Making The Sift more user friendly
I think the Sift needs to be a lot more user friendly, and have more documentation and help files. It is very difficult to find your way through the Sift - you have to browse the sift for quite a while and try to absorb how things are done - it is very confusing for a new user, and we do want more new users in here.
Here I list several points where I think the Sift could do with a bit of improvement, as well as suggestions as to how that could be done. Please chime in with your own solutions to the various issues, even if you should think my points and suggestions are way off target.
What To Post
The Sift needs a What To Post page - a separate page or a longer intro to the FAQ. A page that states what to post in more detail than the short "Members submit videos from the best video hosts from around the Net to be voted on by other Sifters with only the best being "sifted" up to the front page." in the FAQ.
I'd love to get a better, more inviting explanation, like:
Have you seen a really funny, surprising, scary, interesting, cute or in any other way extra good quality video? Post and share it here - Videosift is the best video aggregator on the Web, where we share, discuss, promote and interact with the best videos out there on the web. Post it here, and share it with the large community of Video-interested users. And - you are guaranteed to find more very good videos here already!
(Mind you - we only share videos others have made - if you "self link", by posting a video you have made, have posted or have interests in, you risk the ban hammer - read the posting guidelines before posting. The sift is NOT for promoting your own videos - it is for sharing videos others have made.)
..Or something. A more inviting, including, text, that entices you to get in here and post. And, of course, that repeats the self-link caveat.
What The Sift Is and How Do I Use It
We then need a follow up where the FAQ (or a separate page) should have a good list of what there to do on the Sift - about the various chat, talk and features of the Sift. Explaining What the Sift is The Sift seems to think that users should just have grok what this is all about - it would be nice to get a better explanation. The Sift Lounge, the Sift Talk forum, the Top Fifteen list, the Beggar's Canyon, etc. Not only what they are, but what they are for.
There should be better explanations as to how you use and browse Videosift - not only that "you can click to sort by hotness or newness, and you can click the channels", but more explanatory, like use cases:
Try clicking on the various channels to see videos posted to that channel - if you're into music you can click the Music channel to get more music sifts - go on and explore! Use the "hotness" when you have opened the channel link to get videos that have gotten a lot of votes, or use "newness" to have a look at the new sifts.
When browsing sifts you like, have a look at the Related Posts list to see other related videos, click the tags under the video title to see more sifts tagged with the same tags or have a look at other sifts from the same user in the More Posts By list. If the sifted video is in a play list, have a look at the play list to see other interesting videos the Sift users have linked together.
Enter the Sift Lounge to chat with online sifters about anything and everything, or read interesting posts in the Sift Talk forum.
The top fifteen list is always full of interesting, current videos (accessible from the front page), while the top fifteen list in each channel shows a top fifteen list interesting videos relevant to that channel. Having a look through the top fifteen list is always recommended, but also have a look at these:
Unsifted upcoming videos - submitted videos that neither yet are sifted to the front page nor moved to the sifter's personal queue.
Beggar's Canyon - videos where the submitter begs for a bit more attention - have a look at them!
..And the other sortings under the "Videos" menu item.
..et cetera. Do add your own tips!
How Do I Post
But - what the Sift needs the most (at least in this humble sifter's opinion) is a How Do I Post page. A simple, user friendly page that tells you how to post from various sites (at least the most important ones), and how to fill out the various fields. This could (and very well should) be the main posting page, but there should be help texts for all the input fields, telling you how to fill them out.
There should also be some hints as to how to search for existing dupes, to enter and validate the embed, to search using the search field, try searching for keywords related to the sift etc.
The main posting page could show help text like:
Video Embed Code: Here you post the embed link to the video you need to sift. For some popular sites, like Vimeo, YouTube (..) just the link to the video is enough, but for the others you need the embed HTML, like (..). Here there should be a bit technical text as to how to format the HTML - either shown in-line or a link to a separate page
Video Title: Use a short, nice title - could be the video title or another snappy, interesting description.
