6/23/05 | 2:42 pm | Roogle Mailing List?
Hi Scavengeroogles, a side note for your perusal: As I mentioned in an earlier solution, I’ve been considering starting up an informal email list for Scavengeroogle clues. I’d like to find out your opinion on whether this might work.
I have been having a hard time keeping to the regular schedule of 3 clues a week. It’s not so much the overall workload, but the set times that are difficult for me. It would be good if instead of releasing a clue at a certain time, I could just release it at any time.
The problem with this is that many of you visit the site on a regular basis - Pacific Time Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, because you know that’s when a clue drop will occur. If I changed to a non-regular clue release, you’d have to visit the site more regularly (hehe, how’s that for getting more traffic, huh? No, I digress…) because you wouldn’t know when the next clue would appear.
So in order to counter that problem, I was thinking of doing two things: start up an optional mailing list and increase the “open solve time” from just a few hours to 1 day.
Now, I don’t particularly like mailing lists myself, even the non-spammy useful ones. But this mailing list would be used only for notifying you if a clue was launched, for those that WANTED to be notified. You could still just come check the site periodically instead, or just subscribe to the RSS feed through Bloglines or MyYahoo. Getting it by email would just be an option.
And because people wouldn’t necessarily get the notification email about a clue launch right away and in fact might get it HOURS afterwards, I would increase the time until a solution is posted to be a day long so more people would have an opportunity to play.
These two things actually have some beneficial side effects: With a longer solve time, more east coasters and people at work would get to “play” (you can of course “play” even if a solution has already been posted). The second side effect is mostly for me… I wouldn’t have to sit and “moderate” a session and write up a solution in such a short amount of time. I would of course check in periodically but would not have to be around the whole time. Though, it would mean that the “solutions pending” would not increase in near-real time as it does now (I do that by hand).
So the changes in the game would be non-regularly released clues and a change to a day long open clue instead of 3 hours.
Let me know what you think because I know some people really like the “timed” aspect. But I think I would still list names in the order that solutions came in… so maybe that’d be enough of incentive? =)
June 24th, 2005 at 9:20 am
I’m up for any way that keeps scavenge alive! Thanks.
June 24th, 2005 at 9:23 am
I’m all in favor of a mailing list. I tried running the RSS feed with my Mozilla Thunderbird at home, but it never updated like it was supposed to. Also, since I’m working all summer, I’ll be able to receive the e-mails while I’m at work. I say go for the mailing list. Also, I do like the extended time for solving. I know that Wednesday I had to miss the clue because we were just too busy at work, so having a whole day will allow everybody to ‘Roogle within their individual schedules.
June 24th, 2005 at 9:29 am
Shawn - Cool … thanks for the support!
Moose - I’m not sure why the RSS feed would bork, I will take a look at that. (A side note: how is Thunderbird? I’ve been meaning to switch to it for awhile) Yeah, I think the extended game-time may give more people incentive to play. I’m weighing it against people who like the short time “clue race”. So far, there’s just more in favor of a longer clue time plus an email list…
June 24th, 2005 at 9:35 am
Yeah i’m up for what ever, you can put me on the mail list.
June 24th, 2005 at 9:42 am
Steve - Cool… If we do a list I’m trying to think whether it will be a manual list that i just keep by hand or an automated one. Automated lists are not my favorite thing… plus I think my server’s is the kind that you cannot automatically sign emails up (for spamming reasons of course). But it does automate unsubscribing and things so perhaps it’s worth it…
June 24th, 2005 at 12:09 pm
Thunderbird works really well, especially if you’ve ever used Outlook. I’m just a fan of Mozilla, so I prefer T’bird over Microsoft’s crap. I have to use Outlook at work, so I love when I can go home to my Thunderbird.
About the feed, it may have just been something with my computers, but I think I would prefer the e-mails either way.
One idea with the e-mails is that that you could give the solvers some kind of confirmation (at your leisure, of course) letting us know when we’ve gotten the clue. I like the short race, but on days like this past Wednesday, it knocked me out of contention. I’m in favor of posting the solvers in the order they submit, that way it’s still kind of a race. Maybe part of the submission process for people should be the time when they opened the e-mail and the time when they solved it, that way you do get some idea of how long people are taking to do it. Plus that gives people an excuse if they come in late for a ‘roogle.
June 24th, 2005 at 12:23 pm
Moose - I am definitely a fan of Mozilla, in fact I strictly use Firefox unless there is some reason I absolutely have to use IEeek. I will have to check out Tbird…
I have thought about notifying solvers with a confirmation… however, that would have to be manual because of course there is no way to directly validate a googlemap URL. (Like saying: this location = this location. Hm.. I think this could be done, but not familiar with the XML stuff) But even if there was, if the googlemap is slightly shifted or at a different magnification, the numbers wouldn’t match.
So confirmation is sorta out, since I’d have to sit there and respond to each one. I guess I COULD just give people the benefit of the doubt and not check each one. Therefore, could have it spitback an autoresponse to every solution sent in … will have to think about that one.
I’ve also thought about the “time to solve” problem. It is another thing where I have to take people’s word at it. The people playing right now are superhonest though. I don’t think anyone would abuse it, unless we got a ton more people playing. Still, this is the reason I originally listed people in the order that solutions were submitted, instead of the “time to solve” that they had.
Thanks for the ideas!
June 24th, 2005 at 12:41 pm
I realize that the confirmation e-mails would mean you having to do them manually, but like I mentioned, you could just do that at your leisure. I know I tend to check my e-mail compusively, and so doing manual confirmations wouldn’t be a problem for me. All it would really entail would be to just send out a batch of confirmation e-mails if you happen to run by your computer and notice some solutions waiting. I realize that the idea of the e-mail clues is so you won’t have to be bound to your computer during the ‘roogling time, and my idea kinda does that to you as well, but you wouldn’t have to apply any kind of consistency to this. You could just do it whenever you felt like.
June 24th, 2005 at 12:56 pm
Hm.. that is true. Right now I am already doing something similar, I basically run by the computer and I check if there’s solutions. Then I note the solvers, update Pending Solutions, and I copy and paste the ones that have interestings comments about the clue solving process for use in the “Solution” page that gets posted at end of clue duration. This actually takes a long time, but I feel it’s more fun for ppl to read. More interesting than just saying “And the solution is…”
I’ll have to think about it… maybe I will try it if we get the mailing list up, and see how much it cuts up the day. Cause, like you said this whole idea is supposed to REDUCE the amount of time i’m at the computer. =)
June 24th, 2005 at 2:49 pm
Here are two cents worth of thoughts:
I have an idea for how to check submissions automatically. I will need to think about a couple of details, but if it works as it should, I’ll pass it on. Hopefully, it will save you a lot of time of checking submissions. Is it possible for you to run your own server-side code or JavaScript or are you limited to the blog features only?
A mailing list is fine, but I prefer the RSS feed myself. I actually haven’t used the feed yet because of the regularity of the clues so I don’t know if I’ll be afflicted by the same problems others have mentioned (not updating).
June 24th, 2005 at 4:54 pm
Mikezilla - heyyy I’d be interested in hearing your idea for an autochecker. Server-side, I got control of php here… I still don’t know how you could check the clue, because the numbers will be different if someone sends in a slightly shifted picture, not to mention zoom?
Yes, I was thinking that the ppl who already get the feed wouldn’t need the mailing list. It will be just an option to those who don’t use feeds. I think I have checked my feed in Bloglines and it updates, so should be ok.
So, then i guess the question is if everyones coolio with the day long clue. Unless I hear REALLY strong dissent, i’m just going to with that plan since it seems to help a lot of people. including me! =)