The RateItAll dev team has been working very, very hard at making RIA fast.
And I think it's very fast now - as fast as it's been.
I hope you all are seeing the same thing.
4/30/09
4/28/09
You can now see item descriptions on the list pages
A few days ago, inspired by the RIA movie review contest, I wrote a review of the Sandra Bullock coming of age, romantic comedy "28 Days." Among other things I said:
Some have suggested that I may be confusing the Sandra Bullock film with 28 Days Later, about a zombie outbreak in London. This is debatable, and neither here nor there.
What I would like to talk about today is a design tweak we just rolled out that lets you see item descriptions (text, photo, video, etc.) when rating from a list page. This feature might prevent people from getting confused about exactly what item they are rating while on the list page.
Check out this screenshot of my Flight of the Conchords video list.
If I click "Review It!" you will see that the first item on the list snaps down to display the description - in this case, a video.
I think rating from the list pages will be much easier now, especially for items that have images, descriptions, and / or videos.
The empty London scenes were the best, and spastic, fluid spewing zombies are certainly more effective than the slow moving sort.
Some have suggested that I may be confusing the Sandra Bullock film with 28 Days Later, about a zombie outbreak in London. This is debatable, and neither here nor there.
What I would like to talk about today is a design tweak we just rolled out that lets you see item descriptions (text, photo, video, etc.) when rating from a list page. This feature might prevent people from getting confused about exactly what item they are rating while on the list page.
Check out this screenshot of my Flight of the Conchords video list.
If I click "Review It!" you will see that the first item on the list snaps down to display the description - in this case, a video.
I think rating from the list pages will be much easier now, especially for items that have images, descriptions, and / or videos.
4/24/09
Music Contest Prizes Just Went Out
Congratulations to OscarGamblesFro, Irishgit, and Frankswildyears - Amazon gift certificate just went out.
Speaking on behalf of the entire RIA community, we expect to see reviews of whatever Amazon product you buy.
Speaking on behalf of the entire RIA community, we expect to see reviews of whatever Amazon product you buy.
A couple of site updates
Two days ago, we rolled in some optimizations to the home page / river that vastly sped the page up for most people.
However, we learned that folks who had subscribed to multiple keywords were seeing some timeouts - this was fixed last night, so now everyone should be seeing a faster home page while logged in. While logged out, we have the home page loading in under 0.2 seconds, which is as fast as its ever been.
Yesterday, we rolled in some optimizations to the list page - these pages should now be loading rocket fast for everyone. Even some of our notorious Crunchbase lists which have 17K items are loading pretty quickly.
Today, we're going to be taking on the item page - once we get done with that, I think we're going to have a pretty fast site.
Finally, we made some small tweaks to the AdSense revenue sharing code yesterday - please let us know if you see improvements in your daily AdSense numbers.
However, we learned that folks who had subscribed to multiple keywords were seeing some timeouts - this was fixed last night, so now everyone should be seeing a faster home page while logged in. While logged out, we have the home page loading in under 0.2 seconds, which is as fast as its ever been.
Yesterday, we rolled in some optimizations to the list page - these pages should now be loading rocket fast for everyone. Even some of our notorious Crunchbase lists which have 17K items are loading pretty quickly.
Today, we're going to be taking on the item page - once we get done with that, I think we're going to have a pretty fast site.
Finally, we made some small tweaks to the AdSense revenue sharing code yesterday - please let us know if you see improvements in your daily AdSense numbers.
4/21/09
Congratulations to our Music Review Contest Winners
Our top finishers in the music contest were:
1) Oscargamblesfro
2) IrishGit
3) FranksWildYears
Prizes will go out by the end of the week.
Now that Twansalem has a Netflix account, he can't be bothered to participate in our contests.
As has been the case with our previous two reviews contests, I found to the quality of the reviews to be very, very high.
Here is a taste:
1) Oscargamblesfro
2) IrishGit
3) FranksWildYears
Prizes will go out by the end of the week.
Now that Twansalem has a Netflix account, he can't be bothered to participate in our contests.
