We are excited to release a complete mobile version of Christian Connection, which has been designed to work with the most popular smart phones.

In particular, we have tested this on iPhone, BlackBerry and Android. We will be making ongoing improvements to the mobile views but you can start using them today.

To try out the site on your phone, simply launch your browser on your mobile phone and logon to www.christianconnection.com.au.

You can find the login link at the bottom of the homepage.

Simplified Mailbox Design

We’ve been hearing that since the changes to the mailbox last month, people feel their mailbox is overrun with waves. Last month we added the ability to reply to a wave with a message, direct from the Inbox. However this made waves more prominent than conversations. The changes have 3 benefits:

1. Conversations are more visually prominent, so your Inbox doesn’t feel overrun with waves.
2. When you click on a new wave in your Inbox, it is marked as ‘read’, helping to identify waves you have already seen.
3. You can still respond to a wave with a message or by waving back from the conversation view.

We have removed much of the visual noise on the Inbox and Conversation views, so you can focus more on reading your messages. We have replaced the ‘bubble’ design on the Inbox with a cleaner, simplified layout. Similarly, the Conversation view has been simplified; in particular the ‘Sent’ and ‘Read’ dates have been removed at first glance. Simply move your mouse over the message to reveal these dates.

We continue to look at ways to improve members experience on the site and we have a few more ideas, which we’re currently exploring.

There were a few problems with the upgrade but everything is now working and you should be able to access your mail. Some members may have seen duplicate waves or waves they sent appearing in their inbox. All these issues are now fixed.

Some members received email or SMS notifications for old messages. This was a mistake and we’re really sorry for the confusion.

Why the changes?
One of the most frequent things we hear from members is their frustration in not receiving a response from waves and emails. It is now possible to reply to a wave from your inbox; this should encourage more people to respond to messages. The number of unread messages now includes waves that haven’t been responded to.

You can read more about the changes to the mailbox here

We have some other changes to the mailbox in the pipeline and today’s relaunch will help set the direction for the future.

Additions and improvements made this week:

• Added auto-scaling monitor to boost server power at busy times
• Enabled suggested profiles on member home page
• Enabled expanded results in Search & Match
• Added multiple asset hosts to speed up page load times

Here are some of the fixes we’ve made:

• Set matches email gender to opposite gender always
• Corrected end date in age search
• Remove un-needed params from anonymous searches
• Fixed error message on forgot password form if submitting an incorrect email address

Site Activity for this week:

925 emails sent this week
1,200 waves sent this week
202 new photos uploaded this week
151 new members joined this week

• Members with profile photos appear in match emails by default
• Improved profile suggestions on profile completion pages
• Allow users to read messages from hidden members
• Changed wording on signup form to encourage new joiners to signup with correct email address

Site Activity for this week:

672 emails sent this week
912 waves sent this week
128 new photos uploaded this week
80 new members joined this week

• Allow profile members to read emails (on a trial basis)
• Added a mobile optimised version of mailbox and profile pages
• Included specific styles for iPhone
• Allow profile members to delete waves and messages
• Send profile URL in wave text message alerts
• Added improvements to fraud/scammer detection system

Fixes:

• Fixed bug stopping profile users from deleting messages
• Allow public search results to be displayed if no parameters supplied
• Corrected error when posting blank reply to boards
• Added missing 301 redirects for old links
• Fixed a bug in forgot password email
• Improved tests for mailbox and lists

Site Activity for this week:

915 emails sent this week
1506 waves sent this week
98 new photos uploaded this week
109 new members joined this week

Each time you receive a new message or wave in your inbox we’ll send you a text message to let you know. Follow the link in the message to visit your mailbox straight on your phone. We have also optimised the site to make it easy to read on mobile devices – and the best part is, it’s free!

If you haven’t yet filled in your mobile phone number, why not do this now in your account settings. It’ll take about a minute! If you have given us your mobile number in the past then there’s nothing more you need to do – we have switched text message notifications on for your account by default. If you would prefer not to receive text notifications, you can turn this off in your account settings.

We’re the only Christian dating site to offer this service (as far as we know!) We hope you enjoy this new feature and if you have any questions please contact us.

• Added tips for favourites/fans/hidden/blocked lists
• Added new success story and photo. “Early last year I joined CC hoping to meet more Christian men – I felt like there weren’t any single guys who loved God in my life. Each day was eat, work, gym, work, eat, sleep…”
• Added “Full” gold bar for full members so that all members can see who has a full account
• Allow non-paying visible members to post on the boards
• Allow user to keep their favourites private if they wish. Added an option for this to the ‘Your Account‘  page.
• Add information on the subscriptions page for members without a credit/debit card.
• Go straight to profile after logging in from a public profile page

Fixes:

• Corrected help/contact links on old members area
• Fixed a bug that was allowing double posts on the boards. New posts now jump to bottom of last page
• Fixed links to search pages to ensure tabs are highlighted
• Fixed an Internet Explorer bug where suggestions were not appearing on profile completion page
• Fixed a bug that was removing your selected gender selection in the quicksearch
• Fixed bug where a long username was breaking the layout in profile block on members area
• Fixed a bug where the favourites count on the Members Area was including hidden profiles or closed accounts
• Fixed problem with people signing up with the wrong gender after performing a public search
• Fixed keyword search bug
• Fixed bug that was allowing users to pay twice in error on the subscription page. Made new payments view clearer by improving indentations and moving payment summary.

Site Activity for this week:

634 emails sent this week
699 waves sent this week
97 new photos uploaded this week
109 new members joined this week

• Added a new success story “Started talking via emails with another member in my area in August last year. Eventually went out for a meal together which ultimately led to us getting married in March. God is good! – Michelle”
• Added ‘View my board posts’ link to the profile page to allow members to view their own board posts
• Added more power to the chat to improve response time
• Changed distance options in search to start at 10km with 20km increments
• Improved the error messages in the mailbox to make them easier to understand
• Improved the weekly matches emails so they match your search preferences more closely
• Include members from a wider search area in expanded search results

Fixes:

• Fixed a bug that was sending matches emails to users who have closed their account
• Fixed problem where using multiple checkboxes on the search page caused other restrictions (such as age) to be ignored
• Fixed a bug that was sending users more than one email confirmation email

Site Activity for this week:

1811 emails sent this week
1820 waves sent this week
297 new photos uploaded this week
153 new members joined this week

Here’s a summary of some of the changes we’ve made this week:

• Changed search distance dropdown from Miles to Kilometers
• Allowed users to customise their own timezones . You can do this on your account page at http://www.christianconnection.com.au/account
• Enabled the stats page (a work in progress) http://www.christianconnection.com.au/stats – let us know what you think
• Fixed an issue on the boards where the link to all posts by a member wasn’t working
• Made the last post date more prominent in the boards
• Updated the boards to add a ‘Pages’ link on the bottom right of each topic. This allows members to click straight through to the required page on a topic.
• Removed case sensitivity when logging in – so it doesn’t matter if you enter your username or email with capitals or not
• Fixed a problem where some members couldn’t access their mailbox
• Corrected error messages in the mailbox when a user has reached their messaging limit for the day

Site Activity for this week

1136 emails sent this week
1105 waves sent this week
333 new photos uploaded this week
104 new members joined this week

We hope everyone is enjoying the new and improved site. Feedback is always welcome!