40+ Ways that TypePad Could Rock Even Harder

image from hetemeel.com

 

Update 2:21:2007: I've added links to more hacks which solve issues discussed below.

Update 9:22:2006: I've just gone through and updated the Agenda list to include  Hacks and new updates to TypePad's software that resolve issues on the list. Out of 65 items currently on the list, 14 have links to Hacks or updates. There are a few others that I know can be fixed, but haven't published the hacks for yet. Definite progress… not even counting the other updates to the software that were not on the list before the design team implemented them!

Update 3:20:2006: This entry is now the TypePad Hacks Agenda— New feature requests and suggestions from comments will be added here on an ongoing basis. Each has been edited to format it for the list, but includes author credit and a link to the original comment. A new post will announce changes whenever the list updates.

NEW: Quick Links to request categories: New Features, Typelists, Comments + Trackbacks, Blog Management, User Interface, Customer Relations

Here's a list of the things I'd like to see changed in TypePad. Some are new features, some are issues that I feel would improve the existing interface, some are either bugs or oversights. This is the "master list" and I'll add to it as other bloggers make suggestions. I'm also going to devote a post to each of these, and why I feel they are important. For now, I just want to create an overview. If there's something that's really bugging you or that you've long wished to see implemented in TypePad, please let me know in the comments section.

Some of these suggestions can currently be done in Advanced Templates or handled by third party solutions. Many of them should be should be integrated into TypePad's core functionality. It's also possible that some of the things I suggest can already be done in some way that I overlooked. Feel free to make corrections or suggestions in the comments.

My favorite is (of course) at the very top of the list.

 

New Features:

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1. TypePad Storefronts Shopping Template + Layouts. A compose window that creates a store layout with extended entries that serve as product pages. The catalog would be generated from a thumbnail image, title and pay pal button, not unlike a photoblog layout. The extended entry would contain descriptive text, full size photo and a pay pal button. Having a TypePad network of stores (just as TypePad.com has featured blogs and photoblogs) would bring more non-users to TypePad as potential customers. Using categories and tags to organize a dynamically generated store would be a powerful reason to come to TypePad as a host. This could be so frickin' huge… I'll be posting  screen shots of proposed layouts and templates soon.
2. Category archives for photo blogs. Being able to organize photos by category within one photoblog would be a powerful tool.
3. Custom spelling dictionaries tied to user accounts. (It's silly that the spell check feature doesn't recognize the word "blog," for instance).
4. printer-friendly page (if checked, this generates an icon in the footer linked to a text-only pop-up of the page. Just as "insert image" generates a thumbnail image with a pop-up that displays a larger picture.
5. Email forms for blog authors. The current encryption used to encode email address in a standard Typelist can be easily read by using "get info" in FireFox.
   (Read this post to learn how to incorporate a secure email form for your typepad blog, with a free or paid account from freedback or response-o-matic).
6. "Email this post" buttons for Basic and Plus accounts.
   (Create email this post links for Basic account TypePad blogs by using Feedburner's free FeedFlare service).
7. Top level navigation bar, directly below the header.
   (To do this in Advanced Templates, use this Hack).
8. Permanent intro post or homepage.
   (Create a killer landing page with a TypePad Plus or Pro account using this Hack.
   Or, refer to this post to learn about hosting HTML pages on TypePad and creating better "about" pages even in Basic TypePad accounts).
9. "Sticky" posts (short entries at the the top of each post, either for announcements or to orient new readers)
   (You can now pin a post to the top of your blog's home page by marking it as "featured." It's easy to do -- read how in the Knowledge Base article.).
10. NEW: I would love to have the ability to make the title of a post link to the Permalink URL.
    Posted by:Phillip Molly Malone | March 20, 2006 at 06:08 PM
    (To do this in Advanced Templates, use this Hack).
    Update: this is now a standard feature for TypePad.
11. NEW: I would like to suggest the ability to add text ads (such as Adsense) between posts.
    Posted by:Jorge | March 20, 2006 at 08:31 PM
    (To do this in Advanced Templates, use this Hack kindly provided by Asha Dornfest.
12. NEW: I'd like expandable excerpts, rather than entire posts, to show up in the archives. Clicking on a category or month in an older, active blog, brings up a very long page to scroll through.
    Posted by: Nuthatch | April 28, 2006 at 05:40 AM
    (To do this in Advanced Templates, use this Hack).

Typelists:

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1. Drop down menus for categories and monthly archives can be created in Advanced Templates. This should be a standard Typelist option.
   (To do this in Advanced Templates, use this hack).
2. It should be possible to set the number of months displayed in the archives sidebar, just as you can with categories. Including "set to all" (Currently, there isn't an option to increase the number of items displayed in the Archives listing. It only lists the ten most recent periods.)
3. A built-in, native search function would be a nice Typelist feature.
4. The sidebar calendar should use scroll arrows to navigate between months.  The "publish on" pop-up calendar in the blog compose widow has this feature.
5. I would like to be able to make a  TypeList that does not display a title, only the content.
   (To do this in Advanced Templates, use this hack).
6. The "your TypeLists" page should display the file name used by the system to identify the TypeList in Advanced Templates.
   (To do this  use this hack).
7. Grouping TypeLists by blog would be useful for those who have multiple blogs.
   (To do this  use this hack).
8. It should be possible to see which blogs each TypeList is attached to from the "your TypeLists" page. Some Typelists get used on multiple blogs.
   (To do this  use this hack).
9. It should be possible to use a different descriptive name for TypeLists than the title that displays on the blog. Multiple blogs may have the TypeLists with the same title but different content.
   (To do this  use this hack).
10. NEW: Ability to change the order of Typelists on the "About" page.
    Posted by: Nuthatch | March 23, 2006 at 07:17 AM
    (To do this use this hack).
11. NEW: Sub categories in drop-down menus.
    Posted by: pieman | March 23, 2006 at 04:46 AM
    (To do this  use this hack).
12. NEW: Subcategories for Typelists.
    Posted by: Chris |   March 31, 2006 at 04:48 PM
13.  NEW: I would like to be able to set a custom order for items in Typelists.
    Posted by: Chris | March 31, 2006 at 04:48 PM
    (To do this, you can adapt the instructions in this hack).

