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So, Uh...Bitmob 2.0.....

Shoe_headshot_-_square
Thursday, September 02, 2010

You might notice something a little different about Bitmob today. It's called Bitmob 2.0 -- and it wasn't supposed to go live for another week!

Due to some mix-up, what you're seeing now is an unfinished, only partially tested update to our site with a much cooler profile section (login and click on the Profile tab to see for yourself!), improvements (we hope...like I said, we weren't quite done yet) all over the place, and most importantly: the ability for you to add your own advertising to your posts.

At this point, it'd be way more of a hassle to revert back to Bitmob 1.1, and things seem pretty stable so far (oh please oh please oh please -- fingers quadruple crossed). So we decided to roll with this unfinished 2.0 for the time being.

Two important notes:

1. If you find any problems, can you do us a huge favor and let us know in the comments below? Our developers will be watching this thread closely and tackling any major issues as they come up.

2. We are working on making this new advertising system more intuitive, but for now, you can follow the instructions below (after the jump). AGAIN: We're not finished here, so you guys are essentially our beta testers now! Let us know if everything's working for you, please.

Thanks very much,

A very nervous Bitmob staff

p.s. If you need a primer on how to post stories here, check out our guided tour.

 

I can actually make money on Bitmob?

Absolutely. Google operates a nifty free service called AdSense, which allows content producers (i.e., you) to earn money using targeted ads. By linking your Google AdSense account to your Bitmob profile, any revenue coming from the AdSense ad at the bottom of each story you post will go directly to you. Score one for Internet capitalism!

If you have a Google AdSense account:

  1. Create an ad that fits Bitmob's template by going to google.com/adsense, clicking on AdSense Setup, then "AdSense for Content."
  2. Select "Ad Unit" and then "Image ads only" from the drop-down menu. On the next two pages, leave all values as their default and click "Continue."
  3. Give your ad a name and click "Submit and Get Code."
  4. Now get the Slot ID for this ad by clicking on "Manage Ads" from the top menu bar and finding the gray number below your ad's name (don't include the # symbol). You'll also need your AdSense ID, which follows "Publisher ID" in the top right corner of every page.
  5. Head over to the Profile link (after you've logged in) and click the "Edit" button next to "[Your Name] Sponsor." Input your AdSense ID and Slot ID numbers.
  6. Start posting stories on Bitmob!

If you don't have a Google AdSense account:

What are you waiting for? Head over to google.com/adsense now and sign up. (Note: If you don't have a personal website, use "bitmob.com" for the Website URL field.) Then follow the instructions above.

Important: Don't abuse the system!

Once you've set up your account with AdSense and Bitmob, don't abuse the system. Don't use bots to net you extra clicks. Don't ask your friends to click for you. Don't clickity-click on your own ad until you've earned a princely sum. Google will sniff you out and ban you faster than you can say, "Hey, where'd my money go?"

 
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Comments (66)
Shoe_headshot_-_square
September 02, 2010

Testing...

Alexemmy
September 02, 2010

Hah, sorry, I know this is probably a madhouse behind the scenes, but it is kind of amusing. You'll laugh about it later, I'm sure. But things look great! I'll be sure to keep an eye out for bugs.

Jamespic4
September 02, 2010

This is awesome! I already set up my profile, and I'm following people

Jamespic4
September 02, 2010

You can't view the people who you are following nor those who are following you from the profile page (the same goes when you are looking at other people's profiles, too).

Assassin_shot_edited_small_cropped
September 02, 2010

I can't look at who I, or anyone else, is following. (The link gives the "something went wrong" error.)

EDIT: James beat me to it.

Phantom
September 02, 2010

How do you edit posts? There's a typo in my new article and it's driving me insane.

Default_picture
September 02, 2010

First, love the new look, especially the comments section.  Very clean.

Onto problems:  the login button below the comments section doesn't highlight or click, but luckily the one at the top of the page still works.  Also, is the page button at the bottom of the post supposed to be there with only one page?

There184
September 02, 2010

I can't change my account settings. I get an error message telling me I can't have a space in my login name. But the login name isn't changeable. :(

 

A few links are giving me the "something went wrong, we know, we're fixing it" message. Other than that, it's looking pretty cool.

Shoe_headshot_-_square
September 02, 2010

To edit or see your posts, go to the "Post Manager" under your "Profile" tab.

Default_picture
September 02, 2010

Hm, I set up my Google AdSense account, but ads aren't showing up on my posts...

Edit: Nevermind, it just took some time to start working.

There184
September 02, 2010

@Suriel It takes a few minutes for Google to process everything.

Phantom
September 02, 2010

Shoe: Well now I just feel dumb. Thanks, though!

5211_100857553261324_100000112393199_12455_5449490_n
September 02, 2010

I really, really like the comment setup now.

Posting went off without an issue.  Profile page looks great.  Save a few typos on a couple random pages (like the profile page) everything looks nice!

Assassin_shot_edited_small_cropped
September 02, 2010

It doesn't work when I try to follow someone. The button changes, but if I refresh it resets, and my "following" count doesn't change. I'm also following myself, apparently (not sure how that happened).

