I just added a new feature on blog pages -- when a blog post has comments, an asterisk will appear next to it in the "Recent Posts" on the right side of the blog page.

The asterisk will be different colors depending on how long ago the comment was left -- red means recently, green means last day, black means over 1 day.

I might change the color scheme or icon -- want it to be subtle but still easy to see.

It will only appear on blogs that have been updated since about 4 PM EST today -- meaning you won't see it on your blog until your blog gets updated from a post or comment.

Let me know how you like it or if you have any other ideas on how to improve navigation or monitoring of your blog!

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Update: I have to thank Mr. President for locating a bug. Apparently asterisks were appearing on blog posts that had no comments. It turned out that if comments were deleted then the asterisk would still appear. I have fixed this... although in rare situations you may see a "red" asterisk when there is no visible new comment (ie: the recent comment was removed). I'll fix that later but it will be a little more complicated (and it's not that high priority).

I am testing a new Chatroom feature here at Blogstream. It is available to registered members.

You can reach it by clicking on the Chatroom link on the front page of Blogstream (either on the top or bottom of the page).

You do need to setup your chat settings before you can login. You can do this by editing your profile (in the "My Account" area) and then choosing the "Chat" tab. There are full instructions on the chat page.

We are going to test this out and see how it works. Let us know if you like it or have any problems.

The bookmark feature (clicking BM in the top blog bar when viewing a blog) has been expanded. You can now:

* Get notification that a blog has been updated via email
* Privately bookmark a blog (so that it does not appear in "Blogs I Like".

Basically, if you find a blog you like, you can now add it to your bookmarks and choose the "Notify" option. Whenever the author updates that blog, you will receive an email. Email notifications are processed every 15 minutes currently.

These features are still in test phase -- please let me know if you have any problems with them.

The blog list (click here) now has a filter to show only blogs in a certain category.

I added a guestbook feature... it's similar to Comments but it's a general comment for your entire blog. It shows up on the right side where your Profile, Bio, Interests, etc. appear. If you don't want a Guestbook to display, you can turn it off in the Blog Settings page.

I'm not sure how it is going to work -- so consider it in testing phase for now. :)