Discussions

NEW FEATURE: BlogCatalog Dashboard

Posted by NINE • 2/20/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: announcement, blogcatalog, Dashboard, Feature, feed, new, news

Well, I am sure by now you guys have noticed the dashboard button in your account box just below your avatar. BlogCatalog is pleased to announce our all new Social Dashboard. Basically, its a way for you to promote yourself from all across the web to the BlogCatalog community.

The coolest part of the dashboard (in my opinion) has to be the new NEWS FEED, this keeps you connected with your closest friends. By default we have set it to your top 5 friends, you may want to update the settings www.blogcatalog.com/dashboard.subscriptions.php and fine tune who you want to follow.

There is also a tab for the discussions you have recently participated in. Usually these are discussions which you have either started or recently participated in but if you want to add a discussion that you haven't said anything in yet, just add it to your favorites and it will show up here as well.

Next, the group tab gives you a quick overview of all the discussions going on in the groups you have joined.

And the Neighborhoods tab is basically a feed reader, letting you quickly see the latest posts from your favorite blogs (neighborhood).

At first glance, the dashboard is ready to go, but if you really want to unlock its full potential you may want to take a look around at some of the settings and options...

The first thing you will probably want to do is head over to the communities page and update your accounts www.blogcatalog.com/account.communities.php - that will let us know where to get your information, and which accounts we will share in your feed.

Next, check out the Settings and Privacy settings www.blogcatalog.com/dashboard.settings.php This will let you update what you are sharing with other users and let you moderate what you see from your friends.

We also give you the option of moderating your personal feed (what you share with others) directly www.blogcatalog.com/dashboard.manage.php That way, you can remove single items one at a time if you need to.

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I have been playing with the feed for the past couple of days, it takes a little while to find the right combination of friends and services that you want to get updated on. But once you find the correct combination it opens the door to so much great information. I now know when my favorite bloggers write a new post, I can see what they digg and stumble and check those out too, as well as what they twitter or even what they are listening to on their computer each day!

I am really excited about this new feature and I hope that you guys love it as much as we do.

This is launching in BETA mode at the moment. Members who have supported the community www.blogcatalog.com/account.donate.php have full access and have the ability to follow up to 40 friends, while regular users can only follow 5 for now.

Please let us know what you think, and don't get too comfortable in the next few days as we may be moving some small stuff around a little as we try to get it just right. We will be adding even more communities in the near future as well as a couple of other surprises; but for now, please enjoy and let us know what your thoughts are.

Thanks for making BC one of the greatest blogging social network, we couldn't do it without you guys!

User Comments

2/20/08

AngieA

Bravo....its up and running
Well done guys.

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2/20/08

GratciaNulis

Yes I noticed.... Great job

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2/20/08

thegoodknife

we still have a lot more planned for the dashboard in the coming week so stay tuned!

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2/20/08

funepets

It looks amazing. Great job guys. Will play around this week and give you my feedback.

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2/20/08

NINE

It's kind of a lot to take in, so take your time. We are probably going to go to bed soon, we have been working non-stop the last few days.

Right now I am forcing myself to stay up just because I am excited to hear your thoughts on it.

Be careful though, if you are anything like me you will be seriously addicted in no time at all.

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1. 2/20/08
  
  AndyBeard
  
  This was probably the first review I totally screwed up in the last year, because there are so many features in the dashboard settings that I totally missed.
  
  Amazing job, so many privacy features
2. 2/20/08
  
  thegoodknife
  
  i think that may be a sign that the settings are too hidden. We will definitely see if we can't fix that.
2/20/08

PetLvr

haha .. under Dashboard Settings / Your Feed / ...

I'm sure divorce lawyers/clients/parents would love to get printouts of the time sequence of what the spouse/professional/kids are spending their time and the timeline!

It would be nice if you added a button to 'click all' or 'remove all' ticks but, I haven't really looked closely as of yet - I will over the next few day however

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1. 2/20/08
  
  NINE
  
  I agree... the check all is on our short term to-do list.
2/20/08

AngieA

Nine....Have one of those StarBucks Cupcakes and you will be ready for another round. The night is Young.

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1. 2/20/08
  
  NINE
  
  I have to be back at work in the morning. You don't know my boss, she is VERY strict about that stuff!
2/20/08

AngieA

Oh yeah I heard about her, all work and no play and what ever you do....dont eat at your desk.

lol

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2/20/08

nplbjirel

I have just noticed this feature and find great. Let's see first and will give new comments. Good work guys!

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2/20/08

lordlikely

The dashboard is dashed fine work, gentlemen!

You never cease to astonish me. Bravo!

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2/20/08

suburbqueen

...and now I feel like, somebody's stalking me... Just kidding. I haven't played with it too much yet, but I can already see how this can bring about tons of interesting reads. Great job yet again guys!

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2/20/08

thegnr

I love the new dashboard keep up the good work its very functional.

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2/20/08

deletedpenguin

I dig it.

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2/20/08

pointlessbanter

damn this is pretty sweet

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2/20/08

nell

When can we get a widget with the NEWS FEED?
that widget will rock...