As has been the case with our previous two reviews contests, I found to the quality of the reviews to be very, very high.
Here is a taste:
4/20/09
Couple of Changes to the List Page
You may have noticed a few changes to the list page.
The two most important are:
1) the introduction of a "confidence score" which is the default view
2) bringing back the number rankings associated with each item (1, 2, 3, etc.)
The Confidence Score reflects how confident we are that the rating is statistically significant. It takes into account a number of different factors like number of ratings, and the distribution of those ratings. The math is actually pretty complex.
For example, check out the beer page. Under the old view, the default view was dominated by a lot of obscure beers with one five star rating apiece.
With our new Confidence Score, you'll see a lot of beers that you've heard of, ordered by how confident we are in the accuracy of the rating:
We are NOT saying the Bud Light is the fifth best beer in the world. We are simply saying that we have a high degree of confidence that Bud Light's rating of 3.05 is accurate.
The practical effect of introducing the Confidence Score is 1) You won't see an item with one 5 star rating outranking an item with 200 ratings and an average score of 4.33; and 2) Our lists will be a bit harder to game
We've also rolled in a few optimization enhancements that seem to be making the site a bit faster.
The two most important are:
1) the introduction of a "confidence score" which is the default view
2) bringing back the number rankings associated with each item (1, 2, 3, etc.)
The Confidence Score reflects how confident we are that the rating is statistically significant. It takes into account a number of different factors like number of ratings, and the distribution of those ratings. The math is actually pretty complex.
For example, check out the beer page. Under the old view, the default view was dominated by a lot of obscure beers with one five star rating apiece.
With our new Confidence Score, you'll see a lot of beers that you've heard of, ordered by how confident we are in the accuracy of the rating:
We are NOT saying the Bud Light is the fifth best beer in the world. We are simply saying that we have a high degree of confidence that Bud Light's rating of 3.05 is accurate.
The practical effect of introducing the Confidence Score is 1) You won't see an item with one 5 star rating outranking an item with 200 ratings and an average score of 4.33; and 2) Our lists will be a bit harder to game
We've also rolled in a few optimization enhancements that seem to be making the site a bit faster.
4/17/09
Music Contest - It's ON
There are some amazing music reviews coming in as we speak, and still plenty of time left to do some damage.
Who's in?
Email: contest@rateitall.com
Who's in?
Email: contest@rateitall.com
4/16/09
Music Review Contest Smackdown - Friday, April 17
It's that time of the week again.
We've done local businesses. We've done movies.
And now we're doing music.
The contest will run from 12:00AM PST tonight, to 11:59PM PST tomorrow night.
Here's how to participate:
1) send an email to contest@rateitall.com with your RateItAll nickname
2) start rating Music (musicians and / or albums) tonight at midnight. I recommend our Best Buy channel as it has just about everything.
Winner will be determined by the total number of qualifying reviews in the 24 hour period.
Qualifying Reviews Are:
- at least three sentences long
- of a real band or musician, or a real album
Prizes:
1) $75 Amazon or iTunes gift certificate
2) $25 Amazon or iTunes gift certificate
3) $10 Amazon or iTunes gift certificate
Finishers in the Top Ten will get a RateItAll Demon Star Schwag Package (T-Shirt, stickers, pins).
Official contest rules
We've done local businesses. We've done movies.
And now we're doing music.
The contest will run from 12:00AM PST tonight, to 11:59PM PST tomorrow night.
Here's how to participate:
1) send an email to contest@rateitall.com with your RateItAll nickname
2) start rating Music (musicians and / or albums) tonight at midnight. I recommend our Best Buy channel as it has just about everything.
Winner will be determined by the total number of qualifying reviews in the 24 hour period.
Qualifying Reviews Are:
- at least three sentences long
- of a real band or musician, or a real album
Prizes:
1) $75 Amazon or iTunes gift certificate
2) $25 Amazon or iTunes gift certificate
3) $10 Amazon or iTunes gift certificate
Finishers in the Top Ten will get a RateItAll Demon Star Schwag Package (T-Shirt, stickers, pins).
