August 17, 2006
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We don't sleep much
... and as a result, we have made another round of significant improvements to Xanga Boost. I know what you may be thinking, but we aren't enslaved interns! Rather, we're just driven to do this thing right.
It's totally encouraging to see how everyone's impression of this project has evolved over the past three months. I think Xangans are starting to warm up to Boost. It's amazing to see that some people have nominated 40-50 items in a category. And one of you guys has boosted over 600 entries. ( p.s. We haven't even officially launched! )
So, what's new?
In the backend, we've adjusted methods to choose the best content. Odds are you should see more relevant and fuller pages. And we've really improved the way you view these results, with a totally revamped results page (read more from Matt).
Last but not least, we're testing support for Xanga Videos!
Xanga Boost Tips:- On any newspaper page, try clicking "about" for an item.
- Did you know you can mark items as a favorite with Boost? We still have a few places to integrate favorites, but click the grey star on any newspaper page and see what happens. Try clicking twice, too.
- Try hovering your mouse over any video in the newspaper page.
- Ever wonder how the Nomination +/- works? Basically, when you nominate something, and it gets a score from the community, we add +1 to your score if it does well, and -1 if it does poorly. "Well" and "poorly" are actually still being refined, so, more on that later.
What now?More updates and bugfixes to come. Until then, check it out and send us feedback! (use the super-secret feedback link or just post a comment.) Thanks!
Comments (14)
Looking good...
good job guys, thanx for bringing some innovation to xanga
can't wait to see the final version.
and ditto to what nothingnormal said! =)
This makes me so happy! It takes alot of work to do something like this. So lack of sleep might pay off! Hee hee. Besides... I don't think that I am the only one who is sick of all the fake Disney stars that end up on the front page Featured Content...
Coolness. Nice improvements. I was wondering if there was a way to arrange things in Boost Central like they do in Digg. At Digg if you click on a category you see about 10 different nominations and their brief descriptions on one page. This makes jumping to your favorite nomination a little easier in my opinion, and makes Digg's version of Boost Central ("Upcoming Stories") more accessible. For example, if you don't see anything on that first page that interests you, you can just jump to the second page. I think Digg uses this to their advantage, as this forces people to be more creative in both their descriptions and their nominations. Pete.
nice job!!
Glad to see all the progress you guys have made, looks great!
Here's a question: When is Xanga Boost officially launching?
when will it officially launch? sooooon. like maybe before the weekend. i hope.
Looking great.Should be a winner.
Jeff, I noticed that the boost bar is covering some of the words of the comment made by the booster so if the comment is fairly lengthy, you can't read why the site was boosted...didn't seem like it did that before.
That explains a ton for me. Keep up the great and fun work, Jeff!
I think boost is quite a brilliant idea... I do however wonder where the boosted items go to. I have one particular item which has a boost power of 100 for the past two weeks, yet it doesn't show on the newspaper. Now its down at 98.. boo hoo ( I'm not moaning) I just can't figure out why the front page is always pretty similar.
I think in terms of the Newspaper it should change more frequently, that would make people more interested to come back and see the results.
People love to judge, and that why it works, me thinks
Regards
Owen
How about coming up with a system that gives a brownie star or a way to notify the site owner that it has been boosted. Most of the time you can't tell if a post has been boosted unless you go to boost the post yourself. ?????!?!???
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