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

dontcry John - I tried to do some housekeeping on my "home" page this morning and discovered that I can't delete comments, except my own. Why? I'd like to tidy it up and keep it current and short. Shouldn't I be able to keep my page the way I want it?

Sorry to be such a b. Oct 31, 2008

john whichbe, great idea--there's now an 'add to iGoogle' link for all the feeds on the tools page. Pro, sorry you had to do it manually, but thanks for the impetus :-)

I'll add other links for other feed readers soon, and maybe do a little errata post on other ways to insinuate integrate Wordie feeds into other sites. Oct 27, 2008

Prolagus DONE! I created a 9-word link, but for some reasons the page title is five random words anyway... but it's OK. And now it will be so much easier to waste my time! Oct 27, 2008

whichbe Well, it looks like John doesn't have an "add this feed to Google" button on there, but what you do is:

Go to http://wordie.org/tools and under "FEEDS" there's a link to the "Five random words" feed. Click on that, then grab the URL/LINK at top (which happens to be http://wordie.org/feeds/random/5 ), then take that URL and put it into the "add stuff" link under GOOGLE. Ta-da! Oct 27, 2008

Prolagus How do you add it to iGoogle? Oct 27, 2008

whichbe This already exists: http://wordie.org/tools.
Oct 27, 2008

thekatespanos Can you create a Google gadget for your random word widget? I'd love to see random words on my iGoogle homepage :-) Oct 27, 2008

Prolagus Oh, never mind, John. As I wrote on Errata, so far

1) Nobody lists me as a contact, making my recommendations completely useless since nobody will ever read them;
2) None of my actual friends/acquaintances seems to be on TP, but you (John);
3) Based on my recommendations, the only compatible friend that the system suggests me is... myself. Oct 26, 2008

trivet *kowtows* Oct 22, 2008

dontcry Chuch Norris always could sort his lists... Oct 22, 2008

reesetee Brackets! Oct 22, 2008

chained_bear REALLY?! *runs to check*

Oh John, thank you! Thank you, kind teapot clinchpoop samurai warrior man! Oct 22, 2008

reesetee We can sort our list of lists! Yay! :-) Oct 22, 2008

Prolagus We don't have a Times People button on our profiles! Oct 22, 2008

reesetee I agree bilby--although I recently moved just about every God's-blessed word on several of my lists. But it would come in handy for another such undertaking. :-) Oct 15, 2008

bilby A 'bulk-moving' tool would be useful for shifting words around. It could be something like the existing delete/move option for individual words except that it can operate on multiple words. Cheers John. Oct 15, 2008

chained_bear Oh, that sounds dandy too. I'm open to any solution; I just thought it would be nice to be able to sort/group lists the way we can sort/group words.

Sorry I misunderstood! Oct 11, 2008

Prolagus I didn't mean an automated process! I was thinking about something like what you can do on iLike, where users link singers' page to each other. It could even be wiki, meaning that anyone can create/delete any link, so that no error would last for Wordieternity. Oct 11, 2008

chained_bear Sort of, Pro. I guess that's one possible solution, but I don't know what the selection criteria would be for "related" if it were an automated process. Whereas if the users of Wordie tagged the lists themselves, it might be just as helpful but more... I dunno... DIY?

It's a thought anyhow. Oct 11, 2008

Prolagus Do you mean something like a "related lists" box on list pages, c_b? It would be very useful, indeed! Oct 11, 2008

bilby It would be useful to have the standard Wordie buttons at the top of each page -
home · blog · tools · tags · random word · mobile | you | your words
- repeated at the bottom.
Oct 11, 2008

chained_bear This may have been mentioned before, but it would be so cool if we could have list tags. I don't mean tagging every word within the list, but tagging an entire list. So that when you click on, say, a Star Trek list tag, you get a bunch of lists of Star Trek words compiled by different people. That would be cool, and it might encourage more browsing of different people's lists.

Just a thought! I know John's way too busy to think about this now and maybe it's too complicated anyway, but I thought I'd throw it out there. Oct 10, 2008

reesetee Yes, please! :-) Oct 3, 2008

chained_bear John... Oh please, please, John... Someday, can we sort the order in which our own lists appear? Oct 3, 2008

reesetee Good point, Pro. Oct 1, 2008

Telofy About the sorting: Whenever the list owner selects one sort of sort, it could be saved as the default sort of the list—for him and for everyone else.
Furthermore: Isn't there a way to achieve this "Move" and "Delete" with Ajax, so the page needn't be reloaded? When I go through my lists to move or delete specific words, I'm always quite lost when the page reloads and I have no clue where I was. Oct 1, 2008

Prolagus Maybe it could be limited to words that have their page already... Otherwise it would be "just" a list, and it would create new orphan words... Oct 1, 2008

reesetee Hmm. That could save some serious time.... Oct 1, 2008

whichbe What do you think of the idea of adding words directly to a tag's page like we do with our word lists? Like, for example, one could pull up http://wordie.org/tags/fun and then add words like pulling wings off flies and counting bricks to that page... Oct 1, 2008

dontcry I vote for John. Sep 27, 2008

whichbe I got the memo that you're busy these days. Here's a random suggestion--it's kind of silly, but I'd like a reversal of the "mass tag" feature on lists so that I can mass-remove tags from a list of mine. This is primarily because of the duplicate-tag bug (as seen here), but I think it would be handy for someone trying to do maintainence on a list of words in general. Sep 27, 2008

john Hey everybody, thanks for all the great suggestions lately. I won't be able to work on Wordie at all at least until after the election, but wanted to let you know I'm listening, and will sort through everything here eventually.

Re: personal use of tags, I don't think that's a problem. They're meant to be idiosyncratic, not an ersatz taxonomy. If there are enough in the system, the personal tags and weird one-offs will get filtered out after the fact. Eventually I may add an option to the main tags page so that only tags that have been used a specifiable number of times are visible, which would remove a lot of the noise. Sep 26, 2008

Prolagus @ oroboros: No, please! Let's avoid personal use of tags. :-) Sep 26, 2008

chained_bear Can I tag this page dork out?
:) (where dork is NOT a pejorative) Sep 26, 2008

oroboros Bilby; re: open lists reference you could do what Mollusque suggested below somewhere--add the URL of the open list to a list description created for that purpose. Another idea that struck: tag the latest word addition to an open list you want to go back to with "revisit" or some such. Sep 26, 2008

yarb Bilby - excellent idea.

I'm a stat fan like telofy. Stats for each user and list showing mean letters per word would be good. And definitely number of unique words contributed to the database (i.e. first listings), with an option to list if possible.

Finally, I'd like a "what words link here" option on each word - an icon I can click which will show me a list of words containing links to this one. Very interesting I reckon.

Oh, and a new bike too, please. Thanks. Sep 26, 2008

vanishedone I'm fairly sure the set of dictionary icons has already been revised at some point in the past, although scanning through this page and errata.wordie.org/labels/features.html, I can't find anything to confirm it. So if it still doesn't please everyone, maybe the solution would be something like a few icons for common sources, then an adjacent dropdown list to allow a larger collection. Then there'd be no need for personal customisation.

By the way (relating to an earlier discussion about features), according to errata.wordie.org/2008/01/better-sorting-for-lists-and-comments.html comments were indeed sortable at one stage. Sep 26, 2008

bilby Righty-ho, a serious suggestion. When I contribute to an open list, I would like that list to then appear in a meta-list of 'Open/Shared Lists I Contribute To' on my profile page. At the moment, the only convenient way to keep track of open lists that you might contribute again to in the future is to favourite them. To be honest, not all open lists I contribute to are necessarily my favourites. I like to conserve my favourites for the best of the best, at least as I see it. Nevertheless, there are open lists that I feel I can make a contribution to and hence would like to be able to revisit; I need a place to store them! For me it's a tough call to favourite a list that is 2 days old and has 10 words, for example, even though I like it. I would rather add have it appear on my page as an open/shared list that I have added to, which incidentally also marks my role as contributor.
BTW I loved the story behind the Yo La Tengo name, John. Sep 26, 2008

bilby Fair warning, yarb :-) Sep 26, 2008

Telofy I could use comprehensive statistics: For example the total time I'm online on wordie, how often each list was accessed, how many completely new terms I've contributed (and which), etc.

But most of all I need those customizable links in each list entry.

Have a nice weekend. ~ Sep 26, 2008

Prolagus Is there a way to see the lists where I am an "invited contributor"? (It's actually only one, so far)
I think it would be nice to see them on the page "Prolagus's lists". Sep 26, 2008

yarb I will fess up to the tag... Sep 25, 2008

reesetee I second bilby, chained_bear, Prolagus, and frindley. :-)

Or is that fourth? Or fifth? Sep 25, 2008

vanishedone Hmm... Is that geek-o-rama tag new, or have I just not noticed it before? ;-) Sep 25, 2008

frindley I second bilby, chained_bear and Prolagus. Sep 25, 2008

Prolagus THANK YOU for saying that, bilby! I thought I was the only one. :-) Sep 25, 2008

bilby I'm happy with the current arrangements for display of comments. Besides, I'd need an interpreter to cop what VO and telofy are going on about. Sep 25, 2008

chained_bear I like that comments aren't on different levels and don't have indents. It puts everyone's comments on the same level (literally) and makes the conversation more open. IMHO. :) Sep 25, 2008

jennarenn What are knobs? Sep 25, 2008

Telofy I've now activated "autohinter" and stuff, the font face looks ok now. My terminal looks quite different now, perhaps I'll switch back, don't know yet.
Concerning the size I've decided to use only 3 to 4 different sizes, instead of 9 viz. "small", "medium" and "xx-large" plus "300%" for h1.
http://pastie.org/279025 Sep 25, 2008

dontcry This thread features an awful lot of features. Sep 25, 2008

trivet I like that you can only add comments to words themselves, rather than replying to specific comments.

ps - John, the most commentated (active?) list is mega cool with knobs, thanks! Sep 25, 2008

Telofy My current approach is to delete everything from the all.css except for the part concerning fonts. That way I can perhaps introduce relative sizes and can also change the font face as that looks funny here.
Got a singular sense of readability the author of this all.css file.^^ Sep 25, 2008

vanishedone My guess is that any remaining problems would be with tags, the comment box and the 'more searches' link, which that sheet won't change, but I hope it's at least a partial/prototypical solution.

