We are glad to inform you that SkadateCS.com has now become a public resource free for anyone to join. We welcome everybody seeking or offering professional customization services for SkaDate Dating Software.

At this point we need your assistance. If you’ve ever had SkaDate modifications done by a third-party specialist, and liked the quality of the services provided – refer the developer to SkadateCS.com, and send your positive review to SkadateCS administration. We will be glad to add the contractor you’ve recommended to the Featured List, thus helping other SkadateCS customers find the right person to trust their projects to.

You can learn more about SkadateCS news at SkaDate Dating Software blog.

Best regards,
SkaDate Team

This is to notify that our US head office moved to Salem, Oregon and changed organization form to LLC. From now on our official company details are the following:

Skalfa LLC
942 Windmere Dr NW
Salem OR, 97304
Phone: 971-239-5964

We will update our websites with the new details shortly.

Other locations worldwide are unchanged.

We are glad to announce launching a new build of SkaDate Dating Script – 7.5.1877

SkaDate Dating Software now features even more colorful community templates, popular user features and site administration improvements.

Below is what you will find in SkaDate 7.5.1877:

USER FEATURES

Three new templates: Avatar, Dream Date, Guys

Facebook contacts import

Your members have a great opportunity to invite their Facbook friends to join your site. A perfect promotional tool for your online dating business!

Possibility to add RSS feeds from third-party resources

Your site members can make their profile page more interesting and attractive by adding RSS feeds from their favorite resources

Categories for video

Categories for video will make it easier for your site members to browse the uploaded clips.

Possibility to start new conversations from the Mailbox

Site users can start new conversations right from the mailbox. For their convenience, the system will offer auto-complete options from the friends list for the addressee field.

Forum improvements:

- possibility to attach files to forum posts

- possibility to insert pictures to a forum post body

- possibility to send private messages from the forum post view page

ADMIN FEATURES

Notification about new member registration

To provide faster profile review and maximum attention to the new registered users, site Admins have an option to enable new member registration notifications to email.

Classifieds items approval tool

Site Admins can choose whether new classified items will be approved automatically or manually.

SITE FEATURES

Geo-targeted advertisement

SkaDate Dating Software has come up with another tool for making your ad campaigns even more efficient. Geo-targeted ads allow you to reach the target audience with the content that depends on the visitor’s location.

PHP 5.3 support

SkaDate now supports PHP 5.3 in order to keep up with the latest coding standards.

There have been done a few fixes and usability improvements, which has made SkaDate Dating Script more stable and user-friendly.

Learn more about the new SkaDate build at our Dating Software Blog, check the Live Demo and ask your questions from our pre-sales team 24/7 at www.skadate.com.

Kind regards
SkaDate Team

Greetings to all SkaDate dating software customers, and those thinking to join our team.

We have an update on SkaDate individual ticket support service.

First of all, we have come up with a long-awaited decision to provide one month of individual ticket support for free to all new SkaDate dating script customers. We understand how difficult it may be for site owners to deal with a management system of professional dating software at the initial stage. Our support operators will be glad to assist you with mastering SkaDate dating software configuration tips, thus tailoring the site to your needs.

Another news is a slight change in SkaDate ticket support hours. From April 7, 2010 we have been providing individual ticket support from 9 am to 6 pm (GMT +6, Monday-Friday) instead of the former 10 am to 7 pm schedule.

We hope the changes in our support service will become another advantage for building a successful business with SkaDate dating script.

Best regards,
SkaDate Team

Hello all,

SkaDate Team is glad to present a new SkaDate dating software build – 7.5.1550.

It comes with new features, usability enhancements and minor bug fixes. This is what you will find in SkaDate 7.5.1550:

• Improved User Points system

• New Latest Activity items

• Official safari support

• Integration of Honesty Online background check service

• Possibility to disable the ‘Latest Activity’ feature in the Admin Panel

• Possibilitiy to add emoticons to the status line on the Memberhome page

• Possibility for Site Administrator to set the number of profiles displayed in the ‘Friends List’

• Usability improvements

Learn more about the new SkaDate dating script build, check the Live Demo and ask your questions from our pre-sales operators 24/7 at www.SkaDate.com.

Best regards,
SkaDate Team

Dating and community software market has expanded greatly influenced by overwhealming success of such website industry giants as Facebook, MySpace, Match.com and eHarmony. An idea of starting a dating site or a social network that would grow into a multimillion-turnover business sounds incredibly tempting. Live examples of such dream-come-true models add more fuel to the web site-building fever.

The variety of community and dating site solutions offered in the market today is amazing: freeware, CMS, paid software solutions and hosted web platforms. Each has its own advantages and shortcomings. And before you start building a site of your dream you have to think carefully which way to go as to choosing the platform for your project. Let me walk you through pros and cons of major site-building solutions to help you make the right choice matching your expectations and opportunities.

