IconBuffet | Free Icons, Stock Icons, Custom Icon Design

Hoshichan on Apr 24, 2007

I like them all, but heartily endorse the Gold Star Friends! :D (And the emotes, can you tell?)

MacManX on Apr 24, 2007

Thanks for collecting all of this! I'd love to see all of these implemented, except I'd like to suggest that we swap the "Gold Star Friends" request for two separate lists, one for friends and one for traders.

Simply put, if you feel the need to "gold star" certain friends, then I think that you should reconsider your definition of "friend". Perhaps when you choose to add a trader to your Traders list, you could be presented with a checkbox asking, "Is this a friend?"

electricnet on Apr 24, 2007

I really like most of these ideas, but I have some opinions I'd like to speak out first;

I can't really see what we'll do with the leaderboard (3), isn't it part of the fun to go around exploring different userpages instead of having them easy served on a list? And just because some people have more points than others, does that mean they should be in some kind of hall of fame? And about the Icons I Want tab (6), I have some suspicion that many people will just add all of the icons that's left, especially if there's only 3 deliveries or less that they don't have, and that kind of defeats the purpose. And about the special tab for Feature Request (7), I don't think this qualifies for a tab, the tabs you've got there are all very general subjects, and when you're saying Feature Requests, you're getting much more specific, and I'm not all sure how that'll work out.

These were just my 2 cents, don't get me wrong, they're almost all great ideas. :) I especially love 2, 5, 9 and 10. Yes, yes, yes! :D

electricnet on Apr 24, 2007

Oh, by the way, can we post our own ideas here?

tamashii on Apr 24, 2007

You certainly may, electricnet!

I will update the main post to reflect it.

mik on Apr 24, 2007

I would like a way to block deliveries from select members who repeatedly send multiple sets without so much as a 'hello' even though my profile says I don't have tokens. Hmm, same feature could be useful with the scarlet letter idea - block deliveries from them.

I'm not picking on those who have done this occasionally or accidentally, I just want to spend my IB time reading and writing and trading, not deleting, deleting, deleting.

But I would settle for being able to disable the email notification every time I'm sent a delivery from a member, without also missing notification of the monthly no-tokens-required delivery. Or maybe a weekly digest-version of the email notifications?

Jen on Apr 24, 2007

I suggested some ideas in this blog, including a request for time stamp. I'm with you on that one Tamashii. :)

justG on Apr 24, 2007

- Better blog time-stamping
- Creative faves
- Box pagination
- Complete interest title on hover
- Easier friend removal

tamashii on Apr 24, 2007

@electricnet: I believe a leaderboard would be more on an informational basis, rather than some kind of perk/bonus. Several members have made a request for this feature. My guess is that they want to see/meet who is really involved in this community and points are likely to be a good indication of that.

Also, this is a bit of a game, after all. So why not have some friendly competition to go along with it. I understand that there will be people trying to get points for the sake of having points, but I feel it will be clear who among the top point earners really earned them via their involvement (as opposed to those who steal requests from others boxes, or create dupe accounts).

Regarding the “Icons I Want” tab; I can see people doing what you mentioned, as well. However, I think the fact that the “Icons I Need” exists kinda fixes that. I would suggest that the new tab would limit it to a maximum number of icon types per month (equaling your token count per month). Basically, a regular member could have no more than 4 sets on request at any given month (2 Bronze, 1 Silver and 1 Gold).

socrates on Apr 24, 2007

"icons i have" tab with who i got them from!

justG on Apr 24, 2007

@tamashii: Your blurb for #15 is a dupe and inaccurate. =)

tamashii on Apr 24, 2007

@justG: because I don't have a Preview Button. GRRRRR!

justG on Apr 24, 2007

*cackle*

electricnet on Apr 24, 2007

@tamashii: Ah, I see. Good points.

I remember having a lot of ideas earlier, and I don't remember half of them now. However, I can list those I do remember so far:

* Option for larger input text field: I can totally see a "+" button next to the text field making longer comments like this one easier to write (and read before posting).

* On the blog forum, blog posts by your friend could be accompanied by some special icon, so you could tell them apart more easily. I realise that this may make your friends entries look "better" or more "fancy" in some way, but hey, there's gotta be some perk to having a friends relationship, right?

* <--><ul> and <ol> lists?

These are some I could come up with on top of my head this late night. I will probably come up with some more later.

electricnet on Apr 24, 2007

  "<--><ul> and <ol> lists?"

That freaked out. Another reason to have a preview button, lol! What I meant was, having ul or ol lists — instead of having to type asterisks — would be cooler.

iconmaster on Apr 24, 2007

Better help. More of a multi-topic FAQ than a single post.

I'll, uh, get right on that.

Laurwren on Apr 24, 2007

Thanks for stating the source of the ideas you posted that was really nice.

Also I was wondering is there a way to remove friends from my list. I have some one who logged on and made me a freind and has never been on since that i would like to clear from my friend list.

Laurwren on Apr 24, 2007

oh oh and is there a way that we can flag threads other than our own in a list. I post often and sometimes i find it hard to get back to a post i commented on.

MacManX on Apr 24, 2007

Laurwren, you should see a small trash can icon next to each friend in your Friends list. Clicking that should do the trick.

Laurwren on Apr 24, 2007

Thanks MacManX

Jen on Apr 24, 2007

I had previously mentioned that I missed the ol bookmark feature in old forums. But, alas, I've lost the post to be able to post up a link to it. :)

Jen on Apr 24, 2007

aha! Here it is! Not sure why its marked as answered, because none of the Chefs commented in it. o.o Did I do that?

MobiTec on Apr 24, 2007

Another 1 to Add..

