URNA 2.0
July 29 – Looks like the date for the beta is now August 10. We should start testing and if everything goes well, will go live two weeks later. I will provide more updates once the beta is live.
June 16 – had the 2nd meeting to review progress on the update. My sense is that the coders are a little behind schedule. We did have a good discussion on enhancements such as integrating other payment options (eg, PayPal) into the site.
June 8 – I met with the site designers this week. They have the basic layout for the site done, and are working on the underlying code. It sounds like they may be a little behind schedule, but are still targeting July for the site update.
May 5 – Also, someone asked “who is doing the work”. A transgender owned company TransTech Social is the main contractor and one of the members here is acting as my project engineer. I want to keep the money in our community as much as is possible.
April 28 Update – Today signed the agreement to overhaul the site. The list below are the goals and should be part of the new urnotalone.com baring unforeseen issues/problems. The new site and chat should be ready in about 2 months, and the mobile version in 4 months.
Pam
PS: here is a quick link to PayPal
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I am fielding many questions about “what’s next” for URNA? Overall, the vision for URNA is to be a portal for the Trans Community. We don’t plan on selling merchandise but will sell advertisements. The intent is to complement not compete with other sites that support the transgender community.
The decision is not final but hope to start on an overall update to the site very soon. A lot of the underlying code needs to be brought up to date which should enhance the user experience and insure compatibility with the latest versions of all popular browsers. Both the main site and the chat client will be updated as part of this effort.
Though not a complete list, here are some of the enhancements being considered for 2.0:
1. URNA Front Page – Like the newspapers of old, showcasing of content, both original and web links to other sites. In addition to providing links to topics of interest to the transgender community, we hope to have several regular contributors discussing varied topics such as fashion, news, politics, self-help, etc. URNA Front Page will be open to everyone. Viewing of profiles without a membership will be more restricted. 100% site access will require a Gold or Gold+ membership.
2. URNA Forum – chat can be a wonderful social experience, but often is not the best venue for an in depth discussion of real life topics. URNA will start a moderated forum as a new feature. Access will be limited to members with at least Bronze profiles.
3. URNA Chat – an upgraded version that has features such as movable pop out windows for private conversations, more profile information without opening a profile, more emoticons, and others features while improving compatibility with existing browsers. Chat will still be available for free to all members with at least a Bronze profile (no profile pix). However, completed profiles will be required, but there will be options to hide sensitive information such as location.
4. URNA Dates – a way to meet people in a safe and secure manner. Double blind email (all email will be double blind as default, will be an option for Gold), short video introductions, expanded profiles, a rating system that is positive, all intended to help bring people together. URNA Dates (a working title) will be a feature of Gold Subscriptions.
5. URNA Communities – semi autonomous directed pages within URNA for local tg groups with the ability to post local announcements, articles, group pics, etc, as a free service.
More later…