I also haven't tried it on any of the special pages, just regular word pages. Sep 25, 2008

Telofy Thanks! I've tried Stylish a few days ago, but later the solution with No Squint seemed more apt then. I guess I'm going to revise this verdict. Perhaps I'll finally register an OpenID to publish it, if the sheet should meet my expectations. Sep 25, 2008

vanishedone If you're going to change the display client-side to begin with, why not make the further changes you want client-side with another Firefox extension? This quick Stylish sheet I knocked together probably won't make all the changes you want, but it unifies most of the text:

@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);

@-moz-document domain("wordie.org") {
.caption font-size:18px !important;
#nav font-size:18px !important;
#rt_nav font-size:18px !important;
#right_word_col font-size:18px !important;
} Sep 25, 2008

Telofy Oh, not the slightest idea, but they have a quite elaborate comments feature there. ;-)

A way of comparing and synchronizing lists would be totally awesome btw:
Deleting all words from list a which are already in lists b or c.
Sep 24, 2008

bilby What's youtube? Sep 24, 2008

Telofy Right, hence the restriction to one extra level as on youtube. The majority of reply urges would become satisfiable.
Besides, if the text would be smaller—the way I like it—the lines would be too long anyway, so indention would be rather beneficial. Sep 24, 2008

whichbe I agree with telofy, having a slight indent for a "reply" would be preferable--the only downside is the horizontal-squeezing-to-unreadability reply-reply-reply-reply-etc factor of multi-threaded comments. Sep 24, 2008

Telofy I'm also particularly fond of dual-level commenting structures as seen for example on youtube, for first-level comments usually address a broader audience, while with replies to comments there is often only a specific recipient, who could thus be easily informed once such interest in his stated opinion has been taken. Yet the necessity of restricting the structural depth of such conversation might be viewed as partially depriving the concept of its intrinsic theoretical elegance and purity... Whatever. Have fun. Sep 24, 2008

Telofy I know, No Squint just saves the scale for the entire site, so you don't have to resize each time you open a new page. Sep 24, 2008

vanishedone Ctrl and + or - resizes text in Firefox; I don't know how well it works with No Squint.

Sep 24, 2008

Telofy Hi, a handy feature would be to have customizable links to arbitrary sites after each word in lists and on the individual word pages that include a placeholder for the specific word. Much like the buttons up there, but customizable. For example when scrolling through lists I often don't know what a word means, and for me, being German, the simplest solution is to look it up in dict.cc. It would be very convenient if there was a link to "http://www.dict.cc/?s=$w" ($w being a placeholder) which opens dict.cc in a new tab.
Another feature I miss is some way of decreasing the font size. Many pages provide a way to customize the main font size, for with different screen resolutions and different diopter different sizes seem appropriate. Atm I'm using the firefox addon "No Squint" to scale the page to 80%, yet as everything (optionally except pictures) is scaled, the text which is small anyway becomes a bit too small.
Also I'm missing links/buttons for wiktionary.org lookups, and in case you have some way of obtaining it, the IPA pronunciation of words could prove valuable as well. So far I'm always looking it up on dictionary.com.

And thanks a lot for this marvelous site! Sep 24, 2008

Prolagus John, I think we need an easier facebook link. Most Wordies just type their name in the box! Sep 18, 2008

mollusque To follow particular words, just make a list of them. For people, type the URL for their profile page, e.g., http://wordie.org/people/profile/artbizness. You can collect the URLs in a list description. Instructions for linking URLs are given under the link for "Some html" above the comment box. Sep 18, 2008

artbizness Is there any way to "follow" poeple or words that you've taken an interest in other than RSS? Sep 18, 2008

vanishedone You know, there isn't actually any useful information on help, except regarding computer keyboards. Sep 17, 2008

tshap OK, thanks guys! Now I'm off to play around this site some more. Sep 17, 2008

reesetee Good explanation, John, and welcome tshap! I just wanted to add that John has added a new feature that allows Wordies to add private notes (no one else can see them). The link is at the top of each word page: "Leave a comment, citation, or private note." :-) Sep 17, 2008

john That's up to you really. There's a comment box on every word and list, as you see, and you can use it for whatever you want. Probably the majority of comments are us chatting to each other, but the site was originally conceived as a collaborative dictionary-like thing, so you'll also see people providing good examples of usage for a word. For example on each word in my reading the newspaper list I've added a citation from the article in which it was discovered. Sep 17, 2008

tshap Thanks, John. That was quick! That answered my question, but now I have just one more. Then I'll check out Errata. What's the difference between a comment and a citation? Sep 17, 2008

john Hi tshap, welcome! The definitions come from an open-source project called WordNet. If they don't provide a definition, then Wordie doesn't show one. Whether a word has a definition or not, adding new definitions or citations in the comments is encouraged. One of these days I'll work on a system to float up good comments and citations.

There's no official help pages or faq, but you'll find some useful info on help, faq, and the errata page listing posts on new features. Sep 17, 2008

tshap Sorry if this is in the wrong place, I couldn't find a Help or FAQ, and I have many "Q's". LOL

Why do some words have definitions, and some don't? And how do you add the definition? I new here and loving it! Sep 17, 2008

chained_bear I definitely agree that having private lists would/could remove quite a bit of serendipitous fun by allowing people to make non-public lists that they (probably erroneously) think wouldn't interest anyone else. But the same could be said for private comments, and we have those.

Anyway, it isn't a huge issue because there are any number of solutions for my own homely little case, but thanks for the general feedback.

I have had the same issue bilby has, with trying to find a word so I can move/delete it, but I've just been working around it. It's particularly "fun" on lists that have 500-100 words on them, but then... paging through these things is half the fun of having them listed, so my manual work-arounds don't bother me as much. :)

As for font size... I might use it to make text smaller so that I don't have to scroll as much. I might not. At work I have an enormous monitor, so I wouldn't need to make text bigger; at home it's smaller but right in my face, so ditto...

As for pagination of very commenty pages (like this one), I don't know about that... I find paging kind of annoying, and usually spend a few moments clicking "view all" whenever that option's available, on any site, so I don't have to click my way through things. I'd rather scroll. But probably people have many different opinions about this.

One of the things I love about the ongoing conversation on this page in particular is finding out all the different ways people use computers, from things as basic as scrolling/paging, to plug-ins and software and browser types. It's very edgimacational. Sep 10, 2008

bilby Hi John, I have 2 suggestions:
i) On a word page you can see on the right the 'appears in these lists' column. If you click on a linked list you are taken to the list page at the top. This is fine. However, if I click on one of my own lists, I would prefer not to be taken to the top of the list. I would rather be taken to the spot where the word appears in the list. The reason is that 99% of the time I'm going back to my own list so I can move the word or add it to another list. Therefore it would be useful to be right at the word rather than nonchalantly perched at the top of the list. If a list has a few hundred words, it's actually a fair bit of work to find the word: 'view all' and then do a search in page from your browser.
ii) When the 'Nobody is listing ...' page comes up, it would be interesting to see the nearest matches already in the database. Perhaps this would reduce some of the typos being listed. Yeah, I know, this would have been a great suggestion about 100,000 words ago :-7
Sep 10, 2008

Prolagus John, are you sure ctrl+ and ctrl- can't do the job well enough? For firefox users, there's also an add-on, Mouse Gestures Redoxk, that by the way I find very useful. Sep 10, 2008

john Oh, and c_b, you planted an idea. Would it be convenient to have buttons to change the size of the text? There's a lot of text, and people's eyes are different...

Someday, too, I'll add paging to words and lists with lots of comments. Someday. Sep 10, 2008

john There might well be a use for private lists, and I'm open to discussion and will go with the consensus, but I'm with rolig. A lot of happy serendipity might be missed, just because people weren't expecting it.

One thing I do plan on doing is letting people turn off comments on lists. If someone has a strictly practical list, or wants to mock us while avoiding the wordie treatment, I think they should be able to. Profiles will remain commentable, so if someone makes a list you love and closes comments, you can there will still be an avenue to make the case.

Not sure when that'll happen, though, I'm short on Wordie time these days, sadly.

