This is a public service announcement for everyone who uses Microsoft Word, Frontpage, Expression or some other separate WYSIWYG editor to write your blog posts and then paste them onto JoeUser:
Don't do it.
These tools do their own special formatting, and all a lot of junk tags that don't play nice with the site (they didn't play nice with the old site either, but you didn't always notice since we weren't doing half the things we're trying to do on the new site.
I missed my Friday Fidget last week, but I blame that on simply being insanely busy. You see, we launched Sins of a Solar Empire at the start of the week to retail and digital distribution. This means there was a fairly constant flow of work related to Sins that needed to be taken care of, on top of everything I do on a daily basis already. This week things were starting to calm down, then we decided this coming weekend was the perfect opportunity to do our massive database migration. No rest for the weary.
Anyway, on with the Fidget...
After months of teasing, today I'm extremely happy to let you all know that we're ready to let everyone take a crack at the new site. It's open to anyone who wants to take the new blog community for a spin
https://www.joeuserbeta.com/
A few very important notes before you start:
- The beta site is 100% test data
Every post, comment, blog edit etc that takes place on the beta site WILL BE DELETED when the site goes live. This is a sandbox for you to play with the new site, its features etc.
- You will have to create a new blog on the test site
We only imported a handful of the top blogs for testing. Chances are that once you log in, you will need to create a blog on the beta site. Again, this is all test data that will be wiped and overwritten when we do the full import from the existing JoeUser. Your basic login information will however still work. Do not create a new account, just a new blog site. Your current JoeUser blog will be automatically imported when the site goes live.
- Not Every Feature from JU1 is in JU2
This is phase 1 of the site. We have not ported each and every feature to JU2 just yet. Things like blog "skins" are not implemented yet. We have a long list of additions for the next several months as we go through Phase 2, 3 etc.
We are specifically looking for the following feedback at this moment:
- Critical-Stop Bugs
Anything that prevents you from posting, commenting or interacting as normal on the site. Any page errors, any script errors etc.
- Incorrect/Missing Links
Did you click on a link and get taken somewhere completely wrong/unexpected? Do you get to a page that has nothing on it?
- Browser Problems
Does the editor actually work on your web browser? Does everything show up in neon pink?
Please post all feedback, questions, comments and concerns regarding the beta site on this thread.
When: Sunday February 17th, 8pm EST - Monday February 18th 9am EST
This weekend we will be upgrading the database that powers Stardock's forums & articles system. This upgrade will impact every site across the Stardock Network. During the upgrade, you will not be able to post threads, comments, or blogs. The database will be locked during the maintenance window to prevent data loss.
You will be able to read any content posted prior to the 8pm lock. You will not be able to post anything new.
Writing an article that attracts readers is as much about formatting as it is about actual content. Attractive images, lists, clear paragraph breaks and more can turn your blog from an intimidating wall of text into an easy-to-read post that invites the reader in.
I'm sure you've seen the blogs/articles where the author just puts everything down as a giant block of text. No breaks. No pauses. Nothing to visually divide the content. The result? A post that is incredibly hard to read, and may drive the reader off immediately, never bothering to even scan to see if there's interesting content worth reading.
You could write the most interesting article ever posted to the Internet, but unless you know how to format it, no one will read it. Formatting is the key to taking a good article and making it great.
Here's a fun question to start everyone's week out: How did you pick the handle/nickname you use online? We have an odd collection of names out here. Ranging from Little-Whip and EmperorOfIceCream to Locamama, DrGuy, Frogboy and more. It's always interesting to see what names people pick for themselves when they are given the chance to create a completely new persona for themsleves. So, how/why did you come up with yours? Mine? Everyone alwasy figures there's...
Ok, this can be chalked up as being one of the absolute worst weeks I've had in quite a while. If it could go wrong, it did, and after going wrong it seemed to just compound and get worse. I'm so glad it's almost the weekend, I could dance. So, even though this has been a more active blogging week for me than most, I'm still doing my new weekly bit, if only to get into the habit. What I'm Playing Burnout Paradise Last weekend, I grabbed the Burnout Paradise demo fro...
Since I don’t often have time to blog anymore (though you could argue that with all the time I spend on forums and writing content for WinCustomize that I post more now than I did when I was actively blogging) I wanted to find a way to do at least one regular bit every week. So, instead of one blog on one topic, I’m going to do one post with a bunch of mini-blogs. A hodge-podge of topics floating in my head. The idea is to do this every Friday to wrap up the week… What I’...
For Christmas this year my parents surprised me with an iPod Touch. Probably the last thing I would expect under the tree! Overall, so far I love the gadget. It's as good as any iPod I've ever had and I love the touch screen features. In fact I'm typing this from the touch right now and after just a short bit of time im typing pretty fast and with only a few errors here and there!This is definitely the best gadget ive owned yet.
Last month we announced that JoeUser 2 was under development. You got a few very early mockup shots of what the site was going to look like and I talked a little bit about the improvements everyone will be able to expect. Well, a month in and we've made some excellent progress, and we're even getting ready to start having select users test the site (more on that in a future update). Today, I'm going to take you on a tour of the site, showing off what has been implemented so far, a...
I want to take a moment today to introduce you to the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America. For those who don't have a copy handy, I'll make it easy and give it to you now: Amendment I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievance...
1998 - JoeUser.com is a "news aggregation" site that tries to summarize major tech news and events. 2000/2001 - JoeUser becomes exclusively the personal blog for Brad Wardell September 9th 2003 - JoeUser is transformed into a blog community site where anyone can sign-up, post and participate. Four years ago, JoeUser went live as a blogging community for folks tired of the isolation of traditional blog sites. The level of community interaction here, and the amount of promotion ar...
Did you know that JoeUser, as it stands right now, recently passed the four year mark? Hard to believe the site has been around that long, giving many of us a digital home in the information wasteland that is what folks now call the "blogosphere". It was September 9th, 2003, JoeUser changed from just the personal blog page for Brad (Draginol/Frogboy) and became the community site you see before you now. While visually and perhaps functionally the site hasn't changed a great ...
Dear JU Faithful, At the moment we are looking into what would be involved in an update to this site. There's no question that it's been a while since it got some tender, loving care from development, and we're thinking we *might* have some time in the coming months to address this problem. As we do these updates, we also might be able to sneak in one or two new features, if time permits. So, we'd like to hear from you on what you would like to see added to the site in an updat...
Ok, we can do it with Word 2007, will it also work with Windows Live Writer?