Time to put the thinking cap on. I hope to have a contribution as soon as I get a little work done.
I knew you'd have a couple of (slap myself in the forehead) "why didn't I think of that? ... what a great idea" suggestions.
1) I love the idea of some sort of notification when you get a new subscriber.. (wouldn't mind knowing who has "unsubscribed, too... so I can contact them and say "what up, my brutha!?)... and if we can get the "new subscriber" notification... then it would be great if we could resort our subscriber lists...Alphabetically or Chronologically.
2) I love the idea of having an ICON of some sort, on the comment of someone who is subscribed to you. Being able to see who, of your commenters, is subscribed to you is nice for the author, and may be valuable for other readers to say "hmm... if Alan is subscribed to this guy... maybe this Craig Daniels guy is worth subscribing to!?"
3) I really like the spam blocking algorithm. The same should apply to career rebloggers.
4) re: the YouTube embedder... I'd just like a button (similar to the little tree icon that allows you to import a graphic) that'd allow you to import a video. I hate having to post it via HTML... but if that's the easiest/best way to do it... at least allowing us to return to WYSYWIG afterward, would be great.
Nice list... I'll be more than curious to see what excellent additional suggestions you get. Great list!
I'm sure you provided lots of help and insight, Craig! There are all good!
I have another one - how about getting rid of the linking points in your point summary? I think those that don't know that this feature is not longer applicible just get frustrated by linking and linking withing no success. But maybe this too is too complicated. There ARE people that have points in this category (from the old fashioned days)... so how do you get rid it on some people's profiles - but not all?
Craig, this is a great wishlist and I'd love to see many, if not all of these items considered.
I would also like to see a "Featured Blogs" link on everyone's page, as well as on our own page.
The "Show Me" link is on the Leaderboard page, and a "Featured Blogs" link could probably be an easy do.
Craig, I look forward to seeing some of the suggested changes being made.
Craig - I think we are all in good hands with you as our spokes person for Active Rain suggestions - all your ideas are great and would definitely improve the sight! I also like Craig Rutman's ideas. If half of these ideas became a reality, I'd be a very happy camper! Thanks for looking out for us!
Craig, GREAT wish list. My subscribers list is also random and some of the people show up 2-3 times on different pages.
I would like to add to the wish list. A way for me to search my old blogs just by typing in the title somewhere. Currently, I have to scroll through each month or through the statistics list to find a specific blog I previously wrote. I've also used the "tags" method to search, but it would be easier by title. I suggested...
This is a great post! Thanks for sharing this post! LOLOLOL *runs and hides* (well, at least it shows I read it, huh?) =)
Great suggestions Craig! I was waiting for this after reading yesterday's post. I think starting in Draft is very important. When I first joined I had no idea what I was doing & did not realize there was even a draft mode. I suppose there were classes & ways I could have found out but when I got up the nerve to write a blog post I just wanted to jump right in. Maybe there could be some sort of basic step by step instructions on the side when you first click on "write new post"?
Awesome...I love the thought of having a list in google docs. Makes things accessible to all. I'm interested in seeing what all others come up with.
Great list Craig. My number one would be the WYSIWYG editor with some font sizes, colors, and choices and maybe the ability to put text in columns. Number two would be better blog search abilities. It would also be cool to be able to drag photos and put them anywhere on the page instead of far right, far left, etc...
Your Castle - you're welcome
Glenn - come back when the new ideas come to mind!
Alan - 1) fb doesn't notify when you "unfriend" and I like that, you can quietly drop off without feeling like "offending/hurting feelings" 2) like it, great new thought, I'd love to see in comment stream some flag that is subscribed, going to add that one 3) glad you like 4) youtube button could work, would certainly make it less techy friendly
Emily - good idea, backend code feasible (if linking=0 then skip line)
Craig R - featured blogs link would be good to have, I'm sure it's a simply query for a field in the database table.
Donna - keep checking back, I'll update the doc as I get time to
Kristine - you are very welcome, I like the assignment because I can see both sides and help us all create a useable wishlist reference
Craig S - hmmm, I see - let me formulate an idea on that one for better finding your posts, back with you on that one (btw, thanks for the reblog!)
Lynda - spam cop alert! hehe you are such a copy/paste commenter (NOT!) thanks for visiting
Christine - starting in Draft is coming VERY soon, code is ready to implement when Chris returns from his trip. hmmm, I like a big button for "i'm a newbie, click here!" LOL will have to think about that. I hope to coordinate something with Niki/Bob to create a v2.0 our "newbie training manual" aka "getting started guide"
Larry - very nice to see you, appreciate your comment! :)
Betty/John - moving a photo left or right is called a "float" in CSS or web styling rules. Unfortunately in current CSS those are the only two choices (float middle might be cool, but not an option) - searching blog titles is good thought (like Craig S mentioned) - text in columns is doable right now with a little HTML lesson - put that on my to-blog-wishlist :)
Good morning, Craig. Nice wish list and Yes, Most definitely, stability is and should be paramount. Kinda dumb, but an anniversary badge would be cool. You know, just another one of those bobbles dangling under your avatar. Just my 2¢'s worth ya know...
