I am going to be fixing something I have wanted to fix for a while -- Blog Counters. This is what creates the "visitors" number on the right side of your blog.

Right now it is not really accurate -- it counts some people multiple times, and it's easy for one person to drive it up which is unfair for everyone.

Also, some search engines that scan your web pages can cause the counter to increase as well... making it more inaccurate.

I have implemented a new counter (which is currently hidden from view). It is much more accurate and will count true visitors, once per day and should not increase due to things like search engine scanning, etc. I will also be keeping a log to scan for any activity where someone might be trying to force the counter higher.

I'm sure you are all wonder... "What will happen to my current count"? Well... it so happens I have a true log of every visit to your blog since you started it. I will be writing a program to scan that log and accurately count each "visitor" on a daily basis, removing multiple visits by people, search engine visits, etc. and will adjust your counter to this new value. The positive side of this is that it will be fair for everyone -- if you had more real visitors, your counter will be higher than someone elses.

Your counter may drop a bit from where it is now, however everyone elses will drop as well (it will be relative). Also any counters that have been forced higher will be much lower and where they should be to be fair to everyone.

I will let everyone know in this news blog when I do switch over -- it will probably be in a few days. I know many of you will be upset that your count will be lower, however it is the fairest thing for all members and it will be much more accurate and have more meaning. It won't be perfect, but it will be much improved over the current simple counter system.

Feel free to post any comments.

-John

I know it has been a while since I have given you a new feature... and there were a few things I promised you. So this AM i started working on the custom template features for your blogs.

It's almost ready -- just give me a few days as I am finishing up something else. You can see a sample here (NOTE: It is just a quick sample, of what will be able to be done -- it is not finalized):

http://learningpiano.blogstream.com

Basically you will be able to change the colors, font sizes, etc. on just about anything on the page. You can actually do more than I have done here -- you will ultimately be able to change font styles, bold, italics, size, etc. as well as box background colors, etc.

I'm just converting the old format to the new one so that you will be able to change these things.

What I plan on is allowing everyone to customize their own page and over time there will be a gallery of pre-set templates you can choose from.

In the future I hope to allow people to complete change the page design -- but for now color will be the first step.

-John

Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still here... had some travel and other things the last few weeks taking up my time, and I have been concentrating on adding servers for the holiday period so that we are all set for growth (for both this and some of my other sites).

I basically do this myself so I have to spread my time around to different tasks.

I just added a first version of a blog rating system. It is in the top right corner of every blog as long as you are logged in.

Just select the number of stars you rate the blog, 5 being best, 1 being worst.

You can change your rating at any time, only the latest rating counts for your account.

Once a blog receives 20 ratings from 20 users, a average rating will appear in the same area... right now all blogs have no public ratings. (that is what NR means).

Start rating blogs today as you view them... ratings should start appearing over the next few days.

They will show as dark blue stars under the orange stars.

-John

A few of you have pondered, just how does someone get featured?

(Sorry for the delay on this -- I've had a pretty hectic last few days)

Well, it's pretty random. I just basically wander around the site and when I see something interesting I feature it.

Why haven't I updated it recently? I've just been busy, and the site is growing so fast that it is harder and harder to keep up!

I did take some time today to weed out old featured blogs that were not updated lately and to add a few more blogs.

By the way, I try to be pretty open with selections. I look mostly for blogs that people find interesting and comment on, or are well written/easy to read. If you post in all CAPS or dont use any punctuation, you are less likely to be featured.

I am working on a rating system for blogs -- basically members will be able to rate from 0-5 stars with the click of a mouse -- if all works out, these ratings will be used to help find new featured items and help me sort through the nearly 3,000 active blogs in the system.

Any ideas along this line, feel free to comment. Always looking for new features and ideas.

I hope everyone likes the * Comments feature -- I have personally found this to be useful in finding updated blogs... also have you checked out the Blog List? I hope the sorting features have helped you find other blogs of interest. If you notice, you can click on the category name in a blog post to see other blogs related to that one as well.

-John