Fairly obvious post really. Either I’m just not interesting enough or people generally don’t notice journal entries once the latest post falls off the home page.
Why can’t there be an equal amount of space for featured journal entries as there is for images? Sure the journal entry icon may not be quite as pretty but couldn’t that be substituted with a users profile icon or some other icon that we could customise?
There doesn’t seem to be much incentive to come back to journal entries that you’ve commented on in order to continue the discussion either? Perhaps there needs to be a way of subscribing to another persons journal entries comment section so one can be alerted when a new comment is made?
Craig Watson
I agree with you etourist… what those at RB that run the site think?
helene
Sounds good to me – it would be great to be alerted on some of the journal threads I’ve found. Would make it more like a conversation.
Xavier Russo
Thanks etourist, some great points here. Basically we agree with you – there’s plenty that can be done to improve the way journal entries work, and balancing the weight given to visual vs written content.
Couple of ideas being considered include: (1) subscribing to RSS feeds on journal entries you like, so you always get notified about new comments; (2) allowing you to put polished pieces of written work (poems, stories, etc) in your portfolio (3) using a different visual way of rendering written work & journal entries …etc
What do others think here? Any other ideas, or an existing one you’d like to give your support to?
fleece
depends what you really want the site to be. If you want to allow discussion threads in journals, you need a way for people to reply to comments, and a way for people to see if they’ve had a comment replied to. This can be implemented via a view that shows a user’s own comments in reverse chronological order, and flags the replied-to ones, so you can scan down the list and see who’s replied to you.
this should be sufficient, because ppl generally only care about their own conversations.
Also, if ppl want to use the journals for random blog-type entries, it might be good to increase the number of of recent entries you see on the front page, and show the number of comments in each, so it’s clear at a glance which ones have lively discussions inside.
Also, you might want to make some policies on what is considered acceptable use of journals.
For example, maybe there should be a ban on crapflooding, link-whoring offsite to own blogs and business sites, and pimping your own t-shirts. This might mean people could rely more on visiting journals to find “content” whatever that is….
Graeme Hindmarsh
I agree with fleece about pimping. Maybe separate sections for blog, discussion and literary works …. although that may be too confusing for some – keep it simple. A forum model may work for some of these entries.
etourist
I actually think the comments ‘as is’ on journal entries is fine. I like comments to be chronological order rather than sorted into threads or reverse order. All that is lacking is some kind of notification so that you can see if a new comment has been added to a discussion you are interested in.
With that small change a discussion that people first saw on the homepage would have a chance of continuing further, after its initial five minutes of fame.
Being able to subscribe to an RSS feed of a persons journal (and managing those feeds within your RB profile) would be fantastic – Thumbs up to that!
Would be nice to single out polished, creative works but perhaps not in your portfolio. Maybe a sidebar next to every journal entry where you could list links to your best posts (kind of a list of recommended reading for new visitors to the journal).
Definitely need a more interesting icon for journal entries. I don’t know how hard it would be but maybe an article teaser type entry where the title and maybe the first few words of the opening line is displayed?
I wouldn’t like to see a ban on linking to other sites. There are occasions where you may want to share a legitimately useful web site with the RB community. Though some journal guidelines on acceptable use with the ability to report spamming (via a link) might be a good idea.
dove
I generally only respond to the watchlist. Since the new activity moniter was set up i’ve been able to see who (out of the few people on my watchlist anyway) has added something to their journal. I’m not really very technologically adavnced so i won’t even pretend to understand half of the stuff that has been offered in response to your post. It’s a bit technobabble to me. But I do agree that it is quite difficult to trawl this community in order to find something new and unusual. It is the visual images that have a very grabby appeal, but i personally like to read journal entries rather than just seeing people’s images.
etourist
I don’t know about you all but there is just something not quite there yet with Red Bubble. It needs something extra in order to really connect the individuals so that friendships can be formed (in the sense of people who regularly join in your discussions and comment on your images etc.)
Perhaps it will come through the journals. Pictures may say a thousand words but they still don’t communicate nearly as well as words.