Chris's posterous

The U.S. cities* with the highest snow totals last winter.

The U.S. cities* with the highest snow totals last winter.

Syracuse                      106.1 inches

Erie, Pa.                          91.4 inches

Rochester                       89.6 inches

Philadelphia                     78.7 inches

Pittsburgh                       77.4 inches

Baltimore                         77.0 inches

Buffalo                           74.1 inches

Washington, D.C.            73.2 inches

Grand Rapids, Mich.         72.2 inches

Des Moines, Iowa             69.0 inches

*More than 100,000 residents

Source: www.GoldenSnowGlobe.com and National Weather Service

via buffalonews.com

Designing for social traction: Turn a user into a passionate customer *before* making them sign up for your service - Sachin's Posterous

Being able to post to Posterous without an account was something we designed for from day one, even before the name "Posterous" existed. I didn't want there to be hurdles like registration forms and email confirmations for new users.

Emailing to Posterous without an account is actually great for us in a couple different ways. First is the typical "try before you buy" scenario. It makes more sense for a user to *use* the service and see how great it is, before we ask them to sign up. But obviously, most of our users do eventually sign up to get access to all our advanced features.

But sign-up free posting is also great for group sites. When you setup a group Posterous site, you add contributors by adding their email address in site settings. Those people can now email post@sitename.posterous.com with no account. We do see these people engage with Posterous in the long term with no account, especially users who aren't tech savvy.

Using Posterous without an account isn't just some gimmick we did with email, it's something we believe in through and through. Registrations forms and other hurdles slow down adoption. We want to prove to you how valuable our service is *before* we ask you to sign up. That's why we allow this flow not just through email, but through our Twitter posting API and even our iPhone application.

via sachin.posterous.com

Great American Beer Fest Interesting Facts

Here are a few Great American Beer Festival facts of interest:

  • 46% more elbow room. Elbow room is essential at beer festivals since they are used to bring beer to mouth.  2009 Great American Beer Festival has added 46% more area expanding to 289,000 square feet of festival
  • 31,000 tickets have sold out; the increase in ticket availability is 12% over last year
  • More rest room access – important!
  • 457 breweries will be serving beer at the festival
  • 2,101 beers will be offered for tasting
  • Over 5 miles of beer line hoses will deliver 1,900 beers on tap
  • There are over 3,200 beers entered into the Great American Beer Festival competition in over 70 categories, judged over three days by over 120 judges
  • Over 3,000 volunteers will create essential support at the Great American Beer Festival. Second most volunteers for an event; second to the Rose Bowl Parade
  • Over half a million 1 ounce pours will be enjoyed to savor the flavor responsibly
  • There are 1,500 small and independent craft brewers in the USA
  • There is a community of over 100,000 employees that work in small and independent American breweries
  • This is the 28th annual Great American Beer Festival
  • The first Great American Beer Festival was in 1982 – 20 breweries and 40 beers were enjoyed by 900 attendees.  There were only 42 breweries in the United States.

From: Great American Beer Festival coverage by Examiner.com