Let’s start with freeware, which is a free community/dating script. Before you dig for details it looks like a perfect chance to build a website without spending a penny. But in reality it doesn’t work exactly that way. Freeware solutions are normally developed with potential for further improvement by webmasters. Which means that most likely you will not get some of the desired site features in the default package. It is usually a platform with basic functionality accompanied by development manuals and requiring a professional programmer touch to turn into a competitive dating or community network.
Pros: Since the script itself is free – you actually lose nothing by giving it a try. Pretty often the essential plugins for a free platform are offered by a vendor for extra fee. However, if the software is popular – you will face no lack of support communities and freelancers knowing the given code’s inside outs.
Cons: If you don’t have skills in coding, or at least a dedicated developer who you can trust – think twice before starting with freeware (especially if it is not so well-known). Chances are, you will not be able to get it work the way you need without proper customization. Another unpleasant ‘might-be’ is that after weeks (or months) of studying the code architecture and developing plugins for it you come to a conclusion that this particular script is still not doing it for you. This can be a huge disappointment, especially if you are limited in time. Also, quite possibly you will find yourself unable to remove the vendor’s copyright or advertisement, as the code (even stated to be an open source) may contain licensed or encrypted files.
Advice: Better forget about an idea of creating a really professional and competitive community site for free. This will never happen, even if you go with freeware. If you want your project to work for you – be prepared to invest. And a free opensource script may become just the right platform for building your dream, but only in case the software is of a good quality, and there is someone who knows what he’s doing when it comes to web programming.

Now, let’s move to paid software. Usually these are turn-key solutions that just need installing to a server for you to get an up and running site. Sounds like magic, and this is why they cost money. Paid dating scripts are supposed to have all essential features to make your site complete and ready for the first visitor. On top of that, you should get a variety of professional site templates, which will ease the designing issue.
Pros: are obvious. You have all chances to build a ’serious’ website even if you don’t have extensive skills in coding. Paid dating software vendors normally offer installation services, so you won’t need to bother about getting the site up. Plus, you get support service and regular updates and version upgrades, which means that your site features will always be up-to-date.
Cons: Having a ready-made website you might still want its conception to be unique, which means that you will go for custom design and probably want to add new features and integrate third-party applications. And here we are stuck at code modifications again. Most paid dating script vendors offer customization services though, so you shouldn’t have problems with finding a skilled developer.
Advice: Choosing a suitable paid script you should pay attention at two main aspects – source code encryption and features included in the default community software package. Quite often software vendors that state providing an open source code still leave some files licensed or encrypted, which makes it difficult or even impossible to perform certain code modifications. So be sure to confirm this before purchase. Also, don’t get immediately attracted by a low price. In most cases it stands for a basic-complectation package that might not include such essentials as chat, forum, blogs, video sharing, events etc. As a rule, these ‘additional’ features are sold as plugins for extra fee. So the full-featured package cost with the necessary plugins included might get twice as high.

Hosted web platforms are quite popular, as they can be a great solution for those willing to start a communtiy site in a fast and easy way. This is usually a service allowing you to build your own site hosted on a vendor’s server.
Pros: Site-building process is simple, and requires almost no efforts from your side. No coding knowledge involved. If you are seeking to start your own social network that would be easy and fun to manage at minimum expenses – a hosted web platform might be the perfect solution.
Cons: Your site will be hosted on a vendor’s server, so forget about access to the software source code. This means that you will not be able to customize your web site (change design or add new features), and the only option is to go for additional plugins that might cost extra. Developer’s branding and advertisement removal is either impossible or requires monthly payments. Often you are not allowed to use your own domain name, so your site URL will be a vendor’s subdomain. Besides, as the number of site members reaches a certain limit – you will most likely be asked to pay for hosting your network.
Advice: If the reason you are starting a web site is not just a spontaneous wish to check what it’s like, but a mature decision to build your own business – better find out all details before stepping into this. Confirm how vendor’s conditions will change once your network grows really big. Make sure that you will be able to transfer your members database to another software should the need occur. If you are building a web site with specific conception – check if this kind of content is accepted by the service provider, otherwise your network might be deleted.
To sum it up, a hosted web platform can be a great solution for the newbies in online dating business provided they can handle all the cons.

CMS stands for Content Management System, which sounds quite self-explanatory. This is a basic platform with a standard set of features that can be modified into a web site accomodating your needs.
Pros: You can turn it into almost anything, starting with a dating site, and ending with an e-commerce shopping cart.
Cons: It’s not the right choice for those with no coding skills. Just like any universal system, it might be fairly good for a great lot of projects, but never too good for a particular one. In other words, it will not have that specific set of opportunities a specialized script provides.
Advice: If you are seeking to build a specialized niche web site with a CMS – call for a good developer. If you do not have enough coding skills – it will be hard to impossible for you to get the site work and look the way you need.

Of course, this is not the ultimate software solutions guide. There is much more to find, test and learn. But at least it is something to start an online venture path with. Be sure to choose the right solution and the right script as it forms the basis of your future success.

