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Win $250 ... by participating in this thread.
Posted by TonyB • 12/26/07 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: blogcatalog challenge
The challenge:
The BlogCatalog's team's vision is to create the Ultimate Community for Bloggers on the Internet.
If you were given free reign over BlogCatalog, what would you do to achieve this vision?
You can do whatever you want with BlogCatalog with the goal being to make this place the ultimate community for bloggers. The type of blogger community that when anyone says blogging you think BlogCatalog. The blog community that every blogger wants to belong to. That's it 
The Rules:
* Post your ideas on this discussion thread.
* Each person can be inspired by anyone else's idea on here.
* The BlogCatalog team will decide the winner. Our decision is final. You can trash our judgment afterwards.
* Your idea will be judged based on creativity & by envisioning whether your ideas will be what moves BlogCatalog from where it is today to being the Ultimate Community for Bloggers on the Internet.
The winner will be announced January 7th. Prize will be sent on January 8th.
Post your ideas here.
User Comments
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I'd say focus on adding more tools for bloggers. I know there are a lot of great people here helping others, but without the on-site tools, it is really hard to get everyone stick around. Tools such as pr checker. It's good to know who has the highest page rank in here. Don't you think?-
Also, I would implement some more of:
1. Text Service (mobile) - Get a text message every time someone leaves a comment. Of course, it all depends on the user's options if he/she want to receive them or not.
2. Leave a comment to get credit, refer someone, etc. - Those credits can be used to redeem for perks. As an example, blog catalog can have a shopping section where users can redeem their credits as a discount to buy items in the store. I think it's a good way to get visitors active and continue to participate.
3. More stats on profile, the whole shebang. I'm sure a lot would want to analyze where all their visitors are coming from or what links they clicked to get in or off their sites.
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One other rule :).... no one is allowed to disagree with anyone on this thread.
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this is a cool rule! i love it -
I disagree!
Oh, wait... um....
Is there a dead line for submissions if I want to mull it over a bit first? -
Did we just witness a drive by argument?!
Cameron -
Dane... good point. The deadline is Dec. 31st 11.59 pm.
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have it join with 4 other blog communities to from BLOGTRON defender of the blogosphere!
(blogcatalog forming the head of course) -
Hmm... interesting notion. I'm not sure it's entirely possible, just given that people blog for so many different reasons, but I'll take a stab at it anyway.
- Promote blogs. Get people involved who would be willing and have the time to read and review (positively) new blogs to the system on a regular basis. We can all see the new blogs, but given how many bloggers go unnoticed, actually seeing a synopsis or a review might help hook more people into visiting the blogs themselves.
- Voting on discussion relevance. I like the Slashdot method. People can vote comments up or down, and users can set thresholds so they don't see comments that fall below a certain level of relevance. People who want to read those comments that don't qualify still can, of course. They can just set their thresholds to different levels.
- Hold contests for featured blogs on a regular basis. I think it's a good idea to encourage participating and support of the site by rotating (or randomly selecting) blogs to feature from those that support the site with donations, but I think it might be more advantageous to give people a chance to be features through participating in the site in other ways as well.
- Start a keyword knowledge base. I see a lot of discussions on the same subject. Lately, it's been "Why can't I add more friends." If someone posts a really great question, and people provide great answers, add that discussion (or certain questions and comments) to the knowledge base so that it is easier for people to find answers to questions without the onerous task of the administrators having to write the same answers over and over again.
- Start a "How To" section. Lots of people are new to blogging, and almost everyone is new to some aspect of it (WordPress template tags, RSS, SEO, Page Rank, Writing for a targeted audience, etc.). Some of the people here are real pros! It would be cool to harness that knowledge and provide featured articles under specific headings on a regular basis written be people who have been around the block.-
I'd like to append my entry to suggest an improvement to the discussion area. Currently, if one wants to reply to a particular post in a thread, the text area for doing so is at the very bottom of the screen. It would be highly beneficial if it were possible to have that text area appear directly under the "reply" link. It can be extremely cumbersome, especially in longer discussion, to keep posts threaded correctly. Not knocking the functionality! It's great. Just offering an improvement suggestion.
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What do you really mean by «ULTIMATE» ? -
How about adding more options to the search function, for example, search by language or country. -
1. Start a Marketplace for Bloggers. As you know (better than me) bloggers like to make money A Marketplace would be great.
2. Some Broadcasts should be "Featured"... and some almost deleted! It would be great if Blogcatalog had some kind of filter to "promote" great content broadcasts and to "ban" spam broadcasts.
3. Mobile Mobile Mobile... I'm sure that some bloggers would love to receive mobile alerts when someone send a private message or when someone post a reply in a particular discussion.
This would be great for the Marketplace to. Imagine that I'm looking for a sponsor in the new marketplace, and someone send reply to my thread. I would love to receive a sms allert! That's crazy? No.. it's Ultimate
4. More Categories in Discussion would be great. And Voting it's a great idea to.
5. It would be great (call me crazy again) to have a space where bloggers could use webcam and sound to talk about blogging things. Imagine a weekly reunion under some subject... in which we all could share experiences (in chat with cam and sound... because i really would like to meet some bloggers here! eheh)
6. This is really ULTIMATE! Make Different Language versions of Blogcatalog!
EXAMPLE - A portuguese version would be great! Then we could choose to write in english (bad as you can see) or in portuguese with other bloggers from Portugal, Brazil, etc.
I'm looking for a new job so, you know that you already have a portuguese guy to work in a portuguese version! lol
Did i said something useful?
I hope so!
PS: sorry for my bad english! lol
I'm already in a english school again!
Best regards my good friends and good luck for the future.-
well some of those are already in blogcatalog feature plans yaar!
