Consulting the community

by Sue Bailey

This post was written in March 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

TameBay’s nearly 18 months old now, and frankly, it’s time for a new look. Personally I’d like something where people aren’t forced to scroll down and down to see if there’s anything they’ve missed, where what’s new is all visible at the top of the page. And I’d like to be rid of the lumps of white space at the sides; I’m sure there’s something more interesting we can do with those.

As Wordpress have a major release due any day, I won’t be changing anything immediately, so now’s your chance. If there’s something you want to see, something you want to see the back of, something you’d like to change, say now.


Author: Sue Bailey
Posted at: Saturday, March 15th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Filed Under Meta
 

Comments

37 Responses to “Consulting the community”

  1. GeorgeJungle on March 15th, 2008 4:03 pm

    I RSS it to my blackberry 8880 anyway and read it on the tube, never look at this site, so it dont matter to me one bit.

    Its the info and the commentary we love I am not bothered about the wrapper!

  2. whirly on March 15th, 2008 5:13 pm

    Looks good as it is.

    Remember what happens when eBay start fiddling with things that work already :roll:

  3. Randy Smythe on March 15th, 2008 5:29 pm

    Sue, if your readers are anything like mine, they mostly read the blog in their RSS reader, so choose something you like.

    My guess is the guys won’t care and the ladies will have some suggestions.

  4. Dan Wilson on March 15th, 2008 5:30 pm

    Established readers will often use RSS and a reader. Interestingly, I don’t.

    But newbies and those who stumble in will need to be tempted. ;o) I’d think about first-time visitors too.

  5. Sue Bailey on March 15th, 2008 5:42 pm

    Thanks for all the comments so far.

    Actually, a relatively small number of our regulars use RSS (assuming that Google and Feedburner between them have it right). And until we can leave comments via RSS, the value of the site per se still persists, I think.

    One of the thoughts behind changing it to a more magazine-format layout is that it’s easier for newbies to see what the site’s about. If all they can see is one post on a sub-topic they’re not very interested in, that’s hardly very tempting.

  6. Chris O'D on March 15th, 2008 5:43 pm

    Technophobe - starts to google rss reader

  7. Sue Bailey on March 15th, 2008 5:46 pm

    Chris: this post should help.

  8. Store Your Stuff aka Jade on March 15th, 2008 5:50 pm

    Sue, the look of the site is great, simple, crisp, easy to read. Personally I hate “busy” magazine style sites as I don’t feel they lend themselves to chronological order as well as a nice “newest at the top” site like yours. I do use RSS for the headlines from Tamebay, but I prefer to visit the site, to read the actual article.

    When I get round to doing my own blog, then the clean crisp, simple lines of Tamebay would have a strong influence on my design.

    Incidentally, I think what you guys do here so very useful and very interesting, I visit this site more than any other, sometimes sitting “F5ing” just waiting for an update, but maybe that makes me a saddo! :-)

    :grin: KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK :grin: (Claps)

  9. Josordoni on March 15th, 2008 5:51 pm

    Sue, you know that your design skills are cool :cool: whatever you think will work will be fine by all of us, we just need you and Mountie and the rest is just frippery :grin:

  10. Sue Bailey on March 15th, 2008 5:59 pm

    Thanks Lynne :oops:

    Jade: I don’t do “busy”. Ever. Even when I try, I can’t do it :lol: (Too many Geocities pages scarred me for life I think.)

    These are some of the themes that are influencing my thinking. I was close to just installing Mimbo, but it felt too inflexible somehow.

  11. Josordoni on March 15th, 2008 6:45 pm

    Dear Me, did I really write that…. :shock:

    I meant every word, but myomy, that was a bit slushy even for me… :oops:

    :lol: :lol:

  12. Josordoni on March 15th, 2008 6:47 pm

    Mimbo is good, and I like Overstand as well..

  13. Josordoni on March 15th, 2008 6:48 pm

    btw … every time so far I have read the title of this post, I have read it as Care in the Community….

  14. Sue Bailey on March 15th, 2008 6:52 pm

    The title is of course nicked from eBay’s claim that they consult the community… which I always associate with care in the community too :lol:

  15. Sue Bailey on March 15th, 2008 6:54 pm

    Hey Lynne, don’t tell anyone else but Overstand is really not that far from what I’m going to do :wink:

  16. Josordoni on March 15th, 2008 7:39 pm

    shhhhh my lips are sealed… mbmbmbmbm…

    can I unseal them now please, my dinner is nearly ready…

  17. Ed on March 15th, 2008 8:21 pm

    I like it just the way it is. I like to drop in at least once a day just to see whats new and what’s broke. broke on eBay that is ;o)

    It’s very easy at present to just scroll down to where I left off.