Ability to View how any "Pending" Delivery's you have going on, and how many "Stamps" there taking up.. (place it in "My Bank" Section)

tamashii on Apr 24, 2007

Brilliant! Added.

lparziale on Apr 24, 2007

Yes, love that one!

anti on Apr 24, 2007

I must be the only one with all my friends listed on my My Icons page, since I keep seeing comments about only having the little five at a time box. I have lots of friends, too, and it is some major scrolling.

anti on Apr 24, 2007

And my point is - I don't like having all my friends on my My Icons page. 8)

redwolf on Apr 24, 2007

Searching ability. The number of times of late that I've needed to reference an older post and can't find it has been driving me nuts.

mik on Apr 24, 2007

Turns out that rdunlop already made the suggestion of digests or at least some options for email preferences here

opello on Apr 25, 2007

"I would like a way to block deliveries from select members who repeatedly send multiple sets without so much as a 'hello' even though my profile says I don't have tokens." -mik

I'm kind of guilty of spamming people on my friends list with multiple icon sets, especially if they need less than 5 or so sets to have a complete set. In another thread it was said spamming was just being generous, which made me feel less bad about blasting my friends with icons. :)

Oh, and a feature request: <a name="..."> for each comment in a blog? Maybe something more unique than a counter in case a post gets deleted by the author?

wmostrey on Apr 25, 2007

I really like the 'Icons I Want' tab, but perhaps this will cluter the user-(or is it uber?)friendly interface.

About people not having tokens but still receiving sets: I believe this is ok since when you upgrade to VIP, your receive extra tokens and thus could accept those sets.

justG on Apr 25, 2007

@anti: That's really odd, how do you have all your friends listed on your profile?

Dave on Apr 25, 2007

This should be a really simple request - ignore dots and spaces in tags.
This causes problems with things like Dr. Who and Dr Who (btw, supprisingly few people watch Dr. Who :P)

also, it would be nice if basic spelling mistakes could be ignored (ei and ie treated the same, double letters can be single, etc.) but that's less important.

Dave on Apr 25, 2007

hmm, I wonder what happened to the first link... perhaps it broke because it had a dot in it?

opello on Apr 25, 2007

Collapsing spaces and punctuation sound like good ideas to reduce duplicates. You have to encode the period for some reason: Dr. Who

Luckybeitia on Apr 25, 2007

This feature list is great! Thanks tamashii...

Grusella on Apr 25, 2007

Another useful think would be to insert those "who are also missing this delivery" on the combo when you send the delivery from the Free Delivery catalog, or at least the gift icon next to their names.

tamashii on Apr 25, 2007

I have updated the main post to reflect a sort of Top 10 of the requested features/updates. Obviously, this list is in no particular order. I would like a vote of what items should be in this Top 10 so it can be more accurate. I will continue to add features/updates as they are listed.

You will also notice that I took away all my wordy crap that preceded the descriptions.

anti on Apr 25, 2007

Is it really only me then? I don't quite have all 275 friends listed on my profile, but almost. I am afraid to click the little trashcan next to them because they might think I dumped them! Maybe I should try it out on iconmaster. :)

screenshot

fuseunderground on Apr 25, 2007

the trashcan just gets rid of the message,
I'm amazed you have that list on screen - isn't it annoying?

anti on Apr 25, 2007

Yes, it makes me dread my profile. :(

Ok, trying it out on - YOU!

dyar on Apr 25, 2007

yep, it's safe to click the little trashcan icon next to them. They will still be on your friends list and you will be on theirs.

fuseunderground on Apr 25, 2007

It didn't do anything, so I would carry on with the rest

anti on Apr 25, 2007

Thanks, pal.

iconmaster on Apr 25, 2007

Yeah, those trash cans were confusing. Consider that fixed as of.... now!

tamashii on Apr 25, 2007

1 update/fix down! Thanks iconmaster.

anti on Apr 25, 2007

Wow I feel so special! Thanks iconmaster.

Jen on Apr 25, 2007

:) I like the x-boxes, they make better sense. :)

tanic5 on Apr 25, 2007

I would really like to see a way to jump to the last comment and some form of bookmark would be great too.

tamashii on Apr 25, 2007

@tanic5: End-key on your keyboard will take you to the last comment in a thread. Honestly, I think a forum should direct you to the most recent post when clicking the thread title if they don’t offer a “Most Recent” link over the user’s name who posted it.

The bookmark thing, however, I gonna add that.

Jen on Apr 25, 2007

bookmark thread link posted above on 4/24 as well. :)

tanic5 on Apr 25, 2007

@tamashii I know the keyboard but I think we think alike on this. When I click on the link I would like it just to go to the most recent comment. Or maybe like in forums if you clicked on the name of the last commenter it would take you to their comment instead of their profile. Just a thought

soprano on Apr 25, 2007

yeah, let's have a point leaderboard

grantneufeld on Apr 25, 2007

• Being able to review a detailed history of my set trades (received & delivered & who with).
• Seeing who I got a set from when viewing a set I have.
• A list of my referral sign-ups (and their VIP status).
• Stats on how many sets I’ve sent (e.g., X Bronze deliveries, Y Silver, … Ω Titanium, etc.)

In the words of Number Two: “Information. We want … information.”

Thanks.

grantneufeld on Apr 26, 2007

A note on the Leaderboard idea…

Rather than an overall leaderboard (which would be extremely hard for any newbies to get onto), how about a monthly board? It would just count the points accummulated for the current month (or the past 30 days, or the past week, etc.). That way, everyone would have a chance to go for first place each month, and not get discouraged by the domination of heavy-hitters who’ve been around for a long time.