37893_1338936035999_1309080061_30825631_6290042_n
September 02, 2010

I know you're all working hard to fix bugs and this one is completely minor (not even a bug really,) but when on your profile, if you click on "see all posts" the sorting categories still say "most likes" and not "boosts," like the rest of the site. Totally minor, but I thought you might want to change it at some point.

37893_1338936035999_1309080061_30825631_6290042_n
September 02, 2010

@Richard Temporary fix, you can click on the follow button next to someone's story. That seems to make it stick.

Demian_-_bitmobbio
September 02, 2010

To quote a loudmouth, "F-it, we're doing it live!"

Robsavillo
September 02, 2010

Demian, you've seen the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6W7FY0-mks]techno remix[/url]?

5211_100857553261324_100000112393199_12455_5449490_n
September 02, 2010

I saw a way to link (somehow?) to your facebook account.  Is there a way to attach your facebook account to the Bitmob account, or was I high?

The links are sorta silly in your profile page.  What do you do, copy and paste the whole URL of your page there?

 

One final note: "related articles" is just linking to the first X posts it can find in the database instead of searching for similarly-tagged posts to link to in my last posted page in particular.  Not sure if that was intentional or not.

Assassin_shot_edited_small_cropped
September 02, 2010

@Chase Ah, yes. That did the trick. It's a bit awkward, though. I might wait before I go on a following spree.

@Bryan You'll need to get a facebook vanity url (aka username). Hit up facebook.com/username

Me04
September 02, 2010

I love the new features. I've just been pimping my account with links, ads and photographic bling.

 

I might even be tempted to open up a LinkedIn account now... Good stuff!

Brett_new_profile
September 02, 2010

Woo, welcome to the future, everyone!

Channel5
September 02, 2010

I can't edit an article I just posted. Everytime I click edit it brings me to my profile page

Channel5
September 02, 2010

Figured it out. Had to go to "Post Manager" and click edit from there.

Jay_smiling_02
September 02, 2010

This is not really a problem, per se, but is there anyway to stop the first character of your Twitter and Facebook username from auto-capitalizing? All my characters are lowercase, so it just looks silly to me having that first one in uppercase. I know I'm nitpicking, but thanks anyway for listening!

Default_picture
September 02, 2010

This is much smoother than I thought it would be when I checked my messages this morning. So many frantic emails

Img_20100902_162803
September 02, 2010
Best 90210 day ever!
Enzo
September 02, 2010

Congratulations, chums, a great job. I only joined a couple of months ago, but loved the site. I had a few niggles about how difficult it was to see what people are commenting on and so on, ALL of which have been addressed by this upgrade. Brilliant stuff.

One small thing - it would be nice if in the myfeed tab, the usernames were linked back to the person's profile.

Thanks again.

Enzo
September 02, 2010

Oh, and an aesthetic thing -- the follow/unfollow button and the numbers next to 'boost' look a bit off.

Aj_newfoundland_avatar
September 02, 2010

I don't know what the exact cause is, but I did notice that the Vimeo embedded video I posted a few months ago has apparently blown up. Not sure what the cause is. http://bitmob.com/articles/pax-east-2010-a-montage

Demian_-_bitmobbio
September 02, 2010

@ Errol -- what page were you hitting 'edit' on?

Shoe_headshot_-_square
September 02, 2010

By the way: Thank you for those of you who are helping out the other members here. You guys are the best!

Picture_002
September 02, 2010

Toyed with things. Liking so far. No real issues. Then again, I've not trying posting an article yet. But nice work. Nice watching the site evolve. Props!

5211_100857553261324_100000112393199_12455_5449490_n
September 02, 2010

Thanks, Richard!

37425_412468101714_719286714_4780931_4814727_n
September 02, 2010

I can see things are still a little messy, but man, this is the update I've been waiting for. Once everything is sorted out, I can definitely see this taking Bitmob up a notch

Alexemmy
September 02, 2010

Ah, found one. If someone uploads a picture of themselves that is too wide, their avatar is sized accordingly. But, it isn't on the page of your followers. When I click on who's following me, everyone with wide pictures have them bumping into their names/latest comments.

Default_picture
September 02, 2010

What happened to seeing view count per article?

Demian_-_bitmobbio
September 02, 2010

Alex, yeah, the followers/following page is all kinds of messed up right now.

 

Toby, go to Profile > Post Manager

Bman_1a
September 02, 2010

I am so, so startled right now.

Demian_-_bitmobbio
September 02, 2010

You should've seen us this morning.

5211_100857553261324_100000112393199_12455_5449490_n
September 02, 2010

Just noticed critical failure... Bitmob logo at top of page still says 1.1.  Unless you're still waiting for the expertly-crafted fancy logo.

 

I think a spray-painted 2.0 would suffice.  Or maybe "II" part of the Doom II logo.  Yeah, forget spraypaint, do that.  Also, related stories linking to keywords is still kaput.

Profile_pic4
September 02, 2010

It's great to see this site evolve these past 2 years. Kudos and bugles all around (I like snacks)!!

 

Even better to see that with success and evolution, there's still a bit of "oh-dude!" going on.  Keeps the ninjas on their toes and the bad things off balance.

