Accreditation

One more thing... approving new weblist suggestions with the new tool will give credit to the submittor. No need for any more of these (thanks to Numbah for the suggestion!) qualifiers.

Weblist Suggestion Tool Ready to Go

As promised, we are ready to go with the Weblist Suggestion Management Tool.

On your user page, new item suggestions and personal messages are now separated. Clicking on the Weblist suggestions link will show you a summary of all of the Weblist suggestions that have been submitted by RateItAll users.

Here's how the tool works:

1) Click on the "View" link that corresponds with a particular Weblist suggestion to see the details of that suggestion.

2) Once you've clicked "View," you will be able to review and edit the submitted Item Name, Item Description, and Related Links submitted by the RateItAll member. You will also be able to upload an image to correspond with the item, and to see whatever rating / review the submittor has posted for the new item suggestion.

3) Depending on the quality / appropriateness of the suggestion, you can either check the "Approve" or "Reject" buttons, and then click "Submit" at the bottom of the page. Clicking submit generates an automatic personal message sent to the submittor, informing them of the status of their suggestion.

That's it. I'll hope that you'll find that this is an incredibly easy and effective way to manage new suggestions for your Weblists. We've had this tool active for a few weeks on the main RateItAll side, and it's been a great help.

One more thing: all user Weblist suggestions are copied in the RateItAll Administrator mailbox. I think the way we're going to handle these is that we'll wait a week before submitting/rejecting Weblist suggestions that have gone unanswered.

Please remember to delete processed Weblist suggestions! And keep an eye out for bugs, as this is a new feature.

Enjoy... you can give feedback here.

Caching

You may have noticed that your new comments are not immediately showing up on user page. Not to worry. We've instituted caching on these pages in order to improve site performance.

So what does that mean? It means that your new comments will show up on your user page within the hour...

Working on Site Speed

We're rolling in a few improvements to improve site speed today - doubling processing power on the servers, making some tweaks to the code, etc.

Be prepared for sporadic dowtime.

I'll keep you posted.

Larry Brown is a Knick

Is this a big deal? Comment here.

Or you can click through here to speculate as to how Larry Brown will do as coach of the Knicks.

What we're working on....

Four new features are pretty far along development:

- Tool to let weblist creators manage new suggestions, complete with all the associated fields (item description, links, review, etc.)

- Expanded Alert functionality that will allow RIA members to set alerts for when 1) new items are added to a particular ratings list; 2) a particular reviewer posts; 3) new weblists are activated by a particular reviewer

- Control panel in the user page to manage ALL alerts, including the new ones listed above, as well as the existing "new review on an item" alert that is already functional

- Blocking feature that will allow reviewers to block specified reviewers from sending them personal messages, as well as block alert type #2 listed above

I'm hopeful we're going to get these up by Monday - cross your fingers.

Three Stars for Saddam?

It all has to do with the scale. Check out Paul2505's "Military Dictator" ratings system.

It takes a lot of courage...

.... to do what traderboy does here.

Let's make sure we support him as he goes through this difficult time.

John Kerry as Jesus Christ?

Mr. Political is not surprised.

Tips on Uploading Images to Weblists

Has anyone noticed that images and item descriptions make for better, and more popular Weblists?

Two good recent examples are spartacus007's "people who are screwing up america" list and James76255's "Democrats say stupid things too" list. Some might not be crazy about the subject matter, but these guys' use of images and descriptions is impressive.

A couple of tips on uploading images:

- Wikipedia.org is an excellent source of images. Not only do they have a wealth of high quality images on virtually any topic, ALL of their images are in the public domain and may be republished legally.

- Images should be sized to 110(width) x 94(height). Sizing can be done with a wide variety of photo editing software. I use Photoshop, which works great.

- If you don't have photo editing software, or just can't be bothered, don't despair. A quick and easy tip to finding images that will look great on your weblist is to look for images that are slightly wider than they are tall. These images won't get stretched out when you upload them to the site.

