features

Prolagus If you google site:wordnik.com inurl:lists inurl:whatever, you can find all lists that have "whatever" in their title.
site:wordnik.com inurl:lists schadenfreude will find all lists that have the word "schadenfreude" somewhere on the page. Mar 17, 2010

chained_bear John, is there a way to search for lists (by title, say) and I'm not seeing it? It annoys me to scroll through my own seventy bazillion lists to find one in particular, but at least that's do-able; finding someone else's list that way is just about impossible. Mar 17, 2010

milosrdenstvi I seem to remember case-sensitivity being one of the most exciting things that Wordnik would bring...once...

I wonder if we should have different pages for wound and wound, and the suchlike. That's be clever, eh. Jan 9, 2010

yarb Any ideas on what to do with plurals / capitalisations? Shouldn't Disregard and disregard direct to the same place? Surely they should. The problem is of course with proper nouns, but they're in the minority. Jan 9, 2010

oroboros Hmmm, I just noticed that there's no option to see my collected past comments, which I thought might be a way around the "recent activity" lack. Is that also in the works, John? Jan 9, 2010

john Yes, absolutely—that's high on my list of things to add back, I used it all the time too.

The old version worked well enough at Wordie scale, but I have to admit, it was a clusterfuck under the hood. So we want to redesign the guts of it before rebuilding. But it's definitely on the list. Jan 7, 2010

dontcry Yes! Yes, we need that back! Jan 7, 2010

oroboros I haven't got time to search all thru the comments but I've been wanting to say that I miss the "recent activity" option we had on Wordie. Am I missing some version of it on Wordnik?
I can't always remember what the heck I did last and recent activity was a no-brains way to find it. Jan 7, 2010

john Hi c_b!

Yes, all contributed examples/usages/citations should go in comments. Down the road we hope to add a way to categorized comments, something I long wanted to do on YOW but never got around to. Dec 2, 2009

chained_bear I'm just wondering if, by adding usages in the "comments" box as I used to on YOW, I'm doing the right thing, as there is also an "examples" section here—though I didn't immediately see any way to add to the examples, so I went ahead and placed them as comments. If I did wrong, someone please enlighten me. Dec 2, 2009

gangerh Hey! How does 'ordnik know that I'm leaving a 'note' rather than a 'comment' or 'citation'? Nov 25, 2009

Prolagus An extension of the previous one is that I often copy and paste the word I'm looking up. I also have a Wordnik button as a custom search on my Google toolbar, but it doesn't work so well as my Wordie button did.
(By the way: I looked up Venn diagram and I was redirected to submodularity. WTBH?!) Nov 11, 2009

Prolagus Moreover: if I look up a word on the search box, I usually don't care whether I am typing lower or uppercase. On Wordnik this is important, since you'll end up on a different page. I think the system should suggest all the alternative, preexisting options - something it's apparently not doing at the moment. I believe this is a very important feature (and if I remember well, this is how answers.com works). Nov 11, 2009

Prolagus John,
If one wants to follow a discussion on Wordnik, the way we used to do on Wordie, every bracketed reference will link to the main page for that word, and not to the comment section. Don't you think it makes everything much slower for us? Nov 11, 2009

PossibleUnderscore This has got to be the page with the most comments! Oct 8, 2009

Telofy I feel a couple Heaven forbid! getting ready to meet this suggestion, but what about little "Thanks" buttons like in many forum softwares for comments and lists? Oct 2, 2009

vanishedone Has some extra handing for the % symbol been added, or has it always been there without my having noticed before %25c2%25a1?

Edit: goodness, a lot of the Wordie Paradox list has lost its paradoxical nature. Sep 7, 2009

bilby John, you can delete Yahoo 360 from the 'also on' drop-down list that appears on profile pages as it is now extinct. Sep 1, 2009

reesetee John, thanks for the alpha browse. Love it. :-) Aug 12, 2009

john Hi bilb, that would be a large insect you've found--I'll fix by tonight (my tonight :-) at the latest.

I'll see if I can quickly add a 'toggle tags' option in your profile preference section, too. Jul 31, 2009

vanishedone Seconded. For people who like the new version there's always http://wordie.org/get_random_widget, which is what http://wordie.org/random now appears to be using. Jul 31, 2009

bilby Don't know if this is feature or bug. Clicking on random word now gives five at a time. Don't like it at all ... to me 'random word' is about discovery and this requires being able to see comments, tags, lists the word appears on & WordNet definition all in one go. The fiver just gives the bare words :-( If this blighter remains, may we at least have the option on our personal preferences of toggling between five mode and the lovely old one-at-a-time mode.

While we're on toggling, I'd like to be able to hide tags, globally. Currently tags are visible for every word and you have to click to hide them. Basically I'd like the option to have them hidden them for every word and then visible by a click, i.e. the inverse of the current mode. Jul 31, 2009

john Oops. Fixed, thanks. Perfectly straight forward indeed :-) Jul 14, 2009

Telofy Thanks, only, you must have put there a virgule instead of a dot between the sobriquet and the domain.
For now I tricked the bug. :-D Jul 13, 2009

john Soup is done :-) Jul 13, 2009

Telofy soup.io is missing under "also on". The URL structure is perfectly straight forward (e.g. telofy.soup.io), shouldn't be the slightest problem. Thanks. :-) Jul 12, 2009

Prolagus What's the reason for this upper case revolution, John? Jul 9, 2009

Telofy Hi, I could use a feature that would allow me to categorize my lists so that the lists list shows—​for example—​first a number of lists that might be interesting for everyone (under an appropriate title) and then a few lists that are just my private—​and most probably less interesting—​vocabulary learning lists (under the appropriate title again). Also some Wordees with >100 lists on their lists list could profit from that.

