features

"Personal in-jokes, stories, or references to words"? Sounds like the most interesting part of Wordie! So, whichie, when they are shareable, please do it!

Thanks, whichbe and Pro. I can probably find some good uses for the feature that I hadn't thought of, in the process of fixing my disastrous dinosaur lists. *sigh*

Oh, well, my first use was for the Demons list. There's a handful of demons on the list that shouldn't be there, there's lots that I haven't looked up in google, and lots that I have. Sometimes a look-up is not very fruitful, and this provides me with a 'post-it note' saying so. And I can also throw in any info that's relevant but too generic or uninteresting to post to all users, i.e. "Russian demon".

Another use is for personal in-jokes, stories, or references to words. That is, if I want to remember a particular story behind a word it's a place where I can quickly scribe the data. Like a reflexive memory-flag that isn't meant for public banter.

I was very skeptical about that feature. But now, I'm using it for the Italian translation of some words, when it can't be of any interest to you.
I think I'll create a list to keep track of the words I added a private note to. So I'll bother you anyway. :-)

Whichbe, may I ask what you are finding the feature most useful for? (I know what I'd use them for but I'm curious what others are doing.)

Signed, So Far Behind I'm Only Now Getting the Hang of Tagging.

I've been using the private notes feature this morning...it's quite useful for keeping track of some things. Thanks.

Private notes! Yahoo! Thanks, John!

John! John! I just noticed the private note feature and came here to squeal about it. Cool! Coolio! Megacool! I'm going to play with it if I ever get done with these friggin' dinosaurs and not-dinosaurs.

Thanks! Great idea!

Hi bilb. Yes, we have a cloud feature. Activate it by clicking 'cloud' under any list title :-) It is, as c_b notes, kind of broken, I think. I'll check it out this weekend.

Everybody: we now also have a 'private notes' feature. Leave notes on words just for yourself. It probably needs work (suggestions appreciated), and I probably broke various things while I was at it, since I also rashly upgraded a bunch of stuff on the server without really testing any of it. Let me know what's gone sideways, and I'll fix.

We have a cloud feature?

Yes, rt. I don't get any emails at all.

Edit: to change the subject almost entirely (sorry all), John, I have a question about the "cloud" feature. Is it not possible for the cloud option to show all the words on a list on the same page? I guess that can get really dicey with longer lists, but I use the cloud feature a lot to make sure I'm not adding something twice, or adding something with a slight variation if I've forgotten there's something already there just like it, etc. Just wondering! Thanks.

I think that happens only if you sign up for it, whichbe.

frindley: minor point--if someone posts on one of your lists, you will get an email about it, like with the comments on a profile...

I'm not sure a wall-to-wall feature wouldn't dilute the main purpose of the site, as you mentioned toward the end of your post, frindley. The point here is listing words (and commenting on them), not social networking (though obviously that goes on as well). If it were easier to network with individual users than it already is, via (for example) a wall-to-wall, I think it would change the essential character of the site.

As for the fragmented nature of conversations, that's all over the site, not just on profiles. Though for myself only, I try to keep conversations together or else post comments that link them back to wherever they started. But that's my own personal use and I don't expect anyone else to care.

It seems to me that commenting on profiles is the only reliable way of carrying on a specific conversation via Wordie, and that's because you receive a notification when someone comments on your profile, whereas you don't if they use word or list comments to "talk" to you. But it does mean that you only ever see one side of a conversation on any given profile. If a Wall-to-Wall type feature could be achieved without clutter or spoiling Wordie's simplicity then I'd be all for that.

But perhaps it's better as is. Conversations on profiles aren't terribly convenient to sustain and so we focus our attention on the things that really matter on this site!

I actually don't really care for comments on profiles. A good percentage are referring to (but not linking) random conversations around Wordie, leading to terrible fragmentation. My profile, for example, is a complete hodge podge of comments, most of which are indecipherable to even me, not that I mind too much, but some of the profiles that have a lot of comments kind of get out of hand.

Perhaps having that part of the profile on a separate page would alleviate this.

Just to be clear: I have no problem with that function either; in this case it was simply the context in which it occurred that bothered me.

Ptero, just checked and saw that too (that one can delete anyone's comments on one's own lists). John, like ptero, I don't have a problem with that either. It may not be a bad thing to be able to control the comments on one's own created lists, especially if the list is not public.

It's true that not all Wordie users are going to be as careful as you (John) are about not deleting anyone else's comments, but it should be all right in the end. Most users seem to respect Wordieternity.

