Notifications on new blog posts

[liz4cps]

I have a few related requests here, any one of which would be a big improvement.

The problem is that I want folks on my site to be notified when there are new blog posts on the site.  At the moment, the only way they can find out is that once someone has posted to their blog, they can click on "view blog" at the top of a blog post, scroll down to the bottom, and click "follow" to get notifications when that particular user posts.  This is both obscure and tedious.

What I would like:

1. A "follow" at the top and/or bottom of every blog post that allows someone to follow the blog. This could be next to a "follow comments" so, it's clear that it's for the blog and not the comments.  Maybe also a "follow" on their main page in the box about their recent blog posts.
2. An option on the settings page to follow all blog posts from friends on the site.
3. An alternate option on the settings page to follow all blog posts from anyone on the site.

I consider #1 as critical.  It's just too hard to remember that you might want to follow the blog as well as comments on a particular post -- and then to remember where to go to do so.

However, #2 and/or #3 would be very helpful, too, so that folks could get notifications for the first blog post someone writes.  This would be especially good in helping newbies get acquainted with folks on the site.  I am thinking #2 would be very popular on my site for folks who want to see posts from friends -- and we would even have quite a few who opted for #3.

I am thinking #2 would work like this:

• When a friend makes their first post to a blog, you would automatically follow their blog (as if you'd gone to their "view blog" page and clicked "follow"), and you would get a notification that they had posted a blog.
• When you friend someone on the site, you would start following their blog, if they already have one.
• If you stopped following it later, that would work right unless, I suppose, you unfriended and friended them again later.
• When you selected "follow friends' blogs", it would start following all friends' blogs after that. 

#3 would work much the same except for anyone on the site.  This is also much like group follows work; when you join a group, you automatically follow the group comments and discussions.

Thoughts?  Anyone else looking for this?

God bless!

- Liz

[Thiago Santos de Moraes]

I totally agree with the proposal number 1. Simple and efficient.