A Thanksgiving Treat from Six Apart - TypePad Motion 1.1

At Six Apart we have a long history of developing leading class open source applications and supporting developers who contribute to the open source community. Our latest community microblogging application, TypePad Motion, has been extremely well received since its launch over a month ago. As these communities have grown around TypePad, so has their need for better community management and social integration. Our members have given great feedback on features and improvements they would like to see, and we've listened!

Today we are excited to release TypePad Motion 1.1, with all new moderation and syndication capabilities built right into the application - and that is on top of the awesome performance improvements. We strongly recommend all current TypePad Motion users to upgrade their application to the latest release.

New Features:

• Share with Facebook and Twitter: New posts on TypePad Motion community sites can be shared with your friends on Twitter and Facebook. If you  haven't already, add your account credentials to your "Elsewhere" accounts on your TypePad account page. Then click the check boxes for Facebook and Twitter under the compose window to share your post with your friends   
• Moderation: A moderation tool is now included with TypePad Motion. Administrators can select to review all posts before they are published, or enable selective moderation (by post type such as text, picture, audio, video or a combination thereof) and community policing.
• Flag a Post: Community members can now flag and identify inappropriate and offensive posts. This is a powerful mechanism to help keep our online communities free from spam, griefing and generally bad behavior.
• Performance Improvements: Taking advantage of the TypePad architecture, TypePad Motion now supports template and object caching, which means community sites are faster than ever, with improved page load and data access.
• Easy Upgrade. If you wish to take advantage of updates we make to Motion after you have installed it, you can use this command to bring your local installation up to date:

sudo easy_install -U typepad-motion

• Bug Fixes: We also fixed some minor issues on local profiles and registration.

Documentation:  Read the updated documentation to install and configure moderation, with additional  instructions for community managers using moderation tools.

Download: For our developer community and open source affictionados, here are links to the TypePad Motion download pages on Github, Pypi and our own TypePad Developer Resources.

Coming soon: a fresh look for the TypePad Sign In page

In the coming weeks, the TypePad Sign In page will be getting a fresh new look. This is only a visual change, all the functionality remains the same. We thought it'd be a good idea to let you know in advance, so you are not surprised when you see its new look:

What changed?

• We removed the "New features" blurb - we know that when you hit this page the only thing you want to do is sign in, so we've focused the page on doing just that.

• The Sign In fields now just ask for Email and Password - don't worry, we still accept the TypePad Member Name as a valid authentication, but since more and more users use their email address to sign in we took the opportunity to save a few pixels.

• It's easier to sign in with Facebook or other accounts like Twitter, Open Id etc. - this is particularly convenient for your readers as it makes it super easy for them to sign in to leave a comment or favorite a post on your blog.

• The new Sign In page now looks the same everywhere - whether you are trying to sign in to TypePad, comment on a TypePad blog, Favorite a post or follow a TypePad blogger, you can expect the same streamlined sign in page.

We hope you'll like this fresher look. And again, it's all the same in the background, so you can continue to login as you do today.

This Week's Release: Bug Fixes, Beta, Share Comments on Facebook and more!

This week, we've made some cool new features available for everyone. We've made some dashboard improvements, like editing posts directly from the dashboard.

One of the most requested feature improvements was adding author profile photos to post. This is especially nice for blogs with lots of authors, and adds that special visual impact to your blogging.

To add more cool stuff (like Favorites and Tweet This!) to the bottom of your posts, click on "design", then "content", and edit the "post footer" options.

We've fixed a lot of bugs with this release as well. Thanks to those of you who hung in there through some slowness and commenting issues in the past couple of days. If you're still seeing those issues, please let our TypePad One support team know by opening a help ticket. 

Other fixes of note:

• Improving post by email: we've got great ways to post on the fly, and posting by email is straightforward and simple.
• Images: we had reports of borders being cropped out in the wrong places. This is fixed.
• Auto-Save: now it's more clear what's being recovered in the unfortunate case that you lose a post.