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2/20/08

markstoneman

Looks interesting, though it might be more than I need. For now I just turned it all off until I have a chance to go over it. It could change the way I use the friends and neighborhoods features on my profile page. Might make me do some housecleaning, for starters.

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2/20/08

pointlessbanter

Wait, so we can't directly message people anymore?

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1. 2/20/08
  
  pointlessbanter
  
  nevermind you just have to click on your picture to go to the standard front page... my bad
2. 2/20/08
  
  markstoneman
  
  You make a good point, Kevin. If people are to "live" in the dashboard, then that functionality should be available there too.
3. 2/20/08
  
  pointlessbanter
  
  It would be nice if the shoutbox was on the sidebar there.
4. 2/20/08
  
  monkeytale
  
  Well...I'm glad you found it Keven. I was getting email messages that someone had messaged me through here and couldn't find the message shoutbox here. I hope they include that in the dashboard soon.
5. 2/20/08
  
  pointlessbanter
  
  I just started clicking on random things hoping one would be an easter egg and I would get a map to the secret treasure...
6. 2/20/08
  
  TonyB
  
  Messaging will be coming soon.
7. 2/20/08
  
  thegoodknife
  
  Great point guys. Don't know how we overlooked that.
8. 2/20/08
  
  pointlessbanter
  
  The treasure map or the messaging?
9. 2/20/08
  
  thegoodknife
  
  well what good is a treasure map without treasure?
10. 2/20/08
  
  pointlessbanter
  
  I'd settle for a bowl of lucky charms right now... I'm not picky
2/20/08

FLOOG

Pretty nifty. Thanks

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2/20/08

ender

niftiness incarnate

it might be nice to have a "triangle" navigation to "close" or "open" the days in your feed. for example, i would probably close all of the days except for Today and Yesterday ... if i want to look at 2 Days Ago, i'll hit the triangle. that would help keep the page from being crazy long.

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1. 2/20/08
  
  markstoneman
  
  Sounds good to me. One of the reason I turned it all off for now was because it was simply too much. This would help reduce that feeling of overwhelming clutter.
2. 2/20/08
  
  TonyB
  
  As it is now it won't get too long since we display the last 100 or so events. Mark, you may want to add one or two friends at first.
3. 2/20/08
  
  markstoneman
  
  100 is a boatload.
  
  Add one or two friends? Wouldn't that mean deleting all I have and starting from scratch?
4. 2/20/08
  
  thegoodknife
  
  I think Tony means subscribe to one or two friends only. There is a tab in the settings to choose who you follow.
5. 2/20/08
  
  markstoneman
  
  Oh, okay. Thanks. When I first looked at it, I had information from everyone. It was too much.
2/20/08

enigma

Yeah,I saw this section yet.

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2/20/08

MeghnaK

I am sure the next update will be something like:
"Stoneman just had his breakfast and is getting ready to go to college"

LOL!! This is more than what anybody needs. Have to do a lot of house cleaning job.

Wonderful work!!

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1. 2/20/08
  
  thegoodknife
  
  I'd subscribe to those updates!
2. 2/20/08
  
  markstoneman
  
  So the tiger is in character, stalking and ready to pounce when so inclined?
2/20/08

riverstyxxx

Too. Cluttered. Must. Not. Click.

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2/20/08

jungl

Cool stuff!

Any chance for an easier way to change top friends?
It sucks to go through a lot of pages to find the one you want to "promote"

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1. 2/20/08
  
  pointlessbanter
  
  yeah 75 pages sucks to go through
2. 2/20/08
  
  thegoodknife
  
  We are open to any sugestions you may have.
3. 2/20/08
  
  pointlessbanter
  
  Can we have a follow the person link under the "add as friend" link or something of that nature?
  
  So lets say you find someone interesting in the forums you can just click on their avatar and then add them to your feed as opposed to adding them to your friend's list and then hunting them down in your friend's list.
4. 2/20/08
  
  thegoodknife
  
  that sounds like a good idea to me.
5. 2/20/08
  
  pointlessbanter
  
  sweet by the time you guys are done BC will be taking over the world.
2/20/08

kaybday

Wow--this place gets better and better! Kay

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2/20/08

TonyB

If you are experiencing withdrawals from seeing your Personal Profile, it's simple to get back to it. Just click on your Avatar in the top right hand corner.

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2/20/08

globalgirl

BC, you all are the best. Thanks for the nifty, innovative features and creatively working to help us promote our blogs.

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2/20/08

imaniceperson

This is great. You guys are awesome.

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2/20/08

NINE

Don't forget this is just the beta, we have more additions coming that should make your posts and shared data EVEN MORE viral!

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2/20/08

genopianist54

Weew! this is great...

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2/20/08

ghostytwofish

This rocks socks! Nice work.

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2/20/08

wilbau

Thank you, great job. Have to get accustomed to it.

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2/20/08

mikeny07

I think we have information overload here guys. I like all this new stuff but it makes it harder with too much info sometimes.

