The Raffstar Blog

As you all know, Raffstar is still in public beta while we work out the bugs in our site and workflow.  We launched with a lot of excitement last fall and ran into a number of internal issues this spring that have slowed the progress of new features and better prizes.  That’s the nature of a test phase — we throw everything against the wall and see what sticks.

The good news is, a whole lot of our expectations stuck, and the 2nd quarter of 2009 is shaping up to be a very cool time for everyone.  Much of what we’re doing is behind the scenes, like improving the way we order and ship out prizes, opening up communication channels so our team can get out and socialize with the community, and of course, working on new features that will make Raffstar that much cooler to play.

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, however, so I’ll stop talking and just show you a few snippets of what we’ve been working on this month:

As always, we love to hear what you guys think, and we really do read every email that we receive!  So let us know what you’d like to see in the future!

- David
The Raffstar Team

Hello all. I’m April, the newest member to the Raffstar team.  I’ve been working with Raffstar since the start of site development – the proverbial man (or woman) behind the curtain, so to speak, but just recently I’ve been added as a permanent member of the team.  My job – all the programming on the site.    Working with Raffstar has been a challenging and rewarding adventure.  The innovative design and functionality of Raffstar stretched my programming knowledge, making the site creation a truly enjoyable experience.

We have some great features coming out soon.  I know that you are probably tired of hearing about new features without seeing them, but they will be worth the wait, I promise.   I’m hesitant to give any sort of timeline just because of the complications that can come up programming new features, but we are closer to launching them today than we were last week.  Here’s a sneak peek… we are adding some new stats to the giveaway pages including listing the tickets you have received and calculating your odds of winning.

Many of the updates we are working on are directly from your comments and suggestions, so keep them coming.  Also tell your friends about Raffstar.  The more people we have getting tickets the more prizes we can give away and the more we can help charities.  It’s a win-win situation so tell everyone you know to sign up and get some tickets.

April
- The Raffstar Team

New and exciting developments are about to happen here at Raffstar, so what better place to give you the inside scoop then right here on the official blog! For starters, we’ve added a new member to our team so you can look forward to hearing from her shortly… but that’s all I’m going to say so we can build up the suspense!

In addition, each of our team members will be taking turns on the blog to update you on the upcoming plans for Raffstar and to give you a chance to get to know our team a little better. But we want to hear from you too, so please keep your comments coming. In fact, many of the new updates we’ve come up with (and are currently working on) are a direct result of various comments posted throughout the site. We want Raffstar to become a user-driven site, so keep sending us your input, suggestions, and feedback. Don’t forget to check the forums and leave a message, comment here on the blog or on as many of the giveaways as you want, or send us a direct message.

One of the main things we are currently working on is a Celebrity Encounter giveaway. So if your uncle’s, landlord’s, daughter’s, fiance knows Brad Pitt, go ahead and make a few calls to see if you can let him know what an amazing site Raffstar is. After all, everyone is only 6 degrees of separation away from everyone else on the planet- including Kevin Bacon (hey, another celebrity… anyone know him?)! So keep spreading the word about Raffstar, and start coming back to the blog for more regular updates and exciting news.

Nathan
-The Raffstar Team

Next weekend, help get the word out about heart disease, the #1 killer of women in the United States.  The US Dept of Health & Human Services has put together the National Wear Red campaign to raise awareness about the risks of women’s heart disease and preventive measures that can help save the lives of millions of American women.

So join us Friday, Feb. 6th, by dressing up your family, friends, and even web presences in red! For more information, visit: www.hearttruth.gov

The site will be under maintenance Thursday December 18^th between 2-3am EST. We are expecting a very short down time. Thanks for understanding.