mbulla's Blog at HomeRefurbers.com

Project Pictures Upgraded

mbulla — Wed, 06 May 2009 12:38:24 GMT

Did you want to add more pictures when posting a project and you couldn’t? Then you will enjoy a brand new update of our project pages. When entering a project page you will immediately see a larger version of the main picture. And the best thing is that this larger picture is not cropped anymore. Also, there is a list of all project pictures in a thumbnail format. The number of pictures per project was increased to six. Just click on any of the thumbnails to view enlarged version of that picture:

Zoom Pictures button opens a slideshow view of the high-resolution project pictures.

Enjoy!

Watchlist Is Here! As Well As Related Pulse Upgrade

mbulla — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:21:51 GMT

Many of you know the new watchlist feature from our sister website LumberJocks.com and many of you like it there. So I decided to add it here on HR as well.

In summary, I’ve added the Watchlist feature that allows you to be notified – on the Pulse page or also by the emails – about new comments posted… not only on your own posts but on any posts that you add to your personal Watchlist.

So how this works you ask. I tried to keep things as simple and streamlined as possible. Following points describe the process:

When you add new post (project, blog entry, forum topic) it is automatically added to your Watchlist.
When you’re posting new comment you can choose if you want to add the respective post to your Watchlist or not.

You can see green Watch and red Unwatch toggle button on each post (in the top right corner) to easily start/stop watching the respective post.

Email notification settings have been simplified. You can turn on/off email notifications for all watched posts at once.
Watchlist is integrated directly into pulse page. All those challenging dropdowns and checkboxes are replaced with just a few predefined Pulse views:
- new posts & my watchlist (shows all posts that you never checked and new comments on your watched posts)
- new posts (shows all posts that you never checked)
- my watchlist (shows new comments on your watched posts)
- all activity (shows new comments on all posts)
- profiles (shows never checked Refurber profiles as well as new comments on them – for those who like welcoming new members).

New posts & my watchlist is selected by default and I consider this to be the most natural way to use your personalized Pulse – you read the post that you never checked and then you either add it to your watchlist or not. When you start watching the post it will be automatically brought to the top if there are any new comments. Finally you can select time period on the right and see only posts active in the last 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days.

There is a new My Watchlist link in the My HomeRefurbers dropdown.

Note that all of you previous posts were automatically added to your Watchlist during this upgrade.

Well this is going to take some time to get used to – especially for those using the Pulse frequently. But I believe that the whole process is going to be much smoother now. Plus you can get notified in all those discussions you participate in – not only authored by you.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Note: I’ve copied this blog entry from LJ and adjusted it a little. Thanks Martin.

HomeRefurbers.com Connects to Facebook

mbulla — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:37:20 GMT

Many of you have probably noticed that HomeRefurbers.com is now one of the websites with a Facebook Connect powered integration. This is a good news for all the HomeRefurbers that are also active on Facebook. This initial integration streamlines cross-posting of your new HR posts (projects, blog entries and forum topics) to your personal Facebook feed. Let’s see how this works.

1. First you have to check “Publish to my Facebook” checkbox when posting a new post here on HR:

2. Once your new post is successfully published you’ll be asked to connect our HR Facebook application to your Facebook account. This happens only once and is a required step:

3. Finally you’ll see a preview of a Facebook feed story. Select Full, Short or One Line option and hit publish:

4. Once done, a nicely formatted feed story will appear in your personal Facebook feed:

Enjoy!

New HR widgets for your website or blog

mbulla — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:07:36 GMT

Do you have your own website or blog and you don’t have time to post all your HomeRefurbers’ posts on it ? Now it’s really easy – just grab your Widget.

1. Your latest Activity Widget

You can find the “Grab Widget” logo on the bottom of your profile page.

First, you have to click on it and your widget will appear. It contains your latest Projects and Blog entries, posted on HomeRefurbers.

Select the type of the widget you want use – Narrow or Wide, copy the code below the widget a paste it to your website.

2. Latest HomeRefurbers’ Projects Widget

You can find the “Grab Widget” logo on the bottom of the projects page.

First, you have to click on it and your widget will appear. It contains latest Projects posted on HomeRefurbers.com website.

Select the type of the widget you want use – Narrow or Wide, copy the code below the widget a paste it to your website.

Enjoy!

Halloween Challenge with Lee Valley #3: Announcement

mbulla — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:13:34 GMT

Hi all you Refurbers, we know that you must be very busy with your home renovations. Renovating can take up a lot of time, for this reason we had only two entries in the Haloween Challenge. We discussed the small turnout with our two contestants and with our sponsor Lee Valley and decided it would be best to call it a day on this one. We would like to thank out contestants for their entries and would also like to thank Lee Valley for sponsoring the event. Keep an eye out for our winter Awards and we hope you will all have some time to participate.

Halloween Challenge with Lee Valley #2: Last Call

mbulla — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:29:37 GMT

HomeRefurbers | LumberJocks | GardenTenders

Don’t forget that Saturday – November 1st – is Halloween Challenge deadline. You have a great chance to win one of the following prizes:

Winners will be announced on November 2nd…Good Luck!

Halloween Challenge with Lee Valley #1: Announcement

mbulla — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:54:16 GMT

Halloween Challenge: HomeRefurbers | LumberJocks | GardenTenders

I can hear those hinges creaking for the first time in a long time and see cobwebs and ghosts haunting the doorway. Oh yes, the challenge is on! Decorate your front door for Halloween and enter the project in our first ever HomeRefurbers’ Halloween Challenge. Make it fun and inspire us with your creativity.

PRIZES

Lee Valley will provide 3 random winners with the following great prizes:

Get your Project in by Saturday November 1st and the winners will be announced on November 2nd. Are you up for the challenge?

HOW TO ENTER

SUBMIT your challenge entry as a project and tag it with challenge01 (of course you may add any additional tags too):

Note that you don’t need to use ‘challenge01’ in the project title (use the meaningful title instead).
You can submit only one entry – give it your best shot.
Describe your entry and how it inspires you to enjoy the Halloween season
The entry deadline is November 1st.
Winners will be announced online at HomeRefurbers.com on November 2nd.

The Challenge is on. Let the games begin!

CENTRALIZED ACCOUNT SYSTEM: Our Family Of Sites Have Merged!

mbulla — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:57:42 GMT

As many of you might have already noticed, we’ve established new centralized system which allows you access to all three websites in our network:

You can see following graphic when you visit sign-in or sign-up pages on these sites. Think of it as your unique network passport/ID:

You can read more here .

Enjoy