Tags: Enter metatags for the video. This helps other sifters to find other relevant videos with the same tags - for example add the actor names name for a movie clip, add names of persons or companies involved, band names for music or other descriptive text that might help you find similar videos.
Thumbnail: Short description as to how to locate a thumbnail and the size for uploaded files.
Summary: Write a short summary of the video, it could be an enticing text to read before deciding to watch the video, a context of the video or other relevant text. Be sure to mention the source of any quoted text - if you post text you found somewhere - mention where you found the text.
Channels: This is place where there is a big room for improvement in usability. The channels should all have a short description as to what should (and for many channels also what should not) be posted in the channel, and that text should be mouseover on the channels in the list. For example, the "Woohoo" channel should have a text "For The Simpsons, Futurama and similar cartoons - not for videos that make you go 'Woohoo'.", the "Kids" channel should have "This is a channel for videos FOR kids, not necessarily for videos just ABOUT kids.", "Music" should have "Music-related" and similar.
There could also be a link to the channels themselves, opening in a new window, so that you easily can get to the channel in question and read more about it. Or - something to click to show the entire channel description.
Star Powers and Sift Concepts more detailed
The various star powers should have more detailed explanation - more readable and with examples as to how to, when to and when not to use them.
The Star Powers page needs a cleanup - the footnotes are just confusing (and footnote 5 is wrong and should be deleted). Powers costing star points should have the cost written next to them.
There should be a better dictionary/FAQ of Sift Concepts and what they mean - discarded, sifted, killed, dupe, top 15, star point, star rating etc. On various pages there should be many links to the FAQ/Dictionary to explain the terms in more detail. What exactly is the difference between killed and discarded, what happens when you use promote vs quality etc.
There should be an extra list of invocations any members can perform on their own posts:
Invocations any member can perform on their own posts:
- *kill - kill and thus permanently discard your own video (For example, the words "kill" and "discard" in this sentence should link to the definitions of kill and discard in the dictionary/FAQ) - the video can no longer be sifted or brought back to any queue.
- *beg [1 PP] - send one of your own personal queued videos to Beggar's Canyon - use this to get some more attention for your own videos.
- *notdead - reset your own functional video accidentally flagged dead
- *promote [costs 2 PP when used on your own videos] - use *promote (either link to the dictionary or the text like "see Gold-100 below") on a post of your own. You need to earn or buy extra power points to be able to perform this action, unless you are a charter member, as the normal maximum is 1 Power Point per user.
- *discard - discard your own post - use if you do not longer want to sift the post.
- *dupeof=http://... - register your own video as a duplicate of another earlier video - will discard your post and add your post as a backup to the other post.
..And thus we can get rid of the footnotes and get a more explanatory text, like:
** Gold Star Member (100 Stars)
- All abilities of Silver Star
(..)
*promote [1 PP for other sifts] - float a post at the top of the corresponding listing; renew queue time for pqueued/discarded videos (with links to the Dictionary/FAQ for "pqueued" and "discarded", and a short text as to when to use *promote:) - use this to get much more attention for the video for the next hours/day/correct timespan.
And - I think that's enough usability ranting from me today. What do you other sifters think?
Here I list several points where I think the Sift could do with a bit of improvement, as well as suggestions as to how that could be done. Please chime in with your own solutions to the various issues, even if you should think my points and suggestions are way off target.
What To Post
The Sift needs a What To Post page - a separate page or a longer intro to the FAQ. A page that states what to post in more detail than the short "Members submit videos from the best video hosts from around the Net to be voted on by other Sifters with only the best being "sifted" up to the front page." in the FAQ.
I'd love to get a better, more inviting explanation, like:
Have you seen a really funny, surprising, scary, interesting, cute or in any other way extra good quality video? Post and share it here - Videosift is the best video aggregator on the Web, where we share, discuss, promote and interact with the best videos out there on the web. Post it here, and share it with the large community of Video-interested users. And - you are guaranteed to find more very good videos here already!
(Mind you - we only share videos others have made - if you "self link", by posting a video you have made, have posted or have interests in, you risk the ban hammer - read the posting guidelines before posting. The sift is NOT for promoting your own videos - it is for sharing videos others have made.)
