A Bright New TypePad in 2008

Dear TypePad members,

Since I became CEO of Six Apart back in September, we’ve been working aggressively on our strategy for the New Year and I wanted to share with you some of our plans for TypePad in 2008.

First, I wanted to take a moment to tell you that we’re grateful for the opportunity to work with you.  We are continually awed by the passion and talent of our members who change the world every day. We know you use TypePad because you deserve, and expect, the best — and we take that responsibility seriously. 

TypePad is the only blogging service that gives you complete ownership of your blog, from design to multimedia content to advertising, with world class support. Our community continues to grow by leaps and bounds with the most inspiring writers, authors, parents, award winners and small business owners around — last year, we welcomed everyone from the Malawi Windmill blog to Martha Stewart to the fold.  We’re also able to connect you with the best partners on the web – from Apple’s iPhone to Facebook to PayPal and hundreds more – to continue to upgrade your service. Last year we also made a huge investment in our underlying platform, and though most of you probably didn’t notice this work as it happened, we were setting the stage for tremendous innovations to come this year.

Huge Strides in 2008
Looking ahead, you’ll see more improvements this year than in any other year of TypePad’s history, reflecting our commitment to keep TypePad as the world’s most powerful hosted blogging service.  Six Apart has been the pioneer in blogging for more than six years, and this year we’re focusing that expertise into TypePad, where the community will benefit from the innovations in Movable Type 4 and Vox and new resources from the sale of LiveJournal. We’ll deliver the most professional and extensive theme gallery available anywhere, as well as better stats and an improved dashboard, community features to engage your readers, and premium services and support to help you build, design, grow, and profit from your site. We won’t spoil all of the surprises here, but you will hear from us regularly about what to expect throughout the year.

Tell Us What You Need
We’d love to hear what you think is most important for TypePad’s future, which features and functionality you’ve been wishing for, and what you need to be successful as your audience grows. Here are a few ways to give us your feedback and get involved:

• Share your thoughts in the comments.
• Email me personally at chris [dot] alden [at] sixapart [dot] com.
• Interested in spending some time helping us with more in–depth feedback? We’re looking for people like you! Get started by answering a short survey.

Keep an eye on the TypePad team’s efforts this year — we’ll have a lot of big news to share with you!

Best regards,

Chris

Christopher J. Alden
Chairman & CEO
Six Apart, Ltd.

Comments

[BaToCo Barriletes]

Hola a todos!
Deseo agradecerles la gentileza de comentarnos o anticiparnos cual será la evolución de la herramienta. Esta información es valiosa para la toma de decisiones, especialmente a la luz de las mejoras que otros competidores (wordpress, squarespace, etc)ya han instrumentado en su servicio.
1. Bien, estoy escribiendo en castellano, una de mis inquietudes: soporte en español sin pagar precios en euro.
2. Audiencias: esta es una de la funcionalidades que apreciaría, y como lo dijera anteriormente (ver más abajo) es algo que se encuentra disponible en Vox, Wordpress (gratuita) u otros servicios.
3. Me resultan interesantes las funcionalidades disponibles en "MT Community Solution".
4. Finalmente, entiendo el delicado equilibrio entre mantener informados a vuestros clientes y la información pública que puede ser útil para los competidores, pero para aquellos que hemos demostrado lealtad y adhesión a vuestro servicio por varios años, posiblemente una cuota de mayores precisiones sería adecuada.

Gracias nuevamente!
Gustavo

"Ticket Transcript":
On Jan 29, 2007 3:03:25 PM, you (BaToCo Barriletes a Toda Costa) said:
Ticket Transcript:
On Nov 12, 2006 4:23:57 PM, you (BaToCo Barriletes a Toda Costa) said:
Hi,
One of the features that I am very interested is the “Privacy Control” in Vox Service.
Indeed, I am looking for an option to control the access to one of the weblogs to a specific audience.
In the Typepad service it can be done thru the Password Protection Option, but with a unique username and password. My idea is something like a typekey or the Google Account Authentication, where each member of the audience has his/her own username and password.
Could you suggest me any idea to manage this?
Thanks a lot.

Gustavo

On Nov 13, 2006 3:45:07 PM, TypePad Customer Support said:
Hi Gustavo,

Thanks for the note, but at this time there isn't a way to limit specific posts on your TypePad weblog based on a user's login information. Currently, you are only able to create one login username and password for all people who view your weblog.

Thanks for the letting us know that you would find something like this useful, though. We are always looking for ways to enhance TypePad for our users, so we will keep this in mind as a possible future feature for the system.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you.