I've noticed that one can delete only one's own comments on word pages, though, and you can only delete tags that you added yourself. (Is this true of tag lists (for lack of a better term) also? If so, is it the way you intended?) I think since word pages are public by definition, it's perfectly fair that you can only delete your own comments there.

But for one's profile, and possibly one's "private" lists, it's okay with me for a user to have some control.

Yes, ptero, that's true about one's own list pages.

Since mobile wordie has recently received a plug, I have a feature suggestion for that.

At present in the mobile version we can add words to existing lists and we can follow the recent comments. But it's virtually not possible to add comments to new words (a huge minus for me, since I rarely add a word without wanting to say something about it right then and there). It's also virtually not possible to contribute to conversations via the mobile version.

I say "virtually not possible" because I did discover one day when my train was delayed that it is possible to go through a circuitous process that effectively brings up the regular version of the site onto my mobile screen, at which point I can do all the normal things, albeit in a pretty clumsy interface. Basically it involves clicking on a username (e.g. from a comment header), which takes you to that profile in the non-mobile version. From there you have access to searching and other functions. But it's pretty clunky. Indeed it's probably a bug - but please don't fix it before adding these features…

1. ability to search for words
2. ability to comment on words

I agree with c_b and rt that one's profile should remain under one's control.

I also want to point out that I can delete comments made on any of my lists, no matter who the commenter is. As far as I can recall, it's always been this way. I don't really have a problem with it.

I agree, c_b.

John, regarding your comment for reesetee on my profile:

"1 minute ago John said:
Reesetee, a comment of yours really disappeared? I'm supposed to be the only one able to delete comments other than their own, and I've never done it. If anyone has found a bug that lets someone mess with someone else's stuff, please let me know quickly (by email, not here!), and I'll plug that hole as quickly as possible."

I've noticed for a while that one can delete comments on one's own profile. I would like to keep that feature/bug, if at all possible. I think an individual ought to be able to control his/her own profile at least, though I can see how you'd like to protect people's comments elsewhere. My two cents.

Perhaps other wordie denizens have opinions about this...?

Fusc me, if I made a comment more than 2 days ago I have difficulty remembering it. Wordie has the comments in chronologickle order so we can see how things pan out. I don't mind how things are. I'm easily pleased.

I don't know, a timestamp seems so... normal websites use those. This is Wordie! Plus I like the vagueness. I was just wondering exactly how vague they are...

But yarb's second suggestion, for metalisting? Oh PLEASE!!! Please please!! Pretty please with some nice cute animals on top?! *quivers with joy*

I would really like an option to see timestamp on comments, rather than "...ago". With older comments, I find it adds something to know exactly how far apart in time they were made.

Also: how about a metalist feature? I.e. a way to list lists in the same way we currently list words?

John, I don't have a suggestion, or even a bug report, but just a curious question: the oldest comments all seem to say "about 1 year ago." Is this the highest the counter goes? I.e., are there comments that were made more than 1 year ago, but the counter still says 1 year ago? Just wondering!

I think it's a good idea, bestiary, and I can certainly see myself taking advantage of private notes, but I have to say that I have come to value the open, at times perhaps even intrusively public nature of Wordie, which can be both annoying and delightful, and I suspect that private notes will diminish that.

oh, i wouldn't want to see a decline in comments either, rolig! i know exactly what you mean. i saw keeping notes private primarily as a way to draw as clear as possible a distiction between their purpose and that of comments (thus avoiding comments on a word-note being left on someone's list when they'd be more appropriate on the word's respective page, etc.), making them less likely to be seen as commenting replacements. a simple reminder to that effect beside the input box ("notes are private; only you can see them. if you think others might like to see this, you may want to leave a comment") would help as well. — another thought would be to give the option to submit a note and a comment simultaneously (–though i could see that potentially producing spam), or to have a separate "submit and view word" button to take you to the word's page to leave a comment, rather than back to your list, upon submitting a note.

in any case, i think the personal benefits outweigh potential losses, which seem simple enough to mitigate. :)

"aminals" was most certainly intentional! i see you're unfamiliar with enthusiastic metathesis.

I sort-of like the idea of private notes. I might, for example, use them in my Slovene word lists. But at the same time I am ambivalent. I have been pleasantly surprised when someone responds positively to what, for me, is simply an academic gloss on a Slovene word, and maybe even makes a suggestion about how to translate it. An interesting discussion with Bilby, for instance, developed around the word uglajen.

