The Leafly Blog

Updates updates updates

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:52:53 -0800

It’s been a while since anything has been posted here, we’ve neglected the blog but definitely not the site. I always get questioned on the street with “What has Leafly been up to?”. Outlined below is what we have kept ourselves busy with for the last month or two.

New dispensary menus

For a long time we have been unhappy with the lack of functionality included in our dispensary menu pages. They looked OK and served their simple purpose but perhaps a little boring. We are never satisfied simply matching “the other guys”, time to reach higher. The last two weeks have been spent redesigning menus from the ground up to make them more useful for everybody.

Search: Type in the box to find items on the menu quickly.
Sort: Sort menu items by donation amount, rating, or popularity on Leafly.
Filters!: The most powerful feature on Leafly is the ability to find the perfect strain. We’ve brought this awesomeness into the menus.
Photos: Now dispensaries can upload photos of their flowers, edibles, concentrates, etc.
Strain Details: Read all about strains without leaving the page.

“Safe for work” mode

Leafly has always been a safe site to browse while at work, at home with the kids, or at church. With photos becoming more prominent on the dispensary menu pages we felt it was time to protect our visitors a little more. By default images now are hidden until you opt-in to see them. You only have to do it once and can switch back at any time.

Look for the link in the footer of every page to toggle pics on and off.

Specials

Dispensaries can now post coupons and specials for you to use. Watch for offers from your favorite nearby collectives on their page, lots of great deals flowing through.

Android

We’ve been promising for a while and finally got our Android app launched! Check it out today in the Android Market.

iPhone Update

A small update has been uploaded and pending review with Apple. Added specials, speed enhancements, and other minor fixes. Look for it in the coming days.

Next?

Tons of new features will be coming down the line over the next few weeks and months. We will be improving the existing Leafly experience as well as adding new and useful features. Subscribe to the blog, we promise to update more frequently.

Photos Are Here!

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:41:00 -0700

Yes! You’ve read the headline correctly. After much waiting and requesting we have finally implemented user photos so you can see the strains people are rating.

For a long time, one of the most frequently requested features for Leafly has been the availability of strain photos. Now users can upload pictures at the time of a review or come back later to upload. Show us your meds, and don’t be afraid to get creative.

To start browsing images look for the new camera icon on the top right of a strain page that looks like:

So start taking those photos and uploading right away.

Happy Birthday!

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 21:24:00 -0700

Well, it’s hard to believe but Leafly has just celebrated its first birthday. What started so small a year ago has grown into something that we couldn’t be more proud of. Since the site has launched we’ve create a community of thousands of registered users writing thousands of cannabis strain reviews and that number is growing faster than ever.

A lot has happened since that first launch day. We’ve created some great new features within the site including a comprehensive dispensary finder, a faster strain explorer, an achievement system, lab testing data integration and so much more. Within the mobile space we’ve launched an iPad app for budtenders and our iOS app (currently running at a 4 star rating!) so our users can take those thousands of strains with them wherever they go. All of this is just the beginning too.

There are lots more to come as well. We really have an exciting roadmap lined up to make Leafly the absolute premier destination for cannabis information. Just a few things you can look forward to throughout the next year of Leafly:

Redesigned pages to make the user experience better than ever
Strain photos. You’ve been asking and we’ve been listening.
iOS App 2.0 with complete account, ability to rate strains, share images and receive notifications
Mobile app for Android devices
Better community controls and an improved reputation system
And a lot more that we don’t want to give away just yet (trust us, it’ll be good)

All of this wouldn’t be possible without the amazing support of our users. It’s because of you that Leafly has done so well and has become such an integral resource to medical marijuana patients throughout the world. We are so happy for your support and can’t thank you enough. Here’s to another year of Leafly!

New Medical Cannabis Legislation in Congress

Wed, 25 May 2011 22:39:17 -0700

Some great news coming out of the House of Representatives this week for the medical cannabis industry and its patients as three new bills were introduced to Congress today by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans. One bill designed for patients will protect people acting in accordance with state cannabis laws from being prosecuted by the federal government. The other two bills support dispensaries and collectives, with one that will help ease the tax burden on many dispensaries enabling them to claim business expenses as tax deductions as well as one that pushes to prevent banks from discriminating against dispensaries.

For patients, the ‘States’ Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act’ authored by Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) aims to provide immunity from federal prosecution for individuals and entities acting within accordance of state laws regarding medical cannabis usage. In addition it will initiate the process of rescheduling marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act moving it out of Schedule I and II, an effort with roots tracing back to the early 1970s. The bill is co-sponsored by Congressmen Jared Polis (D-CO), Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA) and Congressman Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA).

