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Bloglines Wishlist

I use Bloglines as my webfeed reader. I love it for the same reasons Jeremy does. Also, like him I have some suggestions for improvements to their service.

Here we go:
1. Notification of another user adding a new feed. Right now I can read other user's subscription list, like Metalface's. However, it would be really useful if I can be notified when Metalface, who shares many of the same interests as me, finds a new feed and adds it to his subscriptions.

2. Subscriber count. When viewing a feed I can check to see who else subscribes to it. Half of the time no one else is subscribed to the feed I'm using, which wastes another click for me. I wish the link to the subscriber list would include a count of how many other subscribers there are.

3. Suggested blogs is buggy. The suggested blogs list always includes blogs I'm already subscribed to. That doesn't help me at all.

4. Blog this. Currently Bloglines let's me easily save or email a post I'm reading. I would love to also be able to start a blog post from it using some sort "blog this" function. I don't totally understand how this could work but I have a feeling they can do it.

5. Explaination of webfeeds. Most geeks don't think this is neccessary but it would be helpful if they had a better explanation of what a webfeed (RSS, ATOM, etc.) is, how to recognize them, and where to find them. Also, a "starter kit" of popular feeds that match a new user's interest would be great. Kinja does this with their editor digests.

UPDATE

6.The ability to create subfolders within folders would be very useful.

Email This

It's important that the visitors have an easy way to share what they read here with their friends. When the site was being designed I tried to solve that problem by including an "Email This" link at the end of every post. Here's how it works, for all you Typepad or MT bloggers out there.

First, let me clarify exactly what the link will do. When a user clicks on it their browser will open their email clinet (if they have it setup) and automaticallywrite the title, excerpt, and link to the post in their email. They write the email address of their friend(s) and send it on it's way.

Place the following code outside of your MTENTRY, maybe next to your permalink:

<a href="mailto:?subject=<$MTEntryTitle$>
&body=<$MTEntryExcerpt convert_breaks="1"$> <$MTEntryPermalink$>">Email this</a>

Easy as can be. Post a comment if you have any questions or read more here. Send me a trackback if you decide to use it.

Site Search

The "search archives" tool provided by Google site search is fixed. Previously it was giving results from the whole internet instead of just Hip Hop Blogs.

I'm not sure why it wasn't working in the first place. The code was confusing so I scrapped it and went by the model Mena posted.

Before that I tried Feedster's version of site search that uses our atom webfeed. I didn't like the fact that once a user got to the results page and types in another search term they will get results from all blogs, not just this one. It's a flaw I hope they fix.

I'm also looking into Picosearch. The service sounds good but I'm wary about the page limit and the ads that will be displayed with the search results. If they are text ads that's fine. Pop-ups definately are not. I'll come around to testing it later. For now we'll use Google.

Other Group Hip-Hop Blogs

Let me not gas ourselves up. Our site is not the first or only hip-hop group blog out there. There's Verbalisms and the Live Journal hip-hop community site. I like both for different reasons.

Technically Verbalisms considers itself a magazine though one of their writers calls herself a blogger. It probably smart that they go under the more familiar banner of magazine since "blog" is such a confusing word to even those who do it.

The Live Journal jump off seems like a message board and that's smart too. Web users are more comfortable with that type of interface than ours. Originally I wanted to make this site mimic the look of a forum but it was one of the few things Colleen couldn't figure out despite Mark's instructions.

Handling New Writer Requests

More people than I thought are offering their writing skills and hip-hop knowledge to the site. Since I don't have the time/desire to read through writing samples I've devised a *genius plan* for accepting as many people as possible while keeping this a quality, focused blog.

If the person asking to be down has a hip-hop blogs already I'll sign them up in an instant. No need for me to explain blogging or question their devotion. Yes I know my devotion is questionable seeing how I gave up on keeping Diesel Nation current, but that's besides the point.

If they don't have a blog I make them a junior author for a month. This means all of their posts have to be reviewed by myself first. I won't do any editing on it. It's just to make them think twice before they post. When you have your own blog you're careful about how you represent yourself. The site is a reflection of yourself. However, when you're posting stuff with a group you can tend to be wanton with your discretion and tac any ol' nonsense on the web that you feel like. This is why message boards suck. The infamous RMHH is the best example of that.

After a month of being a junior editor the person decides if they want to stick with Hip Hop Blogs. If not, my job is easy. If yes, then I have to decide what to do next. I don't even know what to judge these guys on. We'll see when the time comes.

Pop Up Links

Added user ability to make links on the page open a new window.

This solves the user problem of reading a blog post and getting lost surfing through all those links we tend to include. The code is pretty simple, thank goodness.

I'm not sure yet if pop-up blockers stop the links. If they do I think I may take down the code. I'm afraid that many readers will check the box for pop-ups and not realize that their pop-up blocker is stopping the pages from coming up.