This update comes with a little downtime as we migrate to the new server – but don’t worry, we’ve tossed in a few options to keep you happy. First big improvement you will notice is speed! All the pages (especially the training log) load considerably faster, so the page loading time should be gone. Most other pages on your site will have speed improvements too, so get excited. The next cool new feature is a mobile version of your site. Its version 1 of the SteepleWeb mobile, but its a step in the right-direction. We haven’t integrated the training log on it yet, but thats top on the list.

This new version lays the groundwork for a faster update process – on our list is a re-fitting of the admin panel (badly needed), and the ability to change the style of your site (including a choice between templates – that’s right, we’ve got some new templates headed your way).

The downtime will happen in about a week or so – we will send out another email closer to when the downtime will occur, and of course we will post it on our facebook, twitter, and google+ pages.

Hope everyone’s track & field seasons are getting off to a good start!

Nate, Brad, and Scot

You faithful users won’t be seeing these updates until we move to the new server though – so there will be a transition period (we hope to make it smooth), but there will be some scheduled downtime. We built the new server a while ago, and we’ve just been getting ready to use it. We’ve got it all configured just the way you’ll like it, fast and full of awesome.

After Version 2.5 is out, we will be revamping steepleweb.com and finally move out of beta – which means that teams will be able to signup and start using SteepleWeb instantly. This also means that SteepleWeb will be a paid product. But don’t worry, our current pricing plans (which are in the works) include a free version – because we are runners too, and part of the goal fo SteepleWeb is to provide a benefit to the running community -and by providing a free version of SW, we can do that.

We’ve given up much over the years (time and financially), so we are very excited to be so close to moving out of beta.

But even more exciting is we’ve added another person to our team: Scot (with one “t”) is our new developer. He is the chosen one that will bring balance to our to-do list by implementing your feature requests. Scot has been working on Version 2.5, but recently started working on a mobile version of SW – so get excited for that.

Keep getting out the door

Nate, Brad & Scot

The weather was fantastic, and we had a great group of guys competing for SteepleWeb (only 1 returning runner from last year)!

Our time was 3:59.01 (set the course record) and the next team was 55 minutes behind us.  Here is some eye candy for you!

Already of to a lead right from the gun

The Rooster

Not sure what was happening here, but it was epic!

This is my dog, she rode in the van with us for the 4 hours, and licked all the sweat off the guys when they finished their legs

being awesome

Its a Trap

sometimes, shit happens

Dave McKinney, Nic "Rooster" Atkinson, Mike Connolly, Eric Traphagen - the winning crew

I regret to inform you that we have scheduled an outage for 03-2-2011 at 7:00PM Central time. The building just informed us that there is a problem with the power coming into the building. Both electricians they hired and Kansas City power and light said it cannot wait to be fixed and requires the power to the entire building to be taken down. They said the power outage should last 30 min

Unfortunately, your SteepleWeb sites will be down – hopefully for less than an hour.

Hope everyone’s season started off with a bang, and that your kids are logging those miles!

Nate & Brad

In anticipation for SteepleWeb going “public” – we are going to retire our current server (The Cherry), and put the new fantastic Cherry II online.  To clarify going “public” – We will be ending our “beta” period this summer.  This means that we are no longer limiting our customer base – and we will start having some paid-plans.

But this post isn’t about business – its about servers.

We just bought all the parts, and will be assembling it within the week  Here is the load-out:

1 – Quad-Core Processor
4 – 2TB HDD’s in RAID 5
6 – 4GB Ram – 24GB total

It should be able to handle quite a bit of growth for SteepleWeb (and the few other sites we host on it)!

• Ability to comment on training logs
• Ability to comment on custom pages
• Points & Gender field for meets
• Ability to add points with a result
• Ability to create a roster for each season (instead of just 1 per year)

Not to mention numerous bug fixes that you’ve been reporting since our 2.0.0 release.  Also some optimizations to improve speed.  If you notice any issues with these new features, please let us know.

Past 2.0.0 and Not looking Back!
We appreciate everyone’s patience with the migration to 2.0.0 – it was a big change, but a big change that is really going to let SteepleWeb grow and be so much more useful to you – our users!

We now have a system in place for automatic error reports – so anytime an error does occur on your site – we receive full error report that gives us all the information required to solve the issue. This means that SteepleWeb will become a much more stable & reliable product as we continue to add features.

Some New Designs
We’ve had a designer get us some more templates – so that means that hopefully soon, you will have some more options as to how your site looks – and trust, they will look good!  Hopefully more on this soon!

