The Official Posterous Space

This is where we post about new features on Posterous Spaces. You can get a Posterous Space just like this by emailing post@posterous.com or signing up for a new account.

We asked. You told us. Top 10 requests for Posterous Hack Day on July 16th

We're getting ready for our first ever hackday on Saturday July 16th.  In addition to adding new features to our API, we're happy to report that a few partners have stepped up with prizes which should make everyone happy.

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Top 10 Requested Posterous Hacks

10.  Desktop post editor

9.  iPad reader

8.  Instant group creation from my contact list

7.  Face tagging

6.  Google Maps mashup

5.  Desktop slideshow app

4.  Shopify shopping cart integration

3.  Media specific archive views

2.  Mass tag editor

1.  Export/backup tool

While we can't recognize everyone who submitted an idea, special thanks to @chandaxi, @jasontbedell, @neilboyd, @trentmkays, @twittmateus, @introvertial, @brandynwhite, @apapitrat, @TalSh, @steveczajka for their thoughtful submissions.

Have a better suggestion?  Tell us about it.

Want to come to our hackday?  Attend in person at our office or via IRC (#posterous-dev on freenode).  Just let us know.

July 12th update: The first 50 in-person attendees will receive the official Posterous Hack Day shirt.  

Hackshirt

Opening up Posterous to 3rd Party Developers - announcing our new API

Today, Posterous is opening up its technology stack to allow developers and others to build upon the Posterous platform, including the ability to create users and sites on one's own domain.  Everything is self-serve and Oxfam will be the first one to benefit as they are using the new Posterous API to drive awareness and participation in their recently announced campaign to grow a better future. 

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The Oxfam example is a powerful one- showcasing how organizations can easily amplify their campaigns or purpose with Posterous. Anyone visiting the Oxfam GROW site will soon be able to sign up and create a blog that is hosted on the grow.gd domain (e.g. rich.grow.gd ) with the custom GROW theme developed by Obox.  Of course, anyone signing up through Oxfam will have a full Posterous account and access to all features.

Get more details on the Posterous Technology blog or see for yourself on the new API site. 

Create Sites, Pages And More With The New Posterous API

We're psyched to announce an upgrade to the Posterous API. All the functionality from our previous API has been ported to a RESTful interface, and we've added the ability for developers to create sites and pages plus more powerful handling of posts and subscriptions.  Our old API will remain intact but won't be improved.

For more details on the API improvements and to keep up with newly released API features, check out the Posterous Tech Blog

A Huge Step Forward for Theme Developers

At Posterous, we love our users, but we also love developers. We've been hard at work making improvements to our theme engine so that theme developers can create more beautiful themes and distribute them more easily. Today, we are announcing two enhancements to our theme engine.

Theme Installation Landing Page

One thing developers have asked of us is an easier way to distribute their themes to Posterous users. Before today, developers had to instruct users to copy and paste their theme code into the advanced theme customization area. This posed a problem for the less technically inclined users, and added needless friction to theme installation.

Today, developers can simply POST some form fields to Posterous. Once redirected to Posterous, users can directly install the theme onto any site they wish, without having to copy and paste anything.

We have made the documentation for the theme landing page available on our new API documentation site.

One theme developer had this to say about the new theme installation page:

Previously a customer of ours had to go through a process of copying the theme code they have purchased, logging into Posterous, and then pasting into the customize section. It was a slow and complicated process which could become frustrating and confusing for those who were not expecting it. Now, with a one click install, the barrier from purchase to usage is almost nothing. It is a huge benefit for micro theme developers and we are ecstatic to be able to offer this to our Posterous customers!

– Dave Perel, Co-Founder, Obox Design

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Variable Theme Widths

This one has been requested by theme designers and users alike. Our themes were previously limited to 500 pixels wide. Today, this restriction is no more! You can now set your theme to be whatever width you'd like by adding the following <meta> tag to your theme's code:

<meta name="number:Theme width" content="700">

Once you have saved your theme with the new width parameter, we will re-scale all of your images and embedded videos to fit the new width.

With a wider theme, you can create a beautiful high-resolution photo blog, like this upcoming theme from Cory Watilo:

Wide

We simply can't wait to see what theme developers do with these new tools. As always, we welcome your feedback.