Take a sneak peek at our newest theme for our Beta testers after the jump!

Release Notes: Comment Improvements, Favorites, and Bug Fixes

This week we focused on a launching a few new features to everyone, launching some design improvements to Beta, and fixing bugs. Here’s a brief description of the some of the most important updates to TypePad this week.

Favorite a Post
Favoriting a post I’ll explain this awesome new feature in my next post, but this is a great way to get more readers, build a community around your blog, and gain insight into your most popular topics. Add it today and get to know what your readers love.

Comment Userpics
Comment userpics – personal pictures or avatars next to a comment – have been a hit since we introduced them to in TypePad Connect. Images help drive community involvement among commenters and help your readers get to know you and each other. We’ve now rolled Userpics out as an option to every TypePad blogger.

If you’re on the standard commenting service (not TypePad Connect), turn it on and try it out.  Go to Settings > Comments > Comment Userpics and click “Show userpics next to each comment.”

Most [Un]Popular Bugs Fixes
Here’s the latest edition of most popular fixes, also known as fixes for the most unpopular bugs.

Comment notifications
Some people were having an issue with comments notifications via email were not being received, particularly Gmail users. Thank you for everyone’s patience and feedback on this issue. Your feedback helped us troubleshoot this very tricky, and annoying, bug. If you’re still having problems, please contact our support team so they can understand the issue.

View all comments from an IP address
We fixed an issue where some members could not view all the comments from a particular IP address.

(Did you know that you could view all comments from an IP address? Go to your comment management screen and check it out.)

Safari Compose

We had some reports of compose and preview issues with the Safari browser. Some users – combination of browser and other issues – were not being warned to save changes before leaving the page. We’ve fixed this alert, protecting you from lost posts.

Thanks to everyone for your feedback and suggestions. Go try out the cool new features and let us know what you think.

Announcing the TypePad Developer Program and TypePad Motion

Since our launch in 2001, Six Apart has created a rich array of social publishing applications like Movable Type, TypePad and Vox. Along the way, we have also developed and contributed to a number of open source technologies that are commonly used around the web today, including Memcached, Perlbal and OpenID.  Now we are taking another step forward opening the TypePad platform to developers.

We are very excited to introduce the new TypePad Developer Program - your gateway to the TypePad Cloud Platform – and the launch of TypePad Motion, a micro-blogging community application built in Python using the Django web-development framework.

TypePad Developer Program

We all know TypePad as an online blogging service reaching millions of people around the world. But over the past year, every aspect of TypePad has been revamped to improve the service from top to bottom. We’ve expanded TypePad to offer all of the social network features like profiles, friends, and status updates. At the same time we’ve done a lot of work under the hood to make it a platform on which to build social applications, in much the same way that SalesForce has opened its platform for the development of business applications.

This is a better way of building social web sites. In the same way that Six Apart made social publishing accessible to millions with our powerful blogging tools, commodity cloud services have helped lower the barrier of innovation in web services. We are building on that concept to make it easier to develop and scale the next generation of social applications.

The TypePad Developer Program will enable developers to build rich and flexible applications which interact with existing social networks and standalone sites. It provides access to open source libraries and sample code that we have developed to improve performance and scalability of web-based services. In addition, TypePad content (posts, comments, status updates, images, video, audio, links, etc) and social graph objects (users, profiles, groups, friends, following, etc) will be accessible through REST-ful APIs that connect applications to the TypePad Platform for infrastructure and data storage services.

TypePad Motion

We developed a new application powered by the TypePad platform that demonstrates the power of the TypePad APIs. TypePad Motion  is a micro-blogging community application for fostering on-line communities and is based on a lot of the ideas from Pownce, which was acquired by Six Apart in 2008.

TypePad Motion is written in Python using the Django web-development framework,making it extremely easy to build and customize. It’s a great example how developers can use TypePad on the back-end to do much of the heavy lifting but use an entirely separate presentation layer, like Django, to generate the front end templates and pages.

