HalfEagle Scouting Topics Pages
When I first made the sidebar area to promote Mr. Townley’s newest book, I wasn’t sure if I would really like it. In the end though, I was very pleased with how it worked out.
I also said I’d be doing something like it in the future. Well, it’s the future. 
I’m happy to introduce a new concept for HalfEagle, Topic Pages. Right now, there are five to test out this new feature:
National Scout Jamboree
Read posts from Scouting blogs about the National Scout Jamboree.
BSA’s 100th Anniversary
Find out how Scouters are preparing for the 100th Anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America in 2010.
Scouting iPhone Apps
Learn how Scouts are taking advantage of technology like the iPhone and read reviews of iPhone Apps used by Scouting leaders.
Centennial Uniform
Get the inside scoop on what Scouters think of the new BSA centennial uniforms!
Spirit of Adventure: Eagle Scouts and the Making of America’s Future
Read reviews of Alvin Townley’s newest book, Spirit of Adventure: Eagle Scouts and the Making of America’s Future.
Trail’s End Popcorn (ADDED)
Get ideas for successful fundraising by reading about other Scout leaders experience with Trail’s End Popcorn.
This is a chance for extra promotion to blog posts about those topics, as well as a place to take an overall look at the discussion Scouting bloggers are having about these topics. The most recent topic pages are promoted directly from the home page of HalfEagle, so writing about these topics is also a chance to get even more attention for your blog.
You’ll see that some topics have way more posts than others. I hope to increase the conversation about particular topics this way. This is somewhat selfish, because I get to pick the topics and there’s some things I want to read more about. 
Incidentally, I promised that I would tell Scouting bloggers how to get onto these pages, but I’d first like to test the effectiveness of the current method. If you decide to write a blog post about any of these topics and the post *doesn’t* show up automatically, please let me know. I promise to both tweak the algorithm and just tell you the exact rain dance to perform for that particular topic.
Check out this new feature and let me know what you think! 
Very cool Gregg!!!
Kevin
29 Aug 09 at 10:13 pm
Thanks, Kevin!
Gregg
30 Aug 09 at 1:39 pm
Hi Gregg,
I wrote a post about popcorn a few weeks ago and I don’t see it on the Trail’s end popcorn page. Here’s the link to the post http://boyscoutblog.wsr3.net/2009/08/29/popcorn-time/ .
Thanks,
Kevin
Kevin
13 Sep 09 at 10:27 am
Hi Kevin,
The popcorn page was actually the hardest one for me to figure out, because so many blogs mention “popcorn” in the course of talking about other scouting topics (like other fundraising options, Friends of Scouting, etc.). So that page was extra strict to try to filter out random mentions.
However, your post was a perfect one for that page yet it wasn’t showing up! So, I rewrote how the topic pages find results in general and I rewrote the popcorn criteria as well. A few extra posts are showing up there that aren’t *really* about popcorn, but I’d rather have a few extra posts than miss one good one.
Also, I added a topic page for the new BSA Handbook while I was there.
Thanks for the report Kevin, please let me know if you run across any other “missing” posts.
Gregg
13 Sep 09 at 5:13 pm
Well it looks like it happened again, Yesterday I wrote a post about a centennial item I found on ebay the post is located here http://boyscoutblog.wsr3.net/2009/09/19/cool-centennial-item/ .
Thanks,
Kevin
Kevin
20 Sep 09 at 9:06 am
Hey Kevin,
I’ve also received a few emails from other bloggers about posts missing on the appropriate topic page. I’m going to look into it first chance I get.
Thank you,
Gregg
Gregg
21 Sep 09 at 8:07 am
Okay, topic pages are showing many more matching posts now.
It was limiting each included blog to only show the two best matching posts on the relevant topic page. I’ve increased this to 10 posts per blog, because some blogs focus heavily on certain topics and should be able to contribute more posts.
This means that the centennial item you posted is showing up now, as well as many other centennial posts people had emailed/DM’d me about.
Thanks everyone who let me know about the missing posts, and let me know if you find any other bugs on the site!
Gregg
28 Sep 09 at 8:51 am