Over the last few weeks, the support staff at ScienceBlogs have been making plans to add a new dimension to the ScienceBlogs experience. In the next three to four weeks, they'll be creating and unveiling a user registration program with Six Apart, the makers of Movable Type, over the entire network.
This feature will allow readers to sign in, create a profile, track discussions they're interested in, customize their content, and interact with one another directly. ScienceBlogs will also be introducing other benefits for registered readers such as entry into prize drawings and possible rewards for commenting. While this will be designed to create a more fulfilling reader experience, they think it will make for a more fulfilling blogging experience as well, making it easier for us blog writers to build relationships with our readers.
Of course, registration will be optional, so readers who don't want to set up an account and sign in will not have to do so to publish comments.
The support staff at ScienceBlogs (and me, too) would love to hear what you, the reader, would most like to get out of a membership program. What would be helpful to you? What features (or "ponies" - TM DrugMonkey) do you want to see implemented here? What would enable you to better connect with each other?
Some of the features we're looking into include:
- Registration Profiles
- User Pics
- Comment tracking
- Voting/Starring system
- Recommendation widgets
- User to user connections
- Following - users can follow actions of other users
- User-created Groups
- Sharing content
- "Talk" blogs or forums
- Newsletter management
- Photo galleries
- Polls & Quizzes
(This sounds like what they have at DailyKos, doesn't it?)
Please let us know (in comments) if there is anything else you'd like us to look into. We will try our best to include the features that you think are most appropriate. There will be at least two stages to the registration program -- a first, basic phase with registration profiles and a couple of other features, and a second stage where we roll out the rest of the stable of ponies.
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Comment tracking would be great - it's something I use a lot at Nature Network.
I can see a forum where people can talk to each other would be popular, although it might be dominated by Pharyngulites.
Except that DailyKos, for all its faults, uses Scoop, which in all my experience has been stable, reliable, and adequately fast, whereas Six Apart's stuff, in all my experience, has been buggy, flaky, and kinda slow (hideously slow for long threads).