Thanks,
Kymberlie

On Nov 13, 2006 8:42:21 PM, you (BaToCo Barriletes a Toda Costa) said:
Kymberlie,
Thanks a lot for your assistance.
Really, I would appreciate this feature.
Nevertheless, sounds a little bit estrange for me, that in VOX this option is available, on a free services provided by the same company, but not in the paid one. Same feature is available in the free Wordpress.com service or in Squarespace.com at intermediate level.
Any idea about future development?
Well, sorry for my English, I am a Spanish speaker.
Regards,
Gustavo

[The Franchise King]

Chris, The major complaint I have with Typepad is the lack of prompt support with issues that need to be addressed quickly. We need chat, and/or phone help, please.
Joel Libava
The Franchise King Blog

[Norma]

I've always been happy with Typepad. I've been using it almost four years, and find it easy to use. There have only been a few minor glitches. I think you guys have done a great job. I do have one wish for my wish list, though: A rich text centering button.

[Craig McGinty]

I am very keen to hear what community features are set to be launched - it's a pain to have to try and marry different services together.

And I realise it is tough but when new features are made available for standard sites, for example pagination, it takes some time for the MTtags to be made available to those people using Advanced Templates, who in many cases will be paying extra for the pleasure.

A very mini moan really, because I am 99.9 per cent happy with all things TyepPad.

[Shannon]

Numbered comments!!! Please, oh please! This will make engaging in dialogue ("Comment #47 said such-and-such....etc.)

Thanks!

[Debbie Pearson]

As a photographer I post lots of photographs and use the photo album feature quite extensively. I also use Mozilla Foxfire as my web browser. Two features I would love to see added that would make it easier to work with photos in Typepad.

When creating a new post, it would be nice if the wysiwyg screen would expand to the same width as the dimensions of your blog template so you really do see the same thing that will be posted. It would also ensure text lines up where you think it is going to. Right now this is all a bit of a guessing game when posting multiple photos.

2nd feature - would love the post screen to grow to show the whole post as you typed versus having to scroll back and forth, up and down. When I insert a new photo, it goes to the bottom of the screen, they I have to scroll back up to see where my typing is so I can start typing again for the verbage on the next photo. A virtual guessing game today where things will really publish, making it difficult to queue up posts ahead of time because I'm never quite sure how they will look posted. Often a few minor revisions are needed for best readability of the blog.

Thanks for listening!
Debbie

[jkantor]

It's just mind-boggling to me that so much development effort went into TypePad as a platform, yet the most important and desirable aspect from the user's standpoint - Themes - was essentially ignored. It shows a complete lack of understanding of the market. People choose WordPress precisely because of the amazing number of available themes. The current TypePad themes are just mind-numbingly bad.

Of course, today, it's critical that themes be designed to easily and seamlessly handle lots of images, audio, and video.

I find MySpace revolting - but it's largely due to the infinite visual customization that it is so popular.

Hopefully, we'll now see some changes.

[Rich Owings]

Here's a suggestion. I'd like to see the ability to reorder typelists by simply dragging and dropping items in them. I create top ten lists each month and have to recreate them each time. Most of this work would be eliminated if I could move items around within a list.

I'd also like to see an official TypePad users forum. IMHO, it would open up a fairly closed support program. I'd much rather search or post to a forum for a solution than open a ticket.

[Bill]

Thanks for the note. I'd really like to see two things: have an agreement with Brightcove on their video player so you can show leadership in the web video space and more automated RSS feed agreements. I personally like Attensa.

[Torr]

I would love better stats on where visitors are coming from.

[Kat]

Dear Chris - this sounds wonderful; I am very glad that TPad is going to continue to develop and keep itself at the top of the heap. I have had many people try to lure me away, and have sometimes been tempted to self-host, but the convenience, ease, and excellent support - especially for the price - has always kept me right here.

I am especially looking forward to new templates; you have a lot of beautiful designs, but they don't always quite fit what I want (like, a REAL Christmas theme? LOL), and my design skills aren't up to doing it myself.

One of the things which might be good to add would be to search old posts by date, so you can more easily edit and link with new information or corrections, if needed. Or, it might be nice to have an "edit this post" for the authorized user/author by each entry. I believe there's a hack for this, but, again, I don't trust my woefully poor coding skills.

At the moment, I cannot think of anything else, although I *know* I have more suggestions, so I will close by asking you to extend my warmest thanks and appreciation to your crew in customer support. They have always been prompt with answers and help, and always display a cheerful and professional attitude. You have a wonderful group there; make sure you take good care of them!

-- Kat
www.CatHouseChat.com
proudly hosted by TPad since Sept., 2004

[Roger Butterfield]

I'd like to see some ready-made templates for photoblogs.

[Janis]

My needs are few. Mainly I would like more details with our Stats. Specifically, I would like to be able to see the "referring address" for longer than 24 hours. I don't have time to check this every day but would still like to have access to this information. Thanks.

[Brian Wilson]

Requesting the ability to customize colors within a pre-defined theme; as of now can only customize colors if you build a custom theme. Would just like to be able to tweak certain color settings within pre-defined themes.

[Chantelle Janelle]

I'm looking forward to the better stats. Perhaps we'll be able to automate e-mail stat reports one day? That would rock.

