So, as the title says, we're making some changes. As I've been rather absent from this tribe, uh, busy with "other things", I want to explain to you what's going through our heads around these changes.

But first, and foremost, thanks for all the valuable input. We hear you and appreciate your feedback. But most importantly, we want you to know that we've gone and actually put that feedback to use, and have developed something that we sincerely hope will accomodate all of your (very different) needs.

Secondly, it's been awhile. We launched this Option A / Option B thing approximately 5 months ago, which was necessary because our major release in January of 2006 left much to be desired (see tribes.tribe.net/january2006 if you missed out on that). While we've been quiet over the past few months, we've been working on making some changes that we think will improve the experience. We're adding some things, and we're undoing some other things. That's as much as I want to say now, and if all goes well, we'll be able to fill you in pretty soon.

With respect to your homepage, I will tell you this. Home pages are notoriously hard to design--especially when they're for a site like ours, because people like some things more than they like other things. The best thing that we can do for our users is to give them the tools to manage, control, or customize their experience, and then get the heck out of the way. So, that's what we plan to do. You won't be "forced" to live with a single layout. You'll be given a standard template, along with the controls to put things where you want to put them. It's not perfect, and it might not have all the features in there that everyone wants, but it's a great starting point to build off of, and it's a huge improvement on what we have now... or at least we think it is. And that's where you come in.

We're looking for some folks who can come in to our offices next week (here in San Francisco) and help kick the tires on our new stuff.

If you're interested, here's what you can do:

1. Send me an email (gary at tribe.net) or a personal message with the following information:
a) What days work for you (9/11, 9/12, 9/13)
b) What times work for you (2pm, 3:30pm, 5pm) (sessions will run for about an hour)
c) Your Email & Phone

2. If we can schedule you in, I'll confirm the info w/y'all.

3. To compensate you for your time and effort, we can offer you a $20 Amazon Gift Certificate, a good time, and our appreciation.

Please note that we do have limited slots, and while we will try our best to accomodate, we want to aim for getting in as diverse a group in as possible.

Thanks for listening!