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 | Welcome | Jun 9, 2009 |
Join this group to be notified of Multiply news, including feature spotlights, announcements and more great stuff! We hope you're enjoying your experience here so far and (like us) are finding it easy to stay in touch with your friends and family. | Start: | Aug 25, '10 03:00a | | End: | Aug 25, '10 07:00a |
Edit (8/25): The maintenance was completed earlier today. Thank you for your patience.Our ISP has scheduled some minor software upgrades this week, which are currently set to begin sometime between 3 and 7 am (U.S. Eastern time) Wednesday morning. See what time that translates to in your local area.Unfortunately we don't know the exact time they'll get started. Just be aware that it will be sometime during that 4-hour window. These upgrades aren't anything you'll notice visually on the site, however they will ensure our technology remains state-of-the-art. And because they will require some brief downtime, we wanted to make sure you were aware well ahead of time. Please contact customer service with any questions. And thanks in advance for your patience.  Thai Multiply users rejoice - our site is now available in your language. That's our sixth language, with still more to come. Just click the language setting in the footer of any page, or visit My Account, then My Account Info, to view Multiply in Thai - or in Spanish, Portuguese or Indonesian. Don't forget, any new features added to the site after today will initially be available only in English, until our community of translators enter their new versions. Thanks to everyone who helped translate Multiply into Thai! The Multiply Marketplace, which has been open for the past few months only to Southeast Asian members, is now available to everyone! The Marketplace is our directory of stores operating on Multiply, and in recent weeks we've been hearing from members all over the world who want the Marketplace in their country - not just sellers who want to open their own stores, but also shoppers who want to see what products are out there. So today you have it - just click the Shop tab at the top of any page to check it out.
Some of you may be saying to yourselves... there are stores operating on Multiply? The answer is Yes: thousands of them! We introduced the Marketplace so these sellers could connect with people who are truly interested in shopping, without bothering anyone else.
Over 50,000 stores are already up and running, but since the Marketplace is new for many of you, and stores are just now getting set up in your country, it may appear a little empty at first. Please keep checking back, as the Marketplace will fill up quickly.
If you want to set up your own shop, just click on the blue button:
In the meantime, please go ahead and browse the categories. Visit the Storefronts and interact with the sellers or other Multiply shoppers to learn more about the products, or your friends' opinions, or other shoppers' experiences. The Marketplace is like a visit with friends to the Shopping Mall, but faster and more convenient. It offers a new kind of Social Shopping, and we think you'll love it! As always, please let us know what you think, either by contacting customer service or replying below. .
 As you know, the Multiply Marketplace has been open in Southeast Asia for some time now. Now it's coming to your country as well! We don't want shoppers to find an empty Marketplace though, so we need you to do two things. First, add your shop's Marketplace listing. The Marketplace has a directory of shops and this listing determines where you will show up in that directory.
Second, you should start adding your product listings to the Marketplace right away. When you edit one of your photo albums (or post a new one), you'll see a "Marketplace" checkbox towards the bottom of the form. Check that box, then select the appropriate category for your product, and the listing will then appear in the Marketplace.
In a few days, once we have enough product listings to create a nice shopping experience, we'll open up the Marketplace by adding a "Shop" tab to the top of the page for everyone in your country.
UPDATE: I have removed the link below because you should now simply add yourself to the Marketplace. Click on the Shop tab and then look for the link in the Seller Tools box at the left side of the page.
Did you know that the same tools that make Multiply a great site for sharing with your friends and family, like a fully customizable web site and powerful media capabilities, can also be used for setting up an online shop? Over 50,000 shops are already running on Multiply! In countries where we already have a large number of shops, we have opened up a Multiply Marketplace. A "Shop" tab at the top of every page leads to a centralized shopping destination where people can search through product listings in numerous categories. Once we have enough sellers in your country, we'll open up the Marketplace for you as well!
If you are already using your site to run an online shop, click the button to mark your site as a shop so that we can make progress towards opening the Marketplace for you:
If you would like to set up a shop, but want to keep this account for personal use, feel free to open another account and then look for this message in that new account to mark it as a shop.
Just a quick note and update related to the datacenter move. You may have noticed a speedup in Multiply over the last 12 hours or so. This is the culmination of some performance work that the development team has been working hard on, to deliver the best Multiply experience to you. This wouldn't have been possible in our old location, so our big move is really paying off. Thanks, as always, for being a loyal Multiply customer. We hope you are enjoying the improvements we are working hard to bring to you. Cheers, Peter Pezaris CEO Multiply |  | We talked about it a bit on our staff blog, but never quite "officially" announced the latest upgrades for Multiply Premium. So it's about time we officially introduce the changes that bring hi-res photos and videos to life...
- Hi-def video: If you shoot a video at a resolution of 1280x720 or better, we'll display it in HD format right in the Multiply video player. Even if you didn't shoot in HD, we now show your videos in their original resolution right in the Multiply player.
- Large format media: To really see the beauty of hi-res videos and photos, grab one of our new Hi-Res site themes. If you have a large monitor, you'll really be blown away by how stunning it is to view videos and photos on Multiply now. Since we're using one of those themes here on the staff blog, you can see for yourself - just maximize your browser and view the photos in this album.
