Memverse Badges
We are excited to announce that the first three badges have been released so you can start working towards earning those. Remember, the badges are supposed to be rare and difficult to achieve. It is highly unlikely that anyone will be able to earn all, or even most of, the badges.
The first badge is the 'Sermon on the Mount' badge. As you can probably guess, this badge is awarded once you have memorized Matthew 5-7.
The second badge is the 'Consistency' badge which will be awarded to people who consistently complete their memorization sessions. To earn a gold badge you will need to complete 350 memorization sessions in a year. The silver badge will require 320 and the bronze badge 280.
The final badge is the 'Referrer' badge and is awarded to those people who have done a stellar job spreading the word about Memverse. You need to have 200, 100, and 50 active referrals to earn that badge.
The badges are awarded when you complete a memorization session or when you visit the 'My Progress' page. At the moment we have it set so that you won't ever lose a badge once you've earned it.
A huge thank you to Dakota Lynch for designing the badges. I think he did an absolutely brilliant job!
Finally, we would love to hear more ideas for badges. Our plan is to keep releasing new badges over time.
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Memory Verses on iPad 3
Those of you who have an iPad 3 should try out the voice dictation. I tried it a few days ago and, despite some difficulties with my other-wordly accent, it was relatively effective. I think over time it will only get better and I look forward to the day when typing out one's memory verses is just one of the alternatives.
I have been having some trouble memorizing Romans 8 so have been trying out a variety of tactics to break the logjam. I've recorded myself reciting the chapter and use my phone to listen to it when I have 5 minutes of down time. I also wrote it out by hand a few nights ago and found that very useful. But I found that there is nothing like slowly dictating it to really get it stuck in my head.
I would encourage everyone to use as many different techniques for memorizing the Bible as you can lay your hands on. The more variety you incorporate, the more likely you are to persist with your memorization and the quicker your memory verses will become lodged in your mind and heart.
A foreshadowing of an upcoming feature: we will soon be releasing the first Memverse badges. This would be a good time to be consistent, promotional, and gospel-minded.
Tips
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A Quicker Start to Memorizing the Bible
Hi everyone! The start of 2012 sure has gone by quickly. We are now past January, the month of resolutions, and Feburary, the month of fraying resolutions. If 2012 saw you resolving to add to your stockpile of memory verses, now is a good time to renew that resolution!
Many of the changes we've made to Memverse in the first two months would have gone largely unnoticed to those of you who joined before the end of 2011. The start of this year saw us making some changes to simplify the first few minutes of the Memverse experience. We had noticed that 1/4 of the people who signed up never added a single verse. Another 1/4 would complete one memorization session and never come back.
Since we know that you're all hard at work referring people in order to advance in your levels, this state of affairs was tragic. We suspected that over the years complexity had accreted like barnacles on a ship, so we set to work simplifying the startup experience. Only new users will see these changes but we're happy with the early signs. Now, more than 90% of the people who sign up add some verses to their account. Over time, we will be merging some of these changes into the 'Add Verse' page.
If any of you happen to be looking over the shoulder of someone who is brand new to Memverse we would love to get feedback. What confused or puzzled them? What caused them to throw up their hands in despair and stomp out of the room muttering: "Where are my flash cards? Now I know why the Law was delivered on stone tablets and not via a browser!" ?
Second, we have added some more levels for those of you who just can't level up quickly enough. We promise to add more variety over time. Alongside the standard progression system, we will be gradually adding some 'badges'. There will be more to come on this topic but the first ones will probably be awarded for consistency in completed sessions. Most badges will have 3 levels (bronze, silver, gold). We are looking for someone to design some fun badges so if you have an artistic bent we would love to hear from you. We would love to have the badges designed by members of the Memverse community so try your hand at designing a set of 'Consistency' badges. (The badge dimensions should be 120 x 120 pixels and can be either round or square.) If you know someone who is a brilliant graphic designer, please ask them to help out.
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