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The main point for a community is to make the member participating on the community. If I have the power of BC on my hand, I will focus on implementing tools that will help them to participate, learn, and be a better blogger. I suggest to make a section that the member can write their own article on BC, by that way they can share their ideas, discoveries, experiences, design tips, etc. The members can judge by themselves the quality of the article if it helped them or not. A rating poll will be necessary. I suggest also to put a main page of all the top articles, also a search section to find what the member are looking.
1- It will create contact between members
2- The members will learn more about the world of blogging
3- The members will come back, because it's a useful resources
4- The BC guru will be happy to see that..maybe
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My thoughts, start a blogging FAQ/Wiki, something that the community can edit and give answers to those age old questions that are asked in the discussion at least twice daily.
Also it would be a good central place to have articles about SEO, Wordpress, Entrecard, and all those other important terms/ideas vital to the blogging community.
It would also be very nice to have a place to exchange...ideas about blogging, maybe a Project Center, where you can throw projects in the mix and see what you can come out with.
Cameron-
Oh! Random idea that just popped into my head. Have a Users online section, so you can see everyone that is looking at the site.
Cameron
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hiya BC
1. as I have stated before create a "user friendly" social bookmark that includes "Blog Catolog button", so users=bloggers that have never been here will land here and discover how wonderful your site is.. also include the digg, stumble,yahoo,techoranti,etc so those users may land here also..
make this availabe to everyone as a download these types of things are lacking "cool BC book mark button would rock"
I believe that will bring a gang load of more talented, offbeat,creative bloggers
2. Have a link of BC's forum on your home page stating how effin exciting this place is here lol "chat with other crazy bloggers" etc
I didn't know such a forum existed when I signed up my account until I got an email one day from Admin. like 6 months later. If there is one perhaps I over looked it?
3. redisign your home page make it hip, fresh and inviting, add some colour so when people land here they will feel invited and say "Wow this looks like a cool site!" and want to enter and check it out! Stark white feels a bit to sanitary and like the rest.
4. add a video of some type on your front page something off the wall and fun either humour or music you can always rotate what you have posted every week.
5. promote blogs for blogs that are not know support your community.
how's that?
ta
Christina -
There are a lot of blogs on blog catalog which are great blogs, the people do not participate in this discussion group or all that friending stuff, but I think you need to search for those really good blogs and feature them. Keeping it honest many of the best blogs are just listed here and they shouldn't be ignored because they are not part off all this discussion stuff. Some of the best blogs I have found here are not participatory in the forums at all, and probably never come here, I wonder if even they even remember they are listed. I didn't remember I was listed until I stumbled upon this sometime last spring at another blog, let them know maybe you'd get some new participation from people who have great blogs and are not always trying to figure out how to increase their page rank or make a quick buck.
As for all that SEO stuff, put it in a separate place and get an expert to run it, not someone who stays at home online 24 hours a day and squeals out a thousand dollars a month. -
Don't put limits on bloggers. let them add or join as many communities or friends as they want. You guys do a great job with spam, but still work to improve it. Hold contests like this one here. Set up an announcement service, announce new sites, blogs, and ways to monetize online. You could make some money off of it too. Blogger might pay a few dollars a month to be featured. Chance how you monetize BC. not sure how much you make with adsense, and private sponsor sales, but i think you could make more by trying new things. Give some of your earning back to BC users to grow this communitiy. -
A reign over BC?! Here's my ideas:
1. First and foremost the BC template is good but i think it needs more tweaking to make it more lively and enticing.
2. Make special categories containing blogging resources like: Bookmarking tools, pingers, directory list, list of Page Ranks of every BC member.
3. Put a FAQ section where rule about BC is laid down. I miss that section when I first joined.
4.Add a bookmark tools to every BC discussion where bloggers can digg, stumble really good discussions.
5.How about a mini chatroom. Bloggers need immediate help at times and chatroom is powerful tool to give assistance to fellow bloggers.
6.Weekly contest for active bloggers. This will fire up BC members participation. The price don't have to be cash. It can be a special promotion say "blogger of the week" where the winning bloggers URL is posted on top of BC for a week. This will help bloggers get traffic.
7. Report button and suggestion option. Give bloggers a say in BC.
8. Provide links for easy access to latest news, and videos. Make BC a one stop venue for bloggers.
that's all for now that i could think of..
Happy holidays!-
re--faq section. Did you know the rules are Already written down in plain and readable English? Just click the TOS link at the very bottom of Any Blog Catalog page
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Create a widget that allows users to post their BC blog rating on their blog. Is there one already? Lol. Haven't seen one. -
I would like to see more activities that involve members. You mentioned a group blog at one point and also a book that might be collected/edited by various members. There are so many opportunities to let the creative and talented people here do what they do best and people newer to those arenas participate and learn...things like those two ideas, like forming a committee that to organize charitable events like those you've already conducted and promote them, put together a blogging basics section for new bloggers, etc. -
I'd have to say, (imho), to me it's the smaller additions that help bloggers the most.
Some things I would like to see, would be a counter of some sort next to our "recent articles", to see which articles are being visited the most by other Blog cataloggers. This may help newer bloggers determine what writting styles are gaining them the most interest, what content is doing so for them, etc.
Invites, of a sort, to join neighbor hoods/friend lists/etc may also help to build the "community" effect. So likeminded bloggers can group together; i.e., politics blogs, automotive, cooking, photogography, etc. And not get mass grouped into other communities that they just happened upon and turn out not to really like in the end.
A "Featured Blogs of the week" may also be nifty, which would/could be tied in with the article counter. 2 or 3 blogs from each category listed on the blog catalog home page, based not only on the standard visits counter already in place, but also actual article visits.
Just some thoughts.
John
Hoopy Frood Dude
hoopyfrooddude.blogspot.com/ -
huuhh another contest lets think about it!