Comments + Trackbacks:

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1. Although it is possible to create a comments feed in Advanced Templates, comment feeds should be a standard feature.
   (To do this in Advanced Templates, use this hack).
2. When comments are set to require approval, a notice should be generated so that the commenter knows his comment has been sent and is awaiting approval.
   (This is now integrated into the standard comment form)
3. It should be possible to turn off TrackBacks or comments for all archived posts, rather than having to do this individually for each post.
   (To do this in a Basic or Plus account use this hack. In Advanced Templates, use this hack).
   (this is now possible by using bulk actions on posts, as desribed in this post).
4. It should be possible to set comments and TrackBacks to be open for specified time period. IE: after one week, or one month, TrackBacks or comments are automatically closed. Most valid comments and TrackBacks appear when a post is fresh.
5. NEW: I'd like an easy way to style the author's comments to make them stand out from reader comments.
   Posted by: Chris | March 31, 2006 at 04:48 PM
   (To do this in Advanced Templates, use this hack).
6. NEW: E-mail notification for readers leaving a comment on a post-by-post basis. (to alert them when others respond to their comment).
   Posted by: Bud Parr | Apr 6, 2006
7. NEW: Let TypeKey user's comments be automatically approved when comment moderation is enabled (as an option on each blog's configuration).
   Posted by: Bud Parr | Apr 6, 2006

Blog Management Issues:

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1. I've lost many a post by clicking "save" in a compose window that was opened before  service went down. A warning notice in the header when there is scheduled downtime (or even more importantly, unscheduled downtime) would prevent this. I can think of four ways to do this:
   a)  by importing a real-time feed from the TypePad status blog into a field in the compose window. This is probably too much of a server load. A better solution might use ajax to detect whether service is up and then:
   a) AUTOSAVE (locally)
   b) save locally to named file when "save" is clicked
   c) give a warning on error code (404, 505, etc, etc) or timeout on publish, with option to re-attempt to republish.
   The current system just loses all the data when you click save if the service is down.
2. Currently, if a blog is set to display oldest entries first, it shows posts in chronological order but displays only the most recent 10 (or however many entries the main index page is set to display). It should start with the first post, or this should be an option. The existing way pretty much guarantees that all readers will be dumped in the middle.
3. The insert image feature should allow  users to choose (or create) a directory for the image, rather than just dumping it into "Uncategorized Photos". This would make it easier to back blogs up, easier to find and replace images if needed and most importantly would prevent having to scroll through a directory of 1000's of loose files when searching for a specific image.
4. There should be a way to back up image files as well as blog posts.
5. "Uncategorized Photos" should not appear in the stats + referrers menu. It does not actually lead to any data, and is just takes up space for users with multiple blogs.
6. When exporting a back-up file of a blog, it should be possible to break it into multiple files by category or month or post. The current export feature generates one long file. This runs the risk of eventually becoming too large on older blogs with many posts. Imagine trying to back up boing boing in one file!
7. NEW: The ability to offer individual category feeds. Bud comments that category feeds are already do-able!
   (For instructions, read this article in the TypePad Knowledge Base).
   Posted by: Stuart Bruce - BMA PR | March 17, 2006 at 05:05 AM
8. NEW: Method to create a single post and publish to multiple blogs (like a mini-blog-network).
   Posted by: Steve Borsch | March 17, 2006 at 09:48 AM
9. NEW: An import/export feature for template designs, similar to the import/export feature for posts. It should be possible to import either single templates or groups.
   Posted by: john t unger | March 17, 2006 at 01:18 PM
10. NEW: The ability to have a "Next/Previous" or "More" link at the bottom of the main index page.
    Posted by: Jerry Dunn | March 19, 2006 at 03:52 AM
11. NEW: A template that allows users to add a footer with various content to index pages.
    Posted by: john t unger | March 19, 2006 at 08:07 PM
12. NEW: A backup/restore function for templates.
    Posted by: Ivan Pope | March 17, 2006 at 11:28 AM
13. NEW: I'd like to be able to select which photo albums and/or weblogs to post to when  moblogging. It appears that TypePad allows only a single default location.
    Posted by: James Milstid | March 20, 2006 at 11:11 PM
14. NEW: I'd like to be able to more clearly separate authorship of multiple blogs under one account. I have two blogs under one account, but don't want them to share identifying features such as the author "nickname" or Amazon Associates ID in my Typepad profile.
    Posted by:Nuthatch | March 23, 2006 at 07:17 AM
15. NEW: When you have junior authors assigned to your blog the admin should get an alert each time they post so that they know there is new content to be reviewed.
    Via email from: John Jantsch | April 7, 2006, at 5:21 PM
16. NEW: More pinging options (perhaps add your own).
    Posted by: Bud Parr | Apr 6, 2006
17. NEW: A place to designate which feeds (even if they're Feedburner or some other service) to be used for auto-discovery (without using Advanced Templates).
    (Feedburner feed management has now been incorporated into the TypePad application as described here).
    Posted by: Bud Parr | Apr 6, 2006
18. NEW: The ability to manage Advanced Templates in an outside editor.
    Posted by: Bud Parr | Apr 6, 2006

User Interface issues:

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1. Add text justification buttons to the "compose post" tool bar. It's the one word processing tool that I miss the most when doing blog entries, and really seems like a standard feature that should be included. It's silly to be able to click a button to style text as a bulleted or numbered list, but not be able to control justification on a paragraph level without going into the html. I use justification most often for photos, so, it could be included in the insert image dialogue, but would be more useful in the compose post window.
2. Add "insert media" button to compose window for video and sound files
3. The calendar interface used to select when an entry will be posted is awkward when scheduling entries more than a month or two into the past or future. It would be better to use drop down menus for day, month and year.
4. Add a window for tags, similar to the TrackBack window.
   (Technorati Tags have  been incorporated into the TypePad application as described here. Also see this update if you are using an older blog template.
5. Stats should use a cookie to discount my own visits to my blog.
6. Add an embedded real-time survey feature.
   (Read this post to learn how to incorporate embedded real-time surveys for your typepad blog, using MajikWidget).
7. TypeKey allows multiple web addresses. It should also allow me to select the one I want to use as default.
8. Although there are plenty of third party solutions for offline blog editors, I would really like to have a TypePad-native offline editor.
9. NEW: On the page after sign-in, blogs are listed at the top in a blue box. If blogs were listed in order of most recently modified, my favorite blogs would always rise to the top.
   Posted by:Douglass Davidoff | March 24, 2006 at 05:34 AM
10. NEW: I would love to be able to choose the order blogs are listed on the "Your Weblogs" page by rating their importance to me, rather than by alphabetical order (or posting frequency).
    Posted by: john t unger | March 24, 2006 at 12:04 PM

Customer Relations issues:

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1. A TypePad equivalent of Robert Scoble who actively engages with the customer base and other bloggers.
2. Archived posts at http://status.sixapart.com, so users can see the history of TypePad Service and what was done to rectify outages. This is crucial to transparency. Service outage posts should not be deleted when service is restored.
3. TypePad should maintain a list of available third party solutions for stuff they don't want to take on personally. This could almost certainly be outsourced to a customer evangelist, but should be accessible from somewhere obvious within the knowledge base.
4. There should be a way to purchase incremental bandwidth for bloggers who are between the TypePad Pro and TypePad business account.

