Turn Wordpress Into Your Own Job Board
Gary Jones from BlueFur contacted me today about a new project they're working on call BlueFur Jobs.
The aim is simple- to turn Wordpress into an easy to manage job board that anyone can host. It's not quite ready, but you can try it out here. The best thing about it is when it is 100% ready for prime time they're going to release the code for free so we can all enjoy the benefits of their blood, sweat and cheers.
I wrote about the project over at GoSquared Discuss earlier today, but I thought I would promote it to liquidicity so everyone can see what a great piece of work this is.
I tested it out briefly and first impressions are great:
The Great Stuff
* Posting of new jobs is really simple
* Useful RSS Feeds for each job category
* Instant preview of job post
* Clear division of job categories at both top and bottom of page
* "next" and "previous" job categories at bottom of page
* No sign-in necessary
* Overall really simple to use
Improvements That Could be Made
* First and foremost - a search function would make it much easier to find jobs. Especially if the number of jobs reaches into the hundreds.
* People may not be over keen on their email address being posted out in the open. Perhaps hiding this with a coded image or a hashed code would be better.
* Greater focus on "job description" to ensure enough detail on what the job is about is given. Perhaps allow basic html formatting (bold, italics, bullets etc.)
* On posting a new job, clicking "preview" would ideally scroll the page up to where the preview text shows.
* Indication of new jobs to returning visitors with an icon or formatting.
To Make it Kick-ass
* Link "location" field to a mapping site like Google Maps.
* Allow people to sign in to post jobs without having to fill everything in again.
* Ability to share a job with friends by email.
All in all, BlueFur Jobs looks to be an awesome job board, and we are really looking forward to seeing it develop.
Drop a comment to help them out - they are looking for as much help as possible while they develop it.
Stumble it!
AD said,
May 15, 2008 @ 10:06 am
Thanks a lot. I've also often wondered whether Wordpress could be used as a job posting board, and I'm really impressed with the website you provided as I'm sure it can help me with my idea.
Thanks!
G said,
May 17, 2008 @ 4:06 pm
Administrator
Yeah, we are very interested in the job board idea. We have looked into this space recently and have quite a few ideas.
If you are working on anything along these lines we would love to hear about it!
Thanks.
Stass said,
May 22, 2008 @ 1:25 pm
I really enjoy reading your posts. But why do I have to print 6 pages for a small post likt thisone ??!
I would really like a print stylesheet so all these trees won't be cut for nothing (five allmost empty pages with sidebar content is a waste).
G said,
May 23, 2008 @ 4:12 pm
Administrator
Hi Stass,
We're glad you like our content, and thanks for bringing this up.
People printing posts off? We're flattered!
To be honest, we never designed liquidicity for printing - 90% of our visitors won't print anything off ever, so we assumed it wouldn't be too much of an issue.
However, seeing as we now know that some of our visitors actually print our content out, and that they do it on a regular basis, we're going to make life a little easier for you.
We're going to work on a style sheet specifically designed for printing, and we'll probably hide all of the sidebar stuff, and all of the other unnecessary elements that are simply not needed on a piece of paper.
Many thanks for drawing our attention to this - we love trees too!
Jimmy
GoSquared