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The type of blogger community that when anyone says blogging you think BlogCatalog. The blog community that every blogger wants to belong to. That's it
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#1
You have to develop, create, and market scripts, plugins, flash, and basic code for every type of blog software on the planet (wordpress, blogger, typepad, etc) - and get everyone to want to include your code and have their avatar be shown on every comment on any blog from whenever - and, that avatar links to their blogcatalog profile here. So, not only will people want to add blogs in this "catalog" directory .. they also want to add their profile.
There used to be an avatar place we all know (some of us anyway) that couldn't handle the traffic and now - when you see avatars - aren't they using MyBlogLog (yahoo) avatars? Yahoo is Evil! Use BlogCatalog instead of MyBlogLog!-
PS: If there is a way to embed the avatar of BC registered users into my new network template comments.php already - please let me know I'll start the revolution.
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#2
I'd register and create a "sister" site called ... BlogDOGalog.com about sites and users who love dogs I mean .. BlogCATalog.com lovers are fine but that's not all .. oh! And, don't forget the BlogHORSEalog.com BlogBIRDalog.com BlogFISHalog.com and other related community sites! -
#3 .. an option in the profile and member area, like the "Shout-to-Shout" box features ... except if the user has a camera installed on their computer, allow users to chat via camera to other users privately. You could even rent rooms for the dating and single people. You'd probably have to limit each video chat session due to bandwidth, unless you can get some major broadcasting companies to help sponsor .. Of course, something has to be ironed out first, so you don't get too reliant on the bandwidth issue and end up selling this community for $1.5 billion dollars ..
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#4 - do what I suggested in #3 and sell Blogcatalog for $1.5 billion dollars and split 50% with the 80,000 blogs (or more!) that are registered in here. Oh, and take an extra 20% for those bloggers who have (*checking comment stats*) have over 1500 posts in 2007! Penalize members who are members of other social communities by 5% or something hehe
hey! You might get increase subscriber base (it could happen) -
#5
And, if I had the reigns of BlogCatalog .. I'll take everybody's suggestion and make it happen - but with a PURPLE background!!
(um, does that count for this point in the main thread body?)
* Each person can be inspired by anyone else's idea on here.
j/k of course -
#6 ... How about some CPM Advertising Widgets? In addition to a community for bloggers - create a community for advertisers, who advertise on blogs! Potential advertisers can create groups to discuss what type of blog they are looking to advertise on - and, bloggers can come and discuss what type of advertisers they are looking for .. and have a marriage in BlogCatalogHeaven.
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#7
Add the ability to display code in the threads. For instance, some forums allow the display of code by entering [code]displayed php code here[/code] etc .... or even by using backticks like wordpress `displayed php code` etc ...
In some cases, others can help people who need help better if they can visually show the code (without executing)
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1 A blogging wiki area - A place where every member can contribute to a wiki on blogging. If someone wants help on a certain subject they can use the wiki to find an answer if they cant find it there they can then ask on the board and the answer can be added to the wiki, an a-z of blogging.
2 Filters on shoutouts for words like insurance, loans e.t.c
3 Karma for members - Not liked by everyone but it will help us to weed out the bad ones, get below a certain minus number and posting on the boards isn't allowed.
4 A blog tools area - So we can check keywords, rankings, pr, alexa rank, links in and out e.t.c so we don't have to send anyone of blogcatalog for their answer.
5 As mentioned before the book and blog are good ideas, but the wiki would be just as good as the blog and making an a-z out of a wiki is easy-
Will add more ideas as they come to me
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A weekly newsletter with 5 blogs featured in the letter, I see a lot asking for traffic and exposure. Draw up a weekly random list of 10 blogs then have members vote on a top 5 or a top three then feature them in a newsletter.
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I would make the following changes.....
* Enhancing search - Searching for blogs, users, and discussions would be made easier by adding dedicated search boxes and increasing the number of filters so that users can get exactly what they want, apart from having a search entire BC box. Like for instance, for searching the discussions, I would add more search filters to sort out discussions by headings, no of comments, and number of hits.
* Browser compability - This one of the most crucial things that needs some attention. Try inserting some html code in the comment box to help out others with some scripting, and the code
won't be displayed, even when you use the '[code][/code]' tags, when you use browsers other than MSIE.
* Displaying Random Blogs - Blogs would be displayed randomly on the homepage and not on the basis of ratings. This helps in getting exposure for some blogs that often appear to be 'hidden'.
*Session Expiry - Yes, this is one glitch I found. I use Opera and let me tell you, I have not signed out for 3 weeks!! I simply close the window, and even if I return after 48 hours, I'm logged in!! Dangerous for those who surf in cyber cafes.
*Enhancing Discussions - The discussion board forms the backbone of BC and are a major place full of activity. Firstly, link spamming would be made a major restriction and all threads bearing the title 'I want to see your blog', 'Show me your blog', etc. would be removed. If the user really wants to have a look at some blogs, he can very well surf the directory section of BC! And for shameless blog promotion, only *worthy* posts must be publicized. The rest can be publicized here www.blogcatalog.com/group/recent-posts-promotion Also, time will be alloted to makes changes to the thread title along with the text.
Dedicated Review section - A place where bloggers can get their blogs reviewed by pros. A blog can be placed for review only once on three months.
*Additional Tools - Many other blogger tools to check their rankings and others like checking broken links, stray scripts,etc.
Even if I don't get the prize, i would sincerely ask the administrators to make atleast some of these changes, especially the session expiry thing....... -
I would add another section along the top nav bar for news - probably between discussion and groups. This would be a place where people could post news that they find around the web that affects the blogging community. There would be no posting of links to your own articles, just directly to the relevant news item, with a snippet of text to say what the story was about.
