Blotanical News

I've had a few comments lately asking why a member's post isn't showing on the Picks Popular page even though they're showing more Picks than others.

As discussed through recent posts, the Picks feature has been undergoing a major update. The primary reason for the update was to make the system a little more fair for all blogs rather than just the ones who received the most Picks due their popularity status.

The feature has gone through a rigorous algorithmic change to better detect which posts are garnering better quality Picks. This algorithm will be a constant work in progress adding more variables as it aims to keep the list dynamic and fresh and being a level playing field for every blog.

Why are the number of Picks shown?
Obviously the number of Picks is one variable used in the algorithm so it's worthwhile to display. However, as explained, it's not the only variable. The number of Picks really has little bearing on where the Post displays on the list but it does quantify how the Post is going.

If you have any questions on this, please leave a comment below.

Posted by Stuart at 6:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)

So, after all the discussion that ensued from my recent posts - read here (especially the comments) and here. I thought Jodi summed it up best with,

What constitutes a good post? It's so subjective. It may be a simple photograph that pierces your heart. It might be an anecdote that made you laugh because you've been there-we gardeners can chuckle over our inclination to rescue plants, to go crazy with new plants at this time of year, to laugh over battles. My column readers can now recite "Just say NO to goutweed" when I give a talk!

As I've been trying to state in my posts, Blotanical is not the judiciary on whether a blog is writing good posts or not. It's merely trying to get everything else (ie Popularity, blog design, who you know (or don't)) out of the way so that bloggers can have a better chance of success based on one thing - how good the post is. Let's go back to the primary aim of Picks.

PICKS AIMS TO SORT POSTS SO THAT THOSE WHO HAVE SOMETHING OF VALUE TO SHARE WITH THE GARDENING BLOGOSPHERE ARE GIVEN THE CREDIT THEY DESERVE.

How are they given value? By you, the Picker.

The new Pick system should help us sift the cream from the ..... (lol). The idea is that we can all be on the same page when we decide how to value a post. That value is based on how you were affected by that post. Here's the legend and then an explanation of each;

1. An enjoyable post - This Pick says thank you for your post and I enjoyed reading, viewing the pics etc.
2. A very helpful post - If you found this post helpful and/or taught you something you didn't know or perhaps added something to your gardening knowledge then it should be worth an extra vote.
3. I'd comment on this post - When a post is likely to evoke a written response on that blogger's post then it should be worth more value. This is because many people - and I'm guilty of often - lurk their way through posts without stopping and sharing a thought. If you're prepared to stop and comment on this post then pick 3 hearts for it
4. I'd rave about this post - When a post affects you enough to share it in forums, on Facebook or Twitter then select 4 hearts for it - it probably deserves it.
5. I'd link to this post - Finally the most valuable option is linking to it - primarily because it rarely occurs. There are far more links via Twitter or comments on a post than actually blog links. Therefore, if you would link to it via your own post then it certainly deserves 5 hearts.

I have been sorting a few teething issues over the past few days - I've come to expect that even though something works fine for me once it goes live all hell breaks loose! These are finally starting to be worked out and will be completed within the next few days. Fingers-crossed!

The Popular pages and New Blogs page are still under construction and will be a few more days yet - possibly even a week or two. I'm using your picking data to compile the new lists hoping to make them fairer and fresher for all bloggers.

I'm keen to know your thoughts on the new system and if you find any errors you want worked out. NOTE: please don't add errors that others may already report within the comments. Cheers.

Posted by Stuart at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (42)

Okay, opportunity for discussion has been out long enough and I have appreciated all your comments, suggestions and opinions.

It seems that keeping it simple for members is the order of the day, which is great! However, if you have seen the myriad of comments and feedback that I have received over the years regarding Blotanical then you would understand that the solution is far from simple. So, let me summarise some of the main feedback points that members have provided and a few items that also need to be considered;

• Bloggers should earn more points (or at least some points for their posts)


• Pickers should earn less points (or no points for Picking - to reduce gaming and encourage reading instead)


• We need to encourage more readers to our blogs hence the reason most of you joined Blotanical


• Blotanical needs to remain small so that our blogs get better publicity


• Blotanical needs to get bigger so that our blogs get better publicity


• Points should not matter - people should just read our blogs


• Picks don't reflect good posts - just favourite bloggers


• It's getting too hard to find blogs

I trust you're getting the point!

