report problems
April 30th, 2007 by Robert EinspruchWe need your help to make this site as good as it can be. Please use this forum to report any bugs, quirks, odd behaviors or crashes and be as specific as possible. Thank you in advance.
Robert & Egon
April 30th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
I have created an account. When I log in to to my account I get an Internet Explorer error and my web browser closes. Any ideas?
April 30th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Same problem as Tanner. I have created the account and wish to create a profile, but my browser is giving me an error message.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Yeah, same problem.
First I get a popup saying that the page contains insecure links, and no matter what I click, there is an internet explorer error and the page in cancelled.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Tanner, Gaines, Angeline:
Thanks for reporting this issue. It should be fixed now. Please let us know if you are still having problems with this or anything else.
Gregory
April 30th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
The search feature doesn’t seem to be working properly. For example, a search on “econometrics” brings up several tutors who do not have an “eocnometrics” tag, nor whose profile indicates any experience with the subject.
May 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am
Yeah, I’m having a spot of trouble with the search feature as well. It might be because the site has a relatively small pool of members to search from. Anyway, it’s pretty general.
Also, navigation of the site itself it a little tricky… It may just be me, but I’m having a lot of difficulty switching between the homepage and the blog page.
Thanks for your quick response to the problem from earlier, too. I’m impressed!
May 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am
Just as an afterthough, are there any plans in the works for a forum or chat room for tutors?
May 1st, 2007 at 12:14 am
I’m not sure how the whiteboard system works (because I’m not sure how to access it), but what do you all think of giving tutors (and students) the option to type equations in LaTeX? For the math and sciences, this would really help!
May 1st, 2007 at 2:53 am
Hello. Thank you for this great idea. (So far so good). Just wondering though how to logout of a session after you have finished updating your information? Also how does a tutor, I , select how I would like to be paid? Do I have to wait until my first tutoring session. Thanks.
May 1st, 2007 at 3:18 am
I am trying to sign in and it rejects my user name and password, and when I go to ‘forgot my password’ and type in my e-mail address it says that there is no account with that information. I know there has to be as I signed up and got e-mails at that account! What should I do? Thanks. Jonathan
May 1st, 2007 at 3:19 am
I have registerd my acount. But I am unable to sign in. I het a message saying that my account is not activated. How do I activate it?
May 1st, 2007 at 3:58 am
The Search Feature just shows all 23 registered tutors instead of searching for those terms.
May 1st, 2007 at 5:05 am
I am not able to activate my account so I can upload my info.
May 1st, 2007 at 6:03 am
In response to Kerianne’s post, our search algorithm first looks for a specific match - say “geometry” - and then a general match - all words in the “math” family. Econometrics is unique enough that we probably have not assigned it to a family. That is one of our major tasks over the summer - gather search terms from users and organize them into families.
May 1st, 2007 at 6:06 am
This is just aesthetics; but when I log inot my account the Account Administration banner is covering up half the “overview” tab, my name, and the “view your public profile” link.
Thanks
May 1st, 2007 at 6:45 am
To Marcus’ comment above, you logout of the site by clicking the “sign-out” link in the upper righthand corner. Regarding payment, you can enter your bank account or paypal information now or after your first tutoring session. It’s entirely your choice. See the “how-to” section of the blog for more information on payments.
May 1st, 2007 at 6:55 am
Regarding Angeline’s comment about tutor forums, we will definitely include an open tutor forum as part of our beta release this summer.
May 1st, 2007 at 6:58 am
I’m having difficulty searching and adding tags. When I click on the button to search for tags, nothing happens. Let me know what you think….
May 1st, 2007 at 7:02 am
I am also having problems searching and adding tags. Like Jessica, when I click on the button to search for tags, nothing happens. Thanks.
May 1st, 2007 at 7:36 am
There is no paypal option for tutors to receive payment?
May 1st, 2007 at 7:43 am
I registered and made my profile; the top right corner of the screen says I’m “available.” However, when I search for tags I know I have, I can’t find myself. One time I did find it and I was “unavailable,” and ever since I’m just not listed. Am I doing something wrong?
May 1st, 2007 at 7:52 am
This seems to be a frequent question. We are going to change the search algorithm to let tutors see themselves in search results. It should be efficetive by day’s end.
May 1st, 2007 at 7:54 am
What does the “referral code” in the registration refer to??
Thanks.
May 1st, 2007 at 7:58 am
The referral code is for our promotions, including the “no fees forever” offer mentioned (http://blog.ziizoo.com/fees/special-offers/).
May 1st, 2007 at 8:11 am
Regarding Joe Stasio’s comments, the PayPal option will be available shortly. it got lost in our move from “test” to “launch”. Our apologies.
May 1st, 2007 at 8:51 am
Initial entries “Tags” not available. Clicking on image does not bring up items.
I’m not real happy with “PayPal,” whose services include having your I.D. stolen–requiring big hassle with bank and credit cards.
May 1st, 2007 at 9:54 am
I have been trying for the last hour and half to get set up as a tutor. My profile has yet
to remain as I type it in; credentials-I find it impossible to list my credential as a certified
teacher in the state of Ill. Tutoring tags-where are they? I cannot even get my subjects
typed in. Please advise 0r it will be Sept. before I get my correct listing posted.
May 1st, 2007 at 10:11 am
I have not encountered any problems to register as a tutor…
The process has taken less than 10 minutes.
I can’t wait to start tutoring.
Would that be possible to put “French” on the main page just like figure “algebra, math etc….” thank you !
Also, is it safe to enter a routing number and bank account number for after-tutoring sessions payment ?
May 1st, 2007 at 11:03 am
The keywords on the main page are the 25 most popular across all registered tutors. So we can not put keywords on that page - it is driven by the number of tutors that have selected that keyword.
Payment information can wait until after your first tutoring session - we will email you letting you know that you have a pending payment.
May 1st, 2007 at 11:21 am
I CANNOT list my tutoring services and it is driving me CRAZY!!! Can ANYONE figure this out??? PLEASE, PLEASE, someone help me!!! I am ready to lose it!
Thanks and have a great day!
Debbie :o)
May 1st, 2007 at 11:29 am
If anyone is experiencing problems with the listing process they should visit the “how-to” section of the blog (http://blog.ziizoo.com/how-to-use-the-site/account-creation/step-3-upgrade-to-tutor-status) OR contact us via email or phone.
May 1st, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Hello! Congratulations on getting Ziizoo going! I find that I can not sign in….it takes a part of my email address and then stops taking it…I signed up a few weeks ago…any ideas?….thanks!
May 1st, 2007 at 12:19 pm
I signed in this morning–Tuesday–as a tutor and it is about 8 hours from when I did so and I have not received an email that will allow me to activate my account.
The message on the screen said it would take a while, but I think 8 hours is more than “a while.” I would like to activate my account and cannot.
May 1st, 2007 at 12:34 pm
I’m trying to put in the tags for my services and can’t get anything at all when I click “Get related tags’. Nothing pops up.
Thanks,
Maureen
May 1st, 2007 at 12:45 pm
I didn’t have any problems registering, but I did notice a typo under the first step of how to search for a tutor. ‘Even’ is down as ‘eveb’
Thanks.
Carrie
May 1st, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Thank you!!!
May 1st, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Hey guys,
Looks great for the first day! But … I put in all of my tags and now they’re gone. Also, I’m online and to me it shows “available,” but when I view my public profile and mouse over the gray balloon, the alt text says, “Tutor currently unavailable.” (Maybe that’s temporary?)
Thanks!
May 1st, 2007 at 6:00 pm
I created an account as a tutor weeks back also, but I cannot log in to find me or see my profile. Same problem as some of the other responders for my account. please advise
May 1st, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Hello,
Ater waiting most of the day to register (as a tutor) I managed to post some of my personal info. on the site tonight. However, when attempting to post my educational info., the edu page (once loaded) doesn’t offer an option to add or edit my credentials (despite my repeated efforts to refresh the page.) Also, there doesn’t seem to be an option to post my PayPal info. for receiving payments. Is the site still under construction and will updates (concerning the timeline for completion) be posted, shorlty?
Thanks,
L.W.
May 1st, 2007 at 8:34 pm
I may be missing it, but how to I *change* my tutoring rate?
May 1st, 2007 at 10:02 pm
Will there be other criteria added to the search algorithm, or at least a method for sorting the results? For example, will it be possible for students to sort the search results by the tutors’ ratings, or by their hourly rates?
May 2nd, 2007 at 5:48 am
Kerianne makes an excellent observation. Soon we will enable sorting so students can resort results by ranking, price and availability. We will be constantly refining the algorithm to make it as accurate as possible, too.
May 2nd, 2007 at 6:34 am
I also created an account and was told that I would receive an email in response to this so that I could log in and upgrade to tutor.
I never received the email.
May 2nd, 2007 at 7:41 am
how do I use tyhe whiteboard? I can’t find anytyhing that takes me to this.Larry
May 2nd, 2007 at 7:49 am
Instructions on using the text-chat and whiteboard features can be found on the blog at http://blog.ziizoo.com/how-to-use-the-site/find-a-tutor. Please give us your feedback - we have looked at this tool so many times that what appears obvious to us may be obscure to most.
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:12 am
Here it is -day two and I still cannot get a proper tutoring profile for myself set up. Everything
needs enhancement: profile, credentials, and subject list.
Please help! I have spent hours on this.
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:25 am
Carol-
Why don’t we set up a time for us to talk on the phone?
Also, have you checked out the instructions on the blog? The link is http://blog.ziizoo.com/how-to-use-the-site/account-creation/create-an-account.
Robert
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:28 am
I have tried three time to update my profile and it won’t let me. When I try to add things to the space to add things about myself (little box at the bottom of the profile page), it lets me type there but when I update it it all goes away. There is still nothing under my name when I find myself among the list of tutors. Any ideas what is happening?
May 2nd, 2007 at 2:48 pm
hooray!!! you did it!!! thank you so much!!!
no problems getting all my details up on the site — smooth as silk!!
i can’t wait for the tutees to start signing up!! good luck to all tutors!! this is going to be a GREAT ride!!
May 2nd, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Has the Paypal set up been fixed? I still only see credit card and bank account for payment options.
May 2nd, 2007 at 6:05 pm
We will be correcting the PayPal oversight very shortly. Thank you for your patienace.
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Hello. I’m still unable to update my tutoring rate. The only possible link I see is in the “Tutor” tab, where it says “Update Tutoring Services.” But that page doesn’t have an update tutoring rate field. Any ideas?
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:37 pm
I figured it out. Would it be better to have the tag selection and the tutoring rate on the same page, so that we don’t have to click “Done with Selecting tags” to get to the rate update page?
May 3rd, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Not sure if this would be considered a problem, but I was thinking it would be nice for students as well as tutors to be able to see which tutors are online when they enter the site; and then to be able to engage with them and converse with them. What do you think?
Is this the right place for suggestions? Or is it just for problems? And if it’s just for problems, where do I go to make suggestions? Thanks.
May 3rd, 2007 at 1:05 pm
For the time being this is as good as any place to make suggestions. Thanks!
Robert
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:05 pm
When I went back to correct something on the application, the form erased the password and agreeing to service fields, which I had filled out the first time around. It took four tries til I got registered, which was two more than it should have. Please do NOT make people retype stuff that they got right the first time - only correct the errors.
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:09 pm
I also can’t “add any tags”.
Whenever I complete the tag selection process, every subject I entered gets wiped out–tried about 6-7 times.
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:09 pm
What does it mean “your comment is awaiting modification”? I thought it meant that I had to modify the comment - if it means that you are looking into fixing the problem then say that - i.e. something like “Thank you for your comment - we will try to fix it as soon as possible”
Also you should have a “Cancel” button on the bottom, to return to the home page. This form leaves you hanging.
My $.02 worth.
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:38 pm
We have uncovered a bug in the keyword tool that seems to be affecting users at random. We should have a fix up shortly.
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:40 pm
To Barbara’s point above, returning to the registration form will always erase the password for security reasons.
May 3rd, 2007 at 8:40 pm
1. How can I delete some of my tags and add “English as a second language”?
2. I have never been asked for a an “account holder”? What is it? Where do I get it?
3. How do I choose PayPal for billing, instead of my checking account?
May 4th, 2007 at 5:50 am
I am not able to select tags. When I click the select tag button, nothing happens.
I, too, would like the PayPal option.
Also, cannot set a rate for fees.
May 4th, 2007 at 6:44 am
A fix to the keyword tool and the paypal option will be available this afternoon. Our apologies for the inconvenience.
May 4th, 2007 at 8:16 am
Greetings Everyone! My concern is the on line notice. I am on line-so to speak- all morning
during the week-because I am advisor for candidates seeking teaching certification.
What we need is some sort of notification when a student is interested in our service.
I can’t just be on line at this site-waiting. Also what about the hours when we are
on another job and away from home?
May 4th, 2007 at 8:26 am
When a student requests your services you will hear an alert and it will flash on the screen. When we go live to students we will provide more details regarding transacting with students. By the beta release we will also include a message center and a calendar so if a student misses you he/she can leave a message and/or set up a session for the future.
May 4th, 2007 at 11:48 am
I’m really loving your choice of logo by the way!! It’s perfect!
May 4th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I still cannot access the whiteboard, even with the blog site you sent me!!!!!
I know you guys will keep trying..
May 4th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I can’t select my tags! Nothing happens. Any suggestions? I noticed several others had this problem but no response was made. Also, when filling out the profile, the location where I earned my BA is not available. It’s in the US, but the US Virgin Islands is not an option anywhere. I had to choose St. Kitts in the meantime, which was the closest option available. PS I’m very excited about this concept! I think it’s great!
May 4th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
The search feature is either totally weird or way too general. A search for Sociology shows all of the tutors. If you try something specific like Durkheim or Wittgenstein more of the same.
May 5th, 2007 at 7:32 am
On my listed services the size of the letters are all different and I want them to be the same size.
May 5th, 2007 at 7:59 am
How do I change the amount I charge for tutoring? I have looked all over.
May 5th, 2007 at 8:09 am
The different sizes reflect the popularity of that particular tag - it is what makes up the tag cloud, similar to what’s on the homepage.
May 5th, 2007 at 8:11 am
We will simplifying this process soon, but for the time being go to the “update services” portion of the “tutor” tab and click past the keyword generator. At that point you can change your hourly rate.
May 5th, 2007 at 8:14 am
To Nicole’s post, search is a feature that we are continuously working to improve. We hope to have an updated search algorithm in a week or two, but please continue to give us feedback so we can refine search and make it as accurate as possible.
May 7th, 2007 at 6:04 am
I can’t select any tags.
May 8th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Just a suggestion- When someone searches for a tutor, perhaps the online ones should show at the top of the list so they can contact one that is there right then more easily instead of having to scroll through pages to find an online tutor.
May 8th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Search feature is still being weird. I searched for “Michelle” and it seems to show 240 tutors, most of which do not have the word Michelle anywhere in their description.
Also, there should be a way to search only available tutors or something
May 8th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Also, the tags all seem to run together. Maybe there should be a dash or something in between each so you can tell where one ends and the next begins?
May 8th, 2007 at 10:30 am
For initiating a session- I tried to test out two sessions, but nothing ever happened even after waiting over 2 minutes. I suggest if someone has been idle for a long time, it say something, or at least time out and let the student know that person is not responding.
May 8th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
After updating profile, provide link to view it on that page. Or better yet, give an option to preview it before you save it, to make sure it doesn’t have typo’s etc.
May 9th, 2007 at 5:05 am
Service tags — When I clicked on it the first time for removal, it disappeared as it should. Then, I clicked on the tag in the text box, the tag reappeared outside and when I clicked on it again it did not disappear.
May 9th, 2007 at 9:31 am
We are working on the aforementioned bug - thank you!
May 9th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
I am having problems with student contact. It seems other tutors are either contacting me to verify that their account is active or it is automatically connecting tutors accounts to mine as they log on. Is this happening to anyone else or is it just other tutors trying to initiate a session to see if it acutally works? Thanks.
May 9th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Those were other tutors testing out the system! We have been encouraging tutors to play around with the system before we go live to students in two weeks. Can you describe the experience a bit more? Were you able to actually launch a session?
May 9th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for the feedback; reporting this kind of experience is extremely helpful to us. In this case it looks like other users were just testing out the tool with you. That said, we’re testing enhancements to this particular area now so look for them to go live within the next several days.
Also remember you can always set your presence to something other than ‘Available’ if you’d like to avoid requests for sessions. Do let us know if you have any other issues.
Michael
May 10th, 2007 at 12:41 am
I had some snags with tag-adding: seems that “related” tags only ran to the letter “e” or so, and sometimes the tag I entered did not change the listing of related results, or I would enter a unique tag and the related tags would still be on the previous display.
When playing around with the listed tutors, I noticed that tutors with a specific tag would be listed by (I’m guessing) date-created, not availability. I would also like to see the results sortable by price, availability, etc.
May 10th, 2007 at 6:50 am
As mentioned above, search is something we are going to really work on to refine. But sorting by availability and price should be part of coming releases. Thank you for your patience on this one.
May 10th, 2007 at 9:41 am
I am trying to upgrade my account to tutor services. I have a box to the right side that says get related tags. I type in elementary math and reading but I can’t go any further. Someone please help me. I also cannot find myself when I do a search. I guess that is because I need the related tags.
May 11th, 2007 at 12:50 am
Hey there,
Just registered as a tutor, this is a cool offering.
Curious question: Will you consider making it easy for anyone to quickly see who is online? That is, suppose there are 10 tutors online at this very moment, wouldn’t it be great to see their names & green buttons & maybe rates and areas of expertise? Perhaps this would encourage more student usage, as the tutors who are on at that moment are the ones who can help–the others are not online, and therefore don’t need to be listed so prominently.
Any thoughts on this?
May 11th, 2007 at 12:53 am
Another quick note…
I just found your site today and saw “2 tutors online” yet I searched through dozens of tutors, and they all were offline.
So how can a student connect with tutors when they all appear to be offline?
A listing of all online & available tutors would see like a logical solution.
So call me and I’d be happy to discuss exactly what I’m thinking of.
Thanks mucho.
kb
May 11th, 2007 at 12:54 am
2 are shown online, but I can’t find who they are because there are hundreds of tutors listed as offline.
So make it super easy to know who’s on!
Thanks again.
May 11th, 2007 at 1:10 am
Suggestion: When a student initiates a session, could you send a text messge to the cell phone of the tutor, to alert them that they have an active student looking to connect with them for tutoring?
A quick text to my cell phone would allow me to be watering the yard, cooking, or just relaxing at home and waiting for the chance to be of service.
Make it an option to send the SMS message, and you’ll have more happy campers.
Hey, I just signed up and it’s all new to me, as a tutor, so I’m not even sure how you let the tutor know that there is a student waiting.
