ListNook

S2S2S2S2S2 Nov 16, 2009 +20

Why not just have one sublistnook? You only have 10 or so posts a month.

20

raldi Nov 16, 2009 +21

The blog was originally just used for feature changes, and some old-time users complained when we started putting other stuff on there (finding people to adopt homeless pets, photos of fun stuff people sent us, etc). For those of us who are big listnook fanboys, we can subscribe to both and never miss out on anything. For [curmudgeons](http://listnook.com/user/spez) who consider the fuzzy stuff to be worthless drivel, they can just subscribe to /r/announcements. Or neither.

21

S2S2S2S2S2 Nov 16, 2009 +5

That makes sense. I am a definite fanboy (just in case you weren't sure), so I'd rather have them in one until the whole 50+ subscriptions swap is sorted. It'd be one more s*** for something else. :)

5

PhilxBefore Nov 17, 2009 +3

Speaking of the swap, can we make the title bar with the sublistnooks across it double height for twice the capacity? If not, make the ones listed in the drop-down the ones that aren't listed across the top.

3

Wyrm Nov 17, 2009 +3

It's not pretty but there's a [Greasemonkey scirpt](http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/57882) that adds a horizontal scrollbar to the sublistnooks list up there. The list normally just continues offscreen with no way to access most of it, which is kind of weird.

3

jeremybub Nov 16, 2009 +2

Grade II curmudgeon reporting for duty.

2

jedberg Nov 16, 2009 +21

We'll probably have more posts in the future, and also because this allows people who only want to know about technical things to be able to subscribe to just the announcements listnook.

21

S2S2S2S2S2 Nov 16, 2009 +13

I dig that. I noticed my auto-subscription to both a few days ago (back when they were still at around 130,000 readers) and was wondering when this was going to be official. One more thought: Considering the combined abilities of the text box and the possibilities of customizable just-for-these-listnook CSS tweaks you could do, why even have a blog at all? Why not just have the sublistnooks? This would do a lot of things, one of which being the merging of the comments in reply to the post. (Which itself would be a benefit to all those who still can't figure out to ask interview questions on listnook threads and not on blog post threads). Considering that a sublistnook can function very well as a blog, I don't really see a reason to maintain an external one. Plus, I just love the idea of having it all be streamlined. That's just me.

13

tsswope Nov 17, 2009 +10

>Why even have a blog at all? Why not just have the sublistnooks? Perhaps they just love the extra karma that comes with posting to an outside blog?

10

PhilxBefore Nov 17, 2009 +3

**YOU HAVE DISCOVERED SOMETHING AMAZING!!**

3

EditRay Nov 17, 2009 +2

That strikes me as a very sensible idea.

2

[deleted] Nov 16, 2009 +3

One thing you might do is spend much more time posting information about the goings-on in the Listnook back-end. One thing I love about Dreamhost is that their [blog](http://blog.dreamhost.com/) is much more than just announcements. They cover all sorts of happenings within their company and offices, and many of their posts are quite funny. I think it goes without saying that Listnook is well-known for the admins being part of the community itself, and not taking that reserved image of authority over its users. It'd be nice to hear about what goes on in the management of Listnook, and what happens in the lives of the administrators, should they be interested in sharing.

3

jedberg Nov 16, 2009 +3

Do you want me to tell you about the annoying driver who almost made me miss my train this morning? :) We'll keep your request in mind, but most people tell us the opposite -- that they aren't interested in us or our lives or anything like that. That being said, did you see [this](http://blog.listnook.com/2009/11/moving-to-cloud.html) and [this](http://www.listnook.com/a2zte/) and [this](http://blog.listnook.com/2009/11/our-users-can-be-so-awesome-sometimes.html).

3

[deleted] Nov 16, 2009 +2

While I don't wish to hear about that driver, I would like to hear about it if he caused you to be late, causing you to miss your planned . The point is that it's always nice to hear a story, and hear about the goings-on _within_ the team. I'd like to hear about some interesting issue you've hammered out with some aspect of the Listnook code, or how one of the database servers is acting up. It's really just a suggestion; I'd simply like to know more about how the Listnook team functions.

2

jigs_up Nov 16, 2009 +158

And you subscribed us all to them, how kind.

158

raldi Nov 16, 2009 +86

Well, we added them to the default set of listnooks. One of the main problems we're trying to solve here is that new users aren't aware that the blog exists, and so they'll request features that we already have, or even worse, they won't request them and they'll just go about their lives wishing listnook had, say, a way to hide links, or save them for later. Or a toolbar, or a way to open links in a new window. So this way, new users will discover the blog and thereby remain informed about new stuff. If they (or you) don't want to hear us blather on and on, just unsubscribe from the two listnooks. Nobody will be forced to read anything.

