The first and biggest is COMMENTS! Registration is no longer required to post a comment on any post. Of course if you already have an account you can still login to ensure your comments are attributed to you, but those who don’t can now post a comment without any long term commitment. Also, on the right you can see some of the recent comments so you’ll always know what the active discussions are. This was the most requested thing we’ve heard from people since our last redesign and we’re excited to see where it leads.

The next change is also something that was heavily requested, and that is a change to the ADS on the sites. You’ll immediately notice fewer of them, but what might not be as obvious is those smaller square ones to the right are specific to this city only and are being sold for a flat rate for a period of time rather than a confusing CPM/traffic/network model. Depending on the city, these range from $7-$175 for a full week. If you purchase one, during that time your ad will be the only one in that spot and will show on every page. We set these up both to make it easier for smaller local businesses to get their ads on our site, and also to help us bring in ads that relate better to our local audiences. Also, keeping these sites online is expensive and every little bit helps.

There are a bunch of other things we changed but we’ll leave those to you to investigate and take advantage of. Hope you like it, and we look forward to seeing you in the comments!!

Love,
The folks at MBHQ

OK maybe not. Actually those are all lies, but it’s fun at least. The truth is Metblogs is the largest network of locally focused blogs on the web, covering almost 60 cities around the world and we’re looking to add a few new bloggers/writters/authors to this fine site. If you wanna know more about us check out this wikipedia entry but it’s kinda boring so I won’t waste time repeating it all here again. If you wanna write for us, here’s the scoop:

• All author positions are volunteer. That means you don’t get paid.
• You must live in (or very near) the city you plan to write about.
• Anything you post must relate to the city somehow. That means you shouldn’t post a movie review, but talking about going to see a movie at a local theater is fine.
• There’s no requirement for how much you can or should write, but we ask that if we set you up as an author you make about 3 posts a week.
• You can post about things you love, you can post about things you hate. It’s entirely up to you

Additionally, because of our global network, there’s plenty of options for things you write to be read by people all over the world. Interested? Want more details? Post a comment and we’ll be in touch!

Location: near central train station.

“Yes! We do. We also speak in Italian and Tortellino, here, also speaks in German – me a little bit.”

“Ahah…” she nodded her head and looked disnterested.

“Well,” she began. “Since you’re new here, you probably don’t know how things work in Austria. You are responsible to cut the branches that stick out onto the sidewalk. I’m having problems walking by.”

“Oh,”I was starting to realize the scope of the visit. Trying to turn things around, I introduced myself “… and this is Tortellino, he is 2.5 years old.” I looked at her two children smiling, waiting.

“Ahah…” she nodded her head and didn’t introduce herself or the children.

“Also, in the winter, you need to salt your sidewalk and shovel the snow. And, have you been separating your trash? Last month saw plastic bottle sticking out of your garbage can!”

“Excuse me,” I interrupted confused.

“Do you live in the neighborhood?”

“I live in the Yellow and White house, over there” she pointed to a block of three yellow and white houses.

“Oh, I’ll talk to my husband about cutting the branches. Thank you for your visit!”

“Ahah..” she nodded, grabbed her unidentified kids and left.

I was a little surprised by the visit.. given that we have a double-wide sidewalk and the longest branch that sticks out is at least one meter from the edge of the sidewalk.

Depressed about a neighbor that I’ve had for six months that never introduced herself and only visited me to complain, the next day, coming home from with Tortellino from an errand I found something on my doorstep. A bottle cage with six 2 liter bottles of home-made apple cider. No note, nothing.

Remorse? Friendly neighbor? I thought a while and then it hit me!

Two months ago, a lady rang my doorbell. She knew the former owner and was desperate to find a parking spot (we live very near the city center and across the street from a University building so parking at certain times of day can be tricky). I let her park in our driveway. Anyway, hubby wasn’t home so it wasn’t any problem for us! She was in a hurry but, now, I remember she promised to bring me a bottle or two of Apple cider as soon as the apple season started.

Every neighborhood has a jerk but, thankfully, they are usually outnumbered by the kind.

Oh, by the way, the youngish-middle aged woman rang my doorbell yesterday. When I saw who it was, I didn’t bother answering. She probably wanted to complain about something else.

This post was copy and pasted from my personal blog lapsus humanus.

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