I'll work around with it. Knowing what everyone is doing all the time can drive you nuts though.

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1. 2/20/08
  
  NINE
  
  My suggestion is to really moderate who you are following in the settings. It took me a few days to get the combination right.
  
  Some of the users who I enjoy talking to on here may not necessarily be the best users to follow in my newsfeed.
  
  For me it was about adding the people and services that I thought would be useful and then over the next few days cutting people or services if they were an overload or were giving me stuff that wasnt relevant.
  
  I currently am only following like 8 people, and I turned StumbleUpon off it seems to be a good medium for me.
2/20/08

mikeny07

Great work though! This site my be really high on Alexa in future. Maybe top 100 sites? That would be great. I have not find any blog sites like this. I spent loads of time looking when I started blogging in June 07. This is the best.

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2/20/08

dotartdude

Point of information concerning AIM: AIM originally had in beta, AIM Pages. Now there are AIM Profiles instead. Here's mine as a sample.

memberdirectory.aol.com/aolus/profile?sn=dotartdude

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2/20/08

blondeheroine

Love the new dashboard. Makes it so much easier to keep up with the community.

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2/20/08

laughoutloudadmin

cool.. thanks.

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2/20/08

RecycleCindy

The new features look wonderful with so much information available about what each member has done. I would say that if members don't want their every move posted that they amend their feeds on the dashboard to show only what they really wanted revealed to others. One suggestion might be to allow 10 friends info to be tracked rather than just 5. I don't need 40 friends tracked but 5 seems very limited. Thanks for the wonderful additions that you have provided us. BC is fantastic and seems to always be growing and improving!

[reply]
1. 2/20/08
  
  BlogCatalog
  
  Hi Cindy, thanks for your feedback. The 5 limit is only while we are doing testing. Once we come out of beta it will be increased.
2/20/08

harleyblues

Um, ohhh man, May I ask a silly question, repectfully what is the point of this? is this not some form of invasion of privacy of bloggers?~ sorta speak?

There's alot of info here by the quick peak I took
ta
hb~

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1. 2/20/08
  
  gmoney
  
  I would think that this feature gives people the opportunity to see what there internet social network friends are doing. Instead of going to 20 different places you can come to BC and see what everyone is doing....
2. 2/20/08
  
  NINE
  
  Also, it only shows the information that the blogger has already shared. Each network has to be entered in one by one by the user and additionally each network can be toggled on and off so you are in full control of not only what you see from others, but what you share as well.
2/21/08

Ghiath

Great work and lots of options. I really appreciate your work guys. However, I think that you should add another link to the Dashboard after the Home link on the top of the page.

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2/21/08

hirfoanbhg12

Great work by blogcatalog team

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2/21/08

hirfoanbhg12

good feature .We will keep track of our closest friends work.

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2/21/08

MiLan

it rocks

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2/21/08

berryliciousme

very cool!

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2/21/08

tenshi319

way to grow guys.

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2/22/08

troilee

Okay, it's been a couple days. I have to say: I like the Dashboard. Great job!

VG

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2/22/08

thegoodknife

I still can't stop checking the thing and i've been using it for weeks.

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1. 2/25/08
  
  gosmelltheflowers
  
  Tis rather addictive, thats for sure!
2/22/08

Unfettered

This is a great new feature! Rather than just bloating the code in a rush to add "more" like some programmers do, I find this very useful and well thought out. Thanks!

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2/22/08

Anniepooh

Kewl. Completely.

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2/22/08

thartharlay

well done, bro...excellent

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2/22/08

eddyprasetyo

great job brother...!

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2/23/08

rahamitz

Great add-on! Keep it up!

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2/23/08

wehireu

This makes subscribing to groups so much easier. It should make things a bit more interesting.

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2/23/08

ettarose

I thought I was having a flashback (good ol days) LOL Great way to see what's up.

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2/24/08

johnsblogs42

Dashboard is pretty useless to me personally. Have no realistic use for it, and honestly, I've turned about eveything I could find in it off. Discussions and broadcasts are about all it's good for in my opinion, and those are ALREADY in ur profile sidebar.

Was getting beyond extremely annoying reading over and over, so-and-so has added new friend, s0-and-so has has joined such and such discussion, so-and-so has begun to pick their nose, so-and-so...."

Should have started off with at MOST, 2 friends feeds worth of junk going in there. Would have been a lot less annoying for a kick off. But I'm juss ziss guy, you know...

John

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2/24/08

gosmelltheflowers

Great work team,

Group hugs and free flowers contests all round from all at GO! Smell the flowers.

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2/24/08

Gallego71

SWEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!

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2/24/08

Norski

Sweet.

Thanks for the upgrade!

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2/24/08

olgatravelingbra

Great! Thanks!

[reply]
1. 2/27/08
  
  wandadog13
  
  Hi Olga! (Jonathan at GSTF's)
2/27/08

wandadog13

Looking good guys - When I get a mo - i'll re-visit the dash.

Jonathan

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2/27/08

marenda

I love it Great job

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2/28/08

narenkumar

You have done great job

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