Q. What is We Endure?

A. We Endure is a social training log (and no that doesn't mean it teaches you how to behave in polite company) where you can track your progress in any of a number of endurance sports (Cycling, Running, and Swimming to name a few) and then compare that progress with others. Or, find new events to attend, set new goals for yourself, and make new friends to train with along the way!

Q. Yeah, yeah, I read that on the homepage, but what can it do for me?

A. Well, in a nutshell, We Endure makes it really easy to keep a log of your progress, and then compare that progress with that of your friends. For the more competitive among you, this can prove to be a great incentive. More than once during the beta period I've seen someone ride an extra 5 miles just to get above one of their friends in the charts. For the less competetive among you (of which I count myself a member) We Endure still makes it much easier to see if you're improving week after week.

Q. Is that it?

A. Not by a long shot! We Endure also makes it really easy to find events in your area, as well as other users to train with. You can also:

• Chart your progress
• Export your data
• Import data from other applications
• Subscribe to RSS or Atom feeds (per user or for the site as a whole!)
• Configure a badge to add to your own personal site
• ...and the proverbial much, much more!

Q. What browser should I use for the optimal Enduring Experience?

A. Well, that depends on what operating system you use, but the short answer is, the site should work just fine in any modern browser with a modicum of standards compliance. This includes Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer 6+, Safari, and Camino. Anything not listed here is not explicitly supported and may or may not work. As long as your browser supports XHTML, CSS2 and AJAX, you should be ok. That being said, I personally prefer Firefox, so things get tested there the most, and as such it's guaranteed to work the best!

Q. I'm using a modern browser and the site still looks wonky, what's the deal?

A. Is your resolution below 1024x768? I should've mentioned that the site is optimized for a minimum resolution of 1024x768. Things start to go awry at a resolution any lower than that. Sorry about that!

Q. Is We Endure a finished product?

A. Of course not! We Endure is currently in a beta stage. I know betas are all the rage on the internets these days, who am I to buck the trend.

Q. What does beta mean in relation to We Endure?

A. It means that, unfortunately, some problems can be expected. These include, but are not limited to, minor errors in functionality, changes to existing functionality, full blown non-functional pages are possible, but should be very, very rare. Last but not least, as much as I'd like to avoid it, there will be downtime occasionally. Sometimes this is a result of something I'm doing, like uploading new changes to the site, othertimes this might just be a side effect of the fact that I'm currently using shared hosting and am the whim of my hosting provider for uptime. That's not to say the site isn't reliable, it is, but the possibility exists and I want to make that known.

Q. Who created We Endure

A. Why, I did of course.

Q. And who exactly are you then?

A. I'm Joshua Cohen. A web developer originally from the east coast, but currently living in Eugene, OR. I started cycling seriously in the spring of 2005 and rode my first century later in the summer. I'm a bit of a slacker on the bike but I end up getting from A to B at a reasonable speed. By which I mean, I'm no racer, but I can cruise along at 17mph without killing myself. Usually.

Q. Did you have any help with the site?

A. I did all of the programming myself, but I had lots of help from my friends in various respects. Most notably the site was designed by Craig Sosonko of Modern Angel Studios. He did a fantastic job. My wife, Robin helped out tremendously by being quite understanding when I'd sequester myself in my office after work night after night, week after week, as well as offering suggestions on the site flow, and letting me know when things were broken in Internet Explorer. Other friends helped out alpha and beta testing the site and harassing me to get it done. I couldn't have done it without them and their, er, "encouragement"

Q. Anyone else you'd like to acknowledge while you're at it? Remember you've only got 30 seconds...

A. Let's see. First and foremost let's all thank 37 Signals for releasing Ruby on Rails upon the world. Without which, well, the site still would've been possible, but probably would've taken much longer to develop. Additionally to the good folks in the Rails IRC channel who helped out with some of my more convoluted issues while learning the ropes of Rails. Some of the icons seen throughout the site are from the Silk Icon Set, which is a beautiful set of creative commons licensed icons from Mark James of famfamfam.com. The charts you see throughout the site are generated using Gruff Graphs, an open source charting library for rails.

Q. Who can I contact with suggestions/praise or *gasp* complaints?

A. Well, you could always post a message over at the We Endure Forums. If you'd rather your message be more private, feel free to send me a site message (my username is defeated), or send me regular email at admin at weendure dot com.

Q. I really dig the site, can I send you some money?

A. Aww shucks, you're sweet. As you may have noticed the site is ad-supported. So far this seems to work pretty well for paying the bills. If you'd like to though, there's a subscription option, which gets you a whole slew of extra features for a minimal fee.