There has been some rumors floating around that Swingular is based on a 'template' that you can buy anywhere. Also rumors that we have very limited programming skills and that we are paying someone to build this site. This is absolutely false. Swingular was custom created from the ground up including all graphics, web design, coding, programming and database design. The only exceptions to this are some publicly available, open source javascript libraries such as jQuery.
Why does it matter if you know this? We have worked VERY hard putting this site together and to have someone say that they can buy the same template and use it as well is just not fair to us. We built a custom site so we could do what we wanted with it and give you things nobody else can. I'm sure just by browsing some of the new features, you can see where we stand out from the rest.
All of the custom work has been done in-house by your ADMINISTRATOR and that is why it has taken so long to get finished. He is a perfectionist and sometimes that's not a good thing.
So, anyways, we hope this put's this rumor to rest and we hope most of you can appreciate all of the hard work that goes into this. This is a full time business. Not some side work. This is all we do. 24/7. And thanks to our members, we are very successful.
Again, thank you for taking the time to read this and enjoy the new site!
.~Admin~.
so far from what we have been thru on the site this morning we are very happy, i'm sure there are changes some won't like just because they are different, but as for us we have enjoyed becoming familiar with the changes, having alot of fun with it, thanks for the time and work you put into this.
We too have searched and played around with the changes today and so far so good we like it alot. We appreciate your dilligent efforts and appreciate very much the changes and upgrades.
Looking good! Thanks for all the hard work and good will!
I truly do like what I see so far.
Seems to be very user friendly.
Butt I'm going to reserve final judgement until I've had a little time to play with everything new.
Seems to be very user friendly.
Butt I'm going to reserve final judgement until I've had a little time to play with everything new.
Sheesh! We can't believe people would knock or complain about your very dilligent efforts to make and maintain this awesome site. Especially when you consider the very very cheap lifetime price, when compared to other sites who offer less and charge a high monthly fee. We just want to express our gratitude to the founders. The best twenty bucks ever spent!!!
As a web programmer myself, even if you did use an existing platform/template it is obvious that there has been a number of customizations and improvements which add value to the product. While I can see some features that may be similar/inspired by a particular platform (dolphin, perhaps) it is still no reason to complain about using it. You are targeting a specific niche with a detailed and customized product and that is the foundation of American business; innovation through inspiration (and this is coming from a very much pro open-source guy).
As a new member, I enjoy the site and the features it has (original or not). Anyone can throw up a packaged platform but I paid just as much for the user base as for the feature set.
Good work and I'd be happy to lend some expertise if needed.
As a new member, I enjoy the site and the features it has (original or not). Anyone can throw up a packaged platform but I paid just as much for the user base as for the feature set.
Good work and I'd be happy to lend some expertise if needed.
Thanks for the kind words and support. I agree with you that there is nothing wrong with using a base platform or open source to expand on. However, we have not taken that route as this site was built long before any of that existed. Again, completely from the ground up. I appreciate that you can say we were inspired by another platform such as Dolphin as well which shows we are doing great work but we have not even looked at any other platforms for inspiration. If there are any similarities, it's coincidental. As a matter of fact, we have never even looked at or played with any such platforms so we couldn't tell you the first thing about them. 
Most of the base of our custom built site was created from scratch back in 2001 by your administrator and it has been added to and changed over the years. The recent upgrade which was done back in January was 4 years in the making. Most of it involved utilizing changes and additions from the latest php 5.3 as well as using prepared statements and such for our database. We also changed the entire site to utilize the latest css, ajax and web technologies to bring a better experience to the end user.
All of our vision has come from within after almost 10 years of being in this business and knowing what people want and don't want. It has truly been a great experience. And it hasn't ended here, we have a lot more on our list to do.
Most of the base of our custom built site was created from scratch back in 2001 by your administrator and it has been added to and changed over the years. The recent upgrade which was done back in January was 4 years in the making. Most of it involved utilizing changes and additions from the latest php 5.3 as well as using prepared statements and such for our database. We also changed the entire site to utilize the latest css, ajax and web technologies to bring a better experience to the end user.
All of our vision has come from within after almost 10 years of being in this business and knowing what people want and don't want. It has truly been a great experience. And it hasn't ended here, we have a lot more on our list to do.
Doing a great job! I would love to see the Message added back on. I haven't read an update other than forum before it was removed that some were having slowing issue. My pages were also loading slower, but I felt giving up the speed for the awesome new feature to see what friends were on and sending a quick message if each person was not in chat room was so nice. I would love to see it added back on, even if it means giving up a little bit of loading speed of pics or pages. Thank you for a great site!!!
EXTREMEXLR8 wrote:
Doing a great job! I would love to see the Message added back on. I haven't read an update other than forum before it was removed that some were having slowing issue. My pages were also loading slower, but I felt giving up the speed for the awesome new feature to see what friends were on and sending a quick message if each person was not in chat room was so nice. I would love to see it added back on, even if it means giving up a little bit of loading speed of pics or pages. Thank you for a great site!!!
Problem is that it wasn't just a little slow for most...so slow that email's weren't opening, pages were timing out etc...wasn't just loading speed of pics and pages, the whole thing would time out...I was glad to see they removed it until it can be fixed...it got to where I didn't even visit for a few days cuz I couldn't do much of anything without it taking forever...and I have a fairly decent computer...I can't imagine what those with older computers were going through...kisses...Naugh-Ty
best site i have used period.
best site i have used period.
I have been on here for a long time and to be honest I LOVE IT. I like the new changes just wish everyone would use them but to each thier own. The site has grown and it has been alot of fun here. Keep up the good work.
Doing a GREAT job admin! Keep it up! Who cares what some people say. We live in a democracy and majority rules! Right?