New "Status Feature" Added To The Site!

Hi Everyone:

Last week, I announced the new Tweetboard application that has been added to our community.

Today, I want to tell you about another new application at the site called the Status Feature. You can use the Status Feature to update your status from your My Page here at the site.

If you want to try it out, just go tyou your My Page (link at the top of the site once you are logged in), and see the box at the top. Input your status update of 140 characters or less (sound familiar??!) and post it. I'm not sure exactly how long it takes to show up in the home page Activity Feed, but it looks like several minutes. Ning is working on improving that time frame.

Not only does your last status update display at the top of your My Page, it is also included in the display in the Latest Activity feed on the Main Page. This is a fun and engaging way to share an exciting announcement with the 3,500+ people who are specifically interested in Indie, handmade and artisan products and services.

I understand from Ning that this is the first wave of this new feature, and that they are looking into ways to actually import your status from other services and setting up a way to comment on other people’s status. That would be so great!

Question: What do you think of the new application? Do you think it's useful? How will you use it?