Wednesday, 14 April 2010

I need your help to make Ikeahacker better

After almost 4 years of managing this blog, I am going to say I need help. The volume of hacks has grown and honestly, I've not been able to keep up with it. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy receiving all your wonderful hacks and be amazed at your creativity. That has not changed.

What gets to me is that instead of spending time improving and enhancing the content of this blog, I've spent many hours cutting and pasting, downloading pictures, resizing photos, setting up links and the like. I know it comes with the territory and I do take it all in my stride. But, I am sure there are ways to work smarter and be more productive.

So I came up with a Hack Submission Form. The goal is to make it easier for you to share your hacks as well as simplify the process for me to get it up on the blog. This is where I need your help. The Form is in ... ahem, cough ... beta. I need your help to iron out the kinks, report any issues and give me feedback on whether it drives you up the wall. If you have a hack that you wanted to share but haven't, this is your moment. Read this post on how you can post your hack.

Now, on to the help I really, really want
The Form is in essence a contact form, nothing fancy. What I REALLY, REALLY want is a WYISWYG editor. Something like this (pix, right), where you can compose your message and get it to me in 99% "ready-to-post" form. Alas, I couldn't get WriteToMyBlog to work and I my email to its support failed to get a reply.

WriteToMyBlog uses TinyMCE, an open source word processor written using the JavaScript programming language. If you know how to achieve something similar (and integrate it with Blogger), please, please contact me at ikeahacker [at] gmail [dot] com. I would love to explore possibilities with you.

Besides this, I am also working on a new template. This one has been around for a year or two now and it looks tired. Hope to unveil it before we hit the start of our 4th year. (Phew! Has it been that long?)

I've also received ideas from some of you. (Thank you!) Second the idea if you think it's good and I'll see what I can do.
1. Some one suggested having a "Wish list" for people who like a hack but can't/don't know how to build it themselves. Others can choose to fulfil the wishlist for free or for a fee.
2. Another suggested that I have a "Visitor's Lounge", where first-timers to this blog can familiarise themselves with the weird and wonderful world of Ikea hacking.
3. I'm also thinking of having the "Most popular hacks", a list of the most commented/viewed hacks.
4. As well as a "Table of contents", to make searching for hacks easier.

If there are other improvements you want to see on this blog, let me know in the comments below. I look forward to hacking this site with you.

Read this to know how to post a hack. Then share your hack via this form.

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