February 28, 2015
Saturday site stuff: Coffee’s on me 45
Eight subscribers at our D.C. meetup Wednesday. Another took the pic. Two arrived later. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
A weekly look at what’s new, what’s coming on our site …
• There’s been no real pattern to our various and many subscriber meetings since the site’s launch. A few hours before choosing a Starbucks in a given city, I’ll post a notice here in the comments, plus an alert on the app and on a couple social media forums, then set up at a table and wait. Sometimes, one or two show. Sometimes, like Wednesday in D.C.., a dozen will turn up.
Either way, it’s a delight — no, an honor — when it happens. Really is.
And trust me, the two who showed in Calgary, through some serious snow and so very far from Pittsburgh, moved me just as much as filling half the Starbucks in Washington.
It’s funny, but I posted on our Subscribe page at the launch what I thought was kind of a joke about having to buy all Lunatic level subscribers a coffee. But enough folks took it seriously that I soon realized I’d better do so, too. And it’s been a blast, one of the best aspects of going independent.
For the gazillionth time, thank you so much. This endeavor is a success to date 100 percent because of your interest and support in this little … community, I guess.
• The new server has been up and running for six days, with mostly positive results and a couple of predictable hiccups. Once it’s all smoother, we’ll be able to handle pretty much any traffic that could be sent our way, now or even deep into the future. This isn’t something that the readers see, but man, it’s got me giddy.
• The next focus, once that foundation is firmed up, will be building a much better commerce platform, including the user interface when someone first shows up and considers subscribing. We want to make it much easier to sign up and for those who already have a subscription to upgrade to a higher level.
• Also on the agenda is a generally smarter look to the app on the iPad. Right now, in all honesty, it looks a whole lot like an iPhone app spread out on a bigger screen. We’re going to try to right-size it a bit. Might take a while.
• A subscription can be upgraded now, too. Email [email protected] with your info, and we’ll take care of it.
• We’re selling baseball gift subscriptions aimed at offering Pirates fans a full year of coverage from spring training onward. A custom baseball-style card will be sent to all gift recipients, and we’ll be sure, as with all subscribers, that they get all the help they need using the site and the app.
Click the big box below for all gift subscription options:
• The app count: 4,189 active downloads from Apple for iPhone/iPad platforms, 1,731 from Google for Android platforms. A nice week for both, with 100 total.
• As of this writing at 10 p.m. Friday, we’re at 8,332 subscriptions. We turned seven months old on Monday, and our stated goal for the first full year was 10,000.
• If you can’t figure something out related to our site or app, please check our Support and App Support pages. About 99 percent of the questions we get can be answered right there. But if your issue isn’t there, email [email protected]
• Thank you, yet again, for reading and for your support.
