New Bostonist Features: Contribute and Favorites

It's summer. You're on vacation. Just reading Bostonist isn't enough fun for you. You want to participate. Well, here's your chance to engage in a Web 2.0 experiment of sorts. This week we launched Bostonist Labs with some new features to engage you in what's going on in our corner of the blogosphere. We've finally finished off our spring cleaning and released two new sections to explore:

Bostonist Labs: Contribute

• Share Links: Using del.icio.us, you can let other readers know about what you find on the internets. News stories, websites, and wastes of time you think they might find interesting, entertaining or useful are welcome. All you have to do is tag a link with for:bostonist and it will automatically appear on our Contribute page. For information on how to get started, visit del.icio.us.

• Share Photos: Any photo you tag with bostonist on Flickr, our favorite photo sharing website, will automatically appear on the Contribute page, the most recent will drop into the box at left.

• Share an Anonymous Tip: Is the Red Line bussing from Kendall to Park Street (again)? Is there an overrun of Ted Baker shirts for cheap? Is Officer Mike guiding ducklings to the Public Garden? Let Bostonist readers know!

Bostonist Labs: Favorites.

• Most Recommended: The left column on this page ranks recent Bostonist posts by the number of "recommendations" they have received. How does a post receive recommendations? Good question. You will see that every post on Bostonist now has a "Recommend this!" link at the bottom. If you click on that link, that means you recommend that post to other Bostonist readers. Simple as that. Every once and a while we have a stroke of genius – make sure everyone witnesses that rare occasion.

• Most Commented: Somewhat self-explanatory. Recent Bostonist posts will be ranked by the number of comments they have received. If something is causing a stir you'll find it here. We're pretty sure we've overcome the Cialis/Viagra issue this feature once succumbed to.
  All of these Bostonist Labs features can be found in teaser boxes on the left column of every page on the site, as well.

Enjoy! And let us know what you think.