86

spez Nov 16, 2009 +62

> One of the main problems we're trying to solve here is that new users aren't aware that the blog exists At the expense of showing them that IAMA exists (I'm referring to how the two sr links push the IAMA link off the ribbon)? > wishing listnook had, say, a way to hide links, or save them for later. Or a toolbar, or a way to open links in a new window. That stuff isn't even in the blog. Why don't you just put a link to the help page in the upper-right links like we used to? The only reason we removed the help link in the first place was because it was broken/stale, which is no longer the case.

62

jedberg Nov 16, 2009 +27

> At the expense of showing them that IAMA exists raldi is fixing that now. It was an unintended consequence. > That stuff isn't even in the blog. No, but it was at one point when those features were announced. The point is as we bring out new features, this gives us a way to get the word out without putting a big banner at the top or some other hideous thing. And if people really don't want to learn about new listnook features, they can always unsubscribe. > Why don't you just put a link to the help page in the upper-right links like we used to? Good point. We'll have to put that back in.

27

spez Nov 17, 2009 +7

> No, but it was at one point when those features were announced. The point is as we bring out new features, this gives us a way to get the word out without putting a big banner at the top or some other hideous thing. This isn't the part I'm bitching about anyway. /r/announcements, cool. /r/blog, annoying.

7

jedberg Nov 17, 2009 +2

I'm not sure I understand the problem -- unsubscribe from /r/blog. Problem solved, right?

2

krispykrackers Nov 16, 2009 +133

It's like my real dad and my step-dad are arguing about how to raise me. Aww.

133

S2S2S2S2S2 Nov 16, 2009 +31

Watch your backtalk, missy, or you're going back to your mother's!

31

nikpappagiorgio Nov 16, 2009 +13

See I automatically thought krispykrackers was a male so this made for an excellent "how my dad talks to me" moment. (although he calls me Mary)

13

lostpuppyofdoom Nov 17, 2009 +5

What did your therapist say when you mentioned that?

5

ParadoX_ Nov 17, 2009 +5

He told me I was a b****, and my dad was right all along *cries*

5

MRRoberts Nov 17, 2009 +2

I love it when a thread looks like a conversation between two people but is in fact an assortment of different participants. that is all.

2

nikpappagiorgio Nov 17, 2009 +2

I told ParadoX_ he could answer for me.

2

[deleted] Nov 16, 2009 +7

[deleted]

7

S2S2S2S2S2 Nov 16, 2009 +3

Hahaha. :)

3

karmanaut Nov 16, 2009 +18

You have to take sides, Krispy. *And you can never see the other again!*

18

Differentiate Nov 16, 2009 +5

does that mean we get two Christmases??

5

PhilxBefore Nov 17, 2009 +4

I'm sorry but that just looks retarded.

4

Differentiate Nov 17, 2009 +6

Your whole shits retarded

6

alphabeat Nov 17, 2009 +8

Additionally, and pardon my vexation, but your articulation is not dissimilar to that of a person who pursues courtship with those of a similar gender, good sir.

8

S2S2S2S2S2 Nov 16, 2009 +41

Well, if you've got such good ideas, maybe *you* should work for listnook. Oh, wait.

41

raldi Nov 16, 2009 +18

We'll fix gripe #1 ASAP, and probably slip in a fix for gripe #2 on its coattails.

18

[deleted] Nov 17, 2009 +25

[deleted]

25

PhilxBefore Nov 17, 2009 +7

gripe #2

7

supaphly42 Nov 17, 2009 +3

Haha, I read it that way too at first.

3

scrodar Nov 16, 2009 +22

Who does this guy think he is?

22

[deleted] Nov 16, 2009 +23

I dunno but I like the cut of his jib! Listnook should hire him!

23

NoMoreNicksLeft Nov 17, 2009 +5

Meh. I think they can live without a "I am a circus bear trainer" posts not showing up on their front page by default. Now, if only they'd use listnook itself for the blog, instead of just using the sublistnook to announce them.

5

Ol_Dirty_Bastard Nov 17, 2009 +1

It still shows up on the front page, it's just pushed off of the bar at the top.

1

candyman420 Nov 16, 2009 +6

I don't like your tone mister

6

ohashi Nov 17, 2009 +1

so listnook has ~213,000 users?