[Ellen Perlman]

I like typepad alot but I have found it to be very quirky. Examples:

- The typeface often changes on me mid-post. The default typepace is "normal" which is too small to read in the travel template. So I always type in "larger" but it bounces back to normal unpredictably while I'm typing.

-If I highlight a word to make it a hyperlink, the hyperlinked text often continues into the next word, even though I only highlighted that one word and I've begun typing the rest of the post. I don't know how to undo that. So I have to remove the link, hit "enter" to create some breathing room in the text box, arrow back up to where I was and type the word again, link it again and hope for the best.

-Yesterday, somehow a whole paragraph ended up turning into one big blue link with one click - I think because the first word of the next sentence was linked and somehow it glommed onto that command.

-On other issues, I'd love to have the travel template widened. It's too narrow to create three columns nicely and I could really use a third column.

-I'm still fiddling with my site and I alter the categories from time to time. It would be GREAT if somehow typepad could automatically go through entries and replace one category for another. Or put a particular category in - without me having to go back to each post and fix it and save it individually. I know this is asking a LOT. But I thought I'd mention it in case it's at all possible.

-Another thing I'd love to see: subcategories. I'd love to be able to have four or five major categories such as "places," "activities" and "xyz" and then under THOSE, have the "real" categories. Now, my categories are in some disarray - a place, followed by two activities, followed by another place - because it's alphabetical. It's a bit nonsensical to my readers.

If I think of more things, I'll check back in.

[Andy Shaindlin]

Two changes that would be GREAT are:

1) Real support for Google Analytics (I'm using Custom CSS under a Pro account); and

2) Local time stamp for stats (not Greenwich Mean Time, which is the default and cannot be changed). As it is, stats' timeframes don't match up with Feedburner, Google Analytics, etc.

Thanks!

[justiNYC]

It would be nice if you guys accepted Paypal as a method of payment...it is 2008. Nice improvements though!

[Jennifer]

This is wonderful to be able to offer feedback on praises and possibilities.

I love the flexibility that TypePad offers by way of blogs that look and act like websites; that's perfect for busy work-at-home types like me who need reliable and convenient solutions for their small businesses.

I would love to see better Stats that don't count my visits and to see the tracking of feed readers as well. As far as design goes, it would be a dream come true to have a template based on the standard web design (banner on top, with horizontal menu bar, left-hand sidebar and drop-down menus). That would really distinguish TypePad as *the* choice for both bloggers and businesses alike.

Thanks for all you do!

[Account Deleted]

Just a short and sweet upgrade - the option when you insert a link to have your link open in a new window without having to go into the HTML and program it there. WordPress does it, it's the only feature they have that TypePad doesn't that I miss.

[Lynn Fisher - Write Where I Am]

Hi...I'll be glad when the basic membership includes the ability to create your own banner, otherwise I've been happy with the service. I just wish I was "cyber" enough to understand some of it without all the trial and error...it all takes time.

[A Twitter User]

More standard social marketing options -- I don't want to have to manually add Digg It script every post.

More stats information other than "recent"

Menu Bars for Pages without having to go CSS

Easier photo management -- I use links to existing photos and have to HTML code it. Ick. Don't force me to have to upload a photos to do it without HTML

[David Cohn]

First off: I love typepad. It rocks.

What would make it better: Wordpress has a pluggin such that if I comment on another person's blog and somebody comments after mine, I am emailed to inform me that somebody has commented on the same blog post.

now THAT starts community and egagement. I would LOVE functionality like that on Typepad.

[hewn & hammered]

I've been a pro user for several years and introduced two friends to the service. They are both very happy with it.

My primary blog is a small business for me, and as I've pushed the limits (I think) of templates etc., I've run into a few stumbling blocks. I have several open tickets marked "we're working on it" that particular bug me - especially since it's taken months to simply get the response that someday someone may get in touch with me if any of these things are fixed.

The fact that there are NO real usage stats available now (aside from a hits meter that doesn't differentiate uniques from a single visitor who hits multiple pages on a site)is very troubling. These stats have been disabled for almost a year without any explanation, announcement or apology. 6A uses disk usage as a criteria to differentiate payment plans / account types, yet you completely disallow users from having even the slightest idea of what our bandwidth and disk usage is. This is unethical and strange; how can you realistically promise certain amounts bandwidth and space in exchange for a higher rate, yet not let people have any indication of how much they are using or need?

In the last year, Typepad has gone from having 2 or 3 hour turnaround for minor bug tickets - where things were usually fixed the same day - to having 24 hour turnaround, often leaving sites inaccessible or unusable. When confronted with this, technicians are slow to make amends or offer prorated service, even after admitting fault. You need to do more for the pro users who have evangelized the service, and if that means comping service at a value equal to lost revenue for downtime, then that's what you need to do. In this day and age I'm kind of surprised there's any need to downtime, ever, especially at any time other than the absolute dead of night.

