As planned, the New Comments section on the home page has been replaced by an expanded New Posts section.
As part of this change, we are introducing a new hangout: The BN Café. And, don’t forget to check out the community blogs.
Are you a writer? As requested, we have introduced a personal New Comments page, available from the Write page, which allows you to view and delete the latest comments.
Many subscribers have requested a place to discuss various topics. To address this need, we are introducing a new system of community blogs. We will add community blogs as needed, e.g. for popular categories.
Community blogs allow any subscriber to post by clicking the “Add post” link on the top of the community blog’s page. Please note that readers do not pay writers for posts on community blogs. Naturally, the Terms of Use also apply to community blogs.
Once we’ve tested the community blogs, we plan to retire the New Comments section on the home page. Since the Network is expanding rapidly, spam is making this section less useful. The existing system of blog comments, along with the new community blogs, will provide solutions that can grow with the Network.
Blog rankings are now based on the number of unique readers each day for the past week. We expect this to be a better indicator of the value of a blog, since it benefits blogs that consistently attract readers.
The previous rankings, based on the number of unique readers in the last 24 hours, are now available on the Today’s Top 100 page. The home page includes a link.
If you're a writer, here are some tips to help improve your blog's rank by increasing your readership:
There are more new features in the pipeline, so please keep the feedback coming!
Want to see who wrote a blog, or which category it's in -- before you click on it? Are you waking up at midnight to check New Posts so you don't miss a great post?
The revised New Posts page shows each blog's writer and category. And, you can page through all the blogs with new posts, not just the last 25.
Finally, you can get some sleep -- and still catch up later!
We're planning to apply the new format to other pages, such as the Category page, so feedback is welcome.
Tired of missing new posts in your favorite blogs? With the new Favorites page, it's easy to keep track. Many people have asked for this page, and now it's here!
Go to any blog and select the Add to Favorites link at the top of the page. Your Favorites page will let you see all of your favorite blogs, automatically arranged in order of last update.
You'll never miss a new post again.
As planned, there are many new categories. We received a lot of feedback on this issue, and have tried to incorporate as many requested categories as possible, as long as there were enough blogs that would fit in the new category.
To help transition people to the new categories, we moved a number of blogs into the new categories. Although we tried to be careful when selecting blogs to move, it is a subjective process. If you are a writer, you can see -- and if needed, change -- your blog's category by going to the blog editing page and clicking "Change name and description".
As always, we're working on more requested changes, so please feel free to comment on features or categories you'd like to see!
Based on feedback, the space for categories on the home page has been expanded, the Write page has been streamlined to make it easier to see blogs and all of the available actions, and several other minor changes have been made to improve the overall experience.
With the number of blogs growing rapidly, it's clear that the Network needs more categories to help readers find blogs of interest.
Based on subscriber feedback and analysis of blog topics, we are planning to add Religion/Spirituality and Fiction/Poetry. If you have thoughts on this plan, or would like to suggest a category for future addition, please add a comment.
To help readers find blogs, the Top 20 and New Posts pages, which were hidden when the home page was redesigned, have returned. They now use an expanded format that is consistent with the home page, and the home page includes links to both pages.
The overall performance of the Network has also improved, since each blog's headlines are now generated more quickly.