Respectance.com

It’s a sad but telling story, how many military family and friends have created tributes to soldiers lost in war. The military has long been known to be a tight knit group of friends, and it’s no surprise that they are discovering what Respectance has to offer them.

It’s a way to tell the story, to come together from around the world, and to salute fallen comrades. We won’t be featuring the tributes in this post for several reasons, but if you take the time to browse through the tributes then you’ll find our heros. Spread the word to friends and family of soldiers that you know. We are the best place to remember your comrades, sons and daughters with the respect they’ve earned and the privacy that they may want.

In the same way Respectance gives you a place to celebrate lives lost, Picalily can give you a place to tell your stories of today.

Stand proud. Remember those who have sacrificed. Join Respectance and Picalily and preserve the story.

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I was listening to a great show on the radio yesterday. It was about focussed advertising. I was astounded to hear that a full 17% of Nintendo Wii players are over 50. The show spoke of grouping target audiences by ‘tribe’ rather than by demographic. I couldn’t agree more with this presumption. A 50 year old Wii player and a 20 year old player likely have a lot in common. Boomers form a huge part of our membership base.

I wish that we could speak with each of you personally to find out what you need from a social networking site like ours.

So here we are with Respectance and Picalily. We’ve been listening to what you’ve wanted so far. We hope we’ve packaged it in a way that’s easy and fun to use. Your big requests were - to be able to put “it” out there for yourself, privacy controls, and content control. You control who you link to, how you portray yourself. What stories you want to tell everyone, what stories you tell only to yourself. You can upload your own music, photos, videos. Do your blogging. Use it, and then answer me a question (yes this is targeted advertising!).

Is there anything else that you’d like to see on the site? Is there something/anything you think could use improvement? What do you think of what we are doing now? Really, we want to hear it all. The good, and the bad the things you think need improving.

Thanks for your input!

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We’ve been working hard since the launch of Respectance, and now with the release of Respectance 2.0, to make the sites easy to use and fun to create with.

Many members have poured their hearts and souls into creating beautiful Respectance tributes, not only to their friends and family who’ve died but also to their own story. Everyone can upload videos, music, and photos to share with friends and family. Everyone can share their love and memories.

Many of our members asked for something more though. They wanted a better way to tell their own stories. Something that would let them showcase their lives here and now. Lifestories on Picalily promises to allows you to do it. You can now share everything that’s going on in your life with friends and family easily.

It’s like having your own blog, photo site, music center all in one! No more sending people all over the web to hear your story! No more messy formatting problems. You can upload photos and blogs and videos with a click or to, and then invite all your friends to come see them, to add to them, to leave their thoughts.

The whole idea when we started Respectance, and now Picalily, is that we want you to share your emotions. We want to make the internet real, live and personal for you. Jump in and have a look. Join Respectance and Picalily now and share your life with those who matter to you.

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I would like to share my Picalily experience and encourage readers to start creating their own lifestories. Here’s Mine.

Here’s what I love about Picalily:

1. I can upload my own banner, any kind of photo I want, which hi5, facebook, or orkut doesn’t offer.
2. I can specify how I am connected to lifestory creators: Friends, family and visitors. Friends and Family don’t have to be in same list. They are listed with different tabs. Also I know who has checked out my lifestory.
3. Photo slider, the coolest thing, which I haven’t seen in other SNS . It makes your profile look so good.
4. Ah, not to forget the music that you can add to your lifestory. If you are lazy to upload music, you can use the default tracks that’s already been uploaded.
5. I can make as many lifestories with the same member id. I’m thinking of making one for my grandma. She’s going to love it.

Picalily is different! It lets member choose their own color scheme, add banner, and upload their favorite music. Unlike orkut and facebook (which I have been using), Picalily is colorful. It’s about an individual and their taste. What’s your favorite? Pink? Lime? Blue? Black? Or Maroon? Let us know so that the developers can add to the color scheme.

Let me know if I forgot to mention any of the cool features.There are more features to come. Stay tuned!

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In a world where mobility, portability and access to information have become of paramount importance, the relevance of sites like Respectance and Picalily becomes more and more clear. As each generation grows, we tend to move farther from ‘home’, friends and family. We still want all the information about what’s going on though. Long gone are the days of telegrams and mailed letters that took days, months or weeks to arrive with news. We want to know things now.

Look at sites like Twitter, where people constantly are updating what they are doing and where they are going. In turn their friends are advised of the information immediately. New mobile applications are being developed that will allow us to walk into a room and immediately see the status of anyone in the room using the same application…if they’re working, socializing, committed, available, what they do EVERYTHING about them that they want public. Wow! If that idea doesn’t rock your world, then I don’t know what will.

Respectance and Picalily tie into this trend wonderfully. The best example I can think of is my own Grandmother’s passing. I was on a transatlantic flight when she died. Within hours of landing I had made a tribute to her. My family from all over the world was able to join together and share our love and memories of her. We weren’t all able to get home for the funeral but we were still there, and afterward we could all watch it.

Don’t look back on your life, and that of your loved ones, and wish that you had shared the important things in life. Do it now with Picalily.

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