And now all of your friends and family get to see your high-res photos and videos even if they don't have Multiply Premium (assuming you're allowing it). So if you want your photos and videos to really look their best, upgrade to Multiply Premium today! |
Just a few weeks ago we announced that Multiply is now available in Portuguese, Spanish and Indonesian. The love letters poured in from people who can now share their lives with more of their friends and family in the comfort of their native language. We live for such happiness, so today we're getting started on seven new languages: French
Italian
German
Thai
Malay
Vietnamese
Burmese You'll find them all in our Translate tool right now, ready to be worked on by anyone who speaks these languages and is willing to help out. We think the tool is pretty easy to use, but you can always check out the FAQ to learn more about it. If your preferred language isn't listed above, please suggest it for next time. We look forward to announcing that Multiply is available in these languages soon!  A couple days ago I blogged about some upcoming improvements for our Multiply Premium subscribers. In that announcement I didn't want to temper any excitement over the new features with any limitations or drawbacks to the changes, but there is a small one. The dynamic resizing of photos and videos to fill the browser window will only work with a few of our existing themes due to technical reasons. Specifically, Skyline, Black Lilly, Oasis, and Basecamp (as well as any customized themes using those four as the base) will be "premium compatible." If you're a Multiply Premium subscriber, or plan to become one, and you use one of the existing themes other than those listed above you'll still have all the premium features you currently have. Nothing will be taken away or changing . It's just that Multiply won't display your photos and videos as large as the browser window allows to all your friends and family. However, with the new release we will be adding [at least] 8 new premium compatible themes. The new themes, which are pretty slick, will be available to everyone whether a Multiply Premium subscriber or not. The new themes will also be customizable, as are the current themes, so we expect the 8 new "base" themes to quickly turn into a few hundred or thousand new options given the many talented theme designers out there. (Stay tuned for an upcoming theme design contest.) Around the office we've been continually amazed at how beautiful our photos and videos are looking when given the Multiply Premium treatment. We believe that you'll feel that switching your theme to take advantage of the new display option will be well worth it, but we also apologize that we can't offer the new feature with all the existing themes. ---------- (For groups, if the group theme is premium compatible and the person that posted the photos or video is a Multiply Pemium subscriber the photos or video will be displayed at their maximum premium size. Whether the group is premium or not does not factor in the display.)
…and when I write "big" I mean it literally. If you're a Multiply Premium subscriber your photos will be presented as big as possible to all your friends and family (whether they are Multiply Premium subscribers or not). The size of the photo will be maximized based on how large the browser window is of the person viewing the photo.
The same sizing will work for your videos too. When somebody visits your video page, the video player will be sized to fill up their browser window. Your HD video will look especially stunning. HD? Yes, Multiply Premium will support HD video along with these other improvements.
I'm personally ecstatic about these upcoming enhancements. Multiply has long been one of the only social networking sites to store high resolution versions of photos and these upcoming features will really take advantage of that.
There will be a few other changes, to be announced shortly, but one thing that won't be changing is the price. Multiply Premium will remain as affordable as ever. If you're not currently a subscriber feel free to get a head start on these improvements and upgrade today. |  |
The Multiply Marketplace is now open for business all across Southeast Asia! If you want to sell your products to customers in Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand or Vietnam, now's a great time to add your shop to the Marketplace. Just click the button: Add Your Shop
Happy selling!
Great news: remember we told you that Multiply was being translated into Portuguese, Spanish and Indonesian? Well, it took a little longer than we'd hoped, but now it's finished! That's right, you can view the site in any of those three languages right now - just visit your Account Info page and change the language setting. You can switch back at any time just by clicking on the language listed in the footer of the Multiply site. Thanks again to everyone who helped with these translations! And remember that this is an ongoing effort. Whenever we add new features to the site, the text for those new pages will be available only in English at first, until it is translated into the new languages by our multi-lingual multi-pliers (sorry, couldn't resist :-). So if you ever happen to come across a page that isn't translated, please be patient. It will be eventually. Of course, if you know how to translate that particular text, please click "Translate" in the footer of any page and enter your version. We thank you in advance! Also, don't forget we'll be adding more languages over time. Your suggestions are welcome and encouraged. As is your general feedback, in the comments below. However, if you have specific questions or problems to report, please contact our customer service team. If someone claiming to be from Multiply contacts you and asks for your credit card information, please do not respond - even if the account looks like a real customer service ID. Instead, report it using our Contact Us page as soon as possible. I bring this up because this past week a few people were contacted by accounts that appeared to be customer service, but were not. Please be clear on this: Multiply will never contact you and ask you for your credit card or password, or any other private information. So if someone says they are from Multiply and asks for your credit card, you can be 100% sure they are not from Multiply. The only time you should ever enter your credit card information on Multiply is when you are attempting to buy something, such as a Premium account, photo prints, etc. Again, Multiply will never ask you to reply to a message with your credit card information. Never ever ever ever. Also note that the only valid customer service accounts begin with "service." That includes servicecurtis, servicejack and servicemimi. There are a few others who help out from time to time, and they will always have an ID that looks like: servicename. Thank you.  Over the past few months, we've received some requests (including one from my mom) for t-shirts, hats and doggie shirts displaying our company logo. While flattering that people and pets would like to promote Multiply, we didn't have a way to let you order these items. Now we do!
