Whenever The Keepers disappear a bit and our postings become sporadic and pointed, you can bet we’re either out riding our bikes or we’ve been busy working away at new features for the site. We have a number of features in various states of completion, and we’ll be rolling them out over the course of the next few weeks and months as they reach maturity and we become convinced they’re working reasonably well.
The beautiful thing about a word like “reasonable” is that it contains within it the perfect amont of vagueness while giving the impression of specificity. After all, there’s no universally agreed-upon reasonable degree of reasonable, meaning that what seems reasonable to me might be completely unreasonable to others. Take, for example, the number of times the word “reasonable” appears in this paragraph. Completely unreasonable.
Back to the point, when I say our new features are working reasonably well, I mean to say that three requirements have been satisfied. First, the vision for the feature is well understood. (The vision does not need to be realized in the release, but it does need to allow for it to become realized at some later stage.) Second, the initial feature set is working sufficiently well that I got tired of testing before I found any major problems. Third, it looks good.
At this time, we’re releasing two new features, both of which represent an initial iteration which we plan to expand on as the features grow and the community adopts them (or not). As we gather feedback on what new features would be helpful, we’ll incorporate it into the subsequent releases (or not).
The VVallpapers
Velominati is founded on the idea of sharing with each other the little things about Cycling that make this sport so amazing. On that premise, providing desktop Wallpapers or, indeed VVallpapers, has been part of the envisioned feature set from the beginning; to select photos from our collective archives within the community that represent Cycling in some way, and provide a specific place to share them with each other. But, like so many other ideas we have kicking around, there simply aren’t enough hours in a day to make everything come to reality.
However, a discussion last week spurred us into action, and we present you with The VVallpapers. We haven’t really found a good home for them yet, but for the time being at least, they can be found through the footer and via The Keepers. The same principle applies as elsewhere; post your suggestions for additional photos for inclusion, and we’ll update the main list with the best ones. Several initial wallpapers have been added already as a start.
The Community
As we know, there is great sense of community on Velominati, and increasingly we’re seeing the desire to know a little bit more about our fellow members. To that end, we’ve put together a Community page which provides a mechanism to share some background information and posting activity. Obviously, we wanted to provide this as an option to people who wish to share information, but still make sure that people who want to stay anonymous can do so. To that end, people who have an account at Velominati may log in and update their profile, sharing whatever information they are comfortable sharing, including a bio, their location, and various social networking coordinates. For those who don’t have a Velominati account or who don’t fill out their profile, only a very basic amount of information is shown along with their posting activity. The fundamental idea is to allow people to choose what they’d like to share; only the handle, photo, and website are shown by default.
To access anyone’s profile, simply click their name in the posting threads. The only downside to that is that in order for you to access a member’s profile, they need to have posted at least once; there are loads of members who have never posted any comments. Unfortunately, this release doesn’t provide a mechanism for viewing their profiles.
To that point, however, is the notion that The Community in particular is viewed by us as an initial iteration; we have a mountain of ideas that we think will help foster a sense of community here, and we’re sure you do as well. With that in mind, have a look, fill out your profile (or don’t), and start using learning about the community. If you have ideas or suggestions, we’d love to hear about them.
Thanks as always to everyone who comes here and makes this all worth while.
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View Comments
@huffalotpuffalot
Should have been the photo heading up the Reverence: Tubs article.
@Chris
haha agreed, i was just checking up Von Bueren won the race as it happens so good on him.
@huffalotpuffalot
Had to add that I think that this is just an awesome photo. Reminds me of the stories of the Army helicoptor pilots who, when hit and crashing downrange, would continue to keep saying, "I've got this, I'm pulling us out, Bravo 2-0 NOT going down" as they crash into the ground and all die. I've heard some amazing actual audio from pilots shot down and their insistence that they will survive is eerily chilling.
Not sure if that is at ALL relevent, but that's what popped into my head when I saw that photo. Thanks for bearing with me here!
@huffalotpuffalot
Indeed, you'd think a guy who runs a global Mobile development team for a living would already have gotten this out, but...time continues its marched despite my best efforts to slow it down.
Android is a little bit faster to build, but testing is a much more difficult activity due to the different screen sizes and massive volume of devices to test against. Thankfully, due to my disinterest in thorough testing (see above), this will not pose much of a material problem.
@Chris
Excellent point. Must consider this carefully. An alternative might be to "favorite" a response and that gives no value to anything other than that on the Community page, it would show "frank's favorite posts"...or something of that nature.
I am absolutely floored that you prefer the Keepers to pick someone for the +1 badge. I figured that seemed way to ghetto and biased. Apparently that's what you like. Cool.
I suppose I shouldn't be so shocked that this community appreciates bias. I suppose that's what the whole thing is based on.
@huffalotpuffalot
We already have the +1 and Twitface links on each post and Rule/Lexi entry.
Adding a "Like" for FB would be easy to add (I suppose there is an effort-difference between just clicking "like" vs posting it to your account...)
Or, are you suggesting we add a FB Like button and Twitface links to each comment?
The suggestion box remains open. Great, great feedback, everyone.
Ah...that photo is missing only one thing...BRR's commentary:
@Chris
+1
@Buck Rogers
That's why I'm not a military man...I would be shitting myself and wailing like a puppy.
It does, however, remind me of my favorite comedians (Bird & Fortune) and their General Planner sketch:
We found that in desert conditions, the life expectancy of the helicopter rotors was reduced somewhat."
How much?
27 hours.
Did that come as a surprise?
It did to the pilots.
The link above jumps to the scene in the sketch, but for anyone who hasn't watched B&F, I encourage you to take the time to watch this. Absolute gold.
@frank
A button you could hit to put articles and comments into a "shit I like" section, absolutely. As long as there is a corresponding "flush" button in the "shit I like" section to avoid overcrowding.
For me, one of the great things about this site is that while it's slick and pro looking, it doesn't come across as a corporate entity in the way that many others do. Its identity seems to very much reflect the Keepers - completely obsessive, slightly knowledgeable and irreverent. The fact the Keepers are responsible for the primary content, the Articles, differentiates from the simple forum type sites where anyone can post any old shit. In other words there is tangible ownership and identity that doesn't happen elsewhere. Having the people responsible for that decide on the +1 badge seems appropriate and in keeping with the site.
I like all the new tweaks and suggestions. I have one. With everyone who visits this site, there must be 100s, if not 1000s of years of experience out there. Could there be a Q&A/Advice section? I'm sure we all have questions/issues/problems with our bikes and this might be a place to ask them and get answers without mucking up a thread on a different issue. Some of this might fit in the Rules section, but that's more for clarification on an issue. Thoughts?
Wow, a lot of great ideas from everyone! It's been fun reading through them all.
As far as my two cents are concerned, I personally don't like sites where you can "up vote/down vote" individual comments, and everyone sees it. I don't know, it just seems to add too much complexity to what at it's core is a pretty simple and intuitive forum interface that Velominati already has.
I like the addition of new features and ways to make this site more community focused, I just don't want to see the dialog between people on here get lost between a bunch of new buttons and whatnot - because all this dialog is what gives the site value and makes it "sticky" in the first place. Look at how many websites have "0" comments under news posts or articles, and look at how this site can easily get 200 posts regarding bottle cages or sew-up tires. That is amazing.