This would be for things like when Google releases news on one of its blogs, when a new site providing tools for bloggers launches e.g. Kwaut.com / Entrecard etc. There would be categories for different types of news.
Stories would be voted up/down by members to keep the most important ones on the frontpage. Also there'd be an archive section for people who wanted to catch up on what's been going on in the world that affects bloggers.
Each story would be credited to the submitter with a link to their profile and there would be a 'top submitters' list - for the day/week/month/all time (so everyone had a chance to appear on at least one of the lists.)
I think this would be great, as I don't know of any other site that does this type of thing (there are similar sites nut nothing that's solely for blogging *news* - correct me if I'm wrong) and I think we could really do with a one stop shop for all blogging news, instead of hearing things on discussion boards, waiting 'til someone writes a post about something important on a blog we happen to read regularly, or trawling round loads of sites to find out what the latest blogging developments are. -
Offer a Free section, everyone likes free, have members donate templates, widgets, tutorials etc.
Offer a for sale section, again have members offer same as above for a few dollars.
Top of page link
Run a monthly contest, for $ or just for publicity
add more sections, politics, religion etc so people can avoid these issues if they want.
Send out a monthly newsletter with updates and surprise offers.
let members have a signature to one link, so they don't have to keep slipping them in on every post.
also maybe team up with a SEO firm, and have this as a special offer -
All the cool contests here when there is one for cookies I will join in.. ok let me go and think what BC needs most here... -
wow..!!
i ll participate.. gotto think very fast.. -
Create a chat room. Making the difference between another social sites.
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The Thumbnail of the avatars should be little big for a better view.
If i were the owner, i would ask blogger to use their real photos and not the fake or any other.
The link banner should be category wise so that it can suit the template and the theme of the blogs.
Contest like this are cool but there should be more of it, like blogcatalog T-Shirts for blogger who get the maximum visits via blogcatalog. this will increase the popularity of this site.
I'll give more if i happed to have something else for this website.
To be very honest, this website should be little simple as it is little complicated.It took me days to understand the difference between the things here.
Plus there should be i day limit to add friends, like i have send people set a day or two for adding people.
Shout Box is good but there should be any option to maximize it.-
If i am the Owner,
Bc will be much more easy to use.
there will be options if you still want to get emails from fiends and other people. Too much email look like spamming.
There is a thing called getting inspired. I mean I'll go for the latest trends of bloggers.
Branding is he best strategy of marketing.
BC is already a home for Bloggers but it should be more sweet home so that people can hangout here.
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People loved the Chat idea... great :-)
I forgot one thing in my list: Had Categories to Broadcasts as well. (Tutorials, Tools, Anouncement, Monetize your Blog, Etc)
It would be easier to chose the kind of Broadcasts we really would like to receive.
Ohhh.... I thought about sugest the creation of a Forum... But i'm already creating one and i don't want to grab visitors from Blogcatalog! lolololol
Another thing... don't forget the Yearly Blogcatalog Awards. Something like "Great Blog Awards" If you need the domain .com and .net i have it eheheh
Hugs my Friends!
PS: Blogcatalog already is the Ultimate Blog Community -
Changes to BC - it takes a bit of thinking. I certainly like the idea of a live chat. Apart from that I would make two changes, one minor, the other big time. The minor change is to allow the user to determine the RSS feed rather than auto detect - with auto detect, none of my posts appear for My Radical Blogs.
The major change would be huge. I would totally do away with the current friend system. I would also have a major overhaul of the groups - in the last couple of weeks I have seen at two entre card groups - do we need two or just the one - removing duplicate groups - perhaps by having sub-groups although the discussion sections should take care of that.
Once the group section is tidied up, I would change the friend system that you had just a small group of 'mutual' friends - perhaps a max of 100 or even 50 - however everyone within a group that you belonged to would be considered friends. At present, if you have more than one blog you cannot differentiate between the friends for each blog. If I want to send a broadcast related to say family posts, everyone of my friends receive that broadcast - almost spamming those not interested in that topic. So being restricted to only broadcasting within a group may lead to better responses.
Summary - tighten up groups, reduce mutual friends, broadcast only to group members, perhaps group moderators to determine off group spamming
cheers
the radical blogger -
*Use one language only English(thus we are united by use one language). Others language may apply in group.
*Use AJAX Engine
*Share Adsense Revenue (Everyone will happy)
*Point System (difrent with point at 'manage')-
Would adsense revenue sharing be worth it with 80,000 members
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yes. at least we do for nothing.
digital point stat:
Members: 124,176, Active Members: 42,992
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IF I was a programmer I would like to make my skills available at a reasonable fee to my blogcatalog community via webcam(Thanks Maurio) and audio.
If I was a graphic designer I would like to make my skills available at a reasonable fee to my blogcatalog community to custom design their blogs.
And If I was a copywriter, marketer, and other expertise needed for bloggers I would love to know that this was a one stop shopping area I could trust validated by blogcatalog.
Of course Blogcatalog would get a reasonable fee to host and expedite these viable transactions. And maybe, just maybe a fee would come from me, the expert, to make my services available.
Thanks for this post the ideas shared have been nothing but great! -
I apologize to you Mauro for spelling your name wrong in my comment.
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No prob
You're Welcome my Blogger Friend
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I guess it is a better idea to add rewards to members who give the most useful tips like credits. One more thing is revenue sharing, yes adsense. -
Probably one of the biggest things would be to find ways to bring evryone's blogs to the forefront in an automatic sort of way.
For example, a ping service, where newly updated blogs registered here would appear in a constantly updated listing. The listing could be shown as a clickable scroll, a separate dynamic part of the page, whatever, and when clicked would take the surfer to the blog's profile page here on BC.
