"Community" feature enhancements

Saturday, 03 June 2006

"Community" feature enhancements

I am pleased to announce a series of updates designed to make meeting and greeting easier and more fun. We are trying to extend the definition of what it means to be registered on Mo'time... it's more than just having a blog, it's having an online presence that you can define the way that suits you best.

It is now simpler for you to invite non-Mo'time friends aboard. (Even if they have a blog somewhere else, they can comment with their own username, put some info in their profile and have their existing blog be linked to all their comments on your blogs.) If we're lucky, they will come aboard and start a blog here, too.

You will notice a new button in the Community section of your control panel on the home page, if you're logged in, obviously: "Add a friend". Check it out.

We have placed your avatars (profile pix) in as many places as we could think of, with a series of indicators that travel with your avatar: logged in (a green light), not logged in (pale gray light), chat/IM opened (green chat icon) and chat/IM off (pale gray chat icon). Look at the new latest posts page and the online page. The new avatar layout makes these pages more personal and friendly.

Underneath your avatar there is a "contact" link that lets other logged in people leave you a private message or open an instant message chat. You can be contacted via Mo'mail (private messages), chat (our instant messenger) or through comments on your blog.

We've added a recent comments page, just like the recent posts page! On the home page, under the "Home" menu on top you will see "Mo'timers online", "Posts" and now "Comments". It's just as rewarding scanning recent comments as posts!

The profile section is getting more interesting. Now you can see the avatars of the friends of your favorite bloggers. It is a great way to discover other Mo'time people that you have not met yet.

Onward and upward. Feeback is always appreciated. What do you think? (We're still working on it as I write this, so if something looks funky, try hitting Control-F5, in Windows, or on the Mac empty your cache and refresh the page.)

posted by: howard at 22:11 | link | comments (8) |
updates, community, features
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Comments:

#1 04 June 2006 - 00:40

hi h,
you are still my hero but i personally hate the new comments page. it will make me less likely to do so in some instances. Not that my comments matter in the scheme of the universe, they dont feed all those hungry dogs out there.

some will love it, maybe theres a way the user could choose to opt out of it.
chow!

rustymadgal

#2 04 June 2006 - 01:30

woof. woof.

I'll see if Stefano can come up with something of the sort. Anybody else want to have a go at this one? Speak up, please. Yes, you, in the back... could you speak up a bit louder?

howard

#3 04 June 2006 - 06:32

As someone who subscribes to lots of comment feeds I kinda like the voyeuristic back-channel nature of the whole thing. Not for always, but an occasional surf. . . .

The real question is will it lead to a heisenberg principle kind of thing where the nature of the comments change because they are being observed by potentially all rather than the few? RMG may just have displayed that in her opening remarks.

I for one comment for comments sake whether anyone is watching or not. G'night.

ChefNeal

#4 04 June 2006 - 12:39

I'm with Rusty and ChefNeal on this one, Howard. Love all the changes but the Comments feature.

Comments seem of a more personal nature than posting. When you post, if your blog is public, anyone can see, and that's fine. But comments are more of an ongoing conversation, which seems more private to me.

InMyLife

#5 04 June 2006 - 22:15

I read Neal and Rusty as saying 2 different things...

In any case, I'll see about how hard it would be to create an opt out.

I can understand your feelings as a comment writer, but what about as a comment and blog reader? Don't you find cruising those pages interesting?

howard

#6 04 June 2006 - 22:41

Yes, Howard, of course you are right. To clarify, I was referring to ChefNeal's suggestion that the nature of comments might change.

Already I am self-conscious about commenting. Before, the only people who read my comments were those who read the posts I commented on. Now, comments are more visible.

Not that it's an issue of national security. But still...

InMyLife

#7 27 June 2006 - 02:45

I think it's fun. Half of the blogs I visit I find thru the comments. In fact, I just saw my comment replying to someone with my perfect pie crust recipe.

My vote is it doesn't bother me, but it's always nice to have more controls so if a user doesn't want their comments on the recent comments page, they can opt out.

jennybird

#8 24 August 2006 - 23:49

I'm with jennybird, it doesn't bother me either.
I have another request, on the bottom of the blog, there is comment link, you have to click on it to see the comments. Can we have a option to show all comments without click? So reader can read the post and comments releated to it continuously, without any click?