Apr 23rd 2007 08:39:39 pm

Ok, if you have ever checked out my personal blog, you know that I am a sucker for the pastel colors. Because of that fact, I couldn’t resist choosing the Ice Cream Colors Matchbox Swap for this week’s featured swap. I completed my fist matchbox swap a week ago and my little matchbox is on its way to Australia. I can’t wait to start on my next one!

The Ice Cream Colors Matchbox Swap is coordinated by ellawitch. Here are the rules:

This swap is to decorate and fill a 32-count matchbox using what I call “Ice Cream Colors”. The matchbox and it’s contents must be done in chocolate brown and one of the following colors: light pink, mint, light yellow, light blue, aqua or lavender. You can do more than a two color combination but it has to be chocolate brown and at least one of the other colors.

This swap is international, but there are some other rules and restrictions, so make sure you read the entire description before signing up. People fill their matchboxes with all sorts of things, including buttons, beads, brads, stickers, sequins, pins, ribbon, candies, little embellishments, etc… anything miniature and cute is acceptable!

I know that I can’t wait to start putting together my ice creamy matchbox, but in case you need some inspiration, here is some delicious ice cream for you:

1 Comment » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

Apr 19th 2007 11:33:38 pm

Hi. We are experiencing problems in sending our automated Swap-bot emails to AOL email addresses. This means that new users are having trouble verifying their email addresses and current members are no longer getting our reminders and notifications. We are looking into the problem, but for now we suggest using a non-AOL email address for Swap-bot accounts. Yahoo and Gmail offer free email accounts. We are very sorry for this inconvenience and hope to have the problem fixed as soon as possible!

Also, I am sorry about the delay in email responses today and yesterday. A big research paper deadline and an out-of-town webmaster made life a little bit hectic! xoxo

2 Comments » Categories: bugs

Apr 17th 2007 10:26:20 am

Most of you have probably already figured this out, but we just created a new swap search menu. If you go to the “View all swaps” page, there are now a bunch of new options at the top of the page that you can use to find swaps. You can still browse the swaps by category, but now you can also sort the list by creation date, sign up date, and mail date. The best part is that you can now use the search box in the top right to type in words to find swaps. Try it out.

We also added a little box on the far right that shows how many swaps meet your search criteria. Right now there are a total of 335 swaps to search! wow!

Have fun. Let us know how the new searching works out.

3 Comments » Categories: New Features

Apr 14th 2007 09:57:19 pm

Ok. You caught me. I missed last week’s featured swap… sorry. We are back in action this week with a fun featured swap: Make Me Smile. The swap is all about making yourself and your partners happy! It is coordinated by lindalinda and it is open for sign up through April 30th. It is an international swap with three partners and three parts. Following is the swap’s description of the three things you send to each partner:

1. Put together a mix cd of about 15-20 tracks that make you smile. Might include sugary-sweet 50s pop, anything with smile-worthy lyrics, songs that bring back happy memories, a recording of a favorite comedian, maybe even a silly song you listened to as a child. Whatever works for you. Please don’t include more than 2 songs by a single artist. Be sure to include a track listing sheet. You might even want to write descriptions about why some of the songs you chose make you happy.
2. Make a list of 100 things that make you happy. I did this a long time ago in a writing class, and it was a real challenge, but fun and worth the effort.
3. Include a little inexpensive surprise in the envelope that you think will make your partner smile. Could be something handmade, could be candy, could be a cute little notepad, a pen, glittery stickers, whatever.

Making the list of 100 things that make you happy will be tough, but fun! I am pumped to try, anyway. How fun will it be to get three mix cds of music that is bound to make you smile?! I can’t wait!

No Comments » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

Apr 7th 2007 03:58:02 pm

I am very excited to announce the new layout of the profile pages! We spent quite a while trying to decide how to organize all of the things that we wanted to include on the pages, and we finally settled on an arrangement that we hope you like…

You will now notice that in the upper right corner there is a designated ratings box. Here you will find the user’s average rating, their number of hearts, and soon you will be able to see their number of stars. Stars will be used to indicate exceptional swap coordination (for hosts/hostesses), but that feature is not ready quite yet.

The full list of a user’s ratings is still located at the bottom of the profile information, but there is one exciting addition to the ratings - you can now RESPOND to any rating given to you! Your response will show up in a gray box beneath the rating. Many users have been requesting this feature for a while, and I am very excited to see how it works out.

Another exciting new feature we added to the profiles is a comment section. Here any Swap-bot users can leave comments on your profile. It is separate from the messaging system and we thought it would be a great way for swappers to thank their partners in a semi-public way. It is also an easy way to communicate.

We know that there may be a few bugs to work out on the new profile pages, so please notify us if you see anything weird. Also, the profile pages are now 910 pixels wide, meaning that some of you using lower resolution computer screens may have to scroll horizontally to see the whole thing. We are sorry about that inconvenience, but there was just no way to include so much info in such a small area. All in all we hope you love the new layout and enjoy the new features. We will continually try to improve and update Swap-bot to make it more fun and easy to use. xoxo

UPDATE: I forgot to add an explanation about the lists of “Currently In” and “Currently Hosting” swaps (On the right side of the new profile pages). The “Currently In” list shows all of the swaps you are currently signed up for in which you have NOT yet marked as sent. The “Currently Hosting” list contains all of the swaps you coordinated that have not closed yet. Meaning that other swapper can still sign up for them.

9 Comments » Categories: New Features

Apr 1st 2007 03:16:17 pm

This week I couldn’t pass up the Baby Names Swap for our featured swap. I do not have kids, and I not planning on having any for a while, but I love thinking about baby names!

The Baby Names swap is coordinated by Jellybaby and it is an international swap. Each participant has four partners to whom they send their list of top ten girl names and top ten boy names. A quick and easy swap, but make sure you read all of the instructions before signing up. This swap would be great for expecting parents who haven’t picked out a name, yet!

For some inspiration in determining your top baby names, check out the following sites:

• BabyNames.com
• Baby Names World
• The Baby Name Wizard’s Name Voayger - very cool!
• Think Baby Names
• The Social Security Administration’s Popular Baby Names Lists - They have lists of the most popular names dating all the way back to 1879!

5 Comments » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap