In preparation for the upcoming launch of the site I’ve put together a sidebar JavaScript widget that will fit into a 125x125 area.  We would appreciate it if you’d help us spread the word and add this code to your site in the sidebar.  The script will countdown to the launch and provides links to the Poker Tech Reviews website.  You can download the script from here.

Here is what the widget looks like:

The Authority Launches in

25 Days

Again thanks for helping us spread the word.

The time has come for review submissions.  The guidlines are listed in the document below so fire up that word processor and show everyone your writing chops.

Review Standards for Poker Tech Reviews

Expectation

Your expected to have fun.  If their is a program you are passionate about, good or bad, then write it up.  Inject your passion into your writing and the readers will get a better understanding of the product.  Fame and glory can be yours  as your name and a link to your website will be posted with every published review.  If you find that you have a knack for review writing and your reviews are informative and entertaining, then we just may hire you to write for us on a regular basis.

Rating

The ratings standard for all reviews will be based on a 4 point system.  Each point within the system should represent the reviewers feelings for the product as follows:

1. Below Average
2. Average
3. Above Average
4. Excellent

Using the above scoring system the reviewer must supply a rating for each of the following individual features:

• User Interface
• Feature Set
• Usability

The overall rating for the product will be determined via an average of the three assigned scores.  (ie. A program is given the following scores: User Interface=2  Feature Set=4  Usability=1  Then the program receives an overall score of 2)

Structure

Review should open with a paragraph devoted to the programs function.  Following this the review will be broken down into three distinct sections.  Each of the three sections will be devoted to one of the rated features listed above.  The review should close with a summary where the reviewers final thoughts of the overall program are discussed.
You are encouraged to inject your personal writing style and voice into the review.  The structure is provided as a guideline so that the sites visitors will have a familiar structure while browsing the reviews.

Screenshots

Along with the review a gallery of screenshots will be included.  To facilitate this we ask that you provide at least 4-5 screenshots depicting various operating modes of the program.  If you reference a particular screenshot during the review, you should reference the screenshot by file name so it can be properly formatted when published.

Submission

The review should be submitted in plain text format to submissions@pokertechreviews.com. Upon submission the review will go through an editorial process.  To facilitate this process the review should contain proper grammar, punctuation, and paragraph structure.  Whether a review is accepted for publishing or not the reviewer will be contacted.  If the review is considered in need of follow up, the reviewer will be contacted and the editorial notes forwarded.

I wanted a way to keep track of how much time I spent on the computer working on different things. To this end I began to use a program called Wakoopa. This is a cool program that tracks what programs your using and for what times. I really liked the program but it wasn’t playing well with a program I like even more called Digsby. Wakoopa kept crashing on me and it appears that the problem is with my laptop somewhere as no one else seems to have the same issues I do.

Not really wanting to take the time to troubleshoot I switched to another tracking program called Rescue Time. I like this program even better because instead of just reporting that I’m using “firefox”, it reports what web pages I’m actually visiting. When you spend as much time online as I do this is a huge added benefit.

All of this is just way to complain about how much time I lost this last week because my job got in the way of my site work. I went from being able to spend 14 hours on site development two weeks ago to only 4 hours last week. Fortunately it looks like I’ll be able to ramp up a bit more time this week which should put us into the final stages of development.

As the time to launch draws nearer my excitement is building. It’s about time to start collecting reviews so be on the look out for an announcement later this week.