Remember Your Favorite 4th of July Memories on ystryr

The 4th of July in America is a time for celebrating our country and honoring those who have served to protect it. It is also an amazing time in the summer to make memories that will last a lifetime.

In our latest ystryr challenge, we are looking for your best 4th of July memories. Whether it is a sight, sound, place, product, movie, song or just a group photo, what is your lasting memory of the 4th of July? Go ahead and share with your ystryr friends.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Remembering the Lunch Boxes of Our Youth

Back in the day, there was nothing worse than seeing summer vacation come to an end. Homework was around the corner; no more forts in the backyard; no more sleeping late; starting a new year in a new class...I am getting anxiety just thinking about it now 30 years later.

Back to School shopping was the one thing that made the end of the summer just a little bit more tolerable and one highlight of back-to-school shopping for me was being able to get that new lunch box/thermos combination for the coming year. Lunch boxes were very important accessories back then. A little bit of your personality was on display with the lunch box you chose to proudly carry your ham sandwich and Capri Sun in to school everyday and there were plenty to chose from.

I consider the 70's and 80's as the golden period of school lunch boxes primarily because that is the period I grew up in. I recently did a little searching for some of the more interesting and memorable lunch boxes from this period. Below is a little sample of what I was able to find and here is a much larger collection on ystryr. How many of these did you or a sibling own?

(click on an image to find out more information and related images on ystryr)

1979 - Star Wars Lunch Box

1983 - Pac-Man Lunch Box

1985 - Goonies Lunch Box

1981 - The Fox and the Hound Lunch Box

1986 - ALF Lunch Box

1983 - Smurfs Lunch Box

1983 - E.T. Lunch Box

Which lunch box from your youth was your favorite? Leave a comment below and tell us and be sure to share your favorites with your ystryr friends.

Remembering the TV PSAs of our Youth

If you turned on a TV at pretty much any point of the 1970's or 80's, you likely would have seen a Public Service Announcement (PSA). PSAs were short TV clips or various levels of production quality, which promoted a cause or non-profit. During the 70's and 80's, it seemed like PSAs were almost as common as commercials and often more recognizable. McGruff the Crime Dog, Smokey the Bear, Crash Test Dummies and Woodsy Owl are all examples of characters that were omnipresent on our TVs.

PSAs are nearly as popular as they once were, and like much from days gone by, we tend not to think of them much these days. In fact, you probably haven't thought about a PSA for quite a while. Well, ystryr is here to help you replay this small crevice of your past.

We've added a bunch of Public Service announcements from the past to ystryr that you can watch in their entirety and share with others. I am sure you will remember some of these. Here are a few examples that you'll probably recognize:


Here are a bunch more PSAs on ystryr. As always, please feel free to share these to your own memories and add new ones you dont see here!

Helpful Tips for ystryr Beginners

Ok, so you've signed up for a ystryr account (if not, just go here to sign up) and you are wonder what's next? Here are a few quick tips that will get you on your way down memory lane...

Adding a New Image Memory on ystryr

Once logged in, you can add a new memory from any page on Ystryr by clicking on the camera image in the site header or just going to: http://ystryr.com/memories/add.

On the "Adding a Memory" page, you have two ways you can add an image:

1. By directly uploading the image. To do so, click "browse images" and find the image on your device that you want to share then click "Upload image" to select the image.
2. By pasting the link of a webpage that has an image you'd like to share. Just copy the web address of the page you want to share and paste it in the space below "or Enter a Link." We will then show you all the images on that page that are shareable on Ystryr, which you can select your image from.

To enhance your memory, in addition to the image asset, you can add a title (required), year (required), category (required), select a location for the image and leave a personal comment about the memory.

Once your memory is as you'd like it to be displayed, Click "save" and you are done.

Memories can be edited at anytime by hovering over the image thumbnail and selecting the edit icon in the top overlay.

Adding a New Video Memory on ystryr

Once logged in, you can add a new video memory from any page on Ystryr by clicking on the image in the site header or just going to: http://ystryr.com/memories/add.

On the "Adding a Memory" page, paste the link to the YouTube video you want to share and paste it in the space below "or Enter a Link." Am image from the video will appear just below "Image or Video." Don't worry, this image will become a playable video as soon as you successfully save the memory.

To enhance your memory, in addition to the video, you can add a title (required), year (required), category (required), select a location for the image and leave a personal comment about the memory.

Once your video memory is as you'd like it to be displayed, Click "save" and you are done. To view the video, just select it from your profile page and click the play arrow in the center of the image.

Just like images, video memories can be edited at anytime by hovering over the image thumbnail and selecting the edit icon in the top overlay.

Re-Sharing Someone Else's Memory

Re-sharing another user's memory is a very popular option for new ystryr users. Our community have already added tens of thousands of memories to the platform and there is a very good chance that you will find a number of existing memories that you'd like to share to your own profile. 