Comments

[Posted: Mar 17, 2006 5:05:55 AM]

Definitely offer needs comment subscription but would also be benefit from ability to offer individual category feeds.

[Posted: Mar 17, 2006 8:05:27 AM]

Hmmmm - you HAVE been thnking about this for a while, haven't you? There's a lot of good stuff in there ...

I haven't lost a post yet due to an outage, but I have lost one by accidentally opening another link in the same tab (FF) ... very frustrating.

The storefront idea would make it pretty easy to use a blog for your entire on-line presence/business - damn fine idea!

Well, I'm only up to March 6th, but I like where this is going.

[Posted: Mar 17, 2006 9:48:20 AM]

Wow John...really nice list. Typepad store could be huge. Here are a few additions:

New Features

1) Method to create a single post and publish to multiple blogs (this is between a pro and business blog...but even a mini-blog-network concept would be cool. Today, I run a few private client blogs and often have to cut-n-paste the same entry several times and if there is an image inside it, I have to re-input the image *or* the security set for one blog will interfere with parsing in another blog with different security since the image reference is identical and looks for the place it was first input.

2) Top Level Nav Bar. Need to reiterate how HUGE this would be for almost quasi-website use of a blog.

3) Templates, templates, templates. Did I mention templates? Even some of Six Apart's Movable Type partners have gorgeous templates. No...98.7% of Typepad users will *not* go in and fool around with CSS or advanced templating. I've done what I can to move away from pedestrian designs offered by Typepad, and there's *no* reason why they couldn't offer a s**tload of new templates that would actually use some cutting edge web design principles (look at squarespace.com as one example).

User Interface
Been with Typepad since December of 2004 and I *still* have to stop and think about where some miscellaneous feature is buried. The admin UI is *not* intuitive nor geared for workflow.

Customer Relations
What customer relations? At a minimum, actually blogging on the SixApart status blog would be a start. Often a "stats are down" or some such issue is posted...then complete radio silence afterwards. For a company providing tools for conversation online, there is an almost amusing lack of it from Typepad.

--Steve

[Posted: Mar 17, 2006 11:22:03 AM]

I don't agree with the order, but I agree with just about everythign on this list. It just seemed to me that Six Apart have never been very serious about adding new stuff or updating the way things are done in TypePad. It's a bit stagnant.
I totally agree that a company like Six Apart (a BLOGGING company, ferchrissakes, should be blogging like crazy. But they have gone all corporate and busy and stopped a long while back. Bad news).
One thing that bugs me is the lack of simple support for changing stuff when you're using an Advanced Template. For example, if I create a new List, I find it really hard to find out how to add it to my Advanced Template. So basically, I don't do things like that. But it would be really simple for TypePad to help me out - if they just understood the issues.

[Posted: Mar 17, 2006 1:01:10 PM]

Stuart,

Yeah, I lost a nice post last night to a crash of FF. Fortunately, it was one of the few times in my life where the re-write came out better! And yeah, the storefront idea is my flagship here.

[Posted: Mar 17, 2006 1:18:28 PM]

Ric,

Great comment! Let me take it by the numbers…

1. A cross-posting feature does sound like something with some great potential.In the meantime, I *think* I see a way around the problem you are having with pasting photos… If you were to upload all your pics to one directory that does not have security settings, then wouldn't it show up equally weel in any of your blogs? I haven't played with the security settings, but I'm guessing that blogs can be secure and still carry linked images from non-secure blogs. Let me know if that seems right, and maybe I'll do an extended post about it as a workflow hack.

2. agreed.

3. I think one of the reasons TypePad has been happy to leave most stuff as is is because they also feel users mostly won't want to hack their code. Heck, that was why I chose TypePad over MT in the beginning… I though I wanted the simplicity (I still do) and didn't think I needed to be able to get deep in the code (no longer so true). It's possible that the best way to handle your suggestion of more templates would also solve Ivan's comment on another post here suggesting that there should be a way to backup/restore template items:

If there were a simple import/export feature for template designs, then anyone could create templates for TypePad and users could choose to upload templates from external designers. Actually, yeah, that rocks doesn't it? It would make it easier to monkey with the code without fear of permanently damaging it, it would take the burden of designing and hosting the template designs of Typepad's shoulders (well, servers) and would allow users access to a huge library of skins just like wordpress does. Nice.

User Interface:
It could be better, and yeah I hunt and peck too sometimes. On the other hand, the last time they made changes to the interface (not all that long ago) I think they made some really major improvements. I'm much happier with the current UI than the one before it. So I think, in all fairness, they are trying and succeeding in improving it.

I think the real difficulty lays in the fat that there are *a lot* of features in TypePad and a lot of powerful options. It's hard to design an intuitive UI to navigate that much stuff. At some point, I think it's fair to expect users to really explore and then remember where they found what. No?

[Posted: Mar 17, 2006 1:44:21 PM]

Steve,

I don't agree with the order, but I agree with just about everything on this list.

Thanks! The order was actually a bit random… I did throw some of my favorite stuff towards the top of the lists, but it all felt fairly important and I was rushing to launch. The numbered list seemed better than bullets, but shouldn't necessarily indicate priority.

[Posted: Mar 17, 2006 1:55:49 PM]

Dammit! Apparently if you have more than one blockquote, you lose the rest of your comment…

(yes, I saved to clipboard. Then I copied again not realizing 3/4 of the comment was gone. crap!)

anyway, RE: templates, Steve. I think you have a point, but it gives me a good idea that would also solve Ivan's complaint on another page that there is no backup/restore feature for template code.

If TypePad made it possible to import/export files for templates it would really open some doors. That way, I could back up my templates, (especially useful before tweaking them) and it would allow anyone to design new templates and offer them to Typepad users (free or for pay).

This would take the burden of hosting and designing templates off of Typepad's back, which would probably be a welcome thing. Another benefit is that it would extend the design possibilities enough to make TypePad truly competitive in the business market and would create a whole new sub-industry for designers.

I really like this idea!

[Posted: Mar 17, 2006 2:18:21 PM]

Steve:

you said: I totally agree that a company like Six Apart should be blogging like crazy.

I agree, obviously, but go read this exchange in the comments of this post: http://www.geeknewscentral.com/archives/005872.html

Jay Allen writes:

"I will tell you: a LOT of posts die on the vine at Six Apart because it's more difficult to post under your company's name than it is on your own site. (Ask Niall Kennedy about that one.) So we post a lot of things to our personal sites, just to rattle them off, and before we ever clean them up for the 6A site, we get sucked back down in the actual work we're doing. If there's any barrier at all in a startup to blogging, you just won't do it because you're hopelessly buried with real deliverables.

