Howl.com Startup Blog

Woah, new reputation points system and layout!

Dearest friends and users,

We’ve been working hard to implement a few improvements over the past week. We’ve added a new reputation points system! Basically, every blog now has a reputation score which is made of points awarded through interactions with the site. For example, you’ll be awarded points whenever people subscribe to you, reblog your posts, or comment on your posts. The idea is to show rank and reputation for people who post quality links, and reward them with exposure.

We’ve also changed the way posts are laid out in link blogs. They are now more horizontal to take up less vertical space, allowing more posts to fit in the page while still looking organized and clean.

We think these changes will help make the site more engaging and fun for people to use. We always welcome feedback and suggestions, so hit us up sometime: http://www.howl.com/contact

Thanks guys

Posting speed upgrade and comments!

Hello friends, we have been hard at work to improve the Howl experience for all of our loving users! First off, we’ve changed and upgraded our link poster, so whenever you stick a URL in and click ‘Preview’, it should retrieve data a bit quicker. We have also added a thumbnail selector, so you can now choose which image thumbnail you’d like to use in your post. You can select through them by clicking the left and right arrows. 

Second, we’ve added comments directly onto posts! You can now post a comment straight to the post by filling in the comment form and clicking Post. It will add your comment without refreshing or changing pages, thanks to AJAX.

There have also been a bunch of little bugs fixed and changed. We’re constantly improving the site, we appreciate feedback. Thanks!

Finally, a preview feature!

Hello friends and users,

We’ve finally rolled out a little preview feature that will let you see exactly what you’re about to post! Simply paste the URL and click “Preview”, and we’ll load all the post data in a box below. You can edit the highlighted text by clicking on it and typing. This means if you want to fix the titles or descriptions before posting your link, you can now do so.

We’ll eventually be adding the thumbnail selector to the preview as well, so you can pick which images you want to be apart of your post.

The share button will also remain in the share box, so you can still one click share without having to preview if you don’t want to.

Enjoy!

Background customization, subscriptions + streams

Hello friends,

We’ve been working hard the past few weeks to fix up a lot of bugs as well as release a lot of new features. One includes a better designed settings page, where you can now also customize the background images of your link blog by uploading an image or setting a bg color.

We have also introduced subscriptions and a stream. To subscribe to a user who posts interesting things, simply click the subscribe button on their blog page. Their posts will show up on your homepage stream whenever you’re logged in.

We’re always working to improve the service. Give it a try, and let us know what you think. Thanks guys!

New Twitter + Facebook features!

Hello friends and followers,

We’re happy to announce some new features for you. They’re both regarding more integration with Facebook and Twitter. Not only can you register and login using your social network accounts, but you can also connect them to cross post to them whenever you post on Howl. That means if you want to sent a post out to FB or Twitter when you share a link, it can be done automatically. Check your account settings page to hook them up.

Give it a try! Keep the suggestions coming!

Keep on truckin’

We’re pushing along every day by improving our site with new features and bug improvements. Lately we cleaned up a bunch of usability things like automatically adding http:// before pasted URLs, as well as validating URLs so text and HTML can’t be posted. Users can also now delete posts through the edit page of their link post.

Got feature requests? Bugs to report? We’d love to hear from you.

Contact us http://www.howl.com/contact

New blog

Hi friends,

Welcome to Howl’s blog. We’ll be writing about news, updates, bugs, feedback, changes, and everything else regarding our startup.

If you’re unfamiliar with what Howl is, just check out http://www.howl.com

Howl is a link blogging service that lets people share links quickly and easily. We’re a new startup and we hope to build something people grow to love.

Thanks for visiting, feel free to contact us at howldotcom[at]gmail.com!