My Pastime2011-05-06T23:03:21+02:00http://blog.my-pasti.me/Jeff Gardnerjeff@my-pasti.meNew features2011-05-02T00:00:00+02:00http://blog.my-pasti.me/2011/05/02/new-features<p>After many slow months of progress here at My Pastime HQ (mostly due to ski season), I’m back on the horse. I’ve substantially reworked some of the under the hood stuff in My Pastime with the aim of making the app quicker and lighter. It’s been a real pleasure to get to refactor a bunch of crap code that I wrote at the very beginning. But that’s not all I’ve been working on. In the last month I’ve launched a handful of new features that should help My Pastime become a little more community and a little less writing in your diary by yourself.</p>
<h3>Follow me! Follow you!</h3>
<p>The first major feature is the ability to follow users. If you’ve used <a href="http://twitter.com">Twitter</a> you will immediately know what I’m talking about, if you’ve used <a href="http://facebook.com">facebook</a> it’s just like friending someone on facebook. If you haven’t used either of those, well where have you been these last few years?! The point of following is that as the user base grows it’s going to become more and more important to be able to filter the stream of logs so that you can see only the ones that you want to see at any given time. I hear you, we’re not there yet, but let’s all remember what <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097351/">Field of Dreams</a> taught us. If you build it, they will come.</p>
<h3>I <3 you.</h3>
<p>Most of you should have, by now, seen the little heart icons in the top right corner of each log. If you like a post, show some love and click the heart.</p>
<h3>Conversation</h3>
<p>Commenting is another of the very large features that I’ve added recently. You can now leave a note on anyones log or even respond to another person’s comment on any log. I hope people will use this feature to discuss beta, to heckle, to encourage and generally build a conversation around the activities that we do.</p>
<h3>Insomma</h3>
<p>I would be appreciative if all you users went out there and spread the word about <a href="http://my-pasti.me">My Pastime</a>! Or head on over to our <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mypastime">facebook page</a> and show your support by liking us or leave us a note! And as always, get out there on the trail, in the mountains or just in your own backyard and have fun!</p>
In the beginning2011-05-01T00:00:00+02:00http://blog.my-pasti.me/2011/05/01/in-the-beginning<p>Well here we are, just over a year after the first commit to the My Pastime repository. And what started out as a simple app to help me learn some of the more in-depth features and functions of Ruby on Rails is now a full fledged activity tracker! It’s been a really fun ride and something that I look forward to working on every chance I get.</p>
<p>Here’s to many more years to come!</p>