The Mixx Blog http://blog.mixx.com News and Updates from the Mixx Team Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:32:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 en And the winner is……. http://blog.mixx.com/2009/06/05/and-the-winner-is-2/ http://blog.mixx.com/2009/06/05/and-the-winner-is-2/#comments Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:32:43 +0000 Will http://blog.mixx.com/?p=431 The first four (well more than that now) Sifter campaigns are on the books and closed out, and as promised, we are giving away another MacBook. In case you have forgotten, we gave away a MacBook to Tau_Zero about six weeks ago (you can read all about it here), and we are holding true to our promise to give another one away.

Drum roll please……………………. and the winner of our second MacBook give away is: Suzanek! Congrats to Suzanek, she (like a lot of other Mixxers) took the time out of their busy Mixxing schedule to check out the first four Sifter campaigns and voted on which ones she liked. It is Mixxers like Suzanek and the rest of you that make our wonderful site go around, and sometimes we need to show our gratitude a little more than just with Karma, and so we did.

Will we be giving away another one? Perhaps, but you will have to keep any eye out every week for the Sifter to see if we give away any hints as to when the next give away may be. Remember, your participation in the Sifter gives you a say in what runs on the front page of Mixx and keeps the site nice and clean for our users! As always, every week there is a random drawing for a cool give away (to someone who participated in the Sifter that week, of course).

Again, thanks to everyone who participated, keep up the great work!

Cheers,
The Mixx Team

]]> http://blog.mixx.com/2009/06/05/and-the-winner-is-2/feed/ Winner of the VisualCV Sifter - Get a Job! http://blog.mixx.com/2009/05/27/winner-of-the-visualcv-sifter-get-a-job/ http://blog.mixx.com/2009/05/27/winner-of-the-visualcv-sifter-get-a-job/#comments Wed, 27 May 2009 12:40:00 +0000 Chris McGill http://blog.mixx.com/?p=428 Get a job!!

“We didn’t all get into music for a job! We got into music to avoid a job, in truth - and get lots of girls.”
View quotes by Paul McCartney

“To a member of the audience who was heckling - ‘Don’t tell me how to do my job, do I go to your job and tell you how to sweep up”
View quotes by Billy Connelly

“It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.”
View quotes by Muhammad Ali

And the winner of the VisualCV.com Sifter is…. http://www.visualcv.com/donfarnsworth !  Check this guy out, he could pretty much sell ice in the Arctic Circle.  He has demos, sales collateral, case studies, brochures, research and his website all on his visual CV.  He pretty much “brings home the bacon and fries it up in a pan”.  Get over there and trick out your own VisualCV.

Summer Reading Sifter

The Sifter this week features beach reading……. Tell us which of these will be on your reading list this summer (and if you have read it, leave a review).   http://www.mixx.com/sifter

Your participation on the Sifter gives you a say in what runs on the front page of Mixx and keeps the site nice and clean for our users!

Now Go Get Your Mixx on!
Chris

Ps.

iTunes winner:  Congratulations to this week’s $25 iTunes gift certificate winner is homestar 14!

Pps.

We’ll announce the MacBook winner later this week so stay tuned!

]]> http://blog.mixx.com/2009/05/27/winner-of-the-visualcv-sifter-get-a-job/feed/ Winner of the T4 Sifter http://blog.mixx.com/2009/05/19/winner-of-the-t4-sifter/ http://blog.mixx.com/2009/05/19/winner-of-the-t4-sifter/#comments Tue, 19 May 2009 13:42:17 +0000 Chris McGill http://blog.mixx.com/?p=424 “Kyle Reese: The Terminator’s an infiltration unit, part man, part machine. Underneath, it’s a hyper-alloy combat chassis - micro processor-controlled, fully armored. Very tough. But outside, it’s living human tissue - flesh, skin, hair, blood, grown for the cyborgs…The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy. But these are new, they look human. Sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait till he moved on you before I could zero him.”
To be honest, this description fits many of the SuperMixxers we know!
Yes Terminator fans went crazy for this week’s Sifter… the T4 posters.  Not shockingly, the crowd was overwhelmingly male this week and you all picked the bad-ass red eye picture… but wait, were they not all bad ass?!  T4 opens this Friday and we all expect much talk on Mixx over the weekend.

