Introducing the TypePad Hacks AHA Award

 

The TypePad Hacks Applied Hacking Award (AHA) recognizes bloggers who have designed cool new hacks or done a particularly nice job of implementing hacks documented here in the past. It's my little way of pointing out blogs that may inspire you or help you to see new ways to make your blog work for you and your readers. Hopefully, it will be an inspiration to tackle some new code for those of you who've been meaning to try something out but haven't done it yet.

The first AHA goes out to Debra Hamel and her blog The Deblog. Debra has sent in four hacks in the last week. I've published two of them so far:

How To: Display Excerpts Rather Than Full Posts on Your Blog's Archive Pages
Build Community with a Custom Comment Archive Page for Your TypePad Blog

Debra's other two hacks will appear soon. One allows you to place an edit button in the footer of each post so that you can access the compose/edit page with one click (other people won't be able to edit your posts without having the username and password for your account). The other hack is a variation which allows you to edit comments in the same way. Both of these are timesavers for anyone who routinely adds content to older posts or wants to manage comments easily without having to search through the List Comments page.

I think what impresses me most about the hacks Debra has sent in is that each one takes an existing idea and finds multiple ways of making it useful. The Comment Archive page is an extension of the ideas she used to code the hack for displaying excerpts of posts on the archive pages. The edit comment hack is a variation of the edit post hack. Each one does something different and adds a different functionality to a blog, but they show a creative approach to coding and problem solving that leads me to expect that Debra will continue to come up with great ideas in the future. I'm really glad that Debra was willing to share her knowledge and allowed me to publish her work here.

If you've got a cool hack or a great example of a hack you've used on your own blog, drop me a line or leave a comment so I can go check it out.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, blogs, blogtools, typepad, typepadhacks