Another update has come and gone for soLinkable.com. This update saw the creation of a number of new categories including Business, Internet, and Green. We also split News/Politics into their own separate categories. The additional categories should be a good fit for the soLinkable community and I can easily change them or add new ones, as requested by the community. I decided upon the new categories based on what type of stories I’ve been seeing posted recently. All old stories will remain in their proper categories, with any stories posted to “News/Politics” remaining in the new “News” category. If you guys have any other categories that you would want to see be sure to let me know, I’m always up for new ideas.

This should be the beginning of improvements to the category section. I still see some outstanding issues with the system that’s currently in place. I also hope to write a sort of “subreddit” system. I really like the idea and it’s definitely a great feature (if you’re unsure about what it is, head on over to Reddit and check it out). It will be a bit of a challenge but I think I’m up for it.

I also made some huge improvements to the actual core code including many optimisation improvements. We effectively cut the number of calls to the SQL server in half for an average page load. The issue here wasn’t with the existing SWCMS framework, but rather with features that I have chosen to omit (as they didn’t quite fit with the site – ie. the pageviews table). A typical user won’t notice any of these changes, but as long as I did them correctly, our server will definitely thank us .

I have also updated the “About Us” page and given it a better overall look. It now has a short bio (and picture) featuring both myself and Krystal. Be sure to check it out (and  comment on Krystal’s flower hat).

Thanks again for your support!

categories, solinkable, update

It’s always been our desire at soLinkable to further community discussion. It’s the commentary that makes social media truly fun and that’s what keeps the users coming back. With that in mind I am very proud to present our second major feature to debut this month, soLinkable reply notification.

soLinkable reply notification will allow a user to be informed when they have received a reply to one of their comments, creating a better overall discussion within the story pages. The method in which they are notified is completely non-invasive. A small envelope icon will appear in the top right hand corner in between the username and profile link. If there are no new replies to be read, then a white envelope with a blue outline will appear. If, however, a new reply is found, a blue envelope will appear. Here is a quick illustrated guide:

Once in the comment reply screen, they are just laid out in descending order based on the comment date. You will notice that it first lists the story title and its votes followed by the comment. If you are still unsure of what exactly the reply is referring to, a “View Context” link has been added right below the comment. This links to the parent comment of the reply, so you can figure out just exactly what they are talking about.

As of this moment we are still in the beta stages so expect it to be a little rough around the edges. Preliminary testing worked as expected, however there are no doubt a few lingering bugs that went through the test process unnoticed. Don’t be surprised to see minor changes in this feature over the next few days as we work out the kinks.

We expect to add greatly to this feature over the next few months. The back-end functionality that was added in this update will pave the way for user preferences as well as private messaging system. An update emails option will also be added in the near future with the option to receive weekly/monthly emails with all comment replies listed or to subscribe to comments from your submitted links.

This update has also seen a few minor updates regarding how comments are displayed in the story screen. The reply and edit buttons have been moved from the top-right to the bottom-left area of the comment. I have noticed that often times a new comment is posted rather than a proper reply. The thought process behind this move was to centralize the reply button and give it more prominence in the comment field so that it is easier to use. We have also added the ability to permalink to a single comment, something that wasn’t specifically asked for but is nice to have.

Thanks again for your support of soLinkable!

categories, comment, conversation, message

As promised we have an excellent new feature to debut on soLinkable. In an effort to further our goal of world domination creating a great user experience, we would like to announce that from this moment on, link submissions will no longer be using the websnapr thumbnail service. We have integrated a new user chosen thumbnail service into our existing framework, which will allow for an even more “personal” feel to the submissions. We want you to feel like you’re in control of exactly what goes into your submission.

The websnapr phase-out will not be immediate. All previous submissions made before the new user submitted thumbnail service will continue to show websnapr images with their story content. However, all new submissions made from this point on will now show either the selected thumbnail or no thumbnail at all (if ”No Thumbnail” is chosen/available).

We made sure that using the new feature would be very easy as we did this without adding any new complicated steps and with minimal change to the overall time it takes to submit a story. This was the most important part of our goal – to keep the site friendly. To not only make it seem like the users are truly contributing, but to make it easy to contribute.

Adding a custom thumbnail to your link is very simple – you may not even notice the new thumbnail option your first time through. Most of the work in the new feature is done behind the scenes. When you first submit a URL to be added, our servers read through the html source and pick out all the images they find. Next, they choose what are determined to be the most appropriate for the story (though this is still a work in progress) and meet a predetermined size constraint. The method will choose up to 4 possible images to include with your submission.

On step 2  (called “Submit – Step 2 of 3″) of the submission process below the description, you will be asked to “Choose a Story Picture”. You will be given the option of choosing from up to 4 images or sticking with no image at all. Selecting an image will cause the story to appear almost exactly as it was before, but instead of the websnapr thumbnail, the image shown will be the one you selected. By choosing “No Thumbnail”, the story will appear without any associated image – perfect for news articles.

The resulting soLinkable main page, with a mixture of real images and no images, really makes for a better user experience  overall. The previous thumbnail images were much too cramped and in turn made the overall feel of the website seem small. The thumbnails make the site look nice and emphasize its user generated nature.

On a lesser note, you may also notice the new text area styles. This will (again, hopefully) allow for a better user experience and make it easier to submit content to soLinkable.

Thanks again for your continued support of the community. It has been so much fun building onto the site, and even more fun contributing to it. Keep it up!

images, thumbnails, user, user submitted