Private word notes might protect some words from getting the Wordie treatment, but some of the fun, and risk, of Wordie would get lost, too. I (or someone else) wouldn't be able to chide Bestiary about the misspelling of (of all things!) the word "animals" in the note for "zoopraxiscope" in the example he (she?) provides. So I guess I'm ambivalent.

I would love that feature as well!

oh, wonderful! :) expect a very enthusiastic reception, here.

Bestiary, great idea, I've wanted to do something along those lines for a while. Can't promise a delivery date but it's on the list.

i think it would be neat if we could add a note beside each word on our lists (private, i'd think, so not to take the action away from comments) to serve as little reminders, directly on the page, for quick-reference (e.g., definitions or pronunciations you tend to forget, associated quotes, synonyms, "this is a good word to call bob," etc. — without having to put redundant/only personally relevant things in comments or having to click on each individual word). people with unwieldy lists and those with a focus on vocab-building would find this particularly useful! — or, well, i can confirm that one person would. :)

i took a few minutes to see if i could whip up a decent-looking example (wordie's all nice and clean; i wondered what might be a way that wouldn't disturb the flow of things), and came up with this:

drop.io/wordienotes (—the .html file's the example, and the .txt file has the only snippet of html i really messed with. notice the blue-grey of any links to other words within notes! the rest of the text is the same grey as the dividing dotted lines.)

er yes. so there's that. (just trying to be helpful! haha. don't mind me. *twiddles thumbs*)

I have been pruning my list of lists, which had been getting out of hand. A couple of the candidates for deletion, however, are open lists which I started, but which other folks have contributed to. Two questions:

1. Can I delete this type of list?
2. If the answer to the previous question is 'yes', I assume that all entries on the list would be purged. Which raises a question of etiquette - do I have the right to delete an entire list to which other people have contributed?

The immediate impetus for this question is provided by the list:
Actors whose mere presence in a movie will cause me to change the channel immediately , but the question is a general one.

A related question is whether it is possible to see how many times a given list has been made a favorite, as this might influence one's decision whether or not to keep a particular list.

Thoughts? Comments?

Nice solution jenn!

Now why didn't I think of that? First one I tried, list 12, has 12 words. What are the chances of that?

bilby, we don't need a random list feature. You just type in http://wordie.org/lists/ and add a jumble of numbers after that. It's pretty entertaining. :)

I DO like toast...

A list can be reordered by moving words to a place-holder list and then moving them back in the desired sequence. It's time-consuming though.

You could try some crow on toast, dc.

which - I take it back. I don't know what got in to me today. I'm feeling particularly scorpioptic.

Let's me and you go to the Verbal Arms later and I'll have a crowtini, eh?

pps: I enjoy the new and improved This week on Wordie sidebar. Thanks, John!

I like that the order of your words isn't editable outside of an alpha sort (which is very handy, ps).

Is there a way I can tag pronoun displacements?

Is there a way I can tag smarmy comments?

If bibly gets a 'fresh coffee' button, I want a 'waffle' button. *crosses arms, stomps foot*

which: "Me and MissAnthropist"...? Really?

It's close. But John does god work around here.

Will this help meanwhile?

I'd like a 'fresh coffee' button which will, when clicked, almost instantaneously cause fresh-brewed East Timor organic robusta to pour forth from the speakers. I have recently purchased twin espresso cups and placed them strategically for this purpose.

Me and MissAnthropist were having a discussion and agreed that being able to re-order the sequence of words on a list be would make the site far more appealing to OCD list-makers such as us. It seems between the "order added" and the "alpha" we miss the ability to re-shape the tone, message, and experience of the list once it's up there.

I don't think the 'most commented on' feature is updating itself.

John, how about a link to see more of the recently listed words than show on the homepage? Ideally with the ability to keep browsing back, as with comments.

cookie!

whichbe, that's a great idea. not least because it won't take me much work :-) on the list.

This is a minor, useless idea, but I think it'd be cute if listed with a word somewhere is a little count of how many times it's on someone's "Favorites" list. This would be kind of like how with a YouTube video there's such a count...

OH MY GOSH!!!! John, I love the new "most active threads" feature. You are *so* getting the cookie recipie.

I didn't really foresee wanting this, but the ability to block certain words whose comments you'd rather not see on the front page when you're logged in would be dandy.

Yes, but it should list both words and discussions. I think John CAN.

Hear hear! Good idea.

