Askville Blog

Happy Holidays and Care to Share?

Hello Askville!

As we come to the end of yet another year on the 'ville, the team would like to take this opportunity to thank all our members, especially our long-standing regulars (5 years, some of you!), who have been such a vital part of our community.

At this time, we'd like to take this opportunity to not only voice our appreciation for everyone's support, but also announce that we are ending the year with a bang! After hearing your input and feedback on how much this would positively impact your Askville experience... we now have the ability to share questions via user name!

*waiting for cheers and applause* :) But I'll take sighs of relief and "about time!"'s as well. :)

You'll notice on the top right of a question page, next to the question itself, there is now a 4th icon in the "Share this question"" box. Yes, one of those little avatar-less heads that we are all so used to seeing! But clicking on that will allow you to share a question with anyone on Askville - as long as you know at least the first 3 letters of the user name! Please take care to confirm the exact spelling - sometimes people use numbers instead of letters.

Note: Please be patient if you don't see this right away - we are just now pushing it live so just refresh your page every few minutes till it appears!

On that note - here's wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season! Be safe, stay warm, eat as much good food as you like, and tell your loved ones how much you love them!

Warmest wishes and lots of good thoughts -

Genelle

on behalf of the Askville team

New face of Askville!

Dear Askville community,

We know many of you have been wondering about what the team’s been working on these past few months. Well, it is with great pride and pleasure that we are unveiling the new look of Askville!

We have been listening closely to many members’ input and suggestions on Askville’s look and feel, including a great deal of feedback about giving the site a visual overhaul to keep it fresh and modern. This is the first of a number of changes that we will be rolling out over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for some more cool stuff, including some improvements to our discussion interface!

Please note that we will be gradually rolling out the user interface changes. Some of these have just gone out, but we are aware that there are a few more updates needed to complete this overhaul, so please be patient as we get these done.

We look forward to constantly improving Askville and making it great for our members. :)

Best,

Genelle on behalf of the Askville team

Gearing up for end-of-year Kindle questions!

Hi everyone!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers how Askville had a huge increase in Kindle-related questions starting around this time last year into January. While there's not much we can do about random folks finding their way on here, we can definitely point them in the right direction.

We've spoken to the Kindle team, and since most questions are fairly straightforward - they have recommended that we point askers to the www.kindle.com/support site for the most up-to-date information on most frequently asked questions. Questions that fall into this category include "Can I change the brightness on my Kindle", or "How do I get back to the beginning of the book", or "How do I deregister my Kindle"? Directing them to this page will not only help them find information much faster, but also give them the correct resource to check in future.

Sending askers to the Kindle support phone line will probably result in much longer wait times, and clog up these lines for people with real issues, such as "I lost my Kindle and need to deactivate it so it can't be used by someone else".

As with other topics you don't want to see, if you would prefer to avoid the Kindle-related questions on Askville, please remember to un-follow the Kindle subcategory, and only follow the subcategories under Amazon that you are interested in (such as Askville!) :)

Have a great day -

Genelle on behalf of Askville

New Homework Category!

We have just added a new category for homework so Askville members who would like a little guidance with their homework can place their questions there.

We'd like to stress that we are NOT advocating cheating and we certainly do not encourage students to come onto Askville expecting to be spoonfed answers. However, we recognize that sometimes people get stuck and a little knudge in the right direction, or just some assistance thinking through a tough problem can make a huge difference.

Since we have a number of very knowledgeable members on Askville across a wide variety of topics, we figured, why not, at least these questions and answers now have a place they belong to!

This new category is actually a subcategory of Education and Reference, so for all those who do not want to see these, please unfollow the main category and only follow specific categories you ARE interested in!

Genelle

on behalf of Askville

Askville Tips and Best Practices

We have often heard that new Askville members sometimes struggle with getting accustomed to a site such as ours. So we thought hey, let's make it easier for them and have a quick and easy guide to help them get started!

You can now find this here, and we welcome all members to point newbies to this page.

Genelle

on behalf of Askville

New Askville Team Members

Happy Friday!

We are thrilled to announce that our Askville family has grown!

Please join me in welcoming Vbn and Ian.Tegebo - 2 incredibly smart, funny and cool developers.

Feel free to give them a shout-out and show some love!

Wishing you a great weekend coming up -

Genelle

on behalf of Askville

New "Ask a Question" Bar

Hi everyone,

Hope you’re all enjoying the last few days of summer! We wanted to let you know that we added a new “Ask the Community” bar up top, that could only be seen by unsigned-in newcomers to the site. In conjunction with attracting more new members to Askville, we realized that we also needed to improve the site in terms of usability and function – and one of the most common feedback question we get is “Why is it so hard to ask a question?” – so we figured that our subtle “Ask a Question” tab up top might have been TOO subtle.

However, it isn’t a great experience to have that bar visible when you’re signed out.. only to have it disappear for a newbie who  joins and becomes a signed-in member. As such, we will be adding that bar up top so signed-in users can see it as well.

We are definitely committed to continuing to improve Askville’s features and functionality, as well as the way it looks and overall usability. We’re starting with some small quick fixes first, but we have some great stuff planned, including firing Ajax the Topic Elf (inside joke for those who have long endured our rather random categorizing) and giving our profanity filter an overhaul. We also have some fun things coming up to recognize our good long-term members… so stay tuned! J

Genelle on behalf of Askville

 

Askville Maintenance Announcement

Hi everyone,

We will be conducting scheduled maintenance today, Thursday August 11th, from approximately 2:15pm to 3:00pm Pacific Time.

During that time, access to Askville.com will be unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Thank you for your patience! Please let us know if you have any questions! :)

GenelleH

Removal of Amazon-Specific Links

You might have noticed that we have removed the Amazon-specific links in our answer boxes, which linked directly to Amazon products. California legislation that was recently signed by Governor Brown compelled us to remove these links to Amazon from Askville.

While Askville can no longer automatically link to Amazon products, users can still add any links using the regular "Link" button. Askville continues to be committed  to build a vibrant community where members can meet and help one another,  and provide complete and useful answers based on their knowledge and experience.

Have a great weekend!

Genelle

Share Askville Questions via Facebook, Twitter and Email!

Hi everyone!

A lot of folks have brought up the need for Askville to have more fresh blood - and not just getting new members, but retaining them as well. As a step in that direction, we will be adding a "Share via Facebook and Twitter" feature, and also called out the "Share via Email" feature for logged in users. (Right now, it is a hidden thing you have to mouse over to find in the question box). You will be able to find these new buttons on the top right of the question pages.

We hope that when this is launched, folks will share Askville questions - the good, the funny, the provocative, etc. - and hey, maybe some other people will pick up on them and come over to check us out. :)

Happy Sharing! And have a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

Genelle

on behalf of the Askville team