dirtyBlog

If you’re seeing this, you’re seeing the new server. Sorry about the (very brief) outage!

So RSS dates have been broken since inception. They work now:

Oops!

(Also a new tag: shareware)

This is a pretty major release! And the halfway mark to version 1.0 has been crossed! YAR! Anyway here’s what’s new:

1. Per suggestion, increased the size of the tag cloud.
2. The tag page is now pretty icons instead of just boring ol’ text.
3. Fixed IE6 (boy I hate that browser) rendering bug created by tag icons.
4. Changed popularTags label in the sidebar to tagCloud, because, unlike releases, tags are not user-submitted. Makes more sense this way.
5. I noticed a while back that dates weren’t showing up in Netvibes. I really have no idea why that is, but I think I’ve fixed it. My guess is it was because the timestamp dates were defaulting to midnight (like they do), so all newly submitted releases should starting showing proper pubDates.

Now then, as usual with these sprint releases there are many small fixes and one major one. Here’s the biggee this time around: Added an RSS link to the top of each tag page. This has been in the software since inception, but hasn’t really been promoted or linked to (which is a good thing because version 0.4.5 broke it). This is a feature in a feed service that I’ve wanted for years and I’m really excited about it. Here are some typical examples that many folks will find useful:

• RSS feed of all open source software
• RSS feed of all new websites
• RSS feed of all Wii games
• RSS feed of all Xbox-360 games
• RSS feed of all Windows software

This is a pretty major release for dirtyBeta, and I’ve decided to finally start to promote the site a little more. Not really knowing many avenues to take to do this (which is embarassing because I have a minor in Marketing), I’ll be using some of the no-brainers like Digg and possibly Reddit (if I can retrieve my stinking password).

So if you’re here from one of those sites, welcome! If you’re wondering what this is all about, this is the companion blog for dirtyBeta, a software release syndication and feed service. dirtyBeta’s goal is to inform users about new software, video games and websites.

(Also, a quick note: If you’re here from a social bookmarking site and you’ve found one of my posts to be obnoxious or spammy, well then sorry, but that’s how those sites work. Some sites let you bury such stories, and they all certainly allow you to ignore entries. I sincerely think this service will be a valuable tool to many (or I wouldn’t try to promote it), and I’d love to have the word spread about it.)

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy this release.

This was as very productive release! Here we go:

1. Release names are now highlighted along with summaries on the search page.
2. Speaking of search, there’s now a search form on every page like there should be on every page on all of the Interwebz!
3. Uh, searches and tag pages are now longer broken… cough…
4. Not that we’re there yet, but pagination now is intelligent enough to not shoot off into the hundreds (you should have seen the development box, it was nasty looking).
5. Fixed a bug in the tag cloud that was sizing tags with zero releases larger than those with just a few.

Now then! Those are the somewhat smaller updates. Here’s the big one that’s very obvious just by glancing at the release page: icons! Spiffy eh? Hope you enjoy: