What's new this week? 8/23

New features:

Leader Powers
- Leaders can now ban users
- Leader can only do "destructive" actions

- Only the leader can now delete/clear the playlist

- Regular users can still add to unlocked playlists, but cannot delete

My Account section

- You can change your password here

Preferences

- synchtube now remembers your room layouts

Under the hood:

- Anti-spammer measures

- Server upgrades for faster chat!

~mrchess

4chan visits synchtube

/v/ has recently been visiting us and with that comes trolls. That being said, we whipped up some new features -- various underthehood anti-spam tools, and now a "Ban" option for leaders!

Enjoy!

~mrchess

Google Analytics Integration Tutorial

Google Analytics is a tracking tool by Google that lets you track visitors, pageviews, see how long people stay, and all kinds of cool information. Now you can use it with synchtube TV! Here is a short guide on how to set it up.

1. First go to Google Analytics and create an account

2. Login to your Analytics and add a "New Account"

3. A creation wizard will begin. Put the URL of your synchtube TV station here. Mine is http://synchtube.com/tv/mrchess

4. Click through the next two steps where they ask for Contact Information, then the User Agreement

5. The final step they will give you code to copy and paste on your website. We only want a part of this code -- the ID of the account you just created. This ID can be found here. It begins with a "UA-" and is followed by numbers.

In this example the ID is UA-17946357-1

6. If for some reason you cannot find it. You can also locate this ID on the Analytics Overview page

7. Take this ID and head back to your "My TV" page in synchtube. Type it in the Google Analytics widget and click "Save"

8. Your ID is now saved. Tracking data should start sending within 24 hours of setup. You check your data at the Google Analytics website

Enjoy!

~mrchess

Personal Room URLs are here

Hello!

As many requested, you can now created personalized room URLs. To get a personal room name, simply Login and click on the "My Room" link at the top.

Should be pretty straightforward from there.

All you get right now is a personal URL, and the option to password protect the room. More customization will be implemented over time in the future like choose-a-background, etc. all that fun stuff :D

Cheers,

mrchess

Huge synchtube Update Including synchtube TV

Wow, what a summer. We have both been packed and busy. My friend working hard as a third year medical student, and myself working full-time as a corporate software engineer. Yet finally, between the two of us, we have managed to finish of series of features some new, and some recommended by the community. :D

Probably the biggest news is the announcement of...

synchtube TV (beta)

Create your own TV station that streams YouTube videos in real-time. synchtube TV allows you to set up a playlist as if you were broadcasting it as a TV station to the world. People can join

your TV station, watch simultaniously, and chat!

Promote your blog/YouTube Channel/website

• Imagine creating a lounge area with streaming YouTube media be it music or videos where users of similiar interest can come and hang out. Wait, stop imagining! You can do it now with synchtube TV! We hope synchtube TV can be used to supplement your website of choice to further develop your online communities

Create a radio station

• Not into video? Why not create a radio station to broadcast your favorite music. Live personal playlists are so much nicer than anything Pandora can offer.

Not your average synchtube room

• synchtube TV requires NO LEADER. Like real television, content will continue to play regardless if people are viewing or not. Your content will also loop indefinitely -- once it hits the end of your program, it will go back to the beginning of the program.

In addition to synchtube TV, we have made several synchtube improvements.

synchtube improvements

Take Leader Back

• Forcibly take back leader status on rooms you created while logged in. To perform this action click on the username of the current leader and select "Take Leader"

User Menus

• Users now have menus when you click on their name that allow you to perform several actions on that user

YouTube Search

• View more results in YouTube search by clicking "More results"

Cleaner Interface

• Icons have been removed, and now to perform an action such as "Make Leader" or "Kick" simply click on the username and a menu will appear
• You can now pop the list of users in and out of the chat window

Lock Playlists

• Whether the room is public or private, leaders now have the option to lock or unlock the playlist by clicking on the lock icon on the playlist. Unlocked playlists are editable by everyone, while locked playlists are editable by only the leader

Playlist Management

• Playlist management should be easier now with the new "My Playlists" section

Whats next?

synchtube TV

• Customization! We will build controls so you can further customize your TV stations, track statistics
• Search -- if enough TV stations get created we will make them searchable
• We will continue to watch development of the experimental synchtube TV. We would love to hear feedback about the service and what you like/dislike about it so we can further improve it

User Interface Reduction

• We will be further reducing and condensing all the buttons in the user-interface to make synchtube easier on the eyes, feel less cluttered, and have more focus on watching videos and chatting while maintaining all the existing functionality

???

• We are always thinking of new directions to take synchtube and will keep you posted if we come up with anything If you want to see any new features, remember you can e-mail us at synchtube@gmail.com. We reply to everything and take all suggestions very seriously!

I hope you continue enjoy synchtube, and thanks for using the service.

Cheers.

~mrchess