Re-Sharing memories is very simple and can be done one of two ways:

1. Click on the ribbon button next to the comment button directly below the image you want to share. On the next screen, you can customize the comment, place, year and category to suit your own memories. Once everything looks okj, click "Add to my memories" and the memory should now appear in your profile.
2. On an individual memory page, locate the Ribbon Button which is labeled "Add This to Your Memories." Click the button, and on the next screen, you can customize the comment, place, year and category to suit your own memories. Once everything looks ok, click "Add to my memories" and the memory should now appear in your profile.

Viewing Images on ystryr from a Specific Year

Did you know that you can filter your ystryr feed to include only images from a specific year? It is very simple to do. Just login to ystryr and use the dropdown menu at the top of your feed labeled "Remember a Specific Year." This will allow you to filter out all other years and focus on just the year you'd like to browse. Remember, you can always re-share any of the images you see by clicking on the little ribbon icon below the image and use the instructions above to guide you through the process.

Editing a Memory on ystryr

It is very easy to edit your own memories on ystryr. To edit a memory, just hover over the image anywhere it appears on ystryr and select the edit icon that will appear (be sure you are logged in, or else this option will not appear). Then edit whichever fields you'd like and when everything is as you want it, click on "Update My Memory." That's all there is to it!

I hope you find these tips helpful, of course, ifyou have a ystryr question or comment that isn't addressed here, just click on the green "Help" button in the lower right corner of your screen on ystryr and send us a quick note. We love to hear from you!

Remembering All the Foods You Can't Buy Anymore

It's funny how time passes and things change without us noticing. As a kid, you take everything around you for granted and assume they will always be there. Then your life gets busier and you pay a little less attention to things. Fast forward 20 years and many of those things you took for granted as a youth are no longer available, but you may not know that because you haven’t thought them in years.

This is where ystryr jumps in. We help you re-discover the things you forgot you forgot. Yes, that statement is a bit circular, but it is true. We bring back the sights and sounds that were so prevalent in our formative years, but have been replaced in our recollection over the years by more recent and specific memories. These are the memories you won’t find using a keyword. These are memories you need to be reminded of.

Today’s collection of distant memories focuses on the food of our youth. Our “Food” category has really taken off of late with hundreds of images and videos of foods you can’t get anymore added already. It may even surprise you that some of these aren’t available anymore.

Here are a few examples of these foods:

Jell-O Pudding Pops

Cheese Tid-Bit

Micro Magic Microwavable Meals

Ecto Cooler Hi-C

Surge

For many more, head on over to ystryr and start remembering today!

New Support for YouTube Videos!

We are please to announce that we recently added a feature that should add a whole new dimension to your memories on ystryr.

Now, when you post a link to a YouTube video, you can embed a playable video rather than a thumbnail from the video. This means that ystryr not only brings the images from your past back to life, but also the sights and sounds of days gone by.

We've added a quick tutorial in our "Getting Started" page that explains exactly how to add a playable YouTube video to your ystryr memories. It is pretty easy. Go ahead. Try it out!

Of course, if you are enjoying your ystryr experience, please consider sharing us with your friends and family. The more ystryr users, the more memories to share!

Welcome to ystryr!

Today, we are proud to announce the launch of a project that has been a real labor of love for our team over the past few years and something that I am very excited about...

Several years ago a few of us came to the realization that while social networking sites were “the way of the future” there was something missing. Sites like Facebook were really great at talking about what was happening today…but they weren't so great about sharing anything that happened in the past beyond when you joined Facebook and sites like Google rely on you knowing, or having a good idea of, what you are searching for.

Well, what about all the stuff from your past that you wouldn't normally think to search for? A favorite toy or TV show from your adolescent years; a long-gone pizza shop that you forgot about; or even foods that just faded into the past that you haven't thought of for years. These are the types of memories we wanted to somehow help people discover and share.

We planned and planned and planned some more. Then we developed, bootstrapped and developed some more in order to create our memory discovery platform, ystryr.

ystryr's sole purpose is to allow you to find and share memories from your past while helping you discover some you didn't remember you forgot. We infuse search and social to help you discover and share content not by keywords, but by time and memory relationship.

ystryr will literally help you remember things you didn't know you forgot!

ystryr can be many things to many people. It is a sort of time machine for some users, a mid-life crisis solution for others and a memory-sharing social network for many more. For some of us, it is all of the above and then some.

We’ve just completed the first beta testing round and we have developed a HUGE list of future features to add…but I’m hoping that before we get too far ahead, you’d be willing to be one of the first to try it out…send us your feedback and help make this thing amazing for the community.

Our team hopes you enjoy sharing and discovering memories on ystryr and look forward to helping you build and share your own memory lane!

Thanks!

Craig

PS: If you like what you see, PLEASE consider sharing the site with others. We really think ystryr is going to be something big, but need you help in getting it going.