A new version of PhotoCrank means a few changes for the better
At the end of last week many hours of hard work, super long meetings and some slightly heated discussions(aka arguments) resulted in an amazing, new version of the PhotoCrank player being pushed out to the world.
Thanks to some great feedback from all of the Crank’rs out there we have added some amazingly awesome new features to this version of the Crank player - most of which make Crank’n much more fun and much more social.
This is a major step in the direction that we want PhotoCrank to head, which is a direction that makes the experience more exciting and fun for Crank’rs, which leads to a much better overall experience for bloggers who add the PhotoCrank Engine to their blog as a way to add a more interactive experience for their readers.
Some of these new features are listed below and something else that you should be aware of is that with all of these great, new features came a change in our Crank’n philosophy as well, which is that we are no longer allowing anonymous Cranks to be created in Cranktown(our community of Crank’rs). This is because many of the new features listed below require that you have a PhotoCrank profile created and we also feel that the more profiles that are created, the better and more active community that Cranktown will become. We hope that you agree with this change for the better and if you haven’t created a profile yet you can head over here now and get it taken care of in a matter of seconds. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and hope that you find that Crank’n a photo is now more fun than ever.
Now, on to the new features:
Here is a clean view of the new Crank player.
See the numbers below for more info on our sweet, new Crank player features.
1. Previous and Next Navigation Arrows: These allow for quicker navigation when viewing Cranks
2. Crank Replies and Multiple Cranks: Any Crank’r now has the ability to create multiple Cranks on any photo and also the ability to reply to a Crank with another Crank
3. Crank Comments: Like the Crank you’re watching? Want to let other Crank’rs know what you think? You can easily do this now thanks to our new Crank commenting system.
4. Crank Sharing: Let your friends know about your latest Crank by sharing it on your favorite social network or by emailing it out to the masses. Also, copy the code to add your Crank anywhere you want by clicking on the embed code button.
More info coming soon on some other new stuff that you all should know about this new version release, but I think that this is enough to digest for one blog post. Now what are you waiting for? Get to Crank’n, sharing, commenting and spreading that PhotoCrank love!
Any questions, feel free to give me a shout by dropping an email to ryan@photocrank.com. May the Crank be with you.
Firefox 3 browser extension coming soon
Brent from boodangy.blogspot.com and several other Crank’rs have been asking about the much buzzed and brand-spankin’ new Firefox 3 that is now available for download on the web and more specifically when our current PhotoCrank Firefox browser extension will support it.
Never fear, my lovely friends of CrankTown, I have asked the PhotoCrank powers to be this very question and according to them there will be a Firefox 3 compatible version ready for download by this time next week(by June 30th). A week’s not too long to wait, right?
If you really need something to do until then, you could always go say hi to one of the latest bloggers to install the PhotoCrank Engine on their site over at The Hanson Life in Texas Blog. Don’t be shy, go ahead and welcome them by giving them one of their first Cranks!
The inaugural Official Trophy of Awesomeness! goes to Jeff O’Connor
As we continue to meet the fine people of the PhotoCrank community, or ‘CrankTown’ as I like to call it, I have been finding myself getting very excited each and every time that I see a new Crank’r going wild on the web. After I notice their initial barrage of Crank’n I try to get in touch with them so that I can find out how they found PhotoCrank, what they think of the product and if there’s anything that they’d like to see changed with the way that they can currently Crank.
After I had gotten really excited seeing a new Crank’n machine doing their thing yesterday, I started thinking about ways that I could show just how awesome I think it is that they have joined CrankTown and how much all of us here at PhotoCrank really appreciate the feedback that they always seem to give us once we catch up with them.
Well, after much thought and some mad Photoshop skillz(like 20 minutes today) I have come up with a new way that I am going to show these new Crank’rs just how much we truly appreciate them. For the first time ever I now present to all of you PhotoCrank’s Official Trophy of Awesomeness!.
As time goes on, I will be randomly be giving these out to Crank’rs who are…Awesome! The inaugural Official Trophy of Awesomeness! is going to go to a new Crank’r named Jeff O’Connor(he also has a health care blog over here). In the past 24 hours Jeff has:
- Crank’d 10 photos all over the web
- Joined the PhotoCrank Facebook group
- Told all of his Facebook friends about PhotoCrank
- Downloaded and installed the PhotoCrank browser extension
For all of these displays of PhotoCrank love, Jeff gets to be the proud owner of a ghetto-esque, photoshop’d symbol of gratitude that comes straight from the hearts of me and the rest of the PhotoCrank team - The Official Trophy of Awesomeness!(and yes, the exclamation point is necessary). Congrats, Jeff!
Here, let me show you how to Crank a photo
As me and the rest of the team constantly continue to improve what PhotoCrank is, how it works and what all it can be used for we have been really focusing on making sure that the fundamentals of creating a Crank are as clear and straight-forward as possible. From our standpoint, considering that we are Crank’n like it’s our job(oh yeah, it actually is), we can sometimes take for granted the fact that there are new people out on the wonderful Web every day who are Crank’n for the first time ever. For these first time Crank’rs we want to be sure that they completely understand how to create the Crank that they are wanting to contribute to CrankTown(the community of Crank’rs and Cranks coined by my friend Scott) whenever the Crankspiration(inspiration to Crank) hits them.
Wow, that’s a lot of Crankified terms - I hope that I haven’t gone overboard, even though I’m suspecting that I have. Oh well, continuing on…
As a way to help first time Crank’rs learn the fundamentals of Crank’n a photo quickly and easily, I created a screencast video(a video of what my screen looks like during a crank, along with voice over) that shows the world what all goes into Crank’n a photo. Honestly, I tried to make it as short as possible and it ended up being around 3 minutes long, which I think(and hope) is bearable for anyone who is wanting to learn about PhotoCrank. Also, I guess that I should mention that this isn’t going on the website like one of last ones did, instead we are embedding this How-To video directly into the PhotoCrank interface(pictured below) that opens up when you begin to Crank a photo. This should make the video more valuable and relevant to the new Crank’rs out there who aren’t completely sure what Crank’n is all about.
Finally, here is the the video that will be added to the PhotoCrank interface, feel free to comment below or email me at ryan@photocrank.com with any thoughts, suggestions or constructive criticism that you may have.
Getting to know the Crank’n community
Yesterday I received an awesome email from Brent (aka Merlinhoot), who is a very active member of our Crank’n community and who has been using the PhotoCrank Browser Extension and the PhotoCrank Engine to spread some PhotoCrank lovin’ all across the Internets - which we always love to see.
Brent even posted a little somethin’ somethin’ over on his blog about how he loves to take advantage of his Crank’n ability when he sees any Crank-worthy image while surfing around the web. I don’t think that I could have said it any better myself, Brent. 
Below are a few of Brent’s most recent Cranks and the rest can be seen over here on his Cranks page on PhotoCrank.com.
