Obama and Fear

OK, we have a couple of new quizzes live on MS and Facebook. An Obama VP quiz based on GTH's Obama VP Candidate list, and a fear test based on Jamie McBain's list of things you are afraid of.

And to my conservative friends out there, please don't read anything into the juxtaposition of the "Fear" and "Obama" quizzes.

I can't believe we don't have a 2008 Democratic candidate list yet

Who wants to take it on?

Here's the 2008 Republican VP candidate list.

Trip Reports via RateItAll

One of my favorite things to do after taking a trip is to write up the things and places that I saw. I just wrote up my trip to Atlanta for my brother's bachelors party. We went to a ball game, and I reviewed Turner Field, a couple of Atlanta bars, and the hotel I stayed at.

For me, RateItAll is almost a diary of sorts, and this is one my favorite things about the site.

Two New Quizzes

I added a Job Compatibility Test and a Break Up Quiz to MySpace and Facebook. Check them out!

Also, thanks for all of the good suggestions for more compatibility quizzes... I think we need a way for anybody to convert their lists into a FB / MS quiz.

Agree is the New Funny

Sometimes when I'm utterly baffled by a review, but I want to acknowledge that I read it, I will drop an "agree" vote on it.

Often this makes no sense:

Reviewer: "I remember growing up in Kentucky snorting the Grizz four time per day."

Me: Agree

I didn't grow up in Kentucky, and I certainly have never ingested the Grizz. Yet I somehow feel compelled to drop an "agree" vote.

Is there any cure for what I have?

Posting a Video Review: A How To from Genghis the Hun

GenghisTheHun has very helpfully put together a video explaining how to post a video review to RateItAll.

Genghis chose to shoot the clip in sort of a Blair Witch style - minimal light, with only a hand and several eerie lights visible. I found myself overcome with an inexplicable feeling of dread after watching it.

But if you can get past the horror film techniques, his tutorial is quite helpful.

Here are the cliff notes:

- Record your video using a web cam or camera
- Export it to your desktop
- Upload it to YouTube
- Copy the embed code from YouTube and paste it into the review field

But I encourage you to watch the whole video. Thanks GTH!:

Suggestions for New Compatibility Tests?

If anybody has suggestions for lists that could be converted into compatibility tests, please let me know. These tests are a great way to drive traffic to specific lists... if you have a list that you think might work as a compatibility test (it should be mainstream, easily rate-able, and with pictures and images), please let me know.

Down for Everyone or Just Me?

Sometimes when your favorite site goes down, it's hard to tell if the problem is on your end, or on RIA's end.

Here's a cool site to help you answer that question - if you can't get to RIA, make sure to hit: Downforeveryoneorjustme.com.

Religion Compatibility Test Now Live....

.... on Facebook and MySpace. Let's add some quantitative compatibility numbers next to the great debate.

Hey University of Singapore - Knock it Off

In addition to the million or so humans a month that visit RateItAll, there are also thousands of "bots" - non human visitors who crawl and scrape our site for content.

Some of these bots are benign - for example Google, Yahoo, and MSN all operate bots / spiders that are used to index our content so that it can show up in their respective search engines. These bots follow strict rules, and respond to our requests to slow down if they are hitting us too hard. We love them.

But others are rogues. Pounding our servers without regards to our requests, and scraping our (yours and RateItAll's) content so that they can display it elsewhere and try and make money off of it.

Today, one of those rogue bots was hitting pretty hard - we tracked it back to the University of Singapore. They were hitting us about twice as aggressively as Google, which is pretty aggressive.

So if you guys over there in Singapore are reading this, nice work. You overdid it and now you are permanently banned.

RateItAll is Hiring

Guys, RateItAll is looking for developers / engineers. Here's the job req - please let me know if you know of anyone.

The Meaning of Trusted Networks on RateItAll

There's been some debate as to what does it exactly mean to add somebody to your trusted network on RateItAll.

While I don't think there is any one answer, I think Ridgewalker puts it better than most when he says:

When I first came on here, back in '05, I'll have to admit that I was a tad baffled by the "Trusted List", so I asked someone who I respected, what this was all about. I can't think of a better, or alternate title for this list, but it's not always about trust. It can be about respect for a person's point of view and the way they express it. It can be a "thanks" for the helpful information, or for making me laugh. It can mean, simply, that I like you, or appreciate you. It might be a "welcome sign", as some people click on anyone who leaves more than one review. My situation here might differ from most others, in that I had maintained a base of friends even after I left the sight, so when I returned, so did a portion of my "Trusted List", very quickly. As far as genuine trust goes, there's very few people who I would actually trust with intimate information and I'm sure that's true with most reviewers, here. The over-whelming majority of people that have my picture on their page, I like, respect and appreciate. It's obviously not mutual 100% of the time, but I see no risk here in reaching out to others, because I have learned that, whether online, or in real life, you never know what part a person is going to play in your life when you first meet them. I met Stark online...

As far as this suggestion goes, I think it is contrary to the nature of RIA, but is perfect for someone who likes to slip notes under doors and run away...

"New Stuff" page

Guys, we've made some changes to the New Stuff page - the page that tracks new things that have just been added to the site.

We've simplified the hierarchy of links shown for each new list or item, and also give clearer credit to the person who added it.

Two New Features!

Guys, we just launched two cool new features.

The first is our "Friend Finder" feature - this lets you use your email address book from sites like Gmail, Yahoo, and LinkedIn to find folks you know who are already on RateItAll. It also lets you invite friends who are not already on RateItAll to join your trusted network. You can try out this feature HERE (and it's also on the main navigation bar for now under "Friend Finder.")

It's a really easy way to add people that you may know in real life to your Trusted Network on RIA - I just added about 70 people who I had no idea were on the site. It's also a great way to invite new people to the site.

The second feature is an alert email when someone adds you to their trusted network. This email is sent from messaging@rateitall.com so you'll need to make sure that email address is whitelisted if you have a spam filter AND that email address that you're using for your RateItAll account is current.

No more analyzing friend networks to see who just added you.... Enjoy!

A friendly request

Guys, a request. Can we please keep the (intentionally) funny reviews to Weblists? Posting joke reviews of products or businesses is a bit more problematic for me, as more often than not, I end up getting an angry phone call. This includes tongue in cheek posts about Dog Food (you don't want to make those people angry), The Grizz, Magnum Condoms, the movie Brokeback Mountain, the DJ called Donovan in San Francisco, and other listings.

If your well written, genuinely funny, but off topic review of a product or local business gets vaporized, you will know why.

Doing a little DB Maintenance

We will be back up shortly.

Green Compatibility Test

We just converted Kamylienne's excellent list of environmentally friendly activities into a compatibility test for MySpace and Facebook.

Let's see how Green compatible we are.

To check, go to your MySpace and Facebook account, access the Compatibility App, and finish the test.

Like the new Anon Avatars?

If you like them, please leave me some pleasant feedback.

If you don't, you can complain to Automatt.

(I think they're cool)

O, RateItAll

No, that's not the Unabomber. That is RateItAll's own...... GENGHIS THE HUN (cue applause), performing his mega hit "O, RateItAll."



And here are the lyrics:

"O, Rateitall, O, Rateitall, Just what the hell are y'all?

Each looks to each, and cares all flee.

Each looks to each, and blesses thee.

O, Rateitall, thy sacred site, Makes us waste, many a night.

Each looks to each, and cares all flee.

Each looks to each and blesses thee.

O, Rateitall, O, Rateitall, Just what the hell are y'all?

Seems Vaguely Familiar

Anybody else remember this guy?