BB.com/Bodyspace Widgets & Signatures

[pogue]

Widgets

You guys should create some widgets that allow users to share newly updated info on bb.com such as articles, forum posts, calculators (1RM, BMI, calories, etc) that can be posted on peoples blogs.

For example, you could have one for the forum that shows the latest posts from whatever section the user wants that already exist from the bb.com RSS feeds and that scrolls by as new topics are posted, similar to what Twitter has with their widget:

http://twitter.com/about/resources/w...widget_profile

You could also have newly updated articles from bb.com, deals in the store, sales on wheycheap, etc. that are also based on the RSS feeds that already exist, such as this one:

http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/heal...-you--fitsugar

Inactive widgets that have polls that change (such as prompting the user to answer a question like how many grams of protein you consume per day or how much you bench) or the most highly rated pictures of people on bodyspace -- things that change frequently and thus can scroll by and change on a day to day basis. This gives people who write blogs or other web sites nice interactive and fun tools to promote bb.com while displaying information to their readers.

Calorie counter: http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/Exer...alorie-counter
BMI calculator: http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/bmi-calculator

Signatures

People who play video games and post on gamer forums often have automatically generated signature images. For example, here is a signature graphic that pulls my data from xbox.com and shows my profile picture, my gamertag, score, recent games I've played, etc.



Here is one that shows my statistics collected from a game, Battlefield:



Using this model, you could create a small graphic that shows a users Bodyspace avatar, stats like motivation level, weight, goals, 1rm bench, squats, etc, etc, etc. -- all the data from BS just formatted into an easy graphic that could then be copied and placed on a users signature so they could display this data on any other forums they post on (and we could allow IMG tag in signatures here to show it) and that links back to their bodyspace. You could also make smaller ones that could be used as badges on ********, Twitter, etc.

Obviously another thought is to take these ideas and create ******** plugins or other ones specific to other social networking sites that allow access to their API. Finally, if you wanted to get really advanced, you could create and open up a Bodybuilding.com/Bodyspace API and let any developer take that data they want and plug it into all sorts of creative models. All of which would promote bb.com and drive traffic back here.

Anyway, just a few thoughts I'd share and hopefully the bbdevteam can take a look and put these ideas into practice.

UPDATE: I see there are some simple widgets on the bb.com news page, but they are sort of bland and not really what I had in mind. A couple of them are broken. See the post below for one I created using the Widgetbox service that took the RSS feed and really made it look attractive and gave it interactive features, including video playback and ability to retweet/share the info that was being shown.

pogue

[pogue]

I was able to make a very nice looking widget using widgetbox and integrated RSS feeds for the latest bb.com articles, bb.com Youtube videos, and bb.com Twitter feed in three tabs that automatically scrolled and switched through each tab every 30 seconds. UNFORTUNATELY, after doing all this, I realized they wanted me to pay to use it, which is a drag. I can't link to it either, to show the demo. But, bb.com could easily put this together in about 5 minutes and make it public for anyone to use.

[Lookitskeith]

Yeah I have 0 skills on the computer sadly, but I like what you have come up with so far.

[El_Burrito]

Seems like a great idea, I don't understand though who are you asking? Isn't it basically your decision?

[FlyOrDie]

Good stuff, would love to see this done, so I will aware the misc too.

[LiftinandFishin]

How do I make a signature?