For dispensaries and collectives the ‘Small Business Tax Equity Act’ authored by Stark allows medical marijuana dispensaries to claim federal tax deductions in the same ways other businesses are legally entitled to, putting a stop to the IRS audits that have been happening recently. The third bill introduced is the ‘Small Business Banking Improvement Act of 2011’ sponsored by Polis, Stark and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and will provide medical marijuana dispensaries full access to banking services through amendments to the Bank Secrecy Act.

All of this is great news for the industry as a whole as real legislation is finally moving forward at the federal level. Be sure to reach out to your representatives to show your support, and for those that may need a refresher, here’s how the three new bills will become laws.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and visit us at Leafly.com.

Show Us Your Stuff

Wed, 04 May 2011 13:43:12 -0700

One of the top requested features on our customer feedback forum has been to display pictures on our strain pages. Today we launched the first step in reaching that goal. Now registered users can upload their own photos after writing a strain review. These uploads will go through an approval process and show up on the site shortly after. With this, we hope to build a large collection of imagery and begin associating the photos back to individual dispensaries so you can have a good idea of medicine quality before making the trip.

Visit any journal page to get started.

http://www.leafly.com/me/journal

Our First App Update

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:44:30 -0700

Many of you may have noticed we’ve pushed our first app update for Leafly on iOS devices. It’s a pretty minor update, but we think we’ve made some big improvements and have cleaned up some issues found with the initial launch.

Strains Nearby

Probably the most significant change is the inclusion of filtering to show only those strains available nearby. Similar to the filters now available on the Leafly website, within the app you can now limit the results to just what’s available in your area — a super helpful feature when you are out and about using the mobile app.

Misc. Bug Fixes

We’ve cleaned up the dispensary pages now so each tab within should now load nicely with no more of those strange blank pages showing up. Also, we’ve worked on stability for those iPhone 3G devices and have tested with OS 4.0 without crashing, so if you are still having issues please let us know.

Coming Soon

We’re working on adding your accounts to the app so you can login, rate and review and keep favorites. Stay tuned and be sure to keep the feedback coming so we can help make your Leafly even better.

… and remember, if you are enjoying the app be sure to leave a rating within the AppStore so we can help get the word out!

Explore strains by availability

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 09:55:53 -0700

We’ve added a new feature to our strain explorer that lets you filter based on geographic area. Now you can drill down to the effects you want and only see strains that you can find nearby. Try some anti-anxiety meds near San Francisco, or maybe you want to giggle in Denver. Reducing clutter and making it easier to find the strains you want is our sole purpose in life.

Significant, but positive, changes

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:02:00 -0800

I’m sure if you spend any sort of time on the internet you have heard a story or two of frustrations and disappointments around Apple’s iPhone app review process. Today, exactly 1 month after submitting our app, we joined the ranks of the rejects.

After all that waiting, Apple had a problem with the content. ”But wait”, I can hear you all screaming at your monitors, “there are plenty of other cannabis-related apps already!” I know, I know. We had those same thoughts, between fits of rage, after having waited for so long only to be so let down. Once composure was regained, we took a deeper look at what the actual issue was.

You see, we fancy ourselves as a site to get legitimate information about a legitimate medicine. Overall we have been successful but there has always been one piece of data that didn’t quite gel with the rest; activities. We have known it was borderline sketchy but didn’t address it until we got this kick in the pants from Apple. No other pharmacological resource would show you what kind of activities you could be doing with various prescription drugs. Adderall: great for studying! Nyquil: it’s fun at parties!

This afternoon, we harnessed that rage and funneled it into some key changes on the site, geared to better representing our beloved herb. The strain activities data has been dropped and replaced by a section where users can tag negative effects for each strain. This has been a requested feature from users and took us all of about an hour to implement, a testament to the awesomeness of our dev team. The debut effects are: anxiety, headaches, dry eyes, dry mouth, paranoia, and dizziness. It may take some time for these to get seeded across all strains (pun intended) but eventually it will prove to be another piece of useful information.

We’ve revised the app to reflect these changes and resubmitted, keep your fingers crossed for a quick review. Remember, when life gives you lemons, you make lemon kush!

If you would like to see something added, as always, feel free to visit our feedback forum.

4,200 Reviews Later

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 22:15:01 -0800

Never in a million years did I think Leafly would get as big as it has when we earnestly laid down our first lines of code. This morning we passed a big milestone in our quest to be the biggest and best strain review site in all the land. 4,200 reviews submitted by people like you for their most favorite, and not so favorite strains. I took this opportunity to comb through the data and create some incredibly advanced infographics.