1

raldi Nov 17, 2009 +4

http://www.listnook.com/r/announcements/comments/a50ns/introducing_rblog_and_rannouncements/c0fvp9o

4

[deleted] Nov 17, 2009 +8

Feature request: A "learn listnook" sub which newbs are automatically subscribed to when they join. It loops through all the tips, including telling them how to unsubscribe from it.

8

mthmchris Nov 16, 2009 +7

While you're at it, can you have the blog posts also as self posts in /r/blog? I'm in China and while listnook isn't blocked, blog.listnook is.

7

umbrae Nov 17, 2009 +1

That's odd. If you subscribe via google reader, does it still block you?

1

mthmchris Nov 17, 2009 +1

Nah, I'm a pretty big economics nerd and like to keep my reader to economics/finance blogs only.

1

smhinsey Nov 17, 2009 +2

So we're supposed to use /r/blog to request features? How does that work?

2

[deleted] Nov 17, 2009 +1

> Well, we added them to the default set of listnooks I've customized my set of sublistnooks, and I still found that I was subscribed to both /r/blog and /r/announcements. I discovered that as I went to subscribe myself. I can't complain that it's not something I wanted but it nevertheless feels weird that my list of sublistnooks was changed.

1

Nebu Nov 23, 2009 +1

> or even worse, they won't request them and they'll just go about their lives wishing listnook had, say, a way to hide links, or save them for later. So, if we want to gripe to you about a feature request, where do we submit them?

1

jedberg Nov 16, 2009 +23

You can unsubscribe any time you want.

23

ggk1 Nov 16, 2009 +53

but you can never leave

53

DanielBG Nov 16, 2009 +10

Cue Glenn Frey guitar solo.

10

voracity Nov 17, 2009 +3

.olos ratiug yerF nnelG euC evael reven nac uoy tub .tnaw uoy emit yna ebircsbusnu nac uoY

3

Virtblue Nov 16, 2009 +5

You can always unsubscribe....

5

[deleted] Nov 16, 2009 +10

The /r/announcements description has the wrong link text. /r/announcements -> /r/blog

10

raldi Nov 16, 2009 +10

Thanks, fixed.

10

PsychoticEvil Nov 16, 2009 +4

I went to /r/blog and was extremely disappointed that there were no free beer posts.

4

raldi Nov 17, 2009 +8

When you break 1000 karma, come visit the listnook offices and I'll give you a free beer.

8

[deleted] Nov 17, 2009 +9

[deleted]

9

raldi Nov 17, 2009 +15

Beer offers are valid only on a person-by-person basis. Karmanaut will have to negotiate his own deal. Though if he came out to visit, I'd probably buy him an entire lunch.

15

karmanaut Nov 17, 2009 +13

I've come to claim my 103 beers. I am flying to California next Tuesday .

13

raldi Nov 17, 2009 +8

Send me a message and let's see if we can work something out.

8

ketralnis Nov 18, 2009 +2

Stop by and harass us!

2

karmanaut Nov 18, 2009 +1

I'd love to. Going to Sacramento, unfortunately. My parents live up north. I'm originally from Monterey though, so I fly into SFO when I go there. Maybe I'll have an opportunity to stop by.

1

Takteek Nov 17, 2009 +2

Careful, soon you might have people thinking that karma is actually worth something. What could 667 get me? A sandwich? I'm pretty hungry right now.

2

myheaditches Nov 17, 2009 +2

What is the exchange rate for comment karma to karma? Or do you just mean any type of karma?

2

WiZZLa Nov 17, 2009 +2

I don't drink beer, can I have a glass of wine (even box wine)?

2

[deleted] Nov 17, 2009 +2

Does comment karma count?

2

[deleted] Nov 16, 2009 +4

why isn't [ropers](http://www.listnook.com/user/ropers), who created /r/announcements a moderator on it?

4

raldi Nov 17, 2009 +13

We asked if he would mind if we used the listnook for this purpose, and he generously turned it over.

13

WiZZLa Nov 17, 2009 +4

Did he have much of a choice?

4

raldi Nov 17, 2009 +11

Absolutely. If he wanted to use it for something else, we would have picked a different one and asked its creator instead.

11

mkrfctr Nov 17, 2009 +17

Absolutely. That or his kneecaps.

17

[deleted] Nov 16, 2009

[deleted]

0

raldi Nov 16, 2009 +15

We took care of that -- these won't take the place of the existing ten. In effect, it's like we raised the limit to 12.

15

[deleted] Nov 16, 2009 +2

[deleted]

2

raldi Nov 16, 2009 +5

Do you mean a custom shirt? Just click the "shirt" tab (up at the top next to "comments" and "related") Or do you mean a mass-produced listnook shirt? In that case, you want the "store" link at the bottom of the page. Either way, thanks for your support! Every little bit helps us scrape together the money to hire another programmer.