Thanks a lot (also and specifically generally). ;-) Jun 14, 2009

Prolagus It's been asked at least twice, 6 months ago by me and 5 months ago by whichbe. And The John told us he would do it, someday! May 31, 2009

mollusque John, how about marking open lists in the list of lists on the right hand side of word pages? Maybe with •

   Agile Methologies, by ggasp
   bootload's Words, by bootload
   Meta, by VanishedOne
   Conversations for the Ages, by chained_bear
   TBH meta, by TheBigHenry
   ♦ Mia's invisible list ♦, by MiaLuthien
• Wordie for dummies! (open list!), by Prolagus
• Knuckle tattoos (open list!), by Prolagus May 31, 2009

vanishedone Maybe people like that are scared future employers will discover their tastes for bilabial fricatives and self-descriptions as homonyms seeking autoantonyms.

Oooh, I just noticed that at some point John's fixed the weird list links, e.g. Meta is now reachable from /lists/meta again, rather than defaulting to /lists/metaphysics-buzz-words-2. May 28, 2009

chained_bear I'm confused as to why someone might want to delete their account. I mean, in general I understand, but on this site, it seems... why? May 28, 2009

bilby Hey, 404 is a palindrome. May 28, 2009

vanishedone Apparently so, since an hour later /people/profile/palindromica is 404'd. May 28, 2009

vanishedone <div style="color: red; font-size: 30pt; text-transform: uppercase;">
<blink>
Tags are not the same as definitions
</blink>
</div>

on the tags/pos box when first viewed might be less taxing on my schedule.

Actually, in all seriousness it may be worth wondering whether the tags/pos box could have some short, explanatory wording added; I imagine people might be more likely to read it than to browse an entire FAQ page. May 21, 2009

rolig Maybe newbies shouldn't be allowed to tag words until they have gone through a tagging tutorial with VanishedOne. May 20, 2009

reesetee I think that's a bug. May 20, 2009

nuxiy :( May 19, 2009

chained_bear *rushes off to see how many hundreds of times she can add some juicy word like tuft to a single list called Tuft* May 18, 2009

vanishedone Absurd lists on Wordie? Unthinkable. May 18, 2009

nuxiy Why can we add the same word to a list multiple times? Seems a bit absurd to have a list consisting of the same word in greater numbers. May 18, 2009

oroboros I was just looking at the blink and marquee pages for the first time in a coon's age. Has John disabled those features? NOT that I want to use 'em of course! :o) May 16, 2009

reesetee I too am a tabbing maniac. Why, right now I have 10 open, and five of those are on some Wordie page or another. :-) May 1, 2009

chained_bear mollusque (and gangerh): that's what I do all the time. Tabs are awesome, but sometimes I even use several tabs and windows at the same time. Makes life easier and quicker. :) Apr 27, 2009

mollusque Hi gangerh, there's an alternative to waiting: have more than one Wordie window open at a time. Use one for reading comments, the other for adding words, or whatever else you want to be doing. Apr 27, 2009

pterodactyl I want to second Prolagus's thanks for the "Most active threads" page, and I also want to thank John (again) for the "Most commmented on" section on the front page. Between those two features, I'm actually able to keep a handle on the great roiling mass that is Wordie.

(Also I really like the idea of a quick and easy way to make links to people's profiles. It'd be nice to not have to type out the HTML tags and URL every time!) Apr 27, 2009

Prolagus Yes, sure, why not. The good thing is that all our sobriquets are single words, so we do not really need a closing symbol (space and punctuation will do). Whatever John likes or finds more feasible. Apr 26, 2009

vanishedone Or maybe [[double-brackets]], like LibraryThing uses for authors' names. Apr 26, 2009

Prolagus The easiest (but ugly) option would be @mentions, like on Twitter.

I was thinking about something similar, but for very different reasons. HTML on Wordie is a bit time-consuming, and I think it would be good to have something equivalent to [brackets] to link to users (and lists, too, but it's harder because you can change their name, and the corresponding URL). Introducing @mentions could be the solution, and this is the way I imagine it: when I type @John, what we actually see on the page is John (or John, if you prefer). That would be an integration, not a substitute, of traditional HTML tags (just as this and this look the same, and both work, but are made in a different way).
I hope my comment is intelligible enough. Apr 26, 2009

Telofy Ok, that's a major problem.
What about a little button then, which waits patiently somewhere around the comment box and when clicked opens a little box into which one can write the names of the people who are to be notified of ones comment (by means of a feed for example)? Apr 26, 2009

dontcry memambodogfacetothebananapatch Apr 26, 2009

vanishedone I imagine the some people would find such a feature more usable than others: recall she, for example. Apr 26, 2009

Telofy No more than once per post. Prolagus, plethora
And I just did. Apr 26, 2009

Prolagus Good point, pleth. Apr 26, 2009

plethora But 'ofy, then we'd have to start using everyone's full usernames all the time. Apr 26, 2009

gangerh Greetings, John. I find that I often decide not to click on the 'more...' link after a comment on the home page to see the whole comment because of the delay in loading the word/list page and the delay in reloading back to the home page.
I'd love a hover window feature that opened the whole comment while the cursor is, say, over the 'more...'. I know it's generally possible as I've done it on, admittedly lesser, applications.
Apr 25, 2009

Telofy Hi John.
When someone uses my sobriquet in our IRC channel and I happen do be present at that moment, my IRC client flashes and displays the line in red. I find that pretty handy.
Would it perhaps be possible for you to introduce a feed of the comments that contain one's own nickname, so to make it easier to address one another anywhere on the site?

