Posting, Commenting, and more improvements

It's that time again - we've just done another upgrade for your TypePad blog. We're working out a couple of bugs that have come up with this release right now, but in the meantime, let's talk about what's new.

One of my favorites is the collaboration we're doing with the TypePad Team in Japan: we added two new actions (Publish/Unpublish) to your list of Posts and Pages. Now you'll have the ability to batch publish or unpublish posts or pages right from the administrative screen.

We're also doing a ton of hard work on the inside of the application and making it easier to use. We're in the first phase of testing this with a small group of Alpha users to see what they like about using a more intuitive TypePad.

We worked on over 100 bug fixes and feature requests, which is a great milestone. Big thanks to everyone here who worked so hard on this release! Here's just a few:

• Working with Six Apart Media team to help them understand how to better target the ads that will help make you more money
• Fixed an issue with RSS feeds that had incorrect breaks
• Improving new registration flow to make it easier for people to select a blog address.
• We’re making progress (in the background) on some of the remaining posting issues and testing in a separate, non-customer facing code branch.
• We’ve improved our ticketing system so we can fix issues for you faster.
• Fixing more commenting issues, both for TypePad and our beta of TypePad Connect.
• Fixed a TypeList caching issue.
• Fixed the internal search in TypePad and TypeLists.
• Fixed issues with guest authors and About pages
• Fixed an issue where multiple trackbacks were being marked as spam

Thanks for all of your feedback to our support team, here on Everything TypePad, and in our Get Satisfaction forums. Your suggestions are what makes TypePad continue to be great.

Comments

[Cosmo Scharf]

Thanks guys. I especially like the first bullet point because my ads stink!

-Cosmo
http://www.blosmo.com

[Nancy Nally]

I'd feel better about your "fixing typelist caching issue" item (which I'd filed a help ticket about) if you hadn't broken something else about the Typelist posting (new items are now posting at the bottom of the list, not the top like they are supposed to) when you "fixed" that.

[Ginevra]

Hi Nancy - We're working on this one. I know it's a problem and thanks for letting me know - I'll reply back here when I know exactly the date we can fix this for you, or you can touch base with me at [email protected]

[Maxine]

Thanks for this post. You don't list the request I made recently, which you kindly said you'd look into - that of mini RSS feed widget to replace a static blogroll (such as Google/Blogger now offers). It would be great to be able to integrate the RSS reader with the blog sidebar, instead of having to manage a static blogroll, which constantly needs updating. Many thanks if you could look at this.
Best wishes
Maxine.

[Account Deleted]

Thanks for this. I'm fairly new to Typepad,but I must say that my experience with Typepad has been nothing but positive and I recommend you to everyone!

[Kate]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the mass unpublish option!! That functionality has been one of my long-standing requests. Makes it so much easier for those of us who publish online magazines with time-specific content.

Yay, Typepad Japan! Maybe they will also contribute some cool Japanese-inspired design templates?

[Ginevra]

thank you so much! we love you back.

[Ginevra]

that's a good one, isn't it? I'll ask about the templates, too - good idea.

[Ginevra]

Hey Maxine - thanks for the nudge on this. I'll check into it again, but I don't know a timeframe for this just yet. As soon as I do, I'll let you know. :)

[Maxine]

Thanks, Ginerva, reply much appreciated and I await news with bated breath ;-)

[Geo]

Do any of these tweaks and improvements mean we will finally be rid of the terrible image handling and go back to one that doesn't make you want to kick in your computer screen? Nine months of going round and round about this is wearing me out...

[Ginevra]

hey geo - can you remind me about which part of image handling is making you crazy?

[Michael Abbott]

My #1 request is the ability to search comments. I use the new TypePad Connect service, which works very well; but this feature would be invaluable to me.

[Geo]

Every part of it, Ginevra. Every single part of it.
Back in August when I got switched to the new platform, I discovered that almost every image I had posted over a two year period was arbitrarily stretched and blurred (thanks to the ridiculous 'default' setting of the 'improved' image handling) and was forced to spend days reposting and 'fixing' everything that the switch destroyed. After numerous Help Tickets and at least four 'off board' email discussions with you (including an unanswered complaint that I sent you roughly two weeks ago) it all comes down to the stock reply that my input will be passed on to those who can and will do something about the problem. And yet nothing has changed. Ever.
The previous image handling, though certainly far from perfect, worked well enough despite its limitations. The 'new & improved' version requires a number of pointless extra steps, slowing down the posting process, and you *still* have to hand-code such basic functionality as centering an image.
Though this has been a sore point for quite a while now, I feel like my complaints and suggestions are falling on deaf or disinterested ears. I presume that TypePad was designed for *us* - the paying bloggers - but it really hasn't felt like that sometimes. It's awesome that all these new sites and pages and expansions are happening, but if the fine details - the very foundation of the platform - get put aside and are left unresolved, how good is the final product?

[Ginevra]

Hi Geo: If you've got a support ticket open, will you forward it to me at [email protected]?

I agree that right now the way we're handling images for the scenario you describe is less than awesome. We're working on this, but it's going to take some heavy lifting as part of our work on this year - redesigning the way we handle the whole application. I hope you'll see an improvement soon, but it's not a short-term fix, unfortunately.

thanks again for letting us know about your frustration, and for your feedback.

[Ginevra]

we'd like this one too, but I don't think it's coming soon. I'll let you know when I know more. :)

[Account Deleted]

I just want to suggest to you Typepad staff web guys, to improve your commenting process on blogs. Typepad blogs commenting is unsatisfactory to my opinion. You cannot reply to a post directly to the commentator. Or the comments are not accepting gravatars or the comments are not compatible with JS Kits.
I envy those blogs who have JS Kit installed in their comments section or blogs that the owner/author can directly reply to a particular comment/commentator.
I hope you can improve this. Your developments in comments overlooked this.

[Ginevra]

hi! are you currently using our beta of TypePad Connect? That might help, since you can reply to commenters and also have your userpic. Gravatar support is something we're looking into for a future release, but it's pretty complex.

You should be able to do a JS kit in advanced templates - have you asked our support team for help on this particular item? Let me know if I can help.