As part of the new and fabtabulous changes we’ve got going on here at Metblogs, you might have noticed that we again feature a blogroll on our sidebar.

Wanna be a part of it?

If you’ve got an Orange County-based blog, you’re in!  But sorry, ones that are purely business promotions don’t qualify, so don’t bother.  I’ll send you right back to the spam folder where you belong.

If you’d like to do a linky thingy, leave your URL in the comments and we’ll try to add you on.

Have you noticed our newly tweaked streamlined interface? Slick isn’t it? One major improvement is you no longer have to register with Metblogs to post a comment! So do us a favor and leave us some comments and tell us what you think of the new interface. If your comments are constructive we’ll pass them along to the powers that be!

Hardly.

In the past we’ve had posts, like Gina’s, proving to us that the OC Register writers can’t blog very well. In fact, they reported less on facts and more on how they felt about it. I mean….who does that?? (looks to camera) :-| Well, rather than make their reporters do their job properly, the Register decided to capitalize on the youth in the area, and make them do the real work for the paper. Chapman University journalism students will now be reporting on the hard hitting news around Orange.

In teams the students will focus on different neighborhood areas: Kelly Egan and Thomas Beigle will cover North Orange; David Hall and Jenna Chandler, West Orange; Rachelle Yeung and Ivan Contreras, Old Towne; and Amber Gonzales and Jennifer Gish, East Orange.

What kind of hard hitting stories are we talking about? How about “Shuttered Business Site Worries Neighbors!” or “No Hula Dancers In Fair Crowd“! OK. In fairness, my post on Bike Path Patrol was hardly news worthy. In fact, it was based entirely on speculation because I saw a cop car parked on the bike path. And I’m sure, since they’ve actually had training, their writing skills far surpass mine. But then again……..I don’t write for a (national?) newspaper!

I realize this is an excellent opportunity for these students, and hopefully the “guidance” of the Register doesn’t screw up an already well written story. Maybe these kids can replace the crap writing staff the Register already has!

On a slightly personal note, the paper asked readers to contact their local reporter to tell them about interesting people and events in their area. I ask that you contact your local OC MetBlogger first, cause we’re much more betterer than they are.

If Metblogs is a city, hub.metblogs is the playground. We kept hearing from people that one of their favorite parts of Metblogs was meeting and interacting with readers and writers from other parts of the world, as well as getting requests for more ways that readers could be involved besides just posting comments. We thought about this for a while and decided that with a network like this, a giant community area where folks from all over the world could hang out, post photos and videos, talk with each other, form groups, play games, send messages, and do about a million other things was probably a pretty fun idea. The Hub is that.

If you have any tech ideas or suggestions join this group and speak up. See you on hub.metblogs!

If you haven’t already noticed, we have some fabulous new authors joining us here on the Orange County Metroblog.  And high time it was, since for a while it seemed like poor Jon was the only one holding down the fort.

Haven’t yet checked them out?

Maria has the scoop on the screening of a classic 80’s movie.  Chimp not included.

Fejsez tells you how to make your “Carectomy” in Orange County as painless as possible.  You might still need a couple of Advil, though.

Dave fills you in about an Old Towne Orange eatery.  But I still want to call it the Circle, dammit!

With such a great first week from these authors, this looks like it’s gonna be a fun ride!

And, check out our sidebar on the right.  See that little box?  We now have a feed for the LA Metblog, so feel free to click on over if you see something interesting.  I recommend the very cool picture of a dragonfly taken by Will.i.am Campbell, which he has nicknamed Alfalfa. 

So, lots of new things to see and do here.  We hope you enjoy them, and keep your eyes peeled for those OC Metblog Twitters!

For you Twitter users, we are following the lead of LA Metblogs and have created a OC Metblogs account on Twitter. Follow along if you would like.
Don’t worry, We do not plan on spamming and have some neat ideas planned for incorporating Twitter with selected articles and special announcements form OC Metblogs.

Looking for more variety here? Yeah me too.

Gina (one of our fearless Co-Captains) is out of town and has asked me to write a teeny tiny post inviting you all to come join our ranks and help us make this best damn blog on the network.

1. Leave a message in the comments. Make sure your message includes a link to a blog, homepage or a way for someone to get a hold of you.

2. If you don’t have a blog, gather and be prepared to submit (upon request) a few writing samples so our captains can take a look at them.

3. Hurry up and wait. This may take a little while but rest assured you have not been forgotten.

4. Smile with satisfaction that you have been able to follow a simple set of instructions, which is part of the criteria for throwing your hat in the ring.

There are some other requirments which we can handle adhoc but this should get us started. Got it? Good. We hope to blog with you soon!

Much like looking for the hidden mickeys at Disneyland, our new redesign has some wicked awesome features (and I don’t always use those terms in my vocabulary)! For those of you who have an iPhone you’re in for a treat! When you visit the OC Metroblog (and this goes for all of the cities in the Metroblog Network) you’ll get a site that is formatted specifically for the iPhone. (more…)

Look how new and spiffy we look! Welcome to the new OC Metblog. Metroblogging rolled out the new design site-wide this weekend – you can find a list of all the cities we’ve got sites in here.

Let us know what you think, what works, and what doesn’t (in terms of design and in terms of usability).

You always read us for the local vibe, the politics, the intrigue, the people, and the craziness that is living in the OC. Now here is your chance to deliver you views on what it’s like to live in Orange County.

Sean and the Metroblogging team have announced Open Registration for new bloggers to join the metroblogging network. Go here to join.

So here is your chance to bring a different political perspective (Matt your always welcomed), bring back the old days of the Weekly (Commie Girl), or possibly get a South County perspective on the OC (we seem to be mostly in the North). At a minimum we would like authors who can commit to blogging three times a week, words and/or pictures, about life in Orange County.

So sign up today and become part of the largest metroblogging network on the web.

Update: It seems that I misread an e-mail, there are no open signups for the OC Metroblog at the moment, but if you would like to join our crew, e-mail me and I will forward your information on to the Metroblogging gods. The more bloggers the better…