TypePad Motion enables you to:

• Create your own social network where members can form meaningful connections
• Grow rich and vibrant social communities and share notes, links, photos, videos and audio clips
• Get everyone to quickly join the conversation with support for sign-in credentials from TypePad, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Yahoo!
• Build and control your brand by turning your site into a social media hub
• Increase traffic and virality when members cross-post content directly to Twitter and Facebook

We have setup a TypePad Motion demonstration site where developers can check out the latest features and interactive elements offered by TypePad Motion.  In addition, here are some recent Six Apart clients who have installed TypePad Motion:

• Zachary Quinto - Our favorite new Spock and Heroes action star Zachary Quinto recently augmented his existing web site built on Movable Type with the new TypePad Motion community application. Now his fans have a place to interact and exchange ideas, pictures, music and videos about their favorite action hero.
• Metric - An indie rock band originally hailing from Toronto, Metric integrated TypePad Motion into their existing site so they could stay in touch with their fans and aggregate their social activity across the web back onto their site.
• Ryan Star - Singer-songwriter and musician, Ryan Star's Motion Community keeps him in touch with his fans, and his fans with each other as they follow Ryan's many performances across the country.

If you’re not a developer but would still like to setup and integrate your own TypePad Motion community, contact our Sales Team and we’ll be happy to get you set up quickly. For more information, please visit the TypePad Motion page.

If you are a Developer, get started today!

We are very excited about the new TypePad Developer Program, the launch of TypePad Motion and opening the TypePad Cloud Platform to all developers. The TypePad Developer Program is currently in Beta, so not all the features and functionality of TypePad are exposed or accessible yet. However, it was important for us to connect early and often with our developer community so that we could get feedback on how to improve TypePad, TypePad Motion and the TypePad platform. When you’re ready:

1. Download Motion
2. Get an API key
3. Learn about the TypePad APIs

And start your own social app!

Movin’ On Up: TypePad News and Release Notes

This is a big milestone week for TypePad: we have a huge new group of people who are on the All New TypePad. Over the next couple weeks, we’ll be moving people over in groups, and collecting your feedback. If you’re ready to try it now, we encourage you to click the big yellow button and check it out.

We’ve had a few questions, so we wanted to address them here.

First, the new TypePad has been out of beta for months, and we’ve been through months of real-world testing. All of the new enhancements mentioned below are for the new TypePad. If you want the new features on a great new application, it’s time to move on up.

Second, we have had a lot of people asking if they can move to the new version. We’ve made it easier to move with the big yellow button.

And finally, yes, the old application will be retired soon. In order to continue moving forward, we need to focus our energy on one application, one support system, knowledge base article, etc. We’ve already begun moving full steam ahead on cool updates to the new version, and we’re excited about what we have in store. (Want a sneak peek? Check out this week’s beta-only features.)

We’ve heard from some of the early adopters of the new TypePad that the new design took a little bit of getting used to, but after a day or two, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. 

We want everyone to have as much time as possible to kick the tires, too. The sooner you move, the longer you’ll have to get comfortable, and to see all the awesome new features we’ve got that you asked for. You’ll still be able to switch back to the old version for a while, but in a few weeks, everyone will be moved over.

Speaking of new features, how about some? While the big stuff is still in beta, we did release some new improvements, thanks to your suggestions and feedback.

Reply to comments via email
Now you have the choice to either reply to your comments and have your reply post as a followup straight to your blog, or to reply to commenters directly via email. We’re still improving how this experience works, but it’s a feature a ton of people asked for, so we’re excited about how it’s shaping up.

Improved comment experience

Based on some impressive performance on the beta blogs, we have added a few popular social web icons -- TypePad, Facebook, and Twitter -- on the comment forms. We tested this design in beta for a few weeks and saw a dramatic increase in the commenting activity. By encouraging people to sign in and become a “real” person, we have seen a significant increase in comments.