Also, do a flash demo to show an illustration of how the site works. This question or suggestion that I posed could even be incorporated into the demo so the student would see how high-tech your system is!
Wheee, let’s make this thing rock! Maybe you could have your system send the SMS text message to my phone even when I’m not even online, and this could alert me to quickly log on and meet my student, or answer with a SMS reply that would say “Sorry, not available” or “I’ll be there in 5 minutes”… or a few stock replies like that. This would make your website much more useful.
If I can help engineer this system, just let me know.
Kevin Blesh 1-800-spamboy
May 11th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the comments. Search functionality is being completely redesigned for the next milestone release. Sortable search results and listing by current status (online, offline, etc.) are among the many improvements you’ll see there.
Regarding the SMS alerts, that’s one of several items on the post-alpha list. My own background is in mobile application development and we have some very cool plans for extending key application components to cell phones and other mobile devices. The system was designed from the start to be highly extensible, so although the alpha version requires tutors to be logged in and within earshot to respond to session requests, our plan is to build on the core components we currently have in place to allow community members to interact and use the site in all sorts of ways.
Thanks again for the suggestions. Keep us posted on your experience!
Michael
May 14th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I set up a tutor account a few days ago and did not have a suitable picture at that time. Now I have a suitable picture, though I may have to edit the size, and cannot figure out how to edit my profile to add the picture. What is the path, presumably starting with signing in to the basic website, that will allow me to enter the photo, and also to find out what the size requirement is? Otherwise, things are going fairly well. Thanks. I am really in favor of online teaching and tutoring.
May 14th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
My account says that I owe a tutor $29 for a tutoring session in elementary math. I never initiated a tutoring session.
May 15th, 2007 at 12:16 am
There was an earlier concern that I didn’t see a response to. That is, could the tag words on the subjects taught be separated by commas or hyphens? It is very difficult for me to read and I am the one who listed the areas! I can only imagine a student trying to figure it out!
May 15th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Joe,
Thanks for letting us know. You definitely won’t be billed for that as billing is not yet turned on. Everyone will receive an email from ziizoo before billing goes live. Until then, those amounts are just helping us fine tune things. Please bear with us as we work out the kinks.
By the way it appears the session was initiated on 05/09/2007 at 3:00CST with another tutor on the platform, probably for test purposes. Keep testing and providing us with all the feedback you can muster. I’m usually available if you want to try a test session.
Michael
May 15th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
I am unable to set up payment information on this site. When will this capability be set up?
May 15th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Your web page is very confusing and hard to use. I can not access my account or do anything for that matter. Make this easier to use or I won’t bother to use ziizoo.
May 15th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
I am unable to upgrade for the “tutoring” status. I’m also unable to find any keywords. This is very confusing and not user friendly.
May 16th, 2007 at 6:32 am
Just a suggestion, Google’s checkout might be a better one to provide for students to make their payments to us. For 2007 they are not charging any fees…
May 16th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Carol,
To change your profile picture just log in, click the ‘My Account’ link in the upper right, and then click the ‘Profile’ tab. You’ll see an area to the left where you can upload your new photo.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Hi Megan,
You should be able to set up payment information through the ‘Billing’ tab. There you can enter both payment methods (for students) and disbursement methods (for tutors). Let us know if you still have problems.
Michael
May 16th, 2007 at 11:53 am
I am trying to update my profile. I type in the text in the “about me” section, but when I try to update I get the red exclamation point next to my name saying that my name can only contain letters. I didn’t change my name. So, my about me text, consequently, is not updated. Please advise.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Sir,
Initaite the session icon is not visible on my homepage.
regards.
May 17th, 2007 at 7:53 am
Laura,
What’s your username on ziizoo?
Gregory Stewart
May 17th, 2007 at 8:32 am
The paypal option is working now again. Thanks to everybody for reporting the issue.
May 17th, 2007 at 8:35 am
To Michelle’s comment above-
We looked at Google Checkout but it does not work very well with your model - the main problem is that the customer would leave our site and then come back. I am not opposed that in principal but technically we don’t have the resources to make it a seamless event. We have PayPal as an option for tutors to receive money and shortly it will be possible to make payments with PayPal, too.
Robert
May 18th, 2007 at 12:54 am
I am not able to activate my tutor services. can you please lemme know how to do that. I have received a mail regarding updating the tutoring services but i am unable to do that as it is having problem to do so..Can anyone help me out and is really its working n had anyone tried out this from this site..????
May 18th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
I am unable to change my hourly rate.
I’m also unable to find any of the key words that I had put in. Is there a way to choose which key words we want people to see?
May 18th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Whenever i search for other tutors “INITIATE THE SESSION “is there but when i see my own it is missing.
Is it visible to others so that students may initiate the session.
regards
May 18th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
I found that the search feature is very confusing. I was trying to find other people who could help with Equine Studies; however, I got back the listings of people who seem to tutor math and economics.
