5 posts tagged “explore”
We’ve been amazed at the amount of great content that’s showing up in the new explore areas on Vox. With “Super Tuesday” just around the corner, the News & Politics page has been filled with Voxers from everywhere discussing policies, candidates and the issues. If politics doesn’t float your boat, we hope one of the other sections has made it easier for you to discover posts about topics in which you're really interested in.
To help provide you with more visibility to news-worthy topics, we've teamed up with MSN to bring you the articles you don't want to miss. You'll find breaking news headlines right below the featured Vox content in News & Politics as well as Entertainment. This way you won’t have to stray far from Vox for the latest news. We are excited about this partnership with MSN and we hope you'll view it as just another way for you to find content that’s relevant and important to you.
The Purple Tie, it’s the New Spring Color
Today’s release also addresses some of the feedback you gave on our last release. We made adjustments to the position of QotD, increased the number of comments that you see, as well as fixed a handful of bugs within the navigation. Thank you for being so patient with us while we work out the kinks! We continue to read all of your comments and feedback messages and thank you for taking the time to let us know about what works and doesn’t work. As always let us know how Vox can be improved by using the Feedback page.
It’s Tough to be Middle of the Road
We are saving the biggest change for next release: the Neighborhood Update module. With the previous design, our major goals were to reduce the redundancy of information, remove the wasted space within the welcome module, as well as improve the performance of the page. It used to take up to three seconds to load the dashboard! We realize that the changes were a big jump for many of you and we are working on bringing back the at-a-glance usefulness that you want.
Stay tuned!
One of the nicest things about Vox is how easy it is to view and share photos. Have you been spendingtime browsing and checking out photographs yet? There are lots of places to explore here if you are looking for a glimpse of some beautiful/cute/funny photos to brighten up your day!
When you are looking for photos on Vox, you can look to your Neighborhood or check out Explore > Photos or even browse some photography groups (tip: check out groups tagged "photography" as a start). Anywhere you see a thumbnail (a small version of any photo), click on it to see the bigger version where you can leave a [this is good] or nice comment for the person who posted it. You can also "View Full Size" on all uploaded photos to see a larger view. Learn more about what you'll see on a photo page in Introduction to the Published blog.
If you really like a picture you saw on one blog, you might like to check out all the recent photos by that Vox member. The navigation bar on all blogs has a Photos link to make it easy to do just that. This will show you a display of thumbnails with the newest at the top, and you can click through to any of them to see more. This works on the My Neighborhood and Groups pages, too, making it easy to see all of the recent photos from different sets of people you know!
When you see a really cool photo that you think all Voxers would enjoy, why not nominate it to be featured in the [this is good] area? Just click on the Suggest [this is good] link and paste in the URL of the photo you'd like to nominate.
Doesn't this make you want to add some of your own pictures? You've been inspired by other Vox members, so now grab those photos on your desktop and upload them to share. To find out more about adding photos, see Managing Photos which includes instructions for adding photos from outside sites like Flickr as well as other tips for uploading.
What is your favorite tip for finding cool pictures on Vox? Share them in the comments to inspire everyone to explore.
-- Kristine and the Vox help team
Comment Reply Notifications Are Here!
All of us on Team Vox are really excited about this, so we know you will be too. Now when someone replies directly to one of your comments, we'll send you an email notification. No more worries that you'll miss what someone wrote to you (or your chance to respond directly). We look forward to how this change will help keep your conversations flowing and help you connect with like-minded Voxers.
Changes in Blog Navigation
Inconsistencies in navigating around Vox can be confusing, and up until now viewing things like photos or audio worked differently in groups than it does on your blog. So we've just made them more consistent by consolidating all the blog navigation links into one strip. As a plus, the new blog navigation takes up less space and is located underneath your blog header, making your own design more prominent on the page.
This additional space in your design might inspire you to create a new custom theme. If you'd like to upload a new custom theme or need to tweak your existing one, read the Help article Personalizing your blog's design. And if you want to tweak your blog title or tag line, just click over to the Design area.
