Yep, let's make this happen. I've been slacking, sorry. I'll make a separate thread and we'll get this going.

Hi lilmonster,

I had intended to answer this after the Thankgiving holiday but then totally forgot until I got notified with Russ's answer. So sorry. I blame that chemical in Turkey that makes you tired and supposedly also forget things.

Anyway, Nancy did organize the last happy hour but had decided to give the reigns back to Friekja (http://questionland.com/users/1120-freikja) who had organized them in the past. I'll send this question to her and see if she's still up for it.

Thanks and sorry for my forgetfulness,
Marty

Hey Russ,
I am no longer working on Questionland- but I will pass this along.

Cheers,
Nan

Disappointing that no Qland organizers answered your question.

I wrote a direct question to Nancy (she organized the one I attended - after the first book club meet up) and asked who was putting such plans together.

Hey soundslikepuget,

I'm gonna try to add a picture now...

Seems like it worked. The picture has to be on the internet and some sites restrict embedding so it could be that unless your linking to a picture that you uploaded to flickr, etc.

We can always add the picture for you. Just email it to feedback@questionland.com and tell us where you want it.

Thanks,
Marty

I usually have to go back and find the link and instructions to attach a photo or image. The instructions were included in the elaboration paragraph on the Food Porn contest. Search using "food porn" and you will find the listing.

Here are the instructions copied from there:

How to attach a picture:

Post it somewhere on the interwebs. You can email it to temmik98@tumblr.com and then go to questionland.tumblr.com and it'll be there (in 1-30 min). Right click on the picture and choose "copy image location" (or the equivalent).

1. Choose (at the bottom of the answer box) and then click the picture icon .

2. Paste in the image location you just copied and hit the "insert" button. Voila!

Doing an image or photo probably is the most involved. Imbedding a link is fairly easy you have to select the Add blue bar at the bottom of the section you write in and then highlight the part you want to link to and cut and paste the link in the dialog box that appears.

I find the most problem in getting the text to format correctly in doing that. There seems to be the tendency for lots of extra line spacing to be introduced. I don't delve in at the html level and that would probably be the way to go. One point is to attach your link to more than just one word. The faint blue color is not always easy to see in one word, but if you include a phrase or even a full sentence it really is obvious.

Write and ask about it but also consider that your own computer may be the source of the pop-under ads. Mal-ware can be at fault.

I haven't noticed pop-ups, and I'm not using any ad blocker.

That said, this is what it says on the "Contact" page:

FOR SALES AND DISPLAY ADVERTISING INFORMATION
adinfo@thestranger.com

I'd probably Cc the editor:

FOR GENERAL AND EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE
editor@thestranger.com

(http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Page?oid=21506)

Oh I fully expect we will see some great shots of life going on in here in the typical Northwet [sic]. After all, we are just entering the season and all those shutterbugs out there are trying to figure out how to take well composed 1x8 format photograph. Kudos to Kate so far in the effort.

Having said all of that I have yet to have anyone share a photo album with me where everyone is glum or crying, usually photos we want to see and remember are those with smiles all around - the epitome of a happy disposition is that sunny day.

I'm loving the balloons of the questions that pop up, without having to load a new page.
hope that makes sense, I've lost my words.

You can't edit it after 15 minutes but I can. What would you like changed?

Now you can set your default preference for the question and answer lists by clicking the "pin" to the right of the filters. You can read more about this feature and some others we recently released on the blog (http://blog.questionland.com) and thanks again for the feedback.

I'm coming to this a little late, but here goes:

First, while I miss the homey old woods and mountains design, this one looks good too.

I have to agree with others, though, on the way questions and answers are displayed and emphasized. My first impression was confusion because I always go looking for new questions.

Maybe I'm slow but it took me a few visits to realize where the new questions were. I kept thinking I'd mistakenly ended up on some special page, not the main page. Okay, so I can learn the ropes but...

I think stressing answers is a mistake. I know that you said that most people come to the site looking for the best answer. This may be true, but there will only be "best" answers if you have people to answer them, and so you need to stress the new questions to generate answers. Unless you are shifting to a heavier reliance on experts and "professional QLers" (that is, the top contributors). I personally appreciate a range of answers from non-top contributors too. Attracting readers while discouraging answerers will be disastrous in the medium to long-term.

What I imagine happening is more people coming to find top answers, but fewer people getting around to answering, so then the answer-quality declines.

As an example, on the main page currently, my eye goes right to "Should Something be done about the new layout" and an answer that doesn't make sense out of context, but has received a mushroom. This just seems strange to me, and no where on the page do I feel encouraged to chime in my own thoughts.

Personally, I am not typically interested in finding a good answer, I am interested in finding a good question that I have never thought of before, and then finding an answer, OR finding a question that I might actually be able to answer.

In sum, I suggest at the very least making the default "latest", not "favorites", but I really support putting the newest questions back front-and-center, for the reasons I describe above.

Oh my god, I have been way too long-winded, but those are my thoughts.

Kip,

We've heard you (and the others) and are working on a better solution as we speak. I'm literally on the phone with Gnome right now. He's hard to understand over a phone btw.

