What can we do to make Cool Tools better?

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Posted by Oliver Hulland (Questions: 39, Answers: 59)
Asked on January 5, 2012 11:22 am
259710 Views

Cool Tools is a reflection of its readership, and we remain blown away at the amazing depth of knowledge that is showcased on a daily basis here at Cool Tools. But that doesn't mean we should settle.

What can we do to improve the site?

Are there specific kinds of reviews you want to see more of?

How do you think we can encourage submissions?

Do the contests work? What would make them more attractive?

We are always thrilled to get feedback from our readership, and we value your honesty. If you'd rather email us than post publicly send us an email to editor@cool-tools.org. I try to respond to every email, but given the amount we get it can be a challenge. If you don't hear back feel free to send me a reminder!

Best,

Oliver Hulland

Editor, Cool Tools
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Posted by christopher (Questions: 0, Answers: 65)
Answered On January 10, 2012 4:39 pm

I'd like to know why people don't cast votes for answers.

-C

  • I, too, would like to know, Christopher. It's a mystery. Maybe there is something funny about the way voting works, or the confusion between the thumbs up and thumbs down.

    (Oliver Hulland at January 11, 2012 10:52 am)

  • Yeah I think the way the voting is presented is a little weird, and likely the reason for the scant use. The word 'votes' is used around the site to describe this behavior, but the buttons themselves are more associative with personally liking and disliking, as on social networks. So the use case is a little different. Perhaps if they were simple up/down arrows, oriented vertically, and placed on the left-hand side (a convention employed by StackOverflow, Reddit, Quora to name a few.)

    (diurnalist at January 16, 2012 11:39 am)

  • I like that idea to. Another big issue we're trying to fix is that the votes aren't tallying on the front page (if you notice in the "votes" column, it's 0s all the way down, but if you click into the individual questions there will be several votes.)

    (Oliver Hulland at January 17, 2012 9:23 am)

  • How about a bit of boilerplate urging lurkers to express their appreciation for any of the helpful items they've read, as doing so will encourage contributors to keep being helpful.

    (roger knights at April 11, 2014 9:41 pm)
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Posted by roger knights (Questions: 0, Answers: 52)
Answered On April 11, 2014 11:57 pm

Another suggestion: Make commenters "subscribe" by default--don't make them opt in. This would lead to deeper discussions--and I don't think anyone would really object.
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Posted by roger knights (Questions: 0, Answers: 52)
Answered On April 12, 2014 6:44 am

A third suggestion--stop abbreviating the years. Every time I see something like Jan 05 '12 I have to stop and translate that into 2012. Don't make me think! (Ask a bunch of other people about this if what I say sounds idiosyncratic.)
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Posted by roger knights (Questions: 0, Answers: 52)
Answered On April 13, 2014 1:12 am

4: Fix the Ask FAQ so it doesn't stretch beyond the right margin (when viewed on my Mac), which makes it hard to read. Printing it out doesn't help either, because the material beyond the right margin gets chopped off.
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Posted by roger knights (Questions: 0, Answers: 52)
Answered On April 14, 2014 11:00 pm

After I submitted a tool, I got an e-mail containing this sentence:

"If you used the "Submit a Tool" form to contact us for another reason, please send an email to editor@cool-tools.org instead, so that we can get back to you sooner."

Why not put that info at the head of the Submission form?
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Posted by roger knights (Questions: 0, Answers: 52)
Answered On April 15, 2014 8:41 pm

In the left sidebar under the heading CATEGORIES, there are two classes of items. I think they should be grouped together by class and separated by a blank line. Categories in the smaller class are "para"-tool related, and include: Related Stuff, Announcements, Dead Tools (maybe), Readers' Gifts, Tips, Source Wanted, and Uncategorized.

PS--My second suggestion above--"Make commenters "subscribe" by default" is moot, I now realize. I'm new on this site.
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Posted by roger knights (Questions: 0, Answers: 52)
Answered On April 16, 2014 2:03 am

Add a button to the Suggest a Tool form: "Is This a Tip?" If clicked, turn off the inquiry boxes about Model Number and URL. And, to encourage Tips, include the word Tip in the title.

Alternatively, provide a separate tip submission form.
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Posted by roger knights (Questions: 0, Answers: 52)
Answered On April 16, 2014 3:12 am

Use slashes instead of hyphens as date-format separator characters. E.g., use 04/15/14, not 04-15-14. According to an official international standard (which I read about 20-some years ago), hyphens are reserved for use with the yr-mo-da format. The idea is that this will disambiguate dates in that format from others.
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