by Suleiman

Keeping the Motor Running

June 10, 2009 in Features, General News, Site Updates

This week many of you sent messages asking why Google Ads had temporarily appeared and then disappeared on your blogs. Some of you became quite concerned the Ads were here to stay, and as our community is only here to provide a service to our terrific bloggers and their enthusiastic readership, it is only fair to provide an explanation.

We need your feedback!

We need your feedback!

We have blogged extensively about how successful Hadithuna has been at retaining a high rate of growth. In not so simple terms, the increased traffic has resulted a sharp spike in server administration and hosting costs–costs which must be defrayed somehow in order for the site to continue to operate.

Every single free blog hosting provider, including WordPress.com and Blogger.com, hosts blogs on an ad-based or supporter based model. Under this system revenue that is generated from ads can help to stem just some of the enormous costs involved in hosting a site of this scale. Towards that end we needed to determine just how best to implement these ads, without interfering too much with the experience you have all grown to appreciate.
Three options present themselves:
  1. We can display the ads between posts, but set them to only display when a site viewer is either (a) not logged in to Hadithuna, or (b) not a regular reader of the site. This has the benefit of serving ads only some of the time, but the downside is the ads will feature prominently when they are displayed.
  2. We can display the ads in the sidebar, but keep them on all the time, both for logged in users and visitors. Because ads in the sidebar section of blogs are rarely if ever clicked on, we would need to keep these ads live all of the time to realize any meaningful income stream from them. The plus side to this approach is that the ads will be relatively unobtrusive, while the downside is they will display all the time.
  3. Irrespective of whether we opt for ads between posts or ads in the sidebar, we can provide bloggers with a way of “upgrading” their blog to a zero-ad blog at a nominal cost of $5 a month.
Because this is a community and not a business, it is paramount that we first get the opinion of our bloggers before doing anything else. Please cast your votes in the poll to the right. The poll will close in a few days and we will need to move ahead at that time with whatever approach receives the most votes, so please do participate!

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by Suleiman

A New Path Onward, Part II

May 13, 2009 in General News, Site Updates

We have a new logo and a new service, but are still the same good old Hadithuna!

We have a new logo and a new service, but are still the same good old Hadithuna!

In our most recent blog update we talked about important changes that were needed on Hadithuna. Although the last spade of updates was focused on upgrades and bug fixes, the changes that are visible now are far more prevalent, and in accordance, do require some explanation. We set our roots in the summer of 2006 as a niche blog community powered by Muslims. Our goal was to fill the vast, gaping void of Muslim thought that was rarely if ever coherent, and altogether impossibly difficult to pin down. We wanted a community that represented the diversity of Muslim opinion, and nurtured the dialogue amongst Muslims and Muslims and Muslims and Non-Muslims that would naturally ensue. If it is any testament to our terrific success, we have enjoyed a continued growth over our now nearly 3 years of operation, and today remain well-poised as the largest Muslim blogging community on the net.

But growth on the internet is measured by different rulers and yardsticks. With technological innovations flushing to the forefront of every which way we turn, it is not enough to enjoy a metered, steady growth in numbers. Now, in this age of light-speed status updates and ever-interlinked community networks, it seems an almost inescapable observation–the world is becoming connected, and now so too, should we.

That’s why the Hadithuna.com that you have known to grow and love has supplemented its blog-based focus with a new layer of social interaction. Our journey into the ever-emerging social-networking stratosphere heralds features such as “The Wire” where people can leave messages on your Wall, a Private Messaging system for sending messages to other Hadithuna members, and Member profile pages that keep you in touch with the members you’re connected with.  These features follow more closely the experience many of you may already be familiar with from popular social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Of course Hadithuna was started as a community dedicated to serving the best of the Muslim blogosphere, and towards that end we shall remain stalwart champions of the bloggers who brought us to where we are today. Your blogs will still be accessible at the same URL where they were always available, and your individual blog themes will continue to provide you with the level of customization and unique expression you have come to enjoy and love from Hadithuna.  It is entirely up to each of you how you use the new social networking tools, and if you should chose to continue as a blogger and remain only a blogger, then you will still and always shall be, a welcome member of our community.