It could be a lot easier for users if the search engine would limit the results to those with the keywords and within a price range set by the customer.
May 19th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
maybe add an option to “Show All” as well. For example, if there is only one tutor online, and a student wants to try to find them, they still have to try several searches, when perhaps that person will be able to help them, but won’t come up in their searchs.
Also, will students be able to send us an email or something if we are not online to see if we’ll be around? Or will we have to check our account to see if they left a message? (Perhaps even make on option to send us a short text message to our cell phone- I may just be folding laundry and be willing to tutor if someone lets me know they need it, etc.) But otherwise I have to sit at my computer for hours waiting.
Just a few more ideas from me, can’t wait until it goes live, I need to start tutoring some more, but didn’t want to take on too many in person ones so I can have time to get some students on here instead ;-0
May 19th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
how come you won’t let us put HTML in our profiles? I’d like to separate mine into a couple of paragraphs, and make my link to my online resume a hyper link so they can see more of my credentials than just my education. But it looks like you changed the code to filter out all html…
May 21st, 2007 at 1:15 am
Hello! Good luck to all of us. I know it will take a while to sort out all the bugs. Just keep at it!
I do not have a clue how to use whiteboard and can not find anything on the website that will help me.
Also, it is clear we will have to work out some kind of scheduling algorithm….say I want John Doe as a tutor…he is unavailable or actually with another client…I should be able to leave a message…then too, I may want some continuity, that is have the tutor again…
also many of us will be part timers…we just can not stay glued to the site in the hope that something will turn up….
be well
Eric
May 21st, 2007 at 7:24 am
My response to Eric:
Eric-
Quick question. Your email address in the DB “eric_sandquist@post.harvard.edu” but above there is no “_” - do we have the right email address in our DB?
You raise excellent points that will be addressed in the “beta” release this summer. We will have a message center so that users can leave messages without revealing their email addresses. We will also have a calendar function so that students can schedule sessions in advance.
Thank you for your input and your interest in ziizoo!
Robert Einspruch
May 21st, 2007 at 9:06 am
I’ve been trying to adding tutoring keywords to my profile. I haven’t had any luck accomplishing that for over a week now. I was looking through previously published problems and saw that several people have been having the same problem. No response has been given yet though. Any idea when we’ll be able to use that feature?
May 21st, 2007 at 9:49 am
Later today (5/21) we will be deploying a new look to the “upgrade” page and several fixes to the keyword generator.
May 21st, 2007 at 3:22 pm
I am not ale to log on. Do you know why?
May 21st, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Michelle:
You are making some great points, good ideas as usual
In (near) future there will be a messaging feature available as Robert has mentioned above. Regarding the HTML in the about me field, we don’t allow any markup in user input fields for security and style reasons. However, I agree that paragraphs and links make sense. Maybe a separate “external” link will do the trick? We will discuss this for sure…
May 21st, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Like others, I’ve tried repeatedly to update my keywords but can’t get it to work–last week I’d make the changes but they’d revert to the previous. Today I can’t even access the keywords list. Is this part of what you’re working on?
May 21st, 2007 at 8:33 pm
I haven’t been able to update my profile in the “about you” section. The scroll bar in that field won’t work.
May 21st, 2007 at 9:30 pm
When trying to add new tags, and hitting the related tags, nothing comes up except a new form saying- Do you want to Save or Open. I’m not sure so I tried both. I was not able to open anything, but I was able to save both, however, it does not transfer over to my other tags. Where can I find the related tags? I also tried putting in one that used to work, “first grade reading” yet nothing came up under Related Tags. Where are the original tags that you gave us a choice of? Thanks.
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:14 am
Hi - I’ve forgotten my username and my e-mail address is too long to fit in the box, so I cannot sign in. Is there a way for someone to send me my username so that I can sign in and start tutoring? Thanks!
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:20 am
Sara:
I increased the field length, so you should be able now to enter your long email address.
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:21 am
Connie:
What browser (version?) and operating system are you using?
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:03 am
How do you log-on and then receive students?
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:31 am
I believe that I know how to log-on, but how will I know that I have students scheduled to work with me? How will this be posted?
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:27 pm
I have been trying to bring up ESL or esl as a searchable tutor topic and it’s not coming up, although it is listed as something I teach. Can you fix this?
I agree with the questions about getting contacts from students. As it is,
I don’t see how we’ll get any unless we are on line, and they happen to hit the right search word.
Maybe it would be helpful if the first screen possible students see is a list of skills people can check for, not just people on line.
Margaret
May 22nd, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Hello!….I signed on today 22 May at 2130edt, but the tutor profile said I was offline…will the alert function let me go on to other websites and cut through to let me know there is a client waiting…I use firefox to avoid viruses, spyware, etc….thank you….Eric Sandquist….