The rationale for Picks is to elevate posts that are worthy of further promotion. If you write a good post it shoudn't matter how many friends you have, who you're linked to, what your blog design is like or whether your from Austin - Texas, Sydney or Kamchatka. If it's a good post it should lauded as such.

Trying to create that simply while barracading gamers, popular friends, ya-da ya-da is quite a daunting task so while many of the suggestions have been good ones - and some I have taken on board - many are written in isolation of the multiple factors at play on this issue.

So, what is in store for Picks?

1. Picking Hearts The current version of Picks offers one solitary button. If you click it it gives a Pick point to the post. If you don't it doesn't. The updated version will offer 5 hearts allowing you to pick anywhere between 1 and 5 (5 = great; 1=not-so-great). It doesn't take any more time to Pick and is still a simple solution
2. Points Appropriation For each heart that the blogger receives for their post they will gain 1 point (ie 5 stars = 5 points, 4 stars = 4 points and so on). Pickers will now only receive 2 points for picking a post regardless of how they rank that post.
3. Post Condensing In order to increase the speed at which posts display in Blotanical a major change will take place. While most RSS readers (ie Google Reader, Bloglines etc) have been praised for their speed over Blotanical's Picks they also haven't been offering the download of each blog as it displays. Instead they strip the .xml content and parse that only. From now on Blotanical will be adopting this practice as well. You can still click a link to view how the post will be showing normally but this method allows the content to be delivered far quicker and doesn't lose time downloading the blogger's sidebars, large graphic header or (heaven-forbid!) any unrequested audio links.

   Blotanical will also include some advertising into these posts in order to try and generate some revenue to continue the site. And, according to the last survey we took this was your most preferred method of Blotanical sourcing some funds.

   

   In fact, 80% of respondents were happy with us to continue in this vein. For those who may not like this method we will be offering paid memberships in future where those who take it up will enjoy an ad-free Blotanical.

4. Popular Posts Ranking
   The true beauty of this update is the ranking algorithm for the Popular Posts page. Up until now it has always been based on the NUMBER of Picks a post has received in a specific time period. From now on it will be measured on the quality of those Picks and ranked via a weighted average. The algorithm that runs this will not be disclosed but it's fair to say that just because you're currently popular on Blotanical doesn't mean your posts are always going to hit this list.

   In fact, the chances of normally missed blogs will increase and the list will be comprised of more than just a handful of certain blogs. The hope is that this doesn't discriminate against those blogs but that it just makes it a more level playing field.
   

Hopefully these changes will make the Picks feature a better place to enjoy your favourite reads.

SIDENOTE: A possible future feature is offering non-bloggers the option to write their own posts in a generic blog platform and have them listed with other blog posts.

Posted by Stuart at 6:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (37)

Some members lost a heap of points when the site broke a few weeks ago. Many of the older Picks had become corrupted in the upgrade and so no longer counted towards profile points.

However, I took the difference between your amassed points as at 18 Feb 2010 and your current total, and added any that you had accrued since then. Hopefully, the result is the amount of points that you should have had if nothing had changed.

I'm sure you'll let me know if they aren't!! ;-) lol.

Posted by Stuart at 9:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

It seemed fitting that the Popular pages were taken off to the dry-cleaners over the past few weeks. They've been pressed, darned, de-odorized and freshened up. Furthermore, they've come back from the cleaners with an added extra - a brand new page called Blogs on the Rise.

This page highlights some of the new movers on the block who have been Faved the most in the past 24 hours. It puts the new "dogs on the plot" into the spotlight and gives us some new, fresh faces to admire. So, if this list shows some unknown blogs, take the time to check them out and meet the people behind them.

The Most Faved and Most Visited blog lists have also had a "once-over" and don fresher, user-friendly looking interfaces.

NB: If you have some of the Popular pages saved in your browser's Favourites/Bookmarks list then you will need to update them so that they work again.

Posted by Stuart at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Now here's a feature improvement that most of you, especially the seasoned campaigners, should enjoy. You now have the ability to read posts without all the flouncy graphics, massive logos and slow-loading images. While we all enjoy seeing how each of us decorate our blogs, when it comes to reading posts these things can become a big distraction.

So, for those who have traversed Blotanical for a while you will now notice the "Pick Settings" button in the far-left corner on the Picks page.

This is your license to SPEED!

The button takes you to a very simple form with two options on it. Here's an image of what the form looks like;

The first option is to "Show Posts as Originally Formatted". If left checked this will allow you to see the posts as you currently do already and is the default setting. Uncheck the field and it will only present you with the post's content but will continue to show you any images that are included within the post.

