Now & the Future

In response to the recent feedbacks/suggestions we’ve received via here and here as well as the contact form.

I’d like to share more things about FlameUp with our growing userbase.

1. FlameUp is completely self-funded right now and consists of a very small team at this point based in NYC but we’re likely to have more people join the very soon once we’re in full gear.  We do have moderators and also a designer working on the project still, but we’re definitely looking for coders which we’re lacking, if you’re experienced and want to join the team, please use the contact form here.
2. The site was originally designed/coded by personal friends but we ended up outsourcing the project to a 10+ team and so far they’ve done a great job building this from ground up in PHP5/MySQL5 with CSS/Ajax of course.
3. Our vision is to create a space where everyone can share and discuss their thoughts openly and at the same time let some steam out and relax after ranting/commenting/flaming others on the website.

Being a full time college student, it is definitely much harder for me to be able to work full-time on the project but we’re definitely making progress. Over the course of the next few months, we’ll be doing mainly 5-10 things to improve FlameUp, but they will not be small tasks.

Originally we built the site around the way DIGG works, but the site is so different at the end of the day that now we have a system/site up, we’ll definitely be focusing more on differentiating ourself and adding new features. Below are the main things we’ll be focusing on aside from fixing bugs/layout issues as we move on.

1. Homepage with better customizations / usability for users whether logged in or not, and more area/space for featured rants vs uservoted rants.
2. Commenting system that moves a little away from the simple digg commenting like system we have implemented right now but one that encourages more discussion and even easier to follow and to join the discussion.
3. Better navigation/browsing of rants by categories, tags and so on, one that is more user-friendly and clear. Currently you can using the “FILTER” in the Browse page but it is a bit advanced or hard to find.
4. Minifeed / Bookmark rants that you want to keep track, that’s more functional and accessible than favorites option, possibly by making the home page more personalized by having your bookmarked posts display there, and having rants annotated when responded to after your last comment. That way you can keep track of the discussions you’re part of.
5. More style = More attitude. We’ll definitely be doing things here and there to add more differentiations and try to move ourselves away from the digg similarities that we’ve originally built around. We are original but we want to give our users the feel that we’re not just original in the “content/userbase” we have, but also the “style/feel” that we have.
6. Recent Activity / Profile page definitely needs more improvements and we’ll really have to look into it more and work on it. Our original design was very different but we ended up in a way following digg’s layout as it was much easier/quicker to get the “BETA” out that way as we were on a restricted time frame to get this done and the beta out due to the election. We’ll definitely be spending more time on it as that is also what we consider important.
7. Ranting & Posting will also be improved in the sense we will look into adding (1) spellchecker (2) encourage attaching images/videos which users do not embrace right now (3) Try to add filters so that rants with all “CAPS” or 1 word rants gets filtered out / disapproved before they even get submitted. (4) A timed option to edit all rants / comments. (5) Increase more filters/limits for anonymous users so they can’t spam.
8. Friends / Networking should be easier and also encouraged more with some incentives, maybe having groups / networks in flameup for users with common feelings / anger / views on issues etc.. would be a good start. We’ll look into this more and see what is possible and what we can do.

I think the 8 things above is what we’ll be concentrating on over the next few months besides debugging current bugs and moderating the site of course. We’ll continue to keep everyone updated but please remember, if you have suggestions, please contact us using the CONTACT FORM or just post a RANT like many users did, believe me, we read it. If I miss it, a moderator will see it and notify everyone.

Anyhow, thanks for everyones support so far, cya for now!

Just saw an article recently that caught my attention, and I think it describes FlameUp much better than I can even.. so here it is an excerpt

Economy? Bailout? Credit Crunch?

Or maybe it’s about the guy who cut you off on the highway, the rude customer service rep, or the long wait at the doctor’s office.

Then again, it could be the guy who didn’t call you, the sorority which didn’t pledge you, or the professor who gave you a low grade.

If life is throwing you curve balls or you’re just plain fed up, then take your rant and head to FlameUp.com where you can rant, rave, have a tantrum or pitch a fit.

