Hello* is this thing on?

October 9th, 2009

Well… Over the past few days we’ve been caught in an avalanche of data importing, exporting, reloading, wrapping, unwrapping, hijinxing and rethinking… you name it. In the process of squeezing Brightkite 1.0 through the flux capacitor we learned humbling lessons in what can go wrong. We understand some of you are frustrated and we apologize. For everyone else, thanks for having patience and faith, 2.0 is back up.

So we’ve already proven we’re not perfect (there we said it) and moving forward there will be some minor bugs that we’ll address (as quickly as we can). As for the major issues that brought the maintenance screen abruptly back up, those have been solved.

We are working on a range of known issues – here are some of the first one’s you’ll see fixed:

- Mobile web enhancements

- Email fixes

- Ability to track and untrack threads of comments

- Inviting new friends

- Maps

- Editing Favorite Places (formerly Placemarks)

Please have a look round the new service, and then tell us what you think – both good and bad. If you have comments or ideas, then post them here.

Yours humbly,

The Brightkite team

Share

Posted by Brady Becker at 11:22 AM in Product

Comments (25)

related posts START related posts END

Follow the discussion

Comments (25)

Sort by: Date Rating Last Activity

Kathleen Anderson

367 weeks ago

Welcome back! You were missed!

Wondering what's happened to the "Visited Places" feature? Is it gone for good?

Report

2 replies · active 367 weeks ago

Lesley

38p

367 weeks ago

Hi Kathleen,

No, it's not gone for good, it will be back. :)

Report

fowgre

367 weeks ago

Just having my first look around so I'll reserve any definitive opinion for later. My first impression is that the check-in is more convoluted than it used to be. And where are the nicknames that I assigned to my placemarks? It's not as easy now to differentiate, for example, between the Coffee Culture on Dundas Street here in London and the one that's on Richmond Street. Give me back my CC1 and CC2 nicks! LOL

Also, what's this intensedebate/OpenID crap if I want to leave you a comment? I'm already logged in with my Brightkite ID!

Report

Otto

20p

367 weeks ago

IT'S STILL BROKEN.

It's impossible to login, the email password reset doesn't work, a text message for reset never comes through, Facebook connect doesn't work.

There's no way to actually use the site, at all.

Next time, check to make sure it's working BEFORE you make claims like this, eh?

Report

2 replies · active 367 weeks ago

xstex

367 weeks ago

Yeah they really should make sure its fine for you before they make claims ay? Because you do pay to use the site....oh wait.

Report

-1

Arthur

367 weeks ago

You arrogant asshole!

Paying or not paying does not change anything.

THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT

Report

Otto

20p

367 weeks ago

No, they should really fix it before posting "hey, we fixed it", in order to avoid looking like incompetent fools.

Yes, they have it working now, but it should have been working before this post was made.

Report

khalil

367 weeks ago

thats why u should invite some people to do beta testing

Report

Liz

367 weeks ago

I can't save my friends as trusted friends any more. Now, we don't get each others exact locations if our profiles are private. What's up with that?

Report

pfjk

20p

367 weeks ago

I'm very pleased the Brightkite is back now. Yesterday was big celebration with my BK friends.

We know all of us are not perfect, and I have a lot of wish list. (generally, about to back familiar older ver features) So, I'll place my suggestion to the feed-back section.

Anyway, welcome-back. I missed you a lot!

Report

KDZ

367 weeks ago

Privacy settings are extremely confusing. I came back to see some of the enhancements, but was really confused on where to configure my overall privacy settings. It doesn't look like there's a way to separate privacy settings for content and location, which is a big disappointment. I want to share my location with my friends, but everyone else can see what I'm typing. Doesn't look like there's a way to do that.

Report

Ross LaRocco

36p

367 weeks ago

All good here except the $Place $City etc. format isn't sync'ing with my Brightkite settings to Twitter.

Report

Robyn

367 weeks ago

Happy to see you back with humble hearts and open minds. I've messaged a few observations to @lanky (have not heard back), and will just keep sending things as I see them. The new changes thus far will certainly change the frequency and way I use the site, but I'll stick with it thru the transition time. I still believe the next trend will be in location based sites, and right now you are one of the pioneers (though not the only one out there). Brightkite still has great potential, and listening to the user base will take you a lot farther. My biggest advice is to enlist a bigger, more neutral beta group and have them rip it to shreds privately and thoroughly and work out the kinks before a new rollout. Also, would like the ability to email support directly, rather than post every thought here.

Report

tomconline

367 weeks ago

Will we get a notification when some of these things are fixed?

Report

youngck

367 weeks ago

The former placemarks feature now does not work on the blackberry mykite app. As a result I have to enter the address of the places I frequent instead of using the saved placemarks.

Report

3 replies · active 367 weeks ago

challgren

367 weeks ago

youngck I am aware of that not working. I have a pending release coming out soon but I'm waiting for these fixes to happen before I do a release.

Report

challgren

367 weeks ago

I am aware of the issues with myKite and have been working on a fix but until the site stabalizes I cannot release it due to the constant changes. Follow @myKite on BK and @myKiteapp on twitter for all the latest news.

Report

emilycatherine

367 weeks ago

I'm having issues with-

- SMS checkin/post success & confirmation. (this was an issue prior to 2.0)

- shortcut nicknames for favorites being taken literally - ex. "ga" name for Green Acres Market placemark prompting 'Are you sure you want to check in in Georgia?' (also an old & intermittent problem)

- website place searches turning up nonsense (definitely new)

Are [custom names] coming back? Attempting to use them seems to be one of the causes of the absolutely and inexplicably wrong search results. Custom names are one of the things that make Brightkite so much fun.

Report

2 replies · active 367 weeks ago

Brady Becker

52p

367 weeks ago

Hi Emilycatherine.

Thanks for reporting the bugs.

Custom names are in 2.0 but are now in the UI. When you pick a place choose "not in the list?" at the bottom of the list. You can then add your a place with a custom name.

Report

emilycatherine

11p

367 weeks ago

Brady,

I tried this. The name didn't appear on the place; just the address.

I assumed the name I entered was assigned as the text I would enter to check in there. I tried it again and it worked.

Often I would create placemarks while on a computer after locating and before going out to new places, allowing me to check in via SMS with the shortcut alias when I get there. This doesn't seem to be possible, as the popup method you describe doesn't allow you to create or favorite a place until *after* you have checked in.

BTW, you guys know that /web/20101124020608/http://brightkite.com/ STILL doesn't work, right? This error just baffles me! I know login was redirecting to /objects to sidestep it, but it isn't any longer.

Report

grayle

367 weeks ago

i can't check-in by texting from my phone! tried deleting the settings and starting over, but i'm not even receiving the confirmation code. yes i did use the country prefix, and this isn't the first time brightkite broke down on me... =( very sad now.

Report

Seika

21p

367 weeks ago

Still can’t login to Brightkite. Is it still down?

There seems to be new post according to the homepage though.

Report

curtis

367 weeks ago

Anyone else getting blank texts from brightkite? Seems I end up getting two blank texts back to back every hour or so.

Seems the majority of SMS functionality got borked with the update...Pity as that's the only way I interact with BK. Oh well, one less social network to mess with until it gets fixed.

Report

Ross

367 weeks ago

None of my updates/photos are being pushed to Facebook or Twitter. I've toggled the settings off then back on, re-saved etc. Just a heads up. I'm sure it'll all get sorted out.