iReport.com goes higher profile today: this afternoon, we're placing links across CNN.com to invite the CNN community to contribute video and photo stories to this new site. I'm pretty sure that will draw more attention to us, and help our community to grow in numbers and in stories.

But even before that, there have already been amazing things happening at iReport.com: in the four short weeks since the beta site launched, we've seen dozens of stories that were surprising, moving, inspiring and just plain funny. Heck, several of them have already made their way onto CNN. We've also watched our community grow to an impressive 4,000+ iReporters, and collected hundreds of comments that add perspective and nuance to the stories on the site.

You'll start to see the links on CNN.com later today. But first, we want to say thanks. Here's a huge, heartfelt thank you to everyone who's participated so far, either by sharing a story, adding a comment, sending valuable feedback, or just by watching, listening and taking in something new.

There's still lots to do, but we're off to an incredible start.

We're at it again! The iReport.com development team just released a new patch to the site's software that makes a few more upgrades. If you saw a "site temporarily down" message earlier this afternoon, that's why. It lasted about 15 minutes, and now that we're back, the site works a little bit better than before. Here's what we changed:

• We updated the URLs on every page of the site. The change makes the addresses shorter and more descriptive. Please update your bookmarks!
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• We added a new item to your My Stuff page that shows you all the stories you've recently viewed. It's a nice way to keep tabs on things you visit on the site and a quick way to find them again.
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• We made another adjustment to the "newsiest" calculation that places stories at the top of the homepage. We're still working on getting that one right. Do you think we're close? Post a comment to let us know.
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• We added a new item to the <a href="/faq.jspa">FAQ page</a> to help explain why you may not be seeing your story immediately after you uploaded it, and how to track it down.

This morning we uncovered a problem with uploading that was keeping new stories from appearing on the site. After some investigation, the tech team came up with a fix, and the stalled stories from overnight came pouring in. If you uploaded something last night and didn't see it right away, take a look at your "my stuff" page now and you ought to see it. If it's still missing, please let us know.

iReport.com runs a little more smoothly today than it did yesterday, thanks to a new version of the site's software that our development team deployed this morning. (You may have noticed that the site went down for about 15 minutes around 8:30 a.m. ET. If you had trouble uploading then, please give it a try again now.)

We're constantly improving and adjusting in response to your feedback. Here's what we did today:

• Added code snippets on every story page that allow users to embed the video or photos on their own sites. We've heard loud and clear that this is something people really want, and we're excited to roll it out today.
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• Built in support for mobile upload (details coming soon -- get your cell phone camera ready!)
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• Tweaked the newsiest formula a bit to give more emphasis to newer stories (see last week's blog post on that topic for more explanation)
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• Built in a way to upload two stories at once, from different browser windows. If you tried to do that last week, both uploads would fail. But no more -- upload away!

As always, we count on you to tell us how we're doing, and what else you'd like to see. Drop a comment below or fill out one of the comment cards by clicking on the "Feedback" links on every page. We're listening!

We reached a milestone today -- a hundred pages of iReport contributors. That's more than 1200 participants on a site that's barely two weeks old. Glad you're here! Take a look at every last one on the iReporters page, where you can view by alphabet, sign-up date, who's on CNN and who's a Superstar.

We took the site down for a few minutes this morning to send out a new version of the software. A few of the notable fixes:

• No more lost comments!
• The "Latest" and "Most Commented" sorts on the homepage and iReports page will now display the newest and most commented stories IN ORDER!
• Photo views fixed on IE6 (we used to have trouble displaying more than 6 images on IE6, but no more)

As always, drop us a line if you see anything out of whack, or have an idea about how to make the site better.

If you've visited the iReport.com homepage more than once in the past few days, you've probably seen a lot of Marcus Harun. We love Marcus Harun. He's a 16-year-old iReport phenom from Hamden, Connecticut, who files detailed political analysis of debates and primary results, and even shoots video reports about the occasional Nor'easter.

