Wish List: What Would You Like to See Added to the Site?

paged comments definitely

Happy 2010 MJ and everyone !

This is just a shot in the dark and probably not possible but is there any way to link to all of our comment histories? IF there is that’d be great because there are certain commenters whose posts I always look for.

Thanks MJ for everything you do and Happy New Year!!!! Can’t wait to experience S9 with everybody here.

Please please please bring back the “See All” option on the paged comments. I think its loss is the main reason for a lot of the repeated links and repeated questions that are already answered in each thread. And it’s much harder to keep track of where I left off without it.

A way to PM other posters would be wonderful.

I still miss the “most recent comments” sidebar menu that you used to have. It made it so much easier to see where the action is, and kept threads from dying untimely deaths as they fell off the front page.

Thanks for everything you do, MJ!

The paged comments are all I need. Thanks for all you do!!

Either PM capability or email contact info for posters. Opting out could be enabled if someone isn’t interested.

Well it will come to no surprise maybe a section to Discuss “Friday night lights”.That is all really ..

PAGE #’s!!!!!!!!!!

voluntary e-mail contact info

Yeah, ditto the page numbers for the comments (like before where we could jump to page 10 from the bottom of the screen), plus a return of those exciting smileys if possible In case you couldn’t tell I love my smileys (but like having the variety of the clapping ones, laughing ones, etc.)

I’m new to the site during the season, do we have live blogs during the episodes? I’m guessing yes, but that would be fun.

And great site, MJ! My fav place to hang out for 2009! Looking forward to 2010 and the new season!

I want a star system and the ability to promote comments like the gawker blogs, but I imagine that could get messy for you MJ lol.

Good suggestions, everybody! It would be nice if something could be done about the edit function in comments. That thing is hard to use!!

Thanks for all of the great idol news and links, MJ (and amazing Kris VIDEOS you took in Worcester!!).

A Live-cam following Adam around 24/7…hahaha! But seriously, this is THE best blog site ever and you always have the most current newsy stuff, so thank you for all that you are and all that you do! Happy New Year! Cheers!

soverymel
12/31/2009 at 3:09 pm

Please please please bring back the ‘See All’  option on the paged comments. I think its loss is the main reason for a lot of the repeated links and repeated questions that are already answered in each thread. And it’s much harder to keep track of where I left off without it.

Yes, please. I don’t like having to fumble back through the pages trying to find a previous comment. See All allowed me to do CTRL-F and keep up on the conversations better.

I know the blog isn’t about us, but I would be interested in either a way to see a brief info page on registered posters (if they want to fill one out) or a way to see previous comments (if for no other reason than to find out if someone is a troll or should be taken seriously).

But you could leave it the way it is and I’d be happy. This is my favorite entertainment blog and way to decompress when I’ve been working too hard.

Thanks, MJ.

Oh, another thought – maybe organize it according to:

* News
* Chat
* Videos (can cross reference the vids that are also in the regular news articles)
* Store links (these can be links on all your pages, like they are now, but maybe one consolidated place too where peeps can buy itunes, amazon stuff, etc.)

Kind of a minor thought, but maybe there’s a way to keep active threads more prominent – sorta like how forums have threads jump back to the top when someone new posts there. The only reason I mention that is that sometimes the chronological listing of the threads on the main page causes new items (especially a lot that come on one day) to crowd out still active threads (as in, it might get pushed off the front page). Don’t know if that makes sense

Ditto the paged comments and “see all” functions of yore. Also nice would be:

- numbered comments so it’s easier to refer back to specific comments (don’t know how well that works with comment deletion – think you’d have to delete the text but not the comment as a whole, but maybe that’s what you do anyway)

- option for a paid subscription that allows for ad-free reading of the site.

I still miss the ‘most recent comments’  sidebar menu that you used to have. It made it so much easier to see where the action is, and kept threads from dying untimely deaths as they fell off the front page.

Yes, I would love it if there was a way to identify which threads have the most recent posts. I’ve often posted on a thread that has left the first page and never gotten a response. (Perhaps that’s a good thing.)

Also the edit function can be very wonky, with the text in the box literally jumping to the passing of the seconds indicating how long we have to post. I begin to type and the view of the text jumps back up to the top of the post again. It’s bizarre. Makes me feel like I’ve been drinking *everytime* I post here.

What I miss is being able to see the people who are making comments as they are being made, you could join in with people you knew, etc

Have to agree with the urgent plea for the return of the “see all” and page-numbering functions. I also really miss the old “most recent comments” sidebar, but I know it caused a lot of problems in the past.