5

[deleted] Nov 16, 2009 +75

[deleted]

75

robotsongs Nov 16, 2009 +41

Funny, I always thought it was more.

41

raldi Nov 16, 2009 +76

The majority of our users have never subscribed to anything, and are just using the default set of listnooks. They don't show up in the total.

76

photokeith Nov 16, 2009 +43

>The majority of our users have never subscribed to anything That blows me away, I assumed that almost everyone here had their own little preferred sublistnooks...

43

krispykrackers Nov 16, 2009 +14

I think that the majority of users are lurkers. Unless you comment and ask questions and stuff, you don't find the good, smaller sublistnooks. I didn't even know that other sublistnooks existed until like 6 months after I created my account, but then again, I'm not the brightest crayon in the box either.

14

raldi Nov 16, 2009 +29

I blame us. We need to make our UI more intuitive and / or feature-discoverable for new users.

29

OKCEngineer Nov 16, 2009 +12

As a new(ish) contributor/ long time lurker, I completely agree. If you want to attract those who are not forward and extroverted away from the "easy" aggregators, or promote a more full use of the site as a whole, there a few areas which could use some polish. That aside; I love this place!

12

raldi Nov 16, 2009 +12

Well, if you (or anyone) has specific suggestions on this topic, please post them below.

12

Taffaz Nov 16, 2009 +22

I don't know if you already have this but a feature similar to "Do you know this person?" that Facebook has. Where it says something like, "70% of users subscribed to /r/TodayILearned are also subscribed to /r/DoesAnybodyElse" That way you don't have to slog through lists of sublistnooks to find one you may like. I can think of a number of ways to implement it. 1. A page you visit that lists ~25 sublistnooks you aren't currently subscribed to but which you may like based on similar subscription of other users. 2. A random sublistnook suggestion on the side of the page (either based on similar subscriptions or entirely random). This is most similar to Facebook but provide the ability to remove it and also allow the removal of specific sublistnooks from the suggestions. I can imagine some people getting annoyed at it constantly suggesting sublistnooks they really don't want to join like /r/jailbait. 3. Both of the above. EDIT: Number 2 looked like it was written by a retarded monkey. Now it at least looks like a regular monkey wrote it.

22

FlyingBishop Nov 17, 2009 +12

This is a bad idea. For example, it would suggest to people who are in /r/programming that they join /r/coding - /r/coding is pretty much entirely people who are also subscribed to programming, but coding was created to get away from the lowered quality of debate in programming. /r/coding is much more highbrow, and if people subscribed to programming went to coding too, they'd become exactly the same. I think this is the general problem with Listnook - the content is too variable, the meaning of Listnooks is barely clear to the people in them, and it's hard to get a good read on people from their subscriptions - I frankly don't think we should try. Listnook is enough of a circle jerk as it is, it's keeping a variety of unique sub-communities with their own unique viewpoints that will keep the community alive - I know that's slightly paradoxical, but it's a question of smaller circle-jerks being the only thing that balances out the overall trends - liberal, libertarian, racist, mensrights, atheist, C++/Java hating... I'm sure I'm missing a lot of stuff that I agree with and so don't notice as much. Point is we want smart people browsing Listnook, not people who only want their own viewpoints reinforced - your scheme would aim for the latter.

12

wtfrara Nov 16, 2009 +3

The thing with 2 can be solved if the system 'learns' when you tell it that you're not interested. If you close the suggestion, it should be logged in the database. When the system is trying to generate a suggestion, it'll check against the blacklisted ones to make sure it doesn't suggest something twice that the user doesn't like. Unfortunately, this could be slow so it might not work.

3

monoglot Nov 16, 2009 +10

This is a good idea.

10

Pappenheimer Nov 17, 2009 +7

[Have an actual search UI!](http://www.listnook.com/r/IAmA/comments/a2zte/i_run_listnooks_servers_and_do_a_bunch_of_other/c0fm1as?context=1)

7

MercurialMadnessMan Nov 17, 2009 +2

I've always wanted a better inbox, but haven't spoken about it until now. I'd love to filter by sent, received, replied, post reply, auto-messages, and all. I'd love to see the equivalent of 'wall-to-wall' from Facebook as well. I'd love if the UI was similar to Gmail. Obviously, this isn't a small task, and there's nothing inherently broken with the inbox as it is right now... but these kind of tools would make life easier for moderators and people who make self posts that get popular, in particular. I think it would be an amazing project if you got a couple more programmers on the team :)

2

daniels220 Nov 16, 2009 +3

An obvious link on my profile page to a list of all the listnooks I'm subscribed to. If there already is one, wonderful—where? Also, I like Taffaz' suggestions.