Of course, we want our active members to derive more than inactive ones, so regular posters could have an 'enhanced' listing (bold text, and a link directly to the blog, as well as one to it's BC profile). -
I got wrapped up in a discussion about the Presidential Elections in the USA. Then I created a discussion about conditions in "this country" not realizing how many bloggers in the catalog are not in the USA.
I think it would be really cool, to have the Blogger's Name and location associated with comments and postings. Seems to me it would help to reorient our thinking that we are, indeed, in a Global community.-
You know, that's simple and excellent! I like that a lot.
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I would try to leave money as a second manner. Its true that bloggers like money, but real bloggers dont have it as its main thing.
I would have the blogcatalog team conformed by most active bloggers and have elections every year or 6 months.
I would make a $1 fee for each blogger a month or every 2 month (to see if it works, if it doesnt I would trash the idea) and quit the 6 dollars fee blogcatalog has for the prime thing (the thing that makes your blog appear on homepage, cant remember its name).
I would focus on making small bloggers known, there are many great bloggers and writers that no one reads.
I would have a blog for the entire community where everyone can post (not as a discussion in particular, just about blogcatalog). Its funny that blogcatalog doesnt have a blog (at least not known by me or not visible on front page).
I would TRY to make a union with another website or community for bloggers and try to absorb them.
I would try to encourage non-english bloggers to the community (thrust me, there are a zillion spanish bloggers in the world, another zillion in asia, etc etc)
I think a chat would wreck things up and the blogging idea, I wouldnt do it.
I would have a couple of SEO experts in my team to help bloggers with their questions.
I would have a wordpress expert and a blogspot expert (both programmers if not the same) to help my big community.
And more!!1 I have plenty of ideas! -
Also, a way to delete all shoutbox messages at once. Unless it is there and I missed it. Which is possible.
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Im really happy here this is the first real group of people I found since 94 really trying to help each other out on the net.. If i think of any other way to get a better crowd I will come back -
did i win yet?
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nops
I think that the award comes to Portugal
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At present there is no way to say "Good morning", "Good nite" or "Bye" to the room when someone signs on or leaves. It would be nice to have a button which you can click to greet everyone. :-) -
If i were given free reign over blogcatalog, first of all, i would change the 'dog scratching' pics of announcer and make it stand out of all. At least, you gotta be unique in order to make people read what you are saying and that uniqueness is by changing your pics.. but how?? by making it little bigger than other picture size. You'll be noticed in no time. jeez
Coming to the point, i would put my all effort to market/prove blogcatalog as ultimate blogging community. but how?? again...
->> by making it as a stronghold for all bloggers around the world. So, that a voice of blogcatalog could leave some impact on media and politics around the world. For this, i would take help of journalists,reporters to force government pass the specific law supporting blogger's benefits in every country(i know lots of journalists are blogger in their own country) possible and later to implement all those laws based on the standard set by blogcatalog board of members. This way, i would bring all bloggers around the world in one place. This is my vision and i would work on it. Blogcatalog being the medium and base for that purpose.
Technically, i'm loving blogcatalogs blue background, which is an emblem of peace and serenity. World needs peace and blue being most of the peoples favourite color, i would make over the entire blogcatalog into enticingly blueish.
I would add , in addition to shoutbox, a chat server to chat realtime with bloggers around the world. I would add lots of tools for the members to keep them busy and addictive with creativity.
more on next time -
That Easy? -
Put together a weekly podcast. When done well these can be extremely effective in attracting people to a website and as a way of publicizing the site.
On the other hand, poorly done they are embarrassing and cringe-worthy.
I suppose it would be about latest news in the blogging world and perhaps feature interviews with some bloggers.
Obviously this represents a lot of work, but I don't know of another blogger related podcast out there (at least a high profile one, as this site's popularity could allow it to become IF it was also well-produced.)
Many of the ideas already here are good but I think a podcast could allow you to set a new standard for the blogging world. -
If I were given free reign over Blog Catalog i will make the following changes. I came to know about this competition lately so I am posting my ideas. Do make these changes to make our Blog catalog better. If not the prize at least send me something that will make me happy..
# To make this ultimate first you have to make some social bookmarking available. something like "Blog catalog this" or something. By this the users will also increase and also it will create a lot of traffic. It is also useful for readers to read posts.
# All profiles should contain more options like the stats about the visitors,no of readers who saw the blog etc.
# Regarding friends and communities, The number must not be limited. users
should be allowed to join as many communities as they want and add as many
friends as they want.
# Users should be able to embed their videos relating to blogs and technology on their profile . By this way they can share more info.
# More number of free tools and widgets for different services like page
rank,Technorati rank checker etc.
# Letting users advertise on their blogs. Making them customize their profile page so that it can be more attractive.
# Organizing contests in various fields promote blogs by selecting one blog and writing a review about it so that it can be showcased on the site which will generate some traffic to that blog. Other than this there can be many contests like the best new blog of the week, blog of a special topic etc.
# Gifts Gifts.. free gifts and complementary gifts for a random blog. these
gifts can be anything like t-shirts, cds,or some things which makes users happy.
# Categorize the discussions so that the navigation will be good and easy to
access a specific topic. It ll be better if the discussions are classified as How To's , Monetizing, Traffic etc
# A widget which will be placed on the blog which will display a specific blog for a day and the credits will be credited if the blog is viewed by anyone. These credits can be redeemed for publicizing the blog. In short a widget like an Entre card.
# Mobile alerts and email alerts when ever you receive a reply in a discussion box. This will be extremely helpful if someone posted a question and is desperately waiting for an answer.
# Differentiate the blogs based on the language. It will bring a great change as most of us are facing the problem of other language blogs.
