Askville Blog

Welcome Home to Our New Homepage!

Hey Askvillers,

As you all know by now, we've changed our homepage!   The biggest change to the homepage is our new "slideshow" of Featured Topics!  We now showcase 3 Featured Topics per "slide", with the ability to go to the next set of Featured Topics by clicking on the blue arrows (see below).  Within each Featured Topic are 3 featured questions as well as some of the recent Askviller promotions that have occurred in that Topic Community.  This replaces the 3 tabs we used to show on the homepage (New questions, Featured Answers, Active discussions), although when you log into Askville, those 3 tabs re-appear below the Featured Topics.

Further down the homepage, we've also added several additional sections:

• Recent Promotions - this section lists Askvillers who have recently been promoted to a higher Level in a given topic.  Getting promoted to the next Level in a topic is hard to do, especially as you reach higher levels.  Consequently, we want to applaud and congratulate every Askviller who has reached this milestone and share that with the entire Askville community.  Experience points in topics and "leveling up" in topics will give Askvillers more recognition for their knowledge/expertise and will also give them additional superpowers which they can use to eventually moderate and be leaders in their topics. 
• Askviller of the Day - this section is dedicated to thank one Askviller each day.  There are so many great Askvillers, both new and old, who are providing amazing answers to numerous questions.  This is just one way we thought we could thank those Askvillers that continue to provide great answers on Askville on a regular basis. 
• Askville Blog - it was a long time coming, but we've finally integrated the Askville blog on the homepage so that you don't have to click to find out that we've recently made a post! 

We still show the list of weekly coin leaders, although we've removed the all-time list off of the homepage.  Moreover, we now are showing the top 100 weekly coin leaders as well as the top 100 all-time coin leaders - so checkout if you are in the top 100!

Why Change?
Many of you have asked - why change?  Let us explain.  There are several main drivers behind the homepage redesign:

• Better experience for first time visitors - Previously, our homepage had 3 major tabs prominently displayed: New Questions, Featured Answers and Active Discussions.  Whereas veteran Askvillers liked to immediately view the list of new questions asked and did not mind the randomness of those questions, many first time visitors were confused about what Askville was about due to the randomness of questions listed on the homepage.  We've found that by grouping questions into topics, first time visitors have an easier time understanding what Askville is about and, just as importantly, will be more likely to visit topic communities that they have an interest in so that they can read more great questions, answers, and discussions.  We realize this maybe inconvenient for some of our veteran Askvillers because you now must scroll down to view a list of recent questions and active discussions.  Do not worry - we hear (or read) your frustration.  We are currently working on giving signed in Askvillers the ability to customize their homepage!  Although we won't get into details now, once launched, you will easily be able to display the type of content that you enjoy most, whether it is active discussions, recently asked questions, or featured answers.
• Help facilitate Askvillers to participate in Topic Communities - we love how diversified the Askville community has become.  As the saying goes, 'diversity is the spice of life' - although occasionally it gets a little "too spicy" ;o).  As Askville grows, we want our veteran Askvillers to take leadership and ownership in topics that you care about.  Ultimately, you control the "voice" of each Topic!  We've recently given you some additional superpowers (Topic Editing and Topic Bulletin Board) which will help you manage/organize/communicate within each topic.  We will be introducing additional superpowers in the future that will give you more control over the type of content that is visible in each Topic Community.  The new homepage will ultimately help drive traffic to specific topics.  Which topics show up on the homepage "slideshow" will eventually be based on how active and well managed it is by the Askvillers in that topic.  We want to showcase the best of Askville and we feel the best way to do this is to highlight some of our best Topic communities.
• Help recognize great Askvillers - Askville is a big place and there are some great veteran Askvillers that you see around every block within Askville.  However, there are a lot of new Askvillers who have joined our community that have also contributed amazing content to our site.  We wanted to come up with a way to thank both veterans and newbies who continue to add great value to the Askville community.  Recent promotions and Askviller of the Day is our way of thanking those Askvilers (both new and old) who continue to make Askville a great place to ask... answer... meet... play!

Finally, think of our homepage as the "welcome mat" into our Askville home.  We want to make sure that everyone who walks by and visits sees the best that Askville has to provide as well as make it more inviting for visitors to step into the Askville community.  We feel these changes will help facilitate visitors to become active members of Askville.  That being said, we are not finished with the "welcome mat".  As mentioned previously, we are working on giving Askvillers the ability to customize their "welcome mat" so that they feel much more comfortable every time they visit their Askville home.

Keep the feedback coming - and please respect each other as you would want others to respect you.  There has been a lot of "heated debates" in some Topics and we are closely watching the behavior and conversation that is going on in those questions/topics (as much as we can).  As we've mentioned many times, public harassment/insults is against community guidelines.  We have banned many users who violate this policy and will continue to do so.  If you disagree with someone, please make sure you respectfully voice your disagreement.  If you have been publicly harassed/insulted/chastised, please report abuse, but please do not respond back in a similar fashion.  Two wrongs do not make a right ;o)

Finally, for newbie users, unfortunately, we cannot reply back to every report abuse email or feedback email.  We do read each email and we still have a backlog in voting abuse reports to process.  So don't think your feedback is landing on "deaf ears".  We could create an automated reply message back to say that we've received your feedback, but we figure you get enough email in your inbox already.  That said, if the community would like this feature, just ask it as a question and let the Askville community "chime in".

