Better Seattle

Now isn't that interesting. Sounds like a very good way of doing it. I will look forward to the launch tomorrow. 

I am looking forward to it!

Hi Sara...   :)

I also am looking forward to the launch of the new dashboard.

This is going to help us all so much. Thank you.

TLW...ROAR!

 

Thanks, Sara. Makes sense to me - look forward to seeing it tomorrow.

BTW it was fun to see you today in Long Beach although only briefly. Thought it was a great session (I did a post with some pics - check it out).

Jeff

Bryant, Virgina, and TLW, I await with anticipation as well!!! The new Dashboard should be far more stimulating than the current one...

Hi Jeff, it was great to meet you!  The seminar was worthwhile as well as entertaining, far more educational than I estimated. I am still mulling over my thoughts from it.

I'm excited to see it.  And thanks for helping to make AR so accessible, for lack of a better term.  Friendly maybe...

Hi Sara!  Thanks for the update!

oops, that was me....i was not logged in!

There was a lot of internal debate over the couple weeks about what direction to take with the blog dashboard and also how to provide a better way for people to manage the blogs they read.  The "associates" functionality never was really understood and confusing, so that wasn't helping things and the blog dashboard needed to be much more "personalized".  I think this will be a major improvement. 

All be darned, you guys just surprised me again! I'll look forward to the roll out tomorrow.

Ahhh, compromise. It does make the world go 'round smoother

Yep, Carnac knew there was a change to the dashboard coming! 

A couple of screenshots on how it works:

Adding a subscription:

Bulk "migrating" a group of associates to blog subscriptions in one click.

wow...that really sounds like a great compromise...looking forward to see it

Matt...

Will I be included in this new dashboard?

The way it is set up now I would like to be :)

TLW...ROAR!

This is such a productive environment, and yet you are making it even better... high-minded thinking for our benefit!  Thank you!  I look forward to tomorrow's Active Rain environment!  Will we be able to see where people rank in the network?  I found that to be very valuable as I cruised around, reading people's profiles and their blogs and comments... Keep up the incredible work!

Thank you, from one who is relatively new to AR this sounds like navigating through the site will be easier.

Matt, I think I may want to kiss you. Okay, maybe not you, maybe Sara. No, hold on, she's married to Jon. Well, I guess there's always Ben. Okay, maybe not!

Thanks, Guys. I am totally pumped up about this!

Very creative... I like the feature.  It will make it so much easier to find the posts of those that I like to read.  Thanks.

Very look forward to the implementation!  I applaud how you guys keep tweaking something that is already pretty good! :)

I'm all for it - sounds like the dust is settling in the brainiac room re: blog positioning.  Active Rain Gods continue to do a great job!

Thanks, Sara.  I love all the new changes AR has made recently.  I look forward to checking out the new dashboard in the morning!

Good choice.  I hope most will be happy with it.

Sounds like nice upgrades.  I am looking forward to seeing them in the morning.

Thanks for the update.  Can't wait!  It's already morning for me here but I guess it will be implemented right around that time when the system stops responding for me and I'm told it's down for maintenance =)  It'll be worth the wait.

Zippity Doo Dah, Zippity Yea, Wonderful feeling, wonderful day. Kinda of like all the Rainers patiently waiting for Christmas morning!

Very good upgrade-

A much more efficient way to go straight to what you want to read the most.

Sara - you make us want to sleep fast!  I'll be switching all my associates to subscribed blogs. Thanks for the heads up.

It sounds fairly confusing to me, but hopefully it'll be self explanatory once I see it in action.  Will you still be able to see everyone's blogs?  which is the way I like to read them?

An excellent idea!  Good job AR folks! Can't wait for tomorrow AM

I think this is a great compromise! What a great idea, nice job guys!

Sounds like AR has been busy adding even more enhancements!

 

Great news..

If I am on http://activerain.com/  Where do I see a link to my dashboard now?  I have it saved as a favorite. 