# Weekly news letters and rss feeds which will compromise of blogs which are
requested. For example if any body wants only technical blogs on a specific
topic the feed will contain only blogs which contain the relevant content.
# Allow users to rate blogs. This will make the best blogs standout. Also give a more detailed description about blogs and also show the recent post of the blog.
# Other than these the chat service would be great. users should be able to see each other online. Mutual friends should be shown when a visitor visits his friends profile.
# Last but not least the theme of the site. It is good but it can be better. It should be more user friendly and should contain more news and views about blogs.
Along with these changes also consider my friends opinions above and make Blog catalog the ultimate community for bloggers. -
My advice is pretty simple so I won't make this long.
Basically, the thing that needs to keep BlogCatalog alive is to actually make it a true community. Yes, there is a little forum and yes, we can "join" communities and groups and add bloggers as friends. But what it really needs is something to get bloggers together. How? Well, having a simple monthly contest sponsored by BC itself is a good start.
Another thing BC can do is feature a blogger on a bi-monthly or monthly basis. MyBlogLog already does this (and I am currently the Featured Blogger ), and you guys should too. The blogger will then be featured on both the front page of BC and the BC Blog. Speaking of the BC blog, it should be easily located somewhere on the top-of-the-fold, not at the footer.
So that's all I got (for now). Have a happy new years everyone! -
Not sure this has been mentioned yet, but I would like to see something along the line of "10 most recent posts" for the whole category when I click that category in the directory. Seeing just a bunch of screenthumbs with more or less hopeless descriptions doesn't entice me to click further that much. But if I had the post titles I would be likely to click some blogs...and maybe BC members would be more interested in posting since they know that their posts will be featured this way, hence it may increase traffic to their blog. -
Here are my ideas:
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All kind of stats to the user blog which others are not providing like:
who was most visited
user clicks
demopraphics
live visitors
Taging for friends
Messaging to blog community members who joined that blog community
I like pictures so how about a album page or maybe a profile image
Chat area!!
Making profile Public and Private(if have full length profiles having DOB, Age, Sex, Occupation etc)!
Making the site secure!
Latest updates from his friends in user profile
Better rating(votes) for blogs!
Visitor tags for blogs
How about affiliates!!
Integrating social bookmarking for each blog
As i said in the past list, make some blogger tools like PR checker, stats, linkbacks checker etc.,
Make a review page where bloggers can exchange there reviews each other that too with some strict rules!
(Its so simple, a blogger provides the keywords, words and links. Later if any blogger is interested he simply accepts!)
I think there a lot more changes needed in the profile page like:
Site that this user last reviewed.
His latest Discussions
His latest Groups
His latest friend etc.,
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Hope you like them -
Tech support for new bloggers. An online hotline (not through phone) but like a section here at BC. There are soooooooo many things i want to do or try, but dang it, i cant figure them out. From wordpress to blogger, from design to seo, from social media marketing to domain names, etc.
Those who partake of services can exchange stumbles or pay a few bucks or something of this nature. I know i'm not the only one who needs ocassional techy support, there are plenty others like me.
This is highly needed. -
How about a rate feature like they have on forums, a rep system, so that when a member helps you out big time, you can add to their rep. (as in reputation)
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I would like to have a picture map of all the blogs at once. You could scroll through it and look at the different blogs pictures. No descriptions just a picture map.
I also think you should have a better just joined directory. You might want to have a search function by join date. You could search for when a person joined blogcatalog.
I agree about the featured blog idea. It was fun being the featured
blog of the day from Fuelmyblog a while ago.
I also think there should be a design contest for best blog image. We should get to vote on who has the best blog graphic.
I think the forums are great, but there is no anonymous forum where we can post suggestions. This would improve the quality of blog catalog considerably.
These are just a few thoughts for the moment.-
80,000-someodd icons on one page. that sounds like slow loading hell to me.
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* Reminder: The deadline is Dec. 31st 11.59 pm.
>> but, is that CST ?? or MST?? ETD ???? UK Time? Switzerland Timezone?-
since BC is physically located in Texas I would assume CST
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Hey, the thread is back. Why'd it get unstickied?
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I agree with many here that featuring more blogs on the front page would help less-known bloggers get some well-deserved attention. Reserving that top left spot for paying customers makes sense, but a box for staff picked-newest member and most recent post, for instance, would give others a chance to shine. That would require that your auto-discovery work in real time, though, or be scrapped for RSS.
Use individual blogs for friending and joining communities, instead of or in addition to your profile in general. If you maintain a personal blog, a work-at-home blog, and a blog about spearfishing the three likely have different audiences and interests. If you broadcast to everyone you've friended about a new post about your recent fishing trip, those who are struggling to make money from home may be irritated by the bragging that you could afford such a trip.
What really sets BC apart from other blog lists is the discussion boards here. I love how it has been fostered, and how spamming and the sorts of posts that detract from that sense of community have been addressed. Do more. Promote the fact that this place actually has an active set of boards rather than a languishing set of possibilities. Bloggers can find help and sympathy here. They can ask questions and get useful feedback and answers.
A chat room specifically for helping each other would be a good addition to that, although not strictly necessary. The Blogging Help forum has been a source of information and inspiration for me. Problems I didn't even know I had were posed and solved in my absence and all I had to do was implement the answers.
That leads to the need for a more prominent and enhanced search feature. The one you have works, but it could be better. Also, it would be nice to be able to ignore posters. It's exceedingly rare, but every so often a troll wanders into BC. It's easier to resist feeding them if you can't see what they're saying. -
I like BC as it is and my short advice is just the following.
1. Avoid major changes.
2. Simple 'Internationalisation'.
3. Keep it simple.
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4. 'Hyde Park' (not Jekyll and Dr. Hyde :-)
5. Little change of the fold of BC's homepage.
6. Additional 'front-sub-homepages' with RSS feeds and email subscription.
7. Continuing challenges for all seasons, times, occasions of the years with prices that bloggers like, (exposure, pro-accounts etc., special features).