The "theme contest" that 6A sponsored 2 YEARS!! ago is long completed. Originally, the contest organizers and 6A reported - PROMISED - that the winners and even some of the other entrants would be available on Typepad "very soon." Not only has all such language been erased from the contest site, no mention of this has ever been made since, which I find disappointing. Not that you wouldn't offer them - after all, many were pretty unappealing - but that you would promise something and not follow through. Even a stupid idea, once committed to, needs to be followed through on. You can't tell your customers that something will happen and then pretend it never happened, hoping they'll forget; that's just tremendously disrespectful.

I have regularly considered moving to hosted space and using Typepad for my site, but I don't think I'm technically adept to handle it. Even the most mediocre host offers bandwidth meters and gives me ftp access and comps me for downtime; I stick with Typepad now because I'm too lazy and inexperienced to leave. I think it goes without saying that in the last year, since things have started to go down hill re: service (which pretty much coincides with your unveiling of your new "business class" level, which is I assume where you concentrate your service efforts to the detriment of other users), I've stopped recommending Typepad.

I really hope you get back to where you were a couple of years ago and that I can start telling people what a great company and service it is eventually ... or at least, soon enough to keep me here.

[Barbara Hagerty]

Two things spring to mind immediately:

Numbered comments would be extremely helpful!
and

The ability to move items around in typelists and photo albums. I would love to be able to just pop into these and re-arrange elements every once in a while without having to re-create the entire list/album, or at least portions thereof.

[Brian Hines]

TypePad should allow bloggers without custom accounts to specify how many comments will be displayed on the sidebar.

I keep on suggesting this via help tickets because it doesn’t make any sense to have as many posts (ten) displayed by default as comments (ten). Often I get quite a few comments on a single post. I’ve gotten emails from regular blog visitors who wonder why recent comments disappear from the sidebar so quickly. I tell them that I’ve asked TypePad to allow me to specify how many comments are on the sidebar, but this hasn’t been done yet.

Your upgrades to comments last year were useful, but not enough. I’ve pointed out on my blogs that it’s possible to subscribe to comment feeds. But this isn’t as obvious or transparent as being able to click on a sidebar comment directly. Blogging is about interacting, in large part. TypePad should make comments as visible as possible, rather than allowing only the most recent ten comments to be shown on the sidebar.

Also, I’d prefer an option to have all comments shown on a single page. Or you should show how many pages of comments there are, allowing someone to go directly to a page (as many sites do). Some of my posts have hundreds of comments. To get to the latest comments requires clicking through quite a few “next” commands at the bottom of the page. I find this frustrating myself, and I’m sure my blog visitors do also.

Well, this is a start. I have other suggestions, but these are my two main concerns.

[Hugh Crawford]

The bigest problem we are facing at onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn is comment spam with links to phish and virus sites , and one or two people who leave malicious comments impersonating other visitors.

A way to automatically post authenticated visitors' comments , and hold all others for moderation would make comments much more useful than they are now.

at least half of our comments are spam or worse, so we have to moderate comments , but this gets in the way of discussions between visitors.

Alternativly , displaying the ip address of the commenter , so that the fakers are exposed might help.

This is the biggest issue that would make us leave typepad.

[Katie from EF]

How about an application specifically for BlackBerry?

[Glenn Broadway]

I've just completed setting up a fairly complex multi author blog - where my one proviso was no advanced templates (it's hard enough keeping track of everything as it is!).

www.leerangers.com

Here is my wish list, which basically grew out of this project.

1. Typelist grouping - Some typelists are only used on certain blogs but when you've got as many as I have that Typelist management page is a nightmare to navigate.

2. Per page typelist selection - Especially since you introduced the invaluable 'pages' it would be nice to say 'use these Typelists on this page'.

3. Per page layout selection - You might want an extra column on the front page for example.

4. Choose comment moderator - I have dozens of authors but I want all comment moderation to be done by me. I've had to hack it by creating custom email addresses for each author which all get directed to me.

5. Remove Permalink link at foot of posts without switching to advanced templates - I think I should be able to hide it in the CSS (display:none? something like that) but I guess there's one class for all the info in the footer, so it would hide it all. The permalink link seems a little redundant now that the post title is a permalink. I want to turn it off for aesthetic reasons.

6. A User Forum - This is the number one reason that I didn't use advanced templates. Lack of support from a group of other users. Hats off to John Unger, but why oh why can't SixApart host something?

[Howard Burns]

1) Time zone options.

2) Improved stats that filter out your own visits. Lose that chart.

3) The ability to view stats for all of your TypePad blogs at once. Yes.

4) Safari.

5) More robust photo placement options.

6) Ability to make subdomain blogs link back to the main blog homepage via the header.

Thanks for the opportunity to be heard.

[Ellen Perlman]

I agree with the photographer who said it's all a guessing game how to line up type with photos. Why isn't the "preview" a real preview?
It really doesn't offer any help. The page has to go "live" before you can see how the type lines up with the photos.
Also, is there a way to be able to caption the photos, right underneath? Or alongside? All my captions are way at the bottom of the post. Granted, it gets people to read to the end but it leaves the photo hanging out there without any info.
Thanks again.