Great idea. Wonderful starting list. I agree w/ all but 1...Barbara Hensley's...which should be ADAPTED. You should be able to choose your default mode to either public or draft mode or the other choices.
Builds:
Stats - There should be totals for each column and you should be able to sort by most comments, views, clicks. that way, you can learn better what is working/not as well as find those posts more easily.
Bookmarks - you should be able to put into folders. It should have the name of the blogger not the name of the last commenter given. It's very hard to find posts now...unless you remember the words in the tiltle and can search that way.
Michael - hmmm interesting about anniversary badge. I had suggested an activerain university "graduate" badge too. We may be into our third row of badges! Worth investigating for sure. thanks
Debbie - right, it could be possible to pick your posting default (public or draft). The update just about released will be no-choice draft option. I ALWAYS go once through as draft before it goes live. It really is a good idea to see what it really looks like posted in case there is any things you didn't see in the AR editor mode. Stats sort by columns Leah has suggested and it is already in the list (and a great thought) - Bookmarks could use some organization for sure. But this is actually low on my list as google bookmarks does a far better job and you can use it today! (plus you can bookmark all over the web not just AR). I will add something for bookmarks though as it could use a little something more for those who don't want to try something new.
great suggestions. second the better editor. Would be great to have better picture interface with other websites, including AR initiated uploads to password protected posting sites, like Picasa.
A dedication to "change it where you see it" for us click/right click to open/edit anything anywhere on AR would help.
Hi Craig, I do not see this one on your list, but it was suggested by many or us who did the recent May challenge: the ability to schedule when a blog will post... Is this easy to do or no?
Craig - you must be reading my mind! I have been so busy in ActiveRain and have not paid any attention to grouping, naming, etc. for subscribers. I am not sure how to proceed here, but plan on working on this. Great wish list! With you on it, how can we fail!!!
HI Craig,
Bingo, that is about 95 % of what we need to get updated.
In addition we would suggest a re-think on the outside blogs, and the ability to sort those by user defined categories...
You need to be contracted by AR...., we keep saying it, and one day you willbe...
Very nice list so far, Craig. Maybe we already have this functionality in our Signatures, but I'd like to see "Share This" and "Tweet This" buttons available on our public posts.
Daniel - editor update for sure needs attn - link to other photo sites, hmmm worth looking into - edit option wherever you see it listed, something to think about ... thanks for ideas
Sandi - schedule a blog post seems reasonable and useful, will add it to the list
Barbara - thanks for checking in on this post... associates can ge grouped (not subscriptions) - it is helpful to have these associate groupings, but we need to modify the group names
Pfanns - outside blogs do need a re-think, agreed - longer term goals I think though we might want the attention on the other stuff higher first... thanks as always for your vote in my behalf!
John - good point, interconnection with other socials would be good - we have a FB -like why not consider some others too, thanks
Craig- you are definitely an asset here and if you're available, then I agree with Shar... hire you! I'm heading out but will read the list of suggestions upon my return! Thank you for all that you do.
Shar - (big smile) thank you
Kathy - after you get a chance to read, give it some thought if we covered all the essentials! Niki knows a little about my situation and availability - who knows what opportunities lie ahead, I'm just taking one step at a time! thanks so much for coming by! :)
Craig, I love these ideas! What are the chances they actually might happen?
craig, what great suggestions that we can all benefit...hopefully they will happen on AR
Craig- I'd have to say yours is a pretty detailed and extensive list. I'd have to ditto the having "draft" as the default mode.
I do use Scribefire but why can't we do all of that within the AR platform. I have a hard time getting my post to look like I want it to look when I write it in Scribefire then copy and past it to my AR post. For example, if I want something centered, it often never ends up that way in my AR post and it can forever to try to get it right.
Ditto on embedding a Youtube video. I have to make sure everything is exactly as I want it before saving it in WYSIWYG, then in HTML. And, of course you realize that is the extent of my relationship with WYSIWYG & HTML!
GROUPS- definitely need to jump from GROUPS 1.1 to GROUPS 5.5! Have you ever looked at how many groups there are! And it's difficult to "search" for one. Also, when you go to the Groups line on the left hand side of your home page, you can click on it to see your list of Groups, but if you want to check out another one,instead of just hitting the <- button, you have to open the GROUP section again. Just time consuming.
LOVE - notifying us when we get a subscriber... we're notified when someone adds us as an Associate, so should be able to do this.
Can't wait to see what we get!!!!! Thank you!
Pretty good list you have going on. I didn't read all the comments so I hope I am not duplicating. Groups do need an overhaul. There may be duplicates but there is also an awlful lot of stale, outdated, not used groups. Perhaps searching on groups should include keywords or interests to define them better. Suggestion on searching within AR to include some kind of a date range option because some of those posts do go way back more so than would be applicable to your search at hand i.e., I wouldn't want to search for last year's market reports if I am only interested in today's market. Thanks, Craig.
Craig,
I would just like to see a different HTML/WYSIWYG Editor entirely.
CKEditor, or other open source editor. More functionality.