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Ad 1.
Making the good better can make the good worse. BC so far is an outstanding blogger service and I would definitely not encourage 'revolutions'.
Ad 2.
Reach out a hand to 'not so good english speakers'. Put flags on top of the fold where, for example German speakers can click and come to a German language page with a heartily welcome and some instructions on how to get set up at BC. Of course English will stay the main language and newcomers will have to work on that.
It would be nice and friendly to help 'foreigners' a little bit around. I've been visiting russian and chinese blogcommunities and they usually don't have this kind of welcome, so it is very hard to navigate around. I do of course volunteer for making translations and I guess a lot of fellow bloggers will do the same for their nations language.
Ad 3.
BC should not get overloaded with wonderful features. Keep it simple and intuitive.
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Ad 4.
Maybe installment of a forum called Hyde Park, where everybody can get wilde. So maybe 'Wilde Park' :-) ? An anarchistic alternative to the civilised 'generell discussions'. A place where spammers can get foaming. Forum content is continually deleted after 48 hours. (Might not apply to US or other international laws).
Ad 5.
The fold of BC's homepage should be a beautiful welcome. Right now the space is a bit empty. Put some flags on top and 'BlogCatalogInternational' etc.
Ad 6.
Additional Front-Sub-Homepages for:
a. foreign language speakers
b. top and random blogs
c. top and random discussions
d. top and random groups
e. f. g. etc. etc.
All with RSS and Email subscription possibilites.
That's it. Wish you well ! -
Great ideas. This is going to be difficult to decide. Perhaps $1 to each idea
Entry deadline is tomorrow night at 12-
hehehe..no need give the prize to one person only
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$1 it's good
The most important thing for me is to help you guys to improve this great community.
The prize it's only a candy
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The next big push to take blogcatalog to newer heights may come in the form of strategic tie-ups with MNCs. You can create a section, where blogcatalog members can review products and services on offer by these MNCs and become their online partners. This can be financially lucrative for you and the bloggers.
Now for attracting more members..and improving member satisfaction..you can give away a special weekly blogcatalog awards to the best post of the week..chosen randomly.
Just my thoughts. Thanks.-
PS...you may even allow the BC members to buy these products and services directly from BC itself..and charge a commision from the MNC for the same..
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PS...you may even allow the BC members to buy these products and services directly from BC itself..and charge a commision from the MNC for the same..
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i think giving a free stuff like ebook or expensive plugin is a good idea. -
statics of sites can be given and point of sites like google page rank can be useful.
Review widget can show sites of people not profiles.
for each part can be chosen day of blog -
How about a way to connect with others based on age, location, interests, and marital status? -
May the longest post wins.. he he
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1. Ambassadors program-- deputize a small number of our most dedicated and trustworthy members to be a quasi official face of BC on the boards, primarily responsible for helping newbies, mediating disputes and creating a welcoming atmosphere. Ambassadors could be identified by a special logo and wording on their member profile page, much as BC staff currently are. The members chosen to be Ambassadors benefit by increased visibility on the site and perhaps free premium status. The pitch to them is that we are Not asking them to spend any more time here than they already do but merely to officially recognize the key role they Already play in making BC a friendly, helpful place.
Create an invitation only group for the Ambassadors to communicate among themselves and with BC staff. I feel very certain that this community is capable of running itself quite well and predict the staff will wonder how they ever managed to do all the looking after the boards themselves once the program is up and running.
Turning over most of the management of the boards to the community itself will free the staff to spend more time pursuing other activities and projects, a much more productive use of their time than policing the boards.
2. A BC Blog. Now that entrecard is taking off I am seeing other sites directed at bloggers using their own blogs to create a presence for their brand over on Entrecard. It would not be that much work (and like the Ambassadors thing, it could largely be deputized to community members). It could be a great way of more widely promoting BC and in turn increasing membership and participation here.
3. Feature on the front page of the site a continually rotating profile of a featured blog. If it could be set up so that members who participate in Discussions most frequently are most often featured but any member who participates will land in the slot occasionally. I can see a possible downside that this might promote spammy comments in discussions but with a team of Ambassadors keeping a close eye on things and deleting and uncounting spam discussion posts it should be manageable.
4. I know that Christmas is over, Tony, but find I can't quite refrain from posting my wish list:
a)Bigger shoutboxes. Lately I am finding myself more likely to communicate with other bloggers, since the window scrolls and expands and lets me say all I want to (like many bloggers who are primarily writers, my Verbose Mode seems to be stuck permanently ON and sometimes trying to say something in 300 characters makes me tear my hair out
b)Twit Filter. I'm really strongly opposed to censorship and I would Never advocate that anyone not be permitted to post something just because I don't want to read it. But some days I would bow down and kiss the ring of whomever introduces a means by which I can simply not display and never see messages On The Discussion Boards from users I Really don't want to hear from. It's something we had back in the Dark Ages on Compu$erve long before anyone reading this had heard the term 'website' let alone 'blog'.
BC is an incredible community and I think the team behind it deserves a Huge Thank You and pat on the back. But I also think it could be so much more than it is. Here's to an incredible 2008 for Blog Catalog and all of the members who make it such a great site.-
--edit 4. a) should read "...more likely to communicate with other bloggers _On the Entrecard site rather than on BC_, since the window scrolls..."