And in the name of social media, others can comment on your tirade.  If there’s agreement you’re being petty, off point, or perhaps acting spoiled, readers can “cool you down.”

If your rant strikes a chord people vote for popular flame ups, thereby “burning” your post. Read More

Onto other news, flameup just hit the frontpage on digg!

Below is the PR for FlameUp, thought I’d post it here.

NEW YORK, October 8, 2008 – If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all—or so said your mother. But with today’s launch of FlameUp (http://www.flameup.com), you are finally encouraged to let out your inner flame. After all, your rant might just get you burned, and that’s a good thing.

FlameUp, which mirrors the up-voting or down-voting pattern of popular social bookmaking sites, allows users to write about what’s bothering them most, and let the community vote on it, or “Burn” it. As each rant gets more Burns, it rises to the top of the rant list—making the angry tirade visible to more members of the community. The most highly Burned rants eventually reach the homepage of FlameUp.com where they receive the most attention. On the same token, unpopular rants can be Cooled, which lowers their visibility and sends them lower on the list.

“It’s as if we are slowly unscrewing the nozzle on the steam engine that is the Web. There’s so much energy and heat people have to release—they just need to be given the opportunity, especially in times like these,” said John Xie, founder of the site, a college student studying entrepreneurship at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. “After putting the site up for debugging and testing, traffic started growing and the rants would not stop—from the war to abortion to the bailout, people are genuinely looking to scream at somebody. FlameUp is a platform that literally supports and encourages large-scale Internet flame wars. Have we outdone ourselves with this, or what?”

There’s no censor to stop you from using every four letter word in the dictionary. Expletives are welcome, but that misses the point entirely, says Xie. It’s not about how you say it, but instead what you are trying to say.

“The best received rants on the site are those with genuine substance or emotional appeal that gets our visitors thinking, and hopefully, outraged themselves. The point here isn’t to swear as much as you can and hit submit; we want a genuine platform to release anger and make a statement in a forum that encourages blunt and frank discussion,” he said. “It’s therapeutic.”

In the rich spirit of social networking, FlameUp allows registered users to interact through the site. Registered users can add other users as friends and comment on each others’ rants.

So tell your boss, tell the candidates, and tell the world how you really feel about them—release some stress, light your fuse, and vent your anger today at http://www.flameup.com. Let the Flaming Begin.

We just had a quick video made for FlameUp. Not too fancy but hopefully it’ll grab some attention and also be helpful for users trying to figure out how to use FlameUp.com

The past few weeks we’ve been nailing many small bugs on the site. From fixing small layout issues here and there with the profile pages, to resolving functionality issues in the backend and more, things have been overall going very steadily and better than I had imagined.

One rant posted by a user of our site was promoted virally a bit for it’s uniqueness and being so upfront and blunt. It received a lot of attention: http://www.flameup.com/life/Please_G_d_Make_Obama_Lose_91975

Over the course of the next few weeks, we’ll be doing more and more viral marketing. By end of november we should have our set of our buzz-marketing freebies ready and we will be handing these out on the streets in the northeastern metropolitan areas of the US. More information to come then so stay in touch and Flame Away!

Feel free to join the www.FlameUp.com group on Facebook to help spread the word at http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46481722216

Note this is an Open Group, so help spread the word!

Today FlameUp was featured in Boston Herald’s business column and we’re very happy to see that.

Over the past few days we’ve been working very hard on debugging the rest of the site and mainly focusing on the PROFILE Area and the backend functionalities. We’ll be providing more update as things progress but for time being, below is the link to the article!

http://bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1122651

Today is the launch of FlameUp’s open beta. We will be working on any additional bugs and features left on the project before taking it out of beta and hopefully that will be within the next two to three months.

In the mean time, rant/flame away!

Hi

Welcome to the FlameUp Blog!
We’ll be posting regular updates relating to flameup.com and also asking for feedback and suggestions for our upcoming updates and much more!

Will keep everyone updated.

Thank you.