Megan Cytron's dashboard

Megan Cytron replied on December 23, 2009 21:17 to the question "Why are some of the top trips not even about Hawaii???" in Trazzler:

Hi Nathan--
While our contest was sponsored by Hawaii, the theme was "Island." Writers were free to write their trips about any island.

From the rules:

Theme: Island
Isolated and adrift, an island is, as Charles Darwin put it, "a little world within itself." Island life evolves differently than it would on the mainland. Those of us confined to a continent can't resist the romantic lure of an island's unending coastline, crossroads of cultures, and independent spirit. Historically, islands have been places of escape, exile, and enigma. No matter where you live, there's bound to be one nearby. Be it a tropical paradise, a barrier island, or humble bit of land in the middle of a river, for this contest, our generous sponsor wants Trazzlers to write about their favorite island experiences around the globe.

http://www.trazzler.com/contests/hawaii

I hope this answers your question.

Best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 22, 2009 04:22 to the question "Trazzle Contest Fatigue" in Trazzler:

Hi Mike--
Just to clarify--there is no relationship between your login problems and the wishlisting of your trip.

About wishlisting...
If you send people to the log in page first to create an account and then to your trip page, I think you'll find that they won't experience any problems. From the email that you sent, it sounded like these users went to straight to your trip page and clicked "add to wishlist" without logging in. This will send them to a sign-up page where they need to create an account. They probably did not then return to your trip page to complete the wishlisting. This sequence works best:

Facebook Connect:
1. Go here to create an account http://www.trazzler.com/signin/facebook
2. Go to your trip page url and click "add to wishlist"

Non-Facebook Login:
1. Go here to create an account http://www.trazzler.com/signup
2. Go to your trip page url and click "add to wishlist"

About the account synching
The plot thickens... it looks like your niece's account was also synched to your Facebook account. We are going to try to un-Facebook connect her and that should keep her account from hijacking yours again. It can be tricky dealing with scenarios where there are multiple Facebook accounts logged in during the same browser session. We'll try to get these two accounts untangled--I'll keep you posted.

best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 21, 2009 22:09 to the question "Trazzle Contest Fatigue" in Trazzler:

>Friday, I let my wife and niece Sign In
> using their Hotmail accounts. Niether
> of them has a Facebook account. They
> Wishlisted my Trip.
>Now, when I Sign in, using Firefox and
> Facebook, my Trazzle account welcomes
> me as Mitsuko or Wakana.

Hi Mike--
I just wanted to let you know that we have sorted out this problem. It looks like what happened was that--when you signed in to Trazzler--the computer that you used was logged into Facebook using your niece's account. So Facebook Connect synched your Trazzler account up with hers. We reset your account--so your info should be correct now.

Thanks for letting us know about this issue.

best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 19, 2009 20:12 to the question "Why hasn't my Hawaii Contest Entry not been reviewed?" in Trazzler:

Hi Kandra--
We have it set up so that you can only see the editorial status of trips that you have written. We'll have them all read by 12/23 and the semifinalist trips for the editorial awards will show up here on 12/23 at at 2:00 pm ES:

http://www.trazzler.com/contests/hawa...

best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 16, 2009 13:45 to the question "Trazzle Contest Fatigue" in Trazzler:

Hi Mike--
Your wishlist totals are correct. The list at the right is the total number of wishlistings that you received since creating the trip. The number on the photo is specific to the contest Round Two dates. In other words, two of your "wishlisters" did so before the beginning of Round Two.

You can send us an email at trazzler@trazzler.com (disregard the autoreponse) and send the screenshots. That would be helpful, because we aren't able to replicate this problem on Firefox 3.5 and we are seeing many sign-ups and sign-ins coming in using this browser.

Also, try clearing your cache: Tools>Clear Recent History>Details> Check "Cache"

best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 15, 2009 13:31 to the question "Trazzle Contest Fatigue" in Trazzler:

HI Mike--
A few days ago, Facebook Connect was down intermittently over the span of two days (not just on our site, but on all sites). This could account for some of the problems. The best we can do on that issue is ask that people try again.

Apart from those outages, we're getting a solid stream of both Facebook and regular sign ups, so we'll need some specific details to troubleshoot the issues that users are having signing in, so we can replicate them (for example the browser, version, and platform they are using and exact details on what happens when the sign in--error messages, buttons not working on specific pages, etc.).

Here are the simplest instructions that you can give your friends to wishlist your trip:

Facebook Connect:
Go here to create an account http://www.trazzler.com/signin/facebook
Go to your trip page url and click "add to wishlist"

Non-Facebook Login:
Go here to create an account http://www.trazzler.com/signup
Go to your trip page url and click "add to wishlist"

Best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 10, 2009 18:51 to the idea "The woeful tales of the non-Facebook user" in Trazzler:

Hi Lori--
I couldn't agree more--we are working on both of these issues right now. In the meantime, this is the easiest way to tell people to wishlist your trip:

Facebook Connect:
Go here to create an account http://www.trazzler.com/signin/facebook
Go to your trip page url and click "add to wishlist"

Non-Facebook Login:
Go here to create an account http://www.trazzler.com/signup
Go to your trip page url and click "add to wishlist"

Best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 10, 2009 14:09 to the question "Can I edit a contest entry?" in Trazzler:

Hi Susan--
We haven't started reading the entries yet (but will soon), so there is still time to edit them (or upload a photo).