Separate boards for VIP and non-VIP would be good because VIPs are at a considerable point-getting advantage. Although, some preference for the VIPs could be retained by only showing previous months' results for VIPs (non-VIPs would only have Leaderboard results for the current month), and providing a longer list of VIPs (e.g., top 10 VIPs, top 5 non-VIPs).

mcd on Apr 26, 2007

I disagree with both of those points, grantneufeld. The whole point of a leaderboard would be to show the most hardcore buffet-goers. The ones with crazy point totals. I don't think we need to be so PC as to worry about excluding anyone, especially from a leaderboard; something that is intended to highlight the elite and not be an "everyone is welcome" sort of thing.

As for separating boards for VIPs and non-VIPs, quite frankly I think that's just ridiculous. The whole point of offering the VIP upgrade is to present users with a way of getting ahead. If you want to be on the leaderboard, you need to go the extra mile to get there.

One of the problems with the old buffet is that it was too easy to get icons. The whole thing was too accessible, and there was little to distinguish the serious users from the newbies. Making things all even, balanced, and separated into different categories and levels just dilutes the thing the chefs built into this new system. There are things that are definitely hard to attain, and that's the way it should be. Sure a non-VIP will have a harder time making the leaderboard. But that's the whole point of a leaderboard... to show who is willing to sacrifice a bit in order to make the list.

grantneufeld on Apr 26, 2007

From a business standpoint, I believe that “the whole point” of any new feature or change to IB should be to improve the functioning, the appeal, or the revenue of IB. It’s important to not mix-up methods with goals. “to show the most hardcore buffet-goers” is a method, not a goal in this.

I would think that IB would benefit from increasing overall participation rather than narrowly focusing on an “elite”.

As to not including non-VIPs, that could act to discourage new participation and thereby reduce the number of people who would otherwise get hooked and want to become VIPs. The free service needs to be appealing enough to attract and engage new people if the paid service is going to get any new signups.

I also saw this design problem brought up at http://www.railsenvy.com/2007/4/25/web-2-0-expo-wisdom (item 12).

In any case, this has nothing to do with being “PC”. (Gosh, the use of that term always comes across to me as an arrogantly dismissive and non-thoughtful insult—I hope you did not intend it that way.) This is about engaging and maintaining user interest.

From a user interface & game design standpoint, having the scoring weighted to the early winners tends to act as a discouragement for participation by anyone not in the small group of “leaders”—thereby diminishing the growth of participation and potentially fostering a reduction in overall participation.

Now, it’s probably not as big a deal as all that given the scale and scope of this project. Please know that I have made my suggestions in the interest of optimizing the goodness that is IB.

If any form of leaderboard is to be established, I still strongly recommend the approach I suggested above. That said, having both the monthly(or whatever)-reset boards plus an additional “overall” or “all-time” (etc.) board could be a reasonable approach that would meet the concerns I have raised while still providing for a recognized elite as you have called for.

iconmaster on Apr 26, 2007

We're interested in both all-time scorers and per-month scorers.

We want new users to have a chance at some bling; but at the same time... if you're a loyal user and you've been trading and bringing people into the 'Buffet for years, we're not going to diminish that achievement. I.e., there won't be any "catch-up logic" for new users; and we won't hide the fact that some users are just way, way out ahead.

tamashii on Apr 26, 2007

I’d like to point out that being VIP doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to have more points by nature of being VIP. Skip being humble: for the majority of my time as non-VIP (which was quite a while in the new system mind you) I am pretty darn sure I was the point leader. I dare say I never dropped below the Top 5. Becoming VIP doesn’t all of sudden shower you with stamps. And stamps get you points. That’s the bottom line.

You can recruit - that gives you 15 stamps. Meaning 3 times the points compared to what you get from the initial recruit sign-up.

You now get points from certain badges. Badges can be achieved by any member at any level.

You don’t have to be VIP to be the point leader. You need stamps. Last I checked, VIPs don’t get more stamps than non-VIPs; only tokens. Showing VIP and non-VIP leaderboards is tantamount to segregation, in my opinion.

zelda013 on Apr 29, 2007

i also vote for a bookmark / subscribe feature in the forums, i really miss that... because i forget where i read [that really interesting thing] yesterday.

SuperLlamel on Apr 30, 2007

I like all of these features, but especially a leaderboard (which I posted something for) and gold star friends.

tamashii on Apr 30, 2007

Mass Download added (by ericK)

mik on Apr 30, 2007

Has anyone been able to subscribe to the feed for their page/box?
http://www.iconbuffet.com/people/[username].atom is supposed to work but it hasn't yet for me (tried different readers & different days just in case).

I've been in touch with the chefs already, but since it's still unsolved I was wondering if it's everybody or just some, especially since I haven't seen this as a feature request yet.

Dave on Apr 30, 2007

When I try to sign up to it, it needs a password &c. to get it, so that's what will be messing the readers up (even if you give your password, there's no way for the readers to give it every time they check the feed)

So I doubt anyone is able to use it. And since no-one's complained before, I guess you're the first to try :)

socrates on Apr 30, 2007

hey thats cool... i wasnt able to get bloglines to subscribe but i was able to see mine in the browser after it asked me to login first. im not sure how i can get my reader to authenticate first, but it was nice to see one way or another

tamashii on Apr 30, 2007

closing the emphasis tag.

Added the Delivery Recall request.

mik on Apr 30, 2007

I haven't been prompted for a password in the readers I use regularly .. but if I'd have to put it in every time that reduces the convenience quite a bit.

So, if you manage to get the feed, it apparently shows deliveries, friends, and comments all together chronologically. I hadn't used Firefox's live bookmarks before but I'm trying it now for this.

