Hey Everyone!
So, how do you like the new look? I am writing this Rave to detail some of the new changes.
Redesigns and Increased Post ExposureThe first thing you probably noticed was the complete site redesign. We redesigned the Homepage, Category Pages, Profile Pages and the Rant and Rave Pages. All of these designs were intended to increase the amount of time your Rants and Raves remain visible.
On the Homepage, you will notice that the Recent Posts list has been increased to 15 posts. There is also a new Top Authors list, which highlights the top authors of the past 7 days (more on that later).
Along the top of every page, you will see the new categories. A number of categories were pretty empty, so we combined them with others and reduced the number of categories from 19 to 12. We felt this was a much more manageable number.
When you click on one of the categories, you will be treated to a Featured Post (this will
not change daily). You will also see the most recent posts to that category, Top Rants and Raves, and Top Authors of the past 7 days, all from that category. Essentially, each category now has its own homepage.
When you view your profile, or anyone else’s, you will see their most recent posts in greater detail, as well as their Top Rants and Raves of All Time.
Top Authors and PostsAnother feature we’ve improved upon is the author and post ranking system. Top authors are no longer determined by the number of posts they’ve written and top posts are no longer based on comments. We now take a number of indicators into account. We have added user interaction, via new "Thumbs Up/Down" icons, which can be found at the bottom of each post (See Image 1, below the videos). If a post is well written, give it thumbs up. If poorly written, thumbs down. These results will not be visible, but they will help determine post rank. (Also, your vote only counts once, so this feature can't be abused.)
Note: We will be fine tuning the Ranking algorithm over the next couple days, so you may notice some fluctuation. It should be good to go by next week, though.Create a Rant or RaveWe have given you a lot of new tools for writing your rants and raves. First, your titles can now be up to 60 characters, instead of 40. You may also caption your main picture, plus add another 5 images. You may also include 3 YouTube videos, instead of one.
The External Links section has been removed, but now, when you paste a link into your post, it will automatically become a hyperlink. Like this.
http://www.rantrave.comFinally, you may now add a limited amount of HTML to your posts to add bold, italics, quotations and hyperlinks.
Here is a brief cheat sheet (but you can also click on the formatting link (see the second image):
To
Make your text Bold, you would type it like this <b>Make your text Bold</b>.
To
Add Italics, you would type it like this <i>Add Italics</i>
To add a
Hyperlink, you would type <a href=”http://www.rantrave.com”>hyperlink</a>
And finally, lets say you were quoting something. For example, a wise man once said:
You spend your whole life trying to get people to like you and then you run over one person with your car. And it's not even one of the popular ones, and everybody gets on your case. Doesn't make any sense.
See how it indented the whole thing? To acheieve this, you will put this <blockquote> at the beginning of the quotation and this </blockquote> at the end.
If you add HTML to your posts, please pay extra close attention on the preview page, to ensure everything looks as it should. You should not see any of these <> </>.
That about sums everything up. I added a few more pictures, to show off the awesome new design. I also uploaded a few of my favorite YouTube videos, also to show off the new capabilities.
I hope you all like what we’ve done and please take some time to look around.
Alex Layton
Site Administrator