All about Skalfa web-projects.
We decided to set up brand new WackWall blog and separate it from this one. Multiple blogs are harder to manage but they make ordinary user’s life easier. Guess what we choose?
It’s not completely ready yet so we will make some tweaking but from now on all info about the ongoing WackWall/Xitti updates will be posted there.
Find it here: blog.WackWall.com. Please update your bookmarks and RSS feeds.
Believe it or not but Xitti Adult Social Network Builder is finally live.
We worked very hard on it because Xitti introduces OpenWack – our new community software platform. Now you can check it live in action. We worked on this new software for more than a year to solve specific technical problems on modern community sites. Now it’s available for you.
Beta
Of course, Xitti is beta at this point so you shouldn’t use it for production sites yet. It even lacks some necessary features which we postponed to release earlier. But at this point we are working to introduce all basic functionality for a community site, so hold on.
Troubleshooting
What’s important to remember is that this is a new software platform which is yet to mature. Although at this point it’s pretty stable you will still find problems in there (guaranteed! 
). Please don’t hesitate to let us know.
Feedback
Problem reports, suggestions and (of course) opinions are hearty welcome at our Discussion/Help board: GetSatisfaction.com/Xitti.
Help us test Xitti to receive after-beta benefit: FREE LIFETIME hosting!
What’s next?
Xitti comes to host adult social networks from WackWall social network builder. WackWall will no longer host adult content and will also be converted to the new software platform with the existing social networks that are still alive. Watch news!
At this very moment we are setting up servers and doing final testing of OpenWack platform that will power WackWall social network builder tool after the big relaunch.
With that relaunch we are introducing one more change – we will divide adult communities from the rest of the WackWall society. This is a necessary step because there was a huge demand from our users to do that. Both parts will have free unlimited beta period. After the end of beta period we will start charging adult comminities small monthly fee.
We will start converting adult communities first and move them to Xitti – the adult division of WackWall. The owners of adult communities will receive email with necessary instructions from us once we are ready to start.
So please be patient, we are very close and are currently working on setting up network environment for the new platform. Cross your fingers and wish the upgrade goes smoothly to the joy of your members!
OK, you’ve heard this phrase already at least once. But now we really mean it. We are preparing the new software platform OpenWack as WackWall underlying technology. We are in the phase of finishing planned feature set and starting alpha-testing. Given the simplicity and robustness of the new platform we will deploy the live open beta-testing some time later this month.
First of all we will launch the new platform on Xitti.com – the adult division of WackWall and migrate adult social networks there. This is the plan for this month. The second stage will be deploying on WackWall.com – this will come later.
Yes, we had to decide where to compromise. As one of our customers rightfully suggested we will start with minimum working new platform and iterate quickly to iron out bugs and to extend functionality – all according to your feedback. Exciting times are coming for WackWall and we can’t wait to show you around. Just a little bit more time!
You can track OpenWack progress on the blog and on Twitter.
Cross your fingers and wait to see some fresh stuff to impress your users!
This is that time of the year again. On the first day of winter we celebrate the birthday of Skalfa eCommerce. Today we hit the 5 year milestone.
Let me go a little personal here. When 5 years ago I announced starting a new company I was not nearly confident it’s going to shoot. We needed to start from scratch after the first year so we were a software product company without a product. Hell, that was tough but that was the time we again proved the simple truth – gather talents and build something people want. That worked. Any piece of software can be built if you have capable people on your tank and some passionate customers to start with. Some people were very early to grasp values we were aiming at.
Now SkaDate is one of the most recognizable names in the online dating software world. We never aimed at “growing big” but grew 5 times in staff – by customer need.
Thank you all for supporting us all these years. By using our products and telling us where we need to improve you’ve been pushing us forward. A lot of your ideas are surprising and encouraging. Every time we raise another big project on SkaDate I feel excited about how people use our software. I hope to enjoy it years and years on. The upcoming year is going to be revolutionary for our company with the launch of new open source and SaaS products in our core competence marketplace. Watch our progress, we want to share that with you.
Happy Birthday Skalfa!
Happy Thanksgiving to all our customers!
You’ve been a fantastic crowd all these years. Thanks to your demand and feedback we’ve developed military discipline when serving you. Thanks to your patience we’ve been able to polish our shortcomings and actually improve all across our bottom line. Thanks to your insight we’ve created a marvelous product. Thanks to your ideas we’ve been able to take part in raising the best dating and community sites on the Internet.
