NEW Community Page!

John
August 02, 2007, 02:31 AM posted in General Discussion
The Community Page has been a bit... errr... "lacking" for the past few months. Today it was updated. Key changes:
  1. Removal of the crazy flashy photo show (the madness had to end)
  2. Addition of a combined feed of all ChinesePod bloggers
  3. Addition of a few links: Flickr, YouTube, Wiki, etc. (bottom left)
Note that not only do latest entries from the combined feed display on that page, but you can also add the combined feed to your feed reader and stay on top of all the ChinesePod bloggers at once. Let us know what you think!
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bazza
August 02, 2007, 06:54 AM

Personally I liked the crazy flashy photo show. ;)

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John
August 03, 2007, 01:29 AM

AuntySue, OK, I follow you. Thank for the explanation. :)

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AuntySue
August 02, 2007, 07:56 AM

Well I pulled that thingamijig into my rss reader, and it's wonderful. I'd never have looked at those other blogs, but scrolling down I was impressed with how much work these people are putting in. I even saw my beloved ChinesePod Cantonese logo in the Korean blog! I tried to run that article through a translator, but I couldn't get up off the floor after reading "to the storehouse young mullet will enter the ramyon", so I retreated, entertained but none the wiser, to the comfort of my dear friend Frank, whose blog speaks my language(s). Good fun.

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John
August 02, 2007, 09:17 AM

AuntySue, Ha ha, that's hilarious... Yeah, our Korean blogger is quite industrious. BTW, about the stripe issue... It's the same color scheme used on the Conversations page listing. Does it bother you there too?

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maxiewawa
August 02, 2007, 10:20 AM

Looks good! I didn't even realise there was a community page. I've had a few issues recently about not knowing where things are. I think the huge disconnect between the site and the podcasts is a problem; I am sure that some people don't realise all of the interesting stuff going on inside the site and just listen to the podcast. I used to be one of those people!

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maxiewawa
August 02, 2007, 10:25 AM

Whoa... this is the coolest thing I've ever seen: http://dict.chinesepod.com/ Have a look!

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RonInDC
August 02, 2007, 10:34 AM

Yeah, that dictionary is very cool. It will save me time by having to dive in and out of lessons much less. Saving time is a beautiful thing.

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AuntySue
August 02, 2007, 07:34 AM

Well done, thank you! It has become a page worth visiting regularly. The combined blogs is ingenious, not only convenient but also by looking at the list you get a real sense of all of the international community stuff that's happening around here. Don't let me disappoint you and leave without any criticism. I find the yellow and white stripe effect a bit garish and hard on the old eyes. It also makes me read all of the yellow ones, then catch myself and read all of the white ones, as if they're a different list. Are the stripes really helpful? If so, how about something really subtle, like pale kodak-yellow against pale banana yellow, or something. Still, content is the most important and that's looking good. Next is function, and the combined rss feed is a nice treat. Sorry Bazza, yes the crazy photo show was nice but it made my computer have a hernia so I'm pleased that it's no longer compulsory.

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leviathan
August 02, 2007, 03:07 PM

You need a Myspace page with a public feed player. millions of people use myspace too. Also, Wana say that i love the new dict and the grammar feat, xiexie

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frank
August 02, 2007, 03:14 PM

Couldn't be more pleased to see the bloggers get some love. Thank you, guys. It really means a lot to have you set up a way to help us share our hard work.

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kimiik
August 02, 2007, 03:39 PM

The link to ChinesePod on YouTube should be http://www.youtube.com/chinesepod instead of http://www.youtube.com/user/chinesepod/

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AuntySue
August 02, 2007, 07:16 PM

No John, on the Conversations page, though I can see it's technically similar, you don't get the mad striping effect. I think it's because they're whole chunks of text divided up with black lines. The eyes read it like a lot of cards spread out on the table. On the community page they're basically bullet points without the bullets, so the eye runs vertically, instead of (in Conversations) a slower more forgiving zigzag path that can actually benefit from the frequent go-slow humps. It reminds me of running a stick across a piece of corrugated iron, naganaganaganaga, compared to using a ruler to explore a wall of pigeon holes, kerplop-kerplop-kerplop. Maybe others like it diplayed this way. If so, don't worry, it's just cosmetic, I spent many happy moments playing the corrugated iron as a kid, I can regress. :-)

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excuter
August 02, 2007, 07:39 PM

Maybe it´s better to use some friendly light grey to make it more eye friendly (but offcourse a bit darker than that, the rest of the page has) :-)

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John
August 03, 2007, 01:29 AM

kmkfr, Ha, that's weird. I didn't realize the lack of a trailing slash could be so critical. I'll get it fixed right away.

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kimiik
August 02, 2007, 12:37 PM

ChinesePod on YouTube returns "Invalid Username"