3

redtaboo Nov 17, 2009 +6

[not on your profile, but I keep it bookmarked](http://www.listnook.com/listnooks/mine)

6

wowzaa Nov 17, 2009 +1

I've had a few ideas since I've started using listnook. The ability to sort sublistnooks by most popular. The ability for sublistnook moderators to categorize their sublistnook to allow for better sorting (like /r/pics could be put in a category called images or something). A way to prioritize your favorite sublistnooks so you get more of your preferred content on the front page. Maybe the ability to limit how many of each sublistnook shows up on your front page. I like getting content from /r/listnook.com but I dont want my whole front page to be /r/listnook.com because they get the most hits. The ability to combine similar topics (this might be too difficult). If something happens in the news I will inevitably see it show up 10-15 times. The ability to search comments. The ability to "dislike" something on Facebook.

1

GuruM Nov 17, 2009 +1

Good, good, I agree, sure, yeah, sounds good ... Wait, what?

1

shopcat Nov 17, 2009 +1

I have a couple friends that lurked for about a year. I talked one into signing up by convincing him that he just needed to enter a screen name and email address and that listnook would never send him an email (unless he needed his password). In typical listnook fashion, I think a lot of lurkers are afraid of "the man" and another sign up form that wants their personal info. That said I am a "Small Listnook Proponent" who advocates only telling educated, interesting people about the site. I'm sorry, but I won't wear the shirts, or post "hi from listnook" on youTube comments. As I have said before, if everyone from digg came over here, listnook would be... digg.

1

GuruM Nov 17, 2009 +1

Not quite true, if they came over in small quantities we would educate them by downvoting their digglike comments to oblivion - which is what happened to me and several other I-Left-Digg-For-Listnook-ers.

1

caprincrash Nov 17, 2009 +1

how bout something as simple as a default message that gets sent to all new accounts created saying something along the lines of, "Thank you for joining listnook...blah, blah, blah, we're freaking awesome, blah, blah,blah... hey check out this link [http://www.listnook.com/listnooks/](http://www.listnook.com/listnooks/) for various listnooks to subscribe to."

1

apollotiger Nov 17, 2009 +1

I’ve been here over a year now and was unaware that there was a page listing all the sublistnooks. In retrospect, it seems blindingly obvious.

1

wowzaa Nov 21, 2009 +1

Also, the ability to make shortcuts to multiple sublistnooks. For example, if I want to view all of my "humor" sublistnooks I can click on a shortcut and build a "mini-frontpage".

1

karmanaut Nov 17, 2009 +2

Make /r/newlistnooks a default sublistnook.

2

kleinbl00 Nov 16, 2009 +5

This is a very good step. I know I give you guys a ration of shit, but it's nice to know you listen.

5

raldi Nov 16, 2009 +14

We have a todo list running off the desk and onto the floor and out the door and down the hall. But we only have three programmers and only a portion of that time can go to user-visible changes. So we make things better as fast as we can, but it still takes a long time to get the big improvements written and deployed. That said, we do listen. To pretty much everything. Which has an impact on our programming productivity, and that brings everything full-circle.

14

johnpickens Nov 16, 2009 +7

Need some help?

7

raldi Nov 16, 2009 +7

[Sure!](http://code.listnook.com)

7

mkrfctr Nov 17, 2009 +11

I suggest you ban visiting listnook.com from the corporate office. It's a known productivity killer.

11

jellystones Nov 16, 2009 +5

I think its fine the way it is. You don't want to overload a new user with information about sub-listnooks and all the other "advanced" listnook features. They can find that info later when they become more advanced. The one thing that drew me to Listnook when I first found it was how simple it was compared to that *other* social news site.

5

bostonvaulter Nov 16, 2009 +5

I love the "Other Discussions" Feature, it really helps in discovering new sublistnooks.

5

Pappenheimer Nov 16, 2009 +5

I dunno, I thought the minimalism was on purpose and for me the appeal was to find all the good stuff myself. Then again I've always liked point-and-click adventures.

5

krispykrackers Nov 17, 2009 +6

I feel the same way exactly. It was always fun for me finding all the new stuff I didn't know about before, on my own or through asking around, or what have you. Totally like an adventure. It never hurt anyone to work a little harder to find the gems.