His Situation Room-style video book report about the "Lord of the Flies" was at the top of our homepage for days, since it outscored all the other contenders in our "newsiest" calculation. That formula combines ratings, pageviews, comments and freshness to put the most newsworthy stories out front. Trouble is, that book report, as much as we love it, is by now old news. So we tweaked the formula a bit to give some other stories a ride at the top.

What do you think? Are the stories at the top of the newsiest list the most newsworthy ones on the site?

Great news -- we just released a new patch to the iReport.com software that fixes a few things that were bugging us. My personal favorite, the truncated story headlines you used to see on story pages. Before the fix went out, the headline on the story page would get chopped down to just the first line, which resulted in some fairly silly stuff: "BREAKING NEWS Ketchup" instead of "BREAKING NEWS Ketchup assassinated," etc. Actually, that one's still pretty silly even with the full headline, but you get the idea. Also, we added in ellipses to homepage headlines that get shortened to fit in tight spaces.

We have more fixes coming in future releases. Here are a few of the big ones:
- Comments that disappear
- "Most commented" sort on main page not always right
- Posted time not always accurate on stories
- Stories with multiple photos not displaying on IE 6

What's missing? Please tell us! Leave a comment below, or fill out a comment card by clicking on the "Feedback" link near the iReport.com logo at the top of every page.

In the week or so since we rolled out the beta site, many of you have taken the time to send us your thoughts through the feedback links found throughout the site. We really appreciate it! Thanks to everyone who has given us some insight into how we can improve this site and make it more useful and user-friendly for everyone (and please keep it coming!).

Many of you have told us that you found the beta site engaging, visually appealing, easy to use, and that you'd even recommend it to your friends (thanks, we hope you do!). You also told us you were able to find what you were looking for easily, and that you enjoyed rating, sharing, and commenting on iReports. We're paying special attention to your feature requests. Soon, you'll be able to utilize RSS feeds, embed iReport videos into your own blogs and sites, and have the ability to edit your story after it has been submitted. If any part of your experience on the site was less than ideal today, please let us know about it so that we can fix it -- your input is invaluable to us as we keep working to get it right during the beta period.

Have some feedback for us? We welcome anything from compliments to complaints, and we read it all. Look for the Feedback link next to the iReport logo on all pages, and let us know your thoughts. We'll do our best to address your input.

The iReport.com beta is less than a week old, and already your stories are being used in CNN's global news coverage. I just wanted to share a few examples with you:

• iReporter Aferdita uploaded celebratory photos she took of Kosovo's declaration of independence. Those images were incorporated into a story on CNN.com.
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• iReporter jackieingles snapped images from a memorial for students slain in a tragic campus shooting at Southern Illinois University on February 16. Her photos were part of a CNN.com photo gallery.
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• iReporter and Second Life enthusiast Janey Bracken wrote a story about autism in a virtual world. Her report was published on CNN's SL iReport blog.
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• And DanMcDermott holds a special place in iReport.com's early history.
  Dan's audio slideshow from the Virginia Primary elections became the first iReport since the beta launch to be incorporated into CNN's news coverage on CNN.com Live.
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  How will you know if a story on iReport.com has been used by CNN? Look for the "On CNN" stamp. You can see them all right here.

Man, what a day! The beta site went live to the world around 7 a.m. ET this morning and it's already filling up with amazing stories.

We had a minor technical hiccup this afternoon that caused the site to go down for about 20 minutes. All's fine now, but we're sorry for the outage. (I hope it didn't keep you from uploading a big story! Head here if you've got one.) We were making some upgrades to the iReporter page and hit an unexpected snag. We're learning a lot every minute, and the fixes we make today will make the site better tomorrow.

So! The good news is that the iReporter page works a little better now than it did this morning. And it's filling up fast with brand new iReporters. (Shout-out to first-time iReport contributor DanMcDermott, who has all the signs of a Superstar in the making. His video interviews of Virginia primary voters are worth watching.)