More Control Over Your Main Page Excerpts

[Eric Suesz]

I wanted to share a change we made yesterday afternoon that I think will offer Network Creators more flexibility with the amount of preview content that shows up on their Main Page.

Previously, the first 500 characters of a Blog post would show up, but we wanted to give you more options because we know that many people use this space in different ways. Now, you can choose to show the first 250; 500; 1,000; or even the first 2,000 characters. Some folks like to show a lot, some like to show a little.

One detail that may be important to those who are having a hard time adjusting to the new text editor: The new text editor offers a lot more text styling choices, which can "use up" more HTML characters. So this change will probably be welcomed by those folks who are still getting used to working with the new text editor. 

To adjust this, simply head to the Main Page and click "Edit" on the Blogs or Forum module. You'll see a new drop-down that allows you to control the excerpt length:

We hope this will give Network Creators a few more options with their Main Page. Let us know if you have any questions about how it works. 

[solo]

thanks

[Patrick Chappelle]

Well, md got the drop on you guys, but thanks just the same, and thanks to Ning for putting this together. =)

[Joseph Porcelli]

Sweet!

[Ayub]

That is better, Thanks to Ning Team

 

Ayub

[Tim]

Fantastic - it really helps those networks (like mine) which put effort into blogging. I want to be able to promote the potential of my network as a blogging platform to members, and this is a great help.

[Neville Wright]

Tim. Like you I am also a blogger and want the rss feeds from the Ning blogs to appear on Google search. I've taken the feeds supplied and put them into Feedburner which validates them. However, the entries never appear on Google. Do you have that capability and if so, how did you get it working?

My website www.freeschapelle.com.au has a high profile on Google as I control the tags in the header of the site. That site hosts a phpbb forum which has around 8000 members and I would like to get them into Ning but my Ning site http://schapelle.ning.com is not visible to Google even though it is setup and verified under Google Webmaster. RSS feeds appearing on the blog search engines is a must for high visibility.

With Ning (not the free one) you cannot edit the html for your home page. For me that is essential but my site is run like a charity and I cannot afford personally to go to the top version of Ning just to get the capability.

Regards, Nev

[JFarrow]

this is much appreciated. Might the same type of option be available in the future to control. the Blogs List Page? I would love to have the option to have a Thumbnail + excerpt with read more... on the Blog's Main List Page. Thanks Ning!

[Tim]

I'd like that. The homepage on my networks looks much better, but the Blogs page now looks shabby in comparison.

[Deb W.]

agreed!

[Cautious]

Wonderful, tysvm:-)

[FedMedic]

WOOT to the Ning crew!

Thanks Eric!

FedMedic

[Agosthina]

I like the flexibility of it all! Thank you guys for all your hard work.