Dear Akohans,

We want to thank you for your support since our launch at TechCrunch 50, three months ago. We’ve been working hard to make sure that all orders from the Akoha Store will be shipped before we take a break for the holiday season. As of 22 December, all orders we receive will be processed when we return on 5 January and it’ll be business as usual from that date forward.

If you have any questions, you can check out our FAQ, reach out to us on Twitter (@akoha), or send us an e-mail (support@akoha.com).

Happy holidays and we’ll see you in the new year!

We’ve had a tremendous response to Akoha and our beta list has been growing steadily since we launched the private beta in September. We’ve received loads of requests from people who want to get started with Akoha right away and so we’re happy to announce a new “fast track” program which will allow anyone to join the community by picking up an Akoha Starter Kit directly from our new Akoha store: http://store.akoha.com.

During the beta period we’re subsidizing the price of Starter Kits. The price for a deck is $5 USD which includes shipping to addresses in North America (international shipping is extra). Our goal during the beta is to allow all motivated play-testers to get involved as quickly as possible in order to help us improve the Akoha experience.

If you’re not ready to join the community at this time, you don’t need to do anything else to stay on our invitation list. We’ll send you one, and only one, e-mail to let you know that Akoha is open for anyone to explore.

We appreciate the great feedback we’ve already received from the community and we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to incorporate your ideas into the game. Some recent changes include improvements to the login and card confirmation process, improvements to gameplay, and better leaderboards with lots of other interesting changes coming soon.

We’ve also updated our FAQ with answers to questions you may have regarding the store. Furthermore, you can reach out to us directly by e-mailing Sean our Community Gardener at support@akoha.com or by talking to us on Twitter (@akoha) or by posting in our forums.

We’re looking forward to welcoming you to the Akoha community, so head over to the Akoha Store and get your Starter Kit today!

http://store.akoha.com

We just pushed a new site update!  Here are some cool things that you can look forward to seeing:

• New forums have been deployed to http://forums.akoha.com
• We removed the “Akoha” user from the leaderboard (wasn’t fair that it was there!)
• Landing page, home page and confirm card page have been completely redesigned!
• An improperly filled form on the “Edit Profile” page now lets you fix your errors.
• The buttons in the “Find Friends” page now scroll properly in Internet Explorer.
• Google Maps works in Chrome and Safari.
• On the feedback page, Get Satisfaction discussions now show up in IE6 and IE7.
• Comments in Wall with extra long links show up properly.
• The site should be faster.

As always, please don’t hesitate to email support@akoha.com or go to our GetSatisfaction support page at www.getsatisfaction.com/akoha to give us feedback, report bugs, etc.

Thanks!

Wondering how to get started with your missions?  Here are a few quick tips:

• Play with a friend: We find that it’s better to play your first Akoha mission with someone you know and trust.  This will allow you to practice your Akoha mission pitch and help you work out your motivations for performing a good deed.
• Start simple: Try playing a mission where you will do something that you normally do anyways.  If you like to go out for coffee with friends, play the “Invite Someone For Coffee” mission.  If you like to give your friends surprise gifts (like knitted hats!), use the “Give Someone a Surprise Gift” mission card.  Play Akoha with the acts of kindness that you already do. It makes it easier and gives you practice.
• Explain how Akoha works: Your Akoha experience (as well as the points you get) increase when your cards are claimed in by the recipient and played forward.  To increase the chances of this happening, take a moment to explain what Akoha is about.  Show them the unique ID and explain how they can go the home page and ‘claim’ the card.  You might want to mention that if these cards are confirmed 25,000 times a school is being built in Nepal.  You can also mention that this project is in its infancy, and that you are giving them access to a private beta and a chance to be amongst the first wave of users to play Akoha.  We find that all these little pieces of information increase the likelihood that the recipient you play with will confirm the Akoha mission and then pass on the mission themselves.
• It’s not all easy: Consistently doing acts of kindness can take effort.  To work around this, some of our users are setting goals for themselves: “I will do one act of kindness with someone once a week”.  By scheduling ten minutes in a day to dedicate to making someone smile, you will not only better their lives and yours, you will also be inspiring others to do the same!

Are you interested in connecting with us?  Here is an epic list of the different ways you can interact with Akoha!  Note: We’ll keep on editing this list as we add/change/remove accounts and notify you accordingly.

Frequently updated accounts

We use these accounts on a regular basis to give updates on where we are and to interact with others:

• Akoha blogs: We’re blogging regularly at http://community.akoha.com.  We usually blog 3 to 5 times a week, but we promise that we won’t flood you with posts.  Blogs are the best way to get news and updates about Akoha before anyone else does.  You can subscribe to the feeds on that page.
• Akoha forums: You can hang out and discuss with other Akohans at http://forums.akoha.com.  This is a good way to get connected with others and to share your Akoha experiences.
• Akoha twitter account: We’re pretty active on Twitter.  Our account can be found at http://www.twitter.com/akoha.  If you add us, we’ll add you in return.
• Akohans Twittering:  Many of us on Akoha are Twittering as well.  You can find additional team blogs and Twitter accounts on the Akoha team page here.
• Your voice: We have a GetSatisfaction account that you can access here: http://getsatisfaction.com/akoha

Akohans on Akoha

You can find the Akoha team on Akoha as well!

• Alex, Chaos Wrangler
• Anthony, Unix Pipefitter
• Austin, Executive Instigator
• Benoit, Frontend Ninja
• Eric, Chief Geek
• Georges, Simplicity Engineer
• Harlene, Taskrobat,
• Juan, Software Janitor
• Malini, Apprentice Ninja
• Martin, Python Charmer
• Mélanie, Professional Vandal
• Maxime, Apprentice Frontend Code Wrangling Ninja Instigator
• Rosalie, Assistant Controller
• Sean, Community Gardener
• Simon, Drunken Master
• Todd, El Luchador Financiero

Other accounts

We check these accounts periodically:

• Facebook: We have a Facebook account that we’ve quite a bit in the past.  We will be looking for new and creative ways to use this account to keep you all updated.
• Microblogs: We’re on Plurk, pownce and Identi.ca, though we’re not yet actively using these accounts, we’re looking at doing so.  Help us by telling us what you’d like to see.  Feel free to add us as well, so we can get started!

We also like to have fun

• Flickr: You can find pictures of us on Flickr.  We usually update this account once or twice a quarter.
• MySpace Music: We even have an Akoha Myspace page!  Akoha team members can post music that they’ve done or are working on.  We use this account purely for fun

Are we missing a network that we reaaaaally should be on?  Let us know!  Now you know how to reach us!