10 posts tagged “updates”
Deep in the bowels of (sorry Krissy!) Here at Six Apart HQ, we've been busily working away to improve your blogging experience. Some time later this afternoon, we're going to release what we internally call version 0.7.5 of Vox[1]. Unlike some of the other releases we've talked about here, here and here, this release is almost all bug fixes, slight interface tweaks and cures to various of the other little things that have been bothering us (and you!) about Vox.
Probably the most noticeable changes will be in how we handle posts from cell phones (what the kids call "moblogging"). Some of the cell phone carriers (we're looking at you, T-Mobile and Verizon) add random titles, advertisements and other crud to the emails you send us from your cell phones. We're doing our best to de-crudify them so your post looks exactly how you'd expect it to.
We also now let you know on the Vox home page if you have more standard invites. Below that nice "Invite Friends to Vox!" graphic is a message that tells you how many invites you have left.
Most of the other changes are subtle and we'll let you find them on your own (it's treasure hunt time!). We are constantly working to improve Vox and are trying to be as responsive as we can to your feedback. Please keep letting us know what you like and don't like and we'll keep trying to do more of what you like and less of what you don't. Most importantly, remember that change is good! We like to release new features about every two weeks and are currently working on some real fun stuff which we'll show you after the July 4th holiday.
[1] For the geeks in our audience who enjoy tracking our version numbers, do a "view source" on your browser and look at the header tags. As I write this, we are currently on version 0.7.3.
-- Andrew
Today we updated Vox. So, let's go straight to the highlight reel...
We’ve made a lot of visual changes to the Compose page. The functions are all the same, but you'll notice that we've simplified the the page -- from the post entry box to the buttons to the dialog boxes. Everything is streamlined and clean. Hopefully, a cleaner canvas will allow members to create more masterpieces. We've gotten a lot of comments about how the Compose page makes Vox a pleasurable blogging experience. We hope that today's revisions make it even better. Let us know!
Next, we added three great new themes: Hills, Travel, and Robots. More themes are on the way. More themes, more fun.
We added Photobucket to our growing list of services with connections built right into Vox. We've also changed our Flickr "conduit" (the connection between Vox and Flickr). Now, we use your Flickr login information to retrieve your photos. This allows you to search within your own photos. You can find anything you've ever put up on Flickr, not just the most recent shots. That's a big change. You can even retrieve photos on Flickr that you'd marked as "private." (Remember to set the retreived photos' privacy levels in Vox. We don't automatically map Flickr's settings. Not yet, at least.)
You can set up your Flickr and Photobucket connections on the Account page, or you'll be prompted when you first try to retrieve a photo from one of those services.
Finally, as many of you know, Question of the Day is going great. We're really excited to see how many people use the prompts, whether just to chime in or as the basis for some really great, detailed posts. We're also excited to see that other subjects and memes are cropping up in Vox and spreading. Don't forget to explore posts, photos, and other media from time to time. You friends and family dashboard is crucial, but exploration can lead to interesting discoveries. Make exploring a part of your Vox addiction routine.
Enjoy the updates!
-- Harold
...To Invite Other People
Today we're turning on Vox's invitation feature. We figured that the Vox community knows how to expand better that we do, so every current Vox member will see a new "Invite friends to Vox" button on the Vox home page. Clicking on that link will lead to a page that offers a simple form with two options. You can invite an unlimited number of friends, family, and beloved contacts to become "Starter" level members of Vox. You can also invite a fixed number of people to become "Standard" level members of Vox.
What's the Difference?
The Starter level is a streamlined Vox experience that includes member profile, all "neighborhood" features including contacts, friends, and family, as well as the ability to comment on any Vox blog.
The Standard level is a Vox experience that includes blog posting, blog design, and collecting and organizing audio, video, photos, and books. It's the level that most current Vox members are familiar with.
For more on invitations and the different levels, check out our knowledge base article .
Why the Distinction?
Right now, we're limiting the number of Standard accounts in order to manage server load and make sure we keep the user experience up to our standards as we add features and functionality. That said, we believe that the Starter level may be the right permanent choice for many members. Hopefully, we'll move quickly to the point where new members can choose the level that's right for them. Until then, we'll be handing out additional invitations to current members, as well as offering the choice to upgrade to selected Starter members, as space becomes available.
Thank You
-- Team Vox
Version 0.6 of Comet is out.
In a word: Wow.