Oh, and I think maybe comments were once sortable, judging from the state the code is in. I forget. I'll add that (or add it back) in the next update, too. Sep 10, 2008

rolig If we had had private lists last year, I would probably have made my Slovene vocabulary list private, simply because I would not have thought anyone else would be interested and some might even be annoyed seeing strange-looking words pop up on the Wordie home page with short practical definitions and a few notes about grammatical attributes. But had I done that I would never have had the pleasure of seeing some of these words find homes on other people's lists simply because they looked "neat", we would never have talked at length about the merits and deficiencies of celery and zucchini (zelena zelena), we would never have heard Prolagus's nighttime radio-anouncer voice (spedenan), and oplaziti would not have had a brief career as an earworm (earword?). All these things occurred quite serendipitously simply because I had no choice but to share this part of my professional skills-building with y'all. And I am glad of that. Of course people may want to have private lists (e.g. "Why I fantasize about Sarah P.") that can't be subjected to any Wordie Treatment. But the messy, gang-of-kids, brainstorming or brainfizzling aspect of Wordie is at the core of its charm. Sep 10, 2008

chained_bear Psst... She... I think you forgot to close the "small" in your post a few days ago! (I don't really mind, because this is a long page and it makes it easier to read! Just mentioning it in case you care...) Sep 9, 2008

chained_bear Say John, there wouldn't be much use or point in having private lists, would there? What does everyone else think? (Further thoughts/an example are here.)

That could be, VanishedOne. I remember the days when there were only two ways to order a list: order added (bottom to top) or cloud. (John, I LOVE the newish options, btw, if I haven't said so...) I don't recall there ever being a way to re-order comments, though. Sep 9, 2008

vanishedone I could have sworn that feature actually existed at some point... I'm not confusing it with list ordering, am I? Sep 7, 2008

rolig John, would it be possible to have the option to reverse the order of the comments on the word pages, with the oldest comments appearing at the top and the newest at the bottom? That way, if someone who hasn't been following the discussion on a word (or the digressions thereto) decides to find out what all the talk is about, he or she won't have to read everything from the bottom up. Sep 6, 2008

john Good idea pro, done. Sep 5, 2008

Prolagus John, is it possible for you to add a link to "some html is allowed" on profile pages? Sep 5, 2008

vanishedone Links made with square brackets seem not to work in private notes, though. Sep 3, 2008

mollusque Hyperlinks work in private notes! That must be good for something. *thinking*

How about private notes for lists and tags? Sep 3, 2008

Prolagus I told John. Sep 3, 2008

she I love(!) the idea of notes, particularly for saving reminders (as opposed to being secretive)—but right now, they're a little.. out-of-the-way for that? I'm afraid I won't be able to remember where I've left them. :(

Also, I move that cell-stretching full urls be forbidden in lists and lickspittle spammers be banished (spamished?) Sep 3, 2008

Prolagus "Personal in-jokes, stories, or references to words"? Sounds like the most interesting part of Wordie! So, whichie, when they are shareable, please do it! Sep 3, 2008

chained_bear Thanks, whichbe and Pro. I can probably find some good uses for the feature that I hadn't thought of, in the process of fixing my disastrous dinosaur lists. *sigh* Sep 3, 2008

whichbe Oh, well, my first use was for the Demons list. There's a handful of demons on the list that shouldn't be there, there's lots that I haven't looked up in google, and lots that I have. Sometimes a look-up is not very fruitful, and this provides me with a 'post-it note' saying so. And I can also throw in any info that's relevant but too generic or uninteresting to post to all users, i.e. "Russian demon".

Another use is for personal in-jokes, stories, or references to words. That is, if I want to remember a particular story behind a word it's a place where I can quickly scribe the data. Like a reflexive memory-flag that isn't meant for public banter. Sep 3, 2008

Prolagus I was very skeptical about that feature. But now, I'm using it for the Italian translation of some words, when it can't be of any interest to you.
I think I'll create a list to keep track of the words I added a private note to. So I'll bother you anyway. :-) Sep 3, 2008

chained_bear Whichbe, may I ask what you are finding the feature most useful for? (I know what I'd use them for but I'm curious what others are doing.)

Signed, So Far Behind I'm Only Now Getting the Hang of Tagging. Sep 3, 2008

whichbe I've been using the private notes feature this morning...it's quite useful for keeping track of some things. Thanks. Sep 3, 2008

reesetee Private notes! Yahoo! Thanks, John! Aug 30, 2008

chained_bear John! John! I just noticed the private note feature and came here to squeal about it. Cool! Coolio! Megacool! I'm going to play with it if I ever get done with these friggin' dinosaurs and not-dinosaurs.

Thanks! Great idea! Aug 30, 2008

john Hi bilb. Yes, we have a cloud feature. Activate it by clicking 'cloud' under any list title :-) It is, as c_b notes, kind of broken, I think. I'll check it out this weekend.

Everybody: we now also have a 'private notes' feature. Leave notes on words just for yourself. It probably needs work (suggestions appreciated), and I probably broke various things while I was at it, since I also rashly upgraded a bunch of stuff on the server without really testing any of it. Let me know what's gone sideways, and I'll fix. Aug 30, 2008

bilby We have a cloud feature? Aug 27, 2008

chained_bear Yes, rt. I don't get any emails at all.

Edit: to change the subject almost entirely (sorry all), John, I have a question about the "cloud" feature. Is it not possible for the cloud option to show all the words on a list on the same page? I guess that can get really dicey with longer lists, but I use the cloud feature a lot to make sure I'm not adding something twice, or adding something with a slight variation if I've forgotten there's something already there just like it, etc. Just wondering! Thanks. Aug 26, 2008

reesetee I think that happens only if you sign up for it, whichbe. Aug 26, 2008

whichbe frindley: minor point--if someone posts on one of your lists, you will get an email about it, like with the comments on a profile... Aug 26, 2008

chained_bear I'm not sure a wall-to-wall feature wouldn't dilute the main purpose of the site, as you mentioned toward the end of your post, frindley. The point here is listing words (and commenting on them), not social networking (though obviously that goes on as well). If it were easier to network with individual users than it already is, via (for example) a wall-to-wall, I think it would change the essential character of the site.

As for the fragmented nature of conversations, that's all over the site, not just on profiles. Though for myself only, I try to keep conversations together or else post comments that link them back to wherever they started. But that's my own personal use and I don't expect anyone else to care. Aug 26, 2008

frindley It seems to me that commenting on profiles is the only reliable way of carrying on a specific conversation via Wordie, and that's because you receive a notification when someone comments on your profile, whereas you don't if they use word or list comments to "talk" to you. But it does mean that you only ever see one side of a conversation on any given profile. If a Wall-to-Wall type feature could be achieved without clutter or spoiling Wordie's simplicity then I'd be all for that.

But perhaps it's better as is. Conversations on profiles aren't terribly convenient to sustain and so we focus our attention on the things that really matter on this site! Aug 26, 2008

seanahan I actually don't really care for comments on profiles. A good percentage are referring to (but not linking) random conversations around Wordie, leading to terrible fragmentation. My profile, for example, is a complete hodge podge of comments, most of which are indecipherable to even me, not that I mind too much, but some of the profiles that have a lot of comments kind of get out of hand.

Perhaps having that part of the profile on a separate page would alleviate this. Aug 26, 2008

reesetee Just to be clear: I have no problem with that function either; in this case it was simply the context in which it occurred that bothered me. Aug 25, 2008

chained_bear Ptero, just checked and saw that too (that one can delete anyone's comments on one's own lists). John, like ptero, I don't have a problem with that either. It may not be a bad thing to be able to control the comments on one's own created lists, especially if the list is not public.

It's true that not all Wordie users are going to be as careful as you (John) are about not deleting anyone else's comments, but it should be all right in the end. Most users seem to respect Wordieternity.

I've noticed that one can delete only one's own comments on word pages, though, and you can only delete tags that you added yourself. (Is this true of tag lists (for lack of a better term) also? If so, is it the way you intended?) I think since word pages are public by definition, it's perfectly fair that you can only delete your own comments there.

But for one's profile, and possibly one's "private" lists, it's okay with me for a user to have some control. Aug 25, 2008

reesetee Yes, ptero, that's true about one's own list pages. Aug 25, 2008

frindley Since mobile wordie has recently received a plug, I have a feature suggestion for that.

At present in the mobile version we can add words to existing lists and we can follow the recent comments. But it's virtually not possible to add comments to new words (a huge minus for me, since I rarely add a word without wanting to say something about it right then and there). It's also virtually not possible to contribute to conversations via the mobile version.

I say "virtually not possible" because I did discover one day when my train was delayed that it is possible to go through a circuitous process that effectively brings up the regular version of the site onto my mobile screen, at which point I can do all the normal things, albeit in a pretty clumsy interface. Basically it involves clicking on a username (e.g. from a comment header), which takes you to that profile in the non-mobile version. From there you have access to searching and other functions. But it's pretty clunky. Indeed it's probably a bug - but please don't fix it before adding these features…

1. ability to search for words
2. ability to comment on words Aug 25, 2008

pterodactyl I agree with c_b and rt that one's profile should remain under one's control.

I also want to point out that I can delete comments made on any of my lists, no matter who the commenter is. As far as I can recall, it's always been this way. I don't really have a problem with it. Aug 25, 2008

reesetee I agree, c_b. Aug 25, 2008

chained_bear John, regarding your comment for reesetee on my profile:

"1 minute ago John said:
Reesetee, a comment of yours really disappeared? I'm supposed to be the only one able to delete comments other than their own, and I've never done it. If anyone has found a bug that lets someone mess with someone else's stuff, please let me know quickly (by email, not here!), and I'll plug that hole as quickly as possible."