I’d also love to know how to escape all the awful pop-up ads. I have iron-clad security on my PC, but the pop-ups from here easily slip through. I hate them!

Thanks for another great year covering Idoldom, mj. Happy New Year and may the Nittany Lions beat LSU tomorrow!

I would love to see a video section added. That way we don’t have to go and try to find them.

I would love to see a survey sections where I can find a lot of idol surveys and maybe a section where u can find all the idols of every season, each one can hav a certain a number of fans and a lot of link to their official fan page, and other =D
i luv this site, thanks for all the covering ur incredible,. Happy new year! =D

Paged Comments and See All option like others have mentioned. Also it would be nice if you could search for articles from archives by dates. Overall, I think this is a fantastic site for information about American Idols.

The edit function: if it could be extended beyond 19 minutes; and the way the window changes with the ticking of the seconds makes it very difficult to use.

Also the adds have been really agressive lately. They expand and dropdown a lot and keep coming back. I know you have to have adds, nature of the beast, but the past few weeks they’ve been pretty intrusive. I thought it might go away past xmas, but now it’s just Toyota ones instead of Office Depot ones.

Okay, done whining

Great site and best of luck in the coming new year to everyone.

I agree with soverymel – “See All” is sorely missed.

And Mary102′s suggestion for the return of the exciting smileys! {insert clappy hands smiley here}

I hate those expanding ads and the Bing links. Do you generate anything extra for hits on them? If so, maybe someday when I’m bored at work I could sit and click on them all.

@k0ka – I wouldn’t mind those.

Paged Comments, See All, Recent Comments, and fewer pop-ups would be lovely. Thanks for asking us.

The only thing that is really important to me is the paged comments. I’m always coming in late and having to page back is laborious! I also miss the “recent comments” list but I know it really caused problems for you.

Since you have expanded what you cover (wonderful additions in many ways, mj!) recent posts do get pushed off the front page very quickly. I know absolutely nothing about blogging software or capabilities, but I was wondering if a format similar to the one used at http://projectrungay.blogspot.com/ might help with that problem.

It is amazing to see how this blog and community has grown since 2005. That is an absolute testament to you, mj, and the effort and care you’ve put into it. I’m certain whatever you come up with will be an improvement. Happy, happy new year!

“Jump to the first comment page” would be great. Many times I come late to read the discussions, and if I would just start reading using “older comments”-link, I would end up reading comments in this order: 81st-100th, 61st-80th, 41st-60th, 21st-40th,1st-20th. I didn’t figure out any other way but to tweak the url to jump to the first comment…

Other things… I usually get my fix right on the first page, so I don’t need that much. Completed “About”-page, with rules & guidelines to be found there, too, would be nice.

Also I would like to hear your thoughts and opinions more. This isn’t just a news feed, this is a much better blog than that. I wasn’t “here” during most of the run of S8, I found the blog only later, so I’m not sure how the episodes were analyzed in the posts, but please feel free to ad your own thoughts in all posts if you want.

As others have said, I liked the old format of having the comment page’s number links at the top, or an option to see all comments. Other than that, site is great!

Nothin’ to say but thank you for the best Idol site on the net and hope you have an awesome 2010

As you consider changes, please do NOT consider changing to a forum format! I love the blog format which makes navigation easy and allows threaded comments to evolve daily. And don’t go too fancy on us! : )

I think you truly know what you need to do. If you listen to a few (or even one) of the most vehement comments, you’ll be doing well. Just know that yours is the blog most want to see dysfunctionality notwithstanding. You’re the f’ing woman!!! Oh, and happy new year!

MJ, just keep posting all of the Kris Allen info you can. I can’t get enough!
Thanks for all of your hard work. This a a great website. From a fellow Pittsburger to another, hope you and yins have have a fantastic 2010!

Just wanted to say thanks to MJ for doing all of this and keeping up with this site. It’s so helpful

Paged comments feature would be amazing. I have no idea which plugin you use right now, but I found two plugins for paged comments, but I didn’t test them because I don’t need paged comments on my WordPress blog. I don’t know if you know these two, but I will post links anyway. (1, 2)

Plugins are a pain, because authors have to update them regularly so they work with the most recent version of WordPress. The newest version of WordPress is a must, and sometimes you have to let your favorite plugin go.

I don’t know if I understand you correctly, MJ … You plan to change the layout? New theme would be lovely change. I know that this one has a few special features… Mandigo is also very useful. But you probably know this one already.

Rarely is there ever anyone on here that would fit into this category, but an ignore function might cut down on some of the fan waring.