As per the discussion on this list, I present an idea for some god work that John could do in his copious free time:

How about, in addition to the "Most Wordied, Past 7 Days" list on the home page, a "Most Commented On, Past 7 Days" list? I think it'd be really useful to be able to see at glance which words have been getting all the commenty action recently.

*respectfully bows and backs away*

Pro, you fixin' to steal that tiny Emmy from tiny, she-shoulder-sitting chained_bear? I wouldn't try it. Look how she reacts to cupcake flinging. :-\

But back to the subject...sure, it can be a chore plowing through the citations of an enthusiastic Wordie. But we can handle it. Still, I do like the suggestions for finding ways around it, Wordie being an ever-evolving site. :-)

And if I haven't said it already, welcome, she!

She, as someone who's been on the receiving end of some comments in the past about the volume of words (or more specifically, comments) being added in a day... It just isn't a big deal. If you add 300 words a day, how long can that possibly go on? A week? Ten days? Two weeks? The rest of us who hang out here all the time, or visit periodically, can suck it up and look for new words and new comments in new ways. It isn't like there's any shortage of interesting features on this site.

That said, I do think that people suggesting new features, filters, and a "more" button for recent words is a great idea.

And that said, "You can do it! Go on. They're just playa-hatin'." But I'm not sure you'd want me on your shoulder, what with the occasional tappen and all. *blushing*

I want it too! But only if an even smaller Emmy is included.

Well, it's born of not wanting to make it harder for anyone else to enjoy the site, and if I'm adding words too quickly for anyone to possibly keep up (I like the sharing as much as the list-building), it doesn't really seem like the best way to go about things. But I'd certainly have no problem going to town if there were some way for the people it might bother to control the noise, if they like, and better digest things. (I'm also beginning to think it would be a nice idea to have a little c_b sitting on my shoulder during the day. "You can do it! Go on. They're just playa-hatin'.")

While I'm thinking about your idea for this new feature, she, may I just remark that you can and should use Wordie however you like, without feeling guilty?

I had a thought, just now, on a way to possibly arm ourselves when navigating the front page—What if we had the (functional rather than social; I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks "friend"ing usually amounts to fluff) ability to mark "familiar users," that we could see, unsee, or isolate (as a group) when browsing? That is, marking as "familiar" the people you see most often (those repeatedly Wordiest, in particular, and anyone you'd like to keep track of) would let you: temporarily ignore new lists, words, and comments of theirs in recent activity (solving the issue of congestion caused by one person adding hundreds of words in one day! which I am guilty of, but would love to be able to do again without feeling guilty)—leaving only those of all the users not on that list, making it easier to spot things which you might have otherwise missed; or, temporarily view new lists, words, and comments only from "familiar" users (useful for chatching up after you've been browsing with those users filtered out, and a quicker way of getting up-to-date, if you've been away). The logical default would be set to showing everyone's recent activity, "familiar" and not, and those with no interest in using any filters wouldn't have to.

So yes, filtering. Is this doable—? And appealing? (Seems to me, especially as the site grows, that some sort of filtery feature would work in the interest of general Wordie-sanity.)

If you have a google toolbar, you could add a button like this.

I'd like one of those little javascript function bookmarklet things that sits on the bookmarks toolbar of a browser for a quick and easy way to add words. Also, it could have a place to make a comment, and it could have a drop-down menu for our various lists. I hope this isn't too much to ask. If you already have one, please point me to the way. Thank you.

Thanks John. Have a look at, for example, loquacious for a different kind of pagination issue. A lot of the 'listed by' entries aren't of much interest to me. turd's Words by turd lists are of much less interest than lists with intriguing titles, usually those that are NOT a user's default first list on Wordie. I'd like a toggle to screen those out. There aren't many words in the loquacious zone yet but this problem will get worse as time goes on.

Oh, and comment paging on words would be nice. This page and some of the other standing conversations are a bit much to scroll through.

Sorry to have been incommunicado for so long. I totally agree, comment grouping is badly needed, and by Word is a great suggestion. So great, I can't believe we all missed it earlier, though Asatvium was close :-)

I've been mucking around with some of the low-level code, and need to do a bit more of that before I can focus on featues. And I'm ridiculously overbooked these days. But the next big feature will be comment grouping by word, unless anyone has other suggestions for priority. I'd like an API too, but dealing with the flood of comments seems more important.

I'll second Pro (as long as no duels are involved).

Much neater than the solution I had been mulling, which was listing comments by time, so I could remember that I'd been gone a couple days and find my place.

