Slow news day. I'm looking at a new tool for the front page of the site that will allow us to streamline the number of different software tools we use from 3 to 2 as well as enhancing what peopel will see when they first visit the site. The tool is an extension of the vBulletin software that powers the forums, and it uses module blocks to display different pieces of data aobut the forum. Some include:

• event calendar
• latest news
• latest poll
• site statistics
• Today's birthdays

There are many mroe available and we can make it do just about anyhting we want without over-complicating the site.  The potential downside is readability and layout with the amount of real-estate space available. With the narrow site design I went with it gets kind of squishy with 2 columns and unreadable with 3 columns of these module blocks.

Have a peek and let me know what you think.

 http://www.blackbus.org/cmps_index.php

Nothing like a Monday morning update about updates. Ahh... kind of like a meeting about meetings, and we all LOVE meetings right?

Well I thought I was being all clever with the promotion of the donation and subscription systems only to find that a whole bunch of transactions were being rejected. Thanks to Matthew Whitenack for working with me to get to the bottom of the problem.

Here's the latest:

• The donation system has been tweaked a bit and should be working better. If you tried to donate but were unsuccessful in getting your donation confirmed by PayPal you can try again or contact me directly. At least one person has donated this morning and it appears to be working better.
• The subscription service to get rid of the banner ads has been tweaked a bit and should be working better. At least one person has used it successfully this morning already!

On Friday afternoon I sent out an email to most users asking for help with some projects I have going on with the site. Thanks to all those who replied and I've set up places for us to collaborate on getting that work done.

• Documentation Library - a place to store searchable versions of policies, procedures, training manuals - you name it. Any document you'd like to share with the world
• Ideas Inventory Integration - The Ideas section of the site keeps breaking. I want to get it upgraded to the latest available version and integrated properly with the rest of the site.
• Conference wrangling - This still has to be crystalized a bit but feel free to start discussion about what Blackbus gatherings, tasks, or other things we'd like to do while we are all assembled in Charleston in November.

Thanks again to everyonewho has volunteered to step up. The more the merrier!

Many people have been asking whether we are subsidized by Blackbaud, or if we are owned by them, or what the deal is.

 The answer is "No" to all those questions. I created the site in 2006 with my own funds and a few generous donations at startup time. Since then the site has been funded from:

• the advertisments you see at the top and bottom of every forum page
• people who choose to pay a fee to get rid of the ads
• the occasional general donation from a rabid fan
• some small text links at the very bottom of the forum pages
• targeted donations for things like conference badges
• my pocket

Really, the site makes no profit. Every dollar has gone back into cost recovery. We'd like to ask you to help us continue to keep the site alive and make my wife happy by not running up the credit card and donate to the Blackbaud User Society.

You won't get a tax receipt, but you will have my undying gratitude and your name on our slick new donor wall. If you have any questions about donating or would like to do so anonymously, please contact me.

If you wish to donate at a later time you can find the donation button on the navigation bar in the forum.

Now that the government requirements to keep hush-hush on the Kintera acquisition are fulfilled, Blackbaud is beginning to reveal more details about the acquisition and what this means for clients of both companies and their products.

Steve MacLaughlin has given us some answers to questions he's been asked consistently over the last month, like:

Will Blackbaud keep the Kintera CMS (Sphere) Product?
Will Blackbaud keep the Kintera Connect open API initiative?
Will Blackbaud integrate the Kintera CMS (Sphere) to The Raiser's Edge?
Will Blackbaud NetCommunity continue to be offered and supported?

The official Blackbaud press release can be found here.

Hopefully this means we get to see some Kintera folk at the conference in November to talk about what they can bring to the table.

Who is this new face? A new CEO? Nope - it's not any one person.

Its staff members being permitted and encouraged to come out of the woodwork and speak to clients and the world about what's going on at Blackbaud. Steve MacLaughlin has a great round-up post of the things staff are doing using a variety of social media tools to communicate differently with clients. A lot of them are the same things we've done here, like the Idea Bank for BBNC, but they have the ability to properly resource them.