I'd also like to be able to subscribe to particular threads in the forums but it sounds like that's not part of the IB plans, so add my vote for bookmarking/subscribing within IB feature request.

iconmaster on Apr 30, 2007

I wouldn't hold your breath for a delivery recall feature. Part of the challenge of acquiring points is knowing you'll have to commit those stamps for a whole week.

If you could undo deliveries, there'd be nothing to stop you from recycling stamps daily until somebody bites. This is the kind of robot-like delivery behavior we're hoping to avoid.

tamashii on Apr 30, 2007

I can see your point, iconmaster. However, when someone specifically asks for a set, despite being warned of the cost, and then they simply sit on the delivery after changing their mind, it locks the stamps for 7 days.

This becomes quite troublesome when it involves a Diamond delivery. I understand that it messes the intent of the system up, so I’ll let it go.

iconmaster on May 01, 2007

Right -- diamond deliveries are supposed to be tricky to pull off.

tamashii on May 01, 2007

Well, of course they’re tricky, hehe. I wouldn’t want you guys giving out 250pts like free samples at the food court, anyway.

Mostly, I just got frustrated with a specific request being turned down and then sat on. It was just a bit annoying. Could be a potentially abused method to lock someone out of points for at least 7 days.

dyar on May 01, 2007

A special VIP email address would be a nice touch for faster responses to VIP support questions.

tamashii on May 02, 2007

@dyar: upon further thought, not sure if the VIP-exclusive email is really necessary. I imagine the chefs try to be as attentive to every email and while VIPs are actually paying customers of IB, I see no reason why non-VIPs shouldn’t expect the same, high-quality service the chefs put forth.

stevenray on May 03, 2007

How about a way to see who's setting on your stamps. Dude are you gong to accept the delivery?!

tamashii on May 04, 2007

Join Date
This request has been sprouting up like a crazed weed, lately (myself mentioning it as well). We get a great little Birthday Badge, but I think the overwhelming consensus is to also have a Join Date somewhere present on our profile pages – for all to see. I imagine the best place would be in the "Stuff" section of the "Check out…" area.

tamashii on May 06, 2007

Could have sworn we had a Private Message in here, but apparently not. Either way, Whispering is that feature, so another chalk mark for the Chefs!

MrDee on May 06, 2007

I would like the ability to remove old threads from the 'blogs' area or 'my icons'
AND add threads to this list.

MrDee on May 06, 2007

I would also like a new laptop, car and wide-screen TV.
will settle for world peace ;)

anti on May 06, 2007

One vote for Join Date. I am pretty sure I am #00001, or maybe 2 or at least 3...

myrheille on May 07, 2007

I would very much like the option of turning the emails off. I referred a few friends of mine and they are drowning in constant IB emails about free deliveries and wondering why I made them sign up.

I understand that you need the emails to remind the members to check on IB from time to time, but right now they are mostly getting really annoyed with it and feel much inclined to click that "delete my account" link.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Edit Button
A means to edit a post made by the author - whether in a Box or in a thread.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Send to Commenter
“I’d sho like them fancy tahmater icons.” Click, click, drag, click, back-up, post. If we had a little gift icon (like on our friends list) next to a poster’s name (where the trashcan currently resides), the deliveries become easier and more efficient. Though, if you think deliveries happen fast now, this place will look like it is perpetually chugging Jolt cola after such a feature update.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Leaderboard
Points are fun. People like to get them and subsequently brag about them. Let’s put those braggarts in their place. Top 10 seems like a good amount of places.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Expanded Friends List
You collect friends like sand in your bikini on the beach and your friends list displays five grains at a time. An expanded list, similar to what we see on icon set pages listing who has/doesn’t have a set, would go a long way to keeping track of what cracks your friends are falling into. Similarly: justG talks of a means to remove friends easier.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Gold Star Friends (Laurwren)
These are your BFFs. You love ’em. You trade wit’em. Their profile page scrolls for ten minutes because of the number of comments you leave in their Box.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Icons I Want Tab
You want ’em, but you can’t afford ’em. A tab of icons you’ve checked as those you want would really make things easier for kind hearted folks to send you exactly what you want!

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Recent Trades Fix
Tricky to explain this one… You know how when you send a delivery to someone it appears in your Recent Trades area (3 most recent trades)? Well, regardless if the trade is accepted or not, it says I sent that person whatever set. This does not apply to recipients of sets. Trades that are sent are only visible on the recipient’s list if they are accepted. Personally, I think that deliveries are not a trade until it has actually been accepted and thus should not appear in the Recent Trades pane.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Comment Time Stamp (Jen)/Better Blog time-stamping (justG)
Just a little clock added behind the date wouldn’t be so bad.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Emoticons
Who doesn’t like an appropriate smiley to truly express the way they meant that snarky comment?

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Preview Button
I’ve made a thread, YAY! Oops - typo. Edit. Oh man, that link isn’t doing what I thought. Edit. What the? Where did that “and” go? Edit. Ok, that should just about… oh for the love of Pete!

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Block Sender (mik)
It’s not you, it’s me.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Email Opt-Out (mik/seanhussey)
You’re on IB so much, you forgot you even submitted an email address.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Title Attribute (justG)
Items in your profile might have a longer than displayed title. Adding a title attribute tag would fix this.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Bookmark (tanic5/Jen)
You’re on IB so much, you forgot you even submitted an email address.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Mass Download (ericK)
Select multiple sets to download in one click.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Delivery Recall
The ability to recall a sent delivery. When someone asks for a particular set of icons or a plethora of sets, not realizing they require a certain number of tokens, a method for recalling a sent set would be useful; so one doesn’t have to wait on the recipient to decline the set.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

VIP Exclusive Email Addy (dyar)
Special email address for VIPs to send questions/etc. for more immediate consideration.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Referral Count/Info
Several people have asked for this. How many people have I referred, and who are they?!