John, I am starting to feel the need for a "conversations of the last 24 hours, grouped by word page" option. I mean, having in the main page a link to another page where you can see all that Wordies wrote, but with a single link for all the conversations that took place on the same page.

A little late to the party here, but:

I agree 100% with Asativum, c_b (and everyone else) who says nix to a friends feature. There are truly enough sites where one can do that--and I might remind newcomers that we do have a Wordie group on Facebook. :-) As for book lovers, a few Wordies have also linked on LibraryThing, for what it's worth.

And Pro--thank you for hating me the most. It warms my heart. :-D Palooka, I'd have added you as my very first friend. So get your butt over to Facebook. ;-)

API would be nice. I want a geeky command line client to add words...

I'd like a Random List feature. Random Word is fine, I use it almost daily. Random List will be good too.

I created the tag bookie.

No friends lists, please! I don't distinguish between "fellow Wordie user" and "friend", and I've no intention of starting. :-)

TYP, I'm sure you can write your favorited on book (or maybe on books) and people will follow. Otherwise, there are many readers' networks suggestions on the "you" page, and a couple of applications on facebook (I use "books iRead").

You drive a hard bargin my friend.

OK -- but only books with words.

Wordie book club anyone? I'd imagine most of us are avid readers.

This conversation will make it even harder to find the feature requests :-D that's Wordie, folks!

Oh, I can't pretend any longer. I don't hate you, guys. (weeping)

Bilby's so cool. I couldn't put him on my enemies list - in fact I can't think of any Wordie to add. You're all great people.

I'm sorry, I just can't hate you, Pro. I can try being precociously indifferent for a while if you think that would help.

Oh, palooka, there is hatebook, for that...

Ooh. Haven't been here in a bit. My thoughts, for what they're worth*:

Friends: No, no, no. Please? No? We have oodles of other social networking sites for friends (or "friends"). Wordie is for words, and words about words, and wordiness. (Or is that Wordieness?) I don't need friends. I need words. Words are my friends.

Forum: I love that Wordie is so aggressively linear about its nonlinearity. Forums are too easy. This way, it's like a big conversation. Or really, a bunch of them, at a very strange garden party. Only you can rewind and revisit conversations, if you can find them again in the crowd, behind the topiary where you left them. Or something.

Bulk add: Let's just keep bickering about it for a while.


* About $0.63 Canadian, but that's for the lot of them.

I'm convinced the friend system won't work here. Maybe we could be different & institute an enemies list. Prolagus has two for his list already.
I wouldn't mind having 837 enemies with 200 on the waiting list.

Awww, I hate you too, Pro :)

I wouldn't. I hate you. But I hate reesetee even more, as everybody knows.
Actually, I hate you all.

Would you have added me as a friend, c_b? I didn't think so. *sobs*

Which button do you press to make bears chime? I want to try this at home.

I'll chime in here and say, again, that Wordie is so awesome *precisely* because there's no way to really link to other users (unless you favorite them). This isn't a networking site for people. It's a networking site for WORDS. That's what makes it so cool. There are tons of other networking sites out there for people; there aren't any others (that I know of) for words. The conversations here have to revolve around the words. Or lists. Not politics or people—just words. That's the very simple beauty of it--I hope it stays that way! :)

Very much enjoying the conversations, even though I haven't had much to contribute lately.

Moreover, we can link to many social networking websites on our profile page!

I'm steadfastly against an adding friends feature. I mean, who would add me as a friend? No one. I'd be shamed off Wordie.
I just think the idea of having 837 friends and a waiting list of 200 more to be sort of ludicrous.

im with you. that way people dont have to worry about dealing with other people and can have fun if you want to talk to your friend call them or chat on messenger.

I'm not keen on that one; I'd sooner enjoy the words without having to worry about friend list politics on this as well as those other sites.

I'd like a way to add friends, like other social networking sites have.

Not to be too contrary, but I'd opt for just the opposite of gangerh's suggestion for expanding the "Most Citations..." and other lists pertaining to specific Wordies. Why not eliminate them altogether and focus solely on words?

wordie.org/words/features?o=asc to have the page sort comments with the most recent next to the box. Maybe the sort buttons should be made more prominent.

Edit: oh, and it doesn't seem to work when the page reloads after posting.

As we all (humans, that is) like recognition, increasing the Most Citations (last 7 days) list may encourage more Wordies to contribute to the Comment Feed. Perhaps to 20 names.

I'm 99% certain that he meant campaign, as in a "promotional campaign".