May 24th, 2007 at 9:21 am
Greetings! The following individuals have the same questions and remarks that
I need addressed.
Thanks to: Michelle Sharp/Amy Tecosky/ and Eric Sandquist.
May 24th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Hi Eric,
In this alpha version you’ll need to be logged in to the site in order to receive client requests; the alerts will not be displayed if you navigate away from the site. Several simple notification options, including email and SMS, are in the works for the next release.
The longer term goal is to allow tutors to operate completely untethered from the site. This will be accomplished through a combination of mobile options, interaction with existing IM carriers (Yahoo, MSN, AOL, iChat, Google Talk, etc.), and a standalone application that can interact with our service even with the browser closed.
Also, we’ll be launching a tech blog in the next week or so to keep you posted on these development details and other upcoming features, so look for that announcement soon.
Thanks for your feedback!
Michael
May 24th, 2007 at 9:51 am
It seems there’s some confusion on how tutorial sessions are conducted.
Take a look at this link for basic instructions. We’ll be updating this with more detail and screen shots shortly now that more of the technical details have been hammered out.
http://blog.ziizoo.com/how-to-use-the-site/find-a-tutor/
Here’s a very basic rundown of the sequence of events required to conduct a session:
First, a tutor must be online for a student to start a session. The student clicks ‘Initiate Session’ on the tutor’s public profile page. Within 1 minute the tutor should hear a ringtone and see an alert box in the upper right hand corner of any page they’re on. If the tutor chooses to ‘Accept’ the request, a session window is launched for both tutor and student, and the session is underway.
As far as scheduling goes, we’re working on full calendar support to enable students to request sessions several days (or weeks) ahead of time. Until then sessions are conducted at the time the request is received.
I should be online all day if you’d like to test this out.
http://www.ziizoo.com/profile/mbachers
Thanks,
Michael
May 25th, 2007 at 11:23 am
I have found instructions for student access to the whiteboard, but not for tutors. Does it only appear to the tutor when a student activates it? It would be nice to take it for a test run.
May 30th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Looking for other ways of payments… can they be posted on the personal profile?
I noticed that other online tutoring services are offering one-hour-trial for $5.00. Without going to that extreme, I wish to offer a one-hour trial for $10.00, raising the price to the final $15, if the client(s) is(are) satisfied. But I have no way to get this in writing on the website. So, I am posting $10.00 to start but I do not want to appear deceitful when someone wants the service and soon realizes that it is not what he/she expected. Could you tell me how to update my profile? Thanks! MK
June 3rd, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Everytime I click a link on the site my status changes from available to offline. I have noticed that all day today whenever I go to the home page it says that there are 0 tutors and when an item is clicked on there are tutors who are available.
June 3rd, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Sir,
Whenever i sign in it shows me offline instesd of being online.
June 3rd, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Sir,
Whenever i sign in it shows me offline instead of online
June 3rd, 2007 at 9:12 pm
When I log on, I have to manually click on available, then I went to see my public profile and it says: offsite. So I did this several times and each time it will not show that I am available. Do you have certain times and days
when you are closed?
June 3rd, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Thank you for alerting us to the presence bug - we are working on fixing it right now and should have it resolved in the morning. Thank you for your patience.
Robert
September 1st, 2007 at 11:07 am
Hi, Just a suggestion: make an application we can download so the page can run in the “background” on our computer. That way we tutors can stay logged in and not accidentally close the window.
(I do a LOT of editing or web page publishing online and would like to be available to tutor if any students finally log in!
Also, a way for us tutors to see if any students are online at the time, I’m just curious if they are there and my profile/price is not attractive enough….has anyone had any student sessions this week? If so, let me know: michelle.c.sharp@gmail.com I’d love to hear from you!
September 2nd, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Michelle hit upon an idea we have been kicking around for a little while - how to extend the alert. In our “ziizoo 1.0″ release, which will be in early 2008, we plan to include extended alerts - including SMS messages to cell phones, a desktop alert (like Southwest Airlines’ “ding”) and alerts to various instant messenger clients. But we have to walk before we run!
As for seeing the number of studnets on the site, I think we will include those metrics at a later point, too - perhaps part of our 1.0 release.
September 3rd, 2007 at 4:48 am
Kewl! Just one more suggestion- when you send a message to someone on ziizoo, it’d be nice to have something saying “message sent”, cuz the first time I did it, I wasn’t sure whether it had really sent
September 3rd, 2007 at 9:07 am
I am sorry, but I have one more suggestion: I think the alert noise when the “accept/deny” session window comes up could be louder and longer, and maybe it could re-beep every 10-20 seconds or something in case you missed hearing the first one?
That’s it for now I hope
September 5th, 2007 at 8:24 am
More of a question than a problem, but thought others might have the same one so I’m putting it here
It says “all your text-chat transcripts can be automatically stored in the locker for future reference.” How do we set this up? I had a couple chats with Rob, but they didn’t show up in my locker…and I didn’t see a way to turn that on.
