The Hear & Meow: Notes from Catster HQ

Dogster and Catster just celebrated our 6-year anniversary as a company and an online community, and we could not be more grateful and proud of what we have all done together. For those of you that have been with us for a while, we extend our deepest thanks. And to everyone from long-time members to brand new members, get ready for some exciting changes ahead!

Here at Dogster/Catster HQ, we've been spending a lot of time lately looking for ways to improve the experience for all types of users. We have been doing a lot of research into who exactly our audience is. It's become clear that our users are really divided into two big groups:

- We have our amazing, active, passionate members like all of you - who come to the sites regularly and make our community features like Groups and Forums great. You like to hang out, have fun, make friends, and support great causes.

- Then there is also a large group of information seekers, coming mainly from search engines, who arrive with a specific (and sometimes urgent) question they need answered, then they leave until their next question arises. We are currently working on a big initiative with the goal of making sure that both types of users get what they need on our site, and have a great experience while they are here.

We are shooting to launch these changes in a few months. So far, the project involves:

• Changes to the organization and navigation of the site's content and features
• Revamping the home page
• Adding some new topic-focused pages and content

Rest assured that none of our core community features will change - the functionality of our Forums, Groups, Answers, and pet pages will remain as is.

We welcome any thoughts or ideas you have - please add comments and ideas below, or post in the New to Dogster/Tips & Tricks Forums or the Plus Experts & Help Corner (Plus members only).

We will continue to keep you updated as more specifics of the changes develop - we will include regular updates in the new monthly Community Newsletters, in the site updates, and in Forums listed above.

Woofs and Meows,

HQ

Howdy, Catsters! Starting next month we'll be putting out a shiny new monthly newsletter that highlights the very best pet pages, groups and activities on Catster.com. You don't want to miss out, so be sure to update your newsletter and e-mail preferences. It's easy as pie. Here's how:

1. Visit your account by clickin' "My Account" on the top navigation bar.

2. When your main account page pops up, scroll down to item #5 Newsletter and Email Preferences and click "Modify Now."

3. Check off the box for the Catster Community Newsletter. (Feel free to add the Dogster Community Newsletter too if you're curious to see what the pups next door are up to.)

4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click submit.

That's it! Thanks for loving Catster, we love you right back.

Warm purrrrrs,

Your Pals at HQ

Starting today we have enabled letting people use Facebook Connect to create new accounts and also let people with existing accounts that are also use Facebook to connect those two accounts.

Why This is Helpful if You Already have a Catster Account?
If you are already a happy Catster member and if you are also a happy user of Facebook there are some very nice benefits. Each time you add a new pet or post a new diary entry you can optionally have that item posted directly to your Facebook Wall. In the future we will be adding many more items you can push to Facebook such as photos, comment and forums, etc. We'll leave it up to you if you want to post items. Also in the near future we'll make it easy to see who on Facebook you are already friends with on Catster and vice versa!

Why This is Helpful if You Do Not Already Have a Catster Account?
Becuase it's the fastest, safest way to make an account. Facebook let us know you are who you say you are and we can create your account in half the number of steps and about 1/3rd the time.

Here are some more answers to common questions

Help! I made a new account using Facebook Connect and my pets aren't in it.
It sounds like Facebook Connect created you a new account. Did you get an email welcoming you to your new account? When you go to My Account do you not see your pet(s) and is the email in your human profile different than what you normal use? If so, and if you do not want this new account, this is not a problem. Simply go to My Account, then 'modify' your Facebook settings. Click the link under 'Permanently disconnect Facebook.' Once that is done follow the directions below about how to associate an existing Catster account with Facebook.

How to Associate an Existing Catster Account with Facebook.
This is easy. login to our site as you normally would. Once logged in go to My Account and click the Facebook button where it says 'Activate 1-click log in'. Follow the directions and your accounts will be connected.

