July 10, 2006
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Thank you for boosting
Thanks!
I just wanted to thank everybody, all 925 people who have actually boosted things, for trying the Boost beta.
Your feedback
Most of your feedback has been positive, and it has been encouraging to see. A few pointed out that reading full Weblog posts can be time consuming! Yes, though, we have done some things to increase the odds that you’re actually reading interesting material — and we’ll do more to that end; we’re obliged to ensure Boost is enjoyable.
Some of you are frustrated that the material seems all mixed in, and would like to see categories, especially for weblogs. Definitely! In fact, if you could suggest some categories, that would be very useful. Leave your ideas here, or use the feedback page on Boost.
Problems encountered:
- We’re aware of a problem where pictures don’t immediately appear while you’re boosting in IE6.
- When you get an error immediately after you boost something, it usually means that the particular item has already been put onto the “Today’s best” page, or otherwise into the archives. For now, just ignore the message and keep on Boosting. We’ll improve this experience.
What’s next?
Matt and I will be improving things all around and deciding exactly when and how Boost will become tied into the rest of Xanga. This could mean Boost will be down periodically, or perhaps act strangely. Remember it’s still very much in development. Thank you for your help and patience!
Comments (13)
categories
personal literature
anecdotes
politics
dreams, random thoughts
movies, music, book reviews
dayblog
Thats all I can think of off the top of my head.
Tags like “Personal”, “Sports”, “Humour”, “News”, “Politics”, “Travel”, “Blogging”, “Opinion” could be good. How about a “Rate my Post” link for people who think they’ve written something good, rather than nominating themselves? Their post could turn up on a different page under those headings, and then people could see posts submitted by the authors, versus posts nominated by an audience. (Not sure it would make a difference.)
hell yes, categories/tags/labels/whatever – and not just for boosted stuff, we need to be able to put tags on our own entries. and we need threaded comments. and a pony
Thanks for your comment on my beta test review.
There should be a way that users can see whether their content has been nominated — and to “un-nominate” or block from nomination.
What about applying “Creative Commons” style permissions on content?
Here’s another feature that would be more useful to users than social networking: Logged-in access logging.
I would like to be able to see my own footprints.
Even better would be a way to see my own logged-in access to my Xanga with originating IP addresses. Like this:
Your Logged Access:
WHEN IP PROVIDER
07/10/2006 07:13:03 PST 192.181.32.101 comcast.net
07/09/2006 19:40:09 PST 164.135.18.106 verizon.net
07/09/2006 19:00:03 PST 192.181.32.101 comcast.net
07/08/2006 08:10:03 PST 192.181.32.106 comcast.net
That way, a user could see whether his/her logged in xanga site was being accessed from other machines — ie, cached passwords on a machine in another location. Like work. Not that anyone would be that dumb, right?
Is there anyway for someone to get this data, say, for the week of 6/17?
You know what else would be a good feature? Comment response notification (a la Livejournal).
I would love to see a “reply to comment” ability — and optional notification for responses to my comments on other people’s journals. that way, I can follow up their responses there — instead of folks visiting my journal and responding to my comment on a blog posting that has absolutely nothing to do with their posting and my comment there.
It would also be nice to have the ability to make all or individual blog entries and photos “boostable” or not (a la “nospiders”).
Prose
Poetry
Reviews
Humor
Politics
Religion
Sports
Personal
News
Anecdotes
I haven’t been able to see any photos on Boost since Monday night; also cannot see any photos in the “best photos” link since Monday. Is Boost broken?
Oh yeah, one more categorry… videos! That would be awesome. Pete.
Boost is definitely beta… so it’s going to be broken now and again. Also, Janet rolled out a major photo upgrade today, temporarily breaking the photo section of Boost.
Thanks for the category suggestions, guys.
RYC: =D i am definitely checking back at Boost regularly to see what kind of changes you two will roll out; i won’t be gone permanently. i really liked Boost, and i still do. like i replied to Joel, i do appreciate all the hard work that must have gone into making it possible. and seriously, thank you for what you said — again, showing that Xanga.com stands out above the rest of the pack because of the quality of people behind the scenes.
You guys are awesome! I can’t wait to see the changes that you are making to Boost, and I appreciate the fact that you guys have been listening to our feedback, and are trying to make it better.
Nothing is ever perfect…but I know you will make the system great.
Thanks for ALL you are doing, and all your hard work and effort!
I think boost is the best of all the recent changes Xanga has implemented. It is the first one that has generated any interaction whatsoever, and the result has been positive. Up to this point, there has been very little to bring people into contact with new writers/ readers. Boost has done just that. Suddenly I’ve been exposed to countless new writers, and vice versa. I’m receiving feedback from dozens of new readers.
The voting part makes it even better, as only blogs of substance, for the most part, are being boosted, so it’s a way to browse well-written blogs and find new sources of interesting reading material.