tagged w/ Current.com Blog
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We've made a lot of changes to Current.com, so here's a tutorial to get you started!We've made a lot of changes to Current.com, so here's a tutorial to get you... more
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Are you uninspired by the way news is reported these days? So are we, and we’re looking to do something about it with Current:News – an hourly open source newscast aimed at redefining the way news is reported.
How does it work? It’s simple. You already contribute news stories, blog posts, and videos to Current.com from all over the web. We toss these contributions into our algorithmic soup along with the votes and comments from the rest of the community, and the most popular items make it onto our newly redesigned homepage.
From there, our community continues to vote on the popular items in a race against the clock. Our new homepage features a voting section for items that are in the running, a countdown timer letting you know when the next item will be selected, and you’ll find the most recent Current:News pod and the stories it features at the top of the page. So, if something you posted makes it onto the homepage be sure to rally your connections to vote on it.
Participation in Current:News is open to everyone in our community, and since Current staff is a part of the community, the chances for staff contributions to make it onto the homepage (and ultimately get picked for TV) are very real. We're not going to lie to you. It's going to happen. But that doesn't mean we determine everything that makes it into a News pod.
In an effort to be open about our activity within the community, we've decided to make our staff badges more visible. Ultimately, there are more of you than there are us, so consider this a challenge. Tell us what is most interesting, popular, and relevant, and do it in a timely fashion.
Alongside the launch of Current:News, we are also rolling out the first phase of our user incentives program. There are three different tracks you can level up on:
1. Contributor (Orange): Post news stories, videos, and blog posts on Current.com and get noticed for your contributions.
2. Commentator (Blue): Post responses and vote on items to level up as a commentator. Each day you visit Current.com you have the chance to earn one commentator kudo by voting or commenting five times (in any combination).
3. Producer (Pink): Upload a VC2 or VCAM video and level up as a producer on Current.com.
You’ll notice badges next to everyone’s avatars on Current.com. As you level up, your badge will illuminate with a color indicating your level in each track. Make it to level two and we’ll send you some sweet Current gear. Don’t worry, we’ve been keeping track of activity since the launch of Current.com, which means many of you may already be at level two and beyond.
So, I’ve rambled a bit, but there was a lot of ground to cover. If you haven’t already, jump into the fray and start participating. Who knows, you might make it onto TV by the end of the day.
Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.
mario
Are you uninspired by the way news is reported these days? So are we, and we’re... more
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It’s been a busy month, but I thought it would be nice to drop you guys a quick update. The team has cooked up something huge in the past few weeks. Although I can’t go into details just yet, I wanted to fill you in on one tiny piece of the puzzle.
Current.com really comes down to you guys – our community. Sure, we like to play too, by contributing items, commenting, and voting, but without you guys Current.com just wouldn’t be as cool as it is. It was this line of thinking that prompted our brand spanking new incentives program (coming really, really soon).
The gist is, this will be a way for us to thank you for all the hard work you do within our community, and it will give others a chance to see how much effort you put into the site on a daily basis. There will be levels, and there might even be some swagalicious treats and powers involved. My lips are sealed.
Most importantly, please know that something is on the horizon, and when it launches you should be getting some emails from us with all the relevant details. So keep an eye on your inbox, and check back here for updates.
More soon!
mario
It’s been a busy month, but I thought it would be nice to drop you guys a quick... more
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February is coming to a close, but we’ve made some updates to Current.com. Before you make the leap into March, check out some of our brand spanking new features.
Here’s the skinny:
-- Homepage --
Last month we unveiled a sneak peak at the brand new homepage on Current.com. We’ve gathered a wealth of feedback from members of the community, and today we take off the sneak peak mode training wheels. If you haven’t already, take a gander. As always, continue to let us know what you think.
-- New Video Player --
We’ve updated the look of our video player, and packed some new functionality in as well. The video player now includes full screen playback, and a menu that offers up the embed code, a direct link to the video, and the top 6 stories on Current.com.
Check out this clip for the JAM Awards to see the new player in action firsthand: http://current.com/items/88853165_jam_awards_world_premiere
-- Profile Activity Filtering --
Sorting through someone’s activity on their profile can be a chore, but no longer! We’ve updated our user profiles with the ability to sort someone’s activity by submissions, credits, responses, or votes. Visit any member’s profile and select a filter from the drop down menu in the activity section.
Here are a few more noteworthy updates to share:
-- Toolshed --
We’ve added a labs section to the site. There you’ll find some handy tools and widgets available to Current.com members. We only have two at the moment, but we’ll be adding more soon.
-- Topic Merging --
Our team now has the ability to merge related topics together into one thread, which will hopefully help cut down on some of the redundancies on the site.
