As a huge fan of this website and everything you do, and with an eye to the changes that the new subcriber model might permit us to pursue, here’s a short list of things that would be fun to see:
(1) a better search function. The button has drifted a bit lately, I’d like to see it in the upper right corner which seems like a typical location. When you do search, the results are not organized by date, or much of anything else as far as I can tell. Would it be possible to crib a more sophisticated search algorithm, perhaps even with ‘advanced’ features from somewhere? This would make mining the archives so much more rewarding.
(2) an edit button for the comments. Perhaps this is expensive (I don’t know) but I do know that many, many commenters have expressed a desire for this.
(3) Instead of the ‘we are not robots’ paragraph below the stories I’d suggest a concise summary of comment etiquette, or a link to that page where those rules and expectations are spelled out at greater length, and a radio button alongside the thumbs up button for flagging comments we might find problematic. ‘Tact and respect’ is a great start, but I think it could be fleshed out a little more.
(4) Revisiting or an invitation to discuss the merits of past features that were tried and then disappeared:
Friday review (I liked this very much, thought it was well received)
Comment of the week (every Friday without one is a bit of a letdown)
Reader guest essays (this bikeportlander thing instantiates this – yeah!)
Subversiveness Columnist (is Taz still game?)
I’m sure others remember features they liked particularly. I’m mostly thinking of a conversation about the prospects of bringing some of these back.
Thanks!