Feedback thread

[Larry Sanger]

OK people! This is a small group, just 37 people, but it's a high-quality group, including many key participants.

So I know the biggest complaint is going to be about the slowness of the site. We're working on that.

Talk to me about other complaints--our highest-priority things to fix--and, if you have creative suggestions for fixes and improvements, let me have 'em!

--Larry

--

Larry Sanger

Founder/CEO, Infobitt.com

[tbc]

the site is working fine for me. Would be nice if it was faster. I would like individual bits in the browser to render faster. I would like comments on bits to render faster. I would like to be able to open comments faster from my email in the browser.

[Larry Sanger]

I hear you, Tim!

We're adding a server or two more and doing load balancing, which with any luck will be done...soon.

I'm not sure this is all we can do to optimize for speed, but let's see what the effect is.

Everyone, what about the number of bitts in Unranked? Has that been unmanageable? You might notice that we no longer show bitts over 12 hours old in Unranked, unless they are currently in the community's Top Stories ranking.

What other problems are the biggest for you? What is making you most frustrated with the site, other than not being able to get on the site :-) or the site being slow? (We're addressing those two problems.)

--Larry

On Thu, Dec 18, 2014 at 1:19 PM, tbc <tbcha...@gmail.com> wrote:

the site is working fine for me. Would be nice if it was faster. I would like individual bits in the browser to render faster. I would like comments on bits to render faster. I would like to be able to open comments faster from my email in the browser.

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[edp...@gmail.com]

Actually, with all due respect, I don't think you are effectively addressing the slowness issue. Perhaps your developers imagine that the problem is on the server. My conception (as a highly experienced web developer) is that you have some very inefficient code running in the user's browser.

Specifically, I'm guessing that the browser is communicating with the server to accomplish even so simple a task as changing the display of the ordered bitts. Have you asked your developers about this?

[Larry Sanger]

We know it's still slow. The last bit of server work is supposed to be done this morning, so let's see how it goes then.

Yes, the browser is communicating with our server each time it makes a change. Before we made this change, there were a whole bunch of serious bugs related to missing bits and duplicate bits as it was very complicated to keep everything consistent everywhere. So, yes, we know there is still software optimization to be done.

With any luck, the latest server work will make the user experience more smooth, if not perfect.

--Larry

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 20, 2014, at 9:36 AM, edp...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Actually, with all due respect, I don't think you are effectively addressing the slowness issue. Perhaps your developers imagine that the problem is on the server. My conception (as a highly experienced web developer) is that you have some very inefficient code running in the user's browser.
>
> Specifically, I'm guessing that the browser is communicating with the server to accomplish even so simple a task as changing the display of the ordered bitts. Have you asked your developers about this?
>

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> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Infobitt-talk" group.
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[Ed Poor]

Yeah, well, all I want (when I move a bitt) is for my browser to tell your server that User Ed Poor wants bitt #765 to be ranked ahead of bitt #769. That should not require me to wait more than half a second before I see the bitt in place.

[Larry Sanger]

What you say makes sense, but I'm not sure I can articulate the answer very well or convincingly. Let me get back to you with more details.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 20, 2014, at 10:05 AM, Ed Poor <edp...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Yeah, well, all I want (when I move a bitt) is for my browser to tell your server that User Ed Poor wants bitt #765 to be ranked ahead of bitt #769. That should not require me to wait more than half a second before I see the bitt in place.
>

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[Ed Poor]

Over the weekend the delay between my releasing the mouse button and seeing the ranked bitt in place dropped from nearly half a minute to about 2 seconds.

Big sigh of relief.

Ed

[Larry Sanger]

Awesome!

Sent from my iPhone

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[zken...@gmail.com]

Hello:

Stumbled upon Infobitt when doing research for an article about a week ago. Very interesting stuff. The idea hit the soft spot for me because I used to work at a student newspaper and love emerging technology for information dissemination. If y'all have addressed this stuff, please feel free to ignore my comments.  

A few points of feedback: 

1: UI is confusing. 

The amount of information on the front page makes it really confusing to navigate between sections. It would be nice to have a bar at the top of the page to hyperlink internally to sections (like thumbing through a newspaper to find your favorite section). Having all the news on one page, especially with the top stories 'above-the-fold' to use newspaper terms, works well. I think it could be improved by some color coding, maybe in pastels, for different sections/topics/etc. 

2: Photos would be nice too, although there may be significant hurdles to accomplish this.

It could be difficult to do this because of licensing, but it would be really nice to see photos or a photo stream on the page. Maybe there could be a real-time upload ability for users seeking to aid in posting photos (with up and down vote for quality). Photos are a great part of the news, and would love to see those incorporated in someway. 

3: NewsRank and UserRank

One of the things that could help adjust new users is seeing stories from reputable sources. You could build a ranking algorithm for both news sources and those uploading the Bitts. One problem this has is the potential to create Super-Users who have very high Bitt Uploads, but this could be avoided by setting a "cap" on their ranking. It would also be nice because what you would be doing is separating user verified 'good' sources from 'bad' sources. This would be especially valuable in situations where news is breaking, or where there are two sides of the story (saw another comment about RT vs. NYT on situation in Ukraine). This also aides in pushing important Bitts to the top of the page, allowing for a real-time feel (which would make the site more desirable). 

4: Different Editions for Different Nations

I like the idea of a Global edition, but it would also be nice to 'Select a Country' and see different news editions. While this would be a more long term development, it would be really nice to see.

5: Marketing (this is really more of a question...)

The splash page is really nice, and I was expecting to see a page the main page little more polished. I know that will come with time, but what are you doing to push the site? I saw that you Larry Sanger did an AMA on Reddit, but what else are you planning on doing? Also - what about names for those adding information to Infobitt?

Great start, great site. Really hoping to see this thing bloom!

Zach