We've just rolled out a new set of features for Hoop.la!  We call this one "Baby, You're A Star" because it is focused on member blog posts and clips, as well as featuring content.

1. Member Blogs and Clips

Each member profile page now has two new tabs: Blog and Clips.    When you visit someone's profile, you can view all of their blog posts and all of the clips (photos/videos/audio/files) that they have posted.  

There is also a "Post to Blog" button on their profile blog page (for the profile owner only), and a corresponding "Upload Clips" button on their profile Clips page.

Note that there are no separate member permissions associated with this; if a member has permission to post blogs, they will be able to do it from the main blog section OR via their own profile.  Likewise, for Clips.  By default, these new profile sections are enabled, but you can disable either or both via your Blogs control panel page and/or your Clips control panel page.

2.  Featured Blogs and Clips

Now you can feature any blog posts or clips you want.  When you feature a blog post or clip, it has a special "featured" icon AND it appears in the "Featured" Blog list or the "Featured" Clips list.

If you enable featuring, by default your visitors will see featured content ONLY on your main Blog or Clips pages (though they can toggle to view everything).  This is very useful if you want to promote the very best content on your site.

Another useful new feature is the ability to automate featured content.  For Blogs, you have a "Featured Blogger" list (in your Blog control panel). If you add someone to that list, all blog content they post will automatically be featured.  Similarly, for Clips, if you add someone to the Clips Featured Clip Uploader list, all of the clips they upload will automatically be marked as "featured".

If you were limiting blogging to "Authorized Bloggers" only before, you may want to consider opening up blogging to all members instead.  Then, you could add your current "Authorized Bloggers" to your "Featured Bloggers" list so that their content is always featured.  By doing this, you can have more people blogging on your site.. and you can promote really good blog posts they make to your "front blog page" by featuring their really good posts.  Only your content moderation admins can feature content.

3.  New Blog and Clips Widget Parameter For Featured Content

Now that we support featured blog posts and clips, we need to give you a way to call that content out via widgets.  Thus, we've added a new parameter to our blog and clips widgets that allows you to limit the list to featured content only, if you prefer.

 As usual, there are a few other minor changes and bug fixes in this release, but "Baby, You're A Star" is all about giving focus to your best content AND allowing each of your members to feel more like stars of their own profiles on your site!

Enjoy!