So. Here we are, the last day of 2009.

For the Koolred Team, 2009 has been a long bumpy journey. It took us awhile to get this site together up and running. We started blogging about it, slowly spreading the word about Koolred, online late 2008. Koolred went Alpha on December 2, 2008, and then Beta on November 18, 2009.

Looking back, we've done quite a lot to make Koolred a fun social network site for everyone. We've added many features to the site this year, which includes Travel Host and Travel Buddy, Travel Map, Videos, Music and additions to the Koolgifts section.

The Photos section, which we are thrilled to say, continues to be a hit with Redsters. We love looking at your travel photos and glad that you're sharing it with everyone. We hope 2010 will bring more adventures for all so we get to see more of your travels here.

We've also seen a lot of Travel Advisors from many countries, volunteering to share their expertise with fellow travellers. We enjoyed - and we're sure you are too - reading the many travel reviews contributed by fellow Redsters; along with the many interesting blogs and forum posts written as well. Not forgetting all the Events and Groups created too.

Koolred is still new in the social media block, just a baby. There's still more work ahead of us and 2010 will be equally challenging in order to make Koolred a cool and safe place for all. We're still sorting out the kinks and working out ways to curb some incidents which we had experienced recently. We will continue to do our best to take prompt action whenever problems arises - you can be assured of that. Your suggestions and feedback is valuable to us. Keep them coming.

Before we end this note, we would like to express our big Thank You to all Redsters as your participation and support on Koolred makes what we do here worthwhile.

Happy New Year and have a smashing 2010 ahead filled with joy, adventure and wanderlust! We are excited to see more shared on Koolred in the coming year. If you happen to come across Koolred but has yet become a member, sign up now and don't miss out on the fun!

Oh, we tweet too. Follow us, will ya? And add us on our Fan Page too.

Dear Redsters,

T'was days after Christmas and it was discovered, to our surprise (in a major O.M.G. way), that our server had unexpectedly gone rather gung-ho with itself. Perhaps it was the excitement of the holidays, we're unsure. But we didn't find it amusing either.

We are referring to the multiple emails from us that has cluttered your inbox recently due to a glitch from our side. We understand that you may not be pleased with this but be assured that this spamming was unintentional. Like you, we are equally annoyed with spammers (and is well aware of its irony when this happened). We truly apologize for this and are currently working to fix this problem to ensure it does not repeats itself in the future.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused and thank you for your understanding, patience and continuous support.

Regards,

The Koolred Team

Well?

We think we've been nice. Though there have been some naughty people out in our midst, causing quite a stir recently, we remained positive in our spirits and did what needed to be done promptly to ensure all the good people on Koolred continue to have a wonderful time here.

Christmas Eve is tomorrow and we're sure everyone is already in the festive holiday mood. We are too (but keeping an eye out for any more naughty people on the site, of course!). See our little collage of our Christmas decoration in the office and the Team's recent Secret Santa party.

Check out our fabulous tree! Like it? We do. Very much, indeed.

Merry Christmas to all and Happy Holidays! Enjoy this festivity with family and friends, and don't forget to share it on Koolred!

Oh. Be nice. Because we won't be nice with naughty people.

Dear Redsters,

It has come to our attention yesterday that there are members who are using Koolred's private messaging system to contact, by way of spamming, other members seeking 'financial assistance'. Take note that Koolred does not tolerate such practice as it is prohibited in our Terms of Use and we will take immediate action to curb this occurrence.

We would like to caution all Redsters to be wary of such scams, whether on Koolred or anywhere else, online and off-line. If you come across any suspicious activity on Koolred, please alert us immediately at support@koolred.com or notify us via Contact Us.

We would like to express our thanks to members who have written to alert us of this recent illegal activity. Rest assured your concerns are taken seriously as we want to make Koolred a safe place for everyone.

Regards,

The Koolred Team

Well. We believe it has something to do with our Travel section. Or more specifically, our Travel wiki on North Pole.

Travel wiki? What's a wiki again?

A wiki allows multiple users (that's you!) to create, edit and change a page content in a collaborative manner. As in our case, the text of a travel destination.

If you didn't notice it earlier, when you click on any of our travel destination pages, you'll see this top section as shown in the image below:

Shown above is for the destination of Pulau Condong in Lampung, Indonesia. That's how the page will look like if no wiki was written for this destination. If you have information on this destination, click on the Write link or Edit button as illustrated in the red boxes above and you can start adding relevant information there (No spamming, OK).

As for the case of our smiling Rudolph, he's happy to see that we've recently added this bit of info on North Pole, his winter wonderland home.

It's not much but whoever's out there who has more information on Santa's domain can easily add in by clicking on the Edit button.

So give our travel wiki a try!

Fa lalalalaaa lalaaa la laaa...

Seventeen more days to go before Christmas, one of the funnest holidays of the year! And in honour of this gift-giving occasion, we have created Christmas Koolgifts to help you spread the joy to your Redster friends.

Like it?

You can send a virtual Toy soldier, Gingerbread men, Angel, Christmas bauble, Candy cane, Christmas wreath and Christmas gift to all your friends as many times as you want.

C'mon, get into the spirit!

OK, everybody, all together now, sing: "Fa lalalalaaa lalaaa la laaa..."

Are you wearing your red ribbon today?

Today is World AIDS Day, a day to remember the importance to bring awareness to the HIV and AIDS pandemic. This year's theme is "Universal Access and Human Rights", a call for support for universal access to treatment, prevention, care and support, while at the same time, to encourage promotion of human rights and fight against discrimination.

According to the AIDS Epidemic Update by UNAIDS and WHO, there are 33.4 million people living with HIV worldwide in 2008 and from that total 2.7 million of them are newly infected. The numbers alone continues to remind everyone of this dire situation, this global health concern. Although there are evidence of successes in HIV prevention over the years, which brings a sign of hope to this battle, there is more to be done. And it starts with each and everyone of us.

Awareness is a start. With that, come join Koolred in supporting this important day by sporting a red ribbon. Here's ours below. Where's yours?