socialmedian: Here are some of the features we are working on completing before we go public beta

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Here are some of the features we are working on completing before we go public beta - socialmedian

Submitted by Jasongoldberg

Jul 24, 2008

Summary

As noted, we're currently hard at work on a number of features and fixes to socialmedian before we go from private alpha (current) to public beta (start of our new future).

Here are some of the features we are going to complete before moving to beta:

* Major enhancements to creating a well functioning News Network on socialmedian. A simple wizard which walks the user through a few easy steps. Will function more like saving a search than does today. Selecting topics and sources will be much simplified. Behind the scenes we're also installing a whole new search technology based on Lucene, which I'm sure many are familiar with.

* Tools to spiffy up your News Network:
o Picture
o Description
o Welcome message to new members of your news network
* Something we're really excited about: A Volume bar which allows any user to adjust the nosie level of a news network up and down as they like. Want more stories? Turn up the volume and we'll be more lenient in our search algorithms. Want fewer stories? Turn it down and we'll focus on a tight search.

* A new homepage

* Fixes and enhancements to suggested Newsmakers

* New "get started guide" to help new users get going on socialmedian step-by-step

* An in-box sorta thing to help you track which news networks you've been invited to. We'll expand on this more in the future.

* A bunch of usability fixes and enhancements.

* And, a cool twitter feature that i'm not going to reveal just yet.

Fingers crossed that all goes well.

We'll update again as we get closer to it. Read the full article

Comments (16)

Thomaspower,

Jul 25, 2008

Good luck with these new tools, may we have alot more about the people and individual members please?

Hyperkinesis,

Jul 25, 2008

all features sound great! will private messaging between members also be a future feature? I could imagine it would enhance the networking capabilities.

I haven't been this excited about a new application in a long time!

Thomaspower,

Jul 25, 2008

yes private messaging and private clubs are essential.

Jasongoldberg,

Jul 25, 2008

Thanks everyone. We've got a plan and completed designs for private networks and private discussions but that wont be ready next week. We'll push that out soon after.

Other suggestions?

Hyperkinesis,

Jul 25, 2008

there is another feature that would probably be nice to have, but I am unsure how doable it might be. When one submits news to Socialmedian, there are currently two options: either you let the system decide which networks are relevant, or you pick the networks yourself. Generally speaking, the system does a good job picking the appropriate networks with which to share the news, but there are times when it picks networks that are not totally relevant to the news at hand. It would be good to have the option, once the news are submitted, to "unshare" them from those networks where they do not really belong. Currently, the only way to do so is by deleting the entire piece and resubmit it, hand picking the networks it belongs to. Again, I don't know from a coding standpoint how complicated this might be, but perhaps, something you might want to consider for the future.

Bushmanbill,

Jul 25, 2008

Love the new set of features above (esp. the volume and twitter feature) and can't wait to see them.

Wozkol,

Jul 25, 2008

Great news! I'm really excited about the new features, especially the "Noise volume" and the new Homepage. Keep doing this good work!

Pavanmishra,

Jul 25, 2008

Eagerly waiting for Beta release.

Nishith,

Jul 26, 2008

@Hyperkinesis That would be a useful feature to have.

Also, how about having a reply system similar to twitter, but for comments?

Hyperkinesis,

Jul 26, 2008

another feature that might be worth considering is to give network owners the ability to ban content submitted by certain users. now, that socialmedian is in alpha, this ability is not necessary, but once it's open, spam blogs will find their way in and start creating an inordinate amount of noise. "report user" buttons could also be useful, so that admins are alerted of the existence of spammers.

Jasongoldberg,

Jul 26, 2008

Agree, we are going to need to get "this is spam" and "report user" in place asap.

Cabradio,

Jul 30, 2008

Cool...looking forward to the new features! Thanks!

Omprakash,

Jul 30, 2008

Wish you good luck.

Nigelwalsh,

Jul 30, 2008

looks great - how about being able to share with individuals on other networks such as facebook, LinkedIN, Ecademy, or Plaxo...This could also help get more folks on board quickly once we move to Beta..