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Try this for your shoutbox, I use it and its a lot easier.
www.ngtech.gr/blog/en/my-greasemonkey-scripts/ultimate-blogcatalog-shoutbox -
a Firefox plugin that replaces your BC shoutbox?? (I looked at the linked page but not sure I understand)
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It shows it on the page above your blogs, as if it is part of the page. Very useful and shows the full links
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My suggestion is to allow users the ability to create a kind of "MyBlogcatalog" portal page for themselves that can act as their 'homepage' on BC. This page would allow them to see the most recent posts by the people they have friended, as well as allowing them to see the most recent comment time on discussions they choose to track. The same would go for Groups - you should be able to see the title and most recent comment date on discussions within the groups you have joined. Ideally there would be a default page that includes all that but it should allow some customization, for example, let people pick how many of their friend's most recent posts appear. Portal elements as drag and droppable widgets would be easiest but if the basic page was good, customization could be more difficult since fewer people would want to change things.
Also, I think a "recommend" feature for the blogs pages would be nice. For example, if I think someone would enjoy reading Alan's blog, I could go to www.blogcatalog.com/blogs/the-thin-red-line.html and click a button to recommend that blog to another BC user (maybe only to people I have friended? not sure of the logistics since that would allow a list to appear of my friends as opposed to a text field to type in the recommendee's username). A recommendation would be mainly a set template of info with maybe room for a sentence about why its being recommended. I think having this recommendation show in the recipient's shoutbox would be ideal but a simple email would be OK too. To avoid abuse, recommendations could be limited to blogs that are NOT yours, and limited to one recommendation at a time. If one can recommend their own blog to tons of people, I think it could be abused. -
Time is up.. who is the winner??
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deadline is not for another 10 hours in the local time zone at the Blog Catalog office. And do you really expect them to set aside the champagne and announce a winner at 12:01??
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lol!
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Read first post. Winner is going to be announced January 7th.
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1. Change the user profile url from blogcatalog.com/user/username to username.blogcatalog.com
This would impart a feeling of belongingness among the users of blogcatalog.
2.Sending a short but very useful mail to each user which would explain, how blogcatalog can improve their blogging life.
3. Extending to microblogging service by integrating with IM and Mobile
4. Request frequent feedbacks and polls from users for further improvement of the services and new ideas, will start a separate section called Idea Factory for this.
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Keep your spirit alive and glowing.
Best wishes to BlogCatalog from Online Inspirations.
also, Wish You All a Very Happy New Year 2008
Shyam
skvnet.blogspot.com -
I highly advise AGAINST implementing ranking systems or multi-tiered communities that give different users some special titles or privileges.
It's been my experience that such imposed class systems create resentment, breed pettiness and generally mark the beginning of the end for forums, discussion boards and the like.
It's like that Animal Farm slogan:
"We're all equal but some are more equal than others."
Please, no... -
how about some prank we all do on april fool's day. Every blogger on BC writes a post about a fake, but shocking, news item we all decide on. The story will seem real and bring alot of people to this site and each member's blog.
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OK, it's 12:25AM, 1/1/08 and I missed the boat - however, I believe some type of on-demand translator software, possibly self designating, would be great. This seems to be a growing global community and a blog platform that did the language work as we click could be a real catalyst for future expansion. Cheers! -
I'd like to say here that every blogging service is similar today. either badges, or tools or whatever, still the main thing that is required is core traffic to your blog. While good content does get traffic, its not always the case. Perhaps blog catalog can introduce something like in Blogrush, (not exactly another widget but some way) in which exponential traffic could hit your blogs!
There are better ways too
- Blog catalog in every country
- Keep the traffic coming in all the time
- better pinging to many servers and real time updates
- more awards and featuring of blogs
- and so on -
The big Suspense until January 7
eheheh -
More contests for bloggers and Revenue sharing for the ads or in the posts they participated in. Most interesting threads. This will encourage more bloggers to become active.
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Today's the day. (beginning slow drum roll to lead up to the announcment....)
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Oooh really? ...
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No idea whether tony is planning to announce a winner today, there is a chance this may get pushed back to Wednesday. -
still ... I'm just excited to see who gets the prize. TY man
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1.I believe that certain members on here feel they have the right to critcise other peoples actions and therefore a ban needs to take place.
2.More interactvie service providing videos of how make top blogs.
3.More advertising allowed
4.Services to stop people form entering your discussion
5.Profiles more in depth
6. Different range of discussions such as sports etc
I have many more and would like soemone to contact me so i can get my views further across.
thankyou for your time.-
How dense are you? -
lol jungl
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am i dense oh well does it annoy you that im shallow also
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tcham tcham tcham
lol
I'm just curious... not excited.
I know that i can't win. My english it's to bad to win anything anywhere!!!
lolol -
Hi, Whats Up.
Whoever wins. No One Loose! -
Hmm. Let's see.
First off I'd move the side navigation bar from the right to the left. That way if someone visiting this site has a low screen resolution they don't have to do a lot of side scrolling to navigate. (Though they might have to scroll to read the content. Hmn.)
Second I'd move the search bar up so that it shows 'above the fold' or when the page first loads.
Third, I'd probably have Related Discussions above Recent Readers since the former is more interesting than the latter. But that's me.
Also the 'Search BlogCatalog' bar moves around depending on the page. It might be a good idea to have it in a fixed location so it's easier to find. (And know that it's there.)
And my big recommendation. The 'reply' button in the shout box only sends you to the person's profile page. I think it'd be good for it to actually take us directly to the shout box and more importantly the submission box for the shout box. It'd make things a little easier for the people using this site. -
Dam when is the end date on this contest... Is there really going to be a winner? -
The winner was announced already. Librdone won the $250. I'm not sure why the announcment isn't part of this thread anymore.
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Because the winner was announced on another thread
www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/250-idea-winner
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I kept forgetting to enter this competition. Now? Now it is TOO LATE.
Now you shall never know my BRILLIANT IDEA.-
(The idea was to give me $250)
Congratulations to libdrone, though!
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