We're looking at a more personalized approach and have narrowed it to two options:

1. Allow people to configure it the way they want it. Upside is great control and downside is it involves some set up by you guys.

2. Make it so that whatever view you had last on the site shows up next time you come to the site. Less control but zero effort.

In anticipation of your next question...

"Why don't we just do it 'right' to begin with (i.e make it latest answers and put them on the right, and latest questions and put them on the left)?"

let me say this...

If you are an active contributor to the site (and we love you for that) then your needs are slightly different from the people who are browsers of the site (i.e. readers). The latter prefer to have the favorites appears so they can focus on the best stuff - and usually they wouldn't know about what the best stuff was unless they read everything.

So...

The changes have not sat well with the active contributors (did I mention how we feel about you?) and we are going to fix that so you get exactly what you want (to the best of the Gnome's ability/time constraints).

Finally,

I'd like to say how much we appreciate the way you have all given us feedback. In true Questionland style, you have been kind when you were annoyed and always found something good to say to us. We really appreciate that kindness.

Those are the most recent 'Shroomed answers in order of time selected.

I haven't found where "Featured" questions (yellow star earning) are displayed. Those periodically changing two selected featured questions appear to be no more in the new layout.

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I don't like the changes.

When I saw the changes proposed on the Questionland blog I said I liked it, because it looked like a fresh update to a tired design. Now I miss the old Questionland, because I don't like the way my mind engages with this design.

I don't like the answers large on the left, questions small on the right, and I don't like answers automatically stacked by "greatest."

I want Questions first and foremost, and when I click on a question, THEN I want to see answers ranked by greatest within that particular question. Divorcing the Answers from the questions and then ranking them by upvotes is disjointed. It also creates self-fulfilling "greatest" answers, the ones that rise to the front/top will get read more, and upvoted more. The internet doesn't need another reddit.

I know you guys worked really hard on this, but I feel like we are friends here on Questionland, and friends can be frank with one another. I'm sorry, I just don't like it. It's turned Questionland into a disjointed non sequitur reddit-style upvote ranked Answerland.

Clearly, you guys are heavy hitting talented web designers. But the new design = swing and a miss. All the pieces are there, but the puzzle doesn't come together. You have an aesthetically pleasing, sharp looking website that displays information in a disorganized and counter-intuitive way. Move those questions back to center stage and I think you'll have a really sweet website.

I think (especially from reading all these posts) that people who prefer the best answers in large text on the left and questions in smaller text on the right are in the minority if actually existent.

Two out of three computers I use don't show all of the top banner. I see "estionland Seattle" on the bus in fullscreen, and if I make the window smaller I just see the trees in the background.

The computer I use most of the time is a netbook, 1024 x 600 resolution, and the banner is cut off with both Firefox and Chrome.

I don't see this on other sites, so I wanted to let you all know. Is it because Qland's banner is center-aligned?

Besides that, I agree with Matt about wanting the questions bigger and on the left. But otherwise I'm enjoying the new look and features!

Thanks for all your hard work!

You're not alone on this Russ. I got an email that you were following me, before I had any idea that Questionland was going through a great redesign... and I started to freak that I had my first stalker!

I can no longer view the website with Safari on my iPad like I used to. :(

All of them...

This is kinda related, can something be done about the mobile versions text boxes so you can scroll up? Most of my qland experience is with that side of things and it would be great to check once you've surpassed the four lines to be able to make sure auto correct didn't totally go off base or to re read stuff before it posts

I know this is about the real Internet version but that would be a major help for anyone who doesn't actually have the Internet at home

I like it.

Is anyone else having trouble viewing in Chrome? The site is a few columns of unformatted text and pictures. Very weird. It works fine for me in Firefox and IE.

Classy!

My main gripe (it looks like Russ and Matt already raised this) is having HUGE ANSWERS in the prime left column, and tiny! questions on the right. It has an odd cart-before-the-horse feeling, and it feels a little odd to be highlighting a single answer to a question when the jury may still be out. When I load the page, I like to sift through the questions themselves, not the latest top answers.

I also remember that in the old QL, when you started typing in a question, it activated an autosearch thing with your keywords, so you could see similar past questions while you were typing...without doing a separate search. It was a useful tool, and I think it saved me from a few redundant questions. Can we have that back?

I think it would also be prudent/useful to have an FAQ link on the page somewhere, especially for new users. If you want help writing it, I'm sure there'd be lots of volunteers.

Great job!

I'd rather that the questions take up the bigger column on the left and the latest answers the smaller column on the right. I'm more interested in seeing the newer questions first and that latest answers second.

Otherwise, I think it looks good.

One recommendation: make the banner or at least the bus readerboard that says "Questionland Seattle" a link to home. The actual home link below it is too small. It's an easy site to get kind of lost in.

I answered one of Kristin Bell's questions apparently right before the site switchover, and that question and all its answers disappeared. I'm pretty sure that it wasn't an inappropriate question and I know it wasn't spam, so I'm curious if it got eaten or if something else is going on.

Nice work!