--Banish "..and all is quiet" in the chatterbox. A static timeout (what is it, 5 minutes?) is bad for the site now that we have low chat volume. Most of the time you're talking into the ether. I suggest a static timestamped backlog instead, of maybe 5-10 messages (possibly expanding to 20 when chat volume is high).
--a proper issue tracker! A prominently linked one where we can vote on each other's suggestions. This thread is an awful interface. It's impossible to see what's already been implemented and what hasn't. It's organised by user instead of by suggestion. There's no way to second a suggestion, beyond reposting it in your own writeup, so there's no way to see how popular an idea is. We need a master list of suggestions and a discussion thread for each suggestion. The current system of "pile on in here and if your idea is small and uncontroversial enough someone might get around to it" just isn't enough. There are tons of great ideas in here, but nobody is going to take the time to work on anything non-trivial if there isn't even a clear consensus that it should be done.
--FOR THE LOVE OF GOD: fix the front page blurb. Currently it gives a boring, sensible description for logged-in users, and wacky, in-jokey stuff for Guest User. This is BACKWARDS. On the other hand, wacky, in-jokey stuff is fun. Maybe we can figure out a way to have both? (like show the in-jokey stuff always, but show the "boring" blurb to Guest User as well)
--for that matter, Guest User's front page is far too different. You're presented with an interesting set of nodes, which then get taken away as soon as you log in!
--for that matter, there are FAR, FAR too many different kinds of confusingly named "cool": I count at least five:
- Guest user sees "The Best of The Week" which when clicked links "Cool Archive", which shows different writeups and is described as "the entire
library of especially worthwhile content in the mess of Everything history"
- "Cream of the Cool" also links to "Cool Archive" and also shows different writeups than either of the above.
- "Cool User Picks!" ALSO links to "Cool Archive". But it actually matches it. Huzzah!
- "Staff Picks" shows yet another set of writeup, but links to "Page of Cool" which shows ANOTHER set.
This is ridiculous.
--Support Markdown for nodes! I think it's a great fit.
--make the permanent link to today's daylog appear on every page somewhere. Possibly indicate somehow if there's any logs in it yet.
--speculatively: provide an incentive to update old nodes by having a "recently updated" list. A writeup would only be added if it there were a "significant" update, as determined by diff size.