Mj, I love this site soooo much! I have read many responses on this topic here and can only add that I would love to see an opinion article written by YOU on various topics related on the idols. I have read your pieces in the paper and would love your take on things discussed here. I know you add some comments occasionally….I would like more! I value your take on things…..and many times would welcome some common sense added to the discussions! You may not have the time to do this….but…..this is my wish list! Thanks for all you do! Pix

Bravo MJ for a great job with this site! I only came on board this year when Adam peeked my interest, however, I must say it’s a great place to come and stay on top of things. Keep up the great work and happy new year!!!!

As others have said, I would love a jump to the beginning of the comments. As a west coaster, I’m always late to the discussions. I also love the blog format and hope that you won’t change that. Other than those two things, I love it just the way it is.

I love this site, I discovered it just about a year ago, actually, when they were replaying Season 7, I happened to find the discussion about it on your blog and I have been on it daily ever since. I really became a fan of Idol during Season 7, I had watched it casually before that but the first idol I really became a fan of is David Cook, but I had not really been part of the online community until this past year.

The only suggestion I have is maybe if there could be a way to flag comment sections that are of interest. Sometimes I post something and then don’t remember exactly where I posted because by the time I get back to the boards, there might be similar topics or that it goes off the front page, and then I can’t find what topic I was following or if I posted, which topic I posted in. Either that or some kind of list of active threads

Anyway, I’m looking forward to another year of Idol and to share it on your blog. Thank you for all the work you put into this page. It’s weird that now I get excited over a new season, I may find someone to add to my list of favorite artists by this time next year. I’m enjoying the rumored contestant sections. I think I followed it last year too because I knew about Adam before the audition. Have a Happy New Year.

As long as you’re asking …

There are quite a number of us who obsessively enjoy discussing sales, charts, radioplay, adds, strategy, etc., but other than Mondays & Wednesdays, there are few if any dedicated posts for those subjects. Generally, these discussions have to be contained within Headlines, in which case the discussion can get lost amongst the more fangirly or fanwarring topics du jour. In many cases, it’s just impossible to discuss these subjects when there’s a hot topic/controversy going on. I’m not suggesting Kirsten needs to dream up another regular weekly post, or that she needs to monitor it or contribute, but something for the regular numbers nerds would be fab so we don’t get lost in the fanwars and arguments. For instance, Pulse has their individual threads devoted entirely to a specific single, like LLWD or WWFM, and those are great sources of stats and discussion. I would LOVE something like this.

Kind of long, sorry. And on that subject – how about a limit on length of comments! Heh.

Overall, though, it’s a great site for news and I appreciate your efforts very much and hope it’s generating enough income for you to live very comfortably.

Yeah, I can’t really think of anything except for a way to jump easily to the beginning of the comments on a given page. I’m at the computer a lot but when I’m away and the threads are huge… it takes a while to page back through. But that’s totally minor, just keep feeding my addiction in 2010, MJ, and I’ll be a happy camper . I love your blog, you do an amazing job. Excited for Season 9!

I still miss the ‘most recent comments’  sidebar menu that you used to have. It made it so much easier to see where the action is, and kept threads from dying untimely deaths as they fell off the front page.

Definitely THIS! That is the one function I miss most of all but I understand mj why you had to remove it before but if you could possibly put it back when redesigning the site, then that would be awesome!

The suggestion of the page numbers for comments and “see all” are two that was suggested that I would like to see as well.

I can’t imagine how hard it may be for you to maintain it but you are doing a great job with this site though mj. I appreciate you for what you do for us everyday. Thank you!

I also run a blog and one thing I noticed that you don’t have are labels. Like a list of the the shows you cover so if I want to see the latest posts on say AI then I just click on AI under Labels. You could have a list of labels like American Idol, Gleee, SYTYCD or what ever the popular shows are that you cover. That way if a person clicks on the label it takes them to all the posts on that topic. Plus it makes it easier if you want to find a previous archived post. I’ve been reading your blog for almost a year now and I check it daily pretty much since I’m a Lambert and Glee fan. Keep up the good work!

Recent comments is a good one. Page numbers as well. Either a functional chat, or pm feature would be nice too. Or should I say, what everyone else said

PAGE #’s!!!!!!!!!!

Definitely this. I’m pretty sure you’re bringing that back, but when you do, please be sure to put them both at the top of the page as well as the bottom of the page so that we don’t have to scroll up and down just to figure out where we are.

Thanks for asking. This site is my one guilty pleasure.

“See all” comment please, and thanks

Selection of comments by page or at least the ability to jump to the top of page 1 would be great. Also, it used to be nice to be able to put all the comments on one page. Other than that, I can’t really think of anything. This blog is just about perfect as is, IMHO.

How about a “Switzerland”zone were “neutral”fans can go for safety during fan wars? OR perhaps a delete type of search where you can delete any reference to idols that are not your favorite ( like they don’t even exist on our favorite blog)
Thanks for always working to make things better MJ!

ITA number pages on comments,
limit the length of posts, some go on & on,
limit number of times a person can post under a thread per day,
I’d like to read daily headline comments without it being all Adam.

Also THANKS MJ for running such a top notch website, that always has many fun topics and discussions. I am sure it is a labor of love, and your efforts do not go unnoticed!

I don’t contribute to the numbers discussion much, but I DO obsessively seek out the numbers and obsessively read the numbers discussions, so a special area for that would be a plus (for me anyway, lol).

Agree with page numbers and “see all” feature bigtime!

Would rather see some sort of link access to those other shows that someone mentioned up-thread (SYTYCD, DWTS, Glee), while still keeping American Idol front and center since that is the primary focus of this website. The other show discussions and videos are just a nice side dish during the off season of idol for me, however I’m sure many on this site enjoy access to the info/videos provided here.

Want to add my thanks to MJ also for this superb and comprehensive website on AI and for all the work you do to maintain it. I’ve been here since season 5, found you through the gray charles site, and have come here daily ever since!

Thanks for asking for our input. Happy to add my 2 cents.

More post per page, I liked the 50 post per page format from before.

Love the post or character limit – could be a time limit rather than a smack down on over posting.

Posting history- see who’s posting where and what.

You really run a very cool blog MJ, you make a great work and Kristen’s data is always interesting to read.

I like the functionality of the site, given the number of comments your posts receive and the competitiveness among idol fans, I would suggest adding a Digg button and a Facebook button, just for the sake of getting more traffic! I can imagine idol fans digging like crazy posts related to their favorites and getting your site to the top of digg.com.

I really like it when you make editorial kind of posts, like the wrap ups you used to make on season 8, these are really interesting to read, I hope you do the same next season.

Happy 2010 everyone, I’m wishing lots of success and health for all of you from Mexico City .

Hey MJ! Big fan of the site! You help me manage this disease called Idol Fever year-round and I thank you for that.

As for suggestions. It would be cool with AI9 coming around the corner if videos and performances were a little more accessible (not they aren’t already!) and hopefully find a video site that’s HQ that doesn’t take your vids down all the time (curse you YouTube and Photobucket!) and maybe put up vids and performances from past seasons (that’s a stretch but who knows).

And maybe something fun like MJ’s Idol where the users vote for their favs on the site vs. that other thing that’s only who’s going home.

But anyways, love the site and keep up the great work!

It would be nice to be able to PM someone- or you could even PM us if we’re on thin ice. The profile page for each poster would be interesting too. Just because I have a really hard time differentiating between posters, but if knew a little bit more about them… it still probably wouldn’t help, but I’d like to read it anyway.

but I would like to put in a NAY vote for a character limit and a posting limit. Sometimes when I come in late to a convo, I like to do two posts in a row quoting different stuff… and posting limits are SO annoying. So SO so annoying. And character limits suck too. Especially because some people don’t want to edit to make their ideas more succinct, people just bgn 2 tke out letrs. Let us be long winded!

Love the site though. Happy New Years MJ, thanks for all you do! And Happy New Years to everyone else as well.

I agree Allison- don’t want a posting limit. If you don’t want to read a long post just skip it- I find everyone’s posts interesting long or short!!

Definitely having page numbers back at the top & bottom of the page would help immensely . being in a very different time zone means sometimes the threads are so long that its difficult to know where I left off previously!!
Also would like to have different threads on the side for different programmes , so I can go straight to idol- as we don’t receive all the programmes listed here.

Whatever you decide MJ can I just say thank you for maintaining this site so well – it must be very difficult at times when controversy happens & you try to maintain the threads!!
All the best for 2010!

That’s sort of an interesting idea, Judes. Like, be able to edit the feed to suit you. Like on facebook, you can edit your options so you only see status updates and stuff from people in your network, or school or something. So it would be cool if we could edit the feed so we don’t see the posts for the shows we dont watch. I for one watch Idol and Glee, and LOVE that glee stuff is posted here. But I don’t really watch all the dancing shows. That might be kind of complicated.. and you may not be down with that idea. But sometimes SYTYCD and DWTS clogs up the board.