Have fun and blessed be. ;-) Apr 22, 2009

myth FYI - I've put instructions to make a wordie firefox search engine here: http://wordie.org/words/firefox Apr 22, 2009

Prolagus Thanks again for the "Most active threads" page, John. It's so useful. Apr 21, 2009

Prolagus (see firefox add-ons) Apr 6, 2009

reesetee Fine for me. It's only a cosmetic change--and besides, I need reading glasses anyway. ;-) Apr 6, 2009

Prolagus I didn't mean that I hate it, but the old one looked so clean and nice... Apr 6, 2009

chained_bear Is it really that much of a problem? *wonders if she needs her eyes checked*

*or priorities* Apr 6, 2009

bilby I don't fancy the giant name, please blow me down. Apr 6, 2009

john Yeah, I think all I did was blow up the font size in a few places. Trying to be consistent with words and lists, I think, though I can see how it could be distracting. Apr 6, 2009

chained_bear I didn't notice a huge difference besides that, either. It's functionally the same, no? *perhaps is oblivious* Apr 6, 2009

reesetee Except for my GIANT name, it looks the same to me. :-) Apr 6, 2009

Prolagus Just one thing: what do you Wordie think of the new profile page layout? I sort of prefer the old one... Apr 6, 2009

chained_bear Oooh... Wordie just keeps getting sexier! Thanks John! Apr 5, 2009

vanishedone Am I right in thinking the spinner image used when adding words on a list page is also new? Apr 5, 2009

mollusque John, thanks for taking up my active open lists suggestion. Even though it's not sorting the way you want, it's doing what I'd hoped: bringing old favorites to mind. Apparently you're excluding the recent list from the active list to avoid duplication, which is a neat trick. Glad to see the recent tags list too. Apr 5, 2009

plethora Ooh, shiny! Apr 5, 2009

vanishedone Oooh! A 'recent tags' section has appeared on the home page! Apr 5, 2009

john I hadn't announced that yet because it doesn't really... work :-) The query to get active lists is screwed up somehow. I'll work on it tonight though, should be fixed soon. The criteria are meant to be simple: open lists that have had words added to them in the past 24 hours, sorted by volume of words added in that timeframe. Apr 1, 2009

Prolagus Lovely. Apr 1, 2009

bilby We now have Active open lists on the front page. Thanks John. How have you set up the rating/weighting? Let's see how it goes. Feedback over the next pater noster while pliz. Apr 1, 2009

Prolagus Thank you, and yes, you're right. This is one of the many reasons why I will never cheat on Wordie. Mar 30, 2009

john Yes, and done. Though I think it would be better still if Forvo let you add words from /word/(whatever). Like Wordie :-) Mar 30, 2009

Prolagus John, wouldn't it be better if the Forvo button linked to http://www.forvo.com/search/(whatever) instead of http://www.forvo.com/word/(whatever)? It would make it easier to add those words that are missing there. Mar 30, 2009

reesetee Ditto, VO. Mar 30, 2009

vanishedone May I propose an amendment to 'as well as' instead of 'instead of'? I like looking for new open lists to investigate. Mar 29, 2009

Prolagus I second that! Mar 29, 2009

mollusque John, how about showing the most active open lists in the home page instead of the most recent? Mar 29, 2009

Prolagus Comment preview on the notification email: cool! Mar 23, 2009

vanishedone We had an Oddocomplete once, but it was put out to pasture. Mar 23, 2009

myth A few more suggestions:
Put links to words that reference the word that you are on. If someone defines scarlet as red with a link to red, it would be cool to have red automatically reference scarlet. This might make it easier for people to connect words. Think of all the links you would then see on weirdnet.

Autocomplete/ intellisense for the search field - kind of like google. This would help people find a lot of the weird phrases/non-words. Mar 23, 2009

Prolagus Maybe a twitter-sized comment, that is published both on the list and the word pages? Hmmm... Mar 23, 2009

myth I wouldn't prevent it from being on the homepage. You could have a separate section for them on the homepage if it got too out of hand.

Also, maybe have the option when adding tags as well since they create their own lists. Mar 22, 2009

mollusque That's an intriguing idea, myth: context-dependent comments. For each word one added to a list, there'd be an option to add a comment (then or later) specific to the listing. If this were to be implemented, one question would be if such comments should be displayed on the home page, or revealed only in list-view. Mar 22, 2009

myth As I start writing some lists or browsing others, I have no idea what drew the person to a particular word. Most words have multiple definitions, a lot of none or no comments, some people put descriptions of their lists but it is still hard sometimes to determine intent. Take this for example. I've made a list of animal -ine words.

animal -ines

If you look at the comments, you'll see I list out a short description of each to see why they were added. (still under construction but you get the idea) You don't need to click through each word to determine what each means. It's a one stop shop.