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Join Date
This request has been sprouting up like a crazed weed, lately (myself mentioning it as well). We get a great little Birthday Badge, but I think the overwhelming consensus is to also have a Join Date somewhere present on our profile pages – for all to see. I imagine the best place would be in the "Stuff" section of the "Check out…" area.

aaroncampbell on May 07, 2007

I just wanted to voice my support for a leaderboard. Other than that, it looks like you have whispering marked as "done" but I think it's still "in the process" (Josh said "Expect whispering to be added soon.")

tamashii on May 07, 2007

@aaron: Because we know it is coming in a few short days, I think it is safe to put it on the completion list.

dyar on May 07, 2007

OK, here's another. A way to tell if a member is online. This would also go a long way towards solving the sniping problem. If a member posts that s/he has Stamps to spend and subsequently goes offline any requests in that Blog can be filled by others. This can be done by having a little icon appear next to the users name if s/he is online/offline or by changing the color of the users link depending if they are on or off line.

iconmaster on May 07, 2007

A lot of these are possible or even planned. However, I can pretty much guarantee that "Mass Download" will never happen.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

Cast Your Vote for Top 10
You may select multiple choices, but please limit your choices to 5.

@iconmaster: Noted.

Everyone - do not vote on Mass Download. Any votes cast to that option will be ignored (wasted vote).

mik on May 07, 2007

Excellent tamashii, thanks for doing this.

I'd like to suggest that anyone looking for any options to control and deal with all the e-mail choose 'e-mail opt-out' even if you would prefer another method, like a digest option.

I've seen many people post about too many emails and unhappy referrals — have the chefs commented yet about where email options fall on the possible/planned/never/imminent spectrum?

Forevagrey on May 07, 2007

voted.

Dave on May 07, 2007

I think I'll offer my suggestion for emails again (posted on another blog but maybe not read)

Have an option to only send you an email when you're sent a set AND you have the tokens to accept it. That way you reduce the spam, don't give away token number to other users (they still see the same thing happening) and still get the occasional email reminding you to check back at the site (and when you do, you'll actually be able to do something about it, i.e. claim the set)

Dave on May 07, 2007

btw, tamashii: your poll seems to be unavailable atm :(

tamashii on May 07, 2007

From the looks of it, all of PollDaddy is down ><

Wish I knew more javascript. And by more, I mean any at all.

grantneufeld on May 07, 2007

Following up on mik’s email digest suggestion, I think an option for a daily email digest of:
• Free Deliveries
• Friend Requests
• Referrals
• Comments on your profile
• Comments on your blog posts

would be good. Even better would be the ability to pick and choose between those so that some get immediate emails, and others only go in the digest.

dyar on May 07, 2007

It was hard to keep it to 5 choices but I played good.

mattdetails on May 07, 2007

Gift VIP to a friend - it would work a lot like Flickr's "buy <name> a pro account" idea.

I'm not sure the technical background to this, but it would definitely drive the sales of VIP to new heights (and motivate me to have better turnarounds on contests seeing as it would be easier to give someone VIP without them buying it.)

grantneufeld on May 07, 2007

…and gifting a VIP would get you tokens if the person was someone who originally signed up on your referral.

A “Santa’s gift sack” badge would be appropriate for someone who has gifted VIP accounts.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

I think that in order for the VIP Gifting to work accordingly with the "Tokens Bonus", it would have to be a year subscription. Otherwise, you would have a rash of gifting of the $6 option just for the tokens. Additionally, it likely shouldn't be the Referrer gifting the VIP. I do think a VIP won through a contest qualifies without exception (provided the contest is sound and quite legitimate).

The Santa Badge is killer! mattdetails would get the first one, of course (or would it be both him and debbye?).

dyar on May 07, 2007

It's not on the Vote List but I would swap any of my votes for a Search function that works in the Blogs. I just went through 18 pages looking for a post.

shesaysmeow on May 07, 2007

I've voted. I would love having the "Gold Star Friends" and "Icons I Want" features especially. :)

grantneufeld on May 07, 2007

@dyar: It’s not fully meeting what you’re asking for, but a Google search where you include the term “site:www.iconbuffet.com” (without the quotes, natch) will search just pages on the site.

cynicalpink on May 07, 2007

I'd like my friends list to show who has friended me back.

tamashii on May 07, 2007

@dyar: I could have sworn Search was in there. Didn’t realize it wasn’t until just now.

Well, this first round of voting is just that; a round. I want to add a couple other features in round 2 that have sprouted up since posting the poll (and some that have mysteriously disappeared - like Search).

bhavna on May 08, 2007

how about the search people feature....thats really needed. i have some friends already here, but dont know how to add them in the friends list

justG on May 08, 2007

@bhavna: If you know their username, you can just go to http://www.iconbuffet.com/people/username and add them from their profile.

fuseunderground on May 08, 2007

With the e-mail opt-out, we should still get the mail about the chefs delivery, but others should not generate an e-mail

tamashii on May 08, 2007

The Top 10 poll will close on the 14th. I will update the Top 10 list at around 5PM CST every day.

Once closed, the Top 10 list will hold with those results for a week or two while I compile Round 2. New items will be added to the list (some forgotten, some actually new) and the lowest 5 scoring items will be dropped.

tamashii on May 08, 2007

Top 10 List updated.

Remember: Do not vote for Mass Download - it will never happen. 9 of your votes have been wasted.

aaroncampbell on May 09, 2007

Now that I've spent nearly all my stamps, and the few that I have left are floating around out there unclaimed, I wonder if anyone else agrees that it would be nice to have a shorter "expire" period. Maybe 3 days. Or even allow you to set that in your preferences (although I know the later will take considerably more programming...)