Cheers,
The Askville Team

Topic Editing Superpower is Fixed!

Hey Askvillers,

We've fixed the Topic Editing Superpower bug.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  So to all our veteran Askvillers, please go ahead and start editing topics and start shaping your favorite Topic community! 

We've also increased everyone's superpower limits for each level so that there is no limit on the number of superpowers you can learn, as long as you meet the eligible requirements.    We will continue to add new superpowers in the future.

We are still working on fixing other bugs with this new release.  Thanks for your patience as we work through those problems.

Cheers,
The Askville Team

Working on fixing some new bugs related to some of our new features

Hey Askvillers,

We are working on fixing some bugs related to some of our new features (e.g. Topic editing superpower, and duplicate questions showing up in Active Discussions within Topic pages).  Thanks for your patience as we work quickly to solve them.

The Askville Team

Topic Communities! Take a More Active Role in Topics You Care About!

Hey Askvillers,

We've made some major changes to the website, which we hope you'll like.  The first major change is the homepage.  We've centered the homepage (for those users who have really big monitors) and we've also eliminated the topic cloud.  Replacing the topic cloud is a list of Main Topics on the homepage located on the left-hand side.  This will mostly help newbie users find more active topics and eliminate the need to scroll to reach the list of topics, which many newbies never did.  The other major change we've made are in our topic pages - which we are now calling Topic Communities.

TOPIC COMMUNITIES
We have changed the layout of topic pages and have added several community features to the page, which we hope will help build stronger communities within specific topics.  To help foster this, we've added some new superpowers, made some slight improvements on existing superpowers, and have added several new community building features to each topic page.

Topic Editing Superpowers
The Topic Editing superpower will allow you to do two things: Include other topics to a primary topic as well as add links to other topics of interest.

Including other topics to a primary topic means that questions that are tagged with different, yet related topics, will show up under the primary topic.  The main benefit of this is to help aggregate questions under one primary topic.  For example, questions that are tagged 'digital camera' will not show up in the topic 'digital photography' or vice-versa.  However, by using this superpower you can include the topic 'digital camera' in the 'digital photography' topic so that 'digital camera' questions will now appear in the topic 'digital photography'.  By doing this, digital photography experts can aggregate questions under one primary topic, 'digital photography' (i.e. users can include other similar topics like 'digital photos', 'digital cameras', 'photography', 'canon digital cameras', so that all questions tagged with those topics will appear in 'digital photography'). 

Adding links to other interesting topics means that you think other Askvillers would be interested in exploring those topics.  For example, if you were viewing the primary topic 'travel' you may want to add links to the topics 'Spain', 'England', 'Greece', 'Asia', to help Askvillers explore other interesting topics from the 'travel' topic.

To avoid and/or limit abuse of this superpower, only users who are level 2 or higher in a given topic can use this superpower.  Moreover, there is a cost (2 coins per use) and a limit on the # times you can use (i.e. charges) this superpower per day.

Topic Bulletin Boards and the Topic Bulletin Board Superpower
We've added a new community building feature to every topic page called the Topic Bulletin Board.  Any Askviller level 1 or higher in that topic can post a bulletin on this board.  What type of information should you post?   Anything that you think other Askvillers would be interested in reading.  It could be links to interesting articles, websites, or general announcements.  It should not be used as a discussion board (just ask a question instead).

To avoid and/or limit abuse of the Topic Bulletin Board, you need to have reached at least level 1 in the topic for you to use the Topic Bulletin Board Superpower.  Moreover, it will cost a nominal fee (1 coin) to add or remove a bulletin post and there is a limit on the # times you can use (i.e. charges) this superpower per day.

Featured Askvillers.
This is another new community building feature where we highlight Askvillers who have recently reached a new level in that topic.  Go ahead and congratulate those newly minted level 1s, 2s, and higher!  Moreover, you can browse all Featured Askvillers as well as all Topic leaders via the new Topic Leader boards and Featured Askviller list.  Just click on "see more" from either the Featured Askviller section or from the Topic Leader board.

We hope that these changes will help Askvillers develop a stronger community around specific topics and play an active role in shaping the community within a Topic.

This is just the beginning.   We've made a lot of architectural changes which will enable us to give you even more control over a topic community.  We know that many of you have been anxiously waiting to add/remove topics directly from questions and other types of administrative controls.  We feel this is a good first step to see how Askvillers handle the additional responsibility of managing topics.  If successful, we will definitely introduce more administrative features in the future.

Voting Superpower Improvement
We've also improved/fixed the Voting Authority Superpower (VASP) so that Askvillers who have the level 1 VASP will now be able to vote on topics where they are level 3, 4, or 5 in a topic.  We hope that Askvillers who have become experts in certain topics will shape the quality of the ratings of the answers by actively using their VASP in topics.  We realize that the VASP is not a perfect system and that the voting system needs to be improved.  This is something we will be working on in the very near future.  In the interim, please use your VASP in the topics that you care about.

We know that some of these changes will take some time to get used to.  We also are open to feedback on these changes and will continue to refine/improve Askville to make it a more enjoyable and useful community for all members.

Keep the feedback coming and finally - please be respectful to your neighbors ;o)

The Askville Team

Scheduled maintenance later tonight

Hey Askvillers,

We will be going on a scheduled maintenance later tonight.  After which, you'll see some noticeable changes and new features, which we hope you'll like.  Stay tuned....

The Askville Team