[David W. Boles]

How to Fix TypePad:

www.wordpunk.com

1. Better domain mapping. CNAME is very 1986. Run your own servers. Let us point to them. Then give us Zone File access to set our MX records.

2. Increase the default post title to more than 15 characters.

3. Easier approval/moderation sequence. In "List Comments" view, if I want to view the article with a comment, I have to "edit" the post and then click on the "View Post" link from that edit window. Huh?

4. If I own the blog and I have moderation turned on, I should not have to moderate my own comments.

5. Better membership management.

6. We should not have to ever "republish" anything. Clicking on a "save" button should transparently republish whatever needs to be republished.

7. More robust user roles and more user roles. More powerful admin duties. Less powerful "submitters."

8. I want to easily insert outside URLs to call images.

9. Provide native, robust, search.

10. Provide proper blog web clippings for iPhone users. I can't find a template that allows a save to Home on my iPhone that doesn't look like a big, black, icon with a white band in the middle of it.

11. If Movable Type has it, TypePad should have it first.

12. Clients I advise want a seamless importer for WordPress without using form or functionality -- hard to do right now, I know.

[Issues Man]

Greetings Chris,
Thanks for the opportunity to write you directly. Simple question: will Six Apart add a user forum to its arsenal? I’ve made this suggestion before but have not heard back on any direction. It would be great to have a bulletin board/forum integrated into the current system. Let me know, and if so, when.

Thank you,
Joe Alcodray
www.igotissues.com

[Jane Doe]

Hi Joel,

I noticed that you'd voiced some concerns about the response time with regard to needing your tickets addressed more quickly. As a Pro user, you are used to having your tickets answered within 24 hours, which is the time frame that we strive for when answering tickets submitted by our Basic, Plus and Pro users. Have you ever considered upgrading to a Premium account? As a TypePad Premium user, you will be given priority support, which means that your tickets will be answered within three to six hours. If you should ever have a question or technical concern, we’ll respond promptly so that you can continue to blog without interruption. Additionally, as a Premium subscriber, you will be the first to receive information about new developments; even though we don't offer telephone or chat support at this time (though we are considering adding that as our company grows), when we do, you'll be the first to know.

You can see a breakdown of our service levels here:

http://www.typepad.com/pricing/

If you do decide you'd like to upgrade your account, you can go to your Control Panel > Account Info > Upgrade/Downgrade Account and follow the instructions there.

Thanks!
Melanie

[Jane Doe]

For everyone that requested more themes and better stats, thanks for all your suggestions! In regards to Pre-defined Themes, the theme gallery is continuing to expand to cover a wider variety of topics. Keep your suggestions for new themes coming as we are always looking for new design ideas based on your blog's needs.

We have heard your requests for more detailed statistics in TypePad. We added some new features last year to the stats, and we are building more on to stats in the coming year. We appreciate knowing what you would like to see in this area.

Thanks,
Jen

[Jane Doe]

Hi Roger,

Have you ever considered using a Mixed Media Layout to showcase your photography? Mixed Media Layouts are perfect for displaying a mix of text and photos, and we offer several different types to suit your particular taste.

For instance, the Timeline layout is great way to feature your most recent photos, but you'll also have room for your links and other information under the most recent photos.

If you'd like to give Mixed Media Layouts a try, go to Weblogs > Design > Change Layout, then select Mixed Media Layout.

Thanks,
Melanie

[celeste w]

One word: subcategories.

Thanks.

[pam100]

Hello Chris,

Congratulation's on your new position. I have been a Typepad user for several years and I only have one suggestion.

For your members who use photographs to sell their products I would upgrade the photo album construction. Flickr and SmugMug both use ajax (I think?) based programs to allow people to organize their photos quickly and easily. Both of their programs are slightly different but both have drag and drop technology that speeds up the designing of a photo album. This would be a huge time-saver for people who want to use photographs to sell or compliment their blog.

Thanks, Pam

[Manuel Molina]

Enable numbered comments!!! please, please? The comments area needs improvement.

We love Typepad. 4 members of my family already have a pro account in typepad.
thank you typepad!!!!

[Jennifer Wisniewski]

How about a military discount? (thought I'd try ;-) ) I like Typepad's ease of use... and the fact that I don't get any spam, or unwanted readers. It helps me keep up with family members and friends of our travels, etc.

[RobiNZ]

Great news. While happy with TypePad I've posted a few ideas for improvements and "suggestion tickets" over the years. Have done the survey and will be in touch via email. Appreciate the chance to contribute.

11/2007 – Why a hosted blog? TypePad Support Rules! – http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/2007/11/why-a-hosted-bl.html
10/2007 – Hello TypePad Development, is anybody out there? – http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/2007/07/hello-typepad-d.html
07/2006 – SixApart - It's time for a TypePad Update! – http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/2006/10/sixapart_its_ti.html

[Roger Butterfield]

David W. Boles said "If I own the blog and I have moderation turned on, I should not have to moderate my own comments."