Easier Google Analytics set up
One way to improve your understanding of your readers is by adding sophisticated web analytics services. We’ve integrated Google Analytics, one of the most popular free services. Just tell us your Google Analytics code, and we’ll update all the pages and posts on your blog.

Not fancy, but cool
Did you know we find customer questions in all sorts of places? Twitter, blog posts, Facebook, coffee shops, and family get togethers – everyone’s got questions! We’ve added a few features to our customer support system to help us handle these questions faster and more effectively. We focused on things like improved workflow for our TypePad One team, as well as better tracking when we find issues and questions. The goal: getting your answers faster so you can spend spending more time doing what you love doing.

Thank you
Thanks, as always, for your feedback to help make TypePad the better. In addition to these features, we fixed over 25 customer-specific bugs.

This Week's Release: New Themes, Comment with Twitter, and more...

This week's release is a great one - the new TypePad is really shaping up, thanks to all of your input. We're heading into a long weekend here in the US. To all our stateside readers, have a happy and safe holiday.

On with the show!

New Theme: Magnetic

 

 

Available in: dark blue, red, green, pink, or purple.

Help is on the way

Some things in the new TypePad can be a little confusing when you switch over. We've added some dismissable information "bubbles" that help point the way.

Beta-only!

Your commenters can log in though TypePad, Twitter and Facebook already, but for our beta team, we've put those logos on the comment form. This helps your readers know they can log in to leave you great comments with whatever service they choose.

Guest Author Improvements

• Guest authors can now set up external accounts to share posts with Twitter, Facebook, and more.
• Each guest author can also now use post-by-email with their own secret email address

Bug Fixes of note

• Display draft/scheduled posts on your dashboard
• Show post/comment count on your dashboard
• "View full screen" in compose is fixed
• Fixed IE7 crashes
• Fixed Bookmarklet double encoding issues
• Changed sharing posts to Facebook to display post images
• Moved Delete Blog to settings page
• tons more behind-the-scenes improvements

Known issues:

• UPDATED TO ADD: reply-to comments for some folks is replying to the comment thread, rather than the email address. We're looking into this and will update everyone here at Everything TypePadas soon as we can.
• While our TypePad Anti-Spam service is working just fine, some people are seeing spam comment notification emails. We'll have this fixed ASAP.
• If anyone is seeing oddness with custom HTML modules (making the design of your page look strange all of a sudden) we're shipping a fix for this too, ASAP. In the meantime, you can open up a help ticket with our support team, or to fix it yourself, you'll want to go to the Design > Content page and update the module by wrapping the custom HTML like so:
  
  
  
  
  
  <div class="module">
       <div class="module-content">
           [Custom HTML goes here.]
       </div>
  </div>

Here's our favorite comment about the new release so far:

Guest Author Improvements

• Guest authors can now set up external accounts to share posts with Twitter, Facebook, and more.
• Each guest author can also now use post-by-email with their own secret email address

Bug Fixes of note

• Display draft/scheduled posts on your dashboard
• Show post/comment count on your dashboard
• "View full screen" in compose is fixed
• Fixed IE7 crashes
• Fixed Bookmarklet double encoding issues
• Changed sharing posts to Facebook to display post images
• Moved Delete Blog to settings page
• tons more behind-the-scenes improvements

Known issues:

• UPDATED TO ADD: reply-to comments for some folks is replying to the comment thread, rather than the email address. We're looking into this and will update everyone here at Everything TypePadas soon as we can.
• While our TypePad Anti-Spam service is working just fine, some people are seeing spam comment notification emails. We'll have this fixed ASAP.
• If anyone is seeing oddness with custom HTML modules (making the design of your page look strange all of a sudden) we're shipping a fix for this too, ASAP. In the meantime, you can open up a help ticket with our support team, or to fix it yourself, you'll want to go to the Design > Content page and update the module by wrapping the custom HTML like so:
  
  
  
  
  
  <div class="module">
       <div class="module-content">
           [Custom HTML goes here.]
       </div>
  </div>

Here's our favorite comment about the new release so far:

This Week's Release: New TypePad, bug fixes, and more

HI everyone! A quick update on this week's release for features and fixes. A huge thanks to everyone on Team TypePad for their hard work.

