The LIVESTRONG.COM Blog

We rolled out the following fixes to LIVESTRONG.COM yesterday:

1. Article page layout looks better in IE6.

2. TDP Groups on LIVESTRONG now use a bigger font size and have additional layout improvements. (Example.)

3. We have a new Press page so that you can see all the coverage LIVESTRONG.COM has gotten!

4. The Calorie Breakdown chart now links properly to foods you click on in the pie chart.

5. If you choose the “Other” date on the What I Eat Often page, it defaults to the current year. (Thanks, littlebear77!)

6. Gold members who track foods by hour will now be able to see those foods on the Gold-only Week-at-a-Glance view.

7. HTML on Gold member profiles now works more reliably.

Take a look, and let us know what you think! And have a great weekend, everybody!

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!

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!

A bunch of updates to share, so let’s get right to it!

1. You can now rearrange elements on your profile.
I, for example, love the Friends Feed, so I dragged mine higher up on my profile. I’ve also moved My Groups above my Friends List, because that’s more convenient for me. You can adjust the layout by clicking on the headers of profile modules and dragging them. Note that currently the top three modules are not movable.

2. Your last name is no longer required when editing your profile.
We thought we had this one fixed yesterday, but it still gave some members problems. Today, it is definitely fixed and working properly!

3. “What I Do Regularly” — a log of fitness activities you frequently track on MyPlate — is now working properly.
Most users weren’t having a problem, but if you’re a regular fitness tracker and you were affected, you will be thrilled to know that this is fixed now!

As always, we value your feedback — let us know what you think!

Many more bugs have been fixed since my last post, and we’ve now increased the BETA by several hundred members!

Recently fixes include:

1. Avatar cropper provides more useful error messages if your image is too large or unsupported.
2. Clicking to a drug’s “reactions/interactions” now works as expected.
3. The ovulation calendar calculator works more reliably in different browsers.
4. Group thumbnails are no longer oddly shaped and blurry.
5. You can now delete favorites from your profile.
6. Avatars in comments on articles now display properly and are linked correctly.
7. Login and registration are now executed with SSL security.
8. Unusual characters in a username making profiles inaccessible are no longer an issue.
9. The “I take this” button on drug pages now works properly.
10. Drug and disease pages now more effectively remember if you’ve clicked “I take this” or “I have this.”
11. The Sports section (and other sections) now accurately show all their associated videos, instead of just one.
12. “See all of [member]’s goals” link on profiles now works as expected.
13. The list of Senior Care articles is now showing up properly.
14. Your friends’ profiles no longer prompt you to “Add as a friend.” 

As you can see, the LIVESTRONG.COM team remains hard at work behind-the-scenes, fixing bugs, improving features, and responding to user feedback. Please keep on exploring the site, and let us know your thoughts!

We have a small group of BETA testers helping us through this period as we polish and fine-tune LIVESTRONG.com. Our BETA testers are really working as an extension of our extremely talented QA team. Here are a few of the bugs fixed in the past 24 hours:

1. Button said “I want do this” instead of “I want to do this.“
2. The FAQ page wasn’t working properly.
3. You couldn’t successfully invite members to join custom Groups.

1. Some videos are miscategorized. You’ll see a “brain food” video in the “Ballet” category, for example.
2. Potential friends from whom you receive requests appear to have the “default” avatar, instead of their custom photo.
3. Some articles contain gibberish characters instead of apostrophes, quotation marks, and em dashes.
4. Some pages have very unusual layouts with the footer or margins out of whack.
5. Ideal weight, ovulation predictor, body fat calculator, and other tools aren’t working reliably.
6. Some videos aren’t playing properly.