Hello all,

We've rolled out a new feature today called microblogging. It's usefulness on iATN will increase as time goes on and new features come to pass. For now, it's a way for you to post brief updates that your friends can see on your iATN profile page, and members following you can see on their Personal Feed page. When I say "brief," I mean 140 characters, the same format that Twitter has popularized. Unlike the forums, your microblog is unrestricted in what you can post to it (within reason -- nothing illegal please :-).

You can access it now by visiting your profile page: http://members.iatn.net/profile/

You can see what a microblog looks like on my profile page:

http://members.iatn.net/profile/26192UNV.aspx

One cool feature of our microblogs is if you post something that includes a URL, we'll shorten it with an "autop.ro" link, which you can use anywhere on the internet. If you see an autop.ro link, you'll know the person that shared that link is an automotive professional, and more specifically, an iATN member.

For example, let's say you want to share an extremely long link with someone else:

http://www.motorsport.com/nascar-cup/news/bowyer-and-toyota-drivers-chat-about-las-vegas-race/

(In fact that URL is so long we don't even show it all when viewing this forum message.)

If you were to post this to your microblog on your iATN profile, we would shorten that link. If you copy the link from there, you'd see it show up as:

http://autop.ro/110 [autop.ro]

That link will work forever and can be shared.

If you have any issues or discover any bugs, please let us know. Thanks!

Thomas Winzig
Administrator
iATN
Brea, California, USA