I think people check in every 3 days, and if not, all they have to do is ask for something that they missed in the blog, and they'll get it in less than a minute.

tamashii on May 09, 2007

iconmaster pretty much takes down the delivery recall idea, so I think that would include any shortened expiration time on stamps as well.

Ultimately, the expiration is part of the “game” and you have to take the risk of someone sitting on your stamps once you send a delivery.

iconmaster on May 09, 2007

Actually... I've considered recommending the expiry time be shortened.

fuseunderground on May 09, 2007

And at the end of the day, it's not really a risk as you get everything back. There is no rush to get a high points total, other than a rush for IB glory ;-)

tamashii on May 09, 2007

Thanks for the update, iconmaster!

Look for the Shorter Stamp Expiry in Round 2’s poll.

dyar on May 09, 2007

I like the shorter expiration time but I think it needs to be combined with email opt out. Otherwise users will get double the emails (spam).

iconmaster on May 09, 2007

It's a tricky balance. We want people to get their unused stamps back, but we also get people who write in confused because they get the notification email but don't see the delivery offer when they log in days later.

Shortening the expiry would allow users to send more deliveries throughout the week, which is good, but it might also increase our support email.

aaroncampbell on May 09, 2007

Well, it seems that having a shorter (but still standard across the board) expirey time would still keep the "game" even. You'd still have to be willing to commit stamps for _ Days.

Grusella on May 09, 2007

Voted

Jen on May 09, 2007

Hmm, what if the notification email included an expiration date, just like a carton of milk does?

JBVisions on May 09, 2007

Any chance of a breakdown of your points so you can see how the total is made up.

And a list of what you've sent out that is still pending would be good too.

justG on May 09, 2007

I'll second Jen's suggestion as I was going to say the same thing. Adding an expiry date to the notification e-mail sounds like the thing to do.

mik on May 09, 2007

I don't think the shorter expiry time appeals to me, I'd vote to keep it at a week.

I'm here a lot and enjoy it, but if I felt like I had to be here frequently to not miss deliveries, it would put me off - more interruption and hassle rather than a convenient break when I need it. How email notification evolves could influence my opinion but if more ways to earn stamps become available that would help to address the need.

I have a different feature request, I don't think I've read this already somewhere. On the profile pages the 'blogs' section lists the most recent 5 and how long ago they were originally posted. I'd rather it reflect recent activity.

I heartily endorse revamping the notification emails. (see Jen and justG's comments above)

khursten on May 09, 2007

I don't know if this is much of a request, but I hope there's an option to delete blogs. ^^;; Blogs take up space and some blogs only have a few people who reply in it. ^^;; So I'd like that option wherein you can delete the blogs you made <3

tamashii on May 10, 2007

Live Forum Updates
I am sure there must be a way, with all this AJAXy goodness, that the forum pages can update every 10 seconds or so in a Live manner. Of course, I don’t know how any of that works, but I think that would be a very nice feature; instead of having to refresh the page manually.

dyar on May 10, 2007

hmmm... you can get a Firefox extension to do that.

Jen on May 10, 2007

Yep I used to use it for my webmail box. :)

aaroncampbell on May 10, 2007

That or Opera has a built-in option to "reload every" and you can set it to 5, 10, or 30 seconds as well as 1, 2, 5, 15, or 30 minutes.

hjsg on May 10, 2007

dyar: check out the Firefox extension ReloadEvery

aaroncampbell on May 10, 2007

I understand what mik is saying, but I still like the idea of a shorter expiry. Not REAL short...3-4 days. In order to make sure you miss NOTHING, you'd need to check in 2x a week. However, even if you missed something, you just get more. Getting deliveries isn't hard...people fight over it.

dyar on May 11, 2007

When does the voting for this end? (aka bump)

tamashii on May 11, 2007

Voting on Round 1 of the poll ends on the 14th.

The results will be shown for 1 week before Round 2 is implemented.

Do not vote for Mass Download or Delivery Recall - they will not happen. Votes towards these two features will not be counted.

mattdetails on May 11, 2007

I think that was "technically" a rhetorical question. right dyar? ;)

Anyway, I think gifting VIP for a year would be the right way to go also - and I'm not even saying any rewards to the person who gives it either. Just plain and simple - "Gift VIP" - really has no other benefit to the community other than someone else who can spend more on icons, which in turn gives more icons out there - not to mention extra $ in the Chef's pockets to create more icons. That seems like a big enough benefit to me.

Plus, us contest hosts could reward a lot easier ;)

sloan on May 11, 2007

vip monthly with paypal (I know not on list) hehhehe

tamashii on May 11, 2007

@matt: I agree that the simpler the better on “Gift VIP”. The bonus to the gifter, of course, would be the extra tokens received if the user signed up under their referral. Can be tricky, but making it 1-Year subs only would be a pretty good deterrent to anyone other than contest givers (which is the ultimate prize, in my opinion).

@sloan: I may be mistaken here, but I think the chefs are looking into that.

tamashii on May 14, 2007

Round 1 Poll closed. Thanks for voting!

tamashii on May 14, 2007

FWIW the polls are just a measure of what the voting IB public would like to see. This, in no way, reflects the actual implementations or plans of the IconBuffet chefs. We would like to see stuff and the poll just said which ones were most desired.

None of the feature requests are removed from this thread nor should they be discounted if they failed to make the Top 10.

dyar on May 15, 2007

Here's a relatively simple implementation. Put a VIP Icon next to the Users ID at the top of their profile page.