While I'm posting here, it is somewhat difficult to post here and then scroll all the way to the top to read the relevant comment. I think that we are reaching the point where some simple sort of paging may be necessary, although I'm not sure if a simple page redesign might make this easier.

I thought you meant you were going to ply people with alcohol until I looked up champaign and discovered it's about land.

Once you're recruited more people there'll promptly be complaints about the increasing difficulty of keeping up with all the conversations going on; I agree that the current front page is inflexible, but what's to be done for people who do like at least to skim everything that's passed overnight? Filtering people out would prevent our seeing comments of theirs which we might want to see.

Maybe filtering types of comment ('chat' vs. 'definition/citation') is what's required, but it would require comments to be marked as such. There's some discussion from five and seven months ago on this page related to possibilities like that.

Yeesh. Well, my apologies if my explosive use of Wordie in the last month has been blowing out other users. Obviously I love this site.

In regards to limiting inputted words per day, I'm down for it, but perhaps there's a less imposing manner this can be done besides the "hard-limit". Perhaps the idea of a more personally-configurable front page would really make things work, wherein there's a wide-variety of "types" of feeds that can be presented on the main page, and the user picks what they want. I like this idea a lot, and perhaps some of the selectable feed options could be where certain users can be filtered in or out? Or perhaps "filter out the most active users"?

I think to honor the site, I'm going to go on a bit of a promotional champaign this week for Wordie, to bring in new users...

I feel the same, bilby, but the answer is to get more users contributing, thereby evening out the flow. I hope wordie grows, so that it becomes harder for a single user to clog up the front page. We can still follow particular wordies with feeds, if we want. Word limits would be a backward step.

Personally I'm not a fan of amateur 'definitions' from e.g. Wikipedia - I'd much rather see a citation. I wouldn't want to ban them though.

Oh, Pro: you could write the TOEFL questions. But don't worry, nobody in his right mind would allow my convoluted syntax and lousy punctuation make it to any kind of test without major editing.

I hope your last comment won't be in my TOEFL test next month, sionnach. I'm not sure I will ever be able to understand it.

Not sure I understand your reasoning there, bilby. Why is it becoming necessary? Does the rate of addition of new words affect usability that adversely?

It does seem less likely that someone hellbent on achieving some kind of monumental word total in short order will actually contribute much in the way of intelligent commentary on the words that are being so assiduously added, and the empirical evidence seems to support this. But then we get into that murky territory where one person's intelligent commentary is another's fatuous platitude.

But, was that what you meant about 'usability'? Or was it something else? Or should I just be tiptoeing away silently, backing away from this whole, potentially incendiary, subject?

These remarks, it should be noted, are rooted essentially in blissful ignorance of developments in the past month, as I only had time to check in once or twice while in Mexico.

It's a kind of anti-feature really: a limit on the number of words a single user can add in a day, or a week. I know we all have our moments of being 'swept away', but the reality is that a single user adding enormous numbers of words can detract from the useability of the site for others. I'd suggest 50 words a day, which pains me. Unfortunately, it's becoming necessary.

I agree, and there is no reason that couldn't still go on while also having a forum.

But, I also think that it would be easier for a random browser to find a conversation if it is indexed in a forum as a opposed to finding a conversation by chance. That means more participants.

Also, the current format pretty much limits conversation to words. A forum would facillitate a greater range of topics. We can find out what we share with fellow wordies aside from logophilia.

Well, I think part of the fun is having the conversations anywhere in the site, based on our Pindar's flights, isn't it?

Is there any way we could get a forum? There seems to be a lot of avenues for discussion that this site brings about which could be pursued in a forum or message board.

We can't just use Google with site:wordie.org either. Any Web search engines that have better wildcard support?

Is there a way of doing wildcard searches? Someone listed a word a few days ago that started haber- but I couldn't remember the end of it today. So I did a search on haber* ...
Nobody is listing haber*. Why don't you?

yep. frequently.

Everything related to google appears to be loading at a glacial pace and/or timing out this morning, possibly because of their cute new 'artists' feature. I'm running Firefox on a PC. The slowness of google is independent of Wordie, but seems to be slowing down Wordie, maybe because of the ads.

Are other people experiencing this slowness as well, or is it just me?

Also, I've done some bulk adding in my day--manually, I mean--and it really doesn't take THAT long. Then, too, if you already have 20,000 words listed somewhere off Wordie, it's not a bad idea to go through them manually and enjoy each one of them again as you enter it.