So I guess the big question is, would you rather that we release slower so that we have time to blog more often? We operate under the assumption that that's not the case. Yes, we do need to get better about blogging, but I know that if you worked for us under the same conditions, you'd find yourself in our shoes. I say that because I have said exactly what you are saying when I was an outside developer living in Hungary. I thought I would come to Six Apart and get us blogging more. I was, at least to this day, wrong."

I totally see his points, it *is* hard to find time to blog when you're busy getting the product out the door. And there is a difficulty in striking the right balance between personal and corporate interests. All the same, even he agree that SixApart need to try to do better. And the blogosphere is full of examples of people who manage to do both blogging and product shipping.

Perhaps what they need to do is hire one person whose sole job is blogging for the company. An evangelist. A Scoble. I'm hoping that as this blog grows and gains an audience, I will start hearing more from the people at SixApart and will be able to present both sides of the story. And obviously I would welcome any comments or feedback from SixApart employees.

I'm not looking for a job. But I'd better be honest here and say that I wouldn't turn one down if I felt like I could still write what I want to, pro or con. I *would turn down* any job that involved censoring posts.

[Posted: Mar 17, 2006 2:33:34 PM]

Oops, Stuart, I missed you didn't I?

yeah, it would be *cool* to be able to offer feeds of specific categories.

I'll be posting a comments feed hack soon. I'll see whether I can figure out how to do one for categories as well.

[Posted: Mar 17, 2006 2:39:06 PM]

To Jay Allen:

"So I guess the big question is, would you rather that we release slower so that we have time to blog more often?"

Sorry Jay. They're not mutually exclusive.

My first boss at my first job out of college drilled in to my head a client/customer service basic:

"If a customer contacts you about a problem, don't go off and solve it and let the customer hang around waiting. They'll wait and wait and wait and wonder what the hell you're doing for them! So after a few hours, pick up the phone and let them know that you don't yet have it solved...but you're working on it."

I can't tell you how many times this ONE simple thing has made all the difference in my client relationships. From a lowly sales rep to a VP of Strategic Alliances working with clients and partner relationships, follow-up and letting the customer know what's up is CRITICAL. Six Apart has one of the most awesome and simple customer informative tool yet developed for a geographically disbursed, tech savvy clientele: the blog post. It's fast, simple, and immediate.

Here's one simple, yet illustrative example:

--------------------------------------------------------
Jan 26, 2006
TypePad Service

We have temporarily disabled the display for
visitor stats in the app. Status updates to follow.

Updated 1:26 pm PST
--------------------------------------------------------

After **17 hours** I sent an email to a guy at Six Apart I'd interacted with previously, CEO Barak Berkowitz and left him with this one thought after pointing out the loooong time with zero communication about the outage:

"One of the most powerful aspects of blogging is immediacy. Another is transparency. That said, whenever there are outages with Typepad, Six Apart ironically is neither immediate nor transparent."

[Posted: Mar 17, 2006 9:36:11 PM]

No time to write a long comment, just wanted to say that people at Six Apart are reading this. Thanks

[Posted: Mar 17, 2006 9:40:38 PM]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the comment. I hope you guys know that I want the best for all of us... I love what you've done so far, I just hope we can work together to make it even better.

I'm excited about this and I'm *really* glad to hear from you.

[Posted: Mar 18, 2006 9:14:27 AM]

I nearly wept with joy when I saw this site announced. Typepad is a great tool, and I have been flabbergasted that there isn't a strong community or central hacks repository for users.

As for #5 on your Typelists wish list: you can make a Typelist appear not to have a title by using a font color tag in the title, and making the "title" (one letter if you want) the same color as the sidebar background. The only problem with styling the titles of Typelists is that you are limited to 50 characters, and that includes HTML tags. I've mentioned this in a ticket to Typepad.

Looking forward to reading and participating.

[Posted: Mar 18, 2006 11:34:41 AM]

Nuthatch,

That's a good idea about using the font tag to "disappear" the title. On the other hand, part of my desire to make it go away was also about saving space in the sidebar. Most of the time, it's no big deal, but a good example of something you might not want a title for is a typelist holding ads from Blogads. Their script provides its own title and it becomes redundant.

The 50 character limit can be frustrating. I ran up against that a long time ago and had forgotten it. Thanks for mentioning it here.

[Posted: Mar 18, 2006 2:45:25 PM]

A nice spacesaver in Typelists is to just use one item, and list all your links in it. You can just do a straight list (e.g., multiple lines like "link title
) or use unordered lists, including nested ones. I have examples in my sidebars.

[Posted: Mar 18, 2006 5:34:04 PM]

Nuthatch,

I like the way you've used the nested lists. It looks good.

I do most all of my typelists as "Notes Typelists" and like you, have learned that they work best if you put everything in one entry (with paragraph, break or list tags to separate items). That way, when I want to edit or reorder them I can just copy the html into an editor (usually dreamweaver, but often a text or email window) and reorder to my heart's delight. It used to drive me nuts having multiple items in a typelist and having to delete the top five and re-add them in order to put a new item in between item 5 and 6.

Still, navigation is one of my pet control freak items… So there are times when I find that I want to put something into the sidebar that doesn't belong within a labeled category. That's where I see it coming in handy to be able to turn the title off. The best example is ads, I think. Most ad's raise people's hackles… Being forced to label them as ads (or worse call them something else) has the potential to annoy people even more by calling attention to the ads' presence.

[Posted: Mar 20, 2006 12:40:23 PM]

All I really want (and resent that they don't have) is a stupid "previous 10" kind of link at the bottom of the categories pages. I've practically stopped posting on some of my blogs, because these pages have gotten ridiculously long. I'm not interested in doing weekly archives. I want categories. My friend added this feature to his privately hosted Moveable Type blog, so don't tell me it's hard.

[Posted: Mar 20, 2006 6:08:19 PM]

I would love to have the ability to have the title of a post also link to the post view (i.e. the Permalink URL).

Also (I didn't see this, but might be there) is ordering of items in the typelists (including the notes ones).
Molly

[Posted: Mar 20, 2006 9:47:17 PM]

Phillip,

Permalink titles are a nice feature. I'll add that to the list on the next round.

[Posted: Mar 21, 2006 2:56:12 AM]

Revisiting the list (which is looking great BTW), it occurs to me that this is probably a good argument for closed v. open software. TypePad is Closed, so everything that gets added has to be added by the company itself, and it will make its own internal decisions on what is worth the effort. These decisions will be driven by an (ultimate) profit motive. Nothing wrong with that, of course, and it doesn't make TypePad a bad system. Compare it to Wordpress, which is an Open system. The entire ecosystem of Wordpress is designed so that users can design and deliver new functionality. In the marketplace of ideas, good and useful additionality will out, so the best things that need to be added tend to get added fairly quickly. There is no internal struggle for resources - just a global network of interested parties who care about the software.
So how can TypePad be more Open and less Closed? Well, they need to make themselves much more extensible. Take the first item on the list - adding a Storefront to TypePad. Well, if they had an extensible architecture, this would have been built already, probably a couple of dozen times, by different people. I can't believe that some of the existing storefronts wouldn't like to deliver a plug in for TypePad. We should be able to choose from a bunch of solutions. But hey, TypePad will get round to it maybe one day.