..Or something. A more inviting, including, text, that entices you to get in here and post. And, of course, that repeats the self-link caveat.
What The Sift Is and How Do I Use It
We then need a follow up where the FAQ (or a separate page) should have a good list of what there to do on the Sift - about the various chat, talk and features of the Sift. Explaining What the Sift is The Sift seems to think that users should just have grok what this is all about - it would be nice to get a better explanation. The Sift Lounge, the Sift Talk forum, the Top Fifteen list, the Beggar's Canyon, etc. Not only what they are, but what they are for.
There should be better explanations as to how you use and browse Videosift - not only that "you can click to sort by hotness or newness, and you can click the channels", but more explanatory, like use cases:
Try clicking on the various channels to see videos posted to that channel - if you're into music you can click the Music channel to get more music sifts - go on and explore! Use the "hotness" when you have opened the channel link to get videos that have gotten a lot of votes, or use "newness" to have a look at the new sifts.
When browsing sifts you like, have a look at the Related Posts list to see other related videos, click the tags under the video title to see more sifts tagged with the same tags or have a look at other sifts from the same user in the More Posts By list. If the sifted video is in a play list, have a look at the play list to see other interesting videos the Sift users have linked together.
Enter the Sift Lounge to chat with online sifters about anything and everything, or read interesting posts in the Sift Talk forum.
The top fifteen list is always full of interesting, current videos (accessible from the front page), while the top fifteen list in each channel shows a top fifteen list interesting videos relevant to that channel. Having a look through the top fifteen list is always recommended, but also have a look at these:
Unsifted upcoming videos - submitted videos that neither yet are sifted to the front page nor moved to the sifter's personal queue.
Beggar's Canyon - videos where the submitter begs for a bit more attention - have a look at them!
..And the other sortings under the "Videos" menu item.
..et cetera. Do add your own tips!
How Do I Post
But - what the Sift needs the most (at least in this humble sifter's opinion) is a How Do I Post page. A simple, user friendly page that tells you how to post from various sites (at least the most important ones), and how to fill out the various fields. This could (and very well should) be the main posting page, but there should be help texts for all the input fields, telling you how to fill them out.
There should also be some hints as to how to search for existing dupes, to enter and validate the embed, to search using the search field, try searching for keywords related to the sift etc.
The main posting page could show help text like:
Video Embed Code: Here you post the embed link to the video you need to sift. For some popular sites, like Vimeo, YouTube (..) just the link to the video is enough, but for the others you need the embed HTML, like (..). Here there should be a bit technical text as to how to format the HTML - either shown in-line or a link to a separate page
Video Title: Use a short, nice title - could be the video title or another snappy, interesting description.
Tags: Enter metatags for the video. This helps other sifters to find other relevant videos with the same tags - for example add the actor names name for a movie clip, add names of persons or companies involved, band names for music or other descriptive text that might help you find similar videos.
Thumbnail: Short description as to how to locate a thumbnail and the size for uploaded files.
Summary: Write a short summary of the video, it could be an enticing text to read before deciding to watch the video, a context of the video or other relevant text. Be sure to mention the source of any quoted text - if you post text you found somewhere - mention where you found the text.
Channels: This is place where there is a big room for improvement in usability. The channels should all have a short description as to what should (and for many channels also what should not) be posted in the channel, and that text should be mouseover on the channels in the list. For example, the "Woohoo" channel should have a text "For The Simpsons, Futurama and similar cartoons - not for videos that make you go 'Woohoo'.", the "Kids" channel should have "This is a channel for videos FOR kids, not necessarily for videos just ABOUT kids.", "Music" should have "Music-related" and similar.
There could also be a link to the channels themselves, opening in a new window, so that you easily can get to the channel in question and read more about it. Or - something to click to show the entire channel description.
Star Powers and Sift Concepts more detailed
The various star powers should have more detailed explanation - more readable and with examples as to how to, when to and when not to use them.
