Recent Activity

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  Tangler Review

  On second thought, this isn't true.  But that referring link I clicked on, gave me access to SvenDowideit's account :|

  Posted 10 Sep 07 in Tangler Feedback

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  streamy beta invites

  w00t.  Thanks Avinash, I commented on your blog, hope I could receive an invite. It sounds amazing

  Posted 07 Sep 07 in Beta Testers

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  MyLiveSearch - Google Search Killer?

  fr3dly.  If it does turn heads, Google will dare not make the mistake of letting it go.  Google will throw billions at this project to buy it if they feel it will become popular.  Trust me.

  It's just a question of how well the mylivesearch team will market it.  If they do it too fast, they might sell cheap to Google, who knows.  Then again, they might not perform at all, and Google might acquire it for cheap regardless.  I hope it is the former.

  I know Google will not let them become a competitor though, they will acquire it at any cost to protect their flagship product, the search engine

  So, part of me doesn't want it to get popular, because it's just something Google will snatch up.  I'd rather see it gradually grow in popularity, so maybe they get to continue to develop it, and then it might, with a tiny chance, be able to fight off Google's money.

  I still have my review in planning for this.  I will definitely be throwing my opinions on Google's take in all this.

  Posted 04 Sep 07 in Beta Testers

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  Is Public Beta a Warning or Invitation?

  Gmail released their collaboration video:

   (YouTube)

   

  Yet I can't figure out why it is still in beta? (techindemand.com)

  Posted 29 Aug 07 in Technology News

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  Launching soon (hopefully)

  You handle criticism well, I like that a lot, as you probably handled that better than I could have.  I just really hope you can incorporate community features into the product, because without it, it might be very difficult to encourage users to actually remain at your site.

  I don't really know how to explain the groups feature I was referring to.  On Vox, I have joined a Technology, Geeks, Photography, Gramer Nazis, and a few others I believe.  With all of them, you can post content directly to that group.  So the group, almost acts like a blog on it's own, except any user a part of that group can participate and post, and they can all comment and interact with each other and receive updates and such.  It's essentially the same way on Newsvine as well.

  I'm not saying it is a perfect addition for what you are going for, but it would be a quick and easy way to generate a good community who wants to stick around and discuss things.

  You could also maybe incorporate a karma system into this by taking into account who has posted the best (highest rated) articles in groups and then allow the highest rated members moderate the content, or other rewards.  An idea like this would essentially allow your community to interact, give motivation to create content (because many people could see it easily), allow people to vote on other content, and allow people to be rewarded for content and then allow those people to have a bit of control, and then help the other members, and in turn inspire others to post more so they can be that way.

  Sorry for the horrible writing of the above, but I'm almost drop dead tired again.

  Seriously though, I'd love to see a community where you get rewarded for the effort you put in.  If I'm writing an article a day for a group, and people constantly enjoy it, I want to be featured more, I want to be able to influence the community more, and all that other stuff.  The majority of the members would of course be promoting the good users through a rating system and all that.

  There are so many more ways to expand upon this idea, and you essentially allow your users to do the work and moderate themselves generate interest and discussion

  The above ideas are only simple things that I just thought of, but I'm sure you could come up with even more better ways to expand on those ideas if your seriously considering.  Stuff like that would make me want to participate more, and that is what people need to be creating.

  About the page editing.  Make the interface drag & drop.  Make modules for each section and allow us to move them around.  If you have a Facebook account, you will know exactly what I'm talking about.  Give the users a simple interface to customize, and then give us access to the CSS for the hardcore users who want to tweak out their pages.  Let users upload custom banners, graphics, and backgrounds.  Those are things I haven't really seen in other blogging platforms.  I guess you could say that WordPress gives you the drag & drop functionality with the sidebars, so even if you gave us something like that, but with regards to the entire blog, it would be amazing.  I also would love to see the ability to have 2, 3, and maybe even 4 column layouts.  (I am a fan of the three column layout, and then farther down the page combining the 2 columns into a single one for additional content like advertisements and such.)

  To just give you some final ideas, I'll tell you exactly what my ideal blogging system would be able to do:

  • Complete customization
  • Drag & Drop interface of all the components that make up the blog itself (sidebars, columns, sections that go in the sidebars, etc.)
  • Ability to incorporate widgets easily into the blog's interface easily (for example, the Twitter status update, and the MyBlogLog widget, etc.)
  • Ability to keep track of the users who comment on your blog, and ability to have the comments rated (digg like fashion possibly), and for users to be held accountable for their comments and posts and a karma system in place.  (I use SezWho on Tech In Demand, you might look for that for some inspiration possibly if you go through with that idea)

  Ability to save drafts and access them easily.