I've noticed for a while that one can delete comments on one's own profile. I would like to keep that feature/bug, if at all possible. I think an individual ought to be able to control his/her own profile at least, though I can see how you'd like to protect people's comments elsewhere. My two cents.

Perhaps other wordie denizens have opinions about this...?
Aug 25, 2008

bilby Fusc me, if I made a comment more than 2 days ago I have difficulty remembering it. Wordie has the comments in chronologickle order so we can see how things pan out. I don't mind how things are. I'm easily pleased. Aug 14, 2008

chained_bear I don't know, a timestamp seems so... normal websites use those. This is Wordie! Plus I like the vagueness. I was just wondering exactly how vague they are...

But yarb's second suggestion, for metalisting? Oh PLEASE!!! Please please!! Pretty please with some nice cute animals on top?! *quivers with joy* Aug 14, 2008

yarb I would really like an option to see timestamp on comments, rather than "...ago". With older comments, I find it adds something to know exactly how far apart in time they were made.

Also: how about a metalist feature? I.e. a way to list lists in the same way we currently list words? Aug 13, 2008

chained_bear John, I don't have a suggestion, or even a bug report, but just a curious question: the oldest comments all seem to say "about 1 year ago." Is this the highest the counter goes? I.e., are there comments that were made more than 1 year ago, but the counter still says 1 year ago? Just wondering! Aug 13, 2008

rolig I think it's a good idea, bestiary, and I can certainly see myself taking advantage of private notes, but I have to say that I have come to value the open, at times perhaps even intrusively public nature of Wordie, which can be both annoying and delightful, and I suspect that private notes will diminish that. Jul 29, 2008

bestiary oh, i wouldn't want to see a decline in comments either, rolig! i know exactly what you mean. i saw keeping notes private primarily as a way to draw as clear as possible a distiction between their purpose and that of comments (thus avoiding comments on a word-note being left on someone's list when they'd be more appropriate on the word's respective page, etc.), making them less likely to be seen as commenting replacements. a simple reminder to that effect beside the input box ("notes are private; only you can see them. if you think others might like to see this, you may want to leave a comment") would help as well. — another thought would be to give the option to submit a note and a comment simultaneously (–though i could see that potentially producing spam), or to have a separate "submit and view word" button to take you to the word's page to leave a comment, rather than back to your list, upon submitting a note.

in any case, i think the personal benefits outweigh potential losses, which seem simple enough to mitigate. :)

"aminals" was most certainly intentional! i see you're unfamiliar with enthusiastic metathesis. Jul 29, 2008

rolig I sort-of like the idea of private notes. I might, for example, use them in my Slovene word lists. But at the same time I am ambivalent. I have been pleasantly surprised when someone responds positively to what, for me, is simply an academic gloss on a Slovene word, and maybe even makes a suggestion about how to translate it. An interesting discussion with Bilby, for instance, developed around the word uglajen.

Private word notes might protect some words from getting the Wordie treatment, but some of the fun, and risk, of Wordie would get lost, too. I (or someone else) wouldn't be able to chide Bestiary about the misspelling of (of all things!) the word "animals" in the note for "zoopraxiscope" in the example he (she?) provides. So I guess I'm ambivalent. Jul 29, 2008

jennarenn I would love that feature as well! Jul 29, 2008

bestiary oh, wonderful! :) expect a very enthusiastic reception, here. Jul 29, 2008

john Bestiary, great idea, I've wanted to do something along those lines for a while. Can't promise a delivery date but it's on the list. Jul 29, 2008

bestiary i think it would be neat if we could add a note beside each word on our lists (private, i'd think, so not to take the action away from comments) to serve as little reminders, directly on the page, for quick-reference (e.g., definitions or pronunciations you tend to forget, associated quotes, synonyms, "this is a good word to call bob," etc. — without having to put redundant/only personally relevant things in comments or having to click on each individual word). people with unwieldy lists and those with a focus on vocab-building would find this particularly useful! — or, well, i can confirm that one person would. :)

i took a few minutes to see if i could whip up a decent-looking example (wordie's all nice and clean; i wondered what might be a way that wouldn't disturb the flow of things), and came up with this:

drop.io/wordienotes (—the .html file's the example, and the .txt file has the only snippet of html i really messed with. notice the blue-grey of any links to other words within notes! the rest of the text is the same grey as the dividing dotted lines.)

er yes. so there's that. (just trying to be helpful! haha. don't mind me. *twiddles thumbs*) Jul 29, 2008

sionnach I have been pruning my list of lists, which had been getting out of hand. A couple of the candidates for deletion, however, are open lists which I started, but which other folks have contributed to. Two questions:

1. Can I delete this type of list?
2. If the answer to the previous question is 'yes', I assume that all entries on the list would be purged. Which raises a question of etiquette - do I have the right to delete an entire list to which other people have contributed?

The immediate impetus for this question is provided by the list:
Actors whose mere presence in a movie will cause me to change the channel immediately , but the question is a general one.

A related question is whether it is possible to see how many times a given list has been made a favorite, as this might influence one's decision whether or not to keep a particular list.

Thoughts? Comments? Jul 20, 2008

bilby Nice solution jenn! Jul 20, 2008

mollusque Now why didn't I think of that? First one I tried, list 12, has 12 words. What are the chances of that? Jul 20, 2008

jennarenn bilby, we don't need a random list feature. You just type in http://wordie.org/lists/ and add a jumble of numbers after that. It's pretty entertaining. :) Jul 19, 2008

dontcry I DO like toast... Jul 19, 2008

mollusque A list can be reordered by moving words to a place-holder list and then moving them back in the desired sequence. It's time-consuming though. Jul 18, 2008

plethora You could try some crow on toast, dc. Jul 18, 2008

dontcry which - I take it back. I don't know what got in to me today. I'm feeling particularly scorpioptic.

Let's me and you go to the Verbal Arms later and I'll have a crowtini, eh? Jul 18, 2008

trivet pps: I enjoy the new and improved This week on Wordie sidebar. Thanks, John! Jul 18, 2008

trivet I like that the order of your words isn't editable outside of an alpha sort (which is very handy, ps). Jul 18, 2008

dontcry Is there a way I can tag pronoun displacements? Jul 18, 2008

whichbe Is there a way I can tag smarmy comments? Jul 18, 2008

dontcry If bibly gets a 'fresh coffee' button, I want a 'waffle' button. *crosses arms, stomps foot* Jul 18, 2008

dontcry which: "Me and MissAnthropist"...? Really? Jul 18, 2008

bilby It's close. But John does god work around here. Jul 18, 2008

johnmperry Will this help meanwhile? Jul 18, 2008

bilby I'd like a 'fresh coffee' button which will, when clicked, almost instantaneously cause fresh-brewed East Timor organic robusta to pour forth from the speakers. I have recently purchased twin espresso cups and placed them strategically for this purpose. Jul 18, 2008

whichbe Me and MissAnthropist were having a discussion and agreed that being able to re-order the sequence of words on a list be would make the site far more appealing to OCD list-makers such as us. It seems between the "order added" and the "alpha" we miss the ability to re-shape the tone, message, and experience of the list once it's up there. Jul 18, 2008

gangerh I don't think the 'most commented on' feature is updating itself. Jul 18, 2008

mollusque John, how about a link to see more of the recently listed words than show on the homepage? Ideally with the ability to keep browsing back, as with comments. Jul 17, 2008

john cookie!

whichbe, that's a great idea. not least because it won't take me much work :-) on the list.
Jul 17, 2008

whichbe This is a minor, useless idea, but I think it'd be cute if listed with a word somewhere is a little count of how many times it's on someone's "Favorites" list. This would be kind of like how with a YouTube video there's such a count... Jul 17, 2008

jennarenn OH MY GOSH!!!! John, I love the new "most active threads" feature. You are *so* getting the cookie recipie. Jul 16, 2008

she I didn't really foresee wanting this, but the ability to block certain words whose comments you'd rather not see on the front page when you're logged in would be dandy. Jul 16, 2008

Prolagus Yes, but it should list both words and discussions. I think John CAN. Jul 16, 2008

chained_bear Hear hear! Good idea. Jul 15, 2008

pterodactyl As per the discussion on this list, I present an idea for some god work that John could do in his copious free time:

How about, in addition to the "Most Wordied, Past 7 Days" list on the home page, a "Most Commented On, Past 7 Days" list? I think it'd be really useful to be able to see at glance which words have been getting all the commenty action recently.

*respectfully bows and backs away* Jul 15, 2008

reesetee Pro, you fixin' to steal that tiny Emmy from tiny, she-shoulder-sitting chained_bear? I wouldn't try it. Look how she reacts to cupcake flinging. :-\

But back to the subject...sure, it can be a chore plowing through the citations of an enthusiastic Wordie. But we can handle it. Still, I do like the suggestions for finding ways around it, Wordie being an ever-evolving site. :-)

And if I haven't said it already, welcome, she! Jul 11, 2008

chained_bear She, as someone who's been on the receiving end of some comments in the past about the volume of words (or more specifically, comments) being added in a day... It just isn't a big deal. If you add 300 words a day, how long can that possibly go on? A week? Ten days? Two weeks? The rest of us who hang out here all the time, or visit periodically, can suck it up and look for new words and new comments in new ways. It isn't like there's any shortage of interesting features on this site.

