Will a Feedburner feed solve your Pick problems?
Okay, so what's the outcomes from all that has been going on behind the scenes with Blotanical's Picks. Many have noted some of the changes and even commented how quick they are now working - beat that Bloglines and Google Reader!! But for some the changes seem to have come at a price - the loss of Blogger feeds.
While I have tried, and will continue, to get these back into the fray it seems that Blogger feeds are no longer going to be Picked up within this site. Why? I'm not sure and neither are the consultants that I've had pouring over Blotanical's problems.
So, while this may appear to signal the death of Blogger.com's gardening blogs it has in fact, created quite the opposite effect. Those who have taken up the Feedburner challenge are starting to see their blogs posts turn up regularly, and consistently, from within the Picks pages.
Here are some of the changes that have occurred over the past few weeks;
- Ping facility - for those who find their posts taking a day or more to show on the list and then turning up buried in the middle somewhere, this facility is for you. Once you've published your post, head on over to your Plot and in the My Blogs section you will notice a new PING button below your blog's image. Click this and you should see your posts almost immediately display in the Picks lists.
- Limit of 2 Posts per blog - if you're like me, you were probably getting a little tired of those blogs who love to publish 5-6 posts in rapid succession containing only a single photo. They would consume a good part of the total tally of posts. While Blotanical is not out to control how people share their information we have decided to limit the number of posts displayed within Picks from any one blog to just 2 posts.
- Faster caching - our spiders are now roaming the internet looking for your updated posts every 30 minutes. This all happens behind the scenes so that you get the fastest loading pages and hopefully the most current posts that you will find anywhere
- Trial of the Pick Me button - many members have been asking for a button that they can place on their blogs allowing readers to pick it straight from there. You may have seen it in action at the bottom of my gardening posts and it shall start coming out in other blogs in the near future. (You can click it without actually voting if you want to see how it works.)
If you are willing to be a guinea pig for this project please let me know either through comments here or from within the Help Desk and I shall start to get them onto your blogs.
Now, it's my turn to ask for your help.
I have been perplexed of late as to why some of the Blogger blogs that have burned Feedburner feeds are still producing URL's with blogspot addresses in them. Some like Nancy's, Soliloquy, still do it as does Mr Subjunctive's, Plants are the Strangest People. Yet blogs like Esther in the Garden and the The Home Garden show the expected Feedburner URL. You will notice this if you hover over their post titles in the Pick's lists.
The first person who can correctly address this problem will get an extra 1000 bonus points and help me sleep much better at night!!!