I still say 'no' to bulk adding.
Every word is sacred.
Every word is good.
:-)

John, I have an idea for a new phrase to be typed in the home page:
"Problems? Disagreement? Arguments? Join the discussion here.

Has the time come for Wordie to introduce capital punishment?

On the point of bulk add, I do agree that allowing people to dump huge text files (ie, entire works, books, stuff from the e-Gutenberg project) would not be a good idea. But for those of us who do have lists of words, allowing 20-30 words to be added at a time would be great, and should be enough to protect against spamming.

I'm going to hesitantly raise my hand and make my first feature suggestion...

Over at this brilliant list that Prolagus created, I've been having fun trying to deduce the occupations of my fellow wordies, and it would be a good deal easier if I could sort the words by which user contributed them. What about a "sort by contributor" button for open lists?

And thanks as always, John, for all your work on this excellent site!

Bewdiful!

Frindley, you can use something called a character entity to print out characters; if you use the character entities for square brackets, Wordie interprets them differently than if you used actual brackets, and doesn't insert a link.

The character entities for left and right brackets are [ and ] respectively, so wrapping a word in those characters in the comment form (like this: [bracketed]) will result in a [bracketed], but not linked, word in the resulting comment.

That's what I've been doing too, and they certainly do the trick. But the geekette at heart is curious as to whether there is a neat technical solution.

Frindley, I have been using the shift+bracket key for that. It makes ... those squiggly brackets, the ones that have some serious name that's a word I don't know yet. { } <--Those. Does that help?

Help please: If, in a comment, I want to put square brackets around a word or phrase – not to link to a word or phrase entry, but simply to use the brackets as punctuation, e.g. editorial aside, or because it's in the original source for a citation – how do I do that?

Hey John, how about random list feature?

M, P, P & G, I'm sold. Come to think of it, I was sold the first time this came up, when the same good arguments were made. Then I forgot about it. Oops.

John, I think it would be nice to have the option to view open lists sorted by "popularity", other than by "order added".

However gangerh's comment continues, I'll agree with him.

John, this is serious.
I'm a relative newcomer to Wordie. My passion for just one word has been noted by others. My passion for Wordie has not, though 'tis greater than that for that word.
Wordie is unique. You have created a masterpiece. On a canvas that absorbs one word at a time. That allows all the chance to observe the word, create something of their own, and stimulate further thought and imagination such that wasn't happening before.
.........to be continued

I also cast my vote against unlimited bulk add. I echo the sentiments that the fun of Wordie is observing how people selectively choose & enter specific words that have meaning or fascination for them. I'd hate to see some uncaring, even malicious person simply enter an entire dictionary full of words into wordie as a prank.

A 25 word or so limit to bulk adding would be useful.

I thank mollusque for saying what I wanted to say far better than I could.
I think even 50 words per day would be too many. 25, maybe, reasonable enough.

(Today is maybe day for me.)

John, I don't think bulk adding is a good idea. I have a database of more than 300,000 English words. I also have one online of more than 15,000 Latin words. If I started bulk adding those into Wordie, it could substantially change the character of the site.

Words being selected and sorted into lists is part of what makes Wordie interesting. Also, some people enjoy being the first to add a word. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was the first to add nourishment. It gave me a moment of pleasure to think Wordie has been without nourishment all this time. With additions at random, following people's whimsies, it will be years till all the common words have been entered. Bulk adding of dictionary files would wipe out that simple pleasure.

That said, I could see a limited bulk-add feature, say 25 or 50 words at time. People often develop themed lists off-line, and being able to add them rapidly would be nice.

I'd probably be against bulk add. The current rate of adding, plus the regular spurts - reesetee with ornithological opus in hand for example - is about right. For the record I'm not the kind of person who is against change simply because it's not like what we have now. One of Wordie's strengths is the simplicity of its features. In a cluttered world ...
It's not the add I'm concerned about, it's the bulk. Such a squat, sweaty, pigeon-toed word wearing cheap trainers. No.

I think in a week Wordie would have the whole Divine Comedy and all Shakespeare's writings. But maybe I'm wrong.

OP, bulk add is a good idea. It was actually one of the first feature requests way back when, but it fell between the cracks. I'll add it to the list--though I don't have much Wordie time these days, sadly, so not sure when it'll appear.

If you're technically inclined you might be able to script your own bulk loader. If you do, please limit inserts to some sane rate -- every other second or less. Someone used wget to bulk load a large list a while back, and knocked down the site :-)

Shan't miss oddocomplete myself; tripped me up too often. If it returns, perhaps it can be something each Wordie can turn on/off. (Hey John, I avoided user!)