It would be nice if I was able to put a comment on the line where the word was listed instead of it showing (was added by myth and has been listed 24 times with 5 comments). Mar 22, 2009

reesetee A Twitter button! Thanks, John! :-D Mar 12, 2009

vanishedone I wonder how it should be interpreted when people put definitions in the tag box (e.g. on tjuze). If it's because they want their definitions floating above the comments, that's a sign that some sort of dedicated definition-adding facility (with additions displayed under WordNet's?) might be useful; but if it's because they're new here and haven't worked out how it all works, having yet another way of adding data to word pages might confuse them further. Mar 11, 2009

vanishedone As regards viewing words by initial letter, see my comment from about a month ago regarding wildcarding, which would be still more versatile.

Maybe if alphabetical searches are implemented there should be additional filters for searches, e.g. 'beginning with a AND listed by $username'. (And while we're on the subject of search and search filters, I wonder whether a search function for tags might be useful.) Mar 8, 2009

bilby How about a way to view the entire length and breadth of Wordie 'words' (as we know, some are more like phrases :->) alphabetically? So, for example, you could click on Q and go to an auto-generated list of all entries starting with Q. That would provide a way for viewing words by initial letter, which as mechanolatry pointed out might be useful. BTW thanks John for your work here. Mar 7, 2009

bilby John really is back on the bicycle. I can hear the whirring of the spokes from across the ocean. Mar 6, 2009

john Good idea Pro. Didn't get to add Etsy tonight, ran out of time, but tomorrow I'll try to both do that, and add a preferences option to set who can see your also-ons,everyone or just registered users. Mar 6, 2009

Prolagus That's Wordie PRO! Mar 6, 2009

bilby You still got the guilts over The Soundlantern Incident, Pro? ;-)

I go along with your second suggestion.

I think at least one of the buttons under each word should squirt water in the user's face. For optimum effect, this feature can be assigned randomly to one of the existing buttons. Mar 6, 2009

Prolagus Ahem... Forvo?

By the way: I was thinking that maybe some of us would feel more comfortable if "also on" links were available for registered users only. So that random visitors can't read our facebook name, for instance. Mar 6, 2009

john Mech, sorry you feel your comments haven't been well received--maybe it was a misunderstanding? Wordie humor, such that it is, can be obscure, and somtimes tart (though also obvious, and sweet). I just looked at your comments and fwiw, they look cool to me. As I've said before, I like almost all comments, but have a particular fondness for quotes and definitions, like the ones you've added.

I love etsy, and will add it to the also-on list tonight. Thanks for the suggestion.

Mar 6, 2009

vanishedone You can get that feature easily enough by using a flat text file. After all, a Wordie list is just an ordered set of links to Wordie pages; if you don't want to share it or let people comment on it, all you need to do is write down some URLs in order. Feb 19, 2009

bilby on bugs, xxxciter said:
FEATURE REQUEST:
"private" word lists Feb 19, 2009

Prolagus John,
Would it be possible, when we add a word to a list of ours, to have a menu similar to this one, with our most recently used lists on top?
I hope what I wrote is intelligible. Feb 9, 2009

rolig Bilby's suggestion is excellent.

Another thing that Wordie novices tend to do is copy and paste dictionary definitions into the comment box. This makes sense only if the word is very obscure or foreign or the specific definition is not to be found in one of the standard online dictionaries. So it might be a good idea to have a line below the dictionary icons saying, "The above icons link to online dictionaries and reference tools, where you might find a definition of this word."

I would like to encourage people to either leave an interesting citation for the word or to in fact comment on the word ("I like this word because…"), and not just quote some dictionary. Feb 2, 2009

vanishedone Don't forget the people who try to leave definitions in the tag box. Feb 2, 2009

bilby Confusion over comment boxes is common among new users. Apart from the error of word comments ending up on the bottom of lists, there is also the negative that new Wordies instantly feel that using the site properly is going to be difficult.

As a solution, perhaps the header over the word comment box could be amended to read:
"Leave a comment, citation, or private note on this word."
The list comment box currently only has the "Wrapping a word..." instruction line in small print. Perhaps there could be a header just above that, reading:
"Make a comment on this list."
I am deliberately suggesting leave for one kind of box and make for the other to aid in distinguishing the boxes. Feb 2, 2009

vanishedone I know wildcarding is already on the 'someday' list; following my comment on tags/v, I just wanted to add it to the record that some current tagging practices on Wordie (e.g. -fold, phono- and so on) would be more effectively served by a wildcard search feature. Jan 29, 2009

bilby Hi John. I was wondering if we might have, one fine day peppered with orchid blossoms, a comment box on the Top 100. People here do occasionally comment on what is in or out of the 100, what seems to be moving up or down, why certain words are there and so on. It makes sense to have these comments accumulate over time on the Top 100 page itself, I think. Jan 29, 2009

reesetee Note to c_b: Yes, I have showered. Jan 27, 2009

vanishedone That troll wouldn't have been reborn, by any chance...?

Edit: dead within moments; thanks John. Jan 27, 2009

Prolagus It's where Prolagus lives, together with Belle and Sebastian, and Phantom Limb. Jan 27, 2009

sionnach Is Forvo, like, Pro's secret magical kingdom where he hangs out and carouses with unicorns and leprechauns and mermaids and stuff and the streets run with skittles and dogs poo Hershey's kisses or what is it? Jan 27, 2009

chained_bear I'll second the thanks, but I'm glad I wasn't here!