If you don't want the images to show either, thereby making the post load even quicker, you can leave the "Show Images in Altered Format" unchecked (by DEFAULT). Checking this field, in combination with unchecking the first field allows the post to be stripped down but the images to remain.

How will this affect blog owners?
Firstly, it won't result in as many pageviews for the owner. The stripped down version works directly off the feed content without delivering the page. However, because readers will be able to access these posts much quicker it should mean that more people will actually get to read your posts - even those on...dare I say it...dial-up!

Second, if your feed settings are set to Partial Feeds instead of Full Feeds (this is usually altered within your blogging platform - ie. Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad etc) readers may only get a summary of your post via this avenue. How this affects you and/ or your readers is something that only time will tell.

For those who like to comment on blogs as part of the Picks view you are still able to access the blog's post by clicking the "Read in New Tab" link directly under the Pick button.

Posted by Stuart at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Observant members have been noticing, and mentioning, some of the changes that have been occurring over the past few weeks. These are to aid a few major changes that are in the pipeline but also to tweak some user-requested features.

I'm keen to unveil a few that you may, or may not, have noticed. So here they are with the reasons for the improvement.

Join instead of Submit
Unless you've joined Blotanical since the past weekend, chances are this one wouldn't have come up on the radar. In fact, it's more of a change for my benefit than yours but will ultimately streamline a few other projects already in progress - namely Reviews which work will start on next week.

The problems that have been remedied are;

1. Bloggers can now become members instantaneously just as a non-blogging Blotanist can. Their blogs will still wait to be manually checked for appropriateness but they can immediately start perusing the innards of this site and meet other members from day one.


2. No more duplicates - bloggers aren't able to add a title for their blog that will conflict with another members on Blotanical. They will now have to differentiate it somehow.


3. The non-blogging membership form is now very lite and streamlined.


4. There is now a form that lets Blotanists add an Additional Blog. If you author another garden-related blog it is much easier to add the details for this blog.

My Posts with easier Ordering options
Until now, My Posts were always ordered by the number of Picks each post attracted. Thanks to Helen - The Patient Gardener, and others, the suggestion was made to order these by date as well. Now it's possible to order them by date (ascending order) or (descending order).

In the future, you may also be able to order them alphabetically and by number of Picks ascending.

TANGENT ALERT!!!!
While we're on the subject of My Posts, some members have been pointing out that they're seeing posts from other blogs showing up in their list. The reason for this is because some of our members are multi-tabbed picking. That is, rather than waiting for the blog post to load they may open multiple separate tabs with different posts opened from the Picks lists.

This happens because each tab opened holds a session variable, ie a piece of data such as the title of the post, the blog id and other information. The problem occurs when these variables get caught up and used at different points in time relating to the wrong blogs. Unfortunately, this is a programming limitation so it is outside of my control.

The way to combat the problem is just to expect that everyone is happy to sit and wait while your blog takes 20 minutes to download all the uncompressed images, sidebar gadgets and title banners. But this probably isn't going to happen.

The solution that I would suggest is that we offer members the option to view picks in formatted text only - as an opt-in/opt-out preference. This would mean that after clicking the post link that takes you to the Picks page you will see only the post as formatted text instead of all the other images and gadgetry. Those who are happy to remain with the current arrangement can do so while those who are on limited time schedules will have the choice. Plus, you can always click the "Read in a New Tab" link to open the page as the owner formatted on their own page. (This will be the only way you could add comments as well).

Until this change occurs, I will have to manually remove any impending Picks meaning that the Pickers will lose points and it may have effects on the Popular Picks as well.

New Garden Blog Posts
This page has undergone some changes in order to help promote those blogs that are new to Blotanical. A list of Popular Picks for the Newest 200 Blogs and also a pictorial survey of some of our new Blotanists are the key improvements. Would love to know your thoughts on this, especially from some of the new bloggers.

Terms of Service (TOS)
Since every other social media site has a TOS, it seemed like something worth offering here as well. Basically it outlines the unwritten community guidelines that we're trying to project with this site - except that they're no longer unwritten. New members have to agree to them before they can join Blotanical and in the next few weeks all members of Blotanical will have to agree and abide by them. They're not onerous but they should clear the air and let you know where you stand in relation to the use of this site.

Also, you may remember the username change that happened just before Christmas. Each member was confronted with a screen requesting them to make their username conform to the new standards and promised that they would only see this once. Well...it seems that I forgot to update the Display Name field in the About Me section of their Plot and some members have gone and changed them back or to other names that no longer conform. For these members you will, once I've fixed the loophole, have to revisit this page again in the near future.