MJ. I love your site, I discovered it in May by chance when I was on the Internet searching for Adam Lambert’s news. Since then, I have visited the site several times a days. It’s so much fun reading’s people comments. People sure do have different opinions and perspectives, but their posts are always intelligent and educational.

My wish list:
- A section for Idols’ upcoming events or appearances
- Page numbering
- Bulletin board where people can post information, such as: re-sale tour/show tickets, CDs, place/time information for people to meet during concerts, etc.

I also want to chime in with the thanks for running a great blog. Especially in the face of particular passions.

Let’s see…

How about a link to your tags in the sidebar? It would be nice to be able to browse by topic easily.

I also second (third?) the idea of the digg/ reddit type links on your posts. I think you could get a lot of track back.

I would suggest that “recent comments” section in the left hand bar, but things move too quickly here. Can you do it with posts with recent activity? I don’t know what the options are with that feature.

I loved the section you did for season 8 for the top 36 and top 13 contestants. It was nice to be able to find all the known info at a glance. I hope you can continue that.

Can we shoot down suggestions? I really really don’t want to see comment ratings. I don’t think they would work here. Anything that creates more competition, really.

Other than that, I hope you can get the paged comments and chat working. Either way, thanks for trying.

As far as ads, I just use the noscript add on for Firefox, and the plain old FF pop-up blocker. I didn’t even know there was an ad problem.

And Happy New Year!

It would be nice to have a place for all the past idols where we can post random comments even when there’s no current news about them. Something similar to Television Without Pity.

Thanks for asking!

I really like it when you make editorial kind of posts

Meant to add thoughts along that line too. Would love to hear what MJ herself thinks of various idols, performances, reviews, and her personal take on bits and pieces of this and that from time to time.

Thanks MJ for all you do for us.

This is my first year here, so don’t know what was here before. I may not be following the thinking when people are asking for page numbers. I have page numbers showing on all except the page where your article begins. I just go to the bottom and ask for older entries. Page numbers automatically appear in the URL on subsequent pages. I just change it to whatever page I want and click the arrow–usually go to Page 1 for the beginning and then just minimize the page when I am not actively reading.

I also do not want limitations on peoples’ expressions of their thoughts. One thing I like about your blog is that people can feel pretty-much free as long as observing your rules.

Happy 2010 to everyone!!!

I definitely would like to see a live chat feature sorta like facebook has on there toolbar. also a facebook or myspace feature for easy access. um live update feature would be nice like real time posts. also a more simpler modern layout and design would be nice something dark to contrast the pink welcome sign

ohnonotagain
12/31/2009 at 5:47 pm

limit the length of posts, some go on & on,
limit number of times a person can post under a thread per day,
I’d like to read daily headline comments without it being all Adam.

Some posts do go on and on, but I just scan or skip them. I know what you mean, the headlines thread seemed to be all about Cook at times this past summer.
I don’t really think it’s a good idea to limit posts. Most people moderate themselves pretty well. If not, scan or skip is a good idea.

I would love for the page numbers to be included again!

happy new year everybody!!!

I don’t want a limit,but do want page #s

Love the site and spend way too much time here. My suggestions:

*I would love if I was able to view on my iphone all the videos that you post.
*I think it would be cool if there was a way to search for particular posts by
screen names or key words. Sometimes I don’t have time to read through the hundreds of headline’s comments, but if I could go right to the comments on a particular idol, say David Cook for example , I would do that for sure.

Happy New Year everyone. See you lots next year…

I also want to chime in with the thanks for running a great blog.

ITA.Especially,in the face of certain hate.

Thank you for the suggestion box, and HNY to everyone, and my suggestion if not mentioned since I didnt read back is a spell check, not that everyone spells wrong LOL, but would help editing and having to go back too fix a lot of stuff.

I wish you’d do a daily/weekly blog giving your opinion on all things Idol.
I’m interested in what you’d have to say.

Happy New Year, folks.

I’m a newbie here and haven’t contributed anything worthwhile.

Just want to say THANK YOU to mj. I love your blog and you’ve done a SUPERB job. TWO THUMBS UP !!!

I’ve learned a lot from this place. Also want to thank everybody here.
At least I think my English is getting better. I still don’t know how to debate. I only post like a fantard, hope I haven’t offended anybody. I don’t have any ill feeling towards anyone, just my English is bad.(an excuse ?!? may be.)
Alright, page numbers would be great. You don’t know how long it takes me to read…too long. I spend too much time here.

Again, thanks a million, mj. GREAT JOB !!!

I wish you’d do a daily/weekly blog giving your opinion on all things Idol.
I’m interested in what you’d have to say.