New Sifter is Open
This week’s Sifter is being brought to you by VisualCV.com.  If you have never heard of them, they have been covered in just about every medium possible as one of the coolest new ways to show off who you really are and what you are about in a resume.  You get to show off charts, videos, images, art work and more…… and since jobs are a little short right now, every edge you can get in order to stand out from the competition is crucial.  The Sifter has some examples of really cool CV’s, so get in there and check them out!  In fact, the VisualCV team has agreed to review resumes the Mixxers make this week and if they are cool enough they will be listed on their examples page where a lot of recruiters “take stock”.  Just send a link of your VisualCV to katrina@visualcv.com and tell her you are a Mixxer.  You’d be in some pretty cool company there including Barack Obama and Robert Scobble.

Remember, you must vote in each of the first four sifters to be eligible to win a Mac Book.
Also, please remember that your participation on the Sifter gives you a say in what runs on the front page of Mixx and keeps the site nice and clean for our users!

Now Go Get Your Mixx on!  Click here to go to The Sifter.

Chris

]]> http://blog.mixx.com/2009/05/19/winner-of-the-t4-sifter/feed/ Winner of the second Sifter: Clorox(r) Toaster http://blog.mixx.com/2009/05/12/winner-of-the-second-sifter-cloroxr-toaster/ http://blog.mixx.com/2009/05/12/winner-of-the-second-sifter-cloroxr-toaster/#comments Tue, 12 May 2009 13:04:30 +0000 Will http://blog.mixx.com/?p=408 The second running of the Sifter has come to a close, and winner winner chicken dinner; the top creative this week was the Clorox(r) Toaster creative. Once again, the competition was tight; but it looks as if the Toaster creative took the lead at the end and held onto it until the finish line. The creatives are from Clorox’s national print advertising campaign in support of the Clorox Disinfecting Wipes Décor canisters, more information can be found at www.redesignclean.com. Thanks to everyone who participated this week and making it an overwhelming success.


 

Also, congratulation to version7.7 who won this week’s $25 iTunes card!

New Sifter Open
The new Sifter is out! We thought we would change things up a bit this week and feature a sure to be summer blockbuster movie, Terminator Salvation; and it’s various movie posters for you to pick your favorite. Take a minute to go into the sifter, check them out and rank order them. Remember, you must vote in each of the first four sifters to be eligible to win you Mac Book.

Also, please remember that your participation on The Sifter gives you a say in what runs on the front page of Mixx and keeps the site nice and clean for our users!

Now go get your Mixx on!

]]> http://blog.mixx.com/2009/05/12/winner-of-the-second-sifter-cloroxr-toaster/feed/ Winner(s) of the First Sifter: Living Social Movies App, Polianna and YOU http://blog.mixx.com/2009/05/04/winners-of-the-first-sifter-living-social-movies-app-polianna-and-you/ http://blog.mixx.com/2009/05/04/winners-of-the-first-sifter-living-social-movies-app-polianna-and-you/#comments Mon, 04 May 2009 20:36:26 +0000 Chris McGill http://blog.mixx.com/?p=403 The first results of The Sifter are in!  It was a neck and neck race until this weekend when the Living Social App centered around Movies pulled ahead of the Books app.

The voters for the movies app were overwhelmingly men while the books app skewed more for the ladies.  We’ll leave it to you to draw conclusions about intellect but the lady Mixxers can pretty much have a field day here.  If you haven’t tried them, ALL the Living Social Facebook apps are both cool and highly addictive!   www.livingsocial.com

Also congratulation to Polianna who won this weeks $25 iTunes card!

New Sifter Open
The new Sifter is out!  This time, The Clorox Company, who has already sponsored a use based content to create new packaging for them, is vetting the best artwork.   Take a minute to go into the sifter, check them out and rank order them.
Remember, you must vote in each of the first four sifters to be eligible to win you Mac Book.
Also, please remember that your participation on the Sifter gives you a say in what runs on the front page of Mixx and keeps the site nice and clean for our users!

Now Go Get Your Mixx on!