Posted by Stuart at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

It's time to unveil a new feature that has been a dream of mine since the commencement of Blotanical. It's partly been available to you ever since this site began, but its usefulness has been somewhat limited.

I'm talking, of course, about the Experience tab that you find in your Plot. Up until now it's been nice to fill in the dots but hard to find others who may have similar gardening experience to you.

Well, this has all changed with the advent of this new feature - the ability to find others all over the world that share similar styles of gardening. It will become a powerful tool for you in making friendships with bloggers and gardeners who, for example, may have similar skills in Container Gardening as you. They may even have more ability than you in this area and could become a very practical font of knowledge if you want to further your skills.

I'm very excited about the possibilities and how links and networks may be further enhanced through this feature. I'm hoping that you will embrace it and find it equally useful in making new Blotanical friends.

So, how does it work?

You will notice that the Experience section has had a little facelift with easier to view results and a few new buttons;

While in your own Plot you will still be able to click the Edit button and alter your selections. Alongside each area of expertise you will notice a possible 3 new buttons. Some will only show 2 buttons depending on your choices and this will become clearer as I explain it.

• Person icon: - Click on this icon and your results will be filtered to those who share a Similar experience level to you.
• Down arrow: - This will filter Blotanists who have Less experience than you in this area; and
• Up Arrow: - This will filter Blotanists who have More experience than you in this area.

Obviously, if you have selected the Top Level of experience then the UP arrow won't be displayed and the opposite occurs if you've chosen the Base Level of experience.

Clicking one of these buttons will take you to the world map with flower icons pointing out positions of Blotanists who fit your selection criteria. At this point it may be worth reviewing How to use the Maps before continuing.

Once you click on an icon (* Red Gerbera for bloggers; * Blue Gerbera for Members) you will be provided with a link for the location of that Blotanist.

Click the link and you will be displayed a list of all relevant Blotanists in that location fitting your selection criteria. In this case there is just one and they are a Member.

Finally, click on the OWNER'S PLOT button and you will be taken to their Plot where you can leave them a message, read about them, view their blog (if they have one) or Fave them. Hopefully you will find this a great tool in making heaps of new online gardening friends.

Posted by Stuart at 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Many of you who have been enjoying the 100 Current Posts have found at some stage in your Blotanical journey that the page won't load and returns a blank screen. Why this happens is anyone's guess? I've been scouring forums around the web asking for answers with none forthcoming.

So, in order that you might not become too frustrated with my inability to solve the problem, I offer an alternative - Current Posts in List form.

Why wasn't it made this way in the first place? Because us gardeners love to lust after gardening photos like it's some sort of addiction and lists are very boring - but they are practical. And they are quicker to download.

You will notice that it takes a few seconds (those with broadband!) to download this new list. And while that may be a little time-consuming spare a thought for how long it takes to download the 100 Current Posts in its PHP form ( you will notice that it's the only page on Blotanical with an .html extension.

How does the 100 Current Posts work?

The 100 Current Posts is a .php file that aggregates all your feeds, sorts them and ignores the ones that don't fit into the filtering process. The it tries to deliver them in a timely process - albeit rather slow and clunky. If Blotanical were to deliver this page to you in its current form it would take anywhere between 1 and 5 minutes to download (far too long in most online users experience!)

So, to avoid this wait, the page is set up automatically to run every 5 minutes and then delivers a 'snapshot' of the feeds at the time - basically 5 minutes ago. While it initially produces a dynamic page it eventually returns a static .html page (hence the reason all your login tabs disappear - because Blotanical suspends your identity while you're on this page).

Have I lost you yet? Still with me? Great. The problems with the 'white page' as some have been referring to it, is that in the process of altering the .php page to the static .html page, errors occur. And who knows what these could be? They could be problems with blogger's picture resolutions, timeouts from certain blog feeds, or a plethora of other variables.

So, while I'm still working on trying to deliver the best aggregated feed from gardening sites I realised that I can't keep stretching your patience with this site.

[Enter stage left]: 200 Current Post List

The solution, for the time being anyway, is this new list of the 200 Current Posts in list form. It's not as pretty as the 100 Current Posts but is far more stable and only takes seconds to download rather than minutes.

It works just the same and allows you to still view the post from within Blotanical and Pick them if they're worthy recipients.

