HappyTC: Info

We’ve conformed to Facebook’s changes, so feeds should work again — you’ll get game reminders in your Facebook news feeds. (Facebook certainly doesn’t make things easy for outside applications… )

You can also once again show your HappyTC teams on your Facebook profile (you have the option of either putting them on your “Wall and Info Tab” (aka profile) or your “Boxes Tab”. Open the HappyTC app on Facebook, and click “Add to Profile“:

Add your teams to your Facebook profile!

Another minor update (oft-requested): bulletins — those little notes you can post on your team schedule at the right hand side — now expire after three months. (That is the default; it can be configured differently for each team.)

And: take our quick survey! (Should we add Twitter feeds to HappyTC??)

Accompanying yesterday’s update, when creating a new team you can specify the team’s sport.

(This is optional, and has no effect on how HappyTC works… just means that the ads you see when using HappyTC — which, when clicked, help support HappyTC operations — will be more relevant to your sport.)

Also, we’re trying out sending system status and “what’s new” updates via Twitter (bandwagon jumpers that we are).

Each team’s sport is now recorded… there’s no difference in how HappyTC works (still the same simple, what-you-see-is-what-you-get HappyTC as always). But certain ads will now be more relevant to your sport — if you’re a pro underwater basket weaver, last thing you want to see is ads targeting co-ed naked jello wrestlers. (Last thing anyone wants to see, come to think of it

HappyTC has been moved to the new, beefed up server. Everything is running smoothly.

The HappyTC server is being upgraded today, as we speak. We’re being moved to a bigger, faster, more powerful machine: yay.

There may be a brief period of unavailability as a result. We’re actively monitoring, and expect to have service restored very quickly.

In early October Facebook made some changes to how other sites (like HappyTC) can send updates to the “Friend Feed” etc. As a result certain HappyTC actions that used to produce a Facebook update no longer do.

We have looked into the changes required to use Facebook’s new method, and frankly at the moment it isn’t worth the effort. As well, Facebook will probably change the method again anyway. Those Facebook updates are not a critical part of HappyTC, so we trust that most HappyTC/Facebook users will not even notice.

HappyTC corporate HQ has undergone its move, and normal customer service response times have been restored.

HappyTC Corporate HQ is moving locations in the approaching week.

There should be no effect on service since the webservers and other systems are NOT affected (they remain safely in the data centre).

However, our support staff and developers may not be able to answer questions as promptly as usual. We appreciate your patience.

Just released a minor enhancement to the HappyTC Facebook app, per GrSc’s suggestion: it now shows your opponent, location, and game notes on your Facebook profile (and on the HappyTC Facebook app “canvas” page itself).

New stuff…

A bunch of enhancements to how players can be contacted:

• Custom subject line (this is a much requested feature, too many people to credit).
• Option to send emails “High Importance”.
• Players can now contact all players (both who click to sign in, and those who have registered with user ID and password).

Enhancements to how LeagueRunner iCalendar info is used (using new stuff added to the LeagueRunner back-end by RiKr at TUC.org):

• The link/URL to the field location map is now included. (Many have requested this; thanks to RiKr for making that info available in the iCalendar feed.)
• The shirt colour of the opposing team (if known) is included too. Nice!
• Tightened up the synchronization reports a bit (reduced wordiness).

Some misc clean-up too:

• Emails now show who actually sent them (instead of always naming the captain… which was a hold-over from the old days, when only captains could contact the team).
• The “more info” links are now better highlighted when there’s stuff to see (FaNa mentioned).
• A bunch of wording tidy-ups.
• Tune up how email addresses are spam-proofed (RiKr’s shout).