The new features that the Comet team has added in this latest release are certainly eye- (and ear-) opening. To a writer like myself, who has enjoyed the fact that blogging has helped lead a renaissance of the written word, it's with a tinge of sadness that I realize that, um, video and audio basically blow words away.
I'm not saying that we won't be able to eloquently express ourselves in writing. Certainly, that's not going away. But seeing uploaded video and YouTube clips and hearing audio posts and songs streamed straight from blog posts is nothing short of exhilirating.
Rich media is so much, well, richer, and now that Comet lets members upload video and audio (in those same categories that previously only held Amazon links to Movies and Albums) and sports a brand new conduit to YouTube, it will be very exciting to see the kinds of expression and communication that Comet's little community will start to publish. (You can even email audio and video from your mobile phone!)
Sure, words + photos is great, but words + photos + audio + video is really something special.
Another nice update you'll see in version 0.6:
Design styles are now organized into categories, making managing the look of your published blog a lot easier. Right now, we've divided the styles into Bold, Pastels, and Illustrated sections, but you can also choose to view All the available styles at once, for those of you who like to see the whole picture. Check the "Design" tab within the Comet editing pages for this radically revised interface.
There's more, but we'll touch on some of the other features a little bit later. Until then, check out all the audio and video, and post some yourself!
-- Harold
Yesterday, we updated Comet to version 0.5, right on schedule. Yes, we have a schedule. Yes, we are often right on it. In my humble opinion, the whole team deserves a collective high-five. (Okay, maybe that wasn't so humble.) But enough about us -- to the highlight reel...
Along with some substantial changes to the logged-in home page, which we affectionately call "the dashboard," you'll notice these other tweaks:
In fact, you can visit other people's Profiles and see the same information. Pretty cool. It's a small world, after all. Why not wander around everyone's neighborhood?
You'll also see some other old friends on this version of Comet -- ads! We had them before, and now they're back, in several new locations including the header and footer of published blogs and the comment confirmation page.
Next up: Next! And "previous." And "newer" and "older." You'll now find helpful links to make paging through posts, photos, movies, etc., a lot more convenient. Check the images at right to see where these new links appear.
We've also changed the Profile page (the one that you see from within Comet, not the published blog version). This simplified version now leads to a more robust "Edit Profile" page, where you can now change your email address (which is also your Comet login ID) and add "Interests" -- tags that you apply to yourself, rather than to posts or photos.
Finally, there are a whole bunch of small changes -- some of which you will hopefully discover on your own (and be delighted by) and others which hopefully you won't need to discover (you can now recover a lost password!).
That's all for now. Look for 0.6 in about two weeks. Until then, keep blogging, keep sending feedback, keep answering the question of the day.
- Harold
There's a new Comet in town, with a whole lot to love. Take a look around. Explore for delightful new features and functions. Team Comet will be back with a walk-through sometime tomorrow. Until then, enjoy!
-- Harold
We recently unveiled a new version of Comet -- 0.4 if you're keeping score at home. Not only are there some great incremental changes, but we've added entire new sections to the published blogs. Here are some of the highlights:
- Everyone's blog pages now have three distinct sections: Blog, Profile, and Neighborhood.
Blog is just that: All your posts and all the content modules you've chosen to display next to them.
Profile is a little different than a typical website profile page. Along with contact and biographical info, you'll see recent activity from the member's blog such as photos, posts, and comments. Plus, within Profile, there's another page that shows a member's Connections in the familiar row-upon-row, member-pic format. The theory behind this expanded Profile section is to share more glimpses into a person's true presence on Comet beyond just their email addresses and bio.
Finally, the third primary section on Comet blogs is now called Neighborhood. That's where you'll find posts, photos, tags, and more from each of your connection groups. One of the great leaps forward in 0.4 is now there's a way to experience content from ALL of your connections, not just Friends and Family. Click on Neighborhood and you'll see we offer four aggregated views: Friends, Family, Friends & Family, All Connections. Pretty cool. These aggregate views are a feature we really want people to find incredibly useful. We know that we're not "there" yet, but we're going to keep working on it. If you've got advice for us in this area, don't hesistate to offer Feedback and tells us how we can make this section or these views and powerful, elegant, and useful as possible.
- Control strip upgrade. The evolution of the control strip (the horizontal bar of links and information above published blogs) continues. Now, you'll find a handy link to "Explore your Neighborhood," a key shortcut that was previously a not-so-easy to find resource that many members had resorted to bookmarking. With this release, we've put your 'hood one step away no matter where you are. Sweet.