That said, I do think that people suggesting new features, filters, and a "more" button for recent words is a great idea.

And that said, "You can do it! Go on. They're just playa-hatin'." But I'm not sure you'd want me on your shoulder, what with the occasional tappen and all. *blushing* Jul 11, 2008

Prolagus I want it too! But only if an even smaller Emmy is included. Jul 11, 2008

she Well, it's born of not wanting to make it harder for anyone else to enjoy the site, and if I'm adding words too quickly for anyone to possibly keep up (I like the sharing as much as the list-building), it doesn't really seem like the best way to go about things. But I'd certainly have no problem going to town if there were some way for the people it might bother to control the noise, if they like, and better digest things. (I'm also beginning to think it would be a nice idea to have a little c_b sitting on my shoulder during the day. "You can do it! Go on. They're just playa-hatin'.") Jul 11, 2008

chained_bear While I'm thinking about your idea for this new feature, she, may I just remark that you can and should use Wordie however you like, without feeling guilty? Jul 11, 2008

she I had a thought, just now, on a way to possibly arm ourselves when navigating the front page—What if we had the (functional rather than social; I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks "friend"ing usually amounts to fluff) ability to mark "familiar users," that we could see, unsee, or isolate (as a group) when browsing? That is, marking as "familiar" the people you see most often (those repeatedly Wordiest, in particular, and anyone you'd like to keep track of) would let you: temporarily ignore new lists, words, and comments of theirs in recent activity (solving the issue of congestion caused by one person adding hundreds of words in one day! which I am guilty of, but would love to be able to do again without feeling guilty)—leaving only those of all the users not on that list, making it easier to spot things which you might have otherwise missed; or, temporarily view new lists, words, and comments only from "familiar" users (useful for chatching up after you've been browsing with those users filtered out, and a quicker way of getting up-to-date, if you've been away). The logical default would be set to showing everyone's recent activity, "familiar" and not, and those with no interest in using any filters wouldn't have to.

So yes, filtering. Is this doable—? And appealing? (Seems to me, especially as the site grows, that some sort of filtery feature would work in the interest of general Wordie-sanity.) Jul 11, 2008

Prolagus If you have a google toolbar, you could add a button like this. Jul 3, 2008

mariecarnes I'd like one of those little javascript function bookmarklet things that sits on the bookmarks toolbar of a browser for a quick and easy way to add words. Also, it could have a place to make a comment, and it could have a drop-down menu for our various lists. I hope this isn't too much to ask. If you already have one, please point me to the way. Thank you. Jul 3, 2008

bilby Thanks John. Have a look at, for example, loquacious for a different kind of pagination issue. A lot of the 'listed by' entries aren't of much interest to me. turd's Words by turd lists are of much less interest than lists with intriguing titles, usually those that are NOT a user's default first list on Wordie. I'd like a toggle to screen those out. There aren't many words in the loquacious zone yet but this problem will get worse as time goes on. Jun 25, 2008

john Oh, and comment paging on words would be nice. This page and some of the other standing conversations are a bit much to scroll through. Jun 25, 2008

john Sorry to have been incommunicado for so long. I totally agree, comment grouping is badly needed, and by Word is a great suggestion. So great, I can't believe we all missed it earlier, though Asatvium was close :-)

I've been mucking around with some of the low-level code, and need to do a bit more of that before I can focus on featues. And I'm ridiculously overbooked these days. But the next big feature will be comment grouping by word, unless anyone has other suggestions for priority. I'd like an API too, but dealing with the flood of comments seems more important. Jun 25, 2008

asativum I'll second Pro (as long as no duels are involved).

Much neater than the solution I had been mulling, which was listing comments by time, so I could remember that I'd been gone a couple days and find my place.

Jun 25, 2008

Prolagus John, I am starting to feel the need for a "conversations of the last 24 hours, grouped by word page" option. I mean, having in the main page a link to another page where you can see all that Wordies wrote, but with a single link for all the conversations that took place on the same page. Jun 24, 2008

reesetee A little late to the party here, but:

I agree 100% with Asativum, c_b (and everyone else) who says nix to a friends feature. There are truly enough sites where one can do that--and I might remind newcomers that we do have a Wordie group on Facebook. :-) As for book lovers, a few Wordies have also linked on LibraryThing, for what it's worth.

And Pro--thank you for hating me the most. It warms my heart. :-D Palooka, I'd have added you as my very first friend. So get your butt over to Facebook. ;-) Jun 16, 2008

jberkel API would be nice. I want a geeky command line client to add words... Jun 16, 2008

bilby I'd like a Random List feature. Random Word is fine, I use it almost daily. Random List will be good too. Jun 13, 2008

Prolagus I created the tag bookie. Jun 13, 2008

pterodactyl No friends lists, please! I don't distinguish between "fellow Wordie user" and "friend", and I've no intention of starting. :-) Jun 13, 2008

Prolagus TYP, I'm sure you can write your favorited on book (or maybe on books) and people will follow. Otherwise, there are many readers' networks suggestions on the "you" page, and a couple of applications on facebook (I use "books iRead"). Jun 13, 2008

taciturnyetprolix You drive a hard bargin my friend. Jun 13, 2008

dontcry OK -- but only books with words. Jun 13, 2008

taciturnyetprolix Wordie book club anyone? I'd imagine most of us are avid readers. Jun 13, 2008

Prolagus This conversation will make it even harder to find the feature requests :-D that's Wordie, folks! Jun 13, 2008

Prolagus Oh, I can't pretend any longer. I don't hate you, guys. (weeping) Jun 13, 2008

palooka Bilby's so cool. I couldn't put him on my enemies list - in fact I can't think of any Wordie to add. You're all great people. Jun 13, 2008

bilby I'm sorry, I just can't hate you, Pro. I can try being precociously indifferent for a while if you think that would help. Jun 13, 2008

Prolagus Oh, palooka, there is hatebook, for that... Jun 13, 2008

asativum Ooh. Haven't been here in a bit. My thoughts, for what they're worth*:

Friends: No, no, no. Please? No? We have oodles of other social networking sites for friends (or "friends"). Wordie is for words, and words about words, and wordiness. (Or is that Wordieness?) I don't need friends. I need words. Words are my friends.

Forum: I love that Wordie is so aggressively linear about its nonlinearity. Forums are too easy. This way, it's like a big conversation. Or really, a bunch of them, at a very strange garden party. Only you can rewind and revisit conversations, if you can find them again in the crowd, behind the topiary where you left them. Or something.

Bulk add: Let's just keep bickering about it for a while.


* About $0.63 Canadian, but that's for the lot of them. Jun 13, 2008

palooka I'm convinced the friend system won't work here. Maybe we could be different & institute an enemies list. Prolagus has two for his list already.
I wouldn't mind having 837 enemies with 200 on the waiting list. Jun 13, 2008

plethora Awww, I hate you too, Pro :) Jun 13, 2008

Prolagus I wouldn't. I hate you. But I hate reesetee even more, as everybody knows.
Actually, I hate you all. Jun 13, 2008

palooka Would you have added me as a friend, c_b? I didn't think so. *sobs* Jun 13, 2008

bilby Which button do you press to make bears chime? I want to try this at home. Jun 13, 2008

chained_bear I'll chime in here and say, again, that Wordie is so awesome *precisely* because there's no way to really link to other users (unless you favorite them). This isn't a networking site for people. It's a networking site for WORDS. That's what makes it so cool. There are tons of other networking sites out there for people; there aren't any others (that I know of) for words. The conversations here have to revolve around the words. Or lists. Not politics or people—just words. That's the very simple beauty of it--I hope it stays that way! :)

Very much enjoying the conversations, even though I haven't had much to contribute lately. Jun 13, 2008

Prolagus Moreover, we can link to many social networking websites on our profile page! Jun 13, 2008

palooka I'm steadfastly against an adding friends feature. I mean, who would add me as a friend? No one. I'd be shamed off Wordie.
I just think the idea of having 837 friends and a waiting list of 200 more to be sort of ludicrous. Jun 13, 2008

alincarman im with you. that way people dont have to worry about dealing with other people and can have fun if you want to talk to your friend call them or chat on messenger. Jun 13, 2008

vanishedone I'm not keen on that one; I'd sooner enjoy the words without having to worry about friend list politics on this as well as those other sites. Jun 13, 2008

cheekyboots I'd like a way to add friends, like other social networking sites have. Jun 12, 2008

skipvia Not to be too contrary, but I'd opt for just the opposite of gangerh's suggestion for expanding the "Most Citations..." and other lists pertaining to specific Wordies. Why not eliminate them altogether and focus solely on words? Jun 12, 2008

vanishedone wordie.org/words/features?o=asc to have the page sort comments with the most recent next to the box. Maybe the sort buttons should be made more prominent.

Edit: oh, and it doesn't seem to work when the page reloads after posting. Jun 12, 2008

gangerh As we all (humans, that is) like recognition, increasing the Most Citations (last 7 days) list may encourage more Wordies to contribute to the Comment Feed. Perhaps to 20 names. Jun 12, 2008

seanahan I'm 99% certain that he meant campaign, as in a "promotional campaign".