Official contest rules
- Contest starts at 12:00AM PT on Friday, April 17th and runs through 11:59PM PT on Friday, April 17th.
- Participants must have valid RateItAll member accounts.
- Contest participants must register for the contest by sending an email to contest@rateitall.com with their valid and active RateItAll nickname in order to be considered for the prizes.
- Reviews must be of albums or musicians to be considered.
- Each quality movie review will count as one entry in the contest. Reviews must be at least three sentences.
- Recycled or reposted reviews will not be considered for the contest, and use of such reviews will be grounds for disqualification.
- Prizes are non-transferrable and are subject to change and availability.
- RateItAll reserves the right to discontinue the contest at any time, for any reason. RateItAll reserves the right to disqualify participants if we determine that contest rules have been broken.
- Questions about the contest? Email contest@rateitall.com
- Winners will be notified on or by Monday, April 20th, 2009.
- All decisions made by contest administrators are final.
4/13/09
Movie Smackdown Wrap-Up
The KPMG auditors have finally left the Global RIA HQ after a grueling 48 hours of sifting through and analyzing movie reviews for authenticity, quality, and depth.
The results are now in, the volunteers have gone home, the press have moved on to the next big story, and things are returning to a degree of normalcy here.
I am pleased to announce that Twansalem has won his first RIA review contest, authoring over 100 quality movie reviews in just 24 hours. Here's a sample - a review of the the teen remake of Cruel Intentions:
Irishgit staged a late rally but ran out of hours. For a taste of IG's work, check out the following:
For a few hours in the afternoon, a time rich law student named SperryC made a big push as well. If he had been able to keep up this level of production for a few more hours, he may have finished in the money. Here's a taste of his reviews:
We had a lot of fun at RIA HQ watching the movie reviews roll in, and a number of us jotted down movies that we'd like to see (as well as some that sound just awful).
We're going to try and run a Music Review contest on Friday. Hopefully some of you wall flowers will get out there and dance this time.
Thanks to all that participated, and prizes and t-shirts will go out this week.
The results are now in, the volunteers have gone home, the press have moved on to the next big story, and things are returning to a degree of normalcy here.
I am pleased to announce that Twansalem has won his first RIA review contest, authoring over 100 quality movie reviews in just 24 hours. Here's a sample - a review of the the teen remake of Cruel Intentions:
Irishgit staged a late rally but ran out of hours. For a taste of IG's work, check out the following:
For a few hours in the afternoon, a time rich law student named SperryC made a big push as well. If he had been able to keep up this level of production for a few more hours, he may have finished in the money. Here's a taste of his reviews:
We had a lot of fun at RIA HQ watching the movie reviews roll in, and a number of us jotted down movies that we'd like to see (as well as some that sound just awful).
We're going to try and run a Music Review contest on Friday. Hopefully some of you wall flowers will get out there and dance this time.
Thanks to all that participated, and prizes and t-shirts will go out this week.
4/11/09
Movie Smackdown: Unaudited Results
I've done a quick tally and it looks like Twansalem has held off Irishgit for first prize in the movie review contest.
These results are unofficial still - I will try and do a more official pronouncement tomorrow.
Congratulations to all the participants - I thought the quality of the reviews was very high, and it was neat to see movie titles getting unearthed that we hadn't seen in a while.
This was a fun contest, and I think we should do more.
These results are unofficial still - I will try and do a more official pronouncement tomorrow.
Congratulations to all the participants - I thought the quality of the reviews was very high, and it was neat to see movie titles getting unearthed that we hadn't seen in a while.
This was a fun contest, and I think we should do more.
4/10/09
Less than Six Hours Left in the Movie Review Smackdown
There is some serious drama unfolding on RIA in our movie review contest.
Twansalem awoke early and blazed off to a huge lead, perhaps thinking that shock and awe would dissuade other wannabe contestants.
But alas, things would not be so easy.
Twansalem's furious start awoke the sleeping RIA giant, Irishgit who has stormed back with quality review, after quality review. Amazingly, Irishgit briefly took his eye off the ball to participate in a vicious flame war about white poultry meat versus dark. We'll see if this detour costs him.