*wonders if Reesetee showered* Jan 27, 2009

reesetee John, thanks for getting rid of that troll last night. I felt like I needed a shower after seeing those posts. Jan 27, 2009

bilby Do you sleep, Pro? Jan 27, 2009

john Pro, you're totally right. In the near future I'll polish up some of the admin tools I've built for myself, and deputize some of you regulars. Like Andre the Giant, I'll have a posse!

The tools make it pretty easy to zap things. I'll tighten them up a little and try to hand out the shiny badges within a week or so. Maybe divided up by time zone :-) Jan 27, 2009

Prolagus John,
I think you need some help. In Forvo, part of the members are editors – that is, they can do some editing. In our case, it would help us block spammers and trolls – you know what I mean – when you are busy or sleeping (I know you do sleep, sometimes).
Is it a particularly immoral thing to ask? Jan 27, 2009

chained_bear Perhaps a brief mini-tutorial page where new users land...? (That might be helpful even for some of us who've hung out here for a while.) I wouldn't presume to know how to structure such a thing, but guiding new users as to how the site is most commonly used, I think, would not be unwelcome. Jan 22, 2009

vanishedone With the site growing and John busy, I'm not surprised to see the suggestion made; but maybe we should explore the FAQ/tutorial options further before biting that bullet. At the moment, the FAQ page isn't a straightforward document, and you have to know where it is; it may still help to have a dedicated and fairly simple help or welcome page that isn't a regular word/conversation page, and make it a landing page to welcome new Wordies when they create their accounts, or even link it from the page headers/footers. (Maybe it could then link to Wordie for Dummies as a source of further information, since that list can be easily kept updated.)

Edit: okay, I just checked the footer: it already does lead to a page which links to help, FAQ and Wordie for Dummies (among others), but as it says, it isn't a formal help page itself. Also, help isn't really helpful unless you want to know about keyboards. Jan 22, 2009

chained_bear I second. (Clear guidelines will help users as well.)

Although... as whichbe says, it may be unnecessary, esp. as Himself is (apparently!) always ready with a mini-nuke. Jan 21, 2009

whichbe It may be unnecessary, but it might be a good idea to have some moderators/assistants to help admin the site. As witnessed today (right now), there are idiots that come along occassionally that can be dealt with by folks other than John. Also, someone like VanishedOne would do well to have tag-edit powers to keep things clean. Just a thought. Setting clear guidelines for operation will help avoid power-tripping. Jan 21, 2009

sarra I'd love to see a widget that displayed random words from all your lists, not just the most recent ones. (Also the existing widget doesn't seem to quite work for me) Jan 21, 2009

Prolagus Something like collections on Flickr? Interesting. Jan 17, 2009

rolig A second suggestion about lists – one that perhaps someone has already brought up: Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow group lists together (at least our own lists), or put our lists in folders (e.g. "vocab-building", "history", "reading", "fun stuff", "Wordie-specific")? Jan 17, 2009

reesetee Ah, I get it, rolig. :-) Jan 15, 2009

chained_bear That's an interesting idea, rolig. I wonder if I'd use it a lot... I do have a s***pile of older lists that haven't seen much action and are, perhaps, becoming crusty.

And nobody likes crusty lists. Except perhaps lists about pies, or pizzas, or bread.

*thinks*

*goes off to make Crusty List* Jan 15, 2009

rolig I don't mean ordering lists according to when I made the list (which I know I can do now), but ordering lists according to when I last added a word to the list (i.e. more active or less active lists). I don't think we can do this - yet - can we? But I have unlimited faith in John's programming powers/prowess. Jan 15, 2009

reesetee Rolig, I think that's already a feature. Check out your lists page. Mine shows a link to order by alpha or by order added. Jan 15, 2009

rolig Here's an idea: What about being able to order (at least) our own lists according to how recently we added words to them (i.e. according to degree of activeness). This would make it easier when we return periodically to work on older lists, which now end up buried a few screens down. Jan 15, 2009

reesetee I third. Jan 7, 2009

chained_bear I second. Jan 7, 2009

vanishedone It strikes me that we can view the thousand most recent tags, but as far as I know we have no way of viewing the most commonly used tags; it would be interesting, and possibly useful, to have a clear picture of which ones have made it into general use. Jan 7, 2009

reesetee Meantime, I still have this rhinoceros here, huffing and mooing and going after my Christmas cookies....

It must be a Sumatran. Dec 30, 2008

plethora I'll send something smaller next year. Dec 29, 2008

sionnach I just sent the package back to the Amazon fulfilment centre. I reckon they should be able to figure things out. But thanks for the thought, pleth. Dec 29, 2008

yarb Elephants are useful friends,
Equipped with handles at both ends.
They have a wrinkled moth-proof hide.
Their teeth are upside down, outside.
If you think the elephant preposterous,
You've probably never seen a rhinosterous.

- Ogden Nash Dec 29, 2008

frindley Farewell, Farewell, you old rhinocerous
I'll stare at something less prepocerous.
- Ogden Nash

I needed to check a madeupical spelling matter and so I was brought to a certain rhino site. I am posting the link here, because not only does it outline what rhinos eat ("All rhinos are herbivores. Some eat grass; others eat buds, leaves, and fruit. They all eat a lot!"), it also posts clips of how they talk!

