I am very grateful that I seldom have to write reminders such as this but I believe it is time everyone using the site regularly gets a little refresher on our Code of Honor first principle :

Above all else, respect others. If you see disrespectful behavior, report it, rather than further inflaming the situation. You can attack the idea/topic, but you can not attack the person.

Please let this be at the forefront of your mind whenever you are posting to the site.

In particular you should NEVER copy anything written by another member from a private forum or sent via a private minti-mail into a public part of the site.  There is a reason people keep posts or mails private and part of respecting other members is respecting this desire for privacy of posts.

Report items that breach this guideline and I would ask that senior members delete these items if they breach this guiding principle.

thanks everyone

Matt

Time for one of those rare blog posts, today we are very excited to launch the new Minti homepage (and menu bar) - you may not have noticed yet that there are a few different photos that can show up on the top right of the page, we have a new compliments area, more focus on Q&A which is a very popular section and we have linked to the awesome article of DarkenedAngel on the top left of the homepage for those new to Minti and wanting to get a flavour for what it is all about !  Nice one DA !

Let us know your thoughts on the new homepage and apologies in advance to those who loved the "latest activity" feed on the homepage but it is just one click away now to see latest activity in all its glory 

all the best from a tired new Dad

Matt

Mum (Mom) and bub are both well and so is this very proud Dad... much love to all of you at Minti

There is going to be a major upgrade to Minti going live during the course of tomorrow.  This is likely to require the site to close down for 15 mins or so whilst the changes are brought from our development area onto the live site.  There will be a lot of new stuff to explore one it gets live and I wont spoil the fun too much by telling you all the details 

We are planning to make this update at around 11am Wednesday 9th April Perth time which is:

1pm in Sydney on 9th April

4am in London on 9th April

8pm in San Francisco on 8th April

So please be warned that Minti may shut down for a short time around about then 

A lot of time and effort has gone into the many improvements we are introducing and we really hope that all of our faithful members enjoy the improvements ! 

with best wishes Matt

PS The new baby boy who was due last Thursday is running a little late but we are hoping he will make a show this week

If you hold down your CTRL-key and at the same time Right-click on the typo word you will be shown spelling options to replace the mistake !    Spell checking in Minti now automatic for Firefox users - just remember to use CTRL-key if you want to right click for alternative spelling options !

Unfortunately this does not work with Microsoft Internet Explorer yet

All the best from Matt

You may want to take a few minutes to view this video of some Minti features which was done some time ago but we only recently managed to get up on YouTube - try the link below:

YouTube Video Guide to Minti

Comments welcomed  

In exactly 2 1/2 hours from the time of this post we will be shutting down Minti for approximately 5 mins for a series of upgrades to the website. 

Please be aware that you may be disconnected and find the site unavailable at this time.  We like to run 24/7 but sometimes upgrades to the system require short shutdowns like this - thanks for your patience and understanding 

All the best

Matt

Stay safe and thanks for your support and participation in Minti this year - we have a very exciting year planned for improvements to Minti so please stay tuned next year 

Merry Christmas all !

Matt

The folks at Cafepress have given a 1 week Coupon Code (use Coupon code FRFAM2007) offer for friends and family of Minti to shop at the Minti Store which you can access through the Vibe Capital store on the link below:

Friends & Family of Vibe Online Store Get $15 off $50*

Start shopping at Vibe Online Store, http://www.cafepress.com/vibecapital

The promoting organisation is running a contest for those of you based in the US and here are some details:

Do you know someone who gives themselves selflessly to others and asks for nothing in return?

• Here’s your chance to give them the recognition and reward they’ve earned!
• Nominate your friend/family member/co-worker/etc. who needs an escape from daily life.
• Martian Child wants to reward a special person who deserves a day of their own.
• Enter your information and tell us why he or she should win.
• The winner will receive an all inclusive package to a luxurious day spa!!
• Visit this link and complete the nomination:  
• http://www.escapefromyourworld.com/

I hope someone from our Minti US community wins this - there are a lot of you who do a very great deal for others so I know you would deserve this !

all the best

Matt

all the best

Matt

Just back from a few days "down south" of Perth for a mini-break to spoil my wife on her birthday and returned to the usual enormous pile of emails when I found the AWESOME support a few members decided to throw into the comments on the recent Minti write-up on TechCrunch ( http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/23/minti-parenting-advice-for-the-ugc-generation/ )

I want to say a HUGE thanks to all those who took it upon themselves to say some words of support for Minti in this very popular blog (top-5 in the world) and I think you really made a lot of the early commenters (mostly geeks or jealous other start-up founders) look like a very mean spirited lot of people.

