General Site Updates – January 2017
It’s been a few weeks since we’ve last provided an update on all things site related.
Hopefully, we’ve touched on all the major points, and if there are any further questions, please feel free to leave a comment with your question(s).
If you log in to your account on Autisable, you will now see a few new things on the right-hand column:
1 – “Who to Follow” – this will highlight up to 5 other accounts on the site to connect you with other members.
2 – “News Feed” – this page operates a lot like Facebook and Twitter, in that you will see status updates from all other members that you are following. This is the social part of the social blogging community that is Autisable.
3 – “Trending” – this highlights top hashtags over the past few days on the site. You can click any hashtag and you can see who else is talking about that topic.
4 – “Add a Post” – this is accessed through your profile page on your account. It’s not really “new” – but we did add the ability to insert more photos within a post. This is where you’d submit a post for the editors to review to be on the front page of the site. You will be notified by the editors if the post is accepted and when it goes live on the main page. As an encouragement, our editorial process is to ensure that posts highlighted to coincide with our community standards and is checked for basic spelling and grammar. Our policy is to not change what you share but to ensure that it is presented in the best way. These are YOUR words, and this is YOUR journey. If we have questions or concerns, our editors will touch base with you privately. Most of the time we just let the content move forward. We’re not the grammar police, nor it is our policy to censor what you want to share – even if it’s criticism about us. (it’s ok, we can take it).
5 – Advertisers – these are the businesses that make it possible to keep the ‘lights on’ here on Autisable. If you see an ad on our site that you disagree with, please let us know. We work with our advertisers and ad servers to make sure they get appropriate feedback on how to better serve the Autism community. They want to serve the community see Autisable grow and succeed, and to make sure they are presented themselves well.
We hope you are encouraged by these updates that are now available.
Here are a few enhancements/changes that we’ll be working on next (in no particular order):
1 – Improved email communications. We are creating regular Newsletter format emails that will be pushed out each month that will highlight top articles and other news.
2 – We’ve been asked by already established bloggers and several non-profits on how we syndicate content and if they can partner with Autisable. We already do this with over 100 bloggers and non-profits but have been on hiatus in adding anyone new until we had a few other things in place. We will, however, be resuming this effort as it’s a major part of connecting the Autism community. So, we’ll be rolling out a way for Bloggers and Non-profits to easily partner with us – which will include our policy/procedures in how we syndicate and how you can maximize your efforts using Autisable.
3 – Push Notifications – this will be an upgrade to our real-time notifications that are already in place on-site. Push notifications is a plan to enhance your mobile experience with Autisable.
4 – User Tags and Verified Users – Some of our members are parents, others are professionals, while some accounts are non-profits. How can we tell who is who, and which accounts are the Official account of that individual? We’ll be rolling out these updates to help provide that level of clarification.
5 – Private messaging – a basic method where members can connect and discuss more privately.
6 – Advertiser Auto-Pay – this is an enhancement that will save us and our advertisers time in regards to monthly billing so we can focus on improving products/services for the community. This is actually a request by our friends at Legal Shield Team Parent, and we’re working to help satisfy this request.
There’s, even more, we’re working on and planning out, but this is about as comprehensive as we can make it for now.
Please let us know what you’d like to see, or if there a part of the site that isn’t performing as you’d expect it to.
Thank you for being a part of Autisable and allowing us to provide this platform to share your journey with Autism.
Sincerely,
The Autisable Team.
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