SocialGO Owners

After 4 months of exhaustive BETA testing SocialGO announces its pricing plans which will come into effect from 15 February 2009. 

A huge THANK YOU goes out to all the network owners and users who have created and used networks during the BETA period. Our BETA networks have allowed us to refine and improve the service at a great rate and we hope you and your networks continue to grow and prosper on SocialGO as the service evolves in the coming months.

From 15 February 2009 all existing and new networks will have the choice of three great pricing packages. 

• SocialGO FREE a great way to trial SocialGO or create a network if you’re happy with SocialGO ads & some feature limitations – Free as the wind

• SocialGO Starter perfect for small groups that don’t want SocialGO advertising appearing on the network and are happy with a few less features – US$4.99 monthly.

• SocialGO Premium when you want to get serious with more storage & bandwidth, plus loads of extra features, developer tools, your own URL & more - US$24.99 monthly.

Supporting these pricing packages are three options that are available to SocialGO Premium users:

• Member Billing allows you to charge your members a monthly fee to access your network using your PayPal account.  Super powerful and easy to setup. You can make payments optional or required, regular or one-off - US$19.99 monthly

• White Labeling to remove all references to SocialGO. This includes removing our logo, name watermark and even URL in images and files - US$19.99 monthly

• Storage and Bandwidth Blocks if your network is big and highly active - US$9.99 monthly per block

From 15 February 2009 all new networks will have to select a base package, either FREE, Starter or Premium, plus desired options upon network creation.

All networks created before 15 February 2009 have until the end of February 2009 to select the base package and options they wish to have going forward. 

Coming soon is the SocialGO Widget Store and layout manager, a third party application platform that will sell additional features to compliment and enhance your SocialGO network.  The first 3rd party developer, Widget Laboratory, will be launching a range of widgets to kick things off when the store opens.

From 15 February 2009 SocialGO will no longer accept networks with mature content of a sexual nature.  Networks with mature content will be invited to join Zocku.com, the newly launched social networking platform dedicated to mature networks.  Click here for more information in the Zocku Owners' Network. 

SocialGO Pricing & Features Table

http://files.static.socialgo.com/sogopricing.pdf

In what little spare time I have, I've created a small Adobe Air application that enables network owners (and network Developers*) to view any members profile avatar, and more importantly, reset their password without having to go through the Forgot Password procedure.



It's a 0.7 release, and only really a small app which is an example of how to use the SocialGO API but may be useful for network owners which is why I've put it here.

I'm not a Flex uber expert, but it seems to work. Any questions about the source for this, I can help with pointers.

You will need the Adobe AIR runtime already installed. If you've installed one of Widget Laboratory's apps, like their network importer, then you should be able to install the Little Profile Viewer, if not go to: http://get.adobe.com/air/ first to install the AIR runtime.

Finally, download the AIR app from:
http://blog.mike-martin.com/socialgo/sogo-little-profile-viewer.air

It doesn't do much and there may be bugs. So use at your own risk. It's not in any way supported by anyone, ever.

Thank you to all the network owners that have established ‘mature content’ networks on SocialGO.  We are very committed to serving the needs of quality networks that feature mature content and today we announce the launch of Zocku.com.

Zocku.com will be a dedicated social networking platform and support team exclusively for Network Owners wanting to create social networks with mature content.  Zocku.com will provide their network owners with:

• Dedicated pricing package
• Keep your design, data, users and media
• Dedicated US data centre
• Complete white labeling
• Dedicated owner’s community (http://owners.zocku.com)
  
• Premium help support system
• Unconditional money back guarantee

And for everyone that joins Zocku.com in February we will be giving you FREE until the end of April:

• Free member billing,
• Free extra bandwidth/storage,

All for just $49.99. Click here to register to move your network before the 15th February.

1. If you are interested in using Zocku
Zocku will initially be available to Network Owners with existing SocialGO mature networks.  Existing SocialGO networks that wish to use the Zocku platform will be seamlessly moved over by our technical team upon successful application and initial payment.  Network Owners do not have to do anything else!

Network Owners who wish to become early adopters of Zocku.com can apply to transfer from SocialGO to Zocku by registering interest here. We will email you within 48 hours of your application to advise when your network can be transferred. 

If your network address was mynetwork.socialgo.com, it will become mynetwork.zocku.com.  But don’t worry, your old URL will redirect users for the next 3 months so you have time to let your members know.

All transfers from SocialGO to Zocku are expected to take place prior to 15 February 2009, after which SocialGO will no longer host networks with mature content that is of a sexual nature. 

2. If you are not interested in using Zocku
By providing a dedicated environment for mature content at Zocku, SocialGO will soon no longer accept networks with mature content that is of a sexual nature after 15 February 2009.  Existing SocialGO mature networks that do not wish to use the Zocku platform will have the option to purchase a full Database Export of their site content and membership data prior to a scheduled deactivation of any such network. Any deactivation of a network will only occur with reasonable notice and within a reasonable time period and never will a Network Owner be deprived of their data or content.

3. When will Zocku be open to new networks?
For the time being priority will be given to Network Owners that have already created quality mature networks on SocialGO and wish to transfer from SocialGO to Zocku.  We are planning to open Zocku to new networks from 15 February 2009.  In the meantime mature networks can continue to join SocialGO for FREE and then migrate over before 15 February 2009.

4. Will Zocku be fast and reliable?
Zocku will be a dedicated platform with its own totally dedicated  hosting infrastructure in the USA, plus a premium support team. It will be exclusively for quality Owners of mature content networks that are interested in paying for a quality service.  It will not be weighed down by network owners that are only interested in abusing the platform as free-loaders. 