How Do I Know if I'm Logged in Regularly, or if my Login is Connected to Facebook
If you are logged in with just a Catster account you will see your email in the upper left corner, below out logo. If you are logged in and also connected to Facebook you'll see a small 'f' and your first name as you have it on Facebook

Was Does it Mean to Give Permission to Post to Facebook.
It means that when there's an option to share something you've done on Catster we'll prompt you and ask you if you want to share it with your friends on Facebook. If you do it will show up on your Wall and your Newsfeed with links back to what you just created on Catster. The one exception is when you add a new pet. Here we do not prompt you as we automatically post that info to your Facebook account.

Can I Change My Posting Permissions for Facebook After I Set Them
Yes, just go to My Account, and 'modify' your Facebook settings. From there you will see links and directions on how to disallow posting and allow posting. It's entirely your decision to control at all times.

Help? I connected My Catster Account with Facebook, but When I'm Logged in My Items Don't Post to Facebook and I Don't See the 'f' in the Upper Left, I see my Email.
If you always want your Catster login to be Facebook Connected the easiest way to ensure that is to not use your traditional email and password to login. As long as you've connected your account from that point on just click a Facebook connect button and then we'll log you into both.

When I'm Facebook Connected and I Write a Diary Entry I Don't Get Prompted to Post to My Wall
Are you using Internet Explorer? There's a problem and they don't submit, we're working on. We're very sorry. If you're using a different browser let us know.

If You Do Use Facebook, Fan Us!

Now introducing: a tool a colorize the top buttons on your cat or group home pages.

Today's update is very special because it marks the first time a feature has gone live on the site that was made by a member. The one and only Alice Billman, pawrent of (Callie Jean and PJ) who has helped hundreds if not thousands of members decorate their pet and group pages thanks to her amazing javascript and design abilities she shares on Pawsome Pages has started making features that we can embed directly into our site.

It hit us, why should we try and replicate what she has already perfected and it's been a great getting to work together.

Our first joint effort is a new version of a tool she made so you can pick what color you want your cat's or group page buttons to be. We streamlined the process to only require you copy and paste and tiny snippet of code, and we tried to do it in such a way that when we have to change the buttons to modernize the site, hopefully we can handle keeping your button colors without you having to do anything.

At the moment the best way to get to the new button tool is to click this link, but feel free to repost in your forums or groups, bookmark or whatever!

We're going to be rolling this out slowly, but it's open for anyone to use now. If you use, please feel free to give a comment and let us know how it goes.

Finally, a note to anyone already using custom button color code on their pages that it would be best to either delete your current button HTML/CSS from your pet bio/ group HTML field, or simple make sure that the new code you generate is the last HTML in the last field.

Screenshot:

ALSO - PLEASE MAKE SURE that your style sheets are CSS3 compatible!!

****************************************************************************

We are very happy to announce that we upgraded our top navigation bar today! As you can see, the far left button now allows you to go straight to our new photo galleries, the pet profiles and the option to add a pet. We think that you'll really like this new improvement.

BUT, we know that some of you use custom color buttons, and the new upgraded code enhancement was not backwards compatible, so that means that the code that you were using to customize the colors no longer works and may be causing your page to load improperly.

SO, super star member allybill will be updating her button custom color page shortly, so you can just remove the code from your style sheet and replace it with the new codes when they are up. I will update this blog post when that happens.

If you can't wait and want to get going on making those changes now, you can...

• copy and past the code below into your style sheet
• replace all instances of "darks/rust" with the "category/color" that you want (see allybill's site for those)
• save your style sheet
• if you view your pet page afterward and the change has not taken place, please give your pet a treat and the cache will clear, so the change should be noticeable

Otherwise, just remove that section of code from your style sheet and the default tool bar will reappear. And then just check back here to find out when allybill's site is updateed, and then just swing by her site and get the new codes!

Thanks for your patience!

