Updates
Written on April 12th, 2008 by phirate
Just a quick summary of various updates on the site.
Colors!
A standard color-code for widgets is starting at the new browser, and will be across the entire site soon. These colors help make quick visual choices about a card:
- Gold = Featured card (Purchasable from the shop under ‘upgrades’)
- Rose = Favorite card, you’ve marked it as a favorite
- Green = Dropped, you’ve dropped on this card today
- Blue = Ad purchased, you have an ad currently waiting on this site.
Browser sidebar!
The browser sidebar gives rapid access to vital information about the card you’re hovering over on the browser, including their basic site description, URL, cost, popularity, and now their most recent posts (up to 5) pulled from the RSS feed of their site.
New search options!
Along with the old standard category sorts, the new search form on the browser allows you to zero in on precisely the cards you’re looking for. A variety of sort patterns are available, you can limit the cards to those within your budget, search for particular cards by title and easily bring your favorites to the front. The Rows per Page drop down lets you customize the view to suit your browsing habits, and you can Next/Previous to your hearts delight to browse right through over 7,000 live blogs.
The browser features advanced price-tracking which means that even with the new, fast-fluctuating prices you’ll always get the price you see on the screen, and a clean auto-refresh lets you order by, say, Random, and get a screen full of new cards every 20 seconds.
Chat notice!
And last, and definitely least, there’s a small notice in the top right hand corner on many of the screens that will let you know if an admin is currently in the chat room. It’s probably not going to be a really common thing but sometimes we’re just around and it’s quicker to ask us direct than to post a support request.
Pricing update
We’re pleased (and relieved) to note that the prices are falling as predicted, the price average is now 141ec, down from a high of over 900 on the day of the price system release. We still have a little way to go yet before we can really make a judgment call on how it has turned out, but prices have dropped and purchasing is heading back towards pre-change volume as blogs reach stable prices.
We had 4,400 ad purchases for a total of 255,808ec yesterday, very positive numbers. Thanks everyone for your patience with these changes, some further small changes may be necessary in the near future, however they will be nothing like as dramatic, and any changes of significance will be communicated well in advance via email to everyone with an account and a live widget. Please double-check your email address to ensure you do receive these notices. There is also a new Economy forum in the forums, for people interested in data and early tweaking of economy concepts.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Phirate dropping his card on my site… What kind of conspiracy is this? So far all the changes running smoothly. One thing to note is that in IE7 I see the number in the top right of the card all the time. In Firefox I only see that number when I hover over it.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:41 am
I am getting to grips with the new features and think it is a positive improvement in general. Gives a better balance across all the blogs.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Well done, Mr. Scott! You can now drop the shields and, Mr Sulu, set speed at cruising levels – we are safely through the asteroid belt.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Like the new pricing and stuff. It’s fairer and much better. The skeptics will realize it sooner or later, too.
April 12th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
How do you determine the popularity of a site (the number on the top right of every widget)? Do you use the same formula that previously used to determine the price in the old system?
April 12th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Excellent updates. Makes surfing and returning drops much easier and faster. The priview side pane before you buy an ad is awesome!
Great job!!
Gene
April 12th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
@specialist yes, the popularity is essentialyl the same, the number is actually (at the moment at least) just the number of drops received in the last 5 days.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Totally agree on the preview panel when hovering. That and the new color coding (especially marking which blogs you’ve dropped on) are my fav. new features. Thanks.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Has the daily limit been lifted? I noticed today I dropped more than the 600 drops…
April 12th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Just one more suggestion..is it possible to make it so that when dropping from the inbox it actually opens up in a different window? I like to drop on those who drop me rather than the power dropping thing. However, it’s a real pain in the butt to have to keep going back to my browser to return to EC inbox.
I’ve seen “tips” out there..but..like I said..I would rather be a courteous return dropper and build loyal visitors rather than the old hit and run thing.
April 12th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
All of the changes rock! Rob 2ee smells!
April 12th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
I’m Happy to hear the Prices are Dropping – they were outrageous + it was like U’d have to be Playing the #’s Game just to Buy a couple of Ads*
Aside from that I have to give U Folks Full Props for taking the Blogosphere by Storm – Amazing*
I used to use MyBlogLog initally to generate Traffic + then BlogCatalog but Now EntreCard is Delivering!!
Congrats + Cheers! Billy
) Peace*
April 13th, 2008 at 1:18 am
I still dislike the changes, but we’ll see how much better it gets.
April 13th, 2008 at 1:21 am
Great! Adding the search option is such a releif. Entrecard just gets better and better!
April 13th, 2008 at 4:26 am
I think it helps me, like it. Well done.
April 13th, 2008 at 9:16 am
The new functionalities developed are great – and we should also remember that this was done in such a short period of time with limited resources.
April 13th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Wow ! Just when you think things couldn’t get any better…you guys come up with something new and even better than before. Can hardly wait to see what’s next! Credits for referrals maybe? Or more than 1 blog? The suspense is building daily.
Thanks a mill.
April 13th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
These new features are great! They make it so much easier to see what is going on.
One thing I would like is the ability to only show blogs that you have enough credits to advertise on. Also being able to see how many people have dropped on the card in the last 24 hours would be useful too, when making a decision about whether to advertise with that blog or not.
I really love the way Entrecard seems to be heading. It’s getting better and beter all the time.
April 13th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
I can foresee a side effect of the “sidebar browser” thing. See my recent post http://getyourfreecash.blogspot.com/2008/04/side-effect-of-browser-sidebar-feature.html
April 13th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
I have just came back from vacation and I hope that the prices will be better and more fair this time than before… but I will adhere to what the admin says is good except when the general users disagree on it
April 13th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Great Work!
Though some new ad themes would be cool?
Regards,
April 13th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Hey it works for me,thanks for all the work and TRAFFIC
April 14th, 2008 at 2:26 am
I love the new features. My favorite is the color changes. It make is much easier to see if I have missed dropping on someones blog.
Thanks for the improvements.
~ Leisa
April 14th, 2008 at 4:24 am
nice glad to see EntreCard on top of things gonna take some getting used too the new system but change is good
April 14th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
I am glad such absurd pricing was finally restructured.
Great work, guys!
April 15th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Its a nice thing that more new feature available. And thats really one good improvement.
April 15th, 2008 at 3:52 am
I suggest increase to 600 drops.
April 15th, 2008 at 4:25 am
Hi. I love the new features! However, I noticed that my site’s recent posts on the browser sidebar is not updated. In fact, it’s about a week late! How do I remedy this?
Thanks.
April 15th, 2008 at 5:43 am
The new features are quite good. They are great improvement to the existing system. However, I am yet to understand the pricing system. It has become more complicated than before. I have not been able to figure it out.
April 15th, 2008 at 11:24 am
like the updates, but is it at all possible that when you drop on a site and it shows up green, that it can stay green so you know where you have dropped, and dont keep doing it about ten times to the same site?
April 15th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Wonderful updates, thanks
April 15th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Yeah, the prices dropping is certainly appreciated, there were some seriously nuts prices earlier… :p