6

Pappenheimer Nov 17, 2009 +2

Then again you made /r/ideasfortheadmins. And later made *me* a mod there. But I digress, let's talk some more about how listnook doesn't need UI changes! :)

2

Tiomaidh Nov 17, 2009 +1

It would be interesting if either along the top edge or right sidebar there was a link to a random sublistnook...

1

Nougat Nov 16, 2009 +4

But you are the krispiest kracker in the box. That's got to be worth *something.*

4

x3_voodoo_3x Nov 16, 2009 +2

Tell me kind sir. What *are* your sublistnooks of choice? I've been a commenter for a while but haven't stumbled onto more interesting stuff than [this](http://www.listnook.com/r/whalebait/)

2

krispykrackers Nov 16, 2009 +3

[Oh,](http://www.listnook.com/r/lolwut) [where](http://www.listnook.com/r/whitemengonewild) [do](http://www.listnook.com/r/etab) [I](http://www.listnook.com/r/statuegropers) [begin?](http://www.listnook.com/r/bad_cop_no_donut)

3

x3_voodoo_3x Nov 16, 2009 +1

Thank you, good sir. I subscribed to them all. Although, I'm not entirely sure what the Etab sublistnook is about, funny nonetheless.

1

EditRay Nov 17, 2009 +2

*psst*... krispykrackers is too nice to say so, but she's not really a sir.

2

krispykrackers Nov 16, 2009 +2

You won't be disappointed.

2

raldi Nov 16, 2009 +140

The majority of VCR owners never learned how to set the clock.

140

MacEnvy Nov 17, 2009 +17

What did you expect? Welcome Sonny? Make yourself at home? Marry My Daughter? You gotta remember that these are simple farmers. These are people of the land, the common clay of the new West. You know…..Morons.

17

jevex Nov 17, 2009 +6

-- Jim, *Blazing Saddles*

6

[deleted] Nov 17, 2009 +3

morans.

3

[deleted] Nov 17, 2009 +36

12:00 12 00 12:00 12 00 12:00 12 00

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PhilxBefore Nov 17, 2009 +15

15

wordy Nov 17, 2009 +8

First time I've missed that tag in a long time.

8

[deleted] Nov 16, 2009 +5

So what is the total of user names then? Including non unique users, I know I have more than one account.

5

quink Nov 16, 2009 +21

http://all.listnook.com/ for me.

21

Poddster Nov 17, 2009 +1

The only reason I subscribed was to get rid of /r/politics from the frontpage. I no longer subscribe to all defaults, but /r/politics was definately the driving force.

1

sakebomb69 Nov 16, 2009 +1

Not all of them are active accounts. There's quite a few sock puppets floating around.

1

MercurialMadnessMan Nov 17, 2009 +1

/r/all. I haven't intentionally used the homepage since... April Fools '09

1

Fat_Dumb_Americans Nov 16, 2009 +3

>The majority of our users have never subscribed to anything... A link or button bearing the legend "Subscribe" instead of "-frontpage" might help.

3

raldi Nov 16, 2009 +4

That's actually the way it had been. But new users didn't understand what "subscribe" actually did. "+frontpage" was our (first) attempt to make it more clear that what you're actually doing is controlling which listnooks show up on your front page. Yeah, it's still pretty opqaue; we haven't figured out the wording just yet.

4

acrasial Nov 17, 2009 +10

Scenario: new user joins Listnook. Possible response: Automated "Welcome to Listnook Message, here is your first Orangered Envelope" message. Possible text: Welcome to Listnook, You may wish to customize your [Listnook Selections](http://www.listnook.com/listnooks/). You may wish to set your [Preferences](http://www.listnook.com/prefs/). You may wish to look at [NSFW pictures of your fellow Listnookors](http://www.listnook.com/r/gonewild). Well then. Carry on. —The Listnook Alien Then again, new users might not notice the envelope?

10

Tiomaidh Nov 17, 2009 +15

As a former new user: I did not notice the envelope whatsoever until it was pointed out.

15

MercurialMadnessMan Nov 17, 2009 +2

Took me a month before I saw it up there in the corner. Should make it pulse with a glow when there's something there =)

2

syuk Nov 17, 2009 +2

can we have it beep incessantly as well?

2

[deleted] Nov 17, 2009 +9

[deleted]

9

guitarromantic Nov 17, 2009 +2

Seconded. I use this site for hours every day but I still got confused when I first loaded up these new listnooks. 'Am I subscribed already?' etc.

2

tiedtoatree Nov 17, 2009 +2

I agree on both counts.

2

[deleted] Nov 17, 2009 +3

How about "add to front page" or "show on front page"?