Meows!
#navigation LI { BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z100/catsterpals/buttonbar/pastels/skyblue_middle.gif); COLOR: rgb(255, 255, 255)! important; } #navigation LI.spacer { BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z100/catsterpals/buttonbar/pastels/skyblue_divider.gif); } #navigation LI.first { BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z100/catsterpals/buttonbar/pastels/skyblue_left.gif); } #navigation LI.last { BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z100/catsterpals/buttonbar/pastels/skyblue_right.gif); } #navigation LI A:hover { BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z100/catsterpals/buttonbar/pastels/skyblue_middle_over.gif); } #navigation LI.first a:hover { BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z100/catsterpals/buttonbar/pastels/skyblue_left_over.gif); } #navigation LI.last a:hover { BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z100/catsterpals/buttonbar/pastels/skyblue_right_over.gif); }

Do you use Digg? Stumble Upon? Do you want to?

If you're a Digg user and would like to join our Catster Digg Crew, send an email to us at diggers[AT]dogster.com with your Digg username and a link to your Digg profile page. We'll visit your page and befriend you - that way we can see the items that you find interesting and Digg them as well. And, we'll also email you hot Catster posts that we'd like for you to Digg, so that you can help us get all of our best posts out there for the world to see. Want to check out our Digg profile page and friend us up right away? It's right here.

And if you use Stumble Upon, and would like to join our Stumbling crew, send an email to stumblers[AT]dogster.com with your Stumble Upon username and a link to your Stumble Upon profile page. That way we can be friends and share/promote stories together with Stumble Upon as well! Want to go straight to our Stumble Upon page and be friends right now? It's right here.

Not sure what we're meowing about? Both Digg and Stumble Upon are social bookmarking services that allow online friends the chance to share, promote and read articles and blog posts that are of interest to them. It's like a customizable news feed, since you decide what you want to read and how you want to read it. If you like pets, for example (and we sorta think you do), you can go to specific areas of both Digg and Stumble Upon to get your pet news/photo fix.

We've been using both Digg and Stumble Upon and we love it! We've been enjoying the feedback that we get from Digg and Stumble Upon users, and really love sharing pet-related images, videos and articles with other like-minded surfers. It's really proven to be a great way to get a VIP pass to the hottest dog and cat stuff on the Internet. We're big fans of these cool social bookmarking sites and are curious to find out if you are, too.

To read more about Digg, go here; to read more about Stumble Upon, go here. And then come back here and join the Catster Click Corps!

Meows!

Hi everyfur! Just wanted to let you know that this week's tips are coming to us thanks to our good friends over at Woof Report! Turns out those pooches know a lot about dogs AND cats, so they'll be dishing out the tips this week on The Daily Cat Tip, the Catster blog that serves up a juicy tidbit of feline information every weekday.

Woof Report is a free weekday email newsletter with pup-perfect dog care tips, news, products & more! If you've got a canine servant or two around the house, you might want to allow them to sign up for the Newsletter at www.woofreport.com or let them become a Facebook Fan. They might just learn a thing or two... Woof Report will be contributing a few tips here and there going forward, on both Catster and Dogster. Their first tip of the week is live already and can be seen here.

More about Woof Report, in their own words:

We’re pet people. We love our pets. We can’t get enough of them.

Like you, we want only the best for our fur family – tips on caring for and pampering our pups, the handy products, the latest doggie news. We’re always looking for new ways to improve the lives of our best friends and our time together, and we’re on the lookout for cool new things that celebrate the dog lover in us, too.

But, we found that dog magazines were published too infrequently, email newsletters were always trying to sell us something and there were just too many websites and blogs to scour for the stuff we we’re after.

So, Woof Report was born. And with it came a litter of pup-perfect ideas, dog care tips, products, and more -- the best of the best. Think of it as your daily dose of doggie delight.

And since dogs bring so much to our lives, we’re committed to returning the favor. That’s why Woof Report works to promote awareness of animal welfare causes, pet adoption initiatives and charities.

We hope you enjoy Woof Report as much as we enjoy creating it.

The best way to get The Daily Cat Tip is via email, and if you sign up now, you won't miss a single tip from our grrreat pet experts. Or to add the RSS feed to your reader, click here. Want it all? You can also get them via Twitter when you follow @catster.

Hi everyfur! Just wanted to let you know that pet journalist and author Maryann Mott is dishing out the tips on The Daily Cat Tip, the Catster blog that serves up a juicy tidbit of feline information every weekday.