All Skalfa employees in the USA, Czech Republic, Kyrgyz Republic and Russia want to wish you happy Thanksgiving, terrific Christmas shopping season, and new successful endeavors in the upcoming year.
Thank you guys.
Emil Sarnogoev
CEO
Skalfa eCommerce
Hey, today we have some more news than just fabulous we-are-working-on-WackWall-2.0 one. We have successfully finished deploying new set of management features for the current WackWall platform.
From now on Network Admnistrators can:
- Remove your social network from WackWall;
- Remove all kinds of content from your social network;
- Remove comments from all kinds of content on your social network;
- Ban users.
These features were long due and we took our time to release them now instead of further forcing to wait for them in the upcoming grand re-launch.
Feel free to submit feedback at dev.wackwall.com.
Looks like OpenWack.org site is kind of online. With that we want to announce that OpenWack is the future engine for WackWall webservice and is currently in the works.
Read the site materials to get the basic understanding of OpenWack and visit its blog: OpenWack.org/blog. This will be a separate blog devoted to OpenWack platform only. As its preface is the article about what OpenWack is and how it will work for you.
As the first launch of this year we set up WackWorld Expo (the name resembles something to me??) website as a source of information about anything related to WackWall and OpenWack.
Things are rather quiet on both projects’ camps only because background works are in progress. Think OpenWack = timebomb. As of this moment WackWorld Expo is the medium of information about WackWall status quo and semi-official OpenWack development log.
Pay attention that we plan to make WackWorld Expo an independent resource as soon as it can live without our contribution. Learn how you can be involved.
I’m writing this message to reveal the Skalfa master plan for this year. 2009 is here and I want to share the most significant parts of it with you.
First of all, I’m proud that we didn’t suffer any layoffs in the current global economic climate. Skalfa entered its 5th year of existence as a securely profitable entity with stable market positions and steady growth. Another thing that I want to specially mark is the talents we have on our tank. When you have so much bright people under one roof there’s something amazing got to be born.
So far we have achieved remarkable footprint in the small community business market with our flagship product, SkaDate. Our recent release of SkaDate 7 is already showing the world the new level of community tools, showing us the next stage of community management problems, and the new objectives for the development of the product. In 2009 SkaDate will continue extending its feature set but will also integrate several solutions from 3rd parties, such as SMS billing, scam/fraud control tools, image tools, background checks, etc. This is an important step to take in the direction of helping businesses decide their actual problems, not merely providing technical tools. Another important aspect of SkaDate development is refining and fine-tuning the existing features. This is where we hugely rely on customer feedback, and SkaDate 7 is the result.
To extend the portfolio of services to support SkaDate we are working on creating SkaDate Marketplace – a place where certified specialists can offer their services to the end users. Finally, we are looking into signing several deals with software companies for custom development partnership on the base of SkaDate. We think that the diversity of service offers for SkaDate is going to create huge benefit for the customers and will contribute to our goal – producing more quality online dating sites.
Let me use this opportunity to shed some light on the current state of things with the two projects: OpenWack, and WackWall.
Currently we are working on the new OpenWack platform which is going to be the new engine for WackWall, and also available as an open source community software package under the GPL license. Yes, Skalfa eCommerce enters free software market this year. We are actively working on the prototypes and concepts.
WackWall is going to stay a place where you can create your own social network or online collaboration/communication tool within minutes, absolutely free. Being based on OpenWack platform is going to greatly diversify its features, possibilities, and purposes of use. Expect the major boost of these with the WackWall 2.0 relaunch on the OpenWack platform.
OpenWack is planned to highly rely on 3rd party development and support. We will have more details for you on that later.
While working on major projects we always worked on several minor ones. Those are for our own needs, value-added services for the existing solutions, and simply tiny useful products that are fun to develop. Expect some shutdowns and launches from us this year because we have to keep focus on things we do best of all – building impressive community tools, and at the same time we need to enhance our offers with value-added services.
2009 is the year that every entity must keep laser-sharp focus on the core of its business. Take this global recession as not a slowdown but a chance to streamline your operations, clear out your goals, reduce costs, and find new opportunities for your business. We are proud to work with you.
Thank you,
Emil Sarnogoev
CEO
Skalfa eCommerce