While I'm posting here, it is somewhat difficult to post here and then scroll all the way to the top to read the relevant comment. I think that we are reaching the point where some simple sort of paging may be necessary, although I'm not sure if a simple page redesign might make this easier. Jun 12, 2008

vanishedone I thought you meant you were going to ply people with alcohol until I looked up champaign and discovered it's about land.

Once you're recruited more people there'll promptly be complaints about the increasing difficulty of keeping up with all the conversations going on; I agree that the current front page is inflexible, but what's to be done for people who do like at least to skim everything that's passed overnight? Filtering people out would prevent our seeing comments of theirs which we might want to see.

Maybe filtering types of comment ('chat' vs. 'definition/citation') is what's required, but it would require comments to be marked as such. There's some discussion from five and seven months ago on this page related to possibilities like that. Jun 10, 2008

whichbe Yeesh. Well, my apologies if my explosive use of Wordie in the last month has been blowing out other users. Obviously I love this site.

In regards to limiting inputted words per day, I'm down for it, but perhaps there's a less imposing manner this can be done besides the "hard-limit". Perhaps the idea of a more personally-configurable front page would really make things work, wherein there's a wide-variety of "types" of feeds that can be presented on the main page, and the user picks what they want. I like this idea a lot, and perhaps some of the selectable feed options could be where certain users can be filtered in or out? Or perhaps "filter out the most active users"?

I think to honor the site, I'm going to go on a bit of a promotional champaign this week for Wordie, to bring in new users... Jun 10, 2008

yarb I feel the same, bilby, but the answer is to get more users contributing, thereby evening out the flow. I hope wordie grows, so that it becomes harder for a single user to clog up the front page. We can still follow particular wordies with feeds, if we want. Word limits would be a backward step.

Personally I'm not a fan of amateur 'definitions' from e.g. Wikipedia - I'd much rather see a citation. I wouldn't want to ban them though. Jun 10, 2008

sionnach Oh, Pro: you could write the TOEFL questions. But don't worry, nobody in his right mind would allow my convoluted syntax and lousy punctuation make it to any kind of test without major editing. Jun 10, 2008

Prolagus I hope your last comment won't be in my TOEFL test next month, sionnach. I'm not sure I will ever be able to understand it. Jun 10, 2008

sionnach Not sure I understand your reasoning there, bilby. Why is it becoming necessary? Does the rate of addition of new words affect usability that adversely?

It does seem less likely that someone hellbent on achieving some kind of monumental word total in short order will actually contribute much in the way of intelligent commentary on the words that are being so assiduously added, and the empirical evidence seems to support this. But then we get into that murky territory where one person's intelligent commentary is another's fatuous platitude.

But, was that what you meant about 'usability'? Or was it something else? Or should I just be tiptoeing away silently, backing away from this whole, potentially incendiary, subject?

These remarks, it should be noted, are rooted essentially in blissful ignorance of developments in the past month, as I only had time to check in once or twice while in Mexico. Jun 10, 2008

bilby It's a kind of anti-feature really: a limit on the number of words a single user can add in a day, or a week. I know we all have our moments of being 'swept away', but the reality is that a single user adding enormous numbers of words can detract from the useability of the site for others. I'd suggest 50 words a day, which pains me. Unfortunately, it's becoming necessary. Jun 10, 2008

taciturnyetprolix I agree, and there is no reason that couldn't still go on while also having a forum.

But, I also think that it would be easier for a random browser to find a conversation if it is indexed in a forum as a opposed to finding a conversation by chance. That means more participants.

Also, the current format pretty much limits conversation to words. A forum would facillitate a greater range of topics. We can find out what we share with fellow wordies aside from logophilia. Jun 9, 2008

Prolagus Well, I think part of the fun is having the conversations anywhere in the site, based on our Pindar's flights, isn't it? Jun 9, 2008

taciturnyetprolix Is there any way we could get a forum? There seems to be a lot of avenues for discussion that this site brings about which could be pursued in a forum or message board. Jun 9, 2008

vanishedone We can't just use Google with site:wordie.org either. Any Web search engines that have better wildcard support? May 14, 2008

bilby Is there a way of doing wildcard searches? Someone listed a word a few days ago that started haber- but I couldn't remember the end of it today. So I did a search on haber* ...
Nobody is listing haber*. Why don't you? May 14, 2008

chained_bear yep. frequently. Apr 30, 2008

sionnach

Everything related to google appears to be loading at a glacial pace and/or timing out this morning, possibly because of their cute new 'artists' feature. I'm running Firefox on a PC. The slowness of google is independent of Wordie, but seems to be slowing down Wordie, maybe because of the ads.

Are other people experiencing this slowness as well, or is it just me? Apr 30, 2008

chained_bear Also, I've done some bulk adding in my day--manually, I mean--and it really doesn't take THAT long. Then, too, if you already have 20,000 words listed somewhere off Wordie, it's not a bad idea to go through them manually and enjoy each one of them again as you enter it. Apr 28, 2008

bilby I still say 'no' to bulk adding.
Every word is sacred.
Every word is good.
:-) Apr 28, 2008

Prolagus John, I have an idea for a new phrase to be typed in the home page:
"Problems? Disagreement? Arguments? Join the discussion here. Apr 28, 2008

gangerh Has the time come for Wordie to introduce capital punishment? Apr 28, 2008

optimusprime On the point of bulk add, I do agree that allowing people to dump huge text files (ie, entire works, books, stuff from the e-Gutenberg project) would not be a good idea. But for those of us who do have lists of words, allowing 20-30 words to be added at a time would be great, and should be enough to protect against spamming. Apr 27, 2008

pterodactyl I'm going to hesitantly raise my hand and make my first feature suggestion...

Over at this brilliant list that Prolagus created, I've been having fun trying to deduce the occupations of my fellow wordies, and it would be a good deal easier if I could sort the words by which user contributed them. What about a "sort by contributor" button for open lists?

And thanks as always, John, for all your work on this excellent site!

Apr 27, 2008

frindley Bewdiful! Apr 27, 2008

john Frindley, you can use something called a character entity to print out characters; if you use the character entities for square brackets, Wordie interprets them differently than if you used actual brackets, and doesn't insert a link.

The character entities for left and right brackets are &#91; and &#93; respectively, so wrapping a word in those characters in the comment form (like this: &#91;bracketed&#93;) will result in a [bracketed], but not linked, word in the resulting comment. Apr 27, 2008

frindley That's what I've been doing too, and they certainly do the trick. But the geekette at heart is curious as to whether there is a neat technical solution. Apr 27, 2008

chained_bear Frindley, I have been using the shift+bracket key for that. It makes ... those squiggly brackets, the ones that have some serious name that's a word I don't know yet. <--Those. Does that help? Apr 27, 2008

frindley Help please: If, in a comment, I want to put square brackets around a word or phrase – not to link to a word or phrase entry, but simply to use the brackets as punctuation, e.g. editorial aside, or because it's in the original source for a citation – how do I do that? Apr 27, 2008

mollusque Hey John, how about random list feature? Apr 27, 2008

john M, P, P & G, I'm sold. Come to think of it, I was sold the first time this came up, when the same good arguments were made. Then I forgot about it. Oops. Apr 27, 2008

Prolagus John, I think it would be nice to have the option to view open lists sorted by "popularity", other than by "order added". Apr 27, 2008

Prolagus However gangerh's comment continues, I'll agree with him. Apr 27, 2008

gangerh John, this is serious.
I'm a relative newcomer to Wordie. My passion for just one word has been noted by others. My passion for Wordie has not, though 'tis greater than that for that word.
Wordie is unique. You have created a masterpiece. On a canvas that absorbs one word at a time. That allows all the chance to observe the word, create something of their own, and stimulate further thought and imagination such that wasn't happening before.
.........to be continued
Apr 26, 2008

palooka I also cast my vote against unlimited bulk add. I echo the sentiments that the fun of Wordie is observing how people selectively choose & enter specific words that have meaning or fascination for them. I'd hate to see some uncaring, even malicious person simply enter an entire dictionary full of words into wordie as a prank.

A 25 word or so limit to bulk adding would be useful. Apr 26, 2008

Prolagus I thank mollusque for saying what I wanted to say far better than I could.
I think even 50 words per day would be too many. 25, maybe, reasonable enough.

(Today is maybe day for me.) Apr 26, 2008

mollusque John, I don't think bulk adding is a good idea. I have a database of more than 300,000 English words. I also have one online of more than 15,000 Latin words. If I started bulk adding those into Wordie, it could substantially change the character of the site.

Words being selected and sorted into lists is part of what makes Wordie interesting. Also, some people enjoy being the first to add a word. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was the first to add nourishment. It gave me a moment of pleasure to think Wordie has been without nourishment all this time. With additions at random, following people's whimsies, it will be years till all the common words have been entered. Bulk adding of dictionary files would wipe out that simple pleasure.

That said, I could see a limited bulk-add feature, say 25 or 50 words at time. People often develop themed lists off-line, and being able to add them rapidly would be nice. Apr 26, 2008

bilby I'd probably be against bulk add. The current rate of adding, plus the regular spurts - reesetee with ornithological opus in hand for example - is about right. For the record I'm not the kind of person who is against change simply because it's not like what we have now. One of Wordie's strengths is the simplicity of its features. In a cluttered world ...
It's not the add I'm concerned about, it's the bulk. Such a squat, sweaty, pigeon-toed word wearing cheap trainers. No. Apr 26, 2008

Prolagus I think in a week Wordie would have the whole Divine Comedy and all Shakespeare's writings. But maybe I'm wrong. Apr 26, 2008

john OP, bulk add is a good idea. It was actually one of the first feature requests way back when, but it fell between the cracks. I'll add it to the list--though I don't have much Wordie time these days, sadly, so not sure when it'll appear.