I used to write much longer posts that contained more opinion, but the last 6 months or so have been a little overwhelming, especially with the volume of comments I have to read through.

Once the season starts, I plan to write more opinion-type posts.

I like the site just the way it is, page numbers are the only change I’m rooting for.

I can’t stand most Idol and fan type sites partly because of the way they are laid out. On this site the threads are easy to find and easy to follow. Just have to click on the one I’m interested in and follow along, easy as pie.

Thanks for all that you do MJ.

I’m with everyone who wants to be able to jump to the page 1 of the comments.

Also (and I think you did this last year)…a separate thread for spoilers. But add an additional rule…no spoilers allowed except in the spoiler threads. I’m one of the few that don’t like to be spoiled…and in the few weeks between the selection of the semi-finalists and the actual announcement, I had to stay away from here since there were too many spoilers.

edit: attacking a poster is what put you in moderation.

The “most recent comments” sidebar would be a very good (re-)addition. The suggestions for PM ability and a link to all of a person’s comments are also good ones. Also, I’d be interested in having a permanent “general comments” thread for each contestant (current and former), so that there’s a place to bring stuff up with fellow fans when there aren’t any news items to warrant a new thread.

And while I’m at it, an explanation of how to set an avatar would be appreciated. I’m a computer scientist by trade, so I live and breathe computers and have read the documentation, and you’d think I’ be able to figure out how to do it, but I haven’t so far!

Thanks for all your hard work, mj — you make it too easy for us to waste our lives away here!

I’ll agree with the page numbers and the ability to go to any page in the comments section. I really like the white background with the black lettering, PLEASE don’t change that. It’s one of the reasons I love your site – it’s so much easier to read than the ones with the dark backgrounds.

It would be nice to have the ability to PM other posters.

The return of all the smiley/frowny faces like you had before also would be nice.

Also, it would be wonderful if links that posters post would open up in a separate window rather than the same window that your site is in – would make it much easier to go back and forth between your site and the links. (It works this way for links YOU post now, but not commenters’ posts.)

Thanks for your site – I discovered it almost two years ago (thanks, David Cook!) and I’ve been here almost daily since then. You have quite an addictive site!

Ignore button if such a thing exists.

I would also like an easier way to go to other pages. If I could change one thing, that would be it.

O/T, but I got to the thread so late that I was afraid you wouldn’t see my thanks for the Kelly thread with all of the covers and new songs. Some truly awesome covers in there. So thank you!

k4dc: I really like the white background with the black lettering, PLEASE don’t change that. It’s one of the reasons I love your site ‘“ it’s so much easier to read than the ones with the dark backgrounds.

Yes yes yes yes! Allison’s site just switched to white on black, and it’s absolutely unreadable — I have to copy and paste the posts into a Notepad window just to read them.

I love spoilers, and I refuse to be spoiled by anyone else at this point. I came here years ago for the spoilers alone, then stayed for a dozen other reasons.

I DO NOT know how you keep up with this great site, MJ! I know there must be times that you should be sleeping, but you care so much about the peeps here… MJ for President!

As for guests using ad-blockers… hmmm… that’s just not right. Ads bring in a few coins to offset the expenses, but they want to rob you of this income and still enjoy this great content for free. grrrr

first off, let me say I LOVE this website! It is truly the best AI website around!

I don’t really have a lot of suggestions.. Mostly, I would just like the other shows — like Glee — to have their own, separate section. But that is just a tiny thing

Whatever you do, I’ll still be here. Thanks for everything, mj! Don’t add anything that would involve too much extra work for you.

Happy New Year everyone!

As for guests using ad-blockers’ ¦ hmmm’ ¦ that’s just not right. Ads bring in a few coins to offset the expenses, but they want to rob you of this income and still enjoy this great content for free. grrrr

First, she gets the money from both the page hits and those who click on the ads. Whether you block it or not, she gets the page hit count.

Second, I support the site by clicking on her iTunes links when I make purchases, and by pimping the site to other AI fans. I’m sure that more than makes up for lost revenue for ads I never would have clicked on anyway.

ETA: Happy New Year to the east coasters!

something for the regular numbers nerds would be fab so we don’t get lost in the fanwars and arguments. For instance, Pulse has their individual threads devoted entirely to a specific single, like LLWD or WWFM, and those are great sources of stats and discussion. I would LOVE something like this.

A weekly numbers post would be great. Maybe just an additional weekly post to discuss what people learn from the Pulse boards or for cd sales? It seems like the single and cd sales come out different days, and cd sales seem to get lost in the shuffle.