You folks always surprise me with your passion and kindness towards others and there are some days when I am really, really proud of you all for what you have made Minti into !

thanks from my heart  

Matt 

We are both very happy with the positive news.

Now I can really start to put into practice all this amazing advice I have been reading on Minti.

My best wishes and thanks to all members for your continued support and contributions to the site.

much love

Matt

http://users.telenet.be/leukelinks/flash/queen.htm

Enjoy :)

Matt

It's been a long time since I last posted and I wanted to let you all know that we have have decided to introduce some banner advertising above the Minti website (you probably have noticed by now if you are a regular)

I hope you all understand that we have been trying to keep our advertising to a minimum but there are also substantial costs involved in operating a site like Minti and these banners (which sit above each page displayed) should contribute quite a bit towards keeping Minti aloive and growing.

I am not much of a fan of advertising but I hope you will all be understanding of this change and recognise that our continued focus is on the advice, content and members at Minti rather than filling your whole page with ads and displaying only a tiny bit of advice as many other parenting sites do.

Feel free to comment or complain on this post and all my very best wishes and thanks to you all !

Matt 

Well we have finally opened up a CafePress store with some groovy www.minti.com products.

You can find it via the link on this page:

http://www.cafepress.com/vibecapital

There is maternity wear, kids clothing, cool designed bibs for messy eaters and even stuff for the golf swinging Dad 

Hope you swing by and take a look !

all the best

Matt

we won an Award in the SEOmoz Web 2.0 Awards by coming second to Yahoo! Answers in the Questions and Advice category    :

http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0#cat_75

We are proud as punch that our little organisation can shake it with the big guys like Yahoo!  and we need to give an extra special MONSTER THANKS to our cool Minti community whose ranking under "Content Quality" simply blew away the Yahoo! competition   

Given the hundreds of competitors in this space it is great news for Minti and I want to thank you all again for your contributions to this accolade !

We have been told that the provider of our hosting services lost their connection to the internet (affecting a very large number of websites they host).  Naturally our contract expects better than this kind of service and the Minti management team are now very actively pursuing alternative hosting arrangements so that we have full website hosting diversity and this does not happen again.

My humble apologies and please bear with us as we get new arrangements in place to avoid future issues with suppliers who have promised us better !

We have finally brought live our new treatment of photos which is based on the huge amount of feedback we have received since we introduced the new photo features almost a month ago.  My apologies it took so long to come out but hopefully you will like what we have in store.

Fistly if you are browsing your photos (click "Photo" in the orange member menu on the left and then click on one of the photos on your list)  you will now see there are THREE OPTIONS for how a photo may appear on the site:

1.  PUBLIC:   - basically this makes the photo able to be viewed by anyone the the Minti photo album (main photo menu option in green) and also allows comments to be made and for members to give "thumbs-up" ratings to these photos.

2. RESTRICTED - this option allows the photo be used in articles and public blog areas but does not allow "thumbs-up" ratings or comments.  If you don't want a photo to be rated or commented on but it is important to your article, blog post etc then this is a good choice.

3.  PRIVATE - with this choice your photo is only able to be seen in "friend's lounges" or private groups or other private restricted areas of the site (definitely not able to be voted on or commented on).  When you use this option you should be sure that the photo does not appear in your articles as it will be blocked from viewing in regular articles or non-private blogs

These three options will hopefully reduce the concerns we had over people getting poor votes for photos which they only wanted to use in their articles/blogs and were not seeking any other feedback on the photo as a stand alone item.  At the same time those who want to submit photos for votes and comments in the public Minti-photo album area can do it with one simple click.

You will be given these three options whenever you upload a new photo and also there is a default setting which is determined by the area to which you are posting the photo.

If you have any questions feel free to post them here !

all the best

Matt

If one of your photos is not showing