[moved] How Did Penpal-Gate Start? Comments and suggestions

Vedlen, can you tell me more about this site,please, how did it start? how any people is using it ? or whatever you wanna share!
greetings

Hey,

What do you want to know about it? There are nearly 19 thousands members as I'm writing this, and the project started about 2 years ago. I started it because at the time I was looking for pen-pals back a few years ago, I couldn't find a site with the ergonomics I was looking for. That's why I decided to build my own penpal site, along with a friend who's a web designer. We've really put a lot of work on it but now I'm basically the only one taking care of the community 90% of the time.

I'm new here, but I think you guys did a pretty good job.. I guess since you're the one taking care of the place most of the time, you probably got stuck with the tab too eh? I bet it can be pretty costly to have some ISP host this site, especially with this many members (and growing).. You know, it probably wouldn't hurt to set up a way for donations, many people love this site and would love to see it always up and running.. I would even donate.. Overall, I can't think of anything to add, but I do have two suggestions - I did not see an option to turn off sounds or email notifications..

Other than that, keep up the good work!
-racerx

I'm new here, but I think you guys did a pretty good job.. I guess since you're the one taking care of the place most of the time, you probably got stuck with the tab too eh? I bet it can be pretty costly to have some ISP host this site, especially with this many members (and growing).. You know, it probably wouldn't hurt to set up a way for donations, many people love this site and would love to see it always up and running.. I would even donate.. Overall, I can't think of anything to add, but I do have two suggestions - I did not see an option to turn off sounds or email notifications..

Other than that, keep up the good work!
-racerx

Thank you for appreciating our work. 🙂 A donation box hasn't been set up for a couple reasons:
- most of the members are teens and teens tend to not donate (which I understand too);
- members who are willing to donate can do it by upgrading their account to VIP.

Yes, hosting a site costs definitely way more than most people think. I'm sure 99% think it's even free! 😉

There is an option to turn off sounds ("My account" section). However there is no option to turn off (all) email notifications. I thought about this, then got stuck with too much work and I guess I focused on features that would be noticed more than this one. But you're right!

hey vedlen...any news about the separate (by language) chat-rooms ? 😃

Sorry for the late reply. Chat-rooms separated in different languages is not on the list of upcoming changes (as of today)