A new and improved Crank Engine FAQ
The latest PhotoCrank release has brought about some new options and changes that I feel all of our Crank Engine users need to be aware of. We have posted a new FAQ specifically for these new options and if you have the Crank Engine installed on your blog, you should definitely take a few minutes to look it over.
Click here to take a look at the new Crank Engine FAQ and if you have any questions, please let us know by commenting below.
Hey bloggers: you want some options, you got some options
As we continue to get awesome feedback from all of our Crank’rs, there’s nothing like implementing a highly demanded feature into production. Knowing that there is a huge need for something, figuring out how to get it developed and getting it out to our Crank’rs - this is something that we’ve done many times over the past several months and this is what keeps PhotoCrank more fun, reliable and easy to use.
One of the latest requests, specifically from the bloggers who have the PhotoCrank Engine running, is that we make a simple way for them to make certain photos on their blog ‘unCrankable’. Even though we all love us some Crank’n, there are definitely times when you may not want someone adding a Crank to a photo. For instance, we had some bloggers who wrote a very serious post about George Carlin passing away and they didn’t want the photo to be Crankable out of respect to the man who came up with the 7 words that you can’t say on TV.
Anyways, there are other reasons why a blogger may not want a photo Crankable and it’s our job to give you that option, so we did. There was a way to do it previously, but it wasn’t nearly as simple as the super-simple way that you can do it now. Here’s how it works:
We have added a new option to the Options Menu, which can be seen by clicking the gray button with the down-arrow on it. Then, go down to the Adminstration –> Allow Image To Be Cranked option and uncheck it if you would like the photo to be unCrankable. This can be done to any image after it is posted to your blog.
Each photo is Crankable by default. Simply uncheck to make it unCrankable.
Hopefully this option makes all of our blogger’s Crank’n experience even better than it has been up to this point. If you are a blogger or a Crank’r and you have something you’d like to see changed/removed/added to PhotoCrank, please feel free to comment here and let us know - we’d love to hear what all of you have to say!
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!
Teaming up with ClearChannel and WiLD 94.9
A partnership between the ClearChannel station WiLD 94.9 in San Francisco and PhotoCrank officially kicked off with some major excitement a week ago. To be more specific we teamed up directly with The T-Man Show, which is a top 5 morning drive program in the Bay Area that reaches millions of listeners each and every morning of the work week. Like I said, pretty exciting.
We worked with The T-Man Show from the standpoint that we can add an entirely different way for the listeners to interact with the radio station through the use of the PhotoCrank Engine on their website. Just like many morning radio programs, The T-Man Show has always had various segments that are based upon current hot topics in pop culture or that are created spontaneously due to an interesting call from a listener with an over-the-top opinion on something. In each of these cases usually some type of photo is posted onto their website as a way to let the listeners get a better feel for what they’re talking about that particular morning. We realized that PhotoCrank could be easily and quickly added to each of these online photos each morning, allowing each listener to not only view the online photo, but Crank it as well. This would make each of the photos even more relevant, fun and interactive for the listeners who pulled them up on the T-Man website.
The first week of the partnership has definitely shown us how PhotoCrank can add to any radio station/major media’s online experience by allowing some of the online photo content that is already being posted to be Crank’d by the listeners who want to take their opinions to the next level. This results in more interaction and time on site for each online user (whether they are viewing or Crank’n) which also means a deeper level of connection and loyalty with the radio station as a media outlet. I think that they call that a ‘win-win’ in the biz, right?
Be sure to check out the video below or over here on YouTube to get an even more exciting view of the success that we had with this partnership.