can add to your website!

Some features of the new Wiki Include:

  • Control access to who can post and edit Wiki pages
  • Set Wiki moderator access
  • Page commenting and rating options, with further controls if you've enabled these features for your Wiki page
  • Multi level category structure to make it easy to organize your wiki; categories can be set by adding the Categories element found under Feature Elements
  • Track the edits made to a page and undo unwanted edits
  • Optional settings to control editing and edit approval by the page
  • Wiki tag based searching
  • Friendly page URL's for better S.E.O.
  • First system that will take full advantage of our new Content/System Templates system!

If you are using the old Knowledge Base system it will be phased out in the next 90 days, so we recommend moving content over your content to the Wiki.

To add the new Wiki Feature enter your site Management Mode and click on Add Page, you will find it listed in the feature pages section.

Remember! This feature is in beta, and may have issues. If you do find a bug, problem or other usability glitches please report the issue via a support ticket. We will be expanding the Wiki and spending more development resources on it over the next few weeks so make sure to watch this space!

 

Content Templates

As mentioned, this feature will be the first to have a method of fully customizing the System/Content template. See below example screen shot.

 

You will notice new content templates in your Settings > Content Templates section in the next week or so. We expect content templates to place a lot more power in the hands of website creators. You will be able to make use of our SPL (Spruz Platform Language), along with custom coding to add your own sharing features, like buttons, and more, which will open up a lot of added functionality.

We have also completed a range of recent changes you should be aware of:

  • Videos and Photos now have a Rate It box so more content can be rated. This will also help expand functions for elements to see things like popular videos/photos and so on.
  • New profile menu options to add optional links on a persons profile page that does a search of Blogs a member has posted or Groups they belong to.
  • The Topics element for groups now has a reply box rather then a link to click, which was added to reduce a step when replying to a topic.
  • We made text smarter, for example on paged when it should say 1 page it used to say 1 pages, the same applies to 1 minute used to say 1 minutes.
Community Spotlight: FanCentral.us

This week's Community of the Week is FanCentral.us, created by FanCentral.

If you'd like to see your site featured as a Community of the Week please post an introduction following our guidelines.

 

FanCentral.us

 

1. Could you explain what your site is about for those that aren't familiar with it?   

FanCentral.us is a community for anyone who loves Science Fiction, Comics and/or Fantasy.  Fans of any part of these genres will will find a smorgasbord of things to do, people to chat with about their interests and activities to attend. We work hard to make everyone feel welcome and keep the site safe and the content 'family friendly'.

For instance, let's say you are a Star Trek fan...  on Fancentral.us you will find Star Trek groups, discussion boards, events and Trek loving members to chat with!  We even do a weekly podcast with celebrity guests!

 

2. What gave you the idea to create a site? Was it a natural extension of a hobby or passion you already had?

The inspiration for this site was our  passion for Star Trek and our mutual feeling of disappointment in other Trek communities we had been members of.  After careful consideration,  we decided to expand content to include all SciFi, comics and fantasy genres and set out to create the best 'geek' community on the web!

 

3. Is your site a join effort between you and other co-creators, or did you create it by yourself?

Yes, there are four people who came together to create FanCentral.us. 

 

4. How did you hear about Spruz?

We were a paying site on the NING network, but chose to move because of the direction NING was going.  After a couple months of test driving the various options, we foundSpruz on a message board and gave it a try.... INSTANTLY we knew Spruz was MUCH different than the others and it was our new home!

 The support at Spruz is second to none...Spruz people will actually TALK to you and help you when you have a problem....and they are POLITE!  The best we've found, HANDS DOWN!

 

5. What feature has your community found most useful?

The feature we most appreciate, as site owners, is the ability to see exactly how much storage and bandwidth we are using at any given time.  That was one of the main reasons we left NING... NING gave you no way to monitor your communities storage and bandwidth usage, so most people over paid in fear of running out.

 

6. Do you have any tips or suggestions for other site owners? Was there anything you wish you had known when you created your community that you know today?

First of all, I suggest every site owner make the decision to approve new members.  Since we have done this, spammers are a thing of the past and it is easy to catch internet 'riff raff' before they get on your site and create problems.

Also, you need to monitor what people post on your site.  Members are the lifeblood of your site, but there will always be a few that push the limits and potentially disrupt a blissful site. If you give some people an inch, they will take a mile.

Finally....if there is a problem with the site itself (glitches and such), don't blow up at Spruz.  Glitches happen and sites have hiccups on occasion.  No way to avoid that.  Simply contact the support people and I guarantee the Spruz team will promptly get back to you and work with you to get the problem resolved.  They are GREAT people....please be considerate to them when problems arise.

 

7. Was there anything else you'd like to add?

FanCentral is a warm, friendly 'geek' community with tons going on and great people to interact with!  We hope to be here a very long time and look forward to new members from the Spruz network!  Thanks to all the Spruz people who are constantly working to make things better for all of us.

Live Long and Prosper! 

New Spruz Home Page
Category: Community News

We just rolled out a complete re-design of Spruz.com. With the new design we were able to improve the content of the home page in several areas: More focus, more information, a clean and consistent look and much less scrolling to see the information.

The footer has also been completely re-worked to provide all the information you need in a very organized fashion, so content and links are easy to find.

Visit Spruz.com to check out the new design.

 

Here's the old design for comparison:

 

Let us know what you think of the new design in the comments.

Free website limits go into effect today!
Category: Community News

You may recall our blog post from July 6th about new restrictions coming to free websites, as stated we would wait until August 31st before we activated these new restrictions to your free website account, if you had created your website after this date your website would already be on our new free website plan. As we had mentioned we would no longer be offering unlimited free websites due to the issues we experienced finding an ad service that would take us as a publisher, which is due to the fact that we do not have direct control over the content posted on websites the advertisements would be displayed on.

To recap, the following are the restrictions and changes to free sites:

  • 5GB Monthly Transfer Limit - Once your website reaches this you will need to upgrade, if the limit is reached your admin area will be deactivated first with a message to upgrade.
  • 100MB File Storage Limit - Once over this limit you will need to delete extra files to reduce your total storage or upgrade.
  • 250 Member Limit - When you have reached your member limit your registration system will be set to approval only, you will need to upgrade or delete inactive member accounts in order to approve new members.
  • 1 Email Broadcast Per Month - Emails have a cost to them due to spam complaints and bandwidth. With each service plan you will have an increased montly email broadcast limit.
  • File uploading restrictions - We have removed the file uploader from the file manager and members of free websites can only upload photos.
  • Limited or No Advertisements - You will no longer see obtrusive advertisements on free websites, free websites can also place up to 1 advertisement per page to help build up the funds to upgrade.

We understand you may look at these restrictions and say "I can't grow network with that!", however, we have taken great measure to ensure this isn't the case. While 90% of users will not come close to reaching the restrictions we have added, the 10% that do should have a large enough user base to easily afford our $9.95/mo plan by placing your own advertisements on your site, collecting donations using our Website Funds element, or charging members a small fee.

We want to do everything in our power to help those who have reached the limits above  starting today until the end of September we have increased our yearly plan discount from 20% to 30%! At a 30% discount our $9.95 plan comes out to less than $7 bucks a month! Even if you already have a premium plan you can go to the upgrade page and change your plan to yearly and take advantage of our discount. Remember with Spruz your price is locked in for the life of your selected plan, so you never have to worry about paying more in the future.

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