The Blog

We woke this morning to what feels like a whole new site! Our team worked overnight uploading changes they had been working on for weeks. Today, we’re getting used to a new way of interacting with scrapblogs and scrapbloggers. Here’s a run down on the new stuff:

Have you seen the new viewer page? Here’s an example page. What do you think? I wish I had a screenshot of what it looked like before! This page is AMAZING and packed with new features. Mike Gowen, our Director of User Experience, designed this page after listening to you, our active scrapbloggers, and our team:

- You’ll notice that the scrapblog is displayed in a nicer viewer, with thumbnails and controls below the scrapblog;
- You may also view the scrapblog in a full screen mode and set the timing of the slideshow;
- On the right hand side, you’ll see more scrapblogs by the author;
- You will also see similar scrapblogs that you may enjoy;
- And if anyone has bookmarked the scrapblog, they will show up on the right hand side.

Commenting: Continuing down the same page, we made some behind-the-scenes improvements to the comments. Among other things, we improved the font and made them more readable. We are also now asking people to login before commenting, which we believe will create a better community feel. We’ll be adding more functionality to comments with time and are all ears for your suggestions.

Sharing: On the right hand side you’ll see ways to share the scrapblog, if you haven’t done so already through the Builder. You’ll notice a link to the scrapblog, as well as a code to embed it in your blog or social network.

Tagging: Below these sharing options, you’ll see tags for the scrapblog. These are descriptive words about the scrapblog. These make it easier to find scrapblogs when you’re searching for them, using the search box on the Explore page. You may easily add tags to any scrapblog using the input box provided.

Metadata: Finally, you’ll notice additional information about the scrapblog, including the number of views it has, the number of pages it contains and how long ago it was updated. This is part of the scrapblog’s “metadata”.

The Explore page now has the most “loved” scrapblogs at the top. This adds a new way to find scrapblogs and generally they will be among the best ones. For example, I regularly bookmark my favorite scrapblogs with the “Love” button, which are later featured on this blog. Tip: if you’d like to show up among the most loved scrapblogs, invite your friends to view and love your scrapblogs! We look forward to finding great new scrapblogs this way.

We also changed the invitation system for private scrapblogs. When you’re creating a scrapblog in the Builder, you may choose to make it private, so only your invited guests can view it. Within the Builder, you may send email invitations to your guests. Previously, the email contained a password. We have changed this; now, the email contains a unique link per person you invite. We call these “tokens”. It will eliminate some problems people had with the email/password combination.

Finally, the login page is now a login and signup page which will accommodate those who would like to create an account and profile before creating their scrapblog. A lot of users, including many overseas users, kept asking us where the signup page was. Fixed!

In addition to all these changes, we also fixed some pesky bugs. However, we are always on the lookout for new bugs, so if you find any, please let us know!

Overall, we’ve been designing and developing these features for a long time and hope you like them. There’s still lots to do and we’re open to your suggestions! Please get in touch with me if you’ve got ideas for features, themes or anything you’d like to see us develop.