1438 members

Since the last newsletter membership of the site has grown beyond one thousand members and the rate of numbers joining has reached (at one point) more than one hundred a week. If you haven't visited for a while maybe its time to have another look around.

New features

In the next two weeks we will be launching some new additions to the search feature. First of all will be the ability to order your searches by the newest members first. Members had asked for this and we thought this was a good feature to have. The second search addition will be combined with a new feature related to your profiles. Members were expressing their frustration that people were not filling in their profiles and they wanted to filter these out of their searches. We have designed a ranking system for profiles. A profile with all multiple-choice questions answered, all essays complete and two approved photos will have a rank of 100%. Those with less complete will have a lower rank. You will be able to see what your rank is by checking in your profile area. We have estimated rankings initially but if you go into your profile and save it then the rank will be corrected.
With rankings you will be able to order your searches by most-complete first. There will be a big incentive to complete all your profile as members with a low rank are unlikely to be emailed as they will always be at the bottom of peoples search results. We can't understand why members would want to join a site like this, not complete a profile and still expect to receive emails but there you go...

Full subscription membership

Now that we have reached a reasonable number of members we have begun to start charging for membership of the site. The number of enquiries, and the volume of work necessary to keep the site running has meant that we needed to do this at this point in time. Many of you, as your free trials have run out, have begun to pay for full membership. We have found this very encouraging and we have received excellent feedback. We have pitched our prices as attractively as possible starting with £3 for 12 days of membership (so if you have run out of free time you can easily re-activate your membership and have a look around - Click here to do this). Alternatively, when your trial period runs out you will be taken to the payment page next time you log in. We will also be switching from Paypal to Protx (in association with Barclaycard Merchant Services) as our means of online payment which will mean a quicker and easier payment process for members. This will be happening in about a week.

Take Care,

Richard and Jane