Hi MJ…I haven’t commented here in a while, but I still check in regularly. Your site is great, thanks. To be honest though, I miss your smileys. I’ve seen comments get so serious and frankly even nasty at times the last few months that I sometimes can’t read more than a page or two of comments without needing to “move on”. I like this site best when the threads are mainly positive and fun. I used to think “flushing toilet”, blazing pistols, and rolling on the floor laughing smileys were a great way to keep it light and not get too serious. Maybe that’s my immaturity showing, I don’t know, but I thought the threads were often more entertaining back then. Anyways, that is just my thought. I still raise my glass and make a toast to you this New Years Eve, thanks for running the best AI site out there. I’m looking forward to next season starting soon! Happy New Years Everyone!

Yes definitely keep it white on black! This site is very easy on the eyes. Not too cluttered, organized well, but mostly important, nothing garish or sparkly.

Oh yeah, those smileys were great. I liked being able to flush myself town the toilet if I said something embarrassing.

Oh, one more thing. I miss page numbers at the bottom. Now you can only click on older comments and backtrack, but I used to like when you could actually click on a specific page to return to. Not sure if that is even possible with your new WordPress Software, but I really miss that feature. Cheers! Thanks Again for the great job you do with this site!

I would like to see polls every now and again. I’m always interested to see how everyone feels, but sometimes I don’t feel like reading all of the comments. Now that there are so many followers…it would be cool to have polls. Just for curiosity’s sake.

Thanks for the great site MJ. Been coming here forever…lurked for a long time just for spoilers. Love it!

Page #’s are a great idea. PMs are fine, but who has the time? Finally, I do not like the idea of a posting history or of any other “member” tracking mechanism. Such a tool might easily lead one down rule-breakers alley.

The return of all the smiley/frowny faces like you had before also would be nice.
Also, it would be wonderful if links that posters post would open up in a separate window rather than the same window that your site is in ‘“ would make it much easier to go back and forth between your site and the links. (It works this way for links YOU post now, but not commenters’ posts.)

Agree with all of this, and keeping the uncluttered black print on white background.

I’m having a problem but it may not be site related. Whenever I click on comments I am taken to the newest first. I have to click back at the bottom on older comments to get back to the beginning. If there are a lot of comments that takes quite a while. If anyone can help I would appreciate it.

I agree with the suggestions that everyone has put forward so far. One thing that I would like to see is the current time somewhere on the site as I am from Australia and have no idea when a post was made. I can see that someone posted at a certain time but unless I post myself, I haven’t got a clue how long ago that was. (Hopefully that makes sense?) I will know after this post now.

I have been coming here for the last 2 seasons and would like to thank MJ for all that she does to keep this site going for all of us Idol fanatics. I don’t post much but come here most days to check out what is going on in the Idol world (and for the spoilers of course).

Ok, I know the time difference now. (We are 16hrs ahead.)

Been naround since season 5. Love this blog. Thanks MJ. I can’t think of much that needs improvement.

For everyone who’s having trouble moving fro page to page within a thread: If you are starting on the last page of the thread, click on “older comments” once. When you get to that page, look at the web address on the top of the page. For this thread, it looks like this:

http://mjsbigblog.com/wish-list-what-would-like-to-see-added-to-the-site.htm/comment-page-3#comments

Notice that part of the address says “page3″. You can change the page # in the address. Once you’ve changed it, say to “page1#”, it will take you to that page, and you can change it at will to take you to any page within a thread. Changed to “page1″, it would look like this:

http://mjsbigblog.com/wish-list-what-would-like-to-see-added-to-the-site.htm/comment-page-1#comments

Hi MJ,

I like your blog. I wish you would cover my all time favorite Idol Ayla Brown. Can you add her to the list of people that you cover?

Thanks

Have spent more time than I care to admit on this site so thanks for asking (always lurked, never posted till now). Agree with great suggestions others already posted.

1. page numbers displayed on top & bottom of page (big thanks to person who had the workaround)

2. dedicated thread for each contestant when there aren’t any news items to warrant a new thread (great idea)

3. black on white text for sure (the simpler the layout, the better)

4. active threads displayed prominently (maybe an area to save threads you want to follow as well)

5. search archives by date as well as topic

6. like to hear your opinion

7. minimal censorship (within reason)

8. links opening in separate windows

9. video section

10. calendar for upcoming concerts/shows/appearances

11. sorry but even with appropriate software, pop up ads increasingly bothersome & delay pages from loading. I often get bounced out (?maybe try ‘static’  ads on the right side, not sure if as profitable). Possibly state more clearly that using YOUR links to amazon, itunes, etc generates revenue for the site thus keeping costs down. It seems from the number of posts on Adam threads, more folks click there. Lately, just to scroll from the top of the page to the bottom can be a chore due to ads – not to mention the time it takes. This sometimes limits my time on the site due to frustration and/or real life work. I suspect the frustration in sifting through pop-ups may be part of the reason for the big demand in page numbers.