If you're previewing the all new TypePad, we're always adding new features as we go, and fixing bugs too.  You'll find a great new feature under your Settings -> SEO page.

An SEO-friendly way to present your blog to the world by adding the ability to choose the order of the post/blog titles in the html title. SEO experts often say that showing your post title first, then the blog title, is a better way for search engines to find your relevant content and get you more readers. 

 

More features and fixes for people trying the new TypePad:

• Stats: Fixed some problems with stats where the stats page wouldn't load for some customers.
• Stats: Fixed the pageview counts
• Spell check: Fixed the spell checker problem where misspelled words were being highlighted, but no new words were being suggested.
• Dashboard: Fixed pagination issues
• Dashboard: Fixed long post title displays
• Dashboard: Fixed avatar displays when the image was not found

You'll see all sorts of other cool new stuff for the new TypePad in the weeks to come, so try it today!

For everyone (classic TypePad and the new TypePad) we:

• Registration: Made registration improvements for our EMEA customers
• Sharing: Removed the word “blogging” from Twitter "share this post" updates
• Spam: IP Banning is now working as expected for full and partial IP's
• International: tons of improvements to our localization processes

Top Reasons to Love The New TypePad

Updated - everyone now has the chance to try the new TypePad - just click "Preview the New TypePad" on your dashboard.  We wanted to highlight the the top reasons that people are loving it.

• Fun: Connect with your readers and commenters, and share your blog with your social network. Reply to comments and keep the conversation on your blog moving.
• Easy: Compose and create with TypePad’s streamlined navigation. Click to common actions instantly from your dashboard.
• Connect: Your TypePad profile lets your readers learn who you are and discover your other blogs. Update your profile with your name and avatar, too, and share your blog with more people.
• SEO: change your post URL on the fly, reorder your blog title and post titles, and add more keywords on more levels.
• Help: TypePad offers world-class support and services - we've got a sleek new updated knowledge base for the new TypePad. Want a new design, more visibility, or sharper blogging skills? We're here to help in our TypePad One design studio.
• Now with more awesome: We’re making the new TypePad the blogging platform you’ve been waiting for, with feedback from you. There's so much that we're doing this year

Want to see more people who are loving the new TypePad? Check out our Twitter favorites or check out what our Facebook fans are saying.

There's lots more features you've requested coming in the new TypePad, so many that we can't build them all at the same time! This is just the beginning of some great new blogging experience you've been asking for. We made this with your feedback (and a huge thanks to our Beta team too!) so we know you're gonna love it.

Ready to try the new TypePad? You'll find the button to preview the new TypePad on the upper right hand corner of your dashboard.

Want to give the new TypePad a try? Just leave us a comment!

This Week's Release: Design, Workflow, and Bug Fixes

Here's a few highlights from this week's release.

Add more awesome to your blog:
We've put together a great list of independent experts who can help make your blog design really sing. Check it out!

We're working on improving the new themes from Japan, too, and should have new widths available soon.

Improving Workflow:
Thanks to some feedback we got in our Get Satisfaction forums, we added the ability for guest authors to schedule posts. This helps a ton of people who are publishing with multiple authors.

Another cool little easter-egg feature for those of us who manage a lot of posts: if you hover over the date that a scheduled post is supposed to go live, you can see the time it's going live, too.

Live Chat Pilot:
We're now offering our TypePad Business Class bloggers live chat support to help with billing and account issues. Learn more about how TypePad Business Class.

Other bug fixes:
Fixed reply by email issue with TypePad Connect.
Fixed posting bug in IE (object tags were getting messed up)
Fixed issues with trackbacks not getting sent at the right time