As reported in my It’s Official: Blog Catalog is Fried post earlier this month, Tony Berkman, Angie Alaniz and their BlogCatalog Team are moving forward with the complete restructuring of the BlogCatalog site. Today BC Team Member, Jason Teitelman made a announcement that caught the few remaining forum addicts off guard. As of June 1st, 2010 (projected date) the moribund BlogCatalog Discussion Forum will be history.
Our goal is to create an environment where:
1. our first value is to be a member driven community
2. to be the hub for “quality” bloggers on the web. Specifically, a place that where bloggers connect more effectively with each other, with their readers, and a place where they can elegantly and effectively promote their blogs; and discover what they do well and feedback about what they can improve.
In essence, we want our members to have more control over their “own” experience — without admins having to say “no” (you never see a twitter admin saying no).
The future for quality bloggers, whether personal blogs or bloggers who make a living from writing, reporting, investigating, etc. is extremely bright. … TonyB > read more here
A Member Driven Community
So a month from now the outdated Blog Catalog discussion forum will be replaced by “Connect,” which will run on FriedEggs.com software. Connect has been designed to give BC members control over who they befriend and follow, and who befreinds and follows them. As Tony Berkman said members will be in total control of who can communicate with them and view their activity records.
This innovative approach will provide BC members with the ability to rid themselves of the creepy spammers, scammers and Adsense click fraud fools, who squeeze through the cracks into blog directories and social networks.
Discussion Forum Replaced by Quality Connections
There will be a site-wide notification as well as an email sent to all BC members before the changes are implemented. What’s intended is that all members current friends will be added to their individual Connect feed to enable to maintaining those relationships. BC Team Member, Jason Teitelman describes Connect this way:
Connect is a more natural and intuitive way to discuss, to share and to connect with your BC friends. Connect will utilize the FriedEggs.com software to create a personalized feed for each member. This feed will display comments, latest blog posts, links, pictures and anything else your BC friends choose to share. – Read the full article here > BlogCatalog Discussions To Be Fried
Get Cracking! Join the Good Eggs at FriedEggs
I’m a member of FriedEggs and have been reconnecting with old friends and making new ones too. None of the Twitter frustrations and limitations exist there. I can actually carry on full conversations, and my FriedEggs posts get pushed out to Twitter immediately after publication. What’s not to love?
Related posts found in this blog:
7 Steps to Effective Networking at Blog Catalog
Submitting Your Blog to Directories: A Primer
Blog Directories for Backlinks and Traffic
Backlinks from blog directories: What is their actual value?
Related articles by Zemanta
- It’s Official BlogCatalog is Fried (onecoolsitebloggingtips.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d642a836-24d9-4ef5-a0bd-53eeeea60b9b)
RecycleCindy
May 1, 2010
I appreciate these honest and out-in-the-open discussions about the future of BC. 11 days ago they announced their server migration here http://www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/blogcatalog-server-migration-report-issues-here-please and ask people to report problems. Many issues still exist and there has not been any updates to people’s concerns and issues posted recently. Several people have started new threads asking the admins to please help them as they can’t update their avatars and the stats are not working. It’s been a bit frustrating for many of us who are trying to hang in there and use BC as an effective tool and social site. I keep hoping that everything will work out and all the changes will result in a useful new site.
timethief
May 1, 2010
@RecycleCindy
Hello there. It’s always good to hear from you and I hear your frustration about these things but I do believe they will be sorted in the next month. The important connections between “friends” are intact and that’s what truly counts because bloggers ought to be focused on creating blog centered communities and blog directories is where bloggers can locate others who are focused on blogging too. Broadcasts and Shameless Blog Promotions on the social forum were not effective means of increasing traffic. Once the Connect feeds are in place they will no longer exist as all activity will be on those feeds.
No BC members really know what the future may hold at this point. However, their blog listings remain in the directory and that’s what blog directories are for. Also the BC blog editors are featuring a wide array of blogs from many niches that otherwise may have escaped notice.
Hopefully, the changes will create an new environment within which those who focus on blogging ie. on on writing, publishing frequently and building blog centered communities will appreciate and benefit from the changes, but only time will tell.
Jean Sarauer
May 1, 2010
You’re covering things in a fresh new way and introducing topics (like today’s post) that I don’t see in any other blog in my Google Reader. Very refreshing and informative! I subscribed to keep up with new posts and will be back soon to poke around previous content. I feel a bit like a kid in a candy store :)
timethief
May 1, 2010
@Jean
Thanks so much for your kind words. I try to keep my posts relevant and sometimes it’s difficult to find a different angle or an unusual but related topic to blog on.
It’s always good to meet a new subscriber and I also love meeting new bloggers who blog for beginners. You are both. Yay! I have added you blog to my Links page and have subscribed to it as well. And, I’m looking forward to getting to know both you and your blog better. :)
ian in hamburg
May 1, 2010
OK TT, because you make it sound like the BlogCatalog might be worth giving another chance, I’ll check it out when they make the changeover. Thanks for letting us know.
timethief
May 1, 2010
@Ian
Hello there. :) Some people are early adopters (volunteer guinea pigs) and some people are wait and see types.
T3CK
May 1, 2010
I am so glad to hear that Blogcatalog is moving in the direction to show case the blogger and their content in an front and center method that I’m considering reusing Blogcatalog when they make the switch over.
Plus i am really happy with their newest creation FreidEgg’s which has more sense of community vs Twitter, and Facebook.
Take care TT, and hope you can get your frustrating internet issue fixed soon!
timethief
May 1, 2010
@T3ck
The title of Tony’ article: If you aren’t growing you’re dying was a wake-up call. Those BC members who want to socialize can do so at friedeggs, and generally speaking, those who have lots of time to socialize are not prolific bloggers publishing high quality content on on a frequent basis. The old social forum did not serve quality bloggers well in terms of actual blog promotional opportunities. It was a showcase for well … you know what I mean … lol :D
So at this point the BC Team are restructuring the site as they have “showcase quality blogger goals” but whether or not they will be achieved remains to be seen.
ileaneb
May 2, 2010
Thanks for the updates. I joined Blog Catalog months ago but I didn’t invest much time into networking there. I’ll try friedeggs and see how it goes.
timethief
May 3, 2010
Hello there,
The number of member of friedeggs.com is small as it’s new. Most members are not using the platform to promote their posts. Most are simply connecting and conversing.