I did the " You can no longer view blog posts by associates group. You can now subscribe to particular bloggers. To make this transition easier you can add all of your existing associates as subscribed bloggers." and I have a dashboard page but I was trying to help somone else see their new dashboard ...do you access it though associates?

Thanks for the update!

Got my subscriptions set up already, very easy and very quick.

 

I am amazed at how many posts those bloggers have contributed to Active Rain !! 

Sara,

Thanks for the post. The enhancements sound great.

Sara -- Please bring back the ability to read posts by my Associates.  I took time to put them in groups, and once a week I look at each of those groupings.  I took time to organize my associates into logical groups so I could read their stuff in a manner that worked for me.  Granted I am liking the most subscribed and my subscriptions, but I liked that I could see several people in one glace.  I am already missing new people, now I have to do more work to find posts.   Now I have to click in and out of each person instead of seeing a stream of posts since the last time I checked.   I limit my time here and instead of making it easier, you are making it a lot harder on me.   Just my opinion... 

 

 

I am anxious to see how it workss and will look for it to start .

 

Patricia Aulson/REALTOR/SEACOAST< NH, ME, MA  

URL:   www.patricia4realestate.com 

I am confused about how I read my subscriptions now.  I used to just click on my associates and the "read" button.  I liked it on my home page because I used that like my personal control center.

I love the new changes to the dashboard.  I especially like how you can change the dashboard to read either subscribed blogs, featured blogs, all blogs, etc.  It took me a while to figure out how it worked but now that I have, I really appreciate all the work and effort that went into improving the dashboard.  Kudos and many thanks!

Sara-

Thanks for the post.  The enhancements sound great !

MF: the page with your subscriptions on it is http://activerain.com/bloghome  I don't see a place to click on that though.  You can go through your associates and hit the subscribe all button or whatever it says just below  "You can no longer view blog posts by associates group. You can now subscribe to particular bloggers. To make this transition easier you can add all of your existing associates as subscribed bloggers." and it will take  you to http://activerain.com/bloghome with the message "Bulk added all associates to subscriptions" again in red on the top of your dashboard page.   I believe when one of your associates does a blog entry it goes up to the top on that page... 

Sounds fabulous!

Looking forward to seeing it.

Sara: It was great meeting you yesterday at the Long Beach event. And congratulations on the ever-improving Active Rain!

It's really rather easy. Initially, you have to go to each person's profile page, click on their "My Blog" and then over to the top right, cliick on subscribe. As you encounter new people that you want to add, you simply click on the subscribe after reading their post. When you go to your Blog page, you can view all the latest posts from those you have subscribed to, in descending order. It'a actually pretty cool. It's like having your Top Friends in Myspace. They're always there to greet you when you go to your blog page!

I think this will be a great thing. I am looking forward to how things turn out.

Colleen, I agree to it probably would have been best to leave the associates (posts) alone. I know many people created custom groups to make viewing blogs easier. We were simplya adapting as best we could with what we were given. But now, I think this new change makes greater sense. Maybe they will re-insert the associates groups the way there were?

I can add the ability to read by associates back in for people that want to maintain that method.

Matt - I was just going to second what Colleen and Rich said, and then your comment magically appeared. I, too, have my associates set up in groups, and it's so much easier reading their posts that way.  I am glad to see your comment just above mine, because I think that will be a great thing to put back in.

One question I have today - I always click on the newest blogs to read, looking for new folks and posts that don't make the featured posts status.  It's not there anymore, at least not in a way that I recognize.  I had been able to do that from the homepage.  Is there a way I can still do that?  I'd hate to lose that ablity.

It kinda seems to me like the "most subscribed" is back to the 'popularity' contest that so many seemed to be going back and forth about.  Isn't this just like that, only called something different?  I'm probably misunderstanding this, and if so, my apologies.

Thanks,
Ann 

Hi Maureen M!