Chris

]]> http://blog.mixx.com/2009/05/04/winners-of-the-first-sifter-living-social-movies-app-polianna-and-you/feed/ Introducing the Mixx Sifter http://blog.mixx.com/2009/04/28/introducing-the-mixx-sifter/ http://blog.mixx.com/2009/04/28/introducing-the-mixx-sifter/#comments Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:41:34 +0000 Melanie http://blog.mixx.com/?p=379 When we launched Mixx 18 months ago, our goal was to create a website that featured the best in content discovery and personalization while offering a way to meet new people and have some fun. Speaking personally, we think we nailed the “fun” part—that’s why we love coming in to the office every day. And we think that everyone else should be having as much fun as we are, so we listen and respond to your comments, questions and suggestions about how to make Mixx a better place. Not long ago we heard this soft, bespectacled type of “ahem” from the corner and realized that, while playtime isn’t exactly over, there is someone else we need to pay attention to. Well, hello there, Investors!

Our ever-patient investors believed in us when Mixx was the faintest whisper of an idea, before there was code, or an office, or staff. Definitely before the super-cool space captain’s chair that Chris uses for meetings. So we hope you’ll agree that it’s about time we did a little something for them and start generating a return on their investment, a more tangible “thanks” for their faith in us, if you will.

HOWEVER. We want to balance our duty to our investors and our commitment to the Mixx community. We don’t like flashing, floating and scrolling ads and have worked to keep them away from our most Loyal Mixxers—you know, those who register and keep content and activity flowing through the system. We’d like to continue to keep the site as clean and pleasant a place as it’s always been. So we’ve come up with what we think is a revolutionary plan to generate revenue while keeping you in control of what ads are seen on the site.

And so we introduce the Mixx Sifter.

The Mixx Sifter is a separate part of Mixx—accessed from the new blue menu item you’ll see in your navigation bar. In the Sifter, other companies are paying Mixx to place different types of creative—banner ads, new product designs, movie trailers, etc.—and get feedback from real people on those ads—often before they see the light of day in any other forum!

Eligible Mixxers will rank from 1 to 5 (or from 1 to how ever many pieces are running) how much they like each piece. The one you like the best gets a 1. The one you like the least gets a 5. There is also a comment box where you can give kudos or offer criticism—hopefully constructive!

We’ll send the sponsor of the Sifter a bit of information—comments, rankings, gender, age and interests—all anonymous and all non-individually identified. So if you’re the one that said that Bob’s Basket Weaving had the worst ads you’ve ever seen, Bob’s not going to know it came from you and won’t be covering your front steps with hand-woven baskets filled with, er, rocks.

It’s Rewarding!

Now, do we ever ask anything of you without giving a little something back?

Every week you participate in the Sifter, you get 100 karma points and will be entered into a drawing for a $25 iTunes certificate. That’s pretty rockin’, eh? (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

But that’s not all. To kick it all off, if you participate in each of the next 4 weeks of The Sifter runs, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a MacBook! Yes—a MacBook. We gave one away to Tau_Zero just a few weeks ago—so he can tell you that we’re serious. He sent us a picture of himself with his awesome new computer as proof!


Please note: Goose not part of the Mixx Sifter prize!

And as with that sweepstakes, your odds of winning are very good as the Sifter is only opened to qualified Power Mixxers and Super Mixxers!

The first run of the Sifter, featuring creative from LivingSocial.com, will open in just a few hours. So stay tuned, have fun and keep showing your support for Mixx!

~The Mixx Team

]]> http://blog.mixx.com/2009/04/28/introducing-the-mixx-sifter/feed/ More User Requests! http://blog.mixx.com/2009/04/16/more-user-requests/ http://blog.mixx.com/2009/04/16/more-user-requests/#comments Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:14:52 +0000 Kerry http://blog.mixx.com/?p=372 Greetings Mixxers!

We are installing a few small tweaks in response to user requests we’ve had over the last month or so.  Without further ado:

  • To speed up the share process, we’ve made some tweaks to delay the loading of your friends avatars until you need them.  We also complete the share behind-the-scenes to get you on your way faster.
  • On the notifications page, we’ve tightened up the presentation of the share notices so you can easily scan more notices at once.
  • SuperMixxers are now able to see, on the “Activity” tab, how many of their friends have voted for their submission.
  • Each Mixxer’s profile has been enhanced with a count of how many mutual friends they have
  • Mixxers are now able to mark their submissions as “Mature Content” during the submission process. Remember, this doesn’t change your submission’s ability to reach the front page or be indexed by search engines–it merely puts it behind a curtain so that viewers can choose whether or not to see it.
  • You can now give multiple kudos to one superb comment
  • And in honor of our own Kori Hill’s sister, Nikki, we introduced our own magic eight ball.  Give it a spin.