Altered Navigation

You will also notice a change in navigation when you click the Picks tab. Whereas before it would automatically direct you to the 100 Current Posts page, now it points to the current Top Picks. The reason is twofold, (1) it provides more exposure to the posts that are gaining in popularity, and (2) you want get the 'white page' as often.

You can still use the 100 Current Posts to view your feeds but if it stops working and produces the dreaded 'white page' you have an alternative to keep reading your favourite posts.

Hope all this helps. If you have any questions please use the comments below and if any issues or problems arise please us the Help desk.

Posted by Stuart at 5:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)

As Blotanical gears up to allow non-blogging gardeners join up too, one of the features that have been on the To-Do list is to reward those members who are most active.

Why? Because they're the people who have been propelling Blotanical forward. Blotanical is an online community, a hub of social interaction, that grows only because its members interact and share with each other.

Therefore, those members who do the most interacting can now gain points that offer incentives and more benefits with the site. Progressing from the starting Blotanist one can now become a Patron Blotanist and moving through being a Fellow Blotanist, a Master Blotanist and eventually being rewarded with the title of Guru Blotanist.

Each level offers more incentives which are explained here and you can view the Most Popular Users here.

So what are you waiting for? Go and interact with these wonderful bloggers.

Posted by Stuart at 5:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well it's been over a week now since Blotanical was launched publicly. Even though there have been a few problems (hopefully most have now been sorted out with a couple to go) I'm keen to sit back and distill your feedback and comments.

Was it everything that you hoped it would be?
Will you be back to use this site more often?
Will it affect the way you blog and build online friendships?
What are your favourite parts of Blotanical? What aren't?
Are there areas that need to be explained more?
Is it too much?
Is it not enough?

It's an interesting experience letting a site of this size free and not being able to quantify users feelings, preferences and how they view the site.

So, if you have suggestions for improvement, feedback and even problems that you want solved, then I'm keen to hear from you.

Thanks to all the wonderful bloggers who have picked up some of the new widgets and banners for their blogs, wrote positive posts or who have dropped me an encouraging email. All have been much appreciated.

Thanks.

Posted by Stuart at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

My sincerest apologies to all our members who tried logging in from the dodgy email they received yesterday. Unfortunately, the link contained within the email was faulty and so nobody was able to get in and start their Blotanical journey.

What happened?

Good question. After much testing to make sure that the email would do as it said, for some unknown reason it decided to change the link on sending. Whereas everyone should have received a unique link we all ended up with the same useless one.

After realising what had happened, from a few persistent bloggers' emails, I sent out another text based email with the users personalised link again. However, it seems that most people didn't receive that email! Aaagh - technology!

So, if you still haven't been able to crack the Fort-Knox-fortified-site known as Blotanical, then here's a few options.

1. Go to the LOGIN tab and under the LOGIN button you will notice a link that says "Did you forget your password?". Click on this and then enter your email address. Another email shall be sent to you with the valid link. This one should work.

2. Failing this, send me an email expressing your deep remorse for not being able to enjoy the fruits of Blotanical.com ;-) lol and I will send you the valid link.

I'm hoping that the first option will work as it's supposed to!!!

Apart from that, Happy Blotanicalling.

PS. Thank you to all those wonderful bloggers who wouldn't take 'NO' for an answer and informed me of these problems.

Posted by Stuart at 5:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Welcome to Blotanical - the much improved version of the Garden Blog Directory.

It has certainly been a labour of love putting this together but I think the results far outweigh the effort. This new site has heaps more to offer the garden blogging community in a way that could never have been achieved at the GBD.

Let me walk you through some of the new features:

Submitting Your Blog

The old GBD would take me nearly 2 hours to add half a dozen blogs to the system. With the new systems in place I processed nearly 120 blogs in less than 10 minutes. This can only be good news for all of us.

Login Features

One of the other obvious benefits of Blotanical is the ability to login and have your own space at your My Plot. This will open up the garden blogosphere to new dimensions for meeting new bloggers and finding others that you have more in common with than you first suspected.

The ability to login also allows Blotanical to be personalised to your tastes and interests and as this site develops this will become much easier and far more interesting.

Picks

This is the piece d'resistance in the Blotanical update. Firstly, you can read all the current posts that have been published from garden bloggers and keep up with what's going on and the things others are writing about.

Plus you can Pick them based on whether you like the post. The more Picks a post receives, the higher it ranks.

Favourites

This is basically your blogroll on steroids. While most garden bloggers have a roll of links they usually are sorted alphabetically rather than by preference. With Favourites you can choose your whole blogroll, plus a few more, and rank them according to your preference.