We've partnered with CafePress, a premier merchandising site, to create a brand new Multiply Store. The current options are limited, but if there is demand, we'll add some more gear along with variations of our logo. CafePress handles the entire process, we just pick and choose what to sell.
American Apparel makes most of the shirts and they are super soft, and sweat-proof! (as Pez proved at last year's Corporate Run)
To purchase an item with the Multiply logo, check out the Multiply Store! In his last "Move Update," Peter said we'd give you a heads-up about the next step in installing the backup power supply at our new datacenter. Well, here it is: that next step is going to happen this Friday, Feb. 19th, starting at around 10:00 AM Eastern U.S. time.
What does this mean?
It means we have to take the site offline for about an hour or two. While we essentially finished up the datacenter move a few weeks ago, and have been working hard to ensure high availability since then, we'd been waiting for this one final part. It is the last planned outage of the move.
We know this has been a frustrating process at times, and it's tough to express just how much we appreciate everyone who's been so supportive and understanding. We can't wait to get past this last step so you can experience the improved performance we've all been waiting for.
We'll display a site-wide message shortly before the site comes down on Friday, just to remind you. A couple of weeks ago, Michael posted about our new translation tools and the fact that three languages - Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil) and Indonesian - were off to a great start. And now, those three are just about to cross the finish line:
As you can see, we are almost fully translated into these languages (a huge thanks to all the translators)! The only thing left before we can turn them on is to make sure that the submitted translations are accurate enough to be used. That's where you can help - by voting.
How do I vote?
It's very simple: If you speak Spanish, Portuguese or Indonesian, please visit our Translate area and click Vote in the left rail. Use the arrows to vote "Up" the good translations, or to vote "Down" the not-so-good ones.
Voting is almost complete for Portuguese, but the other two have farther to go. If every Multiply member who speaks these languages spends just a few minutes voting, we can be ready to start turning these on as soon as tomorrow.
Can we count on your votes? Many of you may have already noticed the footer link or read our staff blog entry that Multiply now supports a full fledged publicly available API.  The API exposes all the major features of multiply, including uploading photos and video, posting blog entries, reading content, reading mailboxes, managing invitations and relationships and uploading to the media locker. Full documentation of the API can be found here. The API uses simple RESTful calls to a single endpoint. Data can be returned as json or xml. You can even initiate api calls from your web browser to preview data your application might see. We support three authentication methods: simple password, basic http and oAuth. The simple password and http basic authentication modes make experimentation and rapid development trivial, while oAuth offers the best protection for users when an application is ready for public consumption. We have also set up a developers group for discussion and support of the API. The group already has several active members working on applications, and we even have a member supported perl module (Net::Multiply) replete with working examples scripts. The Multiply Dev team is very excited about our new API and look forward to its creative use by our talented user base. If you are a developer and want to begin experimenting, please join us at the MultiplyAPI group and start reviewing the docs! Some quick news about a few small Media Locker enhancements that have been on many customers' wish lists for a while:
- The ability to search for a photo or video, using the filename (for example, Joe.jpg or Mary.avi). Look for this new search box in the left margin of the Media Locker.
- Sort "All Posts" by date, reverse by date, A-Z or Z-A to help make it easier to find what you're looking for. Look in the upper-right-hand corner of the page, once you select the All Posts filter.
- And last but certainly not least, as it has been perhaps the most-often requested change, is the ability to filter the Posts section by type, so you can see all of your photo albums, or all of your reviews, or all of your blog entries, on one page.
Enjoy! We recently announced the addition of translation tools to Multiply (available by clicking Translate from the footer of any page) and we're very excited about the response. In just a few days we've made some great initial progress in Spanish, Portuguese, and Indonesian. Here's the recent status: We're all very eager to announce the completion of Multiply into a new language. Around the office there is lots of speculation (and perhaps some wagering) as to which will be the next language after Japanese to be fully supported. (Estou apostando com Rogério)While many of you have been working extremely hard translating, one way everyone can help - even those happy with our English site - is by spreading the word. We've got plenty of users in the countries we're translating for and if everyone translates one or two phrases we'll be done in no time. So we'd like to make a small request for everyone to post a quick note or journal entry letting your network know about the translation effort. Thanks! Perhaps you'd like the site to be translated into a language other than English but not one of the ones currently available. Tell us here and also tell others that would be interested to let us know. We'll gladly add more languages to the mix if there is interest. This is also a good time to remind those that are very actively translating phrases that it's a two-step process: translating and voting. Voting is very easy and if your hands are getting cramped up from typing translations, voting is a great way to take a break while also helping to make sure the most accurate translations get used. Thanks again for all your help in making Multiply more enjoyable to a wider audience.
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