If you're technically inclined you might be able to script your own bulk loader. If you do, please limit inserts to some sane rate -- every other second or less. Someone used wget to bulk load a large list a while back, and knocked down the site :-) Apr 26, 2008

asativum Shan't miss oddocomplete myself; tripped me up too often. If it returns, perhaps it can be something each Wordie can turn on/off. (Hey John, I avoided user!)

Bulk add would be cool, OP. But maybe tough to protect it from spambots? Apr 26, 2008

optimusprime Am I crazy, or is there no way to bulk add words? I have txt files full of words I have been keeping for years that I would love to dump into Wordie, but I am not going to type them out one by one.

Is there a combinatoric I can use to put multiple words in the same field? Apr 26, 2008

bilby I'm with VO, I had a lot of odd results with the auto thingy.

Wishing you Many Fruity Returns of the Season. Apr 24, 2008

chained_bear VO, that happened a lot to me too. Apr 24, 2008

reesetee Yes, it was rather...oddocomplete. Apr 24, 2008

Prolagus ...I wasn't a fan of autocomplete either. Apr 23, 2008

vanishedone Autocomplete seemed to have a habit of foisting its suggestions upon me if I pressed Return before it disappeared, even though I hadn't selected any of them, so I shan't miss it much... though it did exhibit a WeirdNet-like propensity to put odd results at the top sometimes. Apr 23, 2008

mollusque John, perhaps search with autocomplete could be moved to the "more searches" page, which would be a better place for it anyway. If you reinstate it, perhaps you could let it show more than 10 examples. Apr 23, 2008

john Prolagus, I'm sorry! If I am a userist, you are on my 'nice user' list. Though I don't much like the term "user." Besides tech there's only one other group of people called users: junkies :-)

Mollusque, I did turn off autocomplete. It uses up a lot of server juice, and traffic has been climbing lately, so I needed to lighten the load to keep things responsive. Wildcarding would be nice -- someday I hope to revisit search.

Alangager, you can link to other users, but you have to do it manually, there's no shortcut like there is with words. To do so, you'd wrap the words you want to link in html, like this:

<a href="/people/profile/alangager">alangager</a>

That results in a link like this: alangager Apr 23, 2008

alangager Am I missing something or can you link to other users? Apr 23, 2008

trivet John - The public service ads are much more soothing than the regular google ads. Apr 23, 2008

mollusque John, the auto-suggest/complete function in the word search box no longer works. Did you remove it, or is this a bug? Also, any chance of getting a pattern search working? Something with wildcards? Apr 23, 2008

chained_bear John only recently added the "public lists" feature, so there just aren't that many open lists yet. I'm sure that will change over time. Don't be sad. :| Apr 18, 2008

Prolagus OK, got the message :-(
I don't think I'll ever duplicate a list I like, though. My new challenge will be finding different open lists, on a different topic, in which the same words can fit...
(this is gonna be painfully hard) Apr 18, 2008

chained_bear I don't consider any list dead. Ever. I'd be crushed if I came back to Wordie and my lists were all open--that's just not what I signed up for. Even now, I don't always open my lists. But, reesetee's point about there being a lot of similar lists already is well taken. There's nothing stopping any Wordie user from starting his/her own list if there are things he/she wants to add to someone else's (non-public) list. Apr 17, 2008

reesetee I don't know that I'd want my lists opened if I were away for a while, Prolagus. I agree with John on that one. But you could, as he suggests, copy the list and open yours up. Even without trying, we manage to start up lists related to already existing ones--I think it's part of the fun of Wordie. Twenty of us could have the same idea for a list and come up with 20 different lists in the end. :-) Apr 17, 2008

Prolagus Sigh, you love anyone's ideas but mine. And you even misspell my name.
That's userism. Apr 17, 2008

john Wschoenh, great idea, which I may do someday when I get the time. Won't be for a while though, since I have none.

Gangerh, I love the idea of upside down lists, sort of like a reverse lookup phone book. I put it on the wish list, but again, no idea when I might be able to get to it. In the meanwhile feel free to improvise, Asativum's suggestion sounds good.

Prolagus, I've had that temptation, but I think people should be able to come back to Wordie years later and find their words waiting patiently as they left them. But there's nothing to stop you from remaking a ghost list and opening it up. Apr 17, 2008

Prolagus John,
I often find lists that are dead, i.e. their authors are no more active in Wordie. When those lists are not open, it means that they will never have new contributions (see e.g. Polite words, impolite stuff). Isn't it sad?
I was thinking: what if you open the lists after, let's say, 3 months of inactivity of the user? Apr 17, 2008

asativum Gangerh, as a stopgap, you could just post an empty list (presumably with a clever title) and solicit descriptions in the comments; once a word is settled on, it can be added to the list. Just a thought.
Apr 17, 2008

gangerh At breakfast this morning, John, I put my spoon into my bowl of Sugar Puffs and one Sugar Puff, on contact with the spoon, catapulted out of the bowl, flew across the table, rebounded off the teapot with a (very satisfying) ping and finally came to rest beside the butter dish. Something I couldn't have done trying.
My immediate thought was 'is there a word for that?'. Now it's impractical to create a list of descriptions (I guess) so that Wordies can input their knowledge and ideas. So my humble suggestion is for a feature that allows us to post such descriptions for which we seek a word.
I am assuming there is no such device within the site already which can be used for this purpose.
Perhaps I would be the only one that would use it, anyway, of course, though I do detect from time to time a need from others.
Greetings from gangerh. Apr 14, 2008

wschoenh You should make a Facebook application that will show recently added words on a Facebook profile. Apr 14, 2008

reesetee I never thought I'd be so glad to see serifs again. Apr 2, 2008

jennarenn Ah, it tricked me too! See my comment under font. Apr 2, 2008

frindley Ditto bilby! I thought to myself, how can Wordie misjudge so? And then I realised that it was still 1 April in some parts of the world. Apr 2, 2008

bilby Well you really got me, seeing as I'm on the other side of the date line, it's April 2 here, and I had well and truly shaken all the sillies out yesterday and was expecting nothing today. Nice one John! Apr 2, 2008

reesetee But I am talking in a cartoony voice. Always have been. Apr 2, 2008

mollusque Uncle! Apr 2, 2008

chained_bear EEEEEEEYEWW!!! I just logged on, and ... EEEEEEEEYEW!! Great joke, John! ;)

Also, when I read everyone's comments in this typeface, I feel like we're all talking in a cartoony voice. How odd. Apr 1, 2008

trivet I certainly won't be sad to see it go.

Don't forget virgle.

Apr 1, 2008

reesetee Saayy...that's one snazzy rotating "NEW" you have there, John! Well, consider us fooled. Certainly can't be worse than Google's annual contribution to the holiday. ;-) Apr 1, 2008

gangerh Excellent ruse, John. You had me full of wrongteous indignation for a full 20 minutes mentally composing all sorts of comments!! Can't wait for tomorrow. Apr 1, 2008

john Yeah, I got sucked into the whole lame web April fool's thing. It was also an experiment to see if it would be asked about on features or bugs. I had meant to lard the front page with animated gifs, flowing American flags, things like this: . Didn't get my shit together in time, though :-)

But I'm not sure I can keep this up all day. It's killing me. Apr 1, 2008

Prolagus HAHAHAHAHA it's unbearable! Apr 1, 2008

reesetee Hey! What happened to Wordie's typeface? It's gone all Comic Sans-y on us! Is this an April Fool's Day joke, John? Apr 1, 2008

reesetee Already there, Prolagus--seventh from the left. :-) Mar 24, 2008

Prolagus I think you should put a urban dictionary button. For some of the words it could be very useful... Mar 24, 2008

stephanieconn John

is there a way to change one's username?

If not I might delete my account and start over now before it's too late;)

thanks!
Mar 17, 2008

reesetee Ah, sionnach, so that was you on Amazon? ;-) Mar 11, 2008

mollusque Now you introduce bulk tagging, John? Now?! After I've tagged almost 4,000 items individually!!!

Actually, I like the idea, but probably wouldn't use it much. Most of my tags indicate the vowel patterns in my monovocalic and panvocalic lists, which have to be specified individually.

What I'd really like to have is the ability to do more specific searches, like for *a*e*i*o*u*. Mar 11, 2008

chained_bear Oh my gosh. I'm definitely going to go tag things "affront to human intelligence" now. How todally alsome. Mar 11, 2008

sionnach Why does bulk tagging sound like an activity best suited to Whole Earth Foods?

I've kind of given up on trusting my own ability to tag sensibly, ever since I noticed that among the handful of tags I'd used on Amazon.com, each one was more abusive and dismissive than the next. 'affront to human intelligence' was about the mildest. Mar 11, 2008

reesetee C_b, I think I understand your struggle. It may come with the territory when you're an editor (as we are). The impulse is to clean up, whereas with tags you almost go about it the opposite way, then "filter on the way out," as John says. It can take some getting used to. :-) Mar 10, 2008

skipvia One way around the "dog" and "dogs" problem is to tag your word(s) with both. Same with nautical, marine, maritime, sea, etc. Use 'em all... Mar 10, 2008

john Wikipedia has a good article on tags.