This is turn acts as a weighted vote to that blog and lifts them up in the rankings as well.

To Come

Over the next few weeks I hope to explain a few more of the changes that you will find at Blotanical and answer any questions and problems that users may encounter.

I would love to hear your thoughts, both positive and negative, about this new site and hope that you will enjoy it and be able to use it heaps.

Posted by Stuart at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For those who have been hiding under a rock, or perhaps too busy in the garden, Google now offer personalised search pages. This customisation allows you to turn the simple Google page into a useful inventory of gadgets that will, supposedly, add benefit to your online activities.

Updated weather reports, digital and analog clock faces to keep track of the time, feed readers of your favourite blogs and so on. There really is no limit to what is available and how you personalise your page.

Well, I'm happy to announce that the Garden Blog Directory now has its own Google Gadget that randomly presents you with a featured Garden Blog - from this directory - every time you reload your Google search page. Click on the image and you'll be taken directly to the featured blog.

This is just another way we're trying to make this site easier to find great gardening blogs.

Firstly, you must have already signed up to have an account with Google. Once you have, it's a fairly simple process;

1. Once you're in iGoogle click the Add Stuff>> link on the right side of the page.
2. At the top of the search field you will notice an Add by URL link next to the Search Homepage Content button. Click the link.
3. An inserted Add by URL screen will be displayed prompting you to add an address.
4. Copy this address - blog-directory.gardeningtipsnideas.com/gadget_randBlog.xml - and paste it behind the "http://" prompt.
5. Click the Add button
6. Google will inform you that the gadget has been added.
7. In the top-left corner of the page, click the Back to Homepage link. This will take you back to where you started and you will see your new Featured Gardening Blog gadget.

With more than 170 blogs on offer, and growing, you shouldn't run out of blogs to visit. You may even see your gardening blog featured on occasions.

Posted by Stuart at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today marks the start of a new beginning with the blog directory.

You can now see how popular your blog is compared to others by seeing how many visits you get from this site. Sure, it's no real analytical comparison - it just means there are more people visiting you.

Over the past few months I've been testing and trialling this feature that's been running in the background. It's been keeping score every time someone clicks on a link that takes them to a gardening blog and compiling them for me to analyse. Well, after the testing has finally finished it's now available for everyone to see and use.

What are the features?

If you click here you can see who has been getting the most visits in the past 24 hours. Go here and you can see who's featuring prominently over the past week. And, finally click here and the most popular blogs will list for the past 30 days.

Every time you click a blog's listing -whether it be the "Visit this site" link, the blog image or the blog title - you are effectively voting for that blog.

Caution

Now we all know that everyone wants to be at the top of any listings, so the temptation is to click as many times on your own blog and 'game' the rankings.

I've already thought that one through and those who try to 'game' the list may be de-listed from any future rankings with the possibility of losing your inclusion in the directory.

You are allowed to click on your blog listing here on the directory no more than once per day but after that it will be seen that you are trying to 'game' it.

Are there other ways to get to the top?

Sure. Some listings you will notice a red star which is for those blogs who the directory considers as friends. It's not an arbitrary procedure and anybody can become a friend. Friends are sorted at the top of the rankings for the number of visits they've secured.

To find out more about becoming a friend, click here.

Posted by Stuart at 7:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the start of things to come.

A blog about blogging - garden blogging, that is.

Rather than send out newsletters, I will endeavour to update this blog from time to time (not as regular as my Gardening Blog) with everything that's being updated.

New Garden Blogs

If you've lost track of all the new blogs that keep turning up on the map and you're looking for some new reading material this is where you will find them. Every time I do an update of the Directory, I will highlight the new blogs and provide links for you to go and welcome them.

Updates and Modifications

There have been a few slight modifications that have happened with the Blog Directory since its inception but there is far more being planned. Some of the new updates will be rolled out within the next few weeks and other bigger ones, soon after.

Subscribe

To keep up with all that's going on it will definitely be worth the effort subscribing. On the right hand-side of this blog there is a RSS Subscription item. Click on it and then choose your feed reader (Bloglines, Google Reader etc) so that when a post has been included here, it will automatically prompt you to find out what the buzz is about.

Comments

Use the comments section to leave your feedback for the directory. Suggestions, feedback, complaints, kudos. It's all welcome provided it aims to move this site forward.

It's great to have you on board and I'm looking forward to seeing where the journey will continue...

Posted by Stuart at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)