Posted by Fox on August 20, 2007 at 7:24 PM

"Some serious issues with the TypePad blog platform"? Well that may be a bit strong. As a commercial blogger, I'm a big fan of the TypePad blog platform. I use 'advanced templates' which allows for some incredible customisation if you know what you're doing with their coding, but nothing is perfect. In fact I'll go as far as saying that there are "some issues with the TypePad blog platform, that need to given urgent attention".

When I started writing this I was going to use "My TypePad Wish List" as the title, but "Some serious issues with The TypePad blog platform" is more likely to get the company's attention, and see a fix for these issues sooner rather than later.

So My TypePad Feature Wish List is made of up of Features and Bug Fixes I'd like them to work on. You're welcome add your own using the comments form or trackback below.

Come On TypePad Make it Happen!

• Problem Name: The "lastn" Variable
  
  The Problem : When editing advanced templates to insert content (such as Google Adsense) between posts, the "lastn" variable is used to determine how many posts should be dsiplayed before the content is inserted.
  
  The BIG problem here is that the "lastn" variable ALSO limits posts to the last 30 days. So if your blogging frequency is low to moderate, you'll quickly find that no posts feature in your category archives. You'll have a category with nothing in it. Read More
  
  The Fix : Remove the 30 day limitation from the lastn variable. I've already been told by a Customer Service rep that you are considering removing the variable. What's taking so long?

• Problem Name: nofollow attribute used in user comments
  
  The Problem : Any URLS included in a users comments on my blog are automatically given the 'nofollow' attribute. This discourages other bloggers from contributing to my blog, which is clearly detrimental to the success of my blog.
  
  The Fix : Make the use of 'nofollow' an option of choice by the blog owner. Give me a sitewide enable nofollow/disable nofollow tickbox.
  
  There's a TypePad Hack and my own tweak that goes a little way to resolving this, but it's only of use to TypePad Advanced Template users:  My NO NOFOLLOW TypePad Tweak to be used with this great NO NO NOFOLLOW TypePad Hack

• Problem Name : 'No Related Posts' Function
  
  The Problem : TypePad offers no way of automatically listing 'Related Posts' under new posts. I have to insert links to my related posts manually, which is far too time consuming. This really should be considered an essential feature for any commercial blog platform.
  
  The Fix : I'm no coder, but it seems that we already have the ability to give a post a number of 'tags' for use with technorati.com. These tags are saved with the post. Surely these very same tags could be used to determine related posts?

• Problem Name : No Blog Search
  
  The Problem : Visitors have no way of searching within my blogs. Sure, I can use a 3rd party search widget, but I really want to retain all of the hard work I've put into my advanced template design and layout. It looks infinitely more professional and a built-in search makes using my blog a more user friendly.
  
  The Fix : I'm guessing that the main barrier to users getting this feature is the added server load that this would put on the TypePad servers. I certainly wouldn't want my blogs performance to be hindered by a server processes being slowed, but when I visit other blogs with integrated search, I get all green eyed and miffed.

That's it for now, I'll add more as I come across them or as you suggest them using the comment form below.