Net result - the clients win, and we here at Blackbus are pushed to create new ideas, features, and tools for you as clients to keep this site relevant. As always your feedback on the things we are doing here is most welcome.

Take a couple minutes and go visit Steve's blog. Leave a comment of appreciation if you think what they are doing is worthwhile.

I recently had the chance to speak with Laurel Kenerson from Blackbaud, and she was kind enough to share some screenshots of RE 7.85 with me. Thanks to Laurel and Blackbaud for permission to share these shots.

The fist shot shows us a bit of the new Query Folders feature. I know that we have been asking for this for a long time. Folders are system wide, and are not limited to a user-level setting like the home page.

 This is a view of the category creation and editing tool. Pretty standard fare.

Another manjor feature is the ability to mark attribues as inactive. This will prevent them from being seen when a user is adding an attribute to a record, but existing attributes remain on a record, and can still be used in Query and Export.

The Raiser's Edge 7.85 was released to beta testers this week and should be out to the masses later this summer.

Welcome!

Got an idea about how to make NetCommunity products and services even better? Welcome to the Blackbaud NetCommunity Idea Bank!

Idea Bank allows NetCommunity users to:

• post suggestions
• vote on others’ suggestions
• view what others think of your suggestions
• read Blackbaud’s official response to suggestions!

You can use Idea Bank to post suggestions on product functionality, service offerings, and even support. Help make Blackbaud NetCommunity even better and share your ideas today!

Some of you may think that this an idea ripped off from our own Ideas section, but what we created is nothing new by any stretch. In fact I stole the idea from salesforce.com after being impressed with what they did. Quite frankly the tool from UserVoice is far superior to ours - in that it actually works properly. I count this as another way that our work has helped to stimulate change and growth within Blackbaud - or maybe it had nothing to do with us. Who knows.

 In any event - the customer is the recipient of a net increase in service and features form Blackbaud, and that is what we here are all about.

Over the next week or so I'll be performing some upgrades on the site. I apologize in advance for anything that breaks, because something always does. The plan is to upgrade the following items:

Upgrade template skins to complete forum update to vBulletin 3.7.1

Many of the settings and menu options we see in the forum depend on the visual style used which is seperate from the backend system. Upgrading the styles will enable some wonderful new functions in the forum like enhanced profiles and social groups. Ever wanted to talk to other K-12 schools, or Faith-based organizations? Now with social groups you can create your own!

Upgrade email notification and reply system (completed)

Many people make use of a tool we added to get new post notifications by email. Rather than having to go to the forum, you can just reply to the email and it gets posted automatically. To make use of this tool, add yourself to the Email Notification and Reply group in the User Control Panel. You can set up which forums you'd like to participate in by checking your Forum Subscriptions in the User Control Panel. This tool duplicates the function of a Yahoo! group, of which many people are still quite fond.

Upgrade Banner Ad Management system

This should be invisible to most of you. If you have any quesitons, concerns or ideas about how advertising is managed on the site, please let us know. Too much? Not enough?

Beyond this week some new sections and features will be added:

Blackbaud User Society Swag Shop

We will be re-opening the shop to let you have access to shirts and other goodies with the Blackbus logo on them. For sure this will be ready so your order can be received prior to the conference in November. Wear them with pride!

New Third Party Consultants Marketplace

Once upon a time we had a sub-forum for consultants. It never really worked well so we are starting form scratch to create a marketplace for consultants to profile themselves, allow you to rate them, ask questions, see their products and more. The goal is to provide a place for us to get educated on what the alternatives are to Blackbaud's consulting team. More options means better value for you and a better informed decision. We are going to be working with consultants and other third parties to periodically profile their firms and get them involved in the discussions on the forums - not as spam but as equal players. Jeff Montgomery, David Zeidman, and Lisa Kasperzak amongst other have already proven that most consultants genuinely want to help people use their software better. These are highly experienced people who love what they do.

Is there anything else you think the site needs? Let us know!