That's it for now... I'm sure some of the Weblisters extraordinaires will have more tips.

The Dangers of Flip-Flopping

CanadaSucks explains why flip-flopping is a dangerous thing.

(do i detect a little sarcasm in this post?)

RSS Help Page Now Live

Here's an RSS help page that explains the technology in the context of RateItAll.

Excuse me while I whip this out....

A collection of classic Blazing Saddles Quotes brought to you by Numbah.

The movie, of course, was directed by Mel Brooks.

Expanding the Language

One of the more inspiring things about RateItAll reviewers, is that they're never content to just let things be.

For example.

Some would say that there are plenty of words in the English and Swedish languages. What need could there possibly be to create more?

Nonsense says Sundiszno. What about these Ikea sounding words that sound Swedish?

Not to be outdone, EO applied his surgical mastery of English to create useful, Franken-words. How else could we have known that Kamylienne was Aquadextrous?

How to mask a lack of intelligence

Wickedly funny advice from RIA newcomer JMJ.

EO on the Babe

Fantastic post.

Google Customizable Home Page

Is anyone using the Google Customizable Home Page yet? I am. It lets you pick your own content for the Google search page. For example, I added my stock quotes, weather for where I live, sports scores for the teams that I follow - it's pretty handy.

Well anyway, I was doing a search today and I noticed something new on my Google page. There is now a section on the left hand panel that lets you add RSS feeds to your Google page. So yes, I immediately added the RateItAll Recent Comments feed to my Google page.

Here's how you do it:

1) Go to your Google home page. If you don't have one set up yet, you can do so HERE.
2) Click on the "Add Content" link in the upper left hand corner
3) Click on the "Create A Section"
4) Copy and paste this url into the field: http://www.rateitall.com/recentcommentsrss.aspx

That's it. Presto, you have the freshest snapshot of RateItAll comments summarized on your Google home page.

I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record on this stuff, but I think RSS is pretty powerful.

Another Example of an RSS Feed

OK, I added an RSS feed of the "Feedback on RateItAll" ratings list to the left hand column of this page... check it out. All the items are automatically linked to the correct pages, so you can click through to rate anything you see there.

If anyone needs help doing this for their own blog, let me know as I would be happy to help, as I think it's a pretty cool feature. It's not that hard.

Shades of Gray

Here's a creative and unique Weblist from CanadaSucks laying out the various shades of cheating in baseball.

Get your weblist buy back suggestions in...

.... as RIA is itching to give away some money.

For those not familiar with the program, here's the info.

To nominate a weblist for buy back, click the "Administrative Review" icon on any weblist, and select the "Nominate for Buy Back" option.

Nice Use of RateItAll RSS Feed

OK, it looks like someone has figured out how to use a RateItAll RSS feed. RIA user spartacus007 has successfully fed his controversial weblist, The People who are Screwing Up America, to his personal blog.

If you look in the left hand column, and scroll down a bit, you can see it.

If he had wanted to, he could have set it up in a way that would display a snippet from the most recent comment for each item as well.

Cool, huh?

11 blog posts on a Sunday?

That's not too shabby.

(actually, it's 12 if you count this one)

It's official.... we have a new Mod

Please welcome tboneya to the Moderator team.

Among the most respected RateItAll reviewers, tboneya has been with us since early 2001.

This is a long overdue appointment.

Introducing...... Paragraphs

OK, in the interest of readability, we are going to experiment with allowing RIA posters to use paragraphs in their reviews.

The idea is that some of these reviews are long enough that breaking them up into paragraphs will make them more readable.

To enter a paragraph, just click "return" on your keyboard (I feel a little like the stewardesses on the plane giving a demonstration of the seat belt). You should know how to make a paragraph by now.

Please don't abuse this.

An improvement that is small, but nice

OK, now when you hit "submit" on a rating/review, your browser will be directed back to the page that you originated from.