Pshades-s
September 02, 2010

When I click "Account Settings" on my profile page, I get a "page missing" error.

In the extreme-nitpicking-department, I think it's weird that all the usernames/URLs/gamertags get capitalized.

I seem to be getting logged out every few page views, but that could be my stupid browser at work.

Demian_-_bitmobbio
September 02, 2010

Daniel, the account settings thing, what browser are you using?

Assassin_shot_edited_small_cropped
September 02, 2010

I'm getting that account settings error too (well, actually it says "something went wrong"), which is weird because it worked earlier. I'm using Firefox 3.6.8 on Mac OS 10.6.4. I also get the error in Chrome and Safari.

Pshades-s
September 03, 2010

Demian, it's actually more like what Richard said - "something went wrong" not "page missing." And I get the error in Firefox and Chrome.

Enzo
September 03, 2010

Maybe a very small change would be to stop people boosting their own articles. I just did it by accident and now I feel like the kind of person that sends valentine's cards to themselves.

Default_picture
September 03, 2010

@Ben boost will not actually bost an article. Its more of way to say you like it.

Enzo
September 03, 2010

@Rich Cheers for the reply. I get the purpose of 'boost', I guess my last comment was just a reaction to feeling slightly embarrassed by inadvertently cheerleading my own article. 

Ignore me, I'm over it. Sorry if I wasted your time.

Twit
September 03, 2010

I've been trying to add pictures to my earlier minecraft story, but it won't publish or even save. Kind of disheartening considering there's a lot of image code that takes a bit of time to paste that won't even save for me.

Phantom
September 03, 2010

This isn't really a bug, but it's still weird: My Post Manager says that my non-front paged article "Working Out the Dance Dance Way" (http://bitmob.com/articles/working-out-the-dance-dance-way) was promoted to the front page. It has the little icon next to it, and it's counted in my number of front-paged articles. Strange.

5211_100857553261324_100000112393199_12455_5449490_n
September 03, 2010

Slow comment posting/editing, am I alone, or is anyone else feeling... sluggish on Bitmob right now?

 

I'm waiting anywhere from 1-3 minutes for an edit/post to go through.

Shoe_headshot_-_square
September 03, 2010

Yeah, we're having some slowness issues with the new database. Working on it! Sorry everyone.

Pshades-s
September 03, 2010

Account Settings works for me now.

Default_picture
September 03, 2010

Uhm, all my posts made before Alpha 1.1 have the Bitmob symbol next to them in the Post Manager. I found myself wondering if that meant if it was a "classic" sort of post, but instead I finally found the key and it said the Bitmob symbol indicates that it was featured on the front page at one point. WTF? All my posts have definitely not been featured on Bitmob. Unless Spotlight counts?

Default_picture
September 04, 2010

Hey,

I can't access any of my posts from the last version, but I, more pressingly, can't edit my profile or things like that.

Or even access the profile page...

Image
September 10, 2010

I really enjoy the BitMob content, but I have absolutely no time or patience for anything I can't read in my RSS reader. One line blurbs don't make me click through to bitmob.com, it makes me read nothing.

Is there some sort of "secret" full text RSS feed? That would be great and make me actually read the content. If it's a matter of revenue, put adds in the RSS feed; plenty of other people do that and are successful. Let me know, I want to read your content, but won't until I can do it from my reader.

Shoe_headshot_-_square
September 12, 2010

@Marlowe: Can you send an email to support@bitmob.com with your exact problem (and include your user name plus what browswer version you're using).

@Nick: Thanks for the feedback. That's something we're looking to do soon!

18368_300856383037_707203037_3518359_3163305_n
September 28, 2010

Every time I try and submit my Adsense info on the site I get this error code.

 

 

Update Failed

There were problems with the following fields:

  • Website url is invalid
Shoe_headshot_-_square
September 28, 2010

Hey Jose! Can you send a detailed email stating your problem (including when/where it happened and what browser you're using) to support@bitmob.com? Sorry for the trouble -- we'd appreciate it!

Phantom
September 28, 2010

Hey Shoe, I have a simliar story. I set up my Adsense account and used "www.bitmob.com" in the Website URL field. Google sent me an email a few days later saying that they rejected my membership because domain ownership was not evident. They said I have to show that I have access to the HTML source code. Did I do something wrong?

Default_picture
September 28, 2010

@nick you need to use a URL you own, not Bitmob.com. :-) 

18368_300856383037_707203037_3518359_3163305_n
September 28, 2010

@Nick/ @Rick

The same thing happened to me, then I tried it again and it was fine.

Christian_profile_pic
October 08, 2010

I get the same "website url is invalid" error message when I try to enter my AdSense info into my Bitmob profile.  Happens both in Firefox and Chrome.

Shoe_headshot_-_square
October 08, 2010

Hey Christian, see if the help in the few comments above you fixes things. If not, please send an email to support@bitmob.com, and they'll try to help you out. Thanks and sorry for the problems!

Phantom
December 14, 2010

You probably already know this, but I can't see the amount of comments and hits my newer articles receive from the Profile and Post Manager pages. I actually have to click on the article to see if anybody is responding.

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