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.

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.

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!

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?

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

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!

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

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

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).