PV3 was all about rounding off the edges. We shoe-horned in a lot of great new features and fixed a fewer older ones.
PV3 Todo List:


  • FTP Access Done!
  • Virtual File Manager (this is related to FTP stuff) Done!
  • Invite readers/authors/admins Done!
  • Notify on post (to readers) Done!
  • Notify on comment (to authors) Done!
  • Stats page for admin. This would mostly be an overview with the last comments, total number of post, etc. Done!
  • Notify to blog on photoblog post Done!
  • Streamline photoblog creation Done!
  • Fix manage multiple blogs Done!
  • Add knobs as defaults which will be set when posting via xml-rpc Done!
  • Support for auto-generated excerpts Done!
  • Community stats Mostly Done!

So now that we got all that fun stuff into Blogware, what's next?
At this point, we have a highly competitive package to unleash on the world. It will be a tough slog, but I think we're up for the fight - with one small exception - UI. We've really focused on function for the past several weeks and form has suffered as a result. Not that everything is incoherent, but its just not easy like it should be.
Case in point - how many of you have actually figured out how to deal with styles in a meaningful manner? (I see...one...) I know for a fact that we've probably got one of the most powerful templating systems on the market - its just real tough to figure out. As a user, I often feel that that UI we've chosen stands for "User Interference" not "User Interface".
No knock on the product or the team - we focused on making sure that PV1, 2 & 3 fully supported the feature set that Blogware testers (...and the blogging market in general) were asking for.
PV4 will focus on one feature and one feature only - useability.
PV4 is about focusing on the UI. PV4 is about taking the interfaces from "Utterly Incomprensible" to "Ultimately Incredible". PV4 is about making Brad's most excellent code sing and seriously kicking some industry butt.
We've got a fair bit of work to do over the next few days and into the end of June. If you have any suggestions or ideas that you want to toss our way, please do. Understanding what drives you nuts about Blogware will be critical in designing an interface that makes sense for you and how you blog. Just don't wait to give us your feedback.
We're gonna do PV4 in 16 days.