[Posted: Mar 22, 2006 4:02:08 PM]

Ivan,

I think I'll devote a post soon to address your comment on open-source vs closed in detail. Movable Type *does* allow for open-source development. TypePad doesn't. What I am hoping to achieve with this blog is a sort of hybrid of the two. I think there's some interesting potential in in a hybrid model, on many levels.

[Posted: Mar 23, 2006 12:22:10 AM]

Hi there. First off, very interesting blog, and yes, we at Six Aprt are paying attention. I actually came across this post not because of the TypePad-related content but because my it showed up in my PubSub "ego feed" because you mentioned my name.

First let me say that the thread in question had nothing to do with TypePad, but instead Movable Type. Further, and perhaps more important, my response had nothing to do with the TypePad team, but instead the Movable Type team.

The MT team is much leaner than the TypePad team and has been for some time. Finding time to blog is actualy quite difficult when you have a team as small as ours and large looming deadlines. (To wit: I hardly have time to sleep much less blog about things we're not ready to talk about yet...)

As far as your anecdote about helping people and giving them status updates, I assume that you're talking about the TypePad service in which case my answer to the MT user doesn't apply.

Anyhow, I hope that puts my comments into context. We'd all love to blog more, and for the TypePad team it's even more critical. We on the MT team just simply have our heads down and are going full steam ahead.

Take care!
Jay Allen
Movable Type Product Manager
Six Apart - Professional Products Group

[Posted: Mar 23, 2006 12:27:17 AM]

John, I now see that that comment wasn't by you but instead by Steve (Damn tiny text!). Just clearing that up. So, rearrange my words as necessary to make them make sense. :-)

Also, on this: "Perhaps what they need to do is hire one person whose sole job is blogging for the company. An evangelist."

As I said on that thread, we agree! In the past, that role has been mainly filled by Anil Dash. He took a few months off from that in order to jump in with us on the Movable Type team, but he's coming back. I can't think of anyone better to interact with bloggers and get people exicted about our products and blogging in general. Evangelism is coming back to Six Apart. At long last...

[Posted: Mar 23, 2006 12:30:06 AM]

Jay,

Oops, bit of a faux pas on my part, wasn't it. I *did* know you are doing MT, but I *didn't* make that clear enough. I was kind of thinking about Six Apart on the whole that day, rather than TypePad specifically. And I thought that your comment summed up the difficulties involved rather well.

I should have been a bit more careful and thanks for clearing up the possible misunderstanding.

[Posted: Mar 23, 2006 12:38:48 AM]

Was in mid-comment, when your second one came in. You are right I could have made the distinction clearer, so I went ahead with it.

Re: your second comment, glad to hear there will be more from Anil coming soon…

I hope that this blog too will bring more users to TypePad (or MT). I hear I had one convert the first day out, and I doubt it'll be the last…

I think you'll find as you read that the posts and comments from me will all be positive, even when critical. I'm a big believer in diplomacy in blogging. Rants may work for link bait, but I don't think they are the way to establish trust or collaboration.

Again, thanks for joining the discussion!

[Posted: Mar 23, 2006 4:46:30 AM]

Re; dropdown menus. Sub categories. I believe it's possible in Movable Type, why not Typepad?

[Posted: Mar 23, 2006 4:58:07 AM]

Pieman,

Sub categories… yeah, that would be *really* nice! I'll definitely add it to the list.

[Posted: Mar 24, 2006 5:34:47 AM]

My personal wishes:

1) Tool to stream TypePad posts to a web site.

2) On page after sign-in page, where four or five blogs are listed at the top in a blue box, please list the blogs in order of most recently modified first and least recently modified last. That way, my favorite ;) blogs would always rise to the top -- and I wouldn't be reminded so often of blogs withering on the vine. *sigh* (Yes, denial is a river in Egypt.)

[Posted: Mar 24, 2006 11:23:16 AM]

I think you'll find as you read that the posts and comments from me will all be positive, even when critical. I'm a big believer in diplomacy in blogging. Rants may work for link bait, but I don't think they are the way to establish trust or collaboration.

John, I'm only going to speak for myself here, but I already find what you've written both immensely helpful and interesting. I do appreciate the tone you've taken and it's crystal clear to me that the spirit in which you are writing is one of a genuine love for the product and a desire to make it better.

As you mentioned, all too often in blogging frustration clouds the sincere message of supportive desire and ends up sounding more like a scathing rebuke. Being that we *make* blog software, frankly, we're used to it. That is perhaps why it's such a nice and refreshing change when someone makes the effort to give criticism in such a constructive way.

Anyhow, all of that is to say, keep doing what you're doing. It makes a difference.

Jay Allen
Movable Type Product Manager
Six Apart - Professional Products Group

[Posted: Mar 24, 2006 12:04:25 PM]

Douglas,

1. I just posted an addition to the frequently asked questions page that provides you with, not one but TWO ways to stream TypePad posts to a web site. Check there.

2. please list the blogs in order of most recently modified first and least recently modified last. That way, my favorite blogs would always rise to the top

I'll add that to the list in a modified version… how about if you were able to choose which order they appeared in? I would love to be able to control which are at the top of the list (behind the default blog) but I'm not sure I would want it to be based on how frequently I post. Also, I suspect it would much less of a load on the server to provide the ability to number the order of blogs than by recalculating their importance based on posting frequency.

Does that work for you?

[Posted: Mar 24, 2006 12:08:56 PM]

Jay,

Wow, thanks!

You got my eyes all watery there for a second… really.

Can I quote you in the sidebar on what you said?

[Posted: Mar 24, 2006 2:42:05 PM]

John, it *all* works for me. Thank you!

I think that working in cordial creative tension with Jay and 6A, you may become the imbodiment of that old Marine Corps saying that if a task is difficult, we'll accomplish it today, and if the task is impossible, it will take us just a little bit longer.

(Someone will have to correct me on that axiom and its origin.)

dtd

[Posted: Mar 25, 2006 2:47:24 AM]

You know, I'm looking back at the comments today and mine are full of horrendous spelling errors!

Add "spell check for comments" to the list!

Heh.

[Posted: Mar 25, 2006 4:46:47 AM]

Douglas,

You've got me pegged, man… there's nothing I like so much as trying to accomplish impossible tasks! I think *these* tasks are all pretty doable, actually, but I'm a big fan of the non-trivial problem.