That's a very good point!

-----------------------------------------------

Melanie, thanks for your response to my comment about photoblogging templates.

Yes, I have tried the Mixed Media Layouts but I didn't like them. I would prefer a simple layout that enables me to display pictures at fairly large size with a date, title and a small amount of text.

[Emma Townshend]

I would very much like to be able to allow people to sign up for a email newsletter, which I could then compose and send in typepad. You added the ability to post webpages - why not that? It's a whole nother way to interact with the people who read a blog. Thanks!

[Myf]

Well, I very much appreciate the chance to comment - that shows a commitment to the blogging form at all levels, I think.

I come to Typepad from a business perspective, having persuaded my superiors to adopt a blog on our corporate websites. In my personal life I've had, and continue to have, a long and happy, engaged experience with Live Journal, and I also contribute to a commercial blog via Movable Type. Outside the Six Apart stable, I've had dabblings with WordPress too.

I find a lot about Typepad really quite restrictive. Coming from LJ where I feel I can do almost anything, it's been a bit of a shock. Firstly, it's hard to build any true sense of community. I hadn't realised how the LJ Friends page does that for you so elegantly (and what with its feeds capability, I pretty much use it as a feed reader). Forget numbered comments as requested above - we want threaded comments! And yes, emails to let us know when someone has replied to our comment.

From an administrator point of view, I've had some major frustrations too. Our aim is to have a blogger in each of our worldwide schools. I'd like to be able to keep some control over what is published out, thus it would be supremely useful for me to know when a draft has been posted by auto-email. At the moment, my bloggers (junior authors) have to log in, type their post, then email me to let me know it's there. Convoluted! I'm also frustrated by the strict permissions that apply to each tier of authorship. My JAs can't post photos, so they also have to email those to me to add to their drafts.
Talking of photos, I find the options for their addition in the wysiwyg interface far too limited.

My final crisitcism would be that it's very hard to find everything in the admin dashboard. Other than that, I have to agree with the comments about the preview function above. It's not an accurate picture of what publishes out.

Thank you for listening to my points.

[Hans-Joerg (ME)]

One of the features i love most in Vox is the improved mobile blogging feature. I would love to have this kind of mobile blogging in Typepad: Multiple addresses, ability to generate new email addresscodes, depending on to:-address redirection to a specific blog (also with category set / tagging).

[Gina]

Would be good to have a choice of fonts and also some nice effects for photos such as a rough edges, blurred edges etc... Very happy with the majority of features though, so keep up the good work. Thanks for the opportunity to give my thoughts!

[Daddy-O]

I could echo a lot of the suggestions already posted here but one thing that sticks out is to have the padding removed from the left side of my custom banner so it lines evenly with the column below.

[Paisley St Claire]

I've only had my typepad blog for about a month so please ignore anything suggested that is just my ignorance.

1. links opening in a new screen would be great
2. making editing typlists easier - if its possible, I can't work out how to do it
3. better stats - I'd like to see how many 'unique' views there were and I don't want my views of the blog to be included (which, from what I can work out, does happen), and visitor's geographic location. I use google analytics for my e-commerce site and it is awesome. Being able to cross-reference the data (ie. referring source and geo location of visitor) is really useful.
4. the thing I'm most upset about is that my blog still hasn't turned up in any search engines yet - I am blogging Mon-Fri and have several (well indexed & ranked) websites linking to the blog. I set up a blog on typepad and blogger to see which one I liked best. Obviously I preferred typepad because paid for it and am using it now. However, the test post I made on blogger was found by google in a day or two ... and yet I'm still waiting for even a crumb of this one to turn up. I hope it happens soon because I won't wait for ever. There's no point spending up to a couple of hours a day preparing posts for no one to ever read them.
5. I'm using firefox to post to typepad, it seems to work better than on safari - is that just my imagination or do we need a bit more love for the mac users?

By the way, thanks for asking what I think. It gives me hope for a perfect Typepad.

Cheers,

J

[Greg Verdino]

Unless I'm just missing them, there don't seem to be any standard themes that include tabbed navs (along the top of the page for example) that would make it easy and obvious for users to nav between pages. I've been very happy with Typepad as a blogging platform and am reasonably OK with what I've been able to do from a design and layout standpoint.

But my blog is just a piece of my online presence - or it should be, if only I could figure out a good way to add the other pieces. For example, I do a lot of conference speaking and I'd love an easy to find tab that someone interested in booking me could click to get at a set of pages that detail my programs, experience, etc. Right now, it seems like I could create Pages and bury them in a list of Pages in my sidebar - not good.

I've seen plenty of other blogs that have tabs along top or a REALLY INTUITIVE lefthand vertical nav - I'd love those options.

(Odds are I won't check here for replies so if anyone from Typepad wants to respond please do so by email too - sorry. Thanks.)