3

cos Nov 17, 2009 +1

Have you tried throwing up a bunch of possibilities and bringing in some random users for in-person usability tests? It'd be c**** and easy to do, and you'd learn what sort of ideas people get from a variety of different wordings and designs. My first-pass idea: Have the button explicitly say "add this sublistnook to your listnook homepage"

1

R031E5 Nov 16, 2009 +1

Just a quick suggestion, why don't you set an expiration date to the usernames? There are at least 3 I'd loved to have, but unfortunately they're just sitting there, with no comments and no activity whatsoever. :[

1

raldi Nov 16, 2009 +14

There's a lot of bad things that can happen, both in terms of data integrity and community impact. There are very few sites out there that allow for username recycling.

14

AmazingSyco Nov 17, 2009 +11

A related idea: since there are many people who make throwaway accounts, could an account be marked as such to allow recycling after some period of time? EDIT: Just to clarify, I mean a checkbox in the settings or registration page somewhere saying the account is explicitly allowed to be recycled.

11

MercurialMadnessMan Nov 17, 2009 +5

Scenario: The_Joker Hypothetical user. Big douchebag. Check the box in his settings. Moves to a new account. Months later when The\_Joker is available again, some polite kid likes the name and takes it. Perhaps he'd get harassed or treated differently for using that name. In general, username recycling is a *bad* idea.

5

cos Nov 17, 2009 +4

There's no community impact if you limit username recycling to only those users who have never posted anything at all (which in listnook context also means never voted). How many such users are there? Never posted, never commented, never voted, and not logged in for over a year?

4

dicey Nov 16, 2009 +3

>The majority of our users have never subscribed to anything, and are just using the default set of listnooks. Heathens! Burn them!

3

[deleted] Nov 16, 2009 +1

This explains some things about the demographics of some of the default sublistnooks. I had no idea that the *majority* of listnook users were just using the defaults.

1

puppiesandjesus Nov 16, 2009 +3

I wonder how many people that is, because I have a few accounts. I remember seeing somewhere that listnook gets about 5 million uniques a month. So, most the people around here are lurkers it seems. Interesting to know, I didn't realize how heavily lurkers outweighed registered users.

3

[deleted] Nov 16, 2009 +14

I'd always heard that for social news sites, 80%-90% of the visitors didn't have accounts/log in. If you're one of the ones who comment/vote then you're in the minority. I mean think about it, some of our biggest posts ever get 10,000 upvotes total. (The top in our past month actually only has about 6000 upvotes and 9000 votes total). In a community of 5,000,0000 uniques a month, <0.002% of users bother to vote on the most popular story of the month. Interesting.

14

hylje Nov 16, 2009 +3

Listnookors have truly taken the wisdom of Murk Lore to heart.

3

robotsongs Nov 16, 2009 +3

>Marklars have truly taken the wisdom of marklar to marklar. [FTFY](http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/151555)

3

puppiesandjesus Nov 16, 2009 +1

I had to [look it up](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Murk%20Lore), but yes it does.

1

CloneableObject Nov 16, 2009 +5

What's that in real users? 2,000? :-)

5

[deleted] Nov 17, 2009 +4

Judging by the amount of hits a site gets when it gets linked to from listnook, there is about a ten to one ratio of views to votes. If we take a look at the [top scoring links of all time](http://www.listnook.com/r/all/top/) you see the top scoring post has 11,000 votes, this however is obviously an anomaly, indeed the entire top 50 posts are rather anomalous if you start looking further back. in the top 100 posts we see a spread of votes from 11,000 to 3,000, but from 100-200th we only see a spread of 3,000 to 2,600. then from 200-300th highest we only see a spread of 2,600 to 2,400. and then that spread says fairly consistent for a while. So I'd figure that is about the sweet spot for an average popular story. If we use the oft quoted ten to one ratio, we end up with a regular visiting user base of 25-40,000 people on any given day. Or that is my napkin guestimate anyway.

4

spez Nov 16, 2009 +37

I hope you rethink auto-subscribing everyone to /r/blog. I also notice the first two links on the top of a non-logged-in user's page are /r/announcements and /r/blog, which seems a bit excessive (not to mention it pushes IAMA off the end of the list on my screen).

37

[deleted] Nov 16, 2009 +6

I have a strong feeling I'm really gonna miss you guys. I trust the current admins will 'keep it real', but I'm sad that your input won't be among the office discussions on how to handle issues like /r/blog. :(

6

raldi Nov 16, 2009 +25

Steve's not exactly in Siberia. He's in touch (as you can see) and we take his input very seriously. After all, we haven't gotten around to changing the root passwords yet.

