[brian]

Following is an (un)paid announcement by a new company founded by me, brian, that is partnering with Zogdog.com:

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, zogdogs and cats(?), I am proud to announce that finally, after nearly a year in development, I'm rolling out a new project that will change the way you surf the internet. And Zogdog, your favorite internet community since... a long time ago, is the exclusive Alpha Launch partner. Zogdog members new and old will get the first bite at the apple.

Without further ado, I present Frequent Browser. Go ahead, click the link. And read more below to learn how it works.

Frequent Browser is the first site that can truly say "Thank you for using the internet"™. Once you signup and login, you earn Frequent Browser points anytime you surf our partner websites (like Zogdog). Points accrue in your account, and when you have enough you can trade those points in for great rewards, like free access to the best premium content and services on the internet. Essentially, it's like a frequent flier program for the internet. Except that instead of earning miles when you fly, you earn points when you browse. And just like frequent flier programs, it's free and easy to use.

Why are we doing this? Because you, the valued internet user, are the reason the whole web exists. Companies want you to spend time on THEIR sites instead of their competitors'. Companies also know that keeping existing visitors happy is a lot easier than attracting new ones. So we're giving you a very real, tangible reason to spend your time in once place instead of another. "Thank you for using the internet"™ is going to be the next big way to keep people coming back on an internet that's getting more and more crowded.

Our patent-pending SplitSource™ technology lets you earn points seamlessly and securely, without broadcasting your identity to the entire internet. Unlike certain social-networking sites you may have heard of, we don't believe in "public by default". We don't surprise you by telling all of your friends what pages you have been to, what movies you rented, or what songs you listened to.

For example, let's say that you are logged into Frequent Browser, but not into Zogdog when you read an article. You still earn points, but we don't tell Zogdog who you are, or even that you're a Frequent Browser member. Frequent Browser's patent-pending technology makes this all possible.

As I said before, with the blessing of Mr. Zog himself, we have signed up Zogdog as our Alpha Launch partner. So every time you read an article on Zogdog, make a post, or write a blog, you get Frequent Browser points automatically. We're working to meet with other sites and companies (we already had a meeting with a certain internet giant), but Zogdog can always say that it was first. We're also working to offer great rewards in the near future. We'll certainly keep you up to date on all developments.

So to recap...

1. Go to Frequent Browser and setup your free account

2. Login, and surf Zogdog or Frequent Browser's Lounge area to earn points

3. Check back often to see your point balance; we'll be letting you trade in your points for rewards soon

4. We've got 500 slots open right now, which should be enough for all Zogdog members new and old. Feel free to invite your friends too, and get them to signup here on Zogdog too to maximize point-earning potential

5. Sign up for our Twitter feed for the latest updates

Right now, the automated signup is available only to people in the USA. If you live across the pond shoot me a PM and I'll see what I can do for you.

If you have questions, comments, or whatever about the service, feel free to post in this thread. Or post on the Frequent Browser Lounge(better for tech support-related questions). I'll be happy to help you.

NOTE: as an added bonus, if you are an existing Zogdog member and sign up for Frequent Browser, I'll throw in 1,000 bonus points for you. Just send me a PM along with your email address for your Frequent Browser account, and I'll take care of it as soon as I can.

[Holloweaver]

hey Brian... i see you did some great and hard work... being rewarded for surfing... that's clever!

euhm only thing is that i can't register... there's no way i can go past "step 1" because i have to choose a state and i don't live in any of them... could it be that this is for Americans only?

oh and Cali is misspelled in the list with the states... it says "Califonria"

cheers & thnx!

[brian]

Thanks hollow for pointing out the misspelling. Will fix that right away.

And right now the form only lets Americans sign up. If you want to just pick a state, I can change it to international once that option is available. Although some of the rewards might eventually be available to only Americans as well (don't know what the terms and conditions will be on that just yet), I'm sure we can find some way around it for an old friend on Zogdog

[brian]

Signup form is busted all of the sudden... hold tight, fixing.

[brian]

Fixed. Simple javascript errors, but everything should be working now.

[springfang]

I'm back to try this thing out, and to see if Zogdog can recapture my interest. Good luck with this whole thing, brian!

[Kevin]

I registered myself an account. I am now frequent browsing!

[brian]

Yeah, I see Kevin and Springy on out list, and a few old friends on Zogdog have crawled out of the woodwork. Don't forget to PM me for your bonus points (Kevin and Zog, I'll take care of yours because I already know your email addresses).

[Jinserver55]

Sorry it's taken me all day to get around to this, been hectic. I just signed up and looked around a bit, you did a great job on the site Brian...I would expect no less.

I'm now "surfing frequently" and enjoying the breeze.

[Truth]

I'll sign up soon, really busy, but this looks like a great idea. Free prizes is always great.

springfang, on 29 July 2010 - 03:44 PM, said:

I'm back to try this thing out, and to see if Zogdog can recapture my interest. Good luck with this whole thing, brian!

Something tells me you've been covert lurking. No way you would have found out about this if you hadn't been coming on here frequently. teeheeeeee

[brian]

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Something tells me you've been covert lurking. No way you would have found out about this if you hadn't been coming on here frequently. teeheeeeee

Ah, I missed the dynamic of this group. Springy back, now we just need H^5 and pudge and pudge's grandma and it will be back to the old days!

