The LIVESTRONG.COM Blog

Last night, we launched a brand new feature exclusively for The Daily Plate on LIVESTRONG.COM. The new feature was a popular member request, and we’re thrilled to announce it to you today:

You can now track foods on MyPlate by time (6:00pm), instead of just by our approximate mealtimes (Dinner). You can choose the hour during which you ate a given food, and we’ll chart it for you accordingly.

Our “old” mealtimes are still available, since many users prefer that approach. But if you’ve always wanted to be more specific about just when you ate something, now you can finally track it that way!

Take a look, and please let us know what you think…

A variety of fixes have been made here on LIVESTRONG.COM over the past few days. Here are some highlights!

1. Custom Dares are now working more reliably.

2. Updating groups (e.g., changing the description for a group you created) is now instantaneous, instead of taking a while to appear.

3. Friend request counts were sometimes off; this is now fixed.

4. Manually tracked fitness activities weren’t properly saving your heart rate. Now, they should be.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

LIVESTRONG.COM’s database was unavailable for a short time today. We apologize for the inconvenience. We hate downtime as much as you do, and steps have been taken to ensure that this particular issue won’t recur.

The site may be a little slow at the moment as the database works to catch up. We believe things will be smooth sailing within another 30 to 60 minutes.

TGIF!

The team continues to make upgrades and improvements to LIVESTRONG.COM every single day. Some of our most recent changes have dramatically improved day-to-day use of the site, and I wanted to enumerate some of them so that you can take a look at all the work that we’ve poured into it.

1. Even-better “Slim Header” mode.
LIVESTRONG.COM offers a ton of content. But when you’re using The Daily Plate on LIVESTRONG.COM, you might prefer a more TDP-centric navigation. Enable the “slim header” from the top of any page within TDP on LIVESTRONG. Now, when you click the Forum link in that slim header, the site will realize you want to go straight to the TDP forums, and we’ll take you right there.

2. Editing your profile works better.
Some users were having issues updating their profiles. We believe we have completely resolved those issues.

3. Easier inbox navigation.
The site was using large user photo images when browsing your inbox, which made it harder to scroll through. We’re now using smaller user images, which makes it a lot easier to read your messages! We now also shows you if a message is unread or read, instead of listing every message in bold as if it were new.

4. Remember me.
You can now tell LIVESTRONG.COM to “keep you logged in” if you are accessing the site from a private computer. You’ll find the checkbox on the login page.

5. Enhanced privacy settings.
By default, search engines like Google will “crawl” or public pages on any website, including your profile. LIVESTRONG.COM has, since launch, offered a preference to “block your profile from search engines like Google.” Now, if you enable that checkbox, we’ll block more than just your profile page from Google; we’ll also block your photo page, friends list, and blog.

7. Drag and drop modules on MyPlate.
The Daily Plate on LIVESTRONG’s calorie tracker MyPlate now allows you to reorder the right-side modules. If you prefer to see your “frequently eaten foods” over your Meals, just drag the modules into that order instead!

8. Forum fixes.
Various font and “smiley” issues have been fixed on the forums.

9. HTML in groups and elsewhere.
Limited HTML is now working again in group posts.

10. Ability to see all the foods you added to The Daily Plate on LIVESTRONG.
This was missing from your profile on LIVESTRONG.COM, but it’s there now!

11. Group posting issues.
Some members were having occasional issues where posts or comments on Groups were vanishing into the ether. No more — it’s fixed!

Wow. That’s a long list, right?!

We have plenty more on the list — fixes, enhancements, and brand new features are on the horizon for LIVESTRONG.COM. As you can see, your feedback directly impacts the work we do each day. Thanks, as always, for your feedback and support.

We’ve made another round of fixes and upgrades to The Daily Plate on LIVESTRONG.COM and the rest of the LIVESTRONG site, and I wanted to tell you about some of them now:

1. Pagination works better when browsing the groups directory.

2. Groups also now more accurately report the total number of blog posts in those groups.

3. Groups no longer show every post as being written “today.”

3. An issue where some members were having issues answering Questions submitted to Q&A by other members has been resolved.

4. We no longer use a gigantic font when you’re composing a message board post.

5. Certain HTML now works (again) when posting in groups on LIVESTRONG.

6. When a member comments on your food diary, the email you receive is no longer blank.

7. An issue with decimals in serving sizes for meals on MyPlate has been resolved.

8. The “Add to Favorites” button now works more reliably in areas like the Diseases section.

9. Recipes now show the serving size or measurement for each ingredient.

10. Dares have been given a polish, fixing a few small glitches, and adding the much-requested ability to add custom dares!

11. Gold Member progress bars should be working much more reliably.

As you can see, the time really has been working tirelessly (okay, they’re a little tired!) to keep making LIVESTRONG.COM better and better! As always, we urge you to check it out and let us know what you think!