Sweet Syndication – ConnectBlogs is Reborn
The aforementioned new version of ConnectBlogs.com rolled into production last night. It will be a process of ongoing improvement, but I’m really happy with what we have now. I think a lot of people will find it to be a valuable resource, and I personally hope it makes the Utah business and tech communities a little smarter and a little tighter. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Note: I’ll soon be posting some guidelines for people that want to be (or remain) syndicated there. It’s basic stuff: a clean and relevant feed, no ads, no offensive content, try to stay mostly on topic, etc.
Note 2: I’ve already started syndicating a very non-comprehensive list of Utah business bloggers that I personally like to read. If you are one of them and for some reason don’t want to be syndicated, just drop me a line and I can remove you right away. I’ll be personally contacting each one to make sure it’s OK.
Note 3: Some of the people that were posting on ConnectBlogs.com won’t have their old posts show up for a day or so while I work out some glitches. Nothing to be worried about here. :)
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Business, Technology, Utah | 
February 28, 2007 4:02 am
By Joshua Steimle, February 28, 2007 @ 5:26 am
Hey Jordy, I’d be interested to know what changes have been made between the old and new connectblogs.com, and what the improvements are over the old version because they aren’t obvious to me. Also, how do I post now?
By Janet Meiners, February 28, 2007 @ 10:12 am
Jordy,
Looks good – nice work! I’m excited that Connect is including bloggers. Thanks for including me on the blogroll too.
Janet
By Blake Snow, February 28, 2007 @ 10:51 am
You did know the former Connect Blogs site we built supported both original posts and syndication feeds, right? Seems like the site took a step backwords in both design and functionality, but I’m obviously biased.
By Jordy, February 28, 2007 @ 11:07 am
@Josh – Your blog is already being syndicated in its entirety. Call me or shoot me an email if you have questions.
@Blake – Yes, you are biased, as am I. :) I’ll explain the things that I like most about the new version in a forthcoming post.
BTW, would you like to be syndicated there as well? Let me know.
By Blake Snow, February 28, 2007 @ 11:14 am
Add away! (http://feeds.feedburner.com/SmoothHarold)
I’ll look forward to your future post that hopefully answers Josh’s above question as to how the new version is better, but it sounds like a lot of people were uneducated before things got changed. The site they had could have supported all syndication, no syndication, or a hybrid with a cleaner design.
By Jeff Jordan, February 28, 2007 @ 2:57 pm
Nice work on the new design, Jordy! Looks great! I don’t have to deal with the non-syndicating issue that the others are dealing with, but I think the design is much cleaner. I like that I can click through to the original blog now. I also like the easy RSS feature on the sidebar.
I think Blake’s just mad because his name doesn’t show up twice in the sidebar anymore. Or maybe I just like the new design because my name is in the sidebar on this version … :)
By Jason Alba, March 7, 2007 @ 6:28 am
Cool – I have a new blog to read!
By Curtis Earl, March 9, 2007 @ 12:52 pm
i’m interested in your awesome format. i’m running WPMU and i cant find a way to get global categories on my front page (without hacking my core files). could you give me hint as to how you got such a pretty set up? the List Authors Widget doesnt work properly in WPMU. i’m getting desperate enough to pay someone to code it for me. can you give me a hint?
By Jordy, March 9, 2007 @ 1:54 pm
@Curtis
The current version is actually not WordPress, but the original (which employed the same functionality) was. If you’re looking to pay someone to do something similar, I’d highly recommend Mike Smullin. He’s written quite a number of excellent WP plugins and generally comes at a pretty fair price.