Thanks, and keep up the great work ziizoo guys!!
September 10th, 2007 at 6:57 am
I can’t see anyone else’s images except mine. They all are just that orange thingie.
Also, There are never any other tutors logged in anymore, when a week ago there were always a few, is that a glitch? Or did everyone give up until marketing starts in a week or two?
Thanks!
September 23rd, 2007 at 5:42 pm
I went to your site, clicked on sign in, placed my name and pw and then it froze, that is, I never was taken to another page, I stayed there where it stated there were no tutors online. After waiting and nothing happened including my name and pw just stayed there like stuck in space, I finally gave up and cancelled the whole thing. Then I tried again and the green light was on stating that I was available!! Yet it still stated there was no tutor available.
September 27th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Hi there! I think this site has been good for finding people who need tutoring help. Since I’m always logged on, I’ve had 5-6 different “activate session” requests but have yet to successfully link to student. Either I’ve been able to get through and not them, or they’ve been able to get through and not me. It’s weird. Most of the tutoring I’ve done on this site is through my message board and through my personal e-mail address. Next, I don’t quite understand the search algorithms used by this site since a lot of people who are not available get higher search ranks when I am available. And since I can tutor a very wide range of subjects, it’s weird that I can’t even see myself within the first two search pages of topics I have explicitly listed on my tutoring services. That’s it for now, but I hope you can address these issues so students can start to feel confident in becoming repeat users of this site, and so some of us tutors who make themselves available can actually get some work.
October 10th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Hi guys,
I had a similar problem tonight (similar to what Jeffrey reported above.) A student set up her account, put in her billing info, verified everything, etc. She initiated a session with me, but her computer got stuck / froze on the Java loading page and she could never get past that. We ended up doing a session via Yahoo Messenger. If someone could get back to me, I’d like to know if I can still bill her through ziizoo. Also, she wants to do another session tomorrow (well, later today!) and she’s happy to use ziizoo if it will work for her. Any response would be appreciated. Thanks!!
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Hey All!
I just logged in, created a profile, added myself as a tutor, and created my tags, but I don’t turn up in the search results (either as logged in or not). For instance, try searching Hungarian (it’s a tag of mine). You get 0 results. I was wondering if this is a persistent problem or if maybe there is a delay between when you create your account and when you become visible as a tutor. Help?!
Thanks!
October 29th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Hi ,
I cannot see any related tags to add into my profile.
Please help
Thanks
Neeti
November 8th, 2007 at 12:18 am
When I enter “tutors” in the search feature only four names & bios appear with no “next” or “continue” link. I can’t get past that page, can’t get to any other tutors. I finally got a page that allowed me to go to p. 2, but not beyond. Suggestions? Thanks -ld
December 6th, 2007 at 10:41 am
One of my students signed up to the site, entered her billing information, went to my profile page, and requested a tutoring session with me but I never received the alert message in more than one hour. Did she do something wrong? Or is the site experiencing problems? Is there a help section detailing all the exact steps students need to follow to request a session with a tutor?
Thank you. -Carlos
December 6th, 2007 at 10:49 am
One more thing: I had to email my student the explicit link to my profile page, because it was not showing up when she searched for my name. Can this be fixed?
I don’t know but somehow the site gives me the weird feeling that when I login I can only talk to the site itself (if that) but I feel cut out of any possible connection to other users, or the admins. There is no “sense of community” that you find in many other sites because of their abundant, user friendly links to common areas.
Thanks - Carlos
January 20th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
How is the search algorithm implemented? I have a tag for math, but when I search for math I can’t find my name among the matches.
January 20th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
The short answer is that our Google Mini search appliance needs a few hours to re-index the site, so changes do not show up instantly.
January 28th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
hi — i am having trouble logging off — can you give me a hint?
thanks — Mary
January 28th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Hello,
I am trying to sign up as a tutor, but when I try to set my fee and add the tags for my services, it does not save the data. I have done this three times now and when I go and look at my profile it says that no services are offered right now. Am I doing something wrong on the tutor page? Is there something else I need to do in order to have my info saved? Thank you very much!
January 30th, 2008 at 12:28 am
Hi Heidi,
Do you click the “Update Tutor Service” button after you make your updates? That’s the only thing I can think of, unless there’s an issue with the application. BTW–welcome to Ziizoo and nice to meet you! Let me know if you have any other questions about the site. ;o)
~Jeffrey
February 2nd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I tried to log in which I haven’t for awhile and it wouldn’t let me and didn’t recognize my e-mail so I registered again now I have two, what do I do.
May 25th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
I also received a request from a student but when the whiteboard came up, they were not in the session. After repeated attempts, I had to conduct the session over the private messaging. Please fix this soon.