- Connection module. On published blogs, you'll notice a big change to the "Connections" content module. Now you'll see member photos for the five connections that most recently updated their blogs. Plus, beneath those pics, you'll see a nice little sentence chock full of links to various different parts of your Comet neighborhood. Remember, your Neighborhood is where to read posts, view photos, see tags, and otherwise check up on your various groups -- friends, family, and all connections -- all in one place. It's the supercharged blog aggregator attached to your blog.- XP photo upload. Download this control and you'll be able to upload, label, and tag photos right from Windows XP file folders. It's a powerful uploading utility that works for anyone who adds photos to Comet, whether one at a time or in big batches. Download the tool from the Compose page (lower left-hand side) and once you install it, you'll be able to upload straight to Comet simply by selecting a folder or images within a folder and clicking on "Publish to the Web." The rest is simple.
- Edit connections via member photos. When you move your cursor over a member photo and hold it there for a second, you'll be able to make or edit a connection to that member. This is really handy way to connect to folks and all part of our effort to make things quicker and easier, especially actions that people do repeatedly.
Other changes you'll notice in the new version:
- More themes. Your choices now include several different colors of new "Bloom" and "Zen" themes, available for all four different layout schemes.
- Question of the Day is now, um, daily. Answer at your own peril. It can become addictive.- Spellcheck is
These are just some of the goodies that 0.4 offers. Take a look around. Have some fun. And look for 0.5 to hit in about two weeks. Until then, keep blogging and keep giving feedback.
-- Harold
A new version of Comet made its way to the server today. Congrats to the entire team! Here are some of the highlights. Kudos, questions, and criticism are welcome, as always.
More inline editing. You can now edit post titles in place, on individual post pages. You can also change the 5-star ratings of individual books, movies, and music. Just click on the stars to rate or re-rate, right on the page. No editing necessary. Look for more, more, more inline editing to come in every new release.
New themes. We've added a whole bunch of new looks for each blog. In fact, we changed the look of this very blog to "Playful Clouds." Check out the Design page for more new themes.
Spelling checker. We've added the cute little ABC button to the right-hand side of the Compose screen toolbar. That said, this isn't the final implementation! As of now, the checker can't fix your spelling, it simply underlines suspicious words. Let us know if you think the spellchecker is cuckoo. Words it doesn't like in this post: inline, we've, blog, and, um, spellchecker. Like I said, we're working on it. Objects in mirror may appear misspelled.
Recent Comments is cooler now. When you comment on a post, all subsequent comments will show up in the Recent Comments section of your Comet homepage. That means you don't have to have authored a post to follow the conversation about a post. There will be much more along these lines in future versions. We really want to make Comet "smart" about enabling and managing conversations and interchanges between bloggers.
Hope you enjoy...
--Harold
We're always excited to be able to close the gap between the publishing tool and the published blog. That's why, in our recent release , we've added inline editing links to Photo, Book, Music, Movie, and Collection modules. In the same way that you can access the Compose screen by hitting "edit" next to the comment count on your published blog posts, you can now access the Organize screen by clicking "edit" on an asset module.
We just rolled out version 0.2 of Comet, which includes a bunch of both internal and external tweaks to the system. Here's a short list of some of the changes you'll see:
- Explore the entire Comet universe through a set of links on the logged-in home page (see illustrations at right). On the results pages, you'll see recent posts, photos, and media, which are also sortable by tag. This is our first implementation of "global discovery" tools, a part of Comet we plan on making as compelling and useful as possible. Look for much more work in this area in coming releases.
- A reorganized control strip at the top of published blog pages. Now you'll see a link back to Comet on the left-hand side and links to your blog, the composition page, feedback, and sign-out on the right-hand side. We made this change to bring "Compose" and "Feedback" to the forefront, and we'll probably continue to tinker with the control strip as the testing period continues.
- Ads are back. We'd suspended some of our ad-serving modules in version 0.1 (early testers may remember them). Now, we've begun to turn selected modules back on.
- Asset grouping and on-screen editing controls. When uploading or selecting more than one photo or media item to include in a post, you'll get a new positioning and placement screen (see image). Within the composition screen, you'll also notice editing controls on individual and groups of images, which allow you to edit, reposition, resize, or remove the embedded photos or items.
