Profiles, Pinboard, and More!

It’s been a while since the last Pine.blog update, but don’t worry. This one was worth the wait! It’s been a great summer for Pine.blog so far and more people are signing up by the day! Thanks to everyone who’s given Pine.blog a chance lately, I hope you enjoy it.

Although this is probably apparent to anyone who uses Pine.blog regularly, the timeline has gotten a huge update recently. While the functionality is basically the same, I’ve updated the look and feel significantly to help Pine.blog fit in on today’s modern Web. There’s more coming on this front over the next few months and a new iOS app interface is in the works as well.

Profile Picture Updates

This Pine.blog update combines a much needed feature with a special surprise. First off, you can now change your profile picture outside of Gravatar! Pine.blog has supported Gravatar for years now, and while the service is fantastic, most people just don’t use it. While Gravatar profiles are still the default and the preferred method for setting your profile picture, you can now easily upload a custom photo that will appear on your posts and at the top of your blog.

Additionally, you can now upload a profile picture that will be used only when certain characters are present in your posts. This means that you can easily upload custom photos that will be used whenever you post using certain emoji! Whether you want to express your true feelings whenever you use the 😩 emoji, or you want to add more character to your 😷 2020 selfies, you can! This feature is available to premium users, and you can learn more by checking out the Knowledge Base article. My thanks to Aaron Parecki for his help desingning this feature!

 

Pinboard Integration

If you’re a Pinboard user, you can now set up Pine.blog to automatically add your liked posts to Pinboard. This integration makes it easy to save and sort through everything you’ve liked on Pine.blog. As a Pinboard user myself, it’s also nice to have everything I save in one place. If you’re an Instapaper or Pocket user, don’t worry. I’ve got a special update planned for you as well in the near future.

Other Improvements

Aside from the improvements listed above, this version of Pine.blog fixes a number of bugs and contains a few other minor improvements.

First off, I’m working on getting the User data API finalized and out for public use. The API has been stable and ready for months, but I’ve just been hesitant to pull the trigger and finally open it up to everyone. Once that is complete, developers will be able to build their own Pine.blog clients and maybe even bring Pine.blog to Android!

Finally, I’ve added a new Webhook for developers that allows you to receive a Webhook request whenever you publish a new blog post. This, in addition to your blog’s existing RSS and JSON feeds should allow for rich integrations with all kinds of services. Currently the Webhooks fire whenever you post or update a post on your blog. I’m working on getting other events hooked up, so keep your eyes peeled for new updates.