So, if you are on item page, write a review, and hit submit - you will be taken back to the item page, not the ratings list page.

Or if you are using the filters on a ratings list page to alphabetize a ratings list, and you click a RateIt! button, once you submit your rating, you will be taken back to the alphabetized ratings list.

Or, if you are "viewing all items" on a ratings list page, and you click a RateIt! button, once you submit your rating, you will be taken back to the "view all items" view of the ratings list.

Follow me?

Filter Fix

OK, we've fixed the user page filters so that all of those thousands of foreign city names aren't showing up anymore... So you can now filter your comments by each of the nine primary categories.

This "should" speed up load times for the "view all comments" accessible through the user pages.

My mom says RIA is too hard to read....

.... so we've bumped the font up one on the RateIt! page in an ongoing effort to make it easier to edit your comments before submitting.

Eventually, we will bump the font up all over the site, as mom has a point.

Born on Dating

We've added a "born on" date for all Weblists. This should eliminate any dispute regarding whose "Most Hated Americans" Weblist was created first :)

The date can be found in the orange bar, immediately after the user name of the Weblist creator.

This feature was recommended by the artist formally known as VFERN.

We'll be working a few more enhancements in the next couple of hours... so save your comments, as the site will be up and down sporadically.

Also, stay tuned for an important Moderator announcement....

Lance does it again

No, not that Lance. This Lance.

Nice Post from a Newcomer....

Check out how planetaryghost expresses his frustration on the one line, unoriginal attacks on Christianity.

Ratings / Reviews Tally Bug Fixed....

Finally.

So now, the ratings list pages should be showing the correct count for how many reviews have been left for a particular item, and not just the number of ratings.

You would not believe how complicated some tiny little fixes can be.... Please be on the lookout for other things that may have broken during this fix.

When new item submissions get rejected...

Every once in a while we reject new item submissions. The most common reasons for this are:

- Poor spelling or grammar
- Incomplete item description
- Improper case (all capital letters, all small letters, etc.)
- The item was submitted to the wrong ratings list
- The item already exists on the site

Usually, if the person has taken the time to leave a quality review along with the new item submission, we will make the fixes ourselves.

Looking for some feedback...

...on some of the recent enhancements to RateItAll. Here are the links to give feedback:

• New Item Submission Tool
• Combined Rating / Registration Form
• New User Toolkit
• Page View Counter on User Pages
• Postcard Invitations Via RIA User Name
• Elimination of RateIt! Pop-Up Window
• RSS Feeds of RateItAll Content

If you're not sure what any of these are, there are explanations on each of the pages in the "About" section.

Weblist Suggestions

OK, I think we're just about caught up with approving Weblist suggestions. In some cases, if the Weblist creator had already added the suggestion, I went ahead and pasted the original review that was submitted via the suggestion form.

I will be happy when the new feature is up and running that will allow you all to do this yourselves. It sure is confusing when RIA administrators and Weblist creators are sharing approval duties.

Stay tuned...

More Terror

The terror attacks in the resort town in Egypt, as well as the second round of bombings in London have been added to spartacus007's Weblist of 2005 Events.

Your Clothes are Not Safe with Phil Collins

Interesting story from traderboy regarding Phil Collins and clothes theft. Who is the nastiest celebrity?

What's your favorite river?

Genghis the hun aims to find out through his pretty comprehensive weblist of American Rivers.

Two Posts Worth Reading

It looks like RIA heavyweight abichara could teach Tom Cruise a thing or two about how to sanely and precisely lay out the dangers of Ritalin.

And LanceRoxas' careful articulation of the Bush Doctrine is worth a read, wherever you may stand on the political spectrum.

Hockey in July?

The NHL owners have agreed to a new labor deal. The NHL lock-out is over. Is this a big sports story?

Robert Novak on RateItAll

CNN personality and conservative columnist Robert Novak has been added to RateItAll. Novak is the columnist who wrote the 2003 Chicago Sun-Times article outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame, touching off a federal investigation.