For those of you that have eagerly anticipated when Hadithuna would be embracing some of these new technologies, the wait is over. Happy blogging, and happy networking.

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by Suleiman

A New Path Onward

May 1, 2009 in 1

Some mighty changes have been afoot on Hadithuna.com over the past week. Scheduled upgrades were performed to remedy many of the problems our users were experiencing on their blogs, and to bring ourselves current with the latest version of WordPress.

And while things may seem like more of the same from the public fronted of your blog, you can log in and experience a revitalized–and downright speedy–version of the backend.

While these changes were needed there is much that remains to be accomplished:

  • Sitewide avatars are broken and need to be fixed
  • Several blog authors have not changed their blog layout to one from the new list of themes
  • Better integration for Youtube and other online Video sharing websites

Going forward Hadithuna will be integrating even more features and functionality. We are switching to a model that allows our community to grow virally, in much the same manner that social networking websites such as Facebook have done, while maintaining the blog-based focus of our niche community.

Hadithuna is still the fastest growing and largest Muslim blogging community on the internet. We are driven to providing you with the best blogging experience online, and are working tirelessly towards that aim.

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by Suleiman

Win $50,000 in Cash Prizes!

September 8, 2008 in Blog It Series, Contests, Features

And now an important word from our sponsors:

Dear American Muslim Bloggers,  

 Below is a really exciting opportunity from One Nation for you to enter in a film contest. This is a really great way to participate in the interfaith youth movement using media generated by you. Youth around the world, like yourself, are participating in the movement every day by sharing stories of building relationships and coming together to build a better wold. This is an excellent opportunity to share your story.

Film Contest Details

There will be $50,000 in prizes, fantastic videos, and a whole new insight into American Muslim life - including a special category for short films about interfaith friendships!

 The “One Nation, Many Voices” Online Film Contest asks you to submit short videos illuminating the American Muslim experience and the values-liberty and justice-upon which America was founded. Everyone in the U.S. is invited to compete, regardless of race or religion, so grab a camera, visit the contest website atwww.linktv.org/onenation for the complete Rules and Regulations, and get filming! You could win some of the $50,000 in prizes, and every finalist wins a Flip Camera. The deadline is Fall, 2008.

 

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by Suleiman

Getting Featured on Hadithuna

May 22, 2008 in Featured Sites, Features, Homepage

Many visitors to Hadithuna have expressed interest in how the “Blogs of the Moment” feature on the homepage is calculated. While the technical details of how it comes together is a different story, the ability to be one of the featured “Blogs of the Moment” is something every Hadithuna blogger should understand. 

On Hadithuna we have four different types of classifications of Blogs. Blogs can either be Public, Private, Mature, or both Public and Mature. You all will recall when you signed up that Hadithuna asked whether you wanted your blog to be private or “indexed by Google and listed throughout this site.” If you selected “yes” your blog will have been marked Public, and if not, then Private.

The distinction is of course an important one. Private bloggers may be writing for selected eyes only, while Public bloggers may be itching for that extra exposure. So why aren’t all Public bloggers automatically being featured as “Blogs of the Moment” on this site? They would be, if it weren’t for Spam Artists.

The problem is Spammers always create new blogs and mark them public, in an effort to get as much exposure as possible before getting caught. One way we’ve managed to circumvent the issue of spam being featured on our homepage has been to only allow those blogs that have been marked as both Private and Mature to appear there. 

In this context Mature obviously does not indicate pornographic or sexually-related content, it simply means “public-ready.” Hadithuna admins regularly scour the new (and old) signups at Hadithuna to check for whether the blog is non-spammy, thoughtful, and predominantly in english. If it fits all of the above then the blog is flagged as Mature and content published from it can be featured on the homepage and in our sitewide RSS feed. 

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by Suleiman

The Fight Against SPAM

May 17, 2008 in Features, General News, Spam

I’m just going to come out and say it: Spammers ought to burn in hell. The amount of time they consume filling our lives with their relentless efforts to get some traffic is underhanded, pathetic, and down right wrong. At Hadithuna we have the joy of having to deal with more than one type of spammer. Over the past year or so of being live, we’ve watched as droves of spammers have created spamming blogs–referred to as “splogs” in the community–and automatically posted a slew of link-laden garbage posts in the blink of an eye.