C_b, I think one thing to consider with tags is that it's ok if they're idiosyncratic--they're not supposed to be a rigid hierarchy or taxonomy. As Dave Winer puts it in his fabulous book Everything is Miscellaneous, the best bet with metadata (ie, tags) is to filter on the way out, not the way in. People should use tags however it may help them, and then later on ways to use all that data to help everybody else can be figured out. And as more and more tags are in the system, it becomes easier to filter out the noise.

This may mean that eventually some words will get so tarted up with tags that they'll be an eyesore. At which time I'll do something about it :-) Mar 10, 2008

gangerh Back to basics please for the uninitiated. What's a tag? Are there any instructions? Mar 10, 2008

skipvia Another example to add on to yarb's and john's comments--the words on my Body Metaphors list are now tagged with anatomy, colloquialism, metaphor, body metaphors, and slang. The tags don't have to be literal--they can link your lists to other lists with even tangentially similar content. I'm anxious to see what other words have been tagged with "metaphor," for example.

I'm loving this... Mar 10, 2008

chained_bear Oh, OK. That makes sense. Obviously it depends on people tagging words as they come across them. So I would tag "Tito" as "dog" so it could come up on yarb's listing.

That's another question, though--if some people use "dog" as the tag, and some use "dogs," then there's a problem. Also to use an example I've seen, some words tagged "nautical" and some tagged "marine."

But isn't there another danger in bulk-tagging lists? For example, in the first link you listed, John, someone might most reasonably tag my "ships of fame" list with "nautical," not realizing that "Millennium Falcon" is on there. Now "Millennium Falcon" has a "nautical" tag on it. Which may not make a big difference in this case, but... suppose there are words that have outright wrong tags on them? Does that matter?

I'm new to this tagging concept, so forgive the dumb questions.

And finally, might efficient use of tags finally make the tags section of each word page into an enormous thing you have to scroll past to get to the comments? I guess we can burn that bridge when we come to it (as confused people like me would say). Mar 10, 2008

john Well, bulk tagging is just a way to apply tags to lots of words at once. So we should really just be talking about the utility of tagging. My favorite use these days is to create big collaborative meta-lists.

For instance, this, this, this and this are all lists somehow related to the sea, or things nautical. Maybe I don't personally want to bother making a list with all those words in it--it'd be a pain in the neck. But I could bulk tag all those lists in about 10 seconds, and bam, I have a way to see all those words in one place. Mar 10, 2008

yarb It's the overlap with words tagged by others which makes tagging more connective than listing. By bulk tagging my dogs from russian literature list with "dogs", "russian", "literature", and "dogs from russian literature", I will be able to link all my dogs from russian literature with everyone else's dogs from russian literature. Mar 10, 2008

chained_bear I have a question, though. What kind of bulk tags did you have in mind for your lists? I'm asking because as I thought about using them, it occurred to me that bulk-tagging my list would be sorta just creating a tag that, if I click on it, would bring me right to my list. So then I was wondering, why would I bulk-tag anything? If you click on the tag, it pulls up a list of all the words with that tag, which presumably would be everything on your list (plus anyone else's words with the same tag, of course). But if you click on any one of those words, it also shows you (thank God for this feature!) which lists it's already on, over on the right. So it seems like the purposes of bulk-tagging are ... well, probably I'm just not comprehending the potential of bulk-tagging an entire list. :| Can someone enlighten me? Mar 10, 2008

skipvia Bulk-tagging is a phenomenal upgrade, John. I just tagged all my lists. I'm definitely going to use tags more often as a search tool on Wordie.

Thanks for your quick response. Mar 10, 2008

chained_bear Bulk tagging is teh alsome. Thanks, John! I'm going to try it out tonight. Mar 10, 2008

john Just added bulk tagging to lists. Important to note that this doesn't let you tag lists themselves. What it does is tag every word in a list.

Yeah, keeping up with the comments is like drinking from a fire hose. I continue to chew on ways to deal with that, but the truth of the matter is I don't think there's any way a normal person* could keep up with them all. The best I think we'll be able to do is come up with ways to better keep track of the subset that most interests you.

* Though some of us clearly aren't normal people :-) Mar 10, 2008

chained_bear Speaking only for myself (as always), I don't see a need to categorize what types of comments are entered. Too often they are a mix of conversational, quotational, citational, or usage-ational (to coin a phrase).

We do have tags, which is great, but as Skip pointed out, many of us aren't really using them to their full potential. (I'm starting to work on that on my own entries/lists.) Tags will certainly help sort things for lots of folks; I don't think sorting comments will prove as useful or as simple.

It's unfortunate that people are sad they can't "keep up" with comments--I include myself in that group--but it does seem like any technical change that would make that easier would also make Wordie a lot like your average message board/forum kind of site. And I am vehemently opposed to that. Mar 10, 2008

reesetee I agree, skipvia--better use of tags might be a quick way to help solve what appears to be a problem, but I've never been able to make myself use them consistently.

At first blush, categorizing comments seems a lot like work to me. I'm not sure we can say definitively that the reason some people don't post often is because they feel overwhelmed, although that may be true for some. As for me, I simply skip comments I'm not inclined to be interested in. Then again, I check in on Wordie nearly every day, and that's not always possible (or even desirable) for everyone. Mar 10, 2008

john Hi Skip, for sure, I've wanted that capability for myself as well. I'll move it to the top of the list, as it should probably take precedence over the "phone in your own pronunciations" feature I've been chewing on... Mar 10, 2008

skipvia Hey, John...could you provide a way to bulk-tag existing lists? For example, there are currently 187 untagged entries on one of my lists. I'd love to be able to apply a tag (or set of tags) to one of my lists--or other folks' lists, for that matter. I'm far less likely to open each of those entries to apply tags, but if I could do it all at once... Mar 10, 2008

skipvia Tags can be an enormous benefit in tracking down words and conversations. I'm as guilty as anyone in terms of forgetting to provide them, but if we all took tags a bit more seriously we'd all benefit. Mar 10, 2008

chained_bear We miss you too, jennarenn! :)

Unfortunately it seems that, if Wordie continues to grow, it isn't an issue of anyone being in the thick of anything or not. It isn't possible, and never was since the site was teensy tiny, to read all the comments. They're for Wordieternity. They're for coming across someday. The only way to "track" them is tied to actual vocabulary words or to the lists that they reside on. Which kind of seems like... well... the point of Wordie--that it be about words. Mar 10, 2008

jennarenn As someone whose Wordie time is severely limited between September and June, there are times when I'd appreciate a way to filter comments. Personally, I simply can't keep up anymore. I love that you guys are enjoying yourselves, but I do miss being in the thick of things. :) Jen Mar 10, 2008

gangerh People only annoy you with your permission. Mar 9, 2008

palooka Good points. I love Wordie as it is. John's done wonders with this site. Mar 9, 2008

chained_bear True, that could be a solution. Another thought is that the word page is kind of where usage notes belong, since the page actually says, "Leave a comment, citation, or usage note here." I'm not sure attaching usage notes or citations to a list rather than a word would clear anything up--in fact it might result in more confusion, since they'd all be jumbled up on the list instead of attached to the words in question.

Listen, I'm not opposed to a feature that might result in someone not being annoyed, particularly if that feature eliminates more than one source of frustration for more than one user. But could this be a case of a mountain being made of a molehill? Mar 9, 2008

palooka Another possible solution to sionnach's frustration would be for Wordies to have the ability to include a word's definition with their lists rather than in the word's comment box. That might free up comments for conversations rather than for definitions.
Just a thought.

Mar 9, 2008

mollusque John, the exchange taking place between sionnach and chained_bear on her profile makes me think again about ways to fine-tune Wordie content. Some of us are enjoying c_b's current run of quotations, others wish they would end, and some presumably skip blithely over them.

Previously there have been complaints that the flow of comments on Wordie is getting to be too much handle. Comments seem to have slowed down recently, but perhaps that means some people aren't participating as much because they're being overwhelmed, which would be a shame.

A possible solution: create check-boxes to allow each comment to be flagged as a "definition", a "citation", or a "remark", or more than one of those (just as each word can be flagged for its parts of speech).

This would allow the comments to be separated into three streams. The homepage could still have all comments flowing through, but one could choose a view showing just remarks, or just definitions or just citations. Clicking through on anyone of them would then show the full thread.

There could be several advantages. Someone who's been away from Wordie for a week probably is most interested in catching up on the conversations. Those would all be in the "remarks stream", since the most interesting definitions and citations stimulate remarks.

The default page for any word would be the same as currently, but could have options for viewing only definitions or citations from among the comments. This would answer another longtime desire expressed at times among Wordies--to somehow give definitions special status among the comments. Mar 9, 2008

john Yeah, I bumped up the refresh rate. But since it regenerates all the comments on each refresh, edits will be reflected on the front page after a subsequent refresh. Feb 29, 2008

mollusque John, have you changed the frequency with which the homepage is refreshed? I find that many of my comments post almost immediately, and since I often edit them in the first minute or two, I notice the lack of the buffer. Feb 29, 2008

gangerh I have posed a question about 'words added by me' figures on forty eight. Feb 24, 2008

john Unlisted words are consigned to the Island of Misfit Toys. Feb 18, 2008