Great post and list. I hope AR and Chris can address a lot of it.
Craig ~ I would like to see a time factor as to when a post becomes featured ~ Not everyone is on at the crack of dawn (before 9am) and quite often a post has become featured with a gold star after only a few comments ~ seems like by the time you want to use you suggests, posts are being featured already ~
is there are time factor involved with features, when they are picked??
Craig, your list is awesome! I also have problems going from WYSIWYG to HTML, and wish they'd make it easier. i also have ScribeFire, but get tired of all the going back and forth and wish AR would just incorporate these photo editing features.
I wish the "search" command was more intuitive. When I'm looking for a post that I read and didn't bookmark, I have a devil of a time finding it again!
I'm back with two thoughts. I'd like to see a group moderator notified when someone posts to the group. And bookmarks: Often I have book market something and then can't find it or it isn't there. They seem to be sorted by last comment which is meaningless to me.
I love the idea of being able to see all the past featured posts in one list if you click on the gold star, that would be perfect. Well, not with you because we just have to click the back button to see your features posts. (LOL)
This is an excellent post. Thank you for sharing this post.
How was that!? When I was a kid, spam was a good thing! As Boy Scouts we used it often as our breakfast meat. I loved it.
Don't love it so much anymore...
But your list is well thought out and complete! I had not considered hardly any of them!
But... this is an excellent post. Thank you for sharing this post.
;>)
thank you everybody for your comments - I haven't had time YET to update my google document but I will get to it soon - meanwhile I appreciate all that you are sharing with ideas...
Peg - after having talked to Niki, Bob, and Chris about ActiveRain vision... I feel confident that we are in good hands
Angela - when AR is ready to enhance, we'll have our say in what matters to us, thanks
Kathy - really agree that groups need almost a "start from scratch" rethink - that is a whole discussion just by itself! thanks for your other comments as well
Teral - suggestion on date range in searching, noted thank you
Mike - post editor needs to be better, noted! :) thanks for the reference, I'll look when I get a moment
Karen - Bob has mentioned to me how a featured post gets about a lifespan of about a day. Since new featured posts come out all day long progressively, that "suggest" button is just as powerful at different times of the day to get an article into the view of the AR gods for consideration of being featured
Melissa - editor updated and better search, noted, thx!
Glenn - new post to group notification, good idea but it should be an option for the group moderator to choose if wants (some groups would have way too much traffic daily, and that would be info overload) - and bookmarks enhancements noted... have you tried out my google bookmarks tutorial yet? you can use that right away and don't have to wait! :)
Todd - gold star click! I'd love to see that one too! thx :)
Jay - that is an excellent comment, thank you for sharing that comment! :) LOL
Joni - me too, I'm glad they are working on first things first, but when they are ready for ActiveRain to the next level, we'll have our input on it! :)
Craig, two more thoughts:
a. If we can make it as a word editor for grammar mistakes
b. auto spell check. Instead of writer clicking for spell check in the comment section it should underline with red like all the other sites.
Great work and I hope AR get few done.
I had one to add, but by the time I read all the other comments I forgot. I'll let you know if I think of it.
You have obviously struck a nerve with this one. Many of these I have often wished were available. Obviously stability is #1 priority, but how does it look in THAT department right now? Are we stable? We seem to be, so we can't use that as an excuse for too long. Great running list.
Per your suggestion, I'm adding mine:
I wish there was a way to put Google's +1 button on the sidebar, or at least in each post.
Ritu - grammar check, noted; enhanced spell-check check :)
Eric - those darn distracting comments :)
Mimi - been good, and they are working very hard to make it better all the time! there is a lot of back coding for everything we see on the front! they are ironing out inefficiencies that cause accumulated problems over time, so even when we don't see something specific, our uptime is the result!
Lynda - google +1 should be considered, thanks for adding here
Mimi - we do already have a like button at the bottom of the post (look above) - would be nice too look at the other social interaction options though like tweet and g +1
to all - the google docs will be updated soon with all of your great suggestions, thanks!
Actually - I get THAT Like button. I meant for when someone makes a comment to hit "like" :)
Hey, Craig, Ambassador of Quan, I would love to see some trail of our "called shots", perhaps a button to be added that we can go to and see our history of Suggests that went onto become featured posts.
Got another "request" for the wishlist...maybe a button we can go that has a list of our own featured posts.
I don't think this one is on your list, but from a Active Rain reader (subscriber), not a blogger participant... I subscribed to be notified by email when certain groups, and comments are made. I'm not sure if that ever worked, but I get a daily email of blogs with teaser paragraph then you click to read remaining article. BUT some articles require you to be logged in and/or a member of that group blog anyway as email recipient, if I can't get access to it, I really don't want it. I don't want it on the list of blogs I'm viewing if I cant get access. Or at least there should be a lock ICON or Group Icon, that warns me don't bother to click and wait 3 minutes to load etc to find out you are of the privileged who can read it. That's on my wish list, hope you can add it to yours. Thanks Dena
Just came across this again in my bookmarks. I hope they add a google +1 button.
great info. thanks for putting the time into this.