The Star Powers page needs a cleanup - the footnotes are just confusing (and footnote 5 is wrong and should be deleted). Powers costing star points should have the cost written next to them.
There should be a better dictionary/FAQ of Sift Concepts and what they mean - discarded, sifted, killed, dupe, top 15, star point, star rating etc. On various pages there should be many links to the FAQ/Dictionary to explain the terms in more detail. What exactly is the difference between killed and discarded, what happens when you use promote vs quality etc.
There should be an extra list of invocations any members can perform on their own posts:
Invocations any member can perform on their own posts:
- *kill - kill and thus permanently discard your own video (For example, the words "kill" and "discard" in this sentence should link to the definitions of kill and discard in the dictionary/FAQ) - the video can no longer be sifted or brought back to any queue.
- *beg [1 PP] - send one of your own personal queued videos to Beggar's Canyon - use this to get some more attention for your own videos.
- *notdead - reset your own functional video accidentally flagged dead
- *promote [costs 2 PP when used on your own videos] - use *promote (either link to the dictionary or the text like "see Gold-100 below") on a post of your own. You need to earn or buy extra power points to be able to perform this action, unless you are a charter member, as the normal maximum is 1 Power Point per user.
- *discard - discard your own post - use if you do not longer want to sift the post.
- *dupeof=http://... - register your own video as a duplicate of another earlier video - will discard your post and add your post as a backup to the other post.
..And thus we can get rid of the footnotes and get a more explanatory text, like:
** Gold Star Member (100 Stars)
- All abilities of Silver Star
(..)
*promote [1 PP for other sifts] - float a post at the top of the corresponding listing; renew queue time for pqueued/discarded videos (with links to the Dictionary/FAQ for "pqueued" and "discarded", and a short text as to when to use *promote:) - use this to get much more attention for the video for the next hours/day/correct timespan.
And - I think that's enough usability ranting from me today. What do you other sifters think?
22 Comments
dotdude*quality
siftbotdotdude cannot award a quality point for this post because dotdude does not have enough Power Points - ignoring quality request by dotdude. (You can always purchase more Power Points.)
eric3579*quality
siftbotAwarding Zawash with one star point for this contribution to VideoSift - declared quality by eric3579.
eric3579Couldn't agree more. Sift needs some kind of better how to/faq page. Lots of great ideas here. Maybe @dag and @lucky760 could use this for future redo.
lucky760I also agree. We had a wiki before, but everyone abandoned it, so it went away.
Why don't all you expert sifters get together and compile exactly the information you want to present, and we'll be more than happy to put it out there for everyone to enjoy.
Couldn't agree more. Sift needs some kind of better how to/faq page. Lots of great ideas here. Maybe @dag and @lucky760 could use this for future redo.
ZawashA lot of the stuff I mention above could be placed on the FAQ page - it could be expanded to cover a lot more stuff.
And - I think it would be a very good idea to also have help text on the Submit New Video page - to have good help text regarding posting on the page where you post - right where and when you need it.
I also agree. We had a wiki before, but everyone abandoned it, so it went away.
Why don't all you expert sifters get together and compile exactly the information you want to present, and we'll be more than happy to put it out there for everyone to enjoy.
dotdudeThe main thing is there needs to be easier access to the FAQ and Terms of Service. Perhaps a tab in the upper right corner that is easy to spot would help - Labeled HELP - with different sections in a menu underneath.
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
I agree - good insights here. And also about the visibility. It's been a long time since these things have been looked at and it's time.
antWhen is the next upgrade?
Quote hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
I agree - good insights here. And also about the visibility. It's been a long time since these things have been looked at and it's time.
Eman_LaertonThank you.
eric3579A great idea @Warmth- came up with. A help button at the top of the page.
http://i.imgur.com/JC0tDlR.png
I don't personally notice how difficult it is to figure out the sift, as i know my way around, but its been said MANY times how difficult it is to figure out how things work here on the sift. Would be much better to relocate help/faq so people could easily find it.