[Garbanzo]

Pretty good value for the money. A few comments:

1) Better pagination throughout when using advanced templates. Paging through posts not in the archive or category view isn't possible. Would greatly increase usability and pageviews per visit.

2) Allow more customization regarding page titles. Currently, it's "blog title" + "post name." So if you want to get more keywords into a page title for SEO purposes, you have to pack them into the blog name or post name.

3) Along the same lines, be able to have post and archive level meta tags to allow better SEO.

[Rich James]

Make it easier to communicate with authors in group blogs. Currently you cannot see authors' email addresses much less email them individually or as group. I manage a conference blog with a two dozen authors.

Thanks

[phatpat]

How about domain mapping for basic members? Or at least an inexpensive option to just add domain mapping, so we don't have to go up to the "plus" plan. Blogger.com and Wordpress.com, although not equivalent services, both offer easy and inexpensive domain mapping.

[hewn & hammered]

Actually, new features or nice, but how about just getting back things that were actually TAKEN AWAY from paying customers, like real bandwidth and disk usage stats? I think things like that would be nice to get back before you move on to all-new projects.

And fulfilling promises, like that to the Theme Contest contestants, should probably have more priority.

I think it's sad that you have specifically reduced the pro featureset (and service levels - see the thread above, where a 6A staffer is basically blackmailing us, saying that we'd get faster service if we paid more money) in order to force people to move to premiere. That seems really hinky, especially since those faster response times used to be offered to Pro users when many of us signed up.

I still think Typepad is a good value; it's just that there are so many little things that could drastically improve it that you seem to be overlooking.

[Robyn Guerrasio]

I'm pretty new to TypePad, and overall very pleased and having a lot of fun. One thing that bothers me that I'd love to see improved:

I want to be able to stick a photo from a photo album into a new post without having to reupload it. Ideally, this would be drag and drop, but I could live without that if I could still go pick a file from my list that's already been uploaded to an album. Yes, I am new to this platform, but to me, TypePad is about blogging, not a place to host my photo albums. But I'm thrilled to have photo albums if I can do bulk uploads and then pull photos over into posts. So if the photo album has minimal interactivity with the blog, it's pretty meaningless to me. The kicker is that the XP photo publishing wizard is so fabulous, yet doesn't help at all in getting pictures into my blog.

I hope that wasn't too wordy. I'm thrilled with Typepad - keep up the good work!

[Kasey]

An option to open links in a new window would be most appreciated. Thanks for asking.

[Katie Konrath]

Several things I'd love:

1. Ability to post posts without automatically notifying subscription services. The preview button doesn't show posts in the blog, so it's impossible to tell if everything is perfect without publishing first. I hate it that un-refined posts are then sent to subscribers.

2. Ability to move around items in Typelists. This is really frustrating, and everyone I know wants this feature.

3. More reliable comment notification system. Typepad has not notified me recently about a lot of comments. It used to be very reliable, but now I have to go into Typepad to check for new comments because I'm no longer notified for most of them. I've submitted several help tickets, but this has never been resolved. I have only a single-author blog and I have checked the email multiple times.

4. Ability to designate an account manager to do administrative things without revealing the essential account ownership details. This is in the business account, but it would be fabulous to have it in the pro account as well.

5. A print-this-post button. This would be very helpful!

6. Fixing the custom banners so that they show-up when the rest of the blog is printed.

Hope this helps.

[Jane Doe]

Hi Jaime,

First of all, welcome to TypePad! There were a few things that you mentioned in your comment that I wanted to help you out with so that you can get started with some of the things that you'd like to do. You mentioned wanting links to open in a new window. We are working on adding an option to set links to open in a new window as a built in feature for TypePad, but in the meantime, after you insert a link in your posts, you can edit the link tags to include target="_blank" which will force the link to open in a new window.

You can change items in your TypeLists easily by clicking on the TypeList tab and selecting the TypeList that you wish to edit. From there, you can add and delete items with the click of a button. To delete, simply place a check mark next to the desired item and click "Delete". Adding items is a snap as well. For instance, our Links TypeList has a "Quick Add" feature which lets you simply type or paste a URL into the box and click Go. Once you've saved your changes, they'll be visible on your blog right away.

Did you know that you can use Google Analytics with TypePad? Generally, Google requires you to place the code above the < /body > tag, however, as a Plus user, you may be able to successfully use a Notes TypeList for the Analytics code instead.

You can read more about adding code to your sidebar in a Notes TypeList at:
http://kb.typepad.com/id/35

For the best results, you should be using a weblog with a right-hand sidebar, or you would want to convert to a right-hand sidebar template before adding this code to your weblog. Then you would use the Order Content option to move the TypeList to the bottom of the right-hand sidebar so that the code is as close to the end of the page as possible.

You also mentioned being unable to locate your blog in search engines. Have you made sure that your weblog is public? That will allow search engines to find your site and index its pages. You can read more about this here:
http://kb.typepad.com/id/74

You may also want to try adding your site to search engines. The best place to start is with Google. Here's a form you can use to add your URL to their list to check:
http://www.google.com/addurl.html

This process may take a while, and you can check their site for more details on the timeline. They may also have tips for getting your site listed.

