toksta*

Today we released our beautiful Wiki in which we will post FAQs, help on typical problems and a lot of How-To’s describing the power of the simple toksta API and the flexiblity of the toksta implementation script.

You can also see an implementation script, get an overview on useful Javascript calls or known bugs. If you are missing anything in particular which you think might be also useful for a broad audicence, please let us know at support at toksta . com

toksta wiki: http://wiki.toksta.com

Tags: customization, implementation, wiki

Nobody likes deadlines (including me). But sometimes they are necessary. In our case we have set the initial deadline to upgrade to the new and shiny toksta v2.0 to today (Friday, June 12th at 11:59pm).

Around 87% of all toksta clients have already managed to upgrade and some are currently still working on it. BUT this blog post would not exist if we wouldn’t have received many mails begging for an extension of the deadline. I have no detailed stats but the #1 reason was by far: “Our developer got sick!” So I guess a lot of developers have caught a nasty virus these days..

But guess what: We knew this would happen! So we are fine with prolonging the deadline for the upgrade until:

+++ Wednesday, June 17th at 11:59pm (MET) +++

So please upgrade your implementation code until this date because we will definately stop supporting toksta v1.0 on Wednesday, June 17th. And trust me: No mercy this time..!

Don’t hesitate to contact our support if you have any questions but get going and make sure your developers get well soon…

- Felix

Tags: deadline, sick developers, toksta 2.0, upgrade

Being a big fan of Googles new browser Chrome, we were always anxious to add support for chrome asap. In the first version this was not possible due to missing cross domain support of the browser. Since the new release of v2.0 (get it here) we could finally make it work. So now you can enjoy toksta with all major browsers: IE 6, 7 & 8, Firefox 3, Safari (Mac) and Google Chrome 2.0.  Enjoy!

Tags: chrome, new features, supported browsers

On June 10th, Mike Butcher will bring TechCrunch back to Berlin! We have already been at the last event in 2008 wich was awsome and also gave us the opportunity to interview Mike, so make sure to get the last tickets and for all startups: apply for pitching (if you are from Germany or Austria)!

Looking forward to see you there!

Tags: pitch, Techcrunch

Today we released the beta version of our toksta chat rooms application. I can’t remember if there has ever been a feature (or rather an application) requested as heavily as the chat room!! And as requested we kept the UI simple and clean to minimize chances that the layout of the chat room does not fit the design of your community. Or in other words: to maximize the possibility for you to customize the chat. Because similar to our toksta video im, the chat is fully design customizable through css.

The beta version of the chat room also features:

• up to 25 people per room
• unlimited private chats
• css design customization
• easy administration and user moderation
• a lightweight html and javascript client
• and much more!

If you register as a new user at www.toksta.com, you get a 15-day free trial on all plans and applications including the chat room application. After the 15-day free trial, we charge 15.00 USD per 30 days for each chat room. If you have an existing toksta account, please check if you are still in the trial period in order test the chat room for free for the remaining days.

And as always: Please let us know your feedback and questions at support [at] toksta [dot] com

- Felix

Tags: beta, chat room, new release

As we continue to grow it was time to expand our hardware capacities. So for the last couple of days our awesome server admin Frank did the magic and set up what you see below. He did also not forget to mention that all of our servers are in the same datacenter as the BCIX (Berlin Commercial Internet Exchange) and that we have:

• several time redundant connections
• redundant power supplies
• hardware-loadbalancing
• 100% open source software (linux for all servers and freebsd for the loadbalancers) 
• and a lot of other cool stuff that only admins understand…

Tags: Bling, hardware power, server

Here is another interview with Redg Snodgrass from skout.com whom I’ve met during the iDate in Miami:

What is Skout?

You can flirt, chat, maybe even find a date through Skout. You and other Skouters belong to a community of singles who are ready to chat online, then meet in the real world. Skout is the first-ever Social Dating Application for the iPhone! With Skout, you can find interesting singles close-by, strike up a conversation, maybe grab a drink or share a cup of coffee with one of them and make a new friend. You can tell potential love interests what you’re all about by posting mobile pictures or notes. And it’s 100% up to you if you want to make contact with someone - or if you want to respond to someone who is trying to make contact with you.

Tags: iDate, interview, Miami, Redg Snodgrass, skout.com

I’ve met Dan Abelon (co-founder of SpeedDate) today at the iDate 2009 in Miami and he kindly gave me an interview:

SpeedDate is a revolutionary online dating service designed to make it as easy and quick as possible for you to connect with other singles in your area. We allow singles to go on multiple live 3-minute online dates from the comfort of home using instant messaging, webcam video chat, and live audio. Unlike other dating personals services, it takes only a minute to sign up for SpeedDate. After you sign up, you can immediately begin live online dating and meet up to 15 other singles per hour.

Tags: Dan Abelon, iDate, interview, Miami, online dating, speeddate, speeddate.com

The 6^TH annual Internet Dating Conference (Miami 2009) event has become the definitive event for owners and executives in the Online Personals and Social Networking industry. It will be held on January 22 - 23, 2009 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami.

At the most recent iDate Miami event, well over 600 senior executives from the Dating and Social Networking industry attended. At the first iDate Miami event (iDate2004), over 200 executives were present. You can read about the iDate 2007 Miami event from the Miami Herald. 

It us by far the largest industry gathering of the year and it covers all business aspects of the dating and social networking markets, inlcuding: new technologies, mobile, venture capital, marketing, global business strategies, partnerships, legal issues and payments.

Update: For everyone who cannot attend: I will try to twitter and blog as much as possible from the event and I also packed my video camera to make interviews and capture some of the speeches. 

Tags: iDate

Elgg is an open, flexible social networking engine, designed to run at the heart of any socially-aware application. Building on Elgg is easy, and because the engine handles common web application and social functionality for you, you can concentrate on developing your idea.

It’s now possible to easily integrate the toksta instant messenger into your elgg based community. To get your script just register at toksta.com and go to the “implementation” area (”create script”) of our backend.

We’ve tested this with elgg 1.2. Please tell us if you discover any problems with different versions.

Tags: elgg, integration, toksta