June 27, 2006
-
Start your (rocket) engines
So, Matt and I rolled out the first beta version of Xanga Boost today. Actually that’s a lie, because Monsur and Jon helped us push things out the door. I’ve had a lot of fun working with the guys here to put this together.
Like John was saying, we’re really impressed by the power of communities to self-identify content. The goal was simple: do a better job finding great content on Xanga. I remember going over some crazy ideas with Matt when I first arrived in NYC. We had previously met to talk about this stuff in Ann Arbor — we are part of a small invasion of University of Michigan students (me,Matt,Adam,Vikas) — and we had a billion ideas. The funny thing was that most of them pointed back at Xanga users. The best way to find good content was to just ask.
So, with Boost, we’re asking users to find the best content on Xanga, bring it to the attention of other users, and find out what they think.
How Boost works is a 3-step process.
- Users find cool stuff on Xanga (weblog entries), and nominate them
- Users use the boost center and rank things on a 1-5 scale. Users also get to see a constantly updated estimate for how accurate they are. Plus, this is where you can find the freshest content.
- We crunch the numbers and find the best of the best for everyone to check out. We’ll also have an RSS feed of this top material.
One of the coolest parts is that when you nominate something, and when you boost things, we’re able to tell how accurate you are. You get to see a little of this on your personal stats page, but more (fun) things are in the works.
Plus, safety is very important. We’ve already integrated Ratings into Boost, and we’ve enabled a way for you to tell us immediately if inappropriate material slips through the cracks.
Now I just need to turn that 64-LED display into a sweet boost-o-meter that tells me how many people are using boost.
UPDATE: If you get “Please sign in to Xanga before using Boost beta” over and over, don’t worry, we’re onto it, and will fix that tomorrow. Check back after 10AM EST.
Comments (17)
this sounds cool. but it seems like a slightly more complicated version of the current Featured Content system…?
Ah good, maybe now featured content won’t just be someone who spammed tons of other blogs in order to get comments. I’m also hoping for some featured content with you know…content.
Also interesting is the link physics here. Since Patrick and Joel both listed Matt first seems he got all the comments!
Well… maybe I have less comments, but they’re rich in content. Quality over quantity.
I’m with you — let’s hope this does improve featured content. By the way, you’ve activated to check out boost, and anybody else who comments here will get activated too, as long as our servers don’t show signs of weakness.
It does sound more complicated than the current system, but it’s also a good thing…Featured Content should be blogs that have something to say as opposed to some of the ones that have gotten on there for eprop amounts, etc. Very cool. I look forward to checking that out!
I don’t really get how it works…….=(
Shoot – I don’t even know what “Featured Content” is!
This will be a real test of “featured contents”…
good deal….it will be interesting to see how well this works.
Boost is an awesome Idea!
Grazille Mille, mio amico.
Wow. If you need any new Boost Beta testers, can you please comment me? ^_^
really nice work, you guys!
I was given an invitation a couple hours ago, but so far it’s still telling me I need an invitation to check it out. FYI.
watching…
This is an awesome idea, and a long waited for solution for the people that want to read blogs worth reading. As the leader of the Grownups with Content WORTH being Featured blogring, I as well as the members of the ring, greatly appreciate this effort. I would like to be a part of it, and I hope that this will truly become what we’ve been hoping for!
Hey guys, you are all doing an awesome job with the photoblogs and tags and everything, but this is the real burning question: Will there ever be a modification that will allow non-Xanga members comment on our sites? I can see from my footprints that dozens of readers trot across my blog from many different cities and countries, and I would love to hear from them and have them engage with discussions on the site. But they can’t! It’s tempting to move to LJ for that reason… but tell me there will be open commenting someday. : (
One of the problems with Boost that I have is that occasionally I encounter an entry whose Boost this entry link does not work. Interestingly enough, there’s at least one user where it seems to happen on every entry. I suppose it _could_ be a matter of the layout she uses. But in any case, having a secondary method of nominating an entry would be useful.