Over the weekend we finished transferring ResearchBlogging.org from its dependably quirky old home to sleek new digs. If you haven't visited the site in the past 72 hours, you should definitely head over to take a look -- or even if you have, you should go back again, since dozens of new posts have been added over the weekend. In addition to a fantastic redesign, the site has tons of new features.
We've been working for the last six months with Seed Media Group, who has generously donated hundreds of hours of project management, site design, and development from their expert SMG Technology division, to create what we think is the best expert blogging hub on the planet.
As always, the site collects thousands of the best posts from hundreds of expert bloggers around the world. We eliminate personal posts, rants, press releases, and instead focus in only on thoughtful discussion and analysis of peer-reviewed research.
But the site also offers an array of new features, including the following:
- Multiple language support
â¨The site now supports non-English language blogs. German is the first language we support, and we've now registered over 30 German bloggers. We'll be rolling out new languages as we build communities of bloggers and administrators in each language. - Topic-specific RSS feeds
â¨Our most-requested new feature: Readers can now receive automated announcements via RSS when there is a new post in the language and topic areas of their choice -- only German posts on Physics, Astronomy, and Chemistry, for example. [Should be ready by the end of the day today!] - Post-by-post tagging with topics and subtopics
â¨Bloggers can now customize how their posts are index not only with main topics such as Health, but subtopics like Neuroscience, Kinematics, and Public Health. - Post flagging
â¨Research Blogging has always relied on users to let us know when a post doesn't meet our guidelines. Now users can simply check a box to indicate that a post doesn't cut it, and it will be checked by an administrator and removed from our database if necessary. - Customized user home pages with bios and blog descriptions
- Blogger photos/other images displayed with each post
- Ability to import older posts
- Multiple bloggers per blog
- Multiple blogs per blogger
- "Recover password" feature
- Email alerts when there is a problem with posts
- Advanced troubleshooting features
But don't take my word for it -- just visit the site. And if you're a blogger who writes about peer-reviewed research, sign up and share your work with the world!
- Log in to post comments
Dave, looks like the site doesn't have an RSS feed! Since you seem to be involved with it, could you please notify whoever's in charge about this?
I'm not only involved, I'm also in charge -- I'm the president and co-founder of the site.
We're working on the RSS feeds, and we expect to have them up by the end of the day. They're working about 95 percent of the time right now and we want them to be 100 percent before they launch.
Dave,
Great work. I love the new features and am looking forward to checking it all out.
We are having a problem though. Attempting to log in with our old password doesn't work, but requesting the password to be reset never results in any emails (we've checked junk).
I tried sending an email to admin AT researchblogging DOT org, but that gets bounced back as 'undeliverable'.
Just not my day for internet stuff. Can you point me in the right direction?
You're right, Trey -- somehow we neglected to configure our new server for email. Thanks for letting me know. We'll have it fixed shortly. In the meantime I will manually reset your password and send it to your account.
Dave
Congratulations Dave! I know you've put a lot into this project, and it's fantastic.