Major Update Coming Soon

UPDATE 8:15: It’s up: Enjoy the new Spokt!

UPDATE 7:30: Bear with us, this update is taking longer than expected. We think it may take up to an additional 45 minutes. Time expected to be back online: 8:15am Pacific Time.

For months we have been working on some exciting updates. The majority of the site’s core features and layout will be the same that our users already know and love. Only better. Once we’ve unveiled the update we’ll tell you all about it but first we need to inform our users of two things:

1. The home page will look very different. We won’t spoil the surprise but we don’t want you to think you’ve ended up at the wrong place. Once you log in you’ll feel right at home.

2. We’re going to take the site down for about an hour tonight while we update. 6:30am-7:30am Pacific Time.

We’re eager to deploy this update so our user’s have even more reasons to love Spokt.com!

Note: This update was postponed from its original date and time.

71 thoughts on “Major Update Coming Soon”

  1. davewv says:

    One of my new users (we are testing as refugees from myfamily)is seeing html code instead of text in the comments. ?????

    1. danhixon says:

      Hi Dave, do you have any way to send me a screenshot? I’d love to help you out but I can’t imagine what might be going on for that to happen.

  2. Bonnie E. says:

    take down is 11-midnight = what time zone?

    1. danhixon says:

      Oh boy! I knew I forgot something. PacifiC Time Zone. I’ve edited it now.

  3. Davewv says:

    I’ll try to get him to send me screenshot.

  4. Todd Pollock says:

    Dan- Thank you for the heroics. My friends and I were on myfamily.com for over ten years. We are looking forward to tonight’s updates. Also… please let us know if you have a preferred feedback channel for defects, enhancement requests, and positive feedback. We are keeping a crude list on our main Hub.

    1. danhixon says:

      Hi Todd, I sent you an email. You can reply with your feedback anytime.

  5. Shari says:

    Judging from the comments of other myfamily.com “refugees”, I suspect that if Ancestry had raised the subscription rates to keep Myfamily going most of us would have willingly paid them, but they never even gave us that choice. I’m happy to have found Spokt as an alternative and I’m looking forward to building our new family site here!

    1. danhixon says:

      Shari, we’re glad you found us and hope Spokt becomes a nice home for you!

  6. Carolyn says:

    Did this update get postponed again? I didn’t notice a change today when I logged in. Thanks.

    1. danhixon says:

      Carolyn, Yes it was postponed. I’m personally very disappointed because I’ve been in charge of this project and I’m very excited to share it with everyone but one of our system admins found something that may be a stability concern and we decided to postpone it until we get that figured out.

  7. Marv DeSelm says:

    I am an administrator for one of the MyFamily sites. To what extent do you aid in bringing across our MyFamily content?

    How do you survive with your pricing? Do rely upon advertising.

    What hours are your customer servicing function available for user questions?

    Marv DeSelm

    1. danhixon says:

      Hi Marv,

      We have begun work on our migration tool but don’t have any details to share yet. Our prices are market based and we do not rely on advertising revenue.

      I’m in charge of answering questions here on the blog, on Facebook, and you can email me: dan@spokt dot com. I’m usually able to get back to people within a day. We don’t have official telephone support but we have made calls to customers with extreme issues.

  8. Davewv says:

    Don’t worry about the delay in the update. I am just pleased that the developers here stay in touch with the customers. My family was terrible on that feature.

    1. danhixon says:

      Thanks Dave, it’s a lot of work but it is too important to neglect.

  9. John B says:

    We are also leftovers from the myfamily shutdown. Both families for my wife and I were on it over 10 years. Looking forward to calling this our new home!

    1. danhixon says:

      Hi John, so glad you found Spokt. I hope you like it here!

  10. RSteiniger says:

    Dan, I am loving the transparency being shown by you and your company! Researchers as a breed are very patient and precise – document, document! We do appreciate getting “bugs” out of updates before launching… Not to mention that your company was thrown a left-curve by family.com – take your time and get it right. Thanks for your continued communications.

    1. danhixon says:

      RSteiniger, Thanks so much for your support.

  11. I may be one of the older users of MyFamily.com as they were absolutely free when I started. I am currently taking material off my site to my computer. Photos and information about them is the next challenge. Good luck with your migration tool. MyFamily can’t do it. I am interested of course but leery of third party involvement again. Would like to see how you are set up first.

    1. danhixon says:

      Nancy, glad you found us.