Keep Getting out the door each day, the cold is good for you

Nate & Brad

So you may be wondering “where are all the new great features?”  Well, they aren’t here yet, but they are going to be here soon.  After a solid year of testing SteepleWeb with a handful of beta testing teams, we need to make some significant changes to really bring the features and usability that our teams were looking for.  It was a massive database change – so while not evening getting new features – they are actually a few bugs we have to work out.

Have no fear though, because once we get these bugs fixed, we are going to start brining you the updates that you’ve requested.  We’ve already implemented Facebook adn twitter integration for the users (still at beta stage, but users can sync their Facebook and twitter account, post to these outlets after logging up a run, for example).  Also, a user can now be part of multiple teams – we had a few users that had their high school and collegiate teams on SteepleWeb – now they can be a part of both sites.

We are working with a designer to bring more templates – which means your team sites are going to start looking a lot better cause i’m not designing anymore!  We are planning on giving each team the option to change their template whenever they want – and allowing each team to edit their local css file to give the greatest control over what your site looks like.  But don’t worry, Brad and I are still here to help you get your site looking how you want.

What we are Looking to Become

The new vision for SteepleWeb is to become the home of everything for running.  There are plenty of great running websites out there (flotrack, dyestat, etc..) – so why are we trying to be the center of the running world?  Because no other service out there offers what SteepleWeb offers – a home website for your team.  All the features in SteepleWeb are unrivaled – no other service will give you everything SW will give you.

Results, videos, pictures, and training log – its all going to be available at steeple-web.com – it will be the culmination and center of all the SW sites.

Soon, we will have built-in meet registration system, and meet results upload.  This means that if you are hosting a meet, you can take all the registrations online, and then dump that file for use in Hy-tek.  After the meet is done, you can export the results from Hy-tek into the SW database.  The benefits for your team and the sport will be groundbreaking!

Thank You

Thanks to all our beta testing teams – over a year of feedback from you has helped SteepleWeb grow tremendously.  We are planning to roll out an referral program – so you will get rewarded for brining more teams to SteepleWeb.

We will keep you updated as we continue to grow.  Thanks for using SteepleWeb!

Left to Right: Nic Atkinson, Nate Atkinson, Brad Runnion, Bryan Conger - Team SteepleWeb - winners of the first Charleston 40 Mile Relay

I’m not too in shape, but thank goodness the other guys are!  I was certainly our weak leg, but I still ran pretty well – so I was happy.  And I actually ran 11 miles when it was all said and done!

Before we start talking about the race though, I’ve got to share this great little “instruction manual” that was in the bathroom (keep in mind, we were at an elementary school).

How to Pee

Alright, on to the race.  It was cold, and rainy out – it is November after all, so its expected.  We ran southwest of town – some of my favorite areas to run at.  Started off on a Woody’s – Bryan started us off, ran about 3 miles, then handed-off to me, and I ran about 3.5 miles, then handed off to Rooster – who ran about 3.3 miles, and then Brad, who ran about 3.3 miles.  This continued until we ran 40 miles!

The route was great, I liked the weather (although i’m sure some didn’t), and I enjoyed the company.  I hadn’t seen Brad for a while, and Brad is someone I talk to nearly every day with SteepleWeb work.  Bryan is a freshman at EIU, and he is really a great guy – he joined the team well, a great addition.

Next year we hope to have 2 teams and hope to break 4 hours (we ran 4:06).  Enjoy the selected pictures below (the full album is here on Flickr )

There is a large technical change with version 2, so there is some expected downtime in the near future (Hopefully October), when there will be some database changes that will pave the way for the future changes.

When version 2.0.0 rolls-out, you probably won’t see all the features we’ve told you about – but dont’ worry, they will come.  2.0.0 will lay the groundwork for all our future changes, and get SteepleWeb ready to go out of beta in the summer of 2011.

Appreciate all the feedback from our testing teams – and I’m excited to be doing some real coding and making all these cool changes.  But my fiance gets a little annoyed when I have trouble sleeping because I’m running through code in my head while I sleep.

Peace
-Nate

• Training Log: Correctly add activity in different measurements (miles, kilometers, yards, meters)
• Training Log: New Fields (laps, cadence, rpms)
• Fix for different Timezones
• Documents: Elevated Documents – will keep documents on the frontpage and at the top of the documents page until de-selected
• Documents: Make Public – allow a document to be downloaded without the user logging into the site
• User Registration: Can customize the welcome message for new users, and can also choose between 3 levels of user registration modes: none, user, admin.   Admin is recomended, as it does not activate a new user account until the site administrator has done so.
• Frontpage settings have changed so that the number of items shown on the frontpage can be selected, and “days” is no longer used.  This will keep the frontpage more consistent for users

Please comment or contact us with any feedback or suggestions

Nate