Wow. I think my last email hit a nerve for some people. After sending the email (which reminded users that we will be deleting inactive accounts when the official Beta phase for Feed140 starts in a few days), several people emailed us or submitted a help desk ticket in a panic because they didn’t want us to close their account.
Don’t worry, if you *want* to keep your Feed140 account open, we won’t close it. In fact, that would be stupid because it would be going in the *exact* opposite direction of where we want to go in the Beta.
It will help if we explain why we closing the doors to open public registration for a Feed140 account… it’s all about you.
The purpose of having a Beta phase, to us, is about creating a great user experience and building a critical mass of active users. It’s about turning our focus inward on our active users, really focusing on what our users want, and listening to them.
The Beta phase is also about creating a critical mass of engaged, active users. In order to make sure Feed140 is *really* ready for launch we need to be sure we have an amazing product that users love AND that our systems will be ready to handle the load of rapid growth. We expect Feed140 to be big… really big — and that takes a bit of doing.
We’ve determined that 1,000 active users is a good objective for the beta phase. At that number, we will be know how effectively we’ve matched our product to the needs of the market and we’ll be able to ‘harden’ our systems for heavy loads.
At the same time, we don’t want to grow *too* fast. We need to control growth so that our resources don’t get over taxed and slow things down for you. That’s why we are going to be closing the public registration and making the process invitation-only. The ‘closed beta’ model is a common part of the development process for online applications because it allows control of how many new users are being added every day.
To be really clear, we want you to *use* your Feed140 account. If you want it, we’re not going to close it (we’re just going to badger the hell out of you until you finally start using it, LOL).
If you have paid for a Pro account, we won’t close it
If you’ve used your account (at all) in the last 30 days, we won’t close it
If you ask us *not* to close your account, we won’t close it — Just submit a help desk ticket and tell us your user name and give a short explanation of why you can’t use your account now.
Here is the link for the help desk: http://www.Feed140.com/support/
All my best,
Doug Hudiburg Founder, Feed140
PS. Here are the details about the Beta phase:
What: Invitation-only Beta Phase
Start Date: August 6th, 2012
Time: 12pm Eastern