A Couple of Suggestions on How to Make Bitmob Even Better

By Jon Porter
Tuesday, 16 June 2009

Tags: Untagged

I love Bitmob. You love Bitmob. Even Kotaku seems to love Bitmob. But with any new site there are some rough edges and some features that I'd very much like to see implemented. Feel free to post your own suggestions in the comments below. The more people who comment, the higher profile this little piece gets, and the more likely it gets noticed by a Bitmob editor. So let's begin.

1. Subscriptions

There are some contributers to Bitmob that I'd love to read more of. The problem is that there's currently no way to create a list of 'favourate' writers that you can easily access whenever you visit the site to check for updates. Sure you can search and find one of their articles, click on their name, and see all their contributions, but this only works when you're in the mood to read lots in one go.

In the same vein it would be nice if clicking on someone's name in the comments section took you to their profile, speaking of comments...

2. Email Notifications

I love the fact that when you post a comment you can choose to be notified of any responses, but this is a feature sorely lacking from when you write the articles themselves. Currently the only way to receive email notifications on your own stories is to post a comment yourself, but commenting on your own work looks a bit weird at the best of times.

In the same vein as the previous suggestion it would be nice to be notified of any updates by community members you're subscribed to.

3. The front page.

Again on the subject of notifications, a little automated email to say your article's got a mention on the front page would be a lovely little ego boost.

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Typically when planning this article I seemed to have far more ideas than I actually do. Without further ado, what would the Bitmob community like to see added to the site?

Comments (17)

Jon, not sure if you missed the episode, but this was actually the question we posed to the community on the beta episode of Pixel Revolt. We had some great ideas come out of it and some good response from the Bitmob staff members.

You can find the post with various ways to listen to the podcast here: http://www.bitmob.com/index.ph...ta-episode

Derek Lavigne , June 17, 2009

The staff will read your blog trust me. Also don't forget you can hit the contact button then a support link. There other people have posted some of the same things you have said. it also gives you access to vote on the ideas you like. So give that a try as well. Thank you for posting.

Toby Davis , June 17, 2009

I'm going to add a couple suggestions:

Internal photo hosting: Could kill bandwidth, but I've had a couple images totally wrecked due to Kotaku links. Maybe you can tone it down and use a image hosting partner? From what I can see, Bitmob uses Joomla (at least it looks like Joomla), and I am sure there's an add-on and a partner out there.

Tables in the WYSIWYG: Tables work horribly in WYSIWYG, and I can imagine it smash the site to pieces if used improperly, but it would be nice.

More Categories: There are two streams where content is distributed, the front page and the mob feed. I'd like to see a couple more... Maybe News (where members can post news bits/links, so we can get it all in one place while keeping it contained, filtering it to the front page through Donahoe's Daily Blips), Commentary, Reviews, etc.

Ranked Users: Rank users based on promotions, hits, and comments (using a weighted scale). I envision this less a reward system, but a method in which bit mob members can quickly tune into what works within the community and get inspired to create great content.

And no forums. HA!

Andrew Hiscock , June 17, 2009

-2

I wish the search function would include writers. Currently (from what I know), I can only see a writer's collected submissions by clicking on their name from one of their articles. The search bar should include user names as possible terms.

Spencer Gregory , June 17, 2009

I like all of ideas that Jon and Andrew said, especially about no forums, except I really don't want to see a ranking next to my name, and half of the fun of Bitmob is searching through old articles, looking for Gems.

Like some really smart Dude said in the PixelRevolt podcast: don't do anything that other sites do.

Lance Darnell , June 17, 2009

I would also like maybe a couple categories to organize stories. I don't want Bitmob to become a place where we have a news feed, review, preview, etc. But, something to make it so that the mobfeed doesn't become just review after review would be nice.

I think it would be a really nice feature to be able to favorite certain stories as well. Sort of like Jon's suggestion of subscribing to different authors (which I'd like to see as well). I'd like to have a list on the site of stories that I really like or that I have yet to read but want to.

Alex Mekos , June 17, 2009

A PM feature would be good as well. I recently had to use the comments section of a users post to have a conversation that no one but him and me probably cared about.

Chris Owens , June 17, 2009

@Chris even though you may think no one cares about the conversation. It also gives people a different look on the conversation of the topic at hand as well.

Toby Davis , June 17, 2009

Yup, I'm pretty sure most bitmob users read the comments, even when they don't contribute as well.

Spencer Gregory , June 18, 2009

Favorite-ing or bookmarking stories rather than bookmarking them through my browser would be nice.

Please don't implement a ranking system. Please.

Steven Hicks , June 18, 2009

I will 4th a no ranking system .. Don't want to see how bad I do.

Toby Davis , June 18, 2009

Hey everyone...really appreciate the ideas and feedback! It's really great to know you guys care enough. We are working on a LOT of updates and improvements, but it's going take us some time. The main problem is, we don't have any money.

We're just a small start-up operation, so we have to depend on people who can help us out pro-bono, who can work on the site after their normal day jobs, etc.

If we were to get a few sponsonships, get some ad money, or get enough traffic and users to warrant some funding from an investor, then we'd be in a much better position, business-wise, to do a lot of these things.

So please be patient with us. We're just a tiny operation made up of a small handful of guys who are working hard to turn this into a business that can actually pay the bills.

Thanks! And don't put all your great suggestions here. Who knows who may be watching, ready to steal the good ideas....

Dan Hsu , June 18, 2009

This was discussed on Pixel Revolt, but I would like to see a second "front" page with user voted articles.

Reed Brown , June 23, 2009

Email notifications would make mobile site-checking easier. I am also against the ranked user suggestion because of the social issues it may unintentionally create.

Mobile updating is a fantastic one. I sometimes am without a computer but have a great idea for a post. Being able to post from my iPhone would be fantastic.

Jasmine Maleficent Rea , June 23, 2009

I just want to hear a little more about whatever games you guys are playing. I know you have many reasons not to have forums, but I think it would be nice to see some bitmob forums. At least give them a test run. I feel the name as your user name adds for the accountability that could be a nice change of pace in a message board.

Chad Tobin , June 23, 2009