First up, top 42 most reviewed strains:

Blue Dream & Sour D are favorites by a pretty big margin. Not much surprise, both are readily available in California dispensaries.

Next, highest rated:

Master Kush gets the honor of being the highest rated strain in our database right now. I should note that I only took strains that have at least 10 distinct reviewers so as to weed out any of the smaller varieties.

Finally, average rating by category:

Here we can see that on average, indicas are given a higher rating than the others. Really the margins are so small I wouldn’t say there is any clear leader at this level. This mostly confirms my suspicion that people love all kinds of weed :).

Updated Strain Explore Page

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 07:59:17 -0800

Today while browsing Hacker News I came across an incredible jquery plugin called isotope. After viewing some demos it became immediately apparent that this would be a great fit for our strain explorer. When this page was originally built I took some shortcuts to get it done quicker and it worked OK most of the time. As the list of strains grew from 50 at launch to over 350, the number of user complaints grew as well. We had always planned to revamp it at some point and isotope seemed custom-made for us and a bargain at only $37!

I set aside a couple hours and rewrote all of the javascript on the page. It still chugs a bit in IE but there are no more script timeout messages. This was a first pass to get it in, optimizations will continue.

Dispensary Filters

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:11:13 -0800

In our long quest to help you find the best dispensary, we have added a few new filters to the map. Need a delivery service that accepts credit cards and posts their menu online? We’ve got you covered.

Following Dispensaries is Better than Ever

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 10:02:06 -0800

Leafly is happy to announce the latest and greatest method of keeping tabs on all the happenings at your local dispensary: the follow button. You may have noticed the new follow button on all dispensary pages under their logo on the top left. Now, with a single click, Leafly users can automatically follow the latest updates from their favorite dispensaries and collectives (think Twitter). Updates are now included on the account page so be sure to go there each time you start your Leafly experience to see what’s new.

Once you choose to follow a dispensary you may be prompted to sign up for mobile updates. These are highly recommended and a great way to keep up-to-date no matter where you are. By opting in for mobile updates, only dispensaries you choose to follow will send you messages. No more spammy, unsolicited text message blasts reaching your phone, only updates you care about. And not to worry! Your number is safe with Leafly in our system and is never shared or given out or sold for any reason whatsoever. All SMS text messaging goes through the Leafly system, so dispensaries never get access to your mobile number.

Keep your eyes peeled for for the Leafly Follower Scan Cards with the funny looking barcodes in your favorite dispensary. Those strange square, two-dimensional shapes are called a QR Code. Scanning one of these with your mobile phone will automatically enable you to follow that dispensary. No more running home, searching for your collective and following. We aim to please.

So sign up for an account if you haven’t already (remember, you can be anonymous) and start following away, never miss an update again.

Dispensary Reviews

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 21:36:46 -0800

Now you can leave reviews of your favorite local dispensaries on Leafly.com. Visit any dispensary page and check out the Reviews tab.

Rate the quality of medicine, service, atmosphere and leave any comments that other patients would find helpful. Hit up the dispensary finder to get started.

The Missing Link

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 09:18:35 -0800

Leafly is happy to announce the launch of our medical marijuana dispensary and cannabis collective pages! Now in addition to our great strain rating and review information we now have local medical marijuana dispensary informational pages so you can get the latest updates, check out menus, photos and more.

We think of our new dispensary section as the missing link between the strain ratings and you, our user. For a while now we’ve had nearby dispensaries in your area listed on the strain ratings pages, but for the first time you can search around your area with our custom map to see all the different locations near you. We support the latest Geolocation APIs so searching finding a local dispensary is easier than ever before, no need to manually enter addresses or ZIP codes.

With the dispensary info pages we’ve included some cool stuff. As a user on Leafly, you can follow your favorite dispensary to stay current with their latest updates and specials. An enhanced menu includes everything a collective has to offer including flowers, edibles, concentrates, clones and more. Photos will help give you a good idea of what to expect when walking in the door and an integrated map can provide you with driving directions — all without leaving Leafly.

This is just the start and we’ve got a lot planned for the future, so stay tuned!

1k Reviews!

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 11:23:00 -0700

We just crossed over our 1,000th review submitted to Leafly. ~~Ironically~~ Coincidentally it was for one of my faves, AK-47, which happens to be the very first strain we created in the database back in June. Currently there are 209 different strains listed with more being added every day. Keep the reviews and comments coming, we have lots of exciting new things to share soon.