Furthermore, I learn, the rhino is an odd-toed ungulate and has a prehensile lip. Dec 29, 2008

plethora Whoops! This means 'nach is going to get your present...

I suspect rhinos will eat pretty much anything. Dec 29, 2008

reesetee I second, third, fourth, and/or fifth the "keep Wordie Wordie" movement. And pleth, please check your shipping address. I just received the oddest-shaped package, and I suspect it may be sionnach's rhino.

Do rhinos like Christmas cookies? Dec 29, 2008

plethora I agree that Wordie should remain as un-Facebook as possible. I love Wordie for its unique simpliciy.

Sionnach, this is awkward. When that rhinocerous I sent you arrives, just send it back, ok? Sorry, I took your silence on the subject to mean that a rhino was your dearest wish. Dec 29, 2008

rolig I like, no, love, the simplicity of Wordie, though as I write this I realize that as a value, "simplicity" can be understood two ways, either as being easy for me to do everything I want to do, from making vocab lists to making friendships, or as being elegantly constructed, without any extraneous bells, whistles, coaxings, suggestions, autoblather, etc. Wordie balances both of these meanings nicely. I have always liked Wordie the way it is, even as it has changed, and that is because I think John has a very clear vision of the kind of site he wants Wordie to be and the kind he does not want it to be. I have even come to like the constraints of Wordie, such as the forced public nature of nearly everything that goes on here (except for the fairly new development of private notes). It is not hard, for example, to find out if someone is online (or has recently been): just click on their name somewhere to get to there profile page, and check their recent activity, or if this is not available, check their last comment. If they are online and haven't been commenting, well, maybe they're doing their own Wordie-work (tidying lists, adding words) and don't feel like socializing. Dec 29, 2008

Prolagus I'm with dontcry and chained_bear: see also my favorite webspace doesn't require a DSL and keep Wordie whimsical! Dec 29, 2008

dontcry Wordie: don't change a hair for me -- not if you care for me...

I can actually USE Wordie (okay, mostly....kinda). Those other places are too much about the tech. To me, Wordie is about as real a place on the internet as I've found. Bells and whistles are just not needed. No sir. Not at all.
Sincerely,
multislacker-in-residence,
dontcry Dec 29, 2008

chained_bear Very sorry to weigh in on the opposite, but I am strongly opposed to any features that make this site more like Facebook. We already have Facebook; there isn't anything else like Wordie. This is a networking site for language, not for people. Dec 28, 2008

BrainyBabe Powered by German chocolate ginger biscuits now (what are *they* called? Vanishes down rabbit-tunnel of chasing random associations): I would quite like a FaceBook-like feature that shows you which Wordies are online, but ONLY if people sign up to it, or at the very least can opt out. Dec 28, 2008

mollusque I grieved when it was removed: it was excellent for finding roots and related forms of words, one of the things BrainyBabe requested. I still hope John will restore that function on the search page. Dec 28, 2008

vanishedone Besides Oddocomplete being a resource drain, the sorting algorithm pulled some unexpected things out of the database, and it had a nasty habit of forcing its own suggestions into the search box without asking nicely, so I don't think anyone grieved much when John removed it.

There was some talk of wildcarding 'someday' eight months ago on this page. Dec 28, 2008

chained_bear I think we did have a conversation some time ago about having a way to privately contact other Wordizens, and I remember several people (probably including myself) were against it for just the reasons sionnach states, and others remarked that they could add information about how to contact them on their profile pages, if desired. I would have thought that conversation was on this page, but apparently not.

This may not be exactly what's being suggested, but for the newbies in the house, John did have an auto-complete feature going on in the search box for some time. He ended up taking it off because it took up way too much space or something and was slowing the site down. FYI.

Also, long ago, once upon a time, there didn't used to be a list of which lists a word was on, on the word page itself. That's been a godsend (or is it a Johnsend?). Also tagging and commenting on tags, also sorting words on lists, and sorting lists themselves... I wonder if someone could come up with a list of all the new features John has put on the site in the last year. Whoopee! *runs off to play on the sliding board* Dec 28, 2008

BrainyBabe I have a few more ideas. Such is the power of cake.

More roll-over info, esp. for numbers. By all means keep the clean look, but do like xkcd and give us more when we float the mouse. I am not sure what most of the numbers mean. The word's ranking? How many people have entered it? How many lists it is on? How many words link to it?

Features from Wikipedia that I appreciate: redlinks for as-yet-unentered words, which might also flag up misspellings, typos, and alternate spellings -- including pesky half-merged words (why no drawing room? Ah, look at drawing-room instead). To go with that, a preview option, to minimise embarrassing oneself (I am a terrible typist).

Some way of telling, when I look at a highlighted word, whether it is worth clicking. Maybe hover over and see how many comments it has, or any citations, or the first few words of the latest comment (sort of abbreviated from the main page).

That's enough for now. Dec 25, 2008

BrainyBabe I have a few ideas. What about a spell-check, to offer suggestions, not auto-correct one's typing? Especially for search?

Or if implementing that in the full monty would be too much, what about some hyphen power in the search? If a new user looks for multislacking and finds nothing, could the software suggest multi-slacking? Or if that is too complicated (and I can see it might be, to suggest where to break a word), how about the reverse, i.e. entering the latter and being guided to the former. And could I extend this request to include a space as an additional variable, as well as the hyphen (multi slacking)?