  • Ability to use Windows Live Writer with it (This probably isn't essential in the near future, but it certainly would be a big draw for me.  You might want to look into it)
  • Be able to find writers similar to you within the site, and easily interact with each other.
  • Ability to have many users come together who share the same interests and discuss things (Groups like I suggested above are great)
  • Ability to import and export my posts easily (incase I want to move in, or incase I want to move out, I like to know I have that assurance all that I'm writing today won't be gone a few years from now)
  • Great privacy controls
  • Easily able to insert multiple types of media, be it images, tables, maps, flash, videos, hyperlinks.
  • A great visual text editor (something that Vox has let me down on) that is fast and easy to use, but allows you all the functions you need and want to use (with the ability to define styles for heading styles, using css maybe?)
  • Ways to quickly share your content on other social sites.  The "Share this" button you can see on my site http://www.techindemand.com/ and as well as http://www.mashable.com/
  • Automatic conversion of typed in urls to hyperlinks.
  • Included spell checker.
  • Ability to have access to site statistics..... the more the better http://www.getclicky.com/ is my favorite right now for tracking my site statistics.
  • Ability to create multiple pages for my blogs,  maybe not essential for your site, but would be interesting to see
  • A great search for my blog so people can find what they want easily.

  
  I'm pretty sure there is more, but I'm too tired to continue on with this.

  Hopefully some of those provide more depth into what I personally would like to see, might be good to post a poll on your site and ask your current users what they'd love to see as well.

  That's all from me for now.

  Hope it works out.

  Ciao.

  Posted 28 Aug 07 in Blogonize Beta

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  Your Top 8 Facebook Applications?

  DOH! *hits self on the head*

  Should have figured there would be a Facebook group

  Thanks for pointing that out!

  Posted 28 Aug 07 in Technology News

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  BuiltWith.Com Introduction

  Also Gary, would you mind telling me what are the most used stastics tracking tools?  I assume you have overall totals for each of the 5,000 sites.  I currently use Google Analytics and Clicky.  I'm just curious as to what other alternatives there are and what is being used.

  Posted 25 Aug 07 in BuiltWith.com

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  What's So Special About Firedoodle?

  The application looks alright.  I don't believe it will be competing against Diigo or Clipmarks anytime soon, but maybe with some work you can incorporate some community features.  I think it has potential, but some of the reasons I wouldn't use it on a daily basis is because I already have a toolbar on my system, and toolbars annoy me.

  Do you think it would be possible to work in a single button (like the WOT, or del.icio.us button) and then use all the features through that?  I just don't like toolbars, because screen real-estate is a big thing for me and yeah.  I believe this is true with many other people, and there have been many interesting applications that I have come to see that are like yours, but the toolbar just ruined it for me.

   
  So if you can find a way to do a single button in the top left, or maybe a single button down in the status bar (my status bar is filling up though with other stuff,) then maybe it will be more attractive to me, and likely others as well.

  (Make one of these buttons instead of the toolbar!)

  Your application does give me an idea for an article, and I love those, so maybe I'll do a round up of annotation firefox extensions as my last article: http://www.techindemand.com/2007/08/23/firefox-is-great-but-these-extensions-will-make-it-extraordinary/ was a huge hit.

  So, maybe I can help your app get some exposure, and I get some more readers, it all works out

  If you promise me an interface without a toolbar in it, I'll be sure to make note of that, as that would make me very happy

  Anyways, I'll probably pop back in here soon again.

  Ciao for now.

  Posted 25 Aug 07 in Firedoodle

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  What's your typing speed?

  121 WPM back in 8th grade middle school (Not Joking Either).  Like, 5 or 6 years ago?  I'm afraid to find out what speed I type at now   I was a major tech geek back then.... and look at me now!  AHHHHH

  My parents say it is impossible for me to type as fast as I do, yet they stare on in amazement when I'm at the computer

  Gah, I was supposed to be going to sleep now :|  Owell, I had my moment to brag, now I'm going to run and hide in a little ball.

  Posted 23 Aug 07 in General Conversation

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  Wallop Invites

  If you would like an invite to Wallop, please e-mail me: JMowery -AT- gmail -DOT- com with the Subject: Wallop Invite Request

  I'll be sure to send you one ASAP.

  Posted 23 Aug 07 in Beta Testers