I wanted to give you an update on changes being done based on feedback from users. These are the most important ones:
Post It
Posting on iroon.com has been somewhat of a mystery. You have to go to your own page and click on a relatively small button or go to the section pages and find the button there. That is IF you find it. It's not hard to see, but why not make it more prominent?
We are a user-driven site. All content comes from you. Therefore it would make sense to have a clear button on top of the front page to make it easier for everyone to post a new item.
This should be ready by the end of the week.
Latest Comments
When you go the Everything page, there will be a button/link on top of the page that when selected will show you all the latest comments. This way you can follow all new/recent comments posted under all items.
You'll see it in a couple of days -- in bright red!
Thumbs Up and Down
We first decided that it would be best to make both Up and Down votes in the Dis-Like (Ah o Bah) section anonymous. This way people would be more inclined to vote on controvertial figures and topics without revealing their identiy.
As we were working on this, we thought anonymity would probably be better for all sections. This site is not like Facebook and users are not necessary friends. So it would be best to keep our Likes and Dislikes private and not worry about the implications of our Up or Down votes.
This change will also be implemented soon, before the end of the week.
Survey Infographs
As we were designing the site, we looked for the coolest software we could find for our surveys. What we found is certainly cool and advanced with lots of information but since its implementation we've had second thoughts. Well, at least I and many users have. Our tech boss is not convinced and stil believes it is not only adequate but one of the best.
My own view and those of several people who have complained is that the survey infographs are too complicated. They were probably designed for financial institutions to follow detailed transactions.
A graph should immediately tell you the result of a survey with clear visual elements. For example if the survey asks "do you like Khamenei?", the graph should tell me the answer as soon as I look at it. Our infograph does not seem to do that, no matter how cool it may be.
What do you think? Any suggestions on what kind of graph we should use?
Surveys are a very important part of iroon.com and we want to optimize it so that more people would create and/or particpate in voting. Modifying this section will take more time as it would require quite a bit of re-programming.
arrrrgggggghhh This hit enter to enter new sentence and the comment gets posted is SUCKS TO CANADA! How can I post couple of links in my comment without hitting enter and comment not posting?????
Post it = is ok. Latest comments = believe it when I see it! Thumbs up or down anonymity for BOTH in all areas = good! Survey Infographs = SUCKS TO CANADA! This doesn't have to be complicated and in my case using internet explorer, I can't even see it! Some surveys are too big and the national pulse is hidden! Here see the below link for a simple poll question. Make it simple! I can't hit enter so here it is. http://www.micropoll.com/web-poll-questions.html
http://www.micropoll.com/web-poll-questions.html
Oh and the website FREEZES big time! You click on an article or link and once you go to that page and wants to come back to front page, it FREEZES like water freezes in CANADA! Need faster loads and no freezing. It not only freezes i.com but all my other internet sessions! Generally if the website is slow and the information is scattered all over the page because of technical issues, people will tend to stay away from it. The design of the page is not important, the ease of which people can't access something is important. In this case worry about the technical issues and keep things simple. I can't stress enough to "keeping things simple."
JJ jon, when I post a comment, I like to separate each sentence by going on the next line. This is only possible by pushing the "Enter" button. But unfortunately, as soon as I push the "Enter" button, my comment get submitted. I can never post a comment which is longer than one line! Can you correct it too? I mean, it must be corrected in the way that we would be able to go to the "next line" if we want to post a long comment which takes a few lines. The "Enter" button should serve for this purpose, not to "submit" the comment, automatically. Then, when we have finished writing our comment correctly, we can push the "submit" button to post the entire comment. Thanks. An also, I wish we could have the bold, and underline, options too.
This is IC version 0.0000001, hoping version 1 to come out soon with at least some of the fixes (LINE BREAK IS NEEDED TO SEPERATE SENTENCES. Mehrdad..... 'Hambastegi' is one of the main key to victory
So Bavafa jon, you think that we can use the "habastegi key" to make the "line break"? :)
Souri Khanom, 1- it is good to see you here. 2- let’s use this as the litmus test for victory as a result of ‘Hambastegi’. If we were able to win here for “line break” then we will know victory for our mother-land is also possible :) Mehrdad…..’Hambastegi’ is one of the main key to victory.
"Top Links" and "Top Blogs", or any "Top Things", must have a time limit, i.e. in the last 5 days, or in the last 10 days, otherwise the top one might stay there forever.
That's a good point MPD. We have to fix that.
Souri Jan, I really like the fact that I can type something and quickly post it by hitting the return button. It's a common thing these days on major websites (facebook included). But this is just a beginning. We could very well change things as we go along.
How about a combination of two characters to mark a line break? Such as Alt-L
Dear Jahanshah, we really need the ENTER key to act like the ENTER key. This site is not Facebook. I would like to type more than one line in a comment.
Perhaps what you can also do to improve transparency is to allow the disclosure of the identity of the user who's giving "thumbs down" or "thumbs up" to comments and other posts. This way you won't have people who have an ax to grind with other users go around and give "thumbs down" to whatever their subject of obsession/ hate posts. I'm beginning to experience that with my posts already on thi site.
"Anonymous Observer" calling for transparency? :)))
And how can you tell if someone giving your comment a thumbs down has an ax to grind or truly disagrees with you?
I'm already seeing a trend, and I've only posted a few comments. Just wait till I post a blog. You know how much I'm loved. :-)) And hey, 90% of the people here are anonymous. But still, even in the context of anonymity you can establish order and transparency. What's wrong with posting usernames of those who give "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" on a post?
I love you already :) The benefit of hiding user names is that it prevents keeping score on who likes or dislikes. We've learned quickly that this site is not like Facebook. Here everybody with different interests and manners participate, not just friends. If we can't tolerate some giving us the thumbs down, for whatever reason, then maybe the IRI's intolerance is just a reflection of us.
You know me JJ. I don't care much about this stuff. If I did, I would've stopped blogging on IC a long time ago. You see the choice comments on get on my blogs. I don't think there's a name under the sun that I haven't been called. :-)) I just didn't want it to become a trend. But hey, your site, your rules. PS--on the issue of likability, there's one user (or former user) of IC who hates you and I equally. Since that comment was posted on a hate site, and I don't want to advertise the hate site, I will email you the link (if that's possible on this site). That comment is also quite eye opening. It shows how Iranians still have the frame of mind that speech should be censored and regulated and they consider it your responsibility (as the site owner) to only post "good" things about Iran, Iranians and everything else pretty much---good, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. I tell you dude, we have a lot of growing up to do as a people.
glad you have thick skin. enjoy iroon! :)
Ever since the comments have been added to the first page: The first version goes there, meaning that your edited comment won't appear there.
Example: check my answer to the survey for the best American Pez. I corrected the spelling for Bibi's name to Netanyahu, but the wrong one, Natanyahu has stayed stubbornly under Everything/comment option.
Hi gist. Until an edited comment appears on the Everything page, I figured a workaround to kill the stubborn beast. Simply, delete your comment, and add a new one.
It appears only the _latest_ (newest) comment appears on the Everything page, so, beware, if another person adds a new comment, yours will go away.
Anyway, the above workaround always shows the latest comment on the Everything page.