Dragon Scales

Things have been hectic here are FameThrower. We have the site together and we are intensively testing our algorithms, render times and usability. We’re upgrading to better hosting, we’ve gone through a series of design revisions, and we may even have t-shirts ready for launch. The toughest challenge thus far has been getting the front page to render on-the-fly, taking in new input and immediately reformatting the page. We don’t want to give the whole shabang away, but know that the front page will be organized in a Dragon Scales format (and no, FameThrower has absolutely nothing to do with Dungeons and Dragons, unless you want it to). When FameThrower is up and running, it will be well worth the wait.

a little taste?

Tick Tock

Well it’s probably time that we admit that this is taking a little bit longer than expected. We’re really happy with how things are going and we’re incredibly close to be doing done, but we don’t want to put the site up too early and not have it function as it should.

I know that you’re all hungry to learn a little bit more about what FameThrower really is… and to put it simply, it is a web site filled with famous people where anyone will have the opportunity to project themselves to fame.

Here is one of the screens that’s almost done:

You can probably make out the numbers, that’s pretty much all I can make out too. Not to worry, it won’t be too long now. But then again I’m standing on the other side of the room.

Enjoy!

We’re getting close…

We were hoping to get the site up and running today but it looks like we’ll need at least another 24 hours. We know that this is an inconvenient truth, but we don’t want to put up the site and have our adoring fans be disappointed or worse: confused! Currently we are concentrating on keeping the web page readable, stylish, and easy to use.

We contacted the charity we plan on giving to earlier today, letting them know what FameThrower is all about. But for some reason they still haven’t called us back (it might be because we’ve been on the phone all day)! We’re hoping they get back to us soon, or we may have to move on to our second choice. And if that doesn’t work out, we may just take all this silly money and put it towards scratch tickets.

Yee-haa.

Stress Testing, The Big Decisions

Things at FameThrower are ripping along! We have the majority of the site together and we are stress-testing the areas of the site that are already complete. Design has been coming along just as we hoped, it’s a crisp, clean, easy interface that should lend it self to stardom!

We are also happy to report that we’ve made our decision as to which charity we’re going to be giving to, we think that its an important cause that needs more people to rally behind it (more on this later).

Don’t forget, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t donate now to all the great causes we’ve mentioned below. They are all deserving and could greatly use your help!

Fighting the fight,

FameThrower

Slight Delays in a Good Way

We’re happy to report that progress is going better than expected, sadly this means that we may not be able to launch tomorrow morning. We are upgrading our servers to be prepared for more traffic and we’re working with lawyers to iron out some of our terms and conditions, because we don’t want to get sued!

This means that we won’t know when we are going to launch until right before it happens so make sure to stay tuned in to our progress. It will be this week, but it could literally anytime. On the up side, we’ll be launching with more features to enhance your FameThrower experience than we would had if we were to open to the public tomorrow morning. So bring out your dancing shoes and get ready for a good time.
It looks like we’ve decided which charity we’re going to give to but we’ll probably hold onto that tid bit of information until we go live!

Pay close attention, as we will be updating with more infomation soon!

Which Charity should we give to?

We know that you’re all still waiting to hear exactly what FameThrower is going to be, so I’m going to tell you… It is going to be… well actually we should probably get your advice on which charity we should give to and then we’ll tell you what FameThrower is all about.

We want to give to a charity that we believe in, which will use our donations efficiently and effectively. This goal led me to charity watch, one of the premiere resources that objectively ranks charities. We trolled through their database, compared it with some of our own ideas, and came up with this list to work with.

In no particular order:
Children’s Hunger Fund – They focuses on getting food to the children who need it most in America and the world.

Americans for the Arts – Their goal is to give every American the opportunity to participate in and appreciate the arts.

Sunshine Foundation – They concentrate on giving terminally ill children one last wish, which their families would not be able to afford on their own.

Pro Literacy Worldwide – They work all over the world to teach illiterate adults and families how to read.
Doctors Without Borders – This international humanitarian group provides emergency aid to people affected by natural disasters or wars or who don’t have access to health care.

I don’t know when we are going to decide which charity to give half our profits to, but I can tell you that it’s going to be soon. If you have any other suggestions now is the time!

Monday Morning L(a)unch?

So we’ve decided to use paypal as opposed to google checkout. We realized that more people probably already have paypal accounts, so it would be easier for the majority of site visitors to propel themselves to Fame! Things are moving along at a breakneck pace so I’m now going to make the call that we will have the site up and functional by Monday morning! I can’t tell you what time zone we’re operating in so stop asking!

Also, someone emailed us today asking what our ‘lunch’ plans are going to be for Monday. We’ll probably be grilling some burgers, but I should mention that we may not be ‘eating’ ‘lunch’ until around 4 or 5pm depending on how Sunday night goes.

We’re almost out of coffee!

Just kidding, we just pulled some strings and we’re getting a few skids of Colombia’s finest tomorrow, assuming this weather holds up. Testing has started on some portions of the site and so far we’re pretty happy with how things are moving along. Once the whole framework is in place and secure we’ll start ramping up on some of the design ideas that we’ve had. Think subtle Web 2.0 to the extreme, with a dash of old-school flare. It’s going to look something like this only with more of a kick to it.
We still need more suggestions for which charity we should give half of our profits to! If you have any send them to us at helpus@famethrower.com or post them in the comments. In any case, we plan on deciding by Saturday night, so we’ll probably put up a list of our current considerations tomorrow.

Smooth Sailing

Development is going faster today that it did yesterday. We now have all the features worked out and we’re just checking off the list as we go. We’ve also decided to use Google Checkout to keep payments as secure and reliable as possible. Now we can be certain that anyone can make a purchase with ease and confidence.

In other news, we still haven’t picked a charity but we’re getting closer. Ideally we’re looking for one where FameThrower can make an impressive impact. Maybe in the future we’ll let you pick which charity you’d like to give to, but for now, it will be easier to stick to one.

Gotta love it!

Taglines

We don’t want to ruin the ‘big’ surprise but we just couldn’t wait to give everyone a taste of what famethrower is going to be, so we thought we’d share some of the taglines we’ve come up thus far:

• Self-esteem… starting at $1!
• Fame yourself!
• Don’t be lame, get fame!
• …Because its easier than making a video blog!
• Don’t know what to get Dad for his birthday? Why not throw him some fame!

Don’t worry it will all become clear soon!