Magic-Flight Launch Box

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 18:04:06 -0700

We are giving away a free Magic-Flight Launch Box herbal vaporizer to one lucky twitter follower. Hurry and sign up if you haven’t already, this contest only runs for a week. If you aren’t familiar with the Launch Box it is pretty much the Cadillac of coolness on the vaporizer circuit. This one is extra cool because it is engraved (by lasers!) with the Leafly logo. There are only five of these in the universe, we fully expect them to sell for big bucks on ebay in a couple years.

Here is one chilling on my desk

For more details and how to enter the most awesomest giveaway ever to be introduced on the interwebs, visit our contest page.

ps. Don’t call it a lunch box, you will be laughed out of your smoking circle, trust me, I know :(

Exhibitionists Rejoice!

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:38:00 -0700

At Leafly we take your privacy seriously. Some areas where this really stands out include letting people rate strains anonymously, not requiring email addresses for user accounts, defaulting all strain notes as private, keeping profiles private by default… the list goes on and on — in a good way! But we do recognize that some people are a little more open with their usage, and for these exhibitionists we’ve created a public profile page. How else are you going to show off all those achievements?

To activate the new public profile page, head over to the settings page and just select the new checkbox within the contact section that says ‘Make my profile public’ (some of you that are reviewing have already done this, and the public pages will be activated instantly). Once selected, users will be able to link to your profile through any comments or notes you’ve left for a particular strain.On the public profile page users can view your journal entries, achievements you’ve unlocked and favorites. This should help other users find out the best strains, follow their favorite reviewers (looking at you JackDaniel), and just generally see what others like/dislike from the wonderful world of strains. We’ve kept it really simple for the first pass, so that means no user profile pics, messaging or links (we aren’t Facebook quite yet). This is just a first pass, so stay tuned for more features to be available through the new public profiles page.

And remember exhibitionists, by activating your public profile and reviewing a strain you will unlock the Exhibitionist badge, you deserve it!

Leaf.ly at Know Your Rights Expo

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:42:33 -0700

Your new favorite website (Leaf.ly, right?) will be at the Know Your Rights expo this Saturday from 10am to 10pm at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. It has been put together by OC NORML and is Orange County’s first medical cannabis, legal marijuana and natural medical expo and we’re proud to be there.

While there, we’ll be demoing the site for people, handing out info cards and even conducting a giveaway for a customized, Leaf.ly branded Magic Flight Launch Box! If you happen to be in the Southern California region we encourage you to drop by. We’d love to meet you and talk about the site, get some feedback or just chat about your favorite strains.

We’ll see you there.

Achievements are Go!

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:48:00 -0700

We are proud to announce the most recent addition to the Leafly site: Achievements! Achievements are special unlockable awards that you get by completing different tasks on the site. Start unlocking the achievements just by doing the same things you are already doing on the site, such as rating and favoriting strains, linking your Twitter account, creating public profiles and more. They are a fun way to track your progress with Leafly!

There are all sorts of cool achievements to get. Have a strain that you just can’t get enough of? Rate it 10 or more times and unlock the Faithful achievement. Like them all? Add 10 strains as favorites to unlock the Playing Favorites achievement. For those that like to try a little of everything there’s Rainbow Connection unlocked by rating a strain from each category. Do it twice and unlock our most full-on, intense achievement available: The Double Rainbow. Right now we have 13 achievements, but we are already planning on adding more to the system, so stay tuned.

What’s next? We want to create the ability for people to have public profiles to showcase all the achievements earned. Also, some cool widgets are in development that you can throw on your blog, or Facebook profile that really show off what you’ve accomplished. “But wait!”, you say. “I’ve already done a lot of these things and the achievements are locked for me”. Not to worry, faithful users.Within the next couple of weeks we’ll be going in and retrofitting your efforts so the achievements you’ve technically already earned (prior to there even existing achievements) will automatically be unlocked for you.

A shout out for the fine folks over at IActionable for helping make all this happen. They’re working on a great system over there, so be sure to check out their achievement services.

Lots of unlocking to be done. Who’s going to be the first to unlock them all?

Sharing is Caring

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:04:00 -0700

Happy to announce a couple of new enhancements for the site around the different strain effects.

First, we’ve just rolled out a better version of our Explore page that now enables better sharing with custom searches. For example, if you were to narrow down on a set of strains that are both creative and giggly you can now share the url (or click the handy social media icons in the top right corner) to share those collections with others.

In addition to Explore page upgrades, we also have new effect specific pages that show all strains that fall into a particular effect category, such as those that help keep you energetic or those that help with stress. These are great for getting a quick overview of all strains that fall within the category.

Stay tuned for even more updates, and be sure to follow us on Twitter!