Keep the suggestions coming, we’ll keep working on them!

~The Mixx Team

]]> http://blog.mixx.com/2009/04/16/more-user-requests/feed/ More Power to You http://blog.mixx.com/2009/04/06/more-power-to-you/ http://blog.mixx.com/2009/04/06/more-power-to-you/#comments Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:15:52 +0000 Will http://blog.mixx.com/?p=365 More Power to You! That is exactly what we decided to do, give more power to our loyal Mixx users.  We here at Mixx like to reward those that are active on the site, so we thought what better way to give a reward than to create a new group of Mixxers to be known as Power Mixxers.  What exactly is a Power Mixxer? Well, as a Power Mixxer, you will have special powers on Mixx that others do not. For example, Power Mixxers can give out 20 kudos a day (compared to the 10 that regular Mixxers get). Plus, they can relate anything they submit to other stories, photos, and videos on Mixx (which used to be something only SuperMixxers could do). And if that’s not enough, they also get a cool Power Mixxer badge pinned on their Mixx profile.  You too could have this badge:

To become a PowerMixxer, all you have to do is be a good citizen on Mixx, gain 500 karma points, and opt-in with some demographic information. That’s so simple, even your grandma could do it!

And to our beloved Super Mixxers, don’t you worry your pretty little heads, we did not forget about you either!  For your showcase showdown, you are getting the ability to dole out 40 kudos (you only had 20 previously), you can mark something as Mature Content, and you will be able to add a thumbnail to your story submissions.  You lucky dogs, I wish I could do all that….. oh wait, I can :-).  As with all super powers, make sure you use your powers for good and don’t abuse them!

We hope everyone enjoys their new powers, and as always, happy mixxing!

Cheers,

The Mixx Team

]]> http://blog.mixx.com/2009/04/06/more-power-to-you/feed/ Mixx To Go http://blog.mixx.com/2009/03/31/mixx-to-go/ http://blog.mixx.com/2009/03/31/mixx-to-go/#comments Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:49:14 +0000 Kerry http://blog.mixx.com/?p=362 Today we launched a new tool to add to your Mixx arsenal.  Introducing Mixx To Go–a new Firefox plugin from MashLogic.

Mixx To Go provides you with links to Mixx content wherever you are on the web.  Over on CNN reading about the latest economic news? Look for the blue dotted underlines–that’s your visual clue that Mixx To Go has found some related content for you.  This will also work to show you related content on Mixx as well–a great way to delve deeper into the topics that matter most to you.

Mixx To Go also links to content on Wikipedia, TechCrunch, and the latest on books and movies!

All in all, a quite useful add-on that we thought our Mixxers would enjoy.  Well, what are you waiting for, go download it!

~The Mixx Team

]]> http://blog.mixx.com/2009/03/31/mixx-to-go/feed/ And The Winner Is… http://blog.mixx.com/2009/03/27/and-the-winner-is/ http://blog.mixx.com/2009/03/27/and-the-winner-is/#comments Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:59:47 +0000 Kerry http://blog.mixx.com/?p=356

Brian Bickerton (Tau_Zero) is the lucky winner of the first Loyal Mixxer Sweepstakes!

We’ll be shipping Brian a brand-new Apple MacBook with the sleek aluminum unibody! His laptop will now be better than ours—hmm, maybe we can swap this one out for—heh, heh, just kidding, Brian!

For all of you who entered, thank you. We can say “Better Luck Next Time!” because there will be a next time. We have some other great giveaways planned for our Loyal Mixxers in the future, so stay tuned!

~ The Mixx Team

UPDATE:  For those that have asked, Power Mixxer powers are on their way, and if you are still interested in getting those powers (but didn’t sign up for the sweepstakes), go to http://www.mixx.com/sweepstakes/join to get signed up for your powers!

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