Blog about the Blog beta

Tue

08

Jul

2008

Blog Update and: Closed Beta ends, Open Beta begins!

 

A big Blog Beta Update is done! There are some changes concerning the teaser and the RSS feed, furthermore you can create categories > but we'll come closer to the details in a second..

 

First, we have to say THANK YOU VERY MUCH to all the busy Beta testers! Your incredible feedback, your suggestions and all your support helped us a lot - and is still helping us a lot to improve! Thanks! :)

 

Closed ends - open begins...

...and we would like to welcome all of you! Everyone who would like to test the blog, is invited to join the Beta! From now on, you'll not be asked to enter an invitation code - just go ahead and set up your Blog! Indeed, we'll stay Beta - that means, errors still may occur and other updates will be made, but everyone who fancies to have a blog should try it! We happily welcome every new Jimdo blogger!

 

And here are the technical details:

 

 

1. Teaser image and teaser concept changed

Blog Beta ElementBlog Beta Element

We got especially loads of comments and feedback concerning the teaser - thanks again! Many of you were of the opinion that the whole "teaser-thing" was way to complicated - and we think you're right! For this reason, we rethought the concept and changed it completely. And that's what came out:

 

Easily: there's no teaser anymore! :) The only fixed element of each blog article is the heading. After the heading, you can integrate any of the elements. The idea behind the teaser (a neat overview of all blog articles > you'll find a great example here: www.hsv-fs.de, the Jimdo-Page of a German soccer club) stays the same - you can define it in the blog settings through "length of teaser":

Length of teaser > how many elements should be displayed after the heading? Length of teaser > how many elements should be displayed after the heading?

 

The figure you enter here, defines how many elements of the blog article's content are displayed as a teaser. Those who want to keep the originally considered appearance of the teaser (small image and introduction text), just choose "Text with photo" for the first element and the 1 for teaser length. But of course, any other element can be integrated after the heading... Just try it out - and we'll work on some good tutorials that will show you all features of the blog element step by step.

 

All existing teaser texts and images will be transformed into a "Text with photo"-element autmatically, so don't worry: no content will be lost!

 

Here's an overview of the changes for already existing blog articles:

  • The option "Show teaser image" is no longer valid. All teaser images are visible now (because they have been transformed to a "Text with photo" element).
  • You can change the size of your teaser image! (The quadratic shape of the image might be lost by changing the size)
  • In the overview of the "Blog beta" element: from now on, the first element after the heading is displayed automatically in the teaser view.

2. Categories

Finally, here they are: Categories! Now you can sort your blog articles according to different topics.

Enter your categories here. If you would like to enter several categories for one article, it's important to separate the single categories by a space.

Already got some categories? They are displayed here - just choose one or more or add new categories.

And so the articles are sorted and categorized. The readers of your blog see the articles below the heading of the blog article:

3. RSS feed

 

We also overworked the RSS-feed: From now on, the complete blog article is shown in the RSS-feed. You'll always find your feed under /rss/blog in your Jimdo Page. It's also possible to generate a feed according to categories - just add the name of the category to the feed address:

 

Those who are not really sure what exactly an RSS feed is can visit Wikipedia :)

 

 

We would be pleased if you let us know what you think of the update :)

 

Have fun blogging!

 

All the best,

Your Jimdo Team

 

10 Comments

Wed

07

May

2008

Blog Beta successfully started

 

Wow, we're absolutely overwhelmed! So many of you signed up for the Blog Beta and are now busy building up their blogs. Your feedback is just awsome, thank you so much! We almost can't keep up with answering your mails and comments.. :)

We continue to work on the blog features and already finished the technology for the categories. Now, we're working on the surface so that you'll be able to use it...

 

Furthermore, we added the following features to our list:

  • Post new blog articles to Technorati
  • Add widgets of blog articles to del.icio.us, mr. wong, webnews etc.
  • Teaser image: changing the size

We'll keep you in the loop - thank you so much for your support!

 

Spring and Fridel,

Jimdo Team

5 Comments