As always, we're open to feedback and constructive criticism and love hearing how we can keep iterating and making improvements -- hit the Feedback link at the bottom of the page to share your thoughts.
Speaking of Your Feedback…
- Set your privacy level on the Recent Updates!: You can choose who to share your activity with (anyone, no one, neighborhood, friends & family, friends or family) by going to Account > Privacy & Defaults.
- Updates to the neighbors module: We've removed the tagline from the Neighbors module on your blog's sidebar. You'll be able to see everyone's taglines when you click through to view the neighbors page.
- Tags are back!: We've returned tags to be viewable on your blog posts. They'll display below each post or asset near the link to comments.
Have you ever searched on a tag like "food" and wanted to see posts, photos and videos about it all at the same time? We just improved the Explore experience so that it shows you relevant photos, posts, audio, video and books for anything you search on. Of course, if you want to see search results on just one type of asset (videos tagged "food" for instance) just click on "video" above the search box to filter the results.
New Release, New Themes!
Big news for Groups: we've just made all blog themes available as group themes as well! Pick a new theme in the Design area.
We've also added some brand new themes.
(L to R): Hanafuda July, Hanafuda August, Hanafuda September, Hanafuda October, Draft Blue, Draft Brown, Ragged Torch, Subway Black, Subway White.
-- Krissy
When you're in the mood to post to your blog, but your fingers are frozen on the keyboard and no words are coming, let your media items speak for you! You might find you have a lot to type once you get a little help from your photos, videos, audio, and books, and Vox certainly makes it easy for you to share media with others.
Vox gives you two prompts to get you blogging, seven days a week, right on the Home page. In addition to our Question of the Day that we highlighted here recently, Vox gives you a daily prompt called Vox Hunt to give you some ideas for adding media to your blog. Each day you'll get the chance to showcase items like a great love song, a photo that warms your heart, or your favorite movie scene.
To respond to the day's Vox Hunt, click the "Post your Answer" button under the prompt, and you'll be taken to Compose
with a title and some tags already filled in for you. Insert the media
item in the usual way by clicking the appropriate button for whatever
type of media you're sharing. Additional tags will be added for that
media item as well.
You may also decide to add some text to
your response, whether it's a memory associated with that song or some
tips about how you took that great photo. You could even decide that a
photo can be public for everyone to view while the story behind the
photo is going to be in a post just for family. The choice is yours.
If you
have an idea for a Vox Hunt challenge, please let us know! Just click
on the "Submit a challenge" under the day's prompt. If we use your
suggestion, you'll get a link to your Vox blog that day, so get ready
for some company.
--Brandy and the Vox help team
The Vox cornucopia is overflowing this year with so much great content. But where to find it? Some days, you may refresh VoxWatch or your Neighborhood and realize you read everything your neighbors had to say on their blogs. So where to look for new things?
Here are three quick ways to find the latest and greatest at Vox:
- Let's start with [this is good]. Don't overlook this awesome section of the Vox home page! Hand-picked by Vox staff, these photographs and links represent a sampling of the neat stuff Voxers are posting. Between spotlighting happy posts, great ideas/lists of things to do, funny rants, or answers to the QotD and Vox Hunt - it's all good! Read more about this in Highlighting Neat Things and be sure to follow the "suggest this is good" link to send in your own suggestions.
- You should also check out some Favorites. VoxWatch has a list of the most recently favorited items in the Vox community. Click on any of these items to see the amazing and interesting things Vox members have found and want to remember! Or surf over to your friends, family and neighbors' profiles to see what they've been favoriting. Read more in Favorites on Vox.
- Still want more? Try Explore, where you'll find the most recently uploaded or updated Posts, Photos, Audio, Videos, Books, and People in Vox. You can also filter by tags for each type, which will let you find things you are interested in! Read more in Exploring Vox Blogs.
--Vox Help Team
