From:Mark Virtue - HarmonySite <mark@harmonysite.com>
Sent:Monday, 21 December 2015 5:23:47pm
To:announcements@harmonysite.net
Subject:New features for your HarmonySite

Dear HarmonySite Administrator,

 

We have several new features to announce that have been recently added to the HarmonySite software...

 

New Module:  Singing Valentines (beta)

 

Many HarmonySite groups (specifically Barbershop choruses) have been asking for a Singing Valentines module, so they can sell Singing Valentines packages leading up to Valentine's Day 2016.  This module is now ready.  It's very comprehensive...

 

·         Several different Singing Valentines packages can be offered.  For example, you may wish to offer a "Standard" package and a "Deluxe" package, with the Deluxe package including an extra song, a dozen red roses and a box of chocolates.

·         You can nominate what timeslots are available, on various dates

·         If you want, you can allow your site visitors to select which quartet they would prefer to deliver the Singing Valentine

·         The system will collect the recipient's name,  the sender's name, the delivery location, the name and contact details of the contact person at the delivery location (possibly someone other than the recipient or the sender), a preferred timeslot, a preferred quartet, and special instructions.

·         Various payment methods are available, including secure credit card via the HarmonySite shopping cart system

·         A booking management page is provided, where the Singing Valentines coordinator can see all bookings at a glance, and assign to each booking a timeslot and a quartet

·         The updated details of a booking can be emailed to the booker with one click

·         A summary of all bookings for one quartet can be emailed to a quartet with one click

 

Please keep in mind that this system is still in "beta" - it's not fully tested.  If you wish to use it, please put through at least one test booking before opening it up to the general public.

 

To set up Singing Valentines on your HarmonySite, please follow the instructions in this page:

 

                www.harmonysite.com/guides/valentines.htm

 

 

Other Changes

 

The following changes and enhancements have also been incorporated into the HarmonySite software...

 

·         It is now possible, when selling tickets to events, to specify a "minimum quantity" for a ticket pricing option.  This will allow you to sell blocks of tickets with discounted pricing.  For example:  "Tickets are $30.  Buy 10 or more and they're only $25 each."

·         The Polls system has been enhanced:

o   Polls can now by NON-anonymous.  In the past, every poll was anonymous.  Now this is an option.  Note: This option can't be changed for a poll after at least one vote has been received

o   The visibility of poll results is now selectable by the creator of the poll.  You can elect that poll results are available to all members at all times (the old behaviour), or that members must vote before they can see the results, or that only administrators can see the results.

·         The "Send SMS" page now allows you to select what set (grouping) of members you want to send the SMS to.  It also has a handy "select/unselect all" checkbox.  And each member's mobile number is now visible on that page.

·         Better obfuscation of emails.  As you will be aware, email addresses like president@mygroup.com are shown publicly on your HarmonySite.  Email spammers attempt to automatically read ("scrape") such email addresses from websites, to add them to their vast database of email addresses for future spamming.  We had already taken some simple preventative measures to obfuscate the email addresses on our site (make them harder to automatically read), but those measures probably weren't enough.  We've now beefed up our obfuscation.  It should now be next to impossible for spammers to read such email addresses from your website and add them to their databases.  However, the email addresses should still be perfectly visible and functional for human beings.

 

Finally, we've installed a "Live Chat" facility on www.harmonysite.com, to allow visitors to that site to chat with me and other HarmonySite representatives.  If you visit www.harmonysite.com, you'll find a green "Live Chat" widget/tab at the bottom-right of the page.  This can be used instead of email to get quick answers to questions (if me or our other support techs are online).

 

Merry Christmas to all our clients,

 

Mark Virtue

HarmonySite

Australia

+61 2 8005 4277 (Australian number)

In North America, call:  1-415-651-7009 (San Francisco number)

Skype name:  mvirtue

mark@harmonysite.com

www.harmonysite.com

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