Bulk add would be cool, OP. But maybe tough to protect it from spambots?

Am I crazy, or is there no way to bulk add words? I have txt files full of words I have been keeping for years that I would love to dump into Wordie, but I am not going to type them out one by one.

Is there a combinatoric I can use to put multiple words in the same field?

I'm with VO, I had a lot of odd results with the auto thingy.

Wishing you Many Fruity Returns of the Season.

VO, that happened a lot to me too.

Yes, it was rather...oddocomplete.

...I wasn't a fan of autocomplete either.

Autocomplete seemed to have a habit of foisting its suggestions upon me if I pressed Return before it disappeared, even though I hadn't selected any of them, so I shan't miss it much... though it did exhibit a WeirdNet-like propensity to put odd results at the top sometimes.

John, perhaps search with autocomplete could be moved to the "more searches" page, which would be a better place for it anyway. If you reinstate it, perhaps you could let it show more than 10 examples.

Prolagus, I'm sorry! If I am a userist, you are on my 'nice user' list. Though I don't much like the term "user." Besides tech there's only one other group of people called users: junkies :-)

Mollusque, I did turn off autocomplete. It uses up a lot of server juice, and traffic has been climbing lately, so I needed to lighten the load to keep things responsive. Wildcarding would be nice -- someday I hope to revisit search.

Alangager, you can link to other users, but you have to do it manually, there's no shortcut like there is with words. To do so, you'd wrap the words you want to link in html, like this:

<a href="/people/profile/alangager">alangager</a>

That results in a link like this: alangager

Am I missing something or can you link to other users?

John - The public service ads are much more soothing than the regular google ads.

John, the auto-suggest/complete function in the word search box no longer works. Did you remove it, or is this a bug? Also, any chance of getting a pattern search working? Something with wildcards?

John only recently added the "public lists" feature, so there just aren't that many open lists yet. I'm sure that will change over time. Don't be sad. :|

OK, got the message :-(
I don't think I'll ever duplicate a list I like, though. My new challenge will be finding different open lists, on a different topic, in which the same words can fit...
(this is gonna be painfully hard)

I don't consider any list dead. Ever. I'd be crushed if I came back to Wordie and my lists were all open--that's just not what I signed up for. Even now, I don't always open my lists. But, reesetee's point about there being a lot of similar lists already is well taken. There's nothing stopping any Wordie user from starting his/her own list if there are things he/she wants to add to someone else's (non-public) list.

I don't know that I'd want my lists opened if I were away for a while, Prolagus. I agree with John on that one. But you could, as he suggests, copy the list and open yours up. Even without trying, we manage to start up lists related to already existing ones--I think it's part of the fun of Wordie. Twenty of us could have the same idea for a list and come up with 20 different lists in the end. :-)

Sigh, you love anyone's ideas but mine. And you even misspell my name.
That's userism.

Wschoenh, great idea, which I may do someday when I get the time. Won't be for a while though, since I have none.

Gangerh, I love the idea of upside down lists, sort of like a reverse lookup phone book. I put it on the wish list, but again, no idea when I might be able to get to it. In the meanwhile feel free to improvise, Asativum's suggestion sounds good.

Prolagus, I've had that temptation, but I think people should be able to come back to Wordie years later and find their words waiting patiently as they left them. But there's nothing to stop you from remaking a ghost list and opening it up.

John,
I often find lists that are dead, i.e. their authors are no more active in Wordie. When those lists are not open, it means that they will never have new contributions (see e.g. Polite words, impolite stuff). Isn't it sad?
I was thinking: what if you open the lists after, let's say, 3 months of inactivity of the user?

Gangerh, as a stopgap, you could just post an empty list (presumably with a clever title) and solicit descriptions in the comments; once a word is settled on, it can be added to the list. Just a thought.

At breakfast this morning, John, I put my spoon into my bowl of Sugar Puffs and one Sugar Puff, on contact with the spoon, catapulted out of the bowl, flew across the table, rebounded off the teapot with a (very satisfying) ping and finally came to rest beside the butter dish. Something I couldn't have done trying.
My immediate thought was 'is there a word for that?'. Now it's impractical to create a list of descriptions (I guess) so that Wordies can input their knowledge and ideas. So my humble suggestion is for a feature that allows us to post such descriptions for which we seek a word.
I am assuming there is no such device within the site alread