Why? 1) there is no indication anywhere on a Users Profile page as to whether or not they are VIP's. 2) many users are requesting Icons just to find out that they don't have the Tokens to accept them. This would give senders some indication (along with the other info on the page, while not guaranteed) as to if the User had enough Tokens to accept the delivery, and thus worthy the risk of tieing up Stamps for a week. As an example say a User requests AHS but you see that they just got a Bronze delivery. One should know that there is no chance of them being able to receive AHS unless they are a VIP.

MacManX on May 15, 2007

@dyar: I have a large "VIP" logo at the top of profile's right sidebar, and so do you, and just because a user is a VIP, doesn't mean that he/she has spare Tokens. I think you'd be in the same boat either way. I seem to have better luck getting non-VIP members to accept AHS when I mention that they can upgrade to VIP for $6/month and cancel any time. It really works with the "gotta catch 'em all" mentality.

Luckybeitia on May 15, 2007

And what about a clan feature? Something like "I am a PIRATE/NINJA" in your profile. That would be awesome.

Well you already can do that using interests tags in your profile:

http://www.iconbuffet.com/people/tags/Pirate

dyar on May 15, 2007

I had that same VIP Badge above my points total before I upgraded, maybe things have changed. And I totally understand that a VIP can be out of tokens, I'm trying to carefully manage mine myself.

aaroncampbell on May 15, 2007

dyar: From what I remember, it wasn't a VIP badge, it was a "you should become VIP" comment, but not the big VIP image/badge/whatever. Anyway, even if it DID used to be that way, now non-VIPs don't have that, so you can tell them apart.

cheiie on May 16, 2007

I'm not sure of the exact way to implement this, but I thought about this tonight, and wondered what others might think. I'm fairly to very active on Live Journal, which was, for a very long while, user-centric. As such, they have a support points feature, where it allows users to help other users out, for various things they might need. What about implementing something like that here? For instance, Tamashii keeps this feature request blog running, and organizes it well, maybe that could earn him (x) stamps or (x) points or something along those lines.
I realize that this idea isn't totally hammered out, because there are some things that need to be 'patrolled' but it seems it might be a nice feature?

tamashii on May 17, 2007

Looks like they just fixed the Recent Trades pane for senders. Awesome-awesome work, chefs!

tamashii on May 17, 2007

Group Whispers
The ability to send a whisper to all members on a tagged interests page.
(by memodude)

tamashii on May 17, 2007

Looks like the Friends listings on icon pages is back.

Luckybeitia on May 17, 2007

Cool.

mik on May 17, 2007

More feature requests...
- indicate category with blog/forum posts
- easy links to each category from any forum page
Discussed a bit more here.

myrheille on May 19, 2007

There's a nice "Send email notification for new deliveries I receive" checkbox in the "Account page"! Not sure if it works, but it's there.

dyar on May 19, 2007

Good Find myrheille. I never go to that page so I would have never seen it. We need a way to test it and see if it works.

tamashii on May 19, 2007

I am moving the Email Opt-Out Feature to completed. Whether it is functional or not, it’s clearly implemented for that purpose.

dyar on May 19, 2007

Well, it apparently doesn't work yet. If you uncheck the box and go anywhere else on the site, then go back to the account page it is checked again.

iconmaster on May 19, 2007

Hey, whupz. That's not quite functional yet; but, yeah, that's how it will work.

robbyrice on May 19, 2007

very nice new feature.

tamashii on May 23, 2007

Ok - The new Stats Pop-up handled a few more feature requests:

Join Date (1202|5 for me)
Referral Count

The Referral Count gives you the number of people who've signed up using your referral. You will also see the number of those who have then gone VIP. Clearly, you will also get points for when that happens. I don’t know how many per upgrade. Still no info on who those referrals are, but this is a HUGE step, in my opinion. The fact that I know how many people have signed up under me is awesome.

dyar on May 23, 2007

The email opt out/in box has disappeared from the Account Page, so that feature is not fully implemented.

tamashii on May 23, 2007

Took Email Opt-Out off the COMPLETED list until it is truly ready for prime time. Just know that this feature will definitely happen sooner than later.

aaroncampbell on May 23, 2007

YAY!
10 Diamond deliveries sent
362 Total deliveries sent
26 People referred

2 Bonus Tokens (10,000 points/0 VIP's referred)
Account created November 09, 2006

bjendrick on May 23, 2007

Just thought of another feature request:

What about having a way of knowing which sets have been officially released into the wild? Perfect example is the Sushinobi set. With a "not released yet", or "Released" or blank info or "Released on [Date]", that might cut down on the posts for sending unavailable sets.

/2¢

aaroncampbell on May 24, 2007

bjendrick: There is an easy way to tell if a set has been released. Just add etherbrian, iconmaster, and/or josh as friends. They are the first to get a set when it's released, so you will see them as friends that have that set.

socrates on May 31, 2007

"Reply To Commenter"
from my box entries

add a new button next to the trash icon found next to a persons box entry that could not only start a new entry in that persons box but also include that persons quote like "you said:"

it could go next to the proposed "Send to Commenter"

tamashii on May 31, 2007

Round 2 is up and running for the Top 10 Feature Requests here at IB.

Some oldies are back again and some new suggestions have made the list. Again, this is just a consensus on what we would like to see here at the Buffet. They are not officially endorsed nor adhered to by the chefs. This means things like the Title Attribute or even Block Sender may very well still be taken into consideration and actually implemented. Those requests listed in the GRAVEYARD, however, are dead as a kipper on a cracker.

mik on May 31, 2007

Voted! Still supposed to pick just our top 5, right?

tamashii on May 31, 2007

Correct.

Limit your picks to 5 only, please.