And just when it looked like a two horse race, a slacking, third year law student, with nothing but time on his hands, has joined the fray.
With under six hours left to play, it looks like three contenders. But if we've learned anything today, things can change in a hurry.
Is there a late burst left from anyone? Will Zuchinibut get serious? Will Numbah put his money where his mouth is? Will Cyclee get off the sidelines? Can Edt4, one of the top movie reviewers on the site, limit himself to three sentences?
In a few short hours we will know the answers to these questions.
Twansalem awoke early and blazed off to a huge lead, perhaps thinking that shock and awe would dissuade other wannabe contestants.
But alas, things would not be so easy.
Twansalem's furious start awoke the sleeping RIA giant, Irishgit who has stormed back with quality review, after quality review. Amazingly, Irishgit briefly took his eye off the ball to participate in a vicious flame war about white poultry meat versus dark. We'll see if this detour costs him.
And just when it looked like a two horse race, a slacking, third year law student, with nothing but time on his hands, has joined the fray.
With under six hours left to play, it looks like three contenders. But if we've learned anything today, things can change in a hurry.
Is there a late burst left from anyone? Will Zuchinibut get serious? Will Numbah put his money where his mouth is? Will Cyclee get off the sidelines? Can Edt4, one of the top movie reviewers on the site, limit himself to three sentences?
In a few short hours we will know the answers to these questions.
4/9/09
Import Your Netflix Ratings to RateItAll
We now have a feature that lets you import your Netflix ratings and reviews into RateItAll.
Here's how to do it:
1) login
2) go to Home
3) in the right sidebar, click the Netflix logo
Here's how to do it:
1) login
2) go to Home
3) in the right sidebar, click the Netflix logo
Just Because You See a "Buy It!" button.....
.... doesn't mean we're selling it.
We've recently added some helpful "Buy It!" buttons to our list pages. This makes it easy to shop on Amazon for products that have been rated highly on RateItAll. In some cases, this can be very useful.
For example, on this list of children's / fantasy books, the "Buy It!" button makes it easy to get from here:
To here:
In some cases, the "Buy It!" button makes a bit less sense. For example, in our drug awareness section, some people might be mislead by the "Buy It!" buttons next to "Crack Cocaine."
We do not sell things like Crack, Heroin, or Anabolic Steroids. Nor does Amazon, as far as we know. And we have no plans to sell such items in the future.
We've recently added some helpful "Buy It!" buttons to our list pages. This makes it easy to shop on Amazon for products that have been rated highly on RateItAll. In some cases, this can be very useful.
For example, on this list of children's / fantasy books, the "Buy It!" button makes it easy to get from here:
To here:
In some cases, the "Buy It!" button makes a bit less sense. For example, in our drug awareness section, some people might be mislead by the "Buy It!" buttons next to "Crack Cocaine."
We do not sell things like Crack, Heroin, or Anabolic Steroids. Nor does Amazon, as far as we know. And we have no plans to sell such items in the future.
4/8/09
24-Hour Movie Review Contest Throw Down - FRIDAY
Calling all movie buffs, cinephiles and Netflixters...Get in on our 24-hour cage match movie review contest, with cool prizes to boot!
Write Movie Reviews on RateItAll.com and Win Free Stuff.
How do I get in on the action - it's easy!
Official contest rules
Write Movie Reviews on RateItAll.com and Win Free Stuff.
How do I get in on the action - it's easy!
- Send an email to contest@rateitall.com with your RateItAll Nickname
- Start reviewing movies on RateItAll (any movie title is fine, but it has to be a movie)
- Contest runs for 24 hours this Friday, April 10th (12:00AM to 11:59PM)
- Winners will be determined by the total number of qualifying movie reviews (3 sentences or more)
- Grand prize is a six month Netflix subscription! That's over $100 worth of free movie rentals!
- Second prize is a $25 gift certificate from Amazon.
- Plus, all 1st through 5th place participants win a stunning, RateItAll happy demon star t-shirt!
Official contest rules
- Contest starts at 12:00AM PT on Friday, April 10th and runs through 11:59PM PT on Friday, April 10th.