@dag @lucky760
Warmth- says...Hi, I'm a long time lurker. I happened to see an interesting 'Videosift lounge' -link in the top of the page yesterday, clicked it, and found out that the site has a chat lounge, which is quite nice!
I wound up chatting with @eric3579, and found out that the chat had been enabled for everyone just a few months ago. We got to talking about how hard it can be for a first time user to find out more information about what VideoSift is, and how it actually works.
I had seen this thread a couple of weeks ago, when I first time tried to find out some extra info on the site. I skimmed @Zawash's great post through for some info (on what power points can be used for etc.) - I didn't find the link to the FAQ then, I found the FAQ-link just today.. as it never occured to me to look for the link at the very bottom of the page, but from the top menu navigation bar instead.
I sketched that above linked image as we chatted, and now I just noticed that @dotdude had suggested just that idea already above. The sketch's question mark and font color is not as cool as the real design is, but in anycase, I too think that something of that sort would be more noticeable/clear place for FAQ/Help for the new people?
Do you guys think that to make this happen, we could perhaps cut the task in to two? One for the mighty Admins, and one for the helpful, interested parties in this talk thread? Admins would create cool graphics and code the link for the help menu, and the layout views for a sectioned help text, and then another task for all the long time pro sifters, in creating all that text for those help sections? A bit like @Zawash has done here?
Could that work be done in anonymous google document (does require Google-account (I think, maybe, note sure if it even requires that), but editing and commenting on the document doesn't reveal identity in any case)?
If there are helpful and knowledgeable people, perhaps this document could be used for the work of creating a good help section and updated FAQ?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hB-bGN9QJ0Wgu7_-jH22eHG3HYJ9_Oj4hG9EWsorNgE/edit?usp=sharing
I'm going to currently just copy all the material from the FAQ in there, and edit it to look nice and clear, and then separate 'Help/instructions' sort of stuff in to another section, and leave only actual basic Questions in the FAQ-section. Anyone's free to help and contribute! And if you come up with a better way of organizing everything, or want to write a completely new section, just use the document and do it!
I'm a total newb when it comes to anything related to actually using this site and its features (only submitted a couple of videos), so I think I'm underqualified for doing this by myself, so I sure hope you guys could help!
Just hop on in to the document and start doing useful stuff when ever!
Don't worry about accidentally doing anything, there's a complete undo feature in Google Docs, and each edit revision is saved as its own version, so if someone decides to vandalize (I heavily doubt anyone would do such a thing!) this, I can get the last good version back, and then put on restrictions on to who can edit etc. But, I'll do those things only if there is a need for that, let's keep the document super easily accessible and commentable for now!
Thanks!
(BTW. I really appreciate all the effort of the Admins and sifters have put in to the site over the years! I believe that there's quite a few other people besides me, who mostly just lurk around, and do not contribute much to the site actively.
That reluctance to participate might of course be due to us lurkers being like we are, but also it could heavily be related to the way in which it's a bit hard to find out about how stuff works currently..)
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
I like it - it's very visible. And nice work on that google doc @Warmth. I think both of those ideas are heading in the right direction.
A great idea @Warmth- came up with. A help button at the top of the page.
http://i.imgur.com/JC0tDlR.png
I don't personally notice how difficult it is to figure out the sift, as i know my way around, but its been said MANY times how difficult it is to figure out how things work here on the sift. Would be much better to relocate help/faq so people could easily find it.
@dag @lucky760
lucky760Great effort going on here and it's really appreciated.
I totally agree with the idea of having a separate help section. One way it could be much better would be to put it into a step-by-step process rather than a single, monolithic wall of text.
We need to get this going asap, and your docs are a great start.
Hi, I'm a long time lurker. I happened to see an interesting 'Videosift lounge' -link in the top of the page yesterday, clicked it, and found out that the site has a chat lounge, which is quite nice!
I wound up chatting with @eric3579, and found out that the chat had been enabled for everyone just a few months ago. We got to talking about how hard it can be for a first time user to find out more information about what VideoSift is, and how it actually works.