Keeps life interesting.

[Posted: Mar 31, 2006 4:44:58 PM]

How about subcategories? I seriously wish Typepad offered multiple levels of categorization. I've come up with my own solution at raleighing.com but it is annoying to have to do it manually. Also, I would like to be able to set a custom order for items in individual Typelists. I am using a hack to get around this but it should be something that is offered standard.

Great blog, by the way.

[Posted: Mar 31, 2006 4:48:56 PM]

Ooo, and I'd like an easy way to make the author's comments stand out from normal comments. That way people know right away that the response is from the author. There's probably a way to fake this, but I haven't figured it out yet.

[Posted: Apr 1, 2006 2:23:26 AM]

Chris,

I took a look at raleighing.com… When you say multiple levels of categorization, do you mean the separate menus you've used (by area, by topic, etc)? I'm not sure if there is a good way to make that easier, but I'll run it by the TypePad design team and see what they think.

Making author's comments stand out is a good suggestion. I'll add it to the list in the next round.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[Posted: Apr 1, 2006 4:11:00 PM]

John, here's a great-sounding hack for #3 in the Comments + Trackbacks section above ("it should be possible to turn off trackbacks or comments for all archived posts, rather than having to do this individually for each post").

If you have access to the blog template (meaning, a Pro account), it's not a bad workaround to delete the tag(s) that enable the comment area and trackbacks in posts. That way, you'd be able to disable comments/trackbacks in historical posts in one fell swoop.

Of course, it would disable comment/trackback functionality on *every* post, past, present and future. So a bit of a compromise.

Suggested by Craig McGinty in a comment to a post of mine today about combating blog spam.

What do you think?

(Another wish - the ability to subscribe to comments on this blog so I don't need to remember to manually check back here at some point to see if you/anyone commented... Or is that what the 'conversations' subscribe option at the top is? If I try and add that to FeedDemon, it gives me an error.)

[Posted: Apr 1, 2006 6:07:10 PM]

Neville,

Thanks for that tip. It's brilliant! I'll post it as a hack entry asap with creds to you and craig both...

Re: comments. Yeah, the conversations feed is for comments but it isn't perfect. I've had a couple bug reports on it and am working on finding a better feed solution for them. I'll repost new instructions when I get them working bettter and update the feed as well. The comments feed as is *seems* to work in most readers, but doesn't handle dates properly, so the comments are grouped by the post the belong to but in the wrong order. I'll try and get started on that today.

[Posted: Apr 2, 2006 4:24:08 AM]

Neville,

Look into using either co.mments.com or co.comments.com if you'd like to be able to track comments on a blog. That's what I use anytime I post a response that I'd like to keep track of. I also offer a co.mments.com button on my posts on www.raleighing.com to assist readers in adding the posts to the comments tracker.

Chris

[Posted: Apr 2, 2006 4:24:54 AM]

I am sorry, the second service should be cocomments.com ... Typos, typos, typos

[Posted: Apr 6, 2006 6:15:23 PM]

John, no... I don't really like how I have it set up on raleighing.com... but it was the easiest workaround for me. I just wish we could have nested categories, like they have on Wordpress and in the newest version of Movable Type (so it shouldn't be hard to implement in TypePad!). I would rather my menus look like this:

Area:
    Apex
    Cameron Village
    Cary
    ...
Topic:
    Entertainment
    General Raleigh
    Housing
    Miscellaneous
    ...

where each item is clickable, including the top level categories (Area and Topic).

Hope this makes more sense of it. SixApart should definitely know what we're talking about since they implemented it in MT.

[Posted: Apr 7, 2006 4:50:51 AM]

Chris,

I'm *not* much of a CSS pro, but do you think it might be possible to implement that look using styles?

Personally, I'd kind of love to have the kind that "self-expand" where you click a link, and then it expands the menu to the next subset of categories… But i think i've only seen that on sites built on a php platform.

[Posted: Apr 13, 2006 3:20:01 AM]

Modifing the date for posts is painfull if you want to go back many months or years. I would like to see the ability to type in the modified date and save without having to click the back arrow 9 times to get to July 2004

[Posted: Apr 13, 2006 7:36:29 PM]

Robert, I agree. Especially because I frequently modify post dates. This item is already listed above, (No. 3 under "User Interface issues" but it doesn't hurt to have more people weigh in in favor of the changes they'd like to see!

[Posted: Apr 28, 2006 5:40:41 AM]

I'd like expandable excerpts, rather than entire posts, to show up in the archives. Clicking on a category or month in an older, active blog, brings up a VERY long page to scroll through. What reader wants to bother with that? It really dilutes the power and usefulness of archived posts.

[Posted: Apr 29, 2006 2:16:03 AM]

NutHatch,

That's a good idea and I *think* I might be able to figure out how to do it as a hack for advanced template users… But it would be a very nice option to have available in the design wizard. It's possible to set RSS feeds to show just an excerpt, so it must be possible to do the same on the blog itself.

I'll add it to the list above.

[Posted: Apr 29, 2006 1:43:27 PM]

Love this blog and I will post about it soon on mine as well as on Netsquared. Many thanks and congrats.

Agree with all of the requests. Number one for me is subcategories. Also especially interested in intro posts and sticky posts. And the idea of importing/exporting templates is brilliant (can't write importing/exporting without thinking of George Costanza).

Celeste W.
studio 501c -- practical ways to use blogs, the Internet, communications and cool tools to advance your social sector mission.....created especially for nontechies in nonprofits

[Posted: May 1, 2006 12:46:20 PM]

Wow! Super list of "must haves!" Typepad Hacks is on my DAILY reading list. Two remarks: (1) How come and Typepad, with such a throng of users, does not have a user forum where we can grapple with all these questions as above? and (2) social bookmarking is becoming a must; how about a native Typepad capability to add links to social bookmarking services in the footer of each entry? As a nontechie, I have struggled with this for a month or so and, every time, I have killed my Advanced Templates so bad I had to start afresh with a new theme/template from the standard Typepad collection in order for my blog to resolve correctly again... Any pointers to articles, advice etc on how to add such social bookmarking links to the footer of each entry would be appreciated... Keep on blogging, people!

[Posted: May 1, 2006 1:05:37 PM]

Thanks T!

As for the User forum, that is quickly becoming the most requested feature. I'm sort of looking into the idea… I haven't got enough extra time to be moderator myself, so I've asked whether there's anyone at TypePad who is up to taking that on. I expect that what will happen is I'll end up looking for a volunteer through the blog here.

The social bookmarking features are doable using feedflare from feedburner (http://www.feedburner.com).

I'm also going to post a DIY hack for this in the nearish future. Just need to spend the time going through it step by step and write the tutorial.