12. otherwise, LOVE the site, keep up the good work – thank you!

Two things:

1. A block that links to each contestants’ posts. For example, a block for “Adam Lambert” that shows all the posts in reverse chronological order.

2. A way to bookmark favorite posts. Maybe a little section for favorites – so you can return easily.

Thanks for all your hard work to make this such a great site! Happy New Year, MJ!

Linda

Thanks CathyMK for the suggestion on how to go to specific pages without having to keep going back page by page. That will save me some time. At one point though the first page of comments came up and it was 50 to a page. Now the last page comes up and it is 25 per page. I liked the old way better for what it’s worth.
But like everyone else, I think you do a great job, mj, and I thoroughly enjoy your blog.

“One thing that I would like to see is the current time somewhere on the site as I am from Australia and have no idea when a post was made.”

Welcome Aus_fan- good to see another Aussie posting!!Your comment alerted me about another idea.
On another site that I frequent- you are able to change the setting to the time in your area – so you can either leave it as is or choose to change!! Don’t know if that is possible here though MJ?

Happy New Year! I’ve missed a lot of posts, so don’t know if this was posted yet.

I’d love to see a section dedicated to sales statistics and song rankings, so we can quickly see how all of our favorite IDOLs are doing and have done historically.

Probably a tall order, but I would like it! Thanks for asking!

I also really miss the old ‘most recent comments’  sidebar, but I know it caused a lot of problems in the past.

Yeah, I have missed this as well. The blog has really exploded over the past few years (go MJ!), and as the posting volume has increased it’s harder for me to follow the action. The recent posts sidebar did help bring attention to threads that might have been pushed off the front page, and also to get a sense of where people are hanging out without having to keep track of post numbers for a bunch of different threads. Along those same lines, I will echo the request for a good search function that would make it easy to find posts by keyword/phrase or by poster. TWoP’s would be a good model. But I do like the idea of being able to easily find all the posts by a certain user – there are a lot of threads that I never venture into, but there are certain posters who I enjoy reading regardless of the topic.

I also agree with Eileen99 that a dedicated area of the blog for the numbery talk might be helpful. Kirsten’s Monday/Wednesday threads are getting a lot more traffic now, but on other days of the weeks the chatter bleeds over into headlines or elsewhere and it’s hard to maintain a sustained discussion. I also think a glossary/FAQ might be really beneficial for the chart watchers. There are so many acronyms and jargon and rules and idiosyncrasies associated with the numbers, and I’ll admit it gets tiring to read and answer the same questions week after week and season after season. There’s a lot of accumulated knowledge in this community, and I firmly believe that an educated and informed fan is a much stronger fan. It would be great to develop some sort of knowledge base that carries over year to year – it could include historical charts, links to stuff like AllAcess and HDD and the iTunes feeds, explanations of the various resources that we use (SoundScan and BDS and Mediabase), etc.

Good luck with the redesign MJ, and thanks for fueling my Idol obsession for the past three or four years. Even when I’m not posting actively, this is always my first and most frequent place for flybys to get a pulse on the Idolsphere. You’re a rockstar.

Oh, can’t edit but forgot to add…a sidebar feed of all Idol tweets (like what Brian Mansfield has at Idol Chatter) might be a nice feature, or perhaps a weekly thread dedicated to Twitter news. Seems like now that more Idols are using Twitter actively, the headline threads are the repository for even the most mundane of tweets. I guess if you go with the suggestion upthread of maintaining running threads for each contestant (even those with no major current news), those could be a good place for Twitter updates to be posted too.

As long as chat works again, I’m good. I’m pretty easy to please as far as blog design and layout goes!

I’ll add my 2 cents in for a stronger search function, numbered posts, and a “return to last post read” function that allows you to start in a thread from where you left off the last time you visited it.

Love the idea of some standard threads (numbers, videos, twitter) to keep the headlines thread from being a catch all.

In regard to PMing, message boards etc, I would be a little cautious of adding features that facilitate this site being used as a de facto fan site. One of the things that makes MJs unique is that MJ works hard at keeping it an open, friendly forum where everyone can feel comfortable visiting and posting. Forums with PM functions seem to tend to devolve into fan based cliques where a lot of the action is going on behind the scenes. IMHO, YMMV etc.