One final request and then I'll go and eat some more of that cake I promised you (lemon polenta, no royal icing): at the top of the page I can see
"BrainyBabe has added 251 words, 17 lists, 225 comments, and 57 tags". I can click on the lists, comments, and tags, and marvel at just how much time I've wasted/spent here in the last few days, but I cannot click on words. Is this a bug or a feature?

As for other requests below, I'm with Jakob Nielsen on the open-in-new-window idea: don't. Don't take control of my computer and make it do things I didn't specifically request it to do.

Thank you and merry merry! Dec 25, 2008

Telofy Moving em masse: seconded.
In Firefox there are several ways to open a link in a new tab for example Ctrl+Click, both mouse buttons, middle button and probably some more.
About private messaging: I'm not sure I understand why it would be such a wordoom, just thought it would be a nice feature... Thank Goddess I'm not the one who has to decide such things in the end. ^^
Would private lists be a similar sacrilege? Dec 25, 2008

sionnach I'm with Vanishing on this one (sorry Pro, but it's not as if you can't do it yourself - open that new tab, that is).

I have never weighed in on the topic of private messaging. So that my silence won't be misconstrued as some kind of hidden yearning for this feature (a really peculiar logical leap; I've never said anything here about a rhinoceros either - that doesn't mean I secretly want one for Christmas), let me come out and say - in the strongest possible terms - No! No! No! A thousand times no. I think it would kill Wordie stone dead. Or at least Wordie as we know it. It would be like saying at the dinner table - it's OK to just grap your food, then get on your cell phone and yak with your friends, or vanish to your room to text your online pervert buddy; don't feel any obligation to join in any kind of conversation here at the dinner table. I think it would have an immediate, drastically negative, effect on the quality of general discourse on the site and probably change the whole character of the site as well.

Now that I've pooh-poohed other people's requests, what I do secretly yearn for in the new year is the ability to move words around en masse. That is, I'd like to be able to move words from one list to another without having to do so one at a time.

Thanks. Dec 25, 2008

vanishedone Please, no. I'm sick of sites that take it upon themselves to make that decision for me, presumably believing I couldn't possibly want to close their pages when going somewhere else. Dec 24, 2008

Prolagus John,
I think it would be nice if links to external websites opened in a new tab. What do you think about that? Dec 24, 2008

Telofy Hi John.
About a year ago you asked whether or not to equip Wordie with a private messaging system. Personally I'm in favor of such an enhancement and I'm unable to infer a nay from the replies you got back then, so is something of that sort coming up? Dec 22, 2008

vanishedone For some reason, if 'nobody has listed' a tag, there's no comment facility on its page (though as I noted over on tags, those tags were in use once): kath 'n' kim, for example. I don't know whether this should be on bugs or whether commenting on ghost tags should be a feature request. Dec 21, 2008

whichbe This is a pretty simple request: under "more searches" and then "Search all lists", I would really like the results to indicate if a list is an open list. This could be done with a very minimal graphic that's all raised saying something like "open" or "open list". It would help with contributing gem words to relevant lists quicker. Dec 18, 2008

gangerh John, the way things are going
(they're gonna crucify me)
we may need an option on comments to select between, for example, gangerh 'said:' and gangerh 'sang:'.
Strike, you know it ain't easy Dec 2, 2008

john bilby, I'm 90% sure that new user lists do default to 'just me', but I'll verify.

Pro, great suggestion, will add an open list icon or something like that soon. Dec 1, 2008

vanishedone Or an option to search only open lists, maybe? Dec 1, 2008

Prolagus John,
A few minutes ago, I heard someone say cross-vagination and decided it was wordieworthy. So, since I don't have a list about sex, I used the "search list" option, with "sex" as a keyword. There are many lists about sex, but most of them are not open. It took me a while to find Mercy's Sexuality & Gender.
Would it be possible to have a symbol on list search results and "appears in these lists" column, meaning that the list is open? Dec 1, 2008

chained_bear I agree.

Those Darn Wordie Swarms! Nov 25, 2008

rolig I second Bilby's excellent suggestion! Actually, I have on occasion felt sorry for some newbies who naively start an open list only to find that it has suddenly been taken over by a wordie swarm. Nov 25, 2008

bilby Hi John. I was wondering if it would be possible to set the default for a new-user's first list (the ubiquitous New-User's Words) as 'just me' rather than 'anyone' as it appears to be at the moment. I am all for open lists: I have plenty and contribute to others' lists where I can. But my feeling is that this feature is best exploited by users who know what they are doing, and is not what new signups are looking for when - newly out of panniers (see babywearing) - they take their first tender steps and add their first words. There's also the issue of front page real estate. I think it more utilitarian that 'Recent open lists' shows genuine collaborative opportunities rather than becomes clogged with listies that newbies simply haven't worked out how to close. See this recent sample:
wildflower's list (0 words)
kangi's list (1 word)
Affinity's list (7 words)
alicson's list (0 words)
ebaysalvageyard (36 words)
BeSound's list (0 words)
Weird theology (2 words)
green and blue and black and red (6 words)
TheFutureIsXRated's list (1 word)
Units Of Anything (30 words)
Machiavelli's list (9 words)
Dudgeon and Dragging (7 words)
GSha101's list (6 words) Nov 25, 2008