- Participants must have valid RateItAll member accounts.
- Contest participants must register for the contest by sending an email to contest@rateitall.com with their valid and active RateItAll nickname in order to be considered for the prizes.
- Reviews must be of movies to be considered. Members can submit only one review per movie.
- Each quality movie review will count as one entry in the contest. Reviews must be at least three sentences.
- Recycled or reposted reviews will not be considered for the contest, and use of such reviews will be grounds for disqualification.
- Winners will be determined as follows: (1st) First prize and t-shirt - Six month Netflix subscription will be rewarded to the participant with the most entries during the contest period. (2nd - 5th) Second through Fifth prizes - RateItAll t-shirts will be rewarded to the participants with the 2nd-5th most entries during the contest period.
- Prizes are non-transferrable and are subject to change and availability.
- RateItAll reserves the right to discontinue the contest at any time, for any reason. RateItAll reserves the right to disqualify participants if we determine that contest rules have been broken.
- Questions about the contest? Email contest@rateitall.com
- Winners will be notified on or by Monday, April 13th, 2009.
- All decisions made by contest administrators are final.
4/7/09
Claim Your Blog on RateItAll
We've recently introduced "claiming" functionality on RateItAll for blogs, websites, and local businesses. If you have a blog listed on RateItAll in our blog directory (as I know a number of you do), click the green button that says "This is my Business."
All sorts of wonderful things happen when you do this:
- You will have editorial control of the pictures, links, and description associated with your blog listing
- You will be able to grab one of our GORGEOUS "Loved on RateItAll" badges, as seen in the sidebar of this blog, or in the screenshot below
- You will be able, if you want to, to buy additional exposure for your blog, local business, or website
Claiming your blog is free, as are the badges. Let me know if you get stuck.
If you have not yet added your blog to RateItAll, you can do so here.
All sorts of wonderful things happen when you do this:
- You will have editorial control of the pictures, links, and description associated with your blog listing
- You will be able to grab one of our GORGEOUS "Loved on RateItAll" badges, as seen in the sidebar of this blog, or in the screenshot below
- You will be able, if you want to, to buy additional exposure for your blog, local business, or website
Claiming your blog is free, as are the badges. Let me know if you get stuck.
If you have not yet added your blog to RateItAll, you can do so here.
Sweet, glorious comment editing
It has been *suggested* a number of times that people might appreciate the ability to edit and delete comments that they have posted on a review.
This feature is now live.
Try it out! Say something nasty in a comment, take a deep breath, and then edit or delete it.
This feature is now live.
Try it out! Say something nasty in a comment, take a deep breath, and then edit or delete it.
4/1/09
Movie Review Cage Match - DELAYED
We have decided to delay our 24 hour, movie review cage match until next week so we can do it right.
Stay tuned for more details.
Stay tuned for more details.
Quick Hitter Movie Review Contest - a 24 hour cage match
On the heels of our Local Biz review contest in which Irishgit walked away with the big haul, we are going to try a slightly different format.
A 24 hour cage match movie review contest. Winner gets a six month Netflix subscription and a stunning, RateItAll happy demon star t-shirt. 2nd through 5th places will also get t-shirts.
The contest will begin at 12:00AM San Francisco time tomorrow (Thursday), and end at 11:59PM the same day.
My suggestion is this: stop what you're doing right now, and make sure the fridge is stocked with Red Bull or other caffeinated beverages (click through for energy drink reviews).
Then, go to sleep. Tomorrow will be an epic battle of endurance.
More details to follow.
A 24 hour cage match movie review contest. Winner gets a six month Netflix subscription and a stunning, RateItAll happy demon star t-shirt. 2nd through 5th places will also get t-shirts.
The contest will begin at 12:00AM San Francisco time tomorrow (Thursday), and end at 11:59PM the same day.
My suggestion is this: stop what you're doing right now, and make sure the fridge is stocked with Red Bull or other caffeinated beverages (click through for energy drink reviews).
Then, go to sleep. Tomorrow will be an epic battle of endurance.
More details to follow.
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