The recent upgrade to a newer version of WordPress, left our old comment spam-fighting plugins incompatible, and us defenseless to the barrage of comment spammers you’ve all had to duly moderate since the upgrade. Hopefully now all that is about to change.

Hadithuna just deployed a Bayesian (fancy word for artificially learning) spam-fighting plugin that stops spam dead in its tracks. We’ve only been piloting it for a short while, but already we’re starting to feel pretty good about it. But the important thing is that you feel good about it. Which is why we’re asking everyone to report back about any irregularities or inconsistencies in posting and commenting on their blogs. We’ve got some relentless imbeciles to fend off, and with your help, we may be able to keep the rabbits at bay.

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by Suleiman

Feature Requests

May 4, 2008 in Feature Requests

Got a plugin or theme you’d like to see on your blog? We strive at Hadithuna to bring you some of the best and brightest plugins and themes available anywhere. While we’ve worked our hearts out to provide you with the best blogging platform on the net, sometimes you find a plugin or theme you wish you could have on your own blog. 

And that’s why Hadithuna is launching a feature request..uhmm…request :)

Every week we’ll put up a new post in the Hadithuna Forums where you can reply and post up a link to a theme or plugin you’d like to see installed on this site. While we can’t guarantee every theme or plugin will be compatible, our expert administrators will toll night and day to make sure we do our best.Where can you start your search  you ask? There are a few great resources on the web.

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For starters the sites Weblogtoolscollection and Bloggingpro track the latest plugin and theme releases for WordPress and are a hotbed of cool resources.If you’re just into theme browsing, you may want to check out the WordPress Theme Viewer and the WordPress Themes Section of Templatebrowser.com to get some ideas. Running a quick Google search will also lead you to some fantastic theme development and theme browsing sites.

Once you’ve found something worthy of your blog, then post a reply to this week’s Feature Requests section and our site developers will do the rest!  

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by Suleiman

Exclusive Online Dialogue: Akbar Ahmed and Judea Pearl – Finding Common Ground Between Muslims & Jews

April 29, 2008 in Blog It Series

Here’s some interesting news on the web you may wish to blog about:

Akbar Ahmed and Judea Pearl DebateFrom April 28th through May 9th, Professors Akbar Ahmed and Judea Pearl will be offering an exclusive online dialogue and group discussion at Beliefnet.com’s “Community on Muslim-Jewish Relations” site. This discussion grew out of Professors Ahmed and Pearl’s shared concern about the deterioration of relationships between Muslim and Jewish communities and their conviction that reconciliation between the faiths can be achieved through frank and respectful dialogue. Beliefnet’s exclusive online community discussion is an extension of the dialogue they’ve been doing around the country for a few years now—and more than that, it’s a chance for online visitors to ask any questions they may have on interfaith dialogue, Muslim-Jewish relations and so forth. This is the first time they’ve taken their discussion into world of the Web, and Beliefnet is proud to host such an important conversation.http://community.beliefnet.com/muslimjewishdialogueProfessors Ahmed and Pearl invite you to post your questions about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, about the worldwide relations between Muslims and Jews, and other questions. They urge you to check back frequently for their responses to your questions.A UCLA Professor, Dr. Pearl is the father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl and president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, which he co-founded in April 2002 “to continue Daniel’s life-work of dialogue and understanding, and to address the root causes of his tragedy.”Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, D.C.His latest book “Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization” was published in 2007 by The Brookings Institution Press.Questions, concerns or interview requests may be directed to Ilana.Vasser@morris-king.com. 

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by Suleiman

Missing Text in Posts

April 23, 2008 in Bugs, Site Updates

This post is going out as a mass alert to everyone who blogs on Hadithuna. If you could please check your archives and quickly alert Hadithuna staff here if you are missing text from any of your archives or more recent posts, we would be much obliged. We can correct the error, but we do need to be notified sooner rather than later!

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by Suleiman

Squashed Like a Bug

April 20, 2008 in Bugs, Site Updates

We’ve blogged recently about the major speed improvements we’ve been integrating into Hadithuna. Now we’ve got even more good news to report. We’ve been on a bug hunting escapade some major bugs have been squashed.Here’s an abbreviated list to show you what we’ve been up to:

  • Added 

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