hmmm...i see your point and i definitely need to revisit tags. my db was set up with tags in mind so switching over wouldnt be a problem. looks like ill need to do more testing!
thanks for the feedback iterationx! i agree that search needs to be fixed...gonna need a little help with that so if anyone wants to volunteer!
interesting point about favorite vs best. i guess you could have two different answers...but i took them to be synonymous. im still playing around with the types of questions and how to best word them...
also played around with tags but thought they cluttered up the site. hoping to rely primarily on one top category and one or two subcategories.
i did have a forum set up at one point but decided instead to go with disqus comments for each top ten list and included a prominent feedback link to initiate open discussions. but ill revisit the idea of a standalone forum...its mostly a matter of do i have the time to moderate...
do you mean the design (logos, layout, images, etc.)? yep, all me. i noticed that while i do enjoy working on the server side stuff, i have more fun tinkering with the design.
hey stij, thanks for the feedback! regarding specialist data, point taken and something for me to think about. there are a number of content aggregators out there, especially in the best of category. sort of the point of qrisper is to aggregate opinions and link to specialist data. if specialist sites want to partner up, well then that's another story.
the color scheme i think will remain a hot topic. people either like it a lot or find it rather offensive.
that could be a potential exit...something to dream about i guess. but lets not get ahead of ourselves. this was simply an experiment to see if i could really build a useful app. built - check! useful - TBD.
well, having a younger brother who knew how to code helped. also, in my previous life, i was a product manager developing web products for an investment bank. so i had some experience with design and knew how stuff worked. just never actually coded anything before. so i took an intensive web dev course to build a foundation and have been learning on my own since.
i found that, with so many references and tutorials online, once you have an idea of what you want to build, its just a matter of writing (more often borrowing) some code and tweaking it till the frickin thing works.
it's definitely been frustrating at times. but the payoff - the satisfaction i feel when i solve a problem or make the site behave exactly how i want it to - it's been well worth the effort.
Yeah those generic answers could become problematic. However, I'm hoping that unhelpful answers get pushed down as more relevant answers are voted up...that's the assumption anyway.
But great tip about adding keywords from the question to the Google search...will definitely do that.
I'm still playing around with the links for the answers. As you saw, the default is a Google search. I'm also toying with direct links (for urls) as well as affiliate links.
Actually had Google Connect...didn't really see the value just yet so I took it out. Added Facebook Connect via Disqus for comments. Still learning OpenID...
The thing with Twitter...you ask for best sushi restaurant in NY, followers will respond. but that information isnt aggregated for future use...theyre one-offs.
I figured, provide a way for people to answer commonly asked questions and collate the data into easily digestible top ten lists.