I don't mean to sound too critical, glowdot. I realize it is new, I love the look and I can see the potential. The cons I listed are small potatoes and I am sure you will iron them out quickly. I think what it really comes down to is that it's just not my cup of tea. Congratulations for the success you have had already and good luck in the future.
I "played" it a bit yesterday as well. My first message received was pretty bad, let's just leave it at that. It took me a minute to figure out how to reply since there is no reply button. 3 out of 4 times it said there were no new messages to receive. No biggie, as this app is new and will grow in time. There needs to be a way to store message to reply to them later. There should be a way to report bad/dirty messages or let the community know that these are acceptable. The only spam I received was from the developer about their facebook and myspace pages, which I can understand. This is a nice simple app that could use a few tweaks and improvements, but overall it is a decent app. Can't complain about the price, that's for sure.
Didn't like the idea of the beach game, but downloaded this App and it's good fun. Nice and simple interface and the update that's coming includes the thing that could improve it. Cool/10 Thanks.
Thanks starjimstar. I am a bit hypersensitive! Zen Jar is my 11th app in the store, and I am a bit burned out on the hypercriticism towards certain apps. If they are garbage, I don't mind people ripping them to shreds, but I think Zen Jar is a great app, and a lot of people are really loving it. AND it's free, so I clearly don't expect to recoup my expenses in developing it -- many many hours that I could have spent earning what I normally make hourly coding for others. Worse, it costs me money to keep it going, as it is a networked app. Not to say that you were overly negative, but there is so much griping over free apps or .99 cent apps ("Why isn't it free ", etc) that I think is really harming the app store. A little more positivity for the people spending their own time and money to bring cheap or free apps to you guys, eh?
First update was just released last night. I added the two most requested features this round: * Messages are now saved in the jar so you can go back to them later * You can now hide and show the keyboard while typing
Thanks, I just picked this update up and it's a lot better. Hopefully in one of the next updates you'll make the scroll graphics higher quality?
Oh, YOU'RE the guy who doesn't like the scroll Yeah I'm going to improve the graphics a bit once I get all the functionality down. I still want to tweak the typing stuff a little bit so that it is flawless.
I like the scroll it just looks slightly blurry, just me being picky starjimstar originally said about the scroll, I hadn't noticed until he mentioned it. Still it's a great app, and I'm having some good conversations. Off to review it in the App Store now, I forgot before...
Yeah me too. I didn't think twice about it until I got a message on Zen Jar about it. Now I'm obsessing about it
Quick question: how many people get each message that you send out? It feels like too many to me. I send out a thought and end up getting responses to it for days on end. I do like DS a little better where most message only go out to one person, two tops. Thanks for adding the ability to store messages!
You are definitely not getting new replies for days on end. What happens is when you compose a message, it goes up for grabs. Anyone who hits the "receive" button will get it, but once the first person replies to it, it is no longer available to receive. This means that for the first couple minutes, several people may have grabbed it, and can still reply to it even though one person may have answered it. But during that time no one else can receive it. This usually results in 2-3 actual replies rather than one.
Ok, after a few more days of playing with the app here is some more feedback: #1 - The "----------" doesn't always show up when you reply to a message. #2 - (Edit, this is false) Once you hit to reply to a message there is no hiding the keyboard. This covers the message if it is a long one. I may be missing something here but it seems that the keyboard is up for good once you tap to reply. (I see I am wrong. I fear hitting that return button because I don't want to lose the message by mistake) #3 - sometimes the text is invisible when you reply to a message. Could be a iPhone glitch or a bug in the app. Not sure. #4 - You should be able to store a message that you want to reply to later. Sometimes people say something that you need to reflect on or think about for a bit before replying. If you don't reply and just hit "return" the message is gone forever. This may mess up the queue system and how messages are sent out, but there are plenty of times where I want to reply but need some time to think of a proper response. #5 - I like that it is DS without the work. Really it brings the game part down to the key element of conversation over menial time wasting tasks. Sorry I was so harsh on it at first. Thanks
Starting with version 1.1, tapping the jar will let you browse (and reply to) old messages. This was something everyone asked for If you haven't already, update Zen Jar. Any minute now, Zen Jar Lite should be available. I am also nearly done on 1.2, which addresses all of the issues you listed, plus adds a feedback system which lets users give positive or negative feedback to messages.
Zen Jar Lite is now in the app store. The original Zen Jar is now .99 and automatically saves incoming messages.
Version 1.2 was just approved by Apple. Adds: * improved keyboard * KARMA system (give good/bad karma to other users) * Twitter integration -- post to zen jar and your twitter feed at the same time
Some feedback here: The saved messages format needs some work BIG time. Why does it save every single message that you reply to with the last message from before? Example, if I carry a conversation with one person I will have something like 10-15 SEPARATE scrolls! The jar should keep one scroll for a conversation with that one person throughout the whole conversation. It is very inconvenient to have to sift through all those messages and deleting the ones that you don't care for anymore.People that I talk with sometimes cant even keep up and say "I think I wrote this to you already" or something like that. And someone stated this before, but saving messages that you want to reply to later rather than losing that message by not responding right away.
Oh I wanted to also mention- I actually enjoy getting different replies to my initial message. I think this is what grabs my attention when I feel like composing something. Sometimes you will get one boring-stupid response but may get a more enjoyable response later. If possible, please keep this in mind and work with this idea. Maybe like, leave a message "up for grabs" for the first 5 people that reply so you get 5 different responses. Or allow it to be an option when you are composing in case you only want one reply.
I experiment with this a little bit, sometimes I have it set to one reply, sometimes I set it to 5 or so. I'm thinking of turning it up again because there are a LOT more users now and messages get sucked up really quick. As for the saving messages: it has to be that way because everything is anonymous. Messages aren't stored atomically so there is no way to separate out which message came from who. The server knows, but the phone doesn't.
