As we continue to step through the blogspot, and build out the system, here is an initial list of details that will need our attention.
Registration
1. Can users create more than one blog, using their same email address for signup/notification? Is there a way to toggle on/off this one-email-one-blog requirement?
2. During signup, users will need to walk through a series of standard info pages: (a) describing the blogspot portal and what functionality/benefits they'll receive as a chosen blogger; and (b) requiring them to acknowledge their review of policy statements, such as guidelines and rules, agreement to terms of service, verification of age, and issues of copyright/indemnification.
3. When importing existing blogs into the Animation Blogspot, there needs to be a similar application procedure as regular signup to approve their migration.
4. During signup and profile maintenance, users should be able to define/update tags (pre-defined in system admin) so that the blogs automatically categorize and are searchable in the blogspot portal. Example tags may be: production blogs, studio blogs, school blogs, personal blogs, video blogs, etc.
5. During signup and profile maintenance, users should be able to input and edit non-published keywords (as they like) that allows their blogs to be found in the sitewide portal search. (Is a blog's meta data also picked up by the big web search engines?)
6. Does the central registration system support people who want to post comments to individual blogs (without themselves having, or needing, a system blog) -- or are comments permitted/denied by the individual blogs themselves?
Aggregating Content
7. When aggregating content for the portal frontpage, for each section (e.g., Most Recent Posts, Featured Columnists, Publisher's Picks), we need to determine how many blog content headers/taglines/abstracts appear to the readers. (Our in-house designer, Deron, was suggesting the readers can customize this to some extent, similar to what Google News provides.)
8. When aggregating content for the frontpage, we need to determine what amount of content from each blog gets posted, such as header/headline only, posting an abstract of some determined length, date/timestamp, author, etc. (Again, this may be customizable, based on reader preference.)
9. Simple and advanced search function that allows readers to search using keywords (and/or boolean), user names/blog names, location of author and categories.
10. (a) XML/RSS outgoing feed for all aggregated content to allow readers to integrate/subscribe to the ongoing content feeds in their reader programs, blog systems, etc.; (b) XML feeds that integrate directly with AWN CMS so that content can be republished on AWN sites; and (c) XML intake that can accept feeds from AWN sites to allow the publication of AWN news, mag article headlines, jobs and other content within the blogspot portal and individual blogs themselves.
Administration
11. Whether for new bloggers or importing existing blogs, there needs to be some way for us to toggle an 'approved' status for pending applications. Signup/registration is a qualifying process, not automatic. Once approved, a system welcome email is sent to the user for what to do next.
12. System admin should provide for maintenance of the various sets of aggregated content on the portal frontpage, including any introductory text for each section. We need to be able to define/tag/toggle (on/off) individual blogs to be a part of certain frontpage sections, such as Featured Columnists, Publisher's Picks, or otherwise.
13. System admin should provide functionality to manage the base of all registered users.
14. System admin should provide access to a database of search terms entered into the portal search engine.
No way to toggle this, and its a one-to-one ratio.
Once those pages and navigation are built and copy is created, we will simply force user signups to go through those pages.
To import data from another source, first an account must be created. Once logged in, the user can select "IMPORT" from the main menu, and import their data there. We should also add a small paragraph of "If you need help, contact blah blah blah...". There is no way to import prior to account registration.
After consideration, this feature should be an "administrative" privilege only, and not available to the end-user. The reason being is that people will try to categorize themselves incorrectly, or put themselves into categories they do not belong. Especially when it comes to competing blogs. Or, someone will add themselves to every category, simply for exposure. Further thought and discussion has to occur before this feature is fully implemented, but I do not believe that the end-user should have this ability.
This is fine... though if we do a name, and meta search, that should be plenty. Again, this could open up for abuse. Search engines will cache whatever is published to the public.
Anyone can comment on Animation Blogspot blogs... an account with AWN is not required.
As many "view" options as possible will be made readily available.
Again, there will be a set of view options... probably beyond your needs.
The built in search will allow for searching individual blog content, and a community wide search will be instituted at the end of this Phase.
As long as these XML specs are RSS, then everything is completed for such.
By what will the approval process be based on? If I agree to the terms, and sign up as COLIN, by what will you determine if that person should have an account? The ability to disapprove blogs is built in, but approval would be simply based on 0 content. Please let me know how this process is handled.
Most of this will be handled by the currently installed system. Though slight customization will be needed for customized sections, of which I need a full list.
Done.
You want to log all searches done on the site?
Instead of preventing individual users from registering for multiple blogs, based on email address, we talked about alerting them that the email address is already in our system, and asking them to clarify/affirm that they would like to proceed. From there, we can approve or deny the application.
Yes, we need to provide these pages, then they can be plugged into the registration process. A four-step acknowledgment sounds about right (using checkbox and submit button to proceed): intro/overview of blogspot and benefits of joining; verification of age and accepting terms of service; guidelines and rules; copyright/indemnification.
On the portal frontpage there can be three buttons for people to log in: one for returning members, one for new registration, and one to import existing bloggers. The "import" button will take users to the same registration pages, but tag such applicants as "import." Once we activate/approve an account, the confirmation email will have info for how to use the WordPress import function in their admin.
Good points. I agree that this should be a part of our administrative approval process -- defining what tags the system uses for categorizing blogs, and assigning them (via checkboxes) for individual users. The question is, for new users, who have no content to review, what part of registration will clue us into how to categorize their blog? Part of the confirmation email for new users may direct them to contact us if they want to be assigned to specific categories. Need to discuss more, after seeing this part of site admin in action.
We talked about forgoing the keywords, per se, as all published content should be searchable -- even within the blogspot site search.
Through their blog admin, individual bloggers can turn off comments, or manage/moderate them as they like.
Cool. It will make more sense when we can see this implemented.
Not sure how/where this will be managed on the site admin, but Colin mentioned he would demonstrate some other frontpage content display options (such as brief abstract, title of post along with blog name, etc.).
Colin said he would look into implementing a sitewide search, with search results based on the above selected criteria: blog/user name, category tags, keywords.
As long as everything is RSS, should be fine. (Is that correct?) This functionality is already implemented to some degree. Logging into any blog admin, under the dashboard, one can see the AWN News feed integrated there. General Animation Blogspot News will also display in the dashboard once the password-protection is taken off the development site. Colin recommnends also displaying such Animation Blogspot News on the frontpage (maybe three items); the feed pulls content from regular blog posts via the site admin account. At some point, we should add something like "brought to you via AWN's Animation Blogspot" to all the portal's RSS feeds.
This is a simple matter of changing a newly registered blog's 'value' from '0' (active) to '1' (inactive). An email is sent to the site admin account for all new registrations. We just need to review the request and click to activate the new user.
Colin is going to work on modifying site admin functionality to accommodate this -- so we can define what the frontpage sections are, and what blogs are associated with, and active/inactive for, each section.
Indeed.
Yes, we would like to have an easily accessible statistical record of the site search terms. Dan could speak on this more fully.