Let us know what you think by adding a response to this thread or sending an email to comments@current.com.February is coming to a close, but we’ve made some updates to Current.com.... more
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Current.com is up for two big web awards, and we scrambled the Online team Friday morning to to make this video to let you know how excited we are, and to shameless plug for your votes!
Details below on how to vote, please spread this link around!
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The Webware 100 -- Deadline: Monday, March 31st
If you click on the link below, you’ll be taken to an ‘auto-completed’ ballot with Current’s box already ticked. Then just hit submit and that’s it! It’s one vote per computer and votes must be cast by Monday, March 31st.
http://www.webware.com/html/ww/100/2008/vote_video.html?compid=103545
Winners will be announced at the Web 2.0 Expo on April 21.
SXSW People’s Choice Award -- Deadline has passed! Thanks to everyone who voted!
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Thanks again/in advance from everyone at Current!
Current.com is up for two big web awards, and we scrambled the Online team Friday... more
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Current has been nominated for the SXSW People’s Choice Award in the Community category! W00t!
It's an honor in its own right, and a testament to the collective brain that is our community, so it's only appropriate that you can help us bring home the silicon!
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Here’s how you and your friends can cast their vote(s!) for Current:
1. Go to http://sxsw.com/peoples_choice/ enter your email and hit submit
2. Head back to your email account and copy the passphrase in the confirmation email from SXSW
3. Go back to http://sxsw.com/peoples_choice/ and paste your passphrase in the blank field
4. Scroll down about halfway down the list and select the box next to Current (in the ‘Community’ section)
5. Scroll down to the bottom and hit ‘submit vote’
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You can vote ONCE A DAY until the deadline on Midnight March 3rd by just re-copying your passphrase (no need to submit your email again)
Please share this to your friends, and cast your ballots today, tomorrow and twice on Tuesday.
(Ok you can’t vote twice on Tuesday. So how about once on Tuesday and again on Wednesday?)
Current has been nominated for the SXSW People’s Choice Award in the Community... more
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Hey, Current community! You've been nominated as a finalist for the Community category in the SXSW Web Awards. Get on with your bad selves.Hey, Current community! You've been nominated as a finalist for the Community... more
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If I didn't somewhat hate the lolcats meme, I might have made some kind of disgustingly cute joke here. Instead, you get a pic of Jonny and Chris planning out the next round of dev work in the Engineering pen @ Current HQ.
So what exactly are we up to?
We've got a release planned the end of Jan (SO SOON!) with a major visual overhaul coming front and center to the Homepage. The major goal is to make the homepage more of a "home" page that gives you more of a feeling of what's going on that moment/day/week than just the ephemeral stream you see now. That release will also include a profile page update for a "screening room" view of user uploads, a Current.com Facebook app, and some other tasty treats to go with some major backend updates.
We're already starting to look ahead to a Feb release though, and that's looking really exciting as well. More to come as we move ahead!
Happy 2008!
ps: stay tuned to this topic later this week for a redesigned Homepage sneak peek
If I didn't somewhat hate the lolcats meme, I might have made some kind of... more
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We'll be bringing Current.com down (again) on Thursday, Dec 13th between 8pm and 11pm PST (4am through 7am in the UK.) for some much-needed (and continued) blade sharpening of our Internet jack saws.
Various squeaks will be oiled, and monkeys fed, but we won't be changing or adding any new features during this release.
We'll be bringing Current.com down (again) on Thursday, Dec 13th between 8pm and... more
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JonnyS
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5 years ago
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We're sneaky-smart. Or maybe just a little in love with ourselves. Prolly both.
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Chloe
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5 years ago
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Embeds are back! Wait, before you run off to spread around your favorite pod, upload or webcam, stick around for a minute so I can tell you about some of the fantastic features?
Alright, you caught me; there aren?t any fantastic new features. What we?re offering now is the same embed player that was available on the old site. That probably begs the question ?So why did it take so long to put the old embed on the new site?? Basically, we wanted to make sure that when we want to implement new features in the future, our legacy embed codes out in the wild wouldn?t hold us back.
What can you embed? You can embed any single pod, uploaded video or Viewpoints recording.
How do you embed something? It?s so easy. Go to any item page with an embeddable asset (like this one), click the ?embed? link in the left-hand column, click on the field that appeared and copy the contents and paste wherever you want to see current.com content. Wasn?t that easy?Embeds are back! Wait, before you run off to spread around your favorite pod, upload... more
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ctower
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5 years ago
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Have a question or comment about the new site? Post it here!