I had seen this thread a couple of weeks ago, when I first time tried to find out some extra info on the site. I skimmed @Zawash's great post through for some info (on what power points can be used for etc.) - I didn't find the link to the FAQ then, I found the FAQ-link just today.. as it never occured to me to look for the link at the very bottom of the page, but from the top menu navigation bar instead.
I sketched that above linked image as we chatted, and now I just noticed that @dotdude had suggested just that idea already above. The sketch's question mark and font color is not as cool as the real design is, but in anycase, I too think that something of that sort would be more noticeable/clear place for FAQ/Help for the new people?
Do you guys think that to make this happen, we could perhaps cut the task in to two? One for the mighty Admins, and one for the helpful, interested parties in this talk thread? Admins would create cool graphics and code the link for the help menu, and the layout views for a sectioned help text, and then another task for all the long time pro sifters, in creating all that text for those help sections? A bit like @Zawash has done here?
Could that work be done in anonymous google document (does require Google-account (I think, maybe, note sure if it even requires that), but editing and commenting on the document doesn't reveal identity in any case)?
If there are helpful and knowledgeable people, perhaps this document could be used for the work of creating a good help section and updated FAQ?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hB-bGN9QJ0Wgu7_-jH22eHG3HYJ9_Oj4hG9EWsorNgE/edit?usp=sharing
I'm going to currently just copy all the material from the FAQ in there, and edit it to look nice and clear, and then separate 'Help/instructions' sort of stuff in to another section, and leave only actual basic Questions in the FAQ-section. Anyone's free to help and contribute! And if you come up with a better way of organizing everything, or want to write a completely new section, just use the document and do it!
I'm a total newb when it comes to anything related to actually using this site and its features (only submitted a couple of videos), so I think I'm underqualified for doing this by myself, so I sure hope you guys could help!
Just hop on in to the document and start doing useful stuff when ever!
Don't worry about accidentally doing anything, there's a complete undo feature in Google Docs, and each edit revision is saved as its own version, so if someone decides to vandalize (I heavily doubt anyone would do such a thing!) this, I can get the last good version back, and then put on restrictions on to who can edit etc. But, I'll do those things only if there is a need for that, let's keep the document super easily accessible and commentable for now!
Thanks!
(BTW. I really appreciate all the effort of the Admins and sifters have put in to the site over the years! I believe that there's quite a few other people besides me, who mostly just lurk around, and do not contribute much to the site actively.
That reluctance to participate might of course be due to us lurkers being like we are, but also it could heavily be related to the way in which it's a bit hard to find out about how stuff works currently..)
IcksterHow about putting everything into a TiddlyWiki? It wouldn't be publicly editable and it's a lot less maintenance than installing an actual Wiki, but it's searchable, linkable, and easy to get around in.
I can whip up a short example and find somewhere to post it . . .
eric3579*sticky
see if a sticky gets something happening with this
siftbotStickying this post at the top of Sift Talk - sticky requested by eric3579.
MrFiskExcellent things going on here. I've discussed copy writing the FAQ pro bono as a means to address some of the concerns mentioned above. I'll start revising the doc, but please feel free to comment or message me about anything you think may benefit our content.
chingaleraLooking forward to seeing some enthusiasm behind streamlining the site with a view to making the place appealing to new users.
Many people in the past (not surprisingly, on threads that began and ended with a ban-party followed by a snarky remark by dicks with scripts who can't keep their dysfunctional bullshit in-check such as, "Gawd, can't you read the rules?!") have suggested doing so to curtail spam-
I especially enjoy having the chat-room open to all-comers (good call) and @warmth, You have some great ideas and enthusiasm, Thank You.
chingalera➬ Gee I'm sorry, was I being mean or worse, UNTRUTHFUL?? Oh shit....THOUGHT POLICE!!! FUCK ME!!!
chicchorea➬...THOUGHT FELON!!!...!!!
➬ Gee I'm sorry, was I being mean or worse, UNTRUTHFUL?? Oh shit....THOUGHT POLICE!!! FUCK ME!!!
Discuss...
Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.