To access the blog dashboard page, from ActiveRain's main page after you're logged in, click "ActiveRain Blogging" at the top left of the page. This takes you to the Blog Dashboard.  

Thanks Sara... we were looking for the word Dashboard...or Subscribed. If it was a dog it would have bit me. 

We both thought that had to do with joining the network rather than reading the blogs we were subscribed to.... 

What is the "ActiveRain Real Estate Network"?

The "ActiveRain Real Estate Network" is a free online community for real estate professionals run on behalf of its members. We are building this community in order to help members promote and grow their real estate business on the Internet.

Joining the network is free, and takes only a few minutes...

Real estate blogging?

Participate in the real estate blogging community by joining the Network. Visit the ActiveRain Blog for updates and news.

 

 

Matt - if it's not too much trouble, that would probably be a good thing for now. Many people adapted after the removal of the old Dashboard by creating custom association groups and accessing their most current posts. While I think the new subscription method is much better than that, I think it might help people transition easier by giving the 'read-by-associates' back.

I didn't read all 50 of the prevoius comments, but I really like the idea of subscribing to a blog, and then you can find their posts without a search.  Great added feature.

The thing about the associates post was you could read it without a bunch of clicks on blogs, one click... it was the only thing that kept me reading the last couple of weeks but posts from my associated kept getting  fewer  and farther  between...  

Hopefully they will all subscribe to their associates and start blogging again... 

Matt--- I would be so happy if you did give me back the read post by associates...  Thank you...

I liked that "recently updated" list because it let me see posts I would never otherwise have seen.
 

I like it - slick and pretty self-explanatory. 

I think it's great--just goes to show you that we are a work in progress. 

Colleen, sorry for the delayed response.  I believe we are going to return the "read by associates" list tomorrow.

Ken, on the left column you can select "all" next to "Show" and "Today" next to "Time" to view the most recent posts.  Similar to what the right hand side was. 

Will look forward to it..

OK, so I have been subscribing to people's blogs right now....I just realized that some how it is starting to look very much like the good old dashboard....I am a little concerned.....is this legal?  : )

 

That sounds like a terrific way to have the dashboard. Way to go. I do like having blogs there. It makes it easier searching.

Sara - I have liked all the changes to AR from the beginning, but this one is not one of them.  I am sorry to say that it was easy to read my "associates blogs" before without having to go into each one of them every sinlgle time to see if they have posted anything.  It is so time consuming, something I have very little of lately.  Am I missing something here?  Is the old Associates then "posts" coming back or appears somewhere different?  I am truly frustrated and apologize for not having positive feedback.

I agree it looks like "the good old dashboard".  Why is a good question. 

Rick & Ines:

Regarding your request to bring back the "read by associates" function: I believe we are going to return the "read by associates" function tomorrow. Matt already has done the reprogramming it just needs to be uploaded to the server.  Thank you for your patience.  

Regarding your statement: "I am truly frustrated and apologize for not having positive feedback."

All I can do about that is sing you a little song.  Here it goes:

Here is a little song I wrote. You might want to learn it note for note. Don't worry, be happy.

In every upgrade we make some trouble, when you worry you make it double! Don't worry, be happy...

Ain't got no way to read your posts, can only read 30 blogs at most? Don't worry, be happy.

The raingods don't respond to emails? You leave comments, but it always fails! Don't worry, be happy.  Look at me, I am happy :)

Don't worry, be happy. Here I give you my Instant Messenger, when you worry you IM me.  I make you happy. Don't worry, be happy. 

OK, I have to be a dissenter as well.  I think in some ways it will be more difficult to find newer bloggers with this change, and I really want to see what my associates have to say without subscribing.  But AR Gods do so many wonderful things it's hard not to just marvel at their relative wisdom...

Don't Worry...La La La La

Be Happy...La La La La

Sorry Jonathan. I couldn't resist joining you in singing that song :)

TLW...ROAR!

Jonathan, THANK YOU.....that really made me feel better - you are a trip!