  12. Janet Post says:

    Dan and SPOKT crew: Take the time to make sure it is right AS FAR AS YOU HAVE GOTTEN. We will be patient, we’d rather have a smaller site not quite done than one big site all glitzy and done- but doesn’t work right. Take your time please and be correct. I commend you for answering all the important questions here, your customer service is extraordinary!

  13. John K says:

    Like the look of the new update, but disappointed at the new flat format (no nested replies). If you are going to go flat, then maybe at least add a quote feature. Do you remove functionality like this often? We are currently evaluating your site as we try to find a new home for a family website.

    1. dan@spokt says:

      Hi John K,

      The nesting of comments was confusing as often as it was helpful. Our mobile site never had indented replies and our users liked it a lot so we decided to bring that enhancement back into the main website. – See more at: http://blog.spokt.com/general/spokts-new-face/#sthash.IKnQu5XX.dpuf

      We think you’ll enjoy the flat layout and enjoy conversations even more. Let us know if you still don’t like it in a few weeks. We want our users to have the best experience!

  14. LisaF says:

    LOVE the new look!! VERY clean, modern & user-friendly! Well done, Spokt techs!!

    1. dan@spokt says:

      Thanks Lisa!! So glad you like what you see!

  15. Mark says:

    Will you be listing the additional changes your team is working on?

    e.g. Are you planning to allow users to make one particular photo the large photo on the home page? (i.e. not just the oldest or newest)

    1. dan@spokt says:

      Hi Mark,

      We’re not super secretive about the problems we’re solving but we don’t like talking about things until they are ready. Currently our priority is the MyFamily.com import tool. We’ll provide an update later this week.

      Regarding the photo feature, we haven’t ruled out a “cover photo” but today we are focused on the MyFamily.com import tool.

  16. Heather says:

    Another refugee from MyFamily here. While, I like the new look (and love the site’s speed and ease of use), I hate the removal of nested replies! If I am replying to a specific post in a thread, I’d like it to show up next to that post.

  17. Justin says:

    Dan, I agree with John K. If you are going to go flat is there any plan to implement a quote feature as most message boards have?

    1. dan@spokt says:

      Hi Justin and Heather, we hear you. We really think you’ll like it but we are not stubborn about keeping it this way forever. I didn’t think I’d like it either when I first tried it but I’ve become converted.

  18. Justin says:

    I’m very excited about the myfamily import, however!

  19. Carolyn says:

    Add me as another new user from MyFamily who doesn’t like that you can’t reply to a post. I don’t think I will in the future either. At the very least a quote option if not returning it the way it was. We were on my family for a long time and had over 5000 pages of posts so our threads can get long and this new way is confusing.

  20. Dena says:

    Not a fan of the upgrades. At ALL! Don’t like the font, too much white, don’t like that you can’t specifically comment to a comment on news, don’t like the little circle photos. The previous format was so much more appealing and easier to keep up with and follow.

  21. Dena says:

    And I have to add, without the ability to reply to a specific comment, it makes it difficult to follow a conversation. Sometimes you need to comment directly to a comment.

    1. dan@spokt says:

      Hi Dena, I’m sorry but I caused some confusion by my earlier responses. Getting rid of the ability to reply to specific comments should not have occurred. We’re working to repair this error.

      I tried to clarify in the latest blog post.

      Thanks for the rest of your thoughts as well.

  22. Dena says:

    Thanks!

  23. Carolyn says:

    Good to hear that Dan. I don’t care if indented but do like the reply to a specific comment and glad you didn’t mean to change it and are fixing that.

  24. Mike says:

    I am a former MF.com user and a long-time user of spokt. Overall, I like the new functionality and general appeal. During my time as a spokt user, I have always been pleased with the responsiveness of this site and ongoing transformation to enhance the user experience. I am getting used to the new look, but am very excited about the functionality upgrades. Keep it up!!

  25. Kirsten says:

    We like the new style sheet – very attractive, very friendly. Looking forward to seeing more updates! Very promising.

  26. John B says:

    I really like the new look (even though I’ve only been using Spokt for a week prior). Also glad you are fixing the nested replies oversight.

  27. Ellen says:

    I am a myFamily.com (former?) user who has been test driving your site with a free demo hub these last couple of weeks. I tried logging in to the free hub this morning and I can’t get in. The program doesn’t recognize my login, password and email address. I cleared my cookies and still nothing.