You can find additional information on this here:
http://kb.typepad.com/id/239

We hope this helps!

Thanks,
Melanie

[Jane Doe]

Hi Greg,

You seem interested in having an intuitive left-hand vertical navigation as an alternative to a tabbed menu. You can create this easily if you'd like to do so, by using a Notes TypeList. A Notes TypeList will allow you to place image links and other code on your sidebar.

If you are familiar with creating images or know someone who is, a graphical link to a TypePad Page describing your availability and contact information could be placed easily for people to click on who would like to book you for a conference.

You can read more about adding code to your sidebar in a Notes TypeList at:
http://kb.typepad.com/id/35

Thanks!
Melanie

[laanba]

Themes has already been mentioned, but I'll mention it again. I couldn't believe how many themes Vox had within a few months of its release. Wordpress also has some really beautiful themes. I am most looking forward to this because I shouldn't have to learn advanced design skills to get a nice looking blog.

I would like to get back the ability to see my disk space and bandwidth usage. It is amazing to me that I am paying for a service, but I can't see this basic information. Especially since we used to be able to see it.

And my final comment about TypePad. I hope you don't forget that not everyone that uses TypePad is a company, business or big time blogger. There are many of us that started our personal spaces with TypePad and sometimes I feel like all those cool features are being funneled to Vox (themes for example) to differentiate TypePad as the business platform. Please don't forget those of us that have been using, supporting and evangelizing TypePad for a long time, even if we have a small personal audience.

[starting from scratch (again.)]

Hello. I enjoy Typepad a lot, and so there are only 2 minor points on may wishlist.
1. a nice little php internal search like on twoday.net blogs ... the search widgets on typepad like google or atomz are aesthetically gross!
2. the possibility to blend out my own IP in the stats would be nice.

but, as i said, this is just a wishlist. so, keep on the good work!

[cindy price]

I'd like to see a couple of things- I'd like to be able to have a custom theme with the main column larger. As a photographer, I hate that my vertical images are so much larger than my horizontal images due to the ratios they are constrained to. When I try to make the horizontal images larger, they are cut off because of the column width. It would also be nice, as others have said, to have the ability to drag and drop images from albums to posts or bulk upload images to a post. And as others have said, moving images around in posts to fit with text is really annoying and takes so much time! I'd also really like more design options for the albums, as navigating through albums with a lot of images is aggravating as you only have one vertical column with thumbnails that gets really long, or only two thumbnails showing at a time. I am having a hard time justifying even paying the plus membership when it seems that many free blogs have more template customization options available. Thanks for the opportunity to make suggestions! I'm sure I have more, but I can't think of any moreat the moment!

[Tember]

Hi,

First of all, I've been with Typepad for a couple of years now and love it. Kudos for a solid, dependable product. As a former QA manager, I love the stability.

Having said that, I'd love to be able to add a background other than a solid color and so far have not been able to figure out if I can do that. I would also love a better selection of colors. The current color list is very short, and I'm an artsy-visual person, so I love color. :)

For right now, those are the things that I would love to have.

Thanks for a great product!

September

[ville vesterinen]

Hi guys,

Fist of all, thanks for the amazing service! :D

One thing I would love to see in the future is the extended ability to edit text and e.g. add links to the blog post when posting a Flickr picture straight to a typepad blog via Flickr. I tend to do this regularly, as I find some amazing shots the support my story I want to tell on my blog.

Will keep my eyes open for an added functionality between Typepad and Flirck :)

Thanks again,

Ville

[Jon Malinowski]

While I like typepad a lot so far, I'm frustrated that it's so difficult to center or justify text and images. Please add this feature.

[lizriz]

I'd like to be able to add leaderboard ads (728x90) without having to use advanced templates.

[Dietmar Nass]

The most important thing is that every existing feature works correctly. That's not the case. Today suddenly the formatting of my old(!) entries has changed. Picturs that I formatted side by side are now displayed one below(!) the other. My whole blog now looks terrible! Please put things right immediately!
I wrote a mail to the support, too.

Dietmar

[Matt Ratzke]

Hi my name is matt and i have a suggestion for typepad in 2008. Create a version of typepad that allows people to install it on there own bebsite. I should realy only be a single user account that costs in between the 2 most expensive accounts that typepad offers. just a thought tho but it would be nicer if i had this program on my server so i dont have to link to typepad.

[Ian Mackie]

I would definitely second the comment about adding tabbed pages to templates or some sort of navigation that is CLEARLY obvious (and visually appealling) to someone visiting my site. There are lots of things I like about Typepad, but as the blogospere matures and blogging companies offer more and more tools/features for limited to no costs, even I consider moving over to a different service. Despite there being numerous templates to choose from here, I'm starting to so some very nice designs appear elsewhere. Thanks.