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Three days after launch and the long days and nights are shortening, and the basement air is even fresher. As with any new system, there are bugs, kinks, knobbly bits which still need development love, and we're working hard to get them sorted out.
We released an update today to address problems with uploading large video - if you still experience any weird problems with upload, please do post to this topic.
Here are some known bugs, which we're currently working on today:
- Performance improvements to 2-screen and viewpoints
- Ordering of Make TV assignments. Currently we're ordering by rank, but we'll be changing to sort by date, popularity.
- Rounding errors on Voting percentages - Yes its true - 94% + 5% does not equal 100%
We love squashing bugs. As you enjoy your way around current.com, please continue to post any problems you might have to this topic.Three days after launch and the long days and nights are shortening, and the basement... more
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JonnyS
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5 years ago
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Today marks the day our website transitions fully from current.tv to current.com with a fancy new concept and design.
Leave your fond memories of current.tv here... we'll all miss you and your awkward .tv domain extension.Today marks the day our website transitions fully from current.tv to current.com with... more
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rnaber
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5 years ago
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So you've got yourself a shiny new current.com! Congratulations. So what are you gonna do with it? Brett Erlich tackles a day in the life with his favorite new website.
So you've got yourself a shiny new current.com! Congratulations. So what are... more
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So. You heard about this new web thing, called Current.com, and you showed up, and there's already all these people here, even though it just launched, like, and hour ago.
Who in the heck are they?
When we first launched the beta portion of the site (almost an alpha, really, or a pre-alpha, even) we invited all our co-workers to come in and poke around. That's about 300 people, depending on the day, who started clipping and commenting and posting dumb stuff about handbags (me) and smart stuff about politics/art/music/fashion/technology/etc (everyone else).
Then those 300ish people got to invite 10 of their most awesome friends. And then we set a place at the table for the folks who played with us in the sandbox of Current.tv, which added a few thousand people into the mix. Throw in some business partners, some web luminaries, some press, some kick-ass college producers and ambassadors, and some of our favorite bloggers, and that brings us to today.
What's your story? Where did you come from?So. You heard about this new web thing, called Current.com, and you showed up, and... more
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I eat your half-eaten bag of M&M's you leave in the kitchen. Im not even hungry. I like M&Ms. Like a squirrel at a nut shop. Still, I cant figure out how a small bag of M&Ms could fill up anyone. So I eat them. Im doing you a service.
I am a basement dweller. I spend most of my day nestled deep within the bowels of LL1 between faux green leaves, various humming machinery and strange smells. Oxygen? Sunlight? Sleep? Social existence? Normally, yes. These were a few of my favorite things, but Ive swapped them out temporally, for other things.
I can login, I can't log in, more invites please, my invites aren't working, I can clip, but now I can't. I can't clip, but now I can. Get the monkey page up, get the monkey page down, beta is up, beta is down, is beta up, is beta down, I think beta is up, I think beta is down, who's on call? I'm on call, YouTube won't clip. This was working yesterday, this wasn't working yesterday, give me my role back, tags, topics, interests, webcams, 2-screen, webcam, upload, download, We need a new build, lets build, are we building today? Did you build? Did I build? Who built? Lets build tomorrow.
Theres a frantic pace down here, as we head toward launch. (Hey Brett, quit screaming October 15, October 15! all over the Internet!!).
I eat your half-eaten bag of M&M's you leave in the kitchen. Im not even... more
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JonnyS
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5 years ago
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I cannot tell a lie, friends.
Current.com is launching on Monday, October 15, despite some reports that we would be launching the following day.
Please be gentle with us as we take off the training wheels, and invite all your friends to take a spin. I cannot tell a lie, friends.
Current.com is launching on Monday, October 15,... more
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ok - I was simply leaving a test video so we could play with FLV conversion. Um... yea...
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sforte
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5 years ago
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Wouldn't YOU like to know? Like those wee monkeys above this text box, Current.com is in its infancy. But that doesn't mean we can't keep you posted on all our baby steps, like the proud parents we are.
If you'd like to stay in the know about the seedy underbelly of developing and maintaining a website such as this, you can choose to follow the topic Bugs & Monkeys. To do so:
1) Go here: http://current.com/topics/77589461_bugs_monkeys_what_s_up_on_current_com
2) Click on the FOLLOW THIS TOPIC button.
That will subscribe you to the Bugs and Monkeys blog, so-named because of the fine furry companions that appear whenever we have a bug in our system. You'll be able to see all our posts in your My Current stream.
This is also the place for you to holler at us when you've got a complaint or a suggestion, or give us kudos if you think we've earned it. Let the dialogue begin! Wouldn't YOU like to know? Like those wee monkeys above this text box,... more
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