    Did this option (hub demos) disappear when you did your recent upgrade? Is it still possible to “test drive” the free hub demo?

    1. RJ says:

      Ellen,

      I’m not sure what’s going on. Are you using our official “Demo Hub” feature as found here: http://spokt.com/demo? Or do you mean you signed up and created an real hub so you can test the functionality of Spokt?

      If you signed up and created a real hub and forgot your login information, then you should be able to recover your password and/or username by going to this page: http://spokt.com/forgot_stuff. If you have not yet created an account but would like to, please sign up here: http://spokt.com/signup. We offer an unconditional 75-day money-back guarantee, so you can sign up with complete peace of mind.

      If you are referring to the official Demo Hub tool, I’d like to let you know that we offer demo hubs for testing purposes, so you can get a feel for the spokt experience before you create your own private hub. Because the demo hubs are neither private nor full-featured they are cleared out of our system periodically. Of course, you can always access a new demo hub at the link provided above, or by going to the demo hub section near the bottom of our home page (http://spokt.com).

      Please let us know if you have any other questions or need any help getting your own hub set up!

  28. Cindy says:

    I LOVE the tiny avatars that don’t take up so much vertical space.

    I am waiting until the “reply” button correction to decide if I can live with the new comment format– in my opinion, visually nested comments helped create the conversation, which is what our myfamily site was all about. Otherwise we might as well just be on fb.

  29. Bailey says:

    Hi! Will you ever add a calendar feature to the site?

    1. RJ says:

      Hi Bailey,

      Thanks for your feedback. We are planning on a calendar feature for Spokt. Thanks!

  30. Drew says:

    Another MyFamily refugee. The nested comments (indented) and ability to respond to comments rather than the whole thread would be fantastic. I’ve already said in another post that I am very pleased thus far with Spokt, a welcome familiarity, however it appears that you are more inclined to respond to customer support questions, and suggestions – Thank You! It also appear that you have an active development stake in the functionality and improvement of the service!!!

    A little bit of history with MyFamily, some have mentioned they would have stayed even if the prices were increased – THIS WOULD NEVER BE AN OPTION. An old neighbor of mine worked for MyFamily and said the service was coded/written specifically for the servers that hosted the platform so the service could never be ported to NEW servers. He warned me 5 years ago that a shut down was inevitable as the servers aged and shut down.

    And Spokt is working on an import tool! Great! I hope the current state of MyFamily (i.e. non responsive 100%) does not impede your development.

    Sharing Spokt on my facebook page now, thanks.

    1. RJ says:

      We’re working hard to prepare the import tool, Drew. We’ll do everything we can to counter the issues MyFamily’s servers are experiencing. 😉

      Keep your eye on the blog for any official announcements!

  31. Ernie says:

    ***I was disappointed with the circle photo. I purposely posted myself with the person who owned our MyFamily site for 15 or more years & another person who supplied us with posted music. Both these people are now deceased & I did it out of respect for them & to ensure they made this transfer with us. We 3 did not have quite enough space on the square/rectangular picture but one of them was 98% removed from the circle photo.
    ***I know you will never totally please everyone. Thanks for our new home.

    1. RJ says:

      Hi Ernie —

      I’m sorry to hear your friends were cut out of the photo. That sounds awfully rude of us. We’ll email you directly and see if we can find a way to help you. 😉

  32. Drew says:

    ….oops, sorry. I have a major typo in my last post you can edit it…

    should be “shut down”

    1. RJ says:

      I got your back, Drew. Should be fixed. 😉

  33. frank bill says:

    Would be nice to be able to add Attachments when replying to posting also the same to photos

  34. Lee says:

    I’m disappointed after having set up a hub the other day. While Dan responded quickly to my first question, he has not responded to my latest emails. I can’t get my Avatar photo to post. I select it, and save, but the image fails to appear. Also, I attempted to add a photo image in a News item, and that didn’t work either! I’m pretty internet and computer literate, but this has me puzzled.

    I’m also a MyFamily.com forced retiree, and hope Spokt is the answer for the four sites I am administering.

    1. dan@spokt says:

      Hi Lee, Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. We did find and fix a bug with the avatars. Please try to upload again.

      We have plans to improve this feature but for now please post photos to the photos section.

  35. My group of 300 classmates have gone through the test fase to having our own hub and are very satisfied with it. I wish we could be notified of birthday and anniversaries.