Stratification on Jun 01, 2007

Voted on the new poll, thanks for putting these together. I'd really like to see the default blog post switched over to Blab. We're getting a lot of new members just posting to the default, which makes the swap meet more meet/talk, and much less swap.

dyar on Jun 01, 2007

Here's another suggestion for the next poll, or current implementation.

Since the Friends List has been redone, there is plenty of room to put a little Icon next to the Gift Icon denoting that that person is one of your referrals, and then being able to sort by referrals. This will become more important as people get more referrals.

tamashii on Jun 06, 2007

Sorry I've been lazy on this. The poll is still open. Get your votes in!

dyar on Jun 06, 2007

^ thanks for the reminder

rajr19 on Jun 06, 2007

a very odd one

icon bags/random collection (don't know food term for it). a collection of random icons sent to you twice a month which can also be traded. collect em all.

MobiTec on Jun 07, 2007

[Req] Items Pending.

Could be added to the Stats Page, a table like below, showing what delivery's are pending that you have sent to others..

X Bronze deliveries pending X points
X Silver deliveries pending X points
X Gold deliveries pending X points
X Diamond deliveries pending X points

X Total deliveries pending X points

bdelisio on Jun 07, 2007

I like the Recent Trades Fix best of all. In addition to the proposed changes I think we should be able to "see" who we have pending trades with, the point value and their expiration date.

socrates on Jun 07, 2007

OMG yes to MobiTec's "Items Pending"

lisamac on Jun 08, 2007

Holy shoot. This is crazy. Reading this makes me realize I'm not as addicted to IB as I thought LOL Great work guys! Nothing like being part of a project/community. You must be making it hard for our chefs to come up with things you haven't thought of yet.

I just had a badge idea. Now I feel like an inactive loser :( LOL

Oh well. Maybe there's another thread for this, but I couldn't find it. What about having an extra special badge for people who've purchased stock icons? I just picked up manhattan vector and have bought a bunch of the smaller ones when the specials came on before. Just a thought.

K. Now I'm off to continue reaping the benefits of everyone else's hard work again. ;)

zelda013 on Jun 10, 2007

well, i don't see this on the list so i would like to add a REQUEST for an expanded icons i have/want list, the same as we now have for friends. Ajax is flashy (ar ar ar) but it's sometimes buggy too ; when i'm trying to see what icons i need, or what icons a friend already has, it often gets stuck when i click to the next group, which is frustrating. just a list view with the name, the value, and the preview icon would be so much more ergonomic. thank you for listening ! and thanks tamashii for regrouping everything !

tamashii on Jun 10, 2007

Sorry folks - I will try to be more up on this (to keep it on the first page of threads).

Please be sure to vote!

tamashii on Jun 10, 2007

Join Date has been completed. It is visible in your “Check your stats” pane.

I will include Items Pending in Round 3.

debbye on Jun 10, 2007

other peoples' join date:

so+so - member since the dawn of time!

MrDee on Jun 11, 2007

Simple stats - how many diamond/gold/silver/bronze sets do I have would be nice

Blabby on Jun 11, 2007

Sorry if this exists or has been mentioned - I got a little exhausted reading this long list. I'd like to have a way to find the people I've referred. I have one referral listed in my stats, and I'd like to be-friend them. Because I have the referral icon listed on my blog, it could be anyone.

Thanks!

tamashii on Jun 11, 2007

Keep the ideas coming. I will add them in Round 3.

tamashii on Jun 12, 2007

I think the poll closed and I am not sure why…

I will figure this out some time this evening and update the Top 10 List.

zelda013 on Jun 13, 2007

@apbeaty : your referrals are automatically added to your friends list, and you to theirs. of course, that doesn't help you figure out who are your referrals, if you have 6 gajillion friends ;).

Wile on Jun 13, 2007

a deliveries history, with which ones have been accepted, rejected or are still pending. With, why not, the ability to cancel a delivery ...

debbye on Jun 13, 2007

i got this from an old post: have different colored backgrounds for deliveries & friendship proposals. that way it would be easier to see which is which.

also: making all these colors a tad darker, easier to see whisper vs regular comment; in blogs - stickies vs regular post!

tamashii on Jun 20, 2007

OK: Figured out the problem on why the poll closed early. It is back up, so if you haven’t yet voted in Round 2, please Go Vote!

Jen on Jun 20, 2007

Thanks Tamashii I've now voted.
Adding in to what abi was saying about referrals, it would be kinda neat to see who we've referred. Perhaps some sort of indicator in the friends list? Maybe a colored border or a little tiny star or dot in the upper corner of their avatar or for simplicity's sake, a list of names. :)

cbest on Jun 20, 2007

I tried to read most of these, and didn't see anything mentioned about linking up the locations in our profiles. Is that possible? It'd be cool to search for people in your city and state, for instance. ;-)

tamashii on Jun 20, 2007

@drelin: actually go to the poll and vote - don't list them here.

mik on Jun 20, 2007

@cbest: I think the key to that at least to start is plain old search of any kind on this site. Refining to be able to limit a search to profiles, or leave them out, etc. would be a bonus.

JBVisions on Jun 21, 2007

The only thing that's really bugging me at the moment is the stamps. They're not returning after 7 days and I have to keep asking. I don't mind doing that but I'm aware that I'm bugging the guys when they're busy so it would help if it could be automatically kicked off as an overnight run or, if it already is, fixed so it works.

The other thing that would be useful but not urgent, is in the "Icons I need" box. An extra sort option for Bronze, Silver, Gold order.

samkarn on Jun 21, 2007

Yay I vote for:
07 “Icons I Want” Tab

samkarn on Jun 21, 2007

Oh, and more ways to earn tokens! ;)