5. Can Network Owners be sure they’ll get quality service?
For your complete peace of mind we are offering an Unconditional Money Back Guarantee whereby any Network Owner that is not happy within the first month can get back everything they have paid to Zocku (excludes third party widgets) with no questions asked.

6. Why would you want to pay for Zocku?
Apart from providing a high quality service exclusively for Owners of networks with mature content, Zocku’s primary and future focus will be to develop a platform that helps Network Owners monetize their networks so they can create thriving and successful online businesses.  We have many exciting monetization tools in the pipeline.

7. How can network owners monetize their networks?
Already many Network Owners are using Member Billing to generate considerable revenues from their network, for example many networks charge members small monthly fees that more than cover any running costs.  To help all Network Owners monetize their networks we are giving away for FREE Member Billing until 30 April 2009 if you join Zocku in February.  We have also made Run Your Own Advertising standard in the Zocku package, so you can monetize your networks even further through advertising.

8. What happens with SocialGO?
Going forward SocialGO will operate as a separate platform and for the time being remain in BETA.  From 15 February 2009 SocialGO will soon no longer accept mature networks with content of a sexual nature.  In the meantime mature networks can trial SocialGO, but please bear in mind you will have to either migrate to Zocku or leave SocialGO before the cut-off date. 

9. The Zocku Pricing Plan
Zocku will provide Owners of networks with mature content with a dedicated pricing package plus options.

Zocku Premium is a dedicated mature package that includes :

• White labeling removes all references to Zocku (& SocialGO)

• Run your own URL so you have the option to call it what you want

• Run your own advertising so you can monetize your traffic

• Premium support so you get rapid quality help with any problem

• 7GB storage & 70GB bandwidth so you can build a big network (7GB max bandwidth for video chat)

• Plus loads of extra features, developer tools & more see details below

Supporting the Zocku Package are the following options:

• Member Billing allows you to charge your members a fee to access your network. Super powerful and easy to get setup. You can make the payment optional or required, regular or one-off - normally $19.99 monthly but FREE UNTIL APRIL 30 2009 (if you join in February)

• Storage and Bandwidth Blocks if your network is highly active - normally $9.99 monthly (per block of 5GB storage & 50 GB bandwidth) but FREE UNTIL APRIL 30 2009 (if you join in February)

10. How to Start Your Transfer
If you want to transfer your SocialGO network to Zocku all you have to do to get started is click here and register your interest.  Once we have received your registration we will schedule your transfer and send you a few simple instructions to initiate the transfer.  We will do everything from there, it could not be simpler.

Zocku Pricing & Features Table

http://www.zocku.com/zockupricing.pdf

 

We will shortly be rolling out a new member billing interface which will allow people to charge for access to your network. If you would like to help us test this and give us feedback then drop me a message through this network. 

Hi there :)

For the last few weeks there have been complaints of blogs not showing in the Magazine and Magazine Categories; after some investigation it was found that the problem was related to the way in which the system was handling TimeZone information.

After the investigation, some time was spent fixing the timezone system to allow for greater control by network owners and by the network users themselves.

The Upgrades are as follows

1. Network Owners can set the default timezone for their networks in http://my.socialgo.com: This will be the default timezone that the user is given should the have an invalid country selection - Otherwise the Country selected defines the Timezone.
2. When a New User signs up; the system now approximates the timezone based on the country selected. (The US like Australia and Russia are all fairly large *cough*, so New York is the default TZ in the states and the same for the larger continents as defined by the ISO2 standards)
3. Blogs Publish Date; will now default to the actual time in your personally selected Timezone.
4. The User is able to select their personal TimeZone from their "My Location" section, this then directly affects what they can and cant see in the magazine.  Unfortunately this was causing too much confusion and potential for confusion; and thus was removed. By default, the network now uses the TimeZone that is defined by the owner in the admin system.
   

If you have any questions; please feel free to post them in the forum here at owners or on http://getsatisfaction.com/socialgo. and rather not PM me, that way we can deal with your questions in the open and thereby helping other Network Owners.

Regards

Ross C

Last night, Charles Delamain, the SocialGO/Bright Things COO was killed in a traffic accident. He was a valued member of the team, a dear friend and a devoted family man and his contribution will be sorely missed. 

The entire SocialGO team send our deep condolences to his family and friends. 

Dominic Wheatley, CEO commented: ‘Charles was a dear friend whom I had known since we were at school. He loved life and lived it to the full. Charles was courageous, loyal and gifted. He excelled at so many things – as a soldier, husband, father, businessman and friend to so many. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him and our thoughts and prayers go to his family. ‘

Rest in peace. 

You probably sick of us saying this, but we have put in a load of new servers overnight.  To do so we had to take the networks down for a period - sorry.

So far we are seeing good speed increases.  Let's see what happens when we hit peak times later on.

Stivi

Hello everyone. In the past 48 hours the service has experienced an unprecedented increase in traffic which has caused quite a few problems for network owners and users alike. We are working to resolve the upload image and photos issue which is the main problem at the moment.

In addition, we are upgrading our server infrastructure in the next few days to provide us with greater bandwidth.

Again, I would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused to your networks and your members. We are working round the clock to resolve the situation so stay tuned here for more updates.

As the traffic continues to grow at an unbelievable pace we are aware that many networks experiancing slow page loads at peak times. We are working on this 24 hours a day, scaling and optimizing the system during BETA to cope with the growth.

During the next day or so we will be adding a new bank of servers and there will be some downtime as the core servers are upgraded.

Thanks again for your patience!