A Slight Code Refactoring Now Up
If Cullect feels a little snappier, I’m glad. I just pushed an update live that has the benefit of both easier to read code and faster performance (”hey, you’ve got peanut butter in my chocolate”, etc).
With this post, I’m shifting my focus of Cullect to marketing and performance/bug fixes.
Feels good.
How to: Send Blog Posts to Basecamp, Backpack, and Campfire
I use Basecamp with a couple of my clients, and there have been times I’ve wanted to share a relevant news item or blog post with my project team. So, I built it into Cullect.com – now when I find something interesting, I can send it to a Basecamp project without changing browser windows.
Here’s how:
Down for DB Maintenance, See You in the Morning
I’ll update this post when we’re back.
UPDATE:
Cullect is back. I’m looking into a bug that is impacting the feed stats widget and signing in. At this point, I’m expecting resolution around noon CST, 24 Sept.
Introducing: Keyword Filtering
A new benefit of being a paying Cullect customer: filtering items on keywords.
Pop open the ‘Customize’ section of your reading list (when you can also change the reading lists’ name, description, and stylesheet) and you’ll see a new ‘Keyword Filters’ section. Add it keywords you never, ever, never, want to see in your reading list and hit ‘Update’.
Cullect will then hide (i.e. move to /hidden) all past and future items containing any of those keywords.
It’s great for when big stories hit and you’re just done with the entire topic.
Enjoy.
While the idea of filtering existed as a feature for Cullect from the very first release, it wasn’t until recently that I felt like the UI for it had a home and the action (automatic hiding) felt right. Big thanks to Don Ball and Craig Key for inspiring the release of this feature this week.
Introducing the Cullect Item Stats Widget
The Cullect Item Stats widget shows 2 things:
- An item’s ‘Short link’ from Culld.us
- The number of times a given post has been ‘Recommended’ in Cullect (this won’t show if the number is 0)
Here’s the code for the widget:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cullect.com/item.js?link=[items-permalink]"></script>
If you’re using WordPress and comfortable hacking your template, paste this code:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cullect.com/item.js?link=<?php the_permalink() ?>"></script>
Important Rank Update: Now Includes Culld.us & Widgets
Now, every time a http://culld.us link is clicked (i.e. the ‘Short Link’ next to each item in Cullect.com reading lists) it influences the item’s Important Ranking.
Same goes for each page with any Cullect widget on it.
It feels good to tie everything together.
Feed Stats Widget Update: Feed URL Option Added
Up until just a few minutes ago, the Cullect Feed Stats widget guessed the feed from the auto-discovery tag in the HTML. Sometimes it guessed wrong.
That can happen when a single site has (or historically had) lots of different feed URLs. For example, WordPress automatically generates a number of feeds: ?feed=rss2, /feed/rss, /feed/atom, etc not to mention Feedburner or Pheedo redirects. All of which may have a different set of subscribers.
Now, you by using http://cullect.com/feed.js?feed=[your-feed-url] you can specify exactly which feed you want stats for (and even compare the popularity of different feeds).
As an added benefit, specifying the feed will cut the widget’s load time – and therefore the load time of your page.
Cullect Down While I Upgrade the Server – Watch this Space
Update 10:40CT 09 Sept.
Server upgrade and migration is complete.
Does it feel snappier?
Extended announcement forthcoming.
Wiki.Cullect.com Now Live
Wiki.Cullect.com is where I’ll be putting notes, How-Tos, and other info on how to get the most out of Cullect. In general, documenting everything about Cullect.com.
I invite you to as well.
The wiki is open to anyone with a Cullect.com account. Again, Wiki.Cullect.com.
I’ve been wanting a wiki to easily and quickly document Cullect for a while now. I wasn’t able to find an existing wiki engine that integrated the way I wanted, so I built one. It’s still in the ‘experimental’ stages, so please send me a note if it’s not behaving as it should.
Thanks.
Down for Upgrades – 21:00, 04 Sept 2008
watch this space for more info.
Update 20:30CT – The upgrade has been postponed until the weekend.
Cullect on Twitter- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
- Culld.us URLs Recently Shared at Twitter
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.