bilby I'd like an Armenian lahmajoon, and I am willing to share. Nov 22, 2008

Prolagus Meghan,
What's cool about Wordie is that it's in vivo rather than in silico. If you want anagrams (or puns, or whatever) for some words, you just create a list (say, NATO) and people will contribute according to their own inclinations, sense of humor, time zone.
Have fun!
Prolagus Nov 22, 2008

vanishedone Anagram generator: wordsmith.org/anagram

Robot-themed acronym thing: cyborg.namedecoder.com Nov 21, 2008

whichbe I'd prefer an acronym game. Nov 21, 2008

vanishedone I wonder whether Meghan44 is confusing us with wordle.net. Nov 21, 2008

hackerb9 It'd be cool if wordie had an anagram game, but I don't think it has one yet, Meghan. Nov 21, 2008

whichbe Explain "word scrambles". Nov 21, 2008

reesetee Do anything other than list words? Why, that's everything! Nov 21, 2008

meghan44 can this site do anything other than list words? I thought you could make cool word scrambles with it. Anyone know how? Nov 21, 2008

wytukaze Similar to frindley, I'd like to add my Soup to my "also on" list. As I may still be a voice of one at the moment, maybe it'd be good to have an "other" option which would prompt you to add the URL manually? Nov 13, 2008

Prolagus You can email John, I think. Nov 12, 2008

man Feature request: Ability to change the password. Ability to delete the account. Nov 12, 2008

frindley I'd love to add my blog to the "also on" list in my profile. But the list of possibilities includes all sorts of services except for mine, TypePad, even though it's a major player and even though Vox, TypePad's little brother, is there. Puzzling… Nov 11, 2008

bilby Why wait when you can upgrade to WordiePRO? Nov 11, 2008

Prolagus While waiting for new amazing options from John, you can customize your google toolbar. Nov 11, 2008

elgiad007 chained_bear, that's how I usually do it, but I'm always looking for shortcuts in an application. Nov 11, 2008

Prolagus sionnach, I would send such a file to you. Nov 11, 2008

chained_bear elgiad, I usually go to a listed word, right-click on whatever dictionaries I want to check and open them in a new tab or new window. Then I leave them open and can check the definitions of any new words I add that aren't already listed. :) Just a thought...

sionnach, you don't want to hear my gravelly, nasal voice. Trust me. Nov 11, 2008

sionnach As others (reesetee, the floppy-eared marsupial bringer of chocolate) have mentioned, a tool for bulk-moving of words across lists would be most helpful. I really need to distribute the words in my catchall "sionnach's words" list into more sensible and useful categories, but keep putting it off in the hope that some kind of bulk-moving tool will be available.

Have I mentioned my unmeasurable debt of gratitude for everything John has already done on this site?

I'm quite happy to let the question of how other wordie users pronounce various words be fodder for speculation. Though if Pro were to create a file which recorded him pronouncing his favorite 100 words in a sultry Sardinian drawl I'd totally download it. Fer shur! I'm sure that a recording of c_b pronouncing Newfy words would be a hit as well.

Nov 11, 2008

elgiad007 When I encounter a word that I am unfamiliar with, I often type it into the search box at top right-hand corner of the Wordie page. If the word is unlisted, I am forced to consult another resource to find the definition.

It would be nice if the lookup links that appear with listed words also appeared with unlisted words. Nov 11, 2008

frindley I'd like to add my voice in support for a system of managing or categorising "favorite" lists. Nov 8, 2008

Prolagus By the way, elgiad007, thank you for checking the page before asking for new features! It's very polite. Nov 6, 2008

Prolagus The second icon (The free dictionary) links to a website where you can here most words pronounced.
What I would love is to listen to different Wordies' pronunciations. This is why I suggested SL (you know what I'm talking about). Words with this tag are available on that website, the way I pronounce them. Nov 6, 2008

elgiad007 I've seen the word "pronunciation" appear a few times in this thread, but I'm going to another instance of it anyway.

I would love to see a pronunciation guide accompany each word (that can be readily defined by whatever data source is providing the definitions, of course). Nov 5, 2008

Telofy Now that the election is nearly over, could you also optimize the css in a way that it looks decent on different resolutions? On xga the font is huge hence I've changed quite a lot with stylish. Thanks! Nov 4, 2008

john Pro, there isn't, though it's a good idea to add that someplace. Nov 3, 2008

Prolagus It's a very good idea!
I have one question, though: is there any other way to get a clue of when a list was created, without its number? Nov 3, 2008

trivet Thanks for the list name URLs, John! Nov 2, 2008

john Yep, the list-name-as-URL is new. Makes them more readable, and more searchable. Let me know if there are any issues.

The old links still work: http://wordie.org/lists/14193 and http://wordie.org/lists/words-of-the-times go to the same place. Nov 1, 2008

sarra Fair! Nov 1, 2008

mollusque Lists with the same name are distinguished by a number at the end: words-about-words-6. Nov 1, 2008

sarra Yes. I'm not sure what happens if there exist two lists with the same title. Nov 1, 2008

vanishedone Am I correct in thinking the non-numerical style of list URL is new too? This is the first time I've noticed links like wordie.org/lists/vanishedone-s-words turning up. Nov 1, 2008

rolig Yay! We can sort comments! Thanks, John! Nov 1, 2008

vanishedone I see comment sorting is back. Cheers. Nov 1, 2008

dontcry John - Nevermind! I just discovered that if I delete something, then leave the page and then go back I can delete again. Kind of a pain though... I'm a total b. Oct 31, 2008