Maryann's books and articles can be found at Petwriter.com and you can follow her on Twitter here. She will be joining us every now and then as a guest tipster on both Catster and Dogster. Her first tip of the week is live already and can be seen here.

More about Maryann:

For more than 15 years Maryann has written exclusively about pets. Her thorough and accurate reporting has led to assignments with a variety of publications including: The New York Times, Family Circle, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor as well as National Geographic online. Articles written for syndicates has landed her work in the online editions of Newsweek, Yahoo!, MSNBC, USA Today and U.S. News and World Report.

As a contributing editor to Dog Fancy magazine (the oldest and largest pet publication in the country) she pens the popular Newshound and Lifestyle sections each month.

Over the years she's worked as a staff newspaper reporter as well as veterinary assistant. In 1996 Maryann was editor and publisher of Desert Pet News in Palm Springs, California. The newspaper featured shelter animals for adoption and educated owners on how to properly care for their pets. Later, while living in Lake Arrowhead, she started the Altitude Agility Club and served as president of the Mountain Humane Society.

Maryann now resides in Arizona. In 2005, Maricopa County Animal Care and Control (a.k.a the pound) named her Volunteer of the Year. Currently she volunteers delivering meals to senior citizens here in my hometown.

Maryann shares her life with two dogs - K.C., a rescued Chow mix, and Sasha, an energetic 9-year-old Belgian Sheepdog cross.

The best way to get The Daily Cat Tip is via email, and if you sign up now, you won't miss a single tip from our grrreat pet experts. Or to add the RSS feed to your reader, click here. Want it all? You can also get them via Twitter when you follow @catster.

Hi again everybody - just wanted to pop in and let you know that travelers and bloggers Helen Fazio and her dog Raja are dishing out the tips on The Daily Cat Tip, the Catster blog that serves up a juicy tidbit of feline information every weekday.

WHAT? A dog? Calm down, calm down - Helen and Raja have lots of great insight on dealing with cats, from a dog-person's point of view. The pair have loads of great pet travel information and will be joining us every now and then as a guest tipster on both Catster and Dogster. Their first two tips are live already and can be seen here and here.

More about Helen and her dog Raja:

Helen feels most comfortable in places where she doesn't speak the language; she likes to do almost everything, except hunt and watch TV sports. Raja is a Shih Tzu. Directly descended from the Mongolian wolf, Raja is hardy and loves to roam with his pack. Tamed in the monasteries of Tibet, he takes the long view. Finished in the palaces of 16th century China, he is elegant. Rescued from China by the artistocrats of Europe, he is a ham. Make sure you check out their blog, which is here, and follow them on Twitter.

The best way to get The Daily Cat Tip is via email, and if you sign up now, you won't miss a single tip from our grrreat pet experts. Or to add the RSS feed to your reader, click here. Want it all? You can also get them via Twitter when you follow @catster.

We've gone through all of the entries and (though it was a tough call to make) have decided that the following entries have what it takes to be featured in the Catster Gift Shop! And the winners are:

Made by Catster Blade, this crown shall furever grace the heads of the Kings and Queens who run every pet-loving house: the dogs and cats! Nice work, Blade!

Made by Dogster Murphy, this scrumptious-looking ice cream cone will keep your pals cool, even on the hottest of summer days... Way to go, Murphy!

This hero's ribbon was made by Dogster Milo and Catster Sawyer and is for all the caring and strong fur friends in your life! Nice teamwork, Milo and Sawyer!

This pup tent can sleep dozens and was made by Dogster Diamond and Catster Pearl. Summer days don't last furever, so invite your favorite pals on a camping trip today! Thanks, Diamond and Pearl!

HUGE THANKS to all of the Dogster and Catster members who submitted virtual gifts to the contest! We love your creativity and are very proud to have you as part of the family!

So... what are you waiting for? Get on over to the Gift Shop and show your support for your fellow Dogster and Catster members by spreading around their cool gifts!

Woofs and meows,

HQ