ANN: Loopnote - Notifications 2.0

Hi guys,

I’d like to announce the public beta of a site that I’ve been working
on over the last year:

http://loopnote.com

Loopnote is an easy-to-use, Ruby-on-Rails-based notification web app.
The basic idea behind it is that users can create loops, which other
users can then subscribe to via e-mail, IM, text message or RSS. Loop
owners can send out notifications to their loop which subscribers will
receive using their chosen channel(s). Subscriber information is kept
private at all times.

How is this useful? Can’t this already be done using X, Y and Z? To
quote from a blog post on loopnote, because he explained it better than
I ever could:

"Let’s say I run a softball league and I need a way to send
schedules, results, and schedule change notifications out to all the
players. Unless I’m particularly tech savvy, I’m not likely to
think to myself, “why don’t I sign up for a blogger account, burn
the feed using Feedburner, and then use the Feedburner email
subscription option. Each of my posts will then be sent out to all the
players who subscribe.” I am far more likely to use a service like
Loopnote that is sold as a way to send notifications.

Loopnote not only makes it clear to the average Joe what you can do
with the service and why you would want to do it, Loopnote also makes
that one particular thing easy to do."

(from http://www.rourkem.com/2006/12/10/selling-a-use-case/)

We hope that you’ll come and check out loopnote, and we’d be happy to
answer any questions about how it works behind the scenes on our forum.

Thanks,
Martin

Martin May wrote:

The basic idea behind it is that users can create loops, which other

I read your entire message and I still have no clue what a “loop” is.
Maybe I’m not “2.0” savvy enough…

Eric

Sorry, I could probably have done a better job at explaining what
loops are. Did you go to the website? That would hopefully help
clarify things.

In a nutshell, you can see loops as topics of interest, for example a
band loop, on which the band announces upcoming concerts.

Hope that helps,

Martin

Martin May wrote:

Looks great. I luv the design.

What are you using for your instant messaging feature?

Thx,

Dave

Hi Dave,

Glad you like it. We tried a bunch of different things for IM, but
ended up using Jabber gateways to talk to the different IM networks.

Martin

Yes, in order for the verification link to work, you need to be
logged in to the site. Usually, that is already the case after
signup, unless you happen to open links from your e-mail client in a
different browser than you used for signing up. As a fall-back, you
can always cut & paste the verification code.

Martin

One thing I did notice that was strange was the email verification
process didn’t work because I wasn’t logged into the site. Once I logged
in, it worked just fine.

This is related to the link in the verification email.

thx.