[Posted: May 4, 2006 12:55:59 PM]

I would like to be able to link typelists in my sidebar to be able to view all typelist entries. Click on my books typelist (of which I only see 10 or whatever it's set at) and view all the entries I have made over time.

[Posted: May 4, 2006 2:49:21 PM]

Kwick,

Send me your URL so I can see what kind of TypeList you're using for this… If you have posts on your blog associated with the links you're talking about, you should be able to drop a URL into a link or notes TypeList that points to the category index page for any category of posts.

[Posted: May 8, 2006 2:09:03 AM]

here is a link to my blog that I'd like to be able to link my typelists. I am not sure how to associate my typelists with catagories. Maybe it's just something simple I'm missing.

Thanks :)

K

[Posted: May 8, 2006 12:34:02 PM]

Hi Kwick,

I'm still not sure I understand your question. Is the goal to display different TypeLists on your blog posts depending on the category of the post?

TypeLists can't be associated with specific categories at this time.

Basically, TypeLists are items that you can add to the sidebar of your blog which will display the same info on every page. You can add or delete them, change the order in which they appear, but that's about it. They'll be the same on every page regardless of what category the page is.

If you want to add content only to specific categories, the way to do so would either be to paste it into the entry itself or convert to advanced templates and create footer templates that are dependent on the category (I think that's possible, but it would be a complicated thing to design).

You *can* select some content from a TypeList and paste it into your blog compose window if you want, but it will just duplicate the item that's in the sidebar as a post (unless you paste it into a post and then remove the TypeList from your blog).

You can also set up multiple blogs with different TypeLists and link from one blog to another… For instance splitting your content into a professional blog and a person blog and assigning different TypeLists to each.

I hope that helps. I'm not sure if I've answered your question or not.

[Posted: May 21, 2006 8:37:51 PM]

Hi,

I've been lurking since day one, but a need has arisen, so here I am. I don't think these feature requests have been posted, but I think they would be useful for a wide range of folks...

1. Being able to put a horizontal group of AdSense text links right below the header, above where the page breaks into columns. This one might be easy if I knew anything about CSS!

2. Being able to control how many AdSense ads show up on a page. I want to put an ad in each review, but when someone pulls up the category, it will call for ads in every post -- a violation of AdSense TOS.

3. Finally, I want a real forum -- here, at TypePad or somewhere else. There are many of us who are reluctant to comment and even more reluctant to open a help ticket. Why not let us help each other and get near instant responses?

Thanks John. Keep up the good work. You've given me a glimmer of hope that we can improve TypePad.

[Posted: May 25, 2006 10:44:54 AM]

Rich,

Thanks for delurking! I always love to see comments from people I haven't "met" yet.

I haven't used AdSense at all yet, so I'm going to have some difficulty finding the answers to your questions. I guess I may have to open an account with them purely for the purpose of testing hacks. I'm sure that a lot of the readers here *do* use AdSense and similar programs.

I am *totally guessing* that to achieve your first goal above, you could modify the Hack I posted for top level menus and use it to hold AdSense code. Try using your Adsense code instead of the CSS in step one, then use step two to build the template and step three to call it into your blog. Let me know if that works, and I'll post it as a hack.

[Posted: May 25, 2006 11:01:56 AM]

Thanks John. CSS and template modifications scare the hell out of me, but I am staring to wade into them! I was wondering the same thing when I first saw this hack posted. If I try it out and it works, I'll let you know. Most people who are serious about using AdSense want a horizontal link unit, typically at the bottom of the header.

Guess I'm going to have to upgrade to TP Pro too! I've actually been surprised how far I can take things in TP Plus. For example, the text wrap around ad blocks in reviews like this -- http://gpstracklog.typepad.com/gps_tracklog/2006/02/garmin_gpsmap_6_1.html
-- this was done by putting the ad code inside a table. Not the most elegant solution I'm sure, but it does the job.

[Posted: Jun 2, 2006 4:22:34 PM]

Photo albums: I'd like a way to download all the photos in a photo album. I made many albums without compressing the photos first - oops! If I could download all the photos, then I could delete the photos from the album, compress the pics, then re-upload them.

[Posted: Jun 7, 2006 3:42:24 PM]

A way to use stores templates for an affiliate store would be great too - maybe a grid, like froogle, with each product linking to the actual product listing with the seller - clicks would record an affiliate code, if you were signed up with the seller's affiliate program, etc. That way you could gang products from a dozen different programs/sellers all in one place - I think it'd be very useful.

[Posted: Jun 7, 2006 3:52:39 PM]

The ability to modify the design of photo albums would be great!

You could give them your own style and add other links. Especially for photo driven websites...

[Posted: Jun 7, 2006 6:01:37 PM]

Sarah,

I was sort of under the impression that TypePad automatically compresses photos during upload? If not, what you could do is save the photos by right-clicking on them in the album display pages. The same way you'd save any other jpg on the web.

Yeah, total pain in the butt, I know, 'cause you'd have to go through them one at a time but it is one way to solve the problem.

I agree that being able to back up photos (and other embedded media files) should definitely be added to TypePad's core functionality.

Actually, I just had a thought: You might be able to use a download tool like simplewget to download all the photos on your site:

http://www.cosmos.ne.jp/%7Ekaz6120/downloads/jam_stuff/index.pl?id=simplewget

Let me know if that helps!

[Posted: Jun 7, 2006 6:03:01 PM]

Joshua,

Yep, I've been hammering that point for a long time here. It's one of the main reasons I started the blog.

In the meantime, you might check out shopify.com

[Posted: Jun 7, 2006 6:21:03 PM]

Kent,

There's a lot of things I'd like to see done with the photo albums (like categories!). I think the current feeling at TypePad is that it's better to make them simple to use than to allow layout changes, but there may be some hope in the future… Vox allows categories and tags for photos, and I know that some of the features from vox will be getting implemented to TypePad soon(ish).

I'll add layouts for photo albums to the list, but I have a feeling it's gonna take a long time to get that one pushed through.

[Posted: Jun 18, 2006 1:56:42 PM]

I'd like more function on the insert image dialog: Allow inserting from URL instead of uploading an image. Options for url image display in blog entry: Float left/right; width/height; borders; title; alternative text; onclick open in new window/not new window.

I want it to generate this type of html for an image that is a link:

<a onclick="window.open(this.href); return false" href="HHH"><img title="Click for larger image" alt="Image" src="HHH" width="NNN" height="NNN" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /> </a>

... or this for an image that is not a link:

<img title="AAA" alt="AAA" src="HHH" width="NNN" height="NNN" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" />

[Posted: Aug 6, 2006 6:53:14 PM]

John:

I would like to suggest a new feature. I suppose this will be hard to implement in Typepad but I would like to have a “Related Posts” option in order to show some related entries to a particular post. Now I am doing this manually in my Typepad blogs. I know there are some plugins that do this automatically for Wordpress blogs. Do you know if this is possible with Typepad, or do you know some kind of widget that do this?

