Cheers for taking the time to post these on the community board bud. That way we don't lose anyone's feedback and we can ensure we act on it.

We'll be integrating the forum and app sign ups. We hadn't considered allowing access to the forum from within the app and have added your suggestion to the chalkboard.

With regards to swiping - you should be able to already. If you swipe from the void, rather than on the icon, either left or right, it scrolls between fresh, local and food.

Using existing photo's is something we'd specifically ruled out since we wanted to ensure all media was 'live'. However, it's already the most requested feature - so you can be sure it will be implemented shortly.

Keep it coming. This stuff is gold when you've been developing an app for 4 months as you tend to become a little blind to its faults. Cheers!

Mark

No worries chief, it's a great thing to be involved in and you need not worry once I think of anything else I'll be sure to post it here ;D

Great app guys. The UI is really nice to use, very intuitive, clean and simplistic.

I'll gather up as much feedback as I can over the next couple of days but one initial suggestion would be the ability to click on photos to open them full screen and allow zoom.

Is it possible to edit an entry (to correct typos, add additional info)?

Looking forward to using the app more over the weekend.

Cheers,
Craig.

Cheers @craigt44 It's not currently possible to edit a check in as this would allow people to game the point system. It's why we don't allow existing images to be uploaded too. We want to encourage people to make rich checkins with images and audio recorded at the time of check in and do so by awarding points for these things. We hope it will ensure that all media in the app is very relevant and 'live'.

We'll certainly be working on photo viewing in app, and on the website.

Hi,
Loving the app. I did notice though that once i had connected facebook i could not go back and connect twitter. The option was not available. I have just managed to do it on the web.

Also i was only maybe 100 yards from a check-in and it said I was half a mile. I fear this may put people off exploring a location if it sounds like a long way.. Yup.. some folks are that lazy.. :)

It may be that I'm used to audioboo but the lack of a count down for audio took me by surprise. soon got used to it though.

Really impressed with the simplicity.

Oh and one more thing... If i find a local real ale in a bar, do i log the bar as a restaurant or a shop even if it is for drinking on the premises?

Hi @Documentally,

We're currently refining the HTML5 web app and we're tidying up the linking of accounts to Twitter and Facebook - it's a improving daily and will be ready for the iPhone App release. We're working to code options to send to twitter and facebook on a per check in bases - adjustable within the iPhone app, but it's not ready yet.

It's a shame that the distance was reported incorrectly, it's been pretty accurate in tests. We'll look at this to see what may have been the problem. Hopefully a small glitch we can fix quickly - I agree, it's important that we accurately reflect distance for an app centered around 'local'.

The countdown on AudioBoo is a decent idea - although we may avoid the bleeps -wouldn't want to startle a farmers livestock...but maybe we should have a silent countdown?

Regarding which Producer type to use - It's been our goal to keep the tagging of check-ins simple - but that doesn't mean we have it right yet. I'd suggest if it was just a bar, no food, then a Till should be used - however, you correctly assume the Till means Shop. To be quite honest, we struggled to simplify all the permutations of 'retail premises' down to 6 and therefore it's not the most exacting taxonomy. Hopefully it will not be an issue because search is currently driven by Produce Type, rather than Producer type - but it's something we need to give more thought to to get it right.

Cheers for the feedback - it's very much appreciated! We're relying on you guys to tell us what you want, what you like and what you don't like ; for our part we'll make sure we listen hard and iterate regularly in response.

Just reading this thread back. Noticed I'd missed this from @tookiebunten :

2. Being able to swipe between the screens discover => check-in => account. Just because I think it would be cool and more intuative, IMHO.

Now, it's not like we're short of things to do, but should be at least put this one on the 'to-do' list? We won't be updating the iPhone app features for a little while (where busy on the 'back end') but when we do, would you like us to get this in? I quite like it. Let us know.

Liking the app! However, I do have a suggestion; have you considered including any of the produce assurance schemes in the app at all?

Hi Tom. Thanks for the suggestion. We've been concentrating on building the 'tool' till now - so we're behind on some things. We're in touch with several of the produce assurance bodies but we want to get things right with the App and framework, in their simplest form, before we explore this further.

How did you envisage this working? We're still not quite sure and would value your thoughts.

You know, thinking about this in a little more detail, I'd say the way we will approach it will be very simple and transparent. We could build the various Cert's into the system. Pretty soon we're switching on Producer features - such as ability to Claim a location and enter details such as website, addy, phone, e-mail. We can make it so that they are able to select bodies that have accreditted them, and have a neat graphic reflecting this on their public profile.