[Truth]

brian, on 29 July 2010 - 09:05 PM, said:

... pudge's grandma and it will be back to the old days!

I'll tell her to come on. I think she's in the bathroom right now. "Hey honey!".

[Holloweaver]

allrighty, i am now a proud inhabitant of the mighty place called Illinois

[springfang]

Truth, on 29 July 2010 - 07:03 PM, said:

Something tells me you've been covert lurking. No way you would have found out about this if you hadn't been coming on here frequently. teeheeeeee

I have been back to this site a few times over the last year, but not much. Brian sent emails to some of us wayward zoggers telling us about his new project and linking to this thread, which is how I found out about it. Otherwise, I probably would have seen this thread in a few months and joined then.

[brian]

Saw you signed up, hollow, and gave you the bonus points. You picked a good state to be from

[ZogDog]

You know what's great about frequently browsing the internet? You discover pimpness like this but not so frequently. Thanks Brian for bringing some fire back to the flame and let's see if we can't get some more from out of the lost and wayword crowd

[springfang]

So, can we post suggestions/problems/compliments/etc. in this thread? I've just noticed a couple of things and feel like mentioning them.

First, one thing that is kind of a pain is that I have to remember to log in to Frequent Browser before I start surfing around. Additionally, it seems like my login times out at some point, but I don't know when that is. If there was some way to know whether or not you were logged in without having to open frequentbrowser.com, it would be a bit more user friendly and I wouldn't risk missing out on my precious points. These problems might be inherent in the technology or design that you have opted for (it seems you want it to be "transparent"; i.e., there shouldn't be a Frequent Browser box/tab/whatever on every page you visit), so perhaps this isn't actually an issue. This might also be because I didn't originally check the "Remember me" checkbox. I checked that today, so I guess I'll see if that keeps my session from timing out.

Second, if I hit multiple pages in a short period of time, I only get a couple of the hits counted. This might also be by design (to prevent people from constantly refreshing pages or whatever), and perhaps there's really just no way around it in order to prevent abuse. In my particular case, when I go to Zogdog my usual course of action is to hit the "new posts" page, and then open each thread in a new tab which I then proceed to go through one by one. So, if I open 15 tabs in a matter of seconds, it only counts as one hit. In order to counter this, I've started refreshing each tab as I get to it, but it is a slight annoyance. But again, I totally understand why this could have been done on purpose, and I can live with it.

I guess that's it. Two things that have been bothering me a bit, but both of which could very well be on purpose -- and if so, feel free to ignore my minor complaints.

[RidleyScott]

Alright, I signed-up... you guys should try to partner with some gaming sites since that is pretty big on here.

[brian]

@Ridley - send me your email address in a PM, and I'll give you your 1k bonus points. Several people signed up today and I'm not 100% sure which one you are. And we'll definitely be contacting gaming websites and companies soon, cause yeah it's a natural fit.

@Springy - Normally I'd prefer questions to be asked in the Frequent Browser Lounge (link). But I'll answer yours here this time, cause I think people are checking this thread more than the other link.

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First, one thing that is kind of a pain is that I have to remember to log in to Frequent Browser before I start surfing around.

Shouldn't be the case at all; the cookie should persist for up to 2 years if you don't delete your cookies. If you still see this problem after having checked "remember me", let me know.

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If there was some way to know whether or not you were logged in without having to open frequentbrowser.com, it would be a bit more user friendly and I wouldn't risk missing out on my precious points.

We're working on something like this, e.g. perhaps a green Frequent Browser logo at the bottom of the page if you got your points, and a red one if you didn't. Not 100% sure HOW this will be implemented, but it will be soon. Using the magic of HTTP rewrites, we can do something like this without giving up privacy. E.g. a person can tell the difference between a red and a green image, but the Zogdog server never would know the difference because it's calling the same image every time.

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Second, if I hit multiple pages in a short period of time, I only get a couple of the hits counted.

Your browsing habits sound like mine (except that I do it on a google reader list instead of Zogdog new threads. You are right: this was by design as a control against people just clicking over and over to get all their points in 2 seconds. We're working on some back-end tricks (that's what she said?) to flag suspicious behavior after the fact. Since you're a coder, I might want to run some possible methods by you. But for now, you only get points if you wait some seconds (and I won't say exactly how many ) between clicks.

[springfang]

brian, on 02 August 2010 - 07:35 PM, said:

Normally I'd prefer questions to be asked in the Frequent Browser Lounge (link).

Oops. I forgot you had mentioned that at the beginning of this thread.

brian, on 02 August 2010 - 07:35 PM, said:

Shouldn't be the case at all; the cookie should persist for up to 2 years if you don't delete your cookies. If you still see this problem after having checked "remember me", let me know.

I had to login again this morning, but it did keep me logged in throughout the day yesterday. I use Google Chrome (dev branch), and since I'm at work I only ever close the browser when I shut down the computer at the end of the week, and I rarely actively clear my cookies or anything. I guess it's also possible that I actually am still logged in, but frequentbrowser.com doesn't recognize it -- i.e., I'm still getting the points, but the welcome page mistakenly displays the "login" link.

brian, on 02 August 2010 - 07:35 PM, said:

We're working on some back-end tricks (that's what she said?) to flag suspicious behavior after the fact. Since you're a coder, I might want to run some possible methods by you.

Feel free to run anything by me that you want. I may or may not be able to provide any useful input, but I'd be willing to try.