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I'm working on something somewhat related: http://www.istorical.com http://www.istorical.com It's user-contributed reports about what it's like to live in cit

I'm working on something somewhat related: http://www.istorical.com http://www.istorical.com It's user-contributed reports about what it's like to live in cities and countries around the world. I'd love to hear some feedback if anyone else is interested in this sort of thing!

nkvl 13y ago
It's a great idea! Not crazy about the busy background, but that might be an age thing. More importantly for me, having the "anonymous" label for posts is a bit of a distraction. Are the user names revealed only while logged in? If so, I'd hide that field from the unregistered masses, it doesn't inspire trust.
- istorical 13y ago
  Hey thanks for the feedback! Right now if a user is registered and logged in when they post it shows "username's reflections" rather than "anonymous' reflections", but I suppose that's there's no signal just noise with that word, so I should probably remove it. Good call! I change my mind every other day whether I should give up on trying to have a super bold design and just strip it down or if I should stick with the polarizing stuff haha. It's my first web design that I've tried to give a more unique look rather than a Google-esque function before form type treatment.
dualogy 13y ago
Love the idea and the site. Now to be notified of new posts? No FB Page.. no Twitter.. doesn't even seem to have good ol' RSS feed (not that I'd really use it, though I probably should switch back to that from that damned social media). Look I'm not going to set a reminder to regularly check back what new stories you got -- do you really want only "once a year by chance" visitors? Get that subscription funnel going. And yeah don't try to get membership signups for just that one feature, not gonna happen. Might sign up and contribute even at my own leisure at some distant future date, but right now --- offer some feed or other to even keep us passive lurkers out there fed ;)
- istorical 13y ago
  That's a great point. I had that on the to-do list but I haven't prioritized it enough. I'm still really, really bad at marketing. Do you know of any resources for learning best practices as far as subscriptions?
  - dualogy 13y ago
    By subscription I meant anything feed-like I can subscribe to / "follow" ;) I too am a loser at marketing :P

nkvl 13y ago

It's a great idea! Not crazy about the busy background, but that might be an age thing. More importantly for me, having the "anonymous" label for posts is a bit of a distraction. Are the user names revealed only while logged in? If so, I'd hide that field from the unregistered masses, it doesn't inspire trust.

istorical 13y ago
Hey thanks for the feedback! Right now if a user is registered and logged in when they post it shows "username's reflections" rather than "anonymous' reflections", but I suppose that's there's no signal just noise with that word, so I should probably remove it. Good call! I change my mind every other day whether I should give up on trying to have a super bold design and just strip it down or if I should stick with the polarizing stuff haha. It's my first web design that I've tried to give a more unique look rather than a Google-esque function before form type treatment.

dualogy 13y ago

Love the idea and the site. Now to be notified of new posts? No FB Page.. no Twitter.. doesn't even seem to have good ol' RSS feed (not that I'd really use it, though I probably should switch back to that from that damned social media). Look I'm not going to set a reminder to regularly check back what new stories you got -- do you really want only "once a year by chance" visitors? Get that subscription funnel going. And yeah don't try to get membership signups for just that one feature, not gonna happen. Might sign up and contribute even at my own leisure at some distant future date, but right now --- offer some feed or other to even keep us passive lurkers out there fed ;)

istorical 13y ago
That's a great point. I had that on the to-do list but I haven't prioritized it enough. I'm still really, really bad at marketing. Do you know of any resources for learning best practices as far as subscriptions?
- dualogy 13y ago
  By subscription I meant anything feed-like I can subscribe to / "follow" ;) I too am a loser at marketing :P