This fits with our philosophy of providing the tools - but leaving the ideology to our users. Lovefre.sh is a super tool for organising community food change - but it's certainly not our intention to start telling people what that change needs to be.

Hi Mark,

Love the app, as you well know, thanks for making getting it out there. I had a wee chat on twitter today about your app and wanted to feedback my thoughts before i got distracted from doing so!
Couple of things i thought would be helpful:
Instead of a manual, have a couple of intro notes when you first start up the app. Hate manuals. I was a little confused about what the symbols meant exactly (Producer tags specifically) until i finally bothered to read it today (don't mean to sound so rude but i know thats how lazy i, and other people are). Audioboo do this well. They have an intro boo which tells you what you need to know when you first use their app, then you can always link to it from the app settings.
Distances would be great in decimal places.
Twitter and Facebook linking in-app would be nice. Don't always want to, very fickle and like to change it with the weather (in Scotland thats every 5 mins!). :D
Also, do you have any plans to include any deals? It may not be your aim but may be a nice incentive to use the app to make it competitive with Facebook and Google geolocative tech. Or the chance for Producers to feature seasonal produce.
(A friends tab/being able to see what friends are checking in to would be nice too.)

I hope to see Lovefre.sh develop and flourish. Wishing you the very best,

Erin.

Hi Erin,

Cheers for posting your thoughts and suggestions - it's so essential we hear them to ensure we steer development along the right path.

I like the idea of a more interactive 'beginning' to people's Lovefre.sh experience. I'm going to give this some more thought. I wonder what you think of the idea that we scrap the manual and Just have a single page that explains the tags? Are they the most confusing element? I think they are from what I've heard from new users.

Re Intro Boo on AudioBoo - I like it. Agree with you - it's a great starter. I've been doing AudioBites once in a while to speak out to users of the app. They show up in the app just the same as any check-in - from my home. I think a neat solution may be to modify this slightly, so that the team can record messages to the community of users - and have them appear in the timeline, or be pinned to the top; they would be visually distinct from normal check-ins and easy for us to add up to date messages with. What do you think?

Distances in decimal places are simple - we just change a couple of lines of code. The problem is GPS signals. They vary in accuracy from second to second - so we took the decision to make the reporting of distance approximate. The actual location is always fixed - in the database - but the user's distance to it will report in a fluctuating way unless they have great signal. I'll discuss this with Geoff (our CTO) and see what he thinks. It's certainly an element of the app that we will continue to work on and refine.

Re Twitter and Facebook switches - entirely agree with you. It's something that we will implement as soon as we can get to it. They're absent at launch should be filed under 'time ran out'. A quick work around, though not ideal, is to flick the anonymous switch - you don't have to sign out, it simply diverts content to the LoveShy account and bypasses Twitter and Facebook. Downside is the check in doesn't then form part of your 'local food story' on your profile on the web.

Deals are a whole other matter. To some extent they are at our core - to some extent irrelevant. I'll try and explain briefly but will be making a much more detailed announcement when we're closer to launching our version of location based deals.

We've designed the platform around principles of over-riding user focus, transparency - and out of a philosophy that directory - and existing location based services are broken. To this end, we have a very clear philosophy that we will not get involved with Advertising in any way. However, our forthcoming PROducer kit - Software as a service that provides businesses of any size with simple, social web tools. We will offer this 'addon' to the service for a monthly subscription. One price, one single monetized product. The kit contains many great tools to make it super easy for a business to be online, live, located and involved with their community as never before.

One of the tools in the kit is called 'Locals' (temp title) - it works off our points system and pins those points to the business they were earned at. Businesses subscribing to PRO have a simple interface to administer 'Locals'. It allows them to create their own Offers and Rewards - a bespoke Loyalty scheme. We are distinctive here - and we do not get involved beyond the monthly fee. No commission and no preference to how businesses use the tool. We'll just try and make it work - nice and simply - so that all PRO features benefit consumers as much as producers. Producers will foot the bill for this of course - but not at the expense of the user experience. We hate advertising when People are a far better guide to what to buy and when to buy it. We like the idea of the producer being able to decide to run an offer at 9am, and having it online and locally announced by 9.05am.

Sorry this is long winded. That's what happens when you give great feedback :) I can't help myself.

Best,
Mark

it'd be nice to get some lovefre.sh embed action - I am sure it's on your road map but just in case :)

I can see it being useful not just to allow people to show off where they have been but also for producers who have an embed specific to their business to show recent check-ins. It'll also help to spread awareness of your brand and give you some google link love that will help to promote your page ranking.

I agree entirely. We are currently working on various embed and syndication options. Cheers for the feedback.