Refining Picks
It's always an interesting period of time when I decide to modify the Picks section. By far, this feature of Blotanical is the most utilised but also the most infuriating character-building part to code.
Due to the emails, forum posts, blog posts, messages, comments and Help Desk queries I can safely assume that you've noticed something has been changing. While I try to keep most of the development offline there comes a point when the code must be tested in the 'wild' and this usually produces a few errors, weird results and even the odd line of code goes feral.
So, to let you in on what's been happening, here are some of the changes that have been made;
- Increased Top 10 to Top 15 - one of the main reasons for the change was to increase the Popular Picks list to 15 from it's original 10. Due to the number of blogs that are now producing quality posts it seemed a better deal to widen the scope of the list and enjoy some of the posts that were just missing the Top 10.
- Limited Top 10 placement to 1 per blog - another key change was limiting the Popular Picks so that each blog could only feature once. Prior to the change members could often see the top 2-3 blogs taking up to six or seven of the Top 10 which limited others enjoying the exposure
- %$#&* are going, going...gone - while I was performing these changes I thought I might also tackle the dreaded 'weird string' problem at the same time. You may have noticed some posts produce titles with heiroglyphics in them instead of quotes, ampersands, question marks etc. Also, many of the European blogs that contained graves, umlautes, tildes etc came up with ridiculous symbols.
The problem has been considerably challenging primarily due to the multiple encoding types that bloggers use. While one solution worked for some, it wouldn't work for others and vice versa. So, after a very nasty piece of coding that looks more like spaghetti than poetry I finally secured a fix which solves 99% of the problem. The 1% will be continually rectified over the ensuing months.
- Autodiscovery - I have also been playing with some autodiscovery code that will eventually help solve the Pick Me buttons that never got off the ground. Stay tuned for more on this....
- Consistent results - one of the other issues that needed dealing with was inconsistent voting. Due to problems with keeping track of who you were voting for have now mostly been alleviated and errors on your My Posts should now start to be few and far between.
I can't guarantee that all the Picks problems have been remedied as there are just so many variables to consider when you're working with this much varied content. If you do spot some problems then I'm keen to hear about them but I hope that these fixes have solved a few of your bugbears.
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Comments
Great work, Stuart! Blotanical just gets better all the time (even in just the few short weeks I've been a member!). Nice to see that more people will get the chance to be highlighted. Thanks for all your hair-pulling efforts. :)
Posted by: Donna at Suburban Sanctum | January 24, 2009 10:59 AM
So nice that you are continually improving blotanical- I look forward to the changes. Thanks, Stuart, for all your hard work!
Posted by: Tessa | January 24, 2009 1:27 PM
As ever, Stuart - thank you. As I read down the list of changes I was mentally saying - Oh good, oh good, oh good. But whatever are you going to do with your life when you've got Blotanical perfect :) ? Thanks again.
Sue
Posted by: Sue | January 24, 2009 2:55 PM
Thanks Tessa, Donna and Sue.
@Sue. I don't think that's going to happen. It would be like asking what would I do once my garden was perfect??? I prefer to deal in the journey and I love the suggestions and feedback I get from members. We've had some really great features come out of these.
Posted by: Stuart
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January 24, 2009 3:13 PM
Hi Stuart, thanks once again for all your hard work. I admire your persistence in solving problems and know it must bite into to your spare time that could be used out in the garden. :-) I am especially happy with the one post per blogger on the top list too, happy to see some well written posts get the recognition they deserve. There are so many good ones.
Frances
Posted by: Frances | January 24, 2009 7:09 PM
Thanks Stuart for your tireless efforts to constantly improve Blotanical. As my recent Blogiversary post said Blotanical has made a really difference to my blogging experience. Thank you very much
Posted by: Helen aka patientgardener | January 25, 2009 2:55 AM
They all seem like great ideas to me, too! Thanks again for your continued dedication to this community.
Posted by: Nancy Bond | January 25, 2009 3:22 AM
Stuart, you are amazing! All those details that you deal with blow my mind!!
Posted by: Barbee' | January 25, 2009 3:33 AM
Thanks and great work Stuart.
K
Posted by: Karen - An Artists Garden | January 25, 2009 8:33 AM
Stuart ... you are "the man" !!
I also wonder how on earth do you do all of this and have "down time" from it and us ?
Thank you so much for all of your awesome work on here. I have so enjoyed this amazing world you have provided for us.
Take a break, and reward yourself on a regular schedule !
Joy from the "Great White North" : )
Posted by: Joy | January 25, 2009 8:28 PM
Oh I love change. It happens to me quite often and not always done gracefully. But you my dear handle it remarkably well. You've made us all stars! I want it all to work grandly so I can wow everyone with with my late night blogamarathons. Sure feeds my need to communicate with others whose veins are full of chlorophyll.
Big huge hugs to you and your kin.
Posted by: Anna/Flowergardengirl | January 26, 2009 5:40 PM
Well done Stuart - I'm particuarly pleased to see the extension to the Top Picks page and restricting entries to just 1 entry per blog as it means a lot of the great blogs I read are getting the recognition they deserve.
Posted by: VP | January 28, 2009 7:21 PM
OK, I am probably the only Blotanicist who hasn't figured out "picks," but I cannot get the tutorial to load, try as I might. Is there an alternative instructive? And is there a way to see the "picks" tally on my own, other-than-current posts?
Thanks!
Posted by: Penny | February 14, 2009 9:31 AM
Penny - if you can't get the tutorial to work then I would suggest just plunging in and clicking some buttons until you understand the logic behind this feature. It's okay, you can't break anything!
As for "picks tally on my own": I'm assuming that you're referring to your own blog posts. If this is the case then you should have a link called "My Posts" displayed within the secondary navigation bar. This is where your posts are shown.
Please offer me some more details if this does not answer your question.
Posted by: Stuart
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February 14, 2009 11:16 AM
I'm not seeing 1)on http://www.blotanical.com/php/mm/index.php?type=new&page=1 that my post has been picked or 2) who has picked it in the page that opens when I click on the indicator 3)not getting an email that it has been picked so I can say thank you to those who have relieved me of the worry that I'm not pickable! I'm on Apple OSX using Firefox on the satellite modem (relatively fast speed). Thanks for all your work.
Posted by: Rachel claire | February 19, 2009 11:20 PM