You’ve no doubt by now noticed that the sites got a bit of a re-design and some things got changed around last week. We wanted to highlight two changes to make sure everyone knows what changed.

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

San Francisco Metblogs has joined everyone else in 2007 and created a Twitter account. Follow http://twitter.com/sfmetblogs. If you don’t have an account, it’s super easy to create one. Also be sure to checkout who SFMetblogs follows for more awesome info about the city by the bay. <3

Recently I started writing for SF Metblogs without really any clue as to what I was doing or what I should write about so I decided to get in touch with some of the other writers to meet them in person and get some tips.

I figured there might be some other people that love San Francisco as much as I do and made a resolution to blog more, so I figured we should open up our meetup to anyone interested in getting the run down.

Sean Bonner, co-founder of Metblogs is in town and we’re going to hang out at my favorite bar, Bender’s Bar & Grill, so come hang out, celebrate Ground Hog Day and that 6 more weeks of winter is someone else’s problem. Most importantly, down some tasty beverages and cheap sushi!

Bender’s Bar & Grill
Monday, Feb., 2, 2009
6:00PM – 8:00PM
806 S. Van Ness Ave. (at 19th St.) Click here for map

Following up from last weeks insanely successful “let’s all show up at a bar at the same time and get drinks” we thought we’d do another one this week! Tonight’s overhyped event includes Felicia Day and Kim Evey of The Guild, George Ruiz of ICM and Scott Beale of Laughing Squid and whoever else decides to show up. The unimaginable excitement begins around 7pm at Lucky 13, and like any good event you can find it on Upcoming as well. Come hang out, it’ll be fun. Or at least not suicidally boring!

Earlier today whilst sitting around at the Web 2.0 Summit Scott from Laughing Squid, Xeni from BoingBoingTV, Tim from NextNewNetworks and I realized we’re rarely all in the same city at the same time and that seemed like a damn good excuse to invite people to join us in some kind of bar wherein people might seize the opportunity to get their drink on. So we made it official – Tonight from 8PM until the ever popular question mark, we’ll be hanging out at Lucky 13. If you are around and want to join us, please do. Here’s the details. Woot!

The N.O. Metbloggers are covering Gustav as it hopefully misses them. Please give your support and get up to the minute reports from the ground at:

http://neworleans.metblogs.com

If Metblogs is a city, hub.metblogs is the playground. We kept hearing from people that one of their favorite parts of Metblogs was meeting and interacting with readers and writers from other parts of the world, as well as getting requests for more ways that readers could be involved besides just posting comments. We thought about this for a while and decided that with a network like this, a giant community area where folks from all over the world could hang out, post photos and videos, talk with each other, form groups, play games, send messages, and do about a million other things was probably a pretty fun idea. The Hub is that.

If you have any tech ideas or suggestions join this group and speak up. See you on hub.metblogs!

Despite the day’s schedule still being unannounced, the upcoming WordCamp conference looks to draw many a passionate fan and developer of WordPress come mid-August. Sure, I may have taken advantage of Blogger-sponsored libations in the past courtesy of the city’s unending schedule of 2.0-themed happy hours, but I’m really a big fan of the easy-to-use WordPress platform (which SF Metblogs and my personal blog are published on). The Mission Bay-based day costs $20, and volunteering is also an option if you’re interested in being the keeper of the ever-popular T-shirt/sticker/frisbee chochkeys and attending for free.

To quote Sean Bonner, as he has summed it up well….

Our team of coding lolcats has been hard at work this week and after taunting them with many cheeseburgers we have two fancy new features to show off. Check out the bar just up top there – previously you’ve only been able to see the most recent post followed by the second most recently followed by the third and so on. Now you can see them that way, or by clicking one of the other tabs you can also see them sorted by what has the most active discussions going on in the comments right now, as well as what our fancy internal magic has determined to be the most popular. I can’t tell you exactly how we figure it out, but I also can’t tell you that it’s not 100% based on us throwing darts at our laptop screens or a triple blind survey of kids hanging out at Starbucks on Melrose. Enjoy!

The SF Metblog is once again having an open call for authors. If you’re a blogger looking for a wider audience, or simply have a desire to write about whats happening in San Francisco, keep reading:

The qualifications:

• You need to live in San Francisco – Metblogs is all about the city from the perspective of people who live here.
• An ability and willingness to post at least three times a week. You’ve seen our stuff, so you know an entry could simply be a pic of a parking tard, a protest, a review of your favorite burrito place, or an interview with a local gadfly.
• A desire to cover topics that we’ve missed, or you think we need more of. We’re looking for unique voices and to more broadly represent the city.
• Team players. Authors here don’t always agree with each other, but we’re supportive of each other’s contributions.

Besides the wide audience, the best part of Metblogs is the editorial process: there is none. As long as what you write is about SF or specifically relevent to SF readers, it qualifies. Otherwise, we’re a sandbox for writers to play in, create their own columns, and write the stuff they wish existed.

While already having a blog doesn’t hurt, especially to demonstrate your ability to post frequently, its far from a requirement. If interested, send me an email telling me briefly about yourself and what type of topics you’d like to cover. (me: richard at metroblogging dot com)

This is an unpaid gig, but you have the opportunity to have your stuff read by over 1000 San Franciscans on a daily basis. Vloggers, photographers, community journalists, gripers, and anyone else with a desire to write about San Francisco is encouraged to apply.