Time for some feedback from you, dear readers. This time, it’s all about categories and tags.
Currently, we have 6 main categories (Movies, Television, Books, Gaming, Other Media, Discussion), each with several subcategories. This means we have several subcategories with the same name (such as “Horror/Thriller” under books, movies and television). It’s feeling pretty chaotic to me, and I’m thinking it would be better to have a system with just a few categories (and may use tags more for additional breakdown).
My question to you is: how do you navigate the site, and do you use categories or tags to do it, and do you have specific suggestions? Please give me your feedback in comments or by email, if you’re shy. Possible answers (just to get you thinking about how you do something you do instinctively) might include:
- I usually just browse the latest articles/comments I haven’t read and never use categories or tags.
- I usually use search to find a specific topic.
- I use categories and like the current system.
- I use categories, but I think you could have a simpler categorization system, such as [your idea here].
- I wish you’d make more use of tags for specific TV shows.
- I wish you’d make more use of tags for specific issues.
- [Something] is an accessibility issue. (I definitely want to hear about anything that affects visitors who are disabled or those coping with workplace firewalls or any other issue with accessing websites.)
As you have probably already guessed, it’s not possible to please everyone. But the more feedback I get, the better I can improve the site. We’re getting ready to release a new theme which I’m hoping will be awesome for everyone, and I figure we might as well make any other big changes at the same time.
Thanks in advance for your feedback! And just fyi, this post will disappear in a few weeks, with your comments (just because it’s not something anyone’s going to want to read in 20 years).
{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
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I understand what you’re saying, but I have a reservation about it: the vast majority of us happen to be in the US, so the result would be lots and lots of US flags. Given the US’s privileged position in global media domination, it would feel to me like slapping people in the face with obnoxious if not offensive levels of nationalism. I think mentioning it in text would also give the same impression. Also,
It actually doesn’t work that way. People assume whoever they’re talking to is “the default.” Racially, among English-speakers, that’s white, so people of all races tend to assume other posters are white at first. Unless they’re in a woman-dominated net milieu, they assume folks are male, too, since that’s the gender default. I don’t know if the US is precisely “the default”, but we certainly are dominant.
It’s something to consider. I’m just not sure how to constructively render it.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
I’d just like to say that the new Quote/Site buttons are hella cool! (and convenient
)
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Yep, I was just about to write a post to explain them, but here’s the deal:
–I feel “nested comments” are causing some problems, especially when they break down like they did on the BioWare post.
–Like, it’s hard to keep up with all the new comments unless they’re at the bottom of the page, in sequential order (which they’re not, with nesting).
–So I’ve removed nested commenting, and am doing my best to replace its convenience factor with the “quote – reply” links. “Quote” automatically sticks a blockquote of a particular comment in the comment box, so you don’t have to type out the code, and “Reply” does a more Twitter style link reference to that comment when you don’t really want to quote the person, but just want to respond.
I’m also trying to figure out how to bring back the orange dots that go with the Fresh Comments plugin, so you’ll have those as clear visual indicators of which comments you haven’t read yet. (Had to get help at the developer forum for the site theme, but I’m pretty sure someone will help me sort out what I’m doing wrong.)
We’ll see how this goes for a while. Thanks for the feedback!
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Jennifer Kesler,
Oh, the orange dot thing for new comments would be good, ‘cuz, yannow, I was getting a little confused after a while on really long comment sections.
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Oh, I like the quote option. I’m notoriously forgetful to do it when I’m replying.
sbg(Quote) (Reply)
sbg,
Yeah, I stink at doing quotes, citation, html thingies, italics, bold stuff, and lines through words. So the easier the interface gets, the better!
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Orange dots now present and accounted for. I had to hack two plugins into a function to make that happen. If you don’t know what that means, just be very impressed.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Jennifer Kesler,
Oooo, impressive. (And thank you!)
Sylvia Sybil(Quote) (Reply)
Jennifer Kesler,
YAAAAY~!!
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Hurrah, orange dots! I’m impressed! Also, the quote and reply buttons are really convenient, and people won’t get confused about which comment they’re replying to. The link back to the parent comment will be brilliant for long threads.
Susan(Quote) (Reply)
Just testing if the quoting works for me. I was getting really self-conscious for a while back.
Elee(Quote) (Reply)
I just learned that if you highlight part of someone says and then hit reply, it quotes just the highlighted part instead of the whole thing. Very useful.
Sylvia Sybil(Quote) (Reply)
Sylvia Sybil,
That’s awesome, thanks.
firebird(Quote) (Reply)
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