Friday, June 26, 2009

John abuzz, now more user friendly


Check it out! To show my appreciation to all of you that come to my blog and leave comments, I have updated my comment format. I think you'll like the new user friendly features, such as no word verification and no comment moderation.

I also wanted to make you feel more welcome, and I have linked many of my social networking sites through MyBlogLog. Activities such as my tweets will show up in one of the new widgets, but they do seem to be on somewhat of a delay.

You might want to also check out the new widget on the sidebar that will shows the most popular outgoing links. Your blog or latest blog post might show up there. It too may have a slight delay at first.

If you have a moment, I hope you will rate my blog at the little "rate my blog" widget. This is a feature of blogcatalog. After my rating comes up, I will post that badge as well. I haven't been a member of blogcatalog for very long, so my rating is lower than I would like. Thanks in advance!

If you have any questions about any of the new features on my blog, don't hesitate to ask. You may use the comment area or get my email address from my blogger profile page. Thanks again, everyone. I hope you enjoy these new features as much as me.

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17 comments:

Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein said...

It's about time you made your blog more about us, your readers. ;0)

John said...

@Dr. Monkey,
Well, I had some help (thanks, Jo)! I'm not as computer literate as one might think! Glad to see you here.

Rae said...

You are just a blogging machine. Great job John. Thanks again for adding my blog to the Bloglog roll.

And I promise to play nice sir. No bashing of others!!!

Yvette Kelly said...

Hey I'm in.Thank you thank you gush,gush and more gush.Also went to rate your blog-which is best the 1 or the 5.need to make sure first.also do not be alarmed by my icon.I tried to insert new favicon and it comes up a face or something.still fixing that.who knew blogging was such hard work!

Yvette Kelly said...

Hey John
looks like the old icon is back.so anyway I find it really strange that no one has answered my question on this post especially you who I know has an answer for me.I wonder what it means that everyone is keeping quiet with this one.
http://truecrimebookreviews.blogspot.com/2009/06/twisted-triangle-by-caitlin-rother.html

Marguerite said...

Hi John, Read your comment on Jo's blog. Just testing your new comment form for you. Nice blog!!

Essie said...

Hi John, I stopped by your blog via Jo's blog, and it is just like hers. I made the same changes to mine, but I don't have very many followers. If you have time, could you stop by mine to see if it is working the same way? By the way, I liked your Michael Jackson tribute. Very nice.

kenju said...

Nice changes, John, although it took me a while to find the link for ranking!

John said...

Wow, look at all the comments that came after I left for awhile! Thanks everyone!

@Rae,
Thanks for everything Rae & it's my pleasure to have you on the blog roll. If it weren't for your browser recommendation I wouldn't even be able to view my own blog! (ie8=pain in the butt, Chrome=Smooth Sailing)

I see on that Yesterday's Top 5 Links, your "A Second in My Life" is ranked # 4 as the most popular outgoing link. Congrats!

@Yvette Kelly, thanks for that question! I'm pretty sure that 1 is the lowest and 5 would be the highest rank for that rating.

Glad you got your pretty face back on your icon! I will visit your blog post and see if I can answer that for you.

@Marguerite, thanks so much for testing the new comment format and thanks for the nice compliments! Glad you like the blog.

@Mean Mama, Glad you liked my M.J. tribute. Thanks for checking out my blog, and I will be over very soon to leave a comment on yours.

I hope others will check out your blog too, and become followers. I follow just about anybody that follows me.

@kentju, thank you! I know that "rate my blog" is so small. I hope you all didn't have to sign up on blogcatalog to rate my blog. Hope somebody will let me know the answer to that one!

Jo said...

Well, how about that!? *Heh* Now you have all sorts of new visitors, just in one day. That is what blogging is all about.

I have never understood word verifiation and blogger approval. Blogging so much more fun without them, isn't it?

John said...

@Jo, Absolutely, yes! Blogging is so much better and more fun without that comment word verification and moderation.

I can't believe it took me so long to realize that. One thing I feared was not knowing when & where I would receive a comment. People should also know that even without the word verification & comment moderation, blogger can notify you in up to five email addresses each time you get a comment! That sealed the deal for me!

I have commented at other blogs after I made this big change and I am in awe about the difference. I wish I would've done this a long time ago!

Again, thank you for helping me get this changed! Google should make this way the default way!

Yvette Kelly said...

Hey
I just voted at Rate Your Blog so that's done.And I did not know that you still get an e mail when you comment even though you take off comment moderation.I am going to do that right now.Only problem is Ed the Spammer apparently although I have never ever seen him.I am going to start slow and see how it goes.

John said...

@Yvette Kelly, thanks for rating my blog! I appreciate it. I think it was rated like 38 out of 100 for the category of "personal blogs." I don't know how the first time rating was assigned, but I did submit a "request for review," the other day.

Yes, you do get email alerts every time you get a comment. I use Chrome and when I'm online keep my "gmail" opened in a different tab, because it will update in real time a count for each new email right in the tab header, so you see it. (A sound alert would be nice too, not sure if gmail does that). I am pretty new to gmail, and so far I like it and haven't gotten spam.

And if you or ANYONE wants to set up the comment format like this, visit Jo's blog (on my blog roll "A Majority of Two) and one of her recent posts gives instructions! I believe that post was called "Is it me." You'll find it I'm sure, because her blog is always interesting an lively. She was one of my first favorite bloggers.

Thanks again!

Another Blogger said...

Great Job Brother. I always love to see a blog improvement. Let's helping each other to become a better blogger :) Great Post Brother.

John said...

@Another Blogger, thanks for the comment. I like to see improvements on blogs too, and what better place to see improvements than right here on my own blog. I like the way you think--bloggers helping each other out. We can visit each others blogs, leave comments, and we can't help but learn a thing or two or get inspired a long the way.

themom said...

I am constantly trying to tweak my site. I haven't done anything since Christmas time...so I might try something new - soon. heehee :)

John said...

@themom, hi! Oh it's fun trying new things. I was sorry to read that you had to put word verification back on. That sucks, but I certainly understand...or you might add on some translate widget intead to at least know what the comments mean. On my blog roll travelingman rick's blog has a translater widget.

I hope somebody will let me know if it starts taking too long for my blog to load! That's the only bad thing about so many widgets, etc.

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