Forum Invite Tool?

[Chris of Arabia]

Does the forum have a way of inviting potential members built into it anywhere? I may be able to draw in one or two interested parties, but would like to do it using a tool here.

[Terri]

I've not heard of such a tool. Something like an auto-email type of invite? I'm not going to say it's not here, but I do know I've not typed up anything for such an email, and I'm guessing it's something you'd have to personalize to fit your forum.

Karissa might know more.

[Karissa]

uh....

[Terri]

uh....
Right. :lol:

Maybe the old fashioned approach, Chris? Regular email? With a mention of our Critique forum, of course. :camera:

[Karissa]

I'll keep an eye out... check out vbs site and see if they have anything.

[Chris of Arabia]

Right. :lol:

Maybe the old fashioned approach, Chris? Regular email? With a mention of our Critique forum, of course. :camera:

Yes, I could do that I suppose. Just thought it might be nice to be able to issue a nice standardised invite with an appropriate 'corporate' message in it - a bit of an Amazon style "XYZ thought you would be interested in this" type approach. Chances are though that the spammers would get hold of it.

[Terri]

Yes, I could do that I suppose. Just thought it might be nice to be able to issue a nice standardised invite with an appropriate 'corporate' message in it - a bit of an Amazon style "XYZ thought you would be interested in this" type approach. Chances are though that the spammers would get hold of it.You know, I recently tried to copy the logo just to paste it on my website, but it didn't go over and I'm too dumb to figure out the coding snag involved. But if Karissa could make that a proper file for us, we could get it out there whenever we wanted.

Karissa's not busy.... :p

[Karissa]

http://thephotobeat.com/forum/images/logoweb.gif
(http://thephotobeat.com/forum/images/logoweb.gif)

[Terri]

:cheer:

[Karissa]

http://www.thephotobeat.com/forum/images/catlover/catlover_logo.gif

[Terri]

:cheer: :cheer:

Looks even better!

[Karissa]

The second one has a background on it so... if it means that much I can try and do a better job. I just grabbed the links from the forum themes.... was lazy.

[Terri]

The second one has a background on it so... if it means that much I can try and do a better job. I just grabbed the links from the forum themes.... was lazy.Personally, I just wanted something that would hold a link for my blog, and this worked fine.

We'll let Chris tell us if he'd like something more refined. ;)

[Chiller]

I will be remodelling my links page soon on my site, but can I just down load this, and resize it for a thumbnail, so I can create the html to host it? Just requesting your permission. :twisted:

[Chris of Arabia]

I wouldn't recognised refined if it ravished me with a slightly worn baseball bat - I can work with them just fine. I'll probably shrink one down a bit for a Group avatar.

[Karissa]

Yeah you guys, have at it. Thanks for asking.

[Chiller]

Yeah you guys, have at it. Thanks for asking.
Thanks K. Can I add a zombie hanging off the end too. :lol:

[Terri]

Thanks K. Can I add a zombie hanging off the end too. :lol:Nutter. :p

[Karissa]

Nice Chiller... nice... See above comment...

[Chris of Arabia]

Karissa,

I've set the basic flickr group up as invite only for the moment, but I'm having a little problem with the avatar. This has to be at 48x48px - unfortunately, the logos won't stand that sort of compression. I'm going to create something using just the words "The Photo Beat", but need to know what font you used for the ones above - I can do the colours using the colour picker in PS.

Help!

[Chris of Arabia]

OK, not sure how many flickr users we have on here at the moment (I know of myself and Corinna), but I've set up the group as an 'invite only' affair with a limit of 5 images uploaded per day.

Before I start inviting other potential members to it (I've got 400+ contacts I can start with), how many here would like to participate and if so, what's your flickr ID? I'd like to get some images in, say over the next week, before I start mass marketing. The idea is that we get the best of our images in there, so that our target audience can see what we are all about. If anyone else wants to join flickr as well, that would be a great way to help get the word around.

The address --> ThePhotoBeat (http://www.flickr.com/groups/thephotobeat/)

[Karissa]

Gill Sans MT

Anything else I can help with?

[Chris of Arabia]

Nothing at the moment, unless you have a flickr account you want to tell me about... :lol:

[Chris of Arabia]

How does this look?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3355/buddyicons/1047200@N21.jpg?1236342949

flickr has trashed the resolution a bit, but it should do.

[Karissa]

Maybe center the text? Other than that... works for me.

[Chris of Arabia]

Left aligned and moved to the middle or totally centred?

[Chris of Arabia]

Like this?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3355/buddyicons/1047200@N21.jpg?1236345141

[Overread]

Well I'll put my name down:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24534478@N04/
:)
oh as a point it seems that non-members can't view the image pool - might deter some from asking to join if they can't see the contents (of course only members here are can join, but if they see nothing on the flickr they might think there is nothing on the forum too)

[Chris of Arabia]

OK, I've added you to my contacts, but you need to do the same for me before I can invite you in (bizarre flickr rules). Check what you can see now, as there was nothing loaded up until 2 minutes ago. The privacy settings allow anyone to view, but only to join if you've been invited.

[Terri]

Should it be made a public group, then? :scratch: I don't do flickr, so I'm ignorant. It seems that an open forum would be more conducive to getting people to join and then routed over here, which is the main purpose.

I'm just asking...if you have 400 contacts that's also pretty good. :lol:

Regardless, I will make a point of joining and I'll post of bunch of alt stuff.

[Chris of Arabia]

I thought I'd start with a little control initially, just to see if I could get some of the better photographers to sign up. It can be opened up further once I've got some signs of life in there

[MissMia]

I'm on Flickr - Christina.Mae :big grin:

[Chris of Arabia]

OK, post away then

[Karissa]

Like this?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3355/buddyicons/1047200@N21.jpg?1236345141
Think that looks much better. What if you put the little film canister in it? Like on the left and the words can type over it?

[Chris of Arabia]

You're determined to test my PS skills here aren't you...

[Chris of Arabia]

OK, I sent a bunch of invites out today and the group has grown a little (10 new members), one of whom has already signed up here. Now we are seeing a few more around the place, I'll open the group up so that it's not invite only. Would be good if a few more images were posted in there though to boost its image a little.

[Terri]

OK, I sent a bunch of invites out today and the group has grown a little (10 new members), one of whom has already signed up here. Now we are seeing a few more around the place, I'll open the group up so that it's not invite only. Would be good if a few more images were posted in there though to boost its image a little.Chris, that's fantastic! Thanks for the help there. Crossing my fingers it helps us grow. :)

[Chris of Arabia]

Try this search --> ThePhotoBeat (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=thephotobeat&btnG=Search&meta=) at Google. Seems the flickr group is very well placed, with almost no effort at all.