Behind on Weblist New Item Approvals

We're a little behind on Weblist new item approvals. I hope to get caught up this weekend.

Weblist creators can either add new listing themselves (the downside of doing this is that the submitter will lose any comment and description that they submitted, AND the submitter won't get credit).

If possible, I recommend waiting... as we will get caught up soon.

We are also making progress on implementing the new feature that will allow Weblist owners to approve or reject entire new item submissions themselves with a click of the mouse.

Working on the Reviews Tally Bug

Hi all, we are trying to fix the bug that causes the reviews tally to equal the ratings tally on the various ratings list pages.

We tried to fix it once already, and it slowed the site to a crawl. I'll keep you posted.

Thoughts on a proposed new feature

I am considering adding a feature that would let folks comment on particular reviews - much like you can do on Blogger. So if a particular review inspires a reaction, registered RateItAll reviewers would be able to post a comment regarding that review.

The thinking is this: currently, in order to rebut a review, you need to repost your entire review with one of those awkward "UPDATE" announcements. It doesn't make for very good reading, and oftentimes the original quality comment can be lost under all the updates.

These review comments would be one click deeper than the reviews themselves. Anyone see any downside?

Comments are appreciated.

Who's the skinniest?

In this decidedly un-PC weblist, Numbah wonders who the skinniest celebrity is...

Note: as noted by RIA reviewers via this link, eating disorders are serious stuff, so please rate appropriately.

One more thing on RSS

To set your MyYahoo to display headlines AND a short blurb of the most recent comment, click the "edit" button next to the appropriate feed on your MyYahoo page.

RSS For User Pages Ready to Go

Hi All,

We finally have RSS / MyYahoo functionality working for user comments and ratings lists.

In other words, you can now feed the most recent comments of any other RateItAll reviewer, or any Top 10 list from a RateItAll ratings list, to your personal site or blog. I tried it out, and it's pretty cool.

All you have to do is to click the MyYahoo button that you see on any user comments page, or ratings list page, to add that pages content to your MyYahoo page.

This feature has been added for your own personal use, and may not be used for any commercial purposes....

Business or Pleasure?

Numbah has compiled an interesting list of the advantages of Satellite over Cable.

But the real question is.... how do you find a reliable satellite dish installer?

Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba

Genghis The Hun has compiled a list of some his favorite palindromes. Looks like he has most of the famous ones, and some that are lesser known.

RSS Coming to User Pages

OK, I just tried out a demo of the new RSS functionality that is coming to user pages. It works, and it's cool. Just to remind you, with this feature you'll be able to feed your (or anyone else's) comments to your personal Web page or blog.

As soon as you see the MyYahoo icons on user pages, you'll know it's live - I expect it will be done in the next 48 hours.

When does "just right" become too much?

Inmypinion poses the question.

Reacting to London

EO sees London as an opportunity for politicians around the world to put their weight behind efforts to eradicate terrorism.

Known bug alert...

As reported by Kamylienne, Ruby, and others....

Some ratings list pages are reporting a number of reviews that does not correspond to the number of reviews on the item page. We are working on the issue...

I THINK we have the Weblist Index issue sorted out...

Check it out, and please report back if you see anything odd.

You should now:

- Be able to find any Weblist via the index

- Be able to properly categorize new Weblists

Must Read Post From London

Londoner JonTheMan weighs in on the London Terrorist Attack.

Strong Words for Al Qaeda...

.... from London resident Bird808@. Her thoughts on Al Qaeda.

Working on the Weblist Index Issue....

Site could be sporadic for the next few minutes....

Islam

Post from Khalid on Islam worth reading (as always, whether you agree or not).

Our thoughts going out to our friends in London today...

Terrible day over there. RIA UK contingent, please check in with us when you can.

Troy

Quality review of Troy by PBeavr....