Service Update Author Platform® Update - The New Author Dashboard System

We’ve reached a fairly advanced stage of development with the Author Platform. We’re still at beta level, and work continues not quite round-the-clock but… almost. However, the volume of work being done doesn’t at this point result in immediate (and hopefully) attractive new features and functionality. What we’re mostly doing now is making the code more robust and more efficient.

One exception to this is the new Author Dashboard system. The old dashboard system was created and coded very early in the development process, and none of us have really been happy with its somewhat unfriendly and staid appearance. It was functional, but that’s all.

Well that’s about to change

Please meet your new Author Dashboard system: meant to provide a clean, clear and consistent user experience. Where the old dashboards spread information between different pages in a sometimes confusing way, the new system is meant to gather information in logical areas that feel intuitive to users.

In addition, different pages within the same dashboard are now represented as panels that you can access without needing to wait for a new page to load in your browser.

The new My Blog dashboard is the first in this system to be made public - just a few minutes ago. The major change authors may see will be the new blog post editor. The back-end adherence to an author’s chosen theme and custom colours has been dropped in favour of a consistent and easy-to-read visual design that should give authors a visual predictability that reduces distractions from writing new blog posts. We want the design to support you, not overcrowd you. It should make the whole process of blogging enjoyable and uplifting.

Authors still write a title, a subtitle, (optionally) a topic, and create the body of their blog posts using text, image, video, book and pullquote content blocks, but with a more pleasant user interface; for example, the buttons to add new content blocks don’t shift around but appear predictably before and after every existing block.

One new addition designed to make editing your blog post easier is the ability to ‘highlight’ specific blocks as either containing an open question, needing attention, or complete. These highlights are editor-visible only, and do not show to the reader of your posts. If you have any highlighted blocks that aren’t marked as complete when you publish your blog post, the editor will remind you of these and confirm that you really want to publish.

So if you’re interrupted while writing your blog post or decide you need to take a break, but have a specific block you need to complete, fact-check or edit - you can highlight it and save the draft. Later on, if you forgot about any of these tasks, clicking ‘publish’ will remind you of them first. So it’s an optional tool to make writing your blog posts become a less stressful and more enjoyable experience.

And for those of an analytical disposition… you’re in for a treat

As I say, the only platform function currently using the new Author Dashboard system is the Blog section. All other functions will adopt the new system over the next few days,

Let me know what you think.

This looks great!

Although I liked the list in the old version where it showed the 30 day view and read numbers beside each post. Now it's a ranked list, which is helpful, but I can't find numbers for individual posts.

I love the message of the day! I'm not familiar with the old format, but I love the extra detail. I'm really impressed. I used Wordpress for over a decade (until you had to pay), and this site has everything at my fingertips they had except Litopia has the hub of authors. Feels visionary. Thx for all the effort

Sedayne said:

but I can't find numbers for individual posts

Click to expand...

If you hover your mouse over the different posts on the graph, you'll see the numbers for individual posts. Also, if you click on the pink 'posts' circle, you can find numbers there too

I'm with @Sedayne, I found the old list a little easier to parse. I'll probably get used to this version, though.

RK Wallis said:

If you hover your mouse over the different posts on the graph, you'll see the numbers for individual posts. Also, if you click on the pink 'posts' circle, you can find numbers there too

Click to expand...

I saw this on the graph, but it's really hard to do with my fat fingers on the phone (laptop no longer connected to internet. Less distractions). And I couldn't find numbers for individual posts.

I'll probably need to spend a bit more time figuring it out.

It looks good, though.

Sedayne said:

with my fat fingers on the phone (laptop no longer connected to internet. Less distractions). And I couldn't find numbers for individual posts.

Click to expand...

I have a hand-eye-lack of strength/balance disability with my ipad, so totally understand So, I have to figure it out on my computer.

But this should work on a phone:
Go to your Author platform (or however you get there).
On the bottom left, there should be three lines? they take you your dashboard/my blog?
On the front page of my blog, there is a pink big button saying, "Posts." Click it.
You should see the list of your posts? on the left, you'll see a little arrow. Click it. That's where you'll find the numbers.

RK Wallis said:

I have a hand-eye-lack of strength/balance disability with my ipad, so totally understand So, I have to figure it out on my computer.

But this should work on a phone:
Go to your Author platform (or however you get there).
On the bottom left, there should be three lines? they take you your dashboard/my blog?
On the front page of my blog, there is a pink big button saying, "Posts." Click it.
You should see the list of your posts? on the left, you'll see a little arrow. Click it. That's where you'll find the numbers.

Click to expand...

Ah, thanks.
I was looking under analytics (which is where this info used to be), didn't think to look under posts.
All good. I just need to get used to it.

Thanks, @RK Wallis, I think you've just explained it

Sedayne said:

the old version where it showed the 30 day view and read numbers beside each post. Now it's a ranked list, which is helpful, but I can't find numbers for individual posts.

Click to expand...

If you go to Main Menu / Dashboard / My Blog / Posts
This will show a list of all posts, together with views to date and number of comments.
You can choose to narrow the view to Published or Drafts.
Change how you want to see the ordering: Newest first, Oldest first, Most read first Most commented first.
Then drill down by clicking a post and you’ll see individual post data as below:


Click on the main Analytics button, and you’ll get aggregated data for everything you’ve posted:




And scroll down to see top performing posts and top referers:


And the final scroll down will show lifetime stats:

Aethalope said:

I'm with @Sedayne, I found the old list a little easier to parse. I'll probably get used to this version, though.

Click to expand...

Let me know if there's anything missing, or if you'd like data presented in another way p.

Just used the new set-up for a blog post (to publish tomorrow). It's a nice improvement on the previous version, clean to look at and very easy to use.

Thanks! Still being tweaked a little bit.

Hi, Peter...

I'm not sure I like the new system. I really miss the WYSIWYG editing. Now I have to toggle between browser windows to make sure it renders how I want on my theme.

There also appears to be fewer text editing options and no way to insert inline images. Can I use HTML to do it, instead ?

The new system does in fact have something pretty close to WYSIWYG. But for newcomers, WYSIWYG isn't the way to go initially, because it's daunting and overwhelming.
And crucially, we need to walk newcomers gently through the first few visits, step by step.
That's what you're seeing at the moment.
The WYSIWYG option is actually in place but not explained yet. We'll try to do that tomorrow, stand by p.

Ah... now I see what you did. Just noticed the edit icons on the left and insert icons above. You've made a simplified block editor. It's a lot easier than Gutenberg.

And here I was scheming of a way to upload images to your resource folder and inserting them inline with HTML.