If you have questions, or a piece of experience to share – feel free to post your comments.

Image sources: i.ehow.com, granite5.com, ukvirtual-college.co.uk

Today we are happy to inform all SkaDate community members that SkaDate dating and community software has taken its place among iDate 2010 Awards Finalists in the ‘Best Dating Software Provider’ nomination. We wouldn’t be able to make it without your help and support. And we would like to thank each and every one of your for contributing into our success! The nomination winners will be announced at the iDate Awards ceremony on January 28, 2010 in Miami Beach during the Internet Dating Conference, where SkaDate Dating Software Company will be represented by the CEO Emil Sarnogoev.

Keep your fingers crossed for us, and thank you for being a great support!

Best regards,
SkaDate Team

Greetings to all the blog readers and Skalfa news followers!

We have something new for you today. From now on you will be able to read about SkaDate Dating Software news and updates at the new SkaDate blog.

We will continue informing you about all important events, provide useful information on site promotion and maintenance, and keep you updated on SkaDate dating and community software news.

Feel free to check out the new blog, read about the latest SkaDate software release, post comments and share your opinion, which has always been important to us.

Kind regards,

SkaDate Team

Greetings everybody!

SkaDate Team is glad to express the warmest congratulations on Christmas and New Year Holidays! We wish you best luck in all your endeavours, and may your life be filled with love and happiness!

We would also like to inform you that we will be out of office for New Year Holidays from December 30, 2009 to January 4, 2010.

So, see you in the New Year which will hopefully bring even more positive events and achievements!

Best Regards and Happy New Year,
SkaDate Team

Image source: thedigeratilife.com

Those of you having a community website inevitably have to deal with processing users information such as name, e-mail, telephone number, sometimes residential address and even billing details. It’s not that everone is happy to share it with a site owner, but almost any registration form requires a user’s private details. In order to gain trust of your existing and potential members from the very start you have to explain (clearly and honestly) what kind of personal information you keep track of, why you need it and how you use it. That’s what a Privacy Policy is needed for: to reassure users that their private data is safe in your hands. Nothing sophisticated of course, but requiring serious attention.

If we speak about a ‘king-size’ business attracting special attention of law-keepers – it is better to hire a professional lawyer for writing a Privacy Policy, as an incorrect privacy statement may seriously affect your business. Otherwise, you can perfectly handle writing a Privacy Policy by yourself. As an option, you can take one of the numerous Privacy Policy samples on the Internet, and adjust it for your website. Just take into account the tips given below.

1) Tell what personal information you collect from your website users, and why.
Your website members have a legal right to know what types of their private data you will have access to. You have to list everything: name, e-mail address, telephone, IP address etc. Then you should explain what you need that data for, and how it is going to be shared within and probably outside your company. Your aim is to assure users that their personal information will not be used in any way abusing your privacy. Give special attention to this part to avoid any possible legal issues.

2) Give an explanation accompanied with certain examples on why members’ information is safe in your hands.
By filling up your Privacy Policy with broad security statements wrapped in technical language you make it look ’sophisticated’, which is not a synonim to ‘good’. Remember that most of your site visitors are not experienced webmasters, and reading something like ‘Security Socket Layer’ and ‘encryption’ they will most likely have a feeling that you are hiding something behind the technicalisms. So, better build your explanation on plain English clearly indicating what measures you take to protect their private correspondence and billing details, and what makes your servers secure. You should also give a try to explaining special terms, but don’t go too deep though. Being brief and clear is a key point.

3) Give the site members access to viewing and editing their private details.
Having an option to access and change the personal information at any moment site users feel more confident about sharing their personal details with you. So you should tell where and how they can do this, and how editing profile info might influence their membership status and profile page availability.

4) Show your members a ‘way out’.
In other words, specify how they will be able to terminate their site membership in case of being dissatisfied with your services, or due to any other reason. It is always sad to lose customers, no doubts. But if you give users an option to leave whenever they want, and with no headache – they will definitely feel more relaxed about subscribing for your service. From your part it is required to indicate where and how they can delete a profile or unsubscribe from mass-mailing, and what will happen to their private data after they are no longer on your team. Remember that most site visitors would read your Privacy Policy just for finding that out.

5) Keep your site member aware of possible Privacy Policy updates.
Some companies practice periodical Privacy Policy revising that results in minor or global changes. If you have plans for such occasional or regular updates – let your members know by including a notification that would sound like: ‘Our Privacy Policy is revised on a regular basis, so please check for updates’.

My final advice is – make your Privacy Policy honest and easy to understand. This will help you gain trust of your site users, and will give them a good feeling about your business.

I hope this information will be helpful for SkaDate community and dating script customers, and for those only thinking to start their own online dating business.

Best wishes,
Irene

Image sources:  destateparks.com, mistera.co.uk, elitewebmail.com