25

pavs Nov 17, 2009 +9

Root Pass: BaconNarwhal

9

[deleted] Nov 16, 2009 +43

Just goes to show; you can take spez out of listnook, but you can't take the listnook out of spez.

43

pavs Nov 16, 2009 +2

F*** yeah! Listen to what daddy has to say! :)

2

catmoon Nov 16, 2009 +24

Interesting, an announcement for r/announcements on r/announcements. Yo Dawg...

24

guitarromantic Nov 16, 2009 +3

Good work! It seems so obvious now. Maybe that's the best kind of feature, though.

3

pb1x Nov 17, 2009 +2

Anyone else notice that since listnook moved to EC2 they are down very frequently? Either the comments or everything is down. How about a better error message than 'the service you require is temporarily unavailable'

2

phlux Nov 17, 2009 +1

what is the purpose of /r/blog -- is that the rediit 'corporate' blog? I had [made a post some time ago](http://www.listnook.com/r/listnook.com/comments/80n4k/bloglistnookcomusername_i_want_a_page_on_listnook/) that I would prefer to have a listnook-specific blog to which I could post things to... Is the purpose of /r/blog for general users to post to, if so, the general thread style of sub-listnooks doesnt seem to be most fitting. I would request a /r/blog/phlux -- for a page that is threads/posts only by me in a more blog like fashion. For which - I would be willing to pay some nominal fee per annum/month.... What say you oh mighty listnook dev?

1

redtaboo Nov 17, 2009 +4

How about just [r/phlux](http://www.listnook.com/listnooks/create?name=phlux"best part? it's free!")

4

MercurialMadnessMan Nov 17, 2009 +5

Personal sublistnooks are great. Make sure you check out /r/Etab, and /r/Sodypop

5

redtaboo Nov 17, 2009 +2

I love those places! [these are all of my favorites!](http://www.listnook.com/r/etab+sodypop+wacrover+Notasublistnook+mynameisjonas+redtaboo+stopsmoking+sittinginatree+lambsauce"multis make me happy!")

2

MercurialMadnessMan Nov 17, 2009 +3

but with the multi, you lose the front page style of each of them, lol

3

redtaboo Nov 17, 2009 +3

That's the beauty of the smaller listnooks, everytime there is a new post you will visit it. That being said I will quite often visit r/sodypop just for the sheer awesomeness of it.

3

MercurialMadnessMan Nov 17, 2009 +3

:D

3

sodypop Nov 17, 2009 +2

You always seem to forget about [r/yonewild.](http://yonewild.listnook.com/)

2

redtaboo Nov 17, 2009 +2

Trying to block out my youthful indiscretions, perhaps?

2

[deleted] Nov 18, 2009 +2

[deleted]

2

Etab Nov 17, 2009 +2

Upvoted for Etab's sublistnook being first in the list.

2

redtaboo Nov 17, 2009 +2

Of course! That Etab guy has a great listnook!

2

Etab Nov 17, 2009 +3

Those suggestions are awesome and super-great, respectively.

3

sodypop Nov 17, 2009 +5

r/Etab 4 life.

5

Etab Nov 17, 2009 +4

This is the correct response.

4

[deleted] Nov 19, 2009 +2

Well, not anymore, I made /r/phlux. I'll gladly give it up to phlux, in return, I request /r/diminoten.

2

redtaboo Nov 19, 2009 +2

hmmm, okay. I have created r/diminoten. Unfortunately for you I am uninterested in in acquiring r/phlux, what say you?

2

billybluecrab Nov 17, 2009 +2

great. less information and more c*** to feed people's ego

2

[deleted] Nov 17, 2009 +1

If you want my 2 cents, the reason why I don't subscribe to anything is cause all I'm looking for is good, varied, news. I don't like to restrict myself to certain categories or anything, and default listnook provides varied topics.

1

Bigb06 Dec 1, 2009 +1

Thanks for adding /r/announcements, I'll be watching this.

1

[deleted] Nov 16, 2009

[deleted]

0

robotsongs Nov 16, 2009 +4

JESUS F****** RAPTAR!!!!! Why is this such a big f****** deal? On other websites you'd have a gigantic banner at the top of the page no matter what; here, it'll probably hit the top post for like 15 minutes, maybe an hour. Relax. F****** hell Listnookors overreact to the most ridiculous things. >OH NOES!!!! iMA GONNA LERN ABOOT THE WEBSIGHT I LUVERS SO MUCH... ***CONSPIRACY!!!***

4

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