Posted by
Playful Walrus on Tuesday, April 05, 2011 11:19:11 AM
Did I miss the memo? Has Salem given up on the Townhall.com user blogs? Was there some other Salem property to which we were all supposed to migrate?
Normally, I wouldn't do a "behind-the-scenes" post like this on this blog, but seeing as how my e-mails to Townhall.com have gone unanswered, I don't know what else to to.
I get the impression that the user blogs aren't the priority they once were for Townhall.com/Salem, probably due to belt-tightening. This is sad to me, in part because I was the first user blogger here, but more importantly because I like Townhall.com.
I use
Facebook,
Twitter, and
Google's Blogger. But I want to keep blogging at Townhall. So I want to see things get better for the user blogs here:
1. Overhauling the layout in a way that will more strongly promote other Townhall/Salem (TS) content. For example, the blog can be framed with displays of/links to TS advertisers, as well as selections from all of the other Townhall/Salem content, most of which is listed in the current navigation bar: columnists/columns, Tiphseet postings, Hotair postings, News, Political Cartoons, Talk Radio, Video, Photos. Preferably, when going to publish a post, a blogger would be asked to choose X choices of each from recent list (except for the ads). For example, “Please choose at least three recent columns from this list to be featured in the left column framing your blog. Please choose three political cartoons... etc,” That way, when readers are directed to the user blog, it may draw them further in to Townhall.com. There's Salem's incentive.
2. In exchange for this little bit of extra work on the part of the user and having "their" blog framed by Townhall content and ads, the user will get a working and easier blogger interface. Last I checked, I couldn’t update my blog roll or other aspects of my blog. It would be nice to get that back. It would also be nice for it to be easier to quote, embed pictures/audio/video, and link.
3. Make it easier for people to quote, link to, and otherwise share posts from user blogs.
4. Make it easier to interact the user blogs with Twitter, Facebook, etc. For example, it would be great if when I posted something to my blog, I could have it automatically post links to that entry on my Twitter and Facebook accounts.
5. Make it easier to find content on the user blog with a search, tags, and more featured posts.
6. Make it easy for people to "subscribe" to or follow the blog, and the comments of any given posts.
7. Go back to featuring different user blogs on the page with the list of recently updated blogs, and quoting user blogs on the Tipsheet.
8. Go back to having a link to our blog in our username when we comment on the Tipsheet, columns, etc.
9. Allow us to see data of visits to our blog, so we can determine what most interest readers.