My apologies about the Boston group. We inadvertently advertised that gig twice, so we wanted to give the second batch of people a shot, too (we'll hire at least two writers to compensate). We'll announce the next batch of freelancers by the end of the weekend.

best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 09, 2009 15:06 to the question "Perfect matching photos and is there a way to find rating for contests on page with story?" in Trazzler:

Hi Randi--
If you click on "Hawaii Contest Entry" on the photo/map for a contest trip, it will take you to the page that ranks the trips.

best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 09, 2009 04:21 to the problem "Facebook Connect button not working" in Trazzler:

Hi Kelly--
Please provide additional information about the platform, browser, and version you are using to access the site so we can try to replicate the Facebook Connect issues that you are having. Also, make sure that you are allowing pop-ups, because some browser security settings will block Facebook Connect's log-in window.

(Let's leave the other Facebook synching issue for later--that's a separate issue. It could be that you came to our site already logged into your non-KellyAspen FB account and inadvertently synched. Facebook does not allow us to Facebook Connect to accounts without explicit authorization by the user.)

best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 09, 2009 03:44 to the problem "Facebook Connect button not working" in Trazzler:

Hi Kelly--
Did you ever have that photo as the photo for your Kelly Aspen FB account? If so, there is often a lag time for FB to update the photos via Facebook Connect.

best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 09, 2009 00:14 to the question "Hawaii contest question" in Trazzler:

Heidi--
You can do this by logging in and going to "Write a Trip." Click on "edit" next to the trip that you want to add the photo to... at the bottom of the page, you can upload a new photo and resubmit.

best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 08, 2009 13:03 to the question "Trip not showing up in "my trips" or contest submissions" in Trazzler:

Hi Tara--
I only see one trip created in May on your profile page... It looks like something must have gone amiss during the submission process. If the trip had been created successfully, you should have seen the trip page after submitting the trip creation form.

What was the title?

best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 08, 2009 03:34 to the question "Why is my submission missing from the contest entry page?" in Trazzler:

Hi Joslyn--
I just sent you a response to your email... As of right now, I see your entry on this page:

http://www.trazzler.com/contests/hawa...

This could shift a bit as trips get wishlisted.

best,

Megan

(Edited: sorry for misspelling your name!)

Megan Cytron replied on December 07, 2009 23:46 to the problem "Please accept my Margarita Island posting for the Hawaiian contest" in Trazzler:

Hi Joanne--
I'm so sorry, but we don't have the ability to add entries after the round ends--the contest is set up to only work for entries submitted between the start and end date/time and even we can't change that behind the scenes. If you had contacted us before the submission end time/date, we could have helped out.

But please don't despair! We're going to have another great contest in January and a really big one with a lot of prizes in February.

We also run a weekly contest on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/trazzler). All you have to do is write a clever title for a trip and send it as a tweet to enter to win a free two-night stay at a luxury Fairmont Hotel (these are beautiful places!). You can enter as many times as you want.

http://www.trazzler.com/about/twitter...

You can also send your entry on Facebook.

best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 07, 2009 23:26 to the question "How do I take a trip out of a contest?" in Trazzler:

Hi--
Just let us know which one you would like us to remove--that's no problem.

best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 07, 2009 23:24 to the question "Can I submit a previous trip for the Hawaii writing contest?" in Trazzler:

Hi Blair--
Sorry--only trips written between November 25 and December 7 are eligible for entry in this contest. We'll be holding another writing contest in January and February--we'll announce the details after Jan. 1 on Twitter and on our site.

best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 04, 2009 00:14 to the question "Puzzled about your 'strategies'" in Trazzler:

Hi Tracy--
>I think you should pick the grand prize winner.

We do pick the Editors' Choice Grand Prize winner. The semifinalists for this prize (also chosen by our editors) will also be eligible for ten runners-up prizes. We only require that the Editors' Choice semifinalists get three wishlistings (one of which can be their own). When we chose the winner, it will not be based on the number of wishlistings or on the mass appeal of the location, rather the quality of the writing and its ability to evoke the theme "island."

The People's Choice Grand Prize will be chosen via wishlisting. The winner will, as you state, be someone who can promote their trip and get people to wishlist it. They can write about any place that they wish.

We did it this way because, after our last contest and the feedback we got, we recognized that there were many writers who weren't interested in the wishlisting phase of the contest, just as there were many Trazzlers who wanted to participate beyond the first round, but couldn't because they didn't make it to the semifinals.

best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 03, 2009 19:34 to the question "Puzzled about your 'strategies'" in Trazzler:

Hello Tracy--
Our contest has two grand prize winners. One is based on wishlisting (a $7000 two-person trip), the other is an editors' choice winner (a $6,000 trip and writer's residency). For this contest, we wanted to experiment with separating the two types of competitions.

Participation in our contest is certainly voluntary and entirely up to you. The concept of "island" is very open and includes inland islands in lakes, rivers, etc. (Europe is not bereft of islands by any stretch of the imagination).

best,

Megan

Megan Cytron replied on December 03, 2009 03:17 to the question "I can't seem to add a new trip. Any advice?" in Trazzler:

Glad to hear that it worked. If you ever want to use your regular user name (mackenzie_brooks) and password (as opposed to using Facebook Connect) to sign in, you can always go straight here:

http://www.trazzler.com/signin

We're working on simplifying the log in process. Thanks for hanging in there!

best,

Megan