Community Server 2.1 Features

Community Server just keeps getting better and better, providing more features then I could even imagine to incorporate into a product like this. Some features that our bloggers will probably notice most:

• FreeTextBox
  The editor that was installed since version CS 2.0 with the advanced feature to upload images and files into your own personal folder. New is the ability to insert a code-snipper via a popup window, although I still like CopySourceAsHTML best, especially with the tip coming from Jan Schreuder.
  
• Tags
  CS 2.1 introduces tags, kind of removing the categories. Tags that are used a lot of the time, appear in bold and larger on the /blogs/ page, as well as on your own weblog. It’s introduced with del.icio.us and technorati and very popular to group posts. Perhaps we should think about standarizing tags or something, because a lot of strange tags appear on the /blogs/ page! 🙂
  
• New Skins
  As you can see on my weblog, I’ve chosen a new skin. Because I tested this new version locally first, I had the change to already work with/on this skin, so I changed it a bit, making it much wider than the original skin.
  
• Home
  The latest blogposts are gone from the homepage. This is default in CS 2.1 and I can get them back, but I’m not completely sure on what I want to do with the free space.
  I also tried to change the frontpage a bit. A new logo I just picked up from somewhere. I’ve created a favicon.ico but it doesn’t seem to appear in the address bar of my IE 🙂
  
• Review comments
  I was just checking out the new reporting feature of CS 2.1 and saw that some weblogs have some serious comment spam going on. Or at least the owner of the weblog doesn’t remove the comment spam. CS 2.1 has a new feature with which you can filter comments by “possible spam” which is really nice.
  By the way, in case you didn’t know, in your weblog settings, you can setup to be notified of everything feedback. Not just the approved comments, which is the default. Yes, you’ll also get notified about spam. But hey, it’s a nice notice so you’ll know when to clean up 😉
  
• Spam
  More spam stuff, you can now setup your own spam moderation a bit. BloggingAbout.NET uses multiple rules to figure out when something is spam or not. If you think you need to tighten this a bit, you can also set it up in your control panel.
  
• About my blog
  Not many people have set this up. But for your friends and visitors to know who you really are, or to recruiters who might want to offer you the best job in the world and don’t know how to contact you, fill in this missing piece of your weblog.

Well, if you notice anything out of the ordinary, don’t hesitate to contact me.