    1. dan@spokt says:

      Thanks Vernon, we are planning on adding a calendar feature.

  36. I have had Daily and Immediate Notifications enabled in Preferences. I had been receiving Immediate Notification just fine for that first week or so up until 6/16/14, but no longer receive a Notification when one of our members Posts or makes a Reply. I don’t know if it is linked to your new update; or, our Adm. created a new Hub for our group, in addition to the test Hub, at about that time. I am able to toggle between the two Hubs and my Profile appears the same for each. I thought maybe I should go in & turn off Notifications & Save and then sign on for those again, however, when I click on Preferences, nothing happens. Not complaining, just wondering if you are aware of this issue?

    1. dan@spokt says:

      Hi Roxanne,
      There was an issue that I think I fixed related to your account specifically. It looks like you are using a special character or emoji in your name. We weren’t expecting it but it should be working now. Let me know.
      We’re also investigating the “Profile”, “Preferences” button issue. Can you tell me what browser you use?
      Thanks!
      Dan

  37. I use Google Chrome.

  38. Lee Bennett says:

    We’re gradually adding content to our new hubs and have invited additional participants. Can you describe how and where html code is supposed to work? I tried to make our hub name bold, but that didn’t work. When I used in a news item, that worked to make a new paragraph, but an attempt to use to make some text bold, didn’t work. Is there a tutorial anywhere to explain what html features your hubs allow, and in what sections? With html, on MyFamily, some of us used html to make our posts more visually appealing.

    1. dan@spokt says:

      Hi Lee,

      HTML will only work in the body text of a post or reply. There was an issue with bold but that is now fixed.

      For more details see: http://spokt.com/faq#html

  39. Thank you, Dan, I am again receiving Notifications. As for my name, our Alumni Site Members designate their graduation year (ex. ’59) followed by the State Abbrev. of where each now resides after their last name. The ladies indicate their maiden name within parenthesis between their first and current last name.

  40. Gerry says:

    So happy I kept this site and could refer it to the people who were in charge of the move from MF to here.
    You all are doing a good job of setting up the sites and making so many changes to your formats
    Just in case, a big thank you goes to all of the SPOKT people for all the hard work we all are putting you thru. THANK YOU !!!

    1. RJ says:

      Thanks Gerry. We appreciate your warm praise, and enthusiasm for our work. Thank you, and welcome!

  41. Today I entered a document on this hub. I noticed I misspelled Records as “recods”. I wanted to fix it but the “pencil Icon” was not available. Is this something you can fix when you have a moment? I know you are busy! Thanks, Cousin Bill

    1. RJ says:

      Hello Bill,

      Were you using a mobile phone or tablet by chance? Currently editing is not available on certain mobile devices. Additional features are slated to be added to the mobile site shortly, once our Mayflower queue is a little more manageable. If you have more questions, feel free to contact us at our contact form: http://spokt.com/contact

      Thanks!

  42. Thank RJ, we are waiting to be imported on We_Van.Cleaves too so glad your priorities are in order. Should tell you I’m on a Desktop Tower though. The pencil Icon wasn’t there for edit when I needed it.

  43. Allan Ray Wenzel

    I just got a MF site email from Allan saying he had gotten no invitations to Spokt. I gave him the URL but I need to try that myself to see if I can make it work. I also reinvited him but don’t think he’ll get this either. I guess I’ll need to post a blog or reach out to a contact. Allan has made it his life’s work to write books on the Van Cleave family.

    1. RJ says:

      Hi Bill. Most invites make it through without a catch, but there are certain email providers that cause issues now and again.

      If you’d like to have Allan contact us through the support page (or alternatively you can contact us as well), then we can look more closely at what is going on with the invite.

      Thanks!
      RJ

    2. Great Thanks RJ! I am not sure what Allan’s eventual solution was but when I sent him your suggestions it was almost right away he joined our hub.

      I think he is waiting with the rest of us to hear our MyFamily site has been imported. We_Van.Cleaves Hub will be much richer for Allan’s wise contributions. Thanks for all your 24/7 efforts. We_Van.Cleaves love SPOKT.

Leave a Reply to John B Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

We read every comment. We will reply when appropriate. Some comments are not shown right away and need to be approved first. We may remove any comment that contains content that is not family-freindly or is off-topic. If your comment would be more appropriate as a support request we ask that you contact support here: http://spokt.com/contact.