By the way: I've followed your instructions to insert AdSense ads between posts and it is working fine. Thanks for your great work.

[Posted: Sep 25, 2006 9:15:03 PM]

There's a lot on this page, so hopefully I'm not duplicating something here, but what's killing me right now is the minimal selection of built-in templates. In comparison, Vox, the new FREE service from Six Apart has a gazillion templates to use. Also, I want to take one of the pre-built templates & customize it to my needs.

This is really bugging me! Custom templates are only available with a "Pro" account, but if all I want is more selection, why should I have to pay more for that, when I don't need any of the other "Pro" features?

[Posted: Sep 26, 2006 2:37:53 PM]

Jorge,

Yes, a “Related Posts” option would be really nice! I will add it to the list on the next revision. For now, Categories work as *sort of* a similar idea but it really isn't the same is it? I don't know how difficult Related Posts would be to code into TypePad, but I bet a Hack could be developed to show the 5 most recent posts in that same category or something like that. I'll look into it.

Sarah,

More templates are coming… I'm working on a very belated post about the Style Contest which will show how to use CSS to restyle your blog painlessly. For now, this will only work for Pro users, but some of the styles will be getting imported into TypePad according to this post on ProNet. And yes, Pro Users will be able to edit the CSS styles from the Style Contest!

[Posted: Sep 26, 2006 2:48:26 PM]

Another thought:

As far as upgrading your account goes, I don't know what to tell you… I feel like it was definitely worth it to me to get more control over my blog. And I think you would probably find that you *do* use the other Pro features once you make the upgrade but it's really a personal choice.

You could use Vox or the free version of Movable Type rather than TypePad if the only thing you need is more custom templates. Personally, I feel like the combination TypePad offers of easy setup with full customization at the Pro level makes it the real killer app from Six Apart and it's worth the money to me. Vox is supposed to generate income via ads, but TypePad has to pay for itself somehow if Six Apart is to stay in business.

[Posted: Sep 26, 2006 5:56:26 PM]

That's good news that more templates are coming. Regarding Vox, I don't want to use Vox for my main blog, but I do blog at Vox. I like Vox! But Vox is designed more for personal blogging, while some of the blogs I maintain both personally and at work are of a more professional nature.

I've been with TypePad for 2.5 years and have changed my template once. I'm ready to change it again, but I know that for what I want to do, I would probably need the Pro account. The problem with the templates they provide at the Plus level is that it's all or nothing - either use the built-in templates or make your own. And when making your own, anything beyond some basic changes just doesn't work right in Plus level accounts. In fact, even using your own banner in the Plus account is somewhat crippled as my help desk ticket from 11/2004 states:

TypePad support writes: At this time, there isn't a setting to turn off the padding unless you are using Advanced Template sets (available to our Pro package members).You could make the banner image background closer to the color in your banner if you wanted, and that might make it blend in better. That can be set in the Weblog: Design: Style area under Banner -- its the top color box on the screen.

They leave banner padding turned on so your banner has a sizable border around it. Maybe if you run into a design issue while trying to customize at the Plus level you'll be convinced to go Pro? (You can see the problem at sarahintampa.com - I had to make banner padding black and the banner never did look right with the border).

For me, the whole point of the Plus membership as opposed to using MT or going Pro is because I don't have any desire to learn CSS or customize code -- it's why I went with TypePad in the first place. To change my template one time I must go Pro, learn MT or move to Vox? I'd rather pay a la carte for a new template installation -- 6A could offer this as a service and make even more money! A wider array of templates could be offered and you could purchase them for a one-time install/customization. Basically, they would be temporarily being "upgrading" you to Pro, then downgrading you once the template is live.

I think that's a fair way to implement this feature. Not only do they get to make money, but Plus level people can have the benefit of a decent template without having to upgrade since there would be other features they don't need.

[Posted: Oct 14, 2006 8:51:40 AM]

This may have been asked and answered before, but I didn't find it. You guys know of something like Gravatars that will would on Typepad? I'd like to have thumbnail photos of my guest authors and commenters automatically display.

[Posted: Nov 16, 2006 10:03:12 PM]

John,

Great work here!

I would like to second the request for "Related Posts" and "Gravatars next to comments" similar to how Wordpress has both.

Keep up the great work!

[Posted: Nov 17, 2006 1:27:13 AM]

Cheryl + Kyle,

The closest thing I know of to Gravatars that currently works on Typepad is the MyBlogLog Community widget… like Gravatars, it requires readers to set up their own account and upload an image. Unlike Gravatars, it doesn't display in the comments (or even based on them) but just shows the most recent visitors to a blog who have their own MyBlogLog account.

Given all the buzz about wigets lately, I'd be pretty willing to bet that *someone* will come up with a widget basedapproach to this. It would be a great extension of the services offered by CoComment for example!

I've had a hack on the back burner for quite some time that allows you to set up styles (including an image) for author comments. One of these days, I'll dust it off and get it posted. I'm pretty sure that it would allow you to set up styles for frequest commenters as well, but you'd need to edit your template code on an individual basis for each person, and I don't see that being a very efficient way to go about it.

I will look into the idea more and see what I can come up with.

[Posted: Feb 16, 2007 12:03:03 AM]

The feature I'd MOST like to see implemented is one I'm sure all typepad pros and semi-pros would ask for if they knew what it is that's missing.

TypePad sites DO NOT, CANNOT and WILL NOT feature on Google News, and subsequently not be sent out in any of the millions of google news alert emails sent out each day to their opt-in subscribers.

Google documentation stats (among other things) that... "The URL for each article must contain a unique number consisting of at least three digits. Please note that this number can't consist of only an isolated four-digit number that resembles a year."

Taken from Google News Suport Article: http://www.google.co.uk/support/news_pub/bin/answer.py?answer=40741

I submitted a support ticket and while as helpful as they could be, they suggested I ask Google if they had a work around.

It's my opinion that Typepad should be offering the work around. Each post is already assigned a unique ID number, but the system currently names the url of the post using the 1st 15 characters from the post title.

I do understand that by using just 15 characters it limits the typepad system to just 999,999,999,999,999 (what is a trillion? gazillion?) messages. But for google the unique element would also be made up of the actual domain name also.

Essentially the number only needs to be unique on my typepad domain.

/discuss

[Posted: Feb 20, 2007 11:29:19 PM]

I'd like to see a hack to put Digg and Delicious links at the bottom of the post, UNDERNEATH the horizontal line, right next to the Permalink and date, in the same font, so the bottom of my posts aren't all junked up.