    I like the crisp clean narrow look and with just one column of content I know I haven’t missed anything.

  18. Jimbo on March 15th, 2008 8:25 pm

    So Sue, just like eBay, consulting us when you already know what you’re going to do :grin:

  19. Josordoni on March 15th, 2008 9:23 pm

    If we all hate what you do and go on strike, will you go back to the way it was?

    :cool:

  20. Sue Bailey on March 15th, 2008 9:26 pm

    I must say, I’m starting to have more sympathy with eBay :razz:

  21. Nick Talley on March 15th, 2008 9:37 pm

    I like the site as is. Please don’t change it.

    It will be like looking for the beans in Tesco when they change the store layout. God I hate that :roll:

  22. Store Your Stuff aka Jade on March 16th, 2008 6:38 am

    ….if it aint broke……. :smile:

  23. northumbrian on March 16th, 2008 7:59 am

    content and information is what attracts me

    I dont care how its presented as long as its accurate focused and current

  24. northumbrian on March 16th, 2008 8:03 am

    whoops forgot to mention the most important

    UNBIASED

  25. Ed on March 16th, 2008 9:09 am

    northumbrian, Don’t think you can expect completely unbiased when it lives off advertising, you just need to be discerning. :wink:

  26. northumbrian on March 16th, 2008 9:50 am

    ed

    if all the readers are in house or part of the clique, not much of a living will be made

  27. Ed on March 16th, 2008 11:22 am

    northumbrian, agreed, I got that impression too.

    Content is king…

  28. Josordoni on March 16th, 2008 12:27 pm

    “if all the readers are in house or part of the clique, not much of a living will be made”

    If we don’t click, can we still be part of the clique?

    The content is important, but being able to access it easily and comfortably is just as important. There are lots of sites out there whose content will never be discovered since you never look further than the first two seconds because they are so unfriendly, busy, messy, and downright horrible…. :cry:

  29. Ed on March 16th, 2008 1:53 pm

    Josordoni, I agree with all that. :smile:

    Actualy I tried to edit that last comment of mine but the re-edit failed for some reason.

    In the context of a clique I was really thinking of the regular responders rather than the readers. I’m sure the readers vastly out number the responders and I have no idea as to their makeup.

    Note to tamebay authors:- I think my re-edit failed when I tried to include a smily that appeared in the edit box at the bottom.

  30. northumbrian on March 16th, 2008 3:49 pm

    There are lots of sites out there whose content will never be discovered since you never look further than the first two seconds because they are so unfriendly, busy, messy, and downright horrible….

    I wouldnt know :grin:

    I only ever need to read this blog :smile: :grin: :razz: :wink: :eek: :lol:

  31. Josordoni on March 16th, 2008 4:18 pm

    Ha! I didn’t mean about eBay in particular… just “sites” in general - if I find one later on, I’ll send you there…

    p.s. I agree, for eBay stuff I only read here…better class of clique…

  32. Ed on March 16th, 2008 4:27 pm

    Come to think of it, this is the only eBay blog I read too!

    And am sure it’s because it’s easy to read and lets me know when there is anything worth knowing. :grin:

  33. Owen on March 16th, 2008 5:11 pm

    I quite like it the way it is.

    White space is good :lol:

  34. Josordoni on March 16th, 2008 5:15 pm

    Artistically white space is very important. It is the negative space (ie. the space around things) that gives a picture its impact.

    But we aren’t going to get a horrible busy site, it is going to be spare and elegant and wonderful. Betcha…. :lol:

  35. northumbrian on March 16th, 2008 6:26 pm

    when I used to read that auctionbytes thingy
    I only ever read the latest news, and an occasional
    article that caught my eye

    bored rigid with the same ,old same old,

    shock horror storm in a t cup stories .ebay has run their business to make profit and a few anoraks dont like it

  36. stuart on March 17th, 2008 9:01 am

    Hey well Im a newbie!!

    It took a few days to get used to the site to be honest, when I first came accross it I did’nt really know what it was, so it might be worth a bit more saying what it is, also what some of the stuff down the right means to, I have just been clicking away to look but some peeps might not do that.

    Anyways im a member on an ebay friends forum and have posted this site on there to say how great it is!!! :lol:

  37. Sue Bailey on March 17th, 2008 9:16 am

    Thanks Stuart, that’s really helpful (and thanks for the linking too :grin: )

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