When I moved this site over to the Scoop platform in 2003, the software allowed community members to create "diaries". The nomenclature was part of the package. At one point, about a week after launching Scoop (DK2), I mentioned that I might change the name of "diaries", and someone shot back in a comment, "What, does 'diaries' threaten your manhood?" It didn't, so I kept it.
But for years we had a division of nomenclature. What the community did was "diaries", but writers on the front page wrote "stories". With DK4, I erased that distinction, and now everyone writes "diaries".
Since then, we've added several members to our tech team, and they've been doing a comprehensive review of site code as they prepare for some major new development and a gradual transition away from Perl to Rails (if you don't know what that means, don't sweat it. It's behind-the-scenes stuff). As they comb through the code, they're finding multiple references to both diaries and stories and they need to consolidate to one term.
My initial answer was, "just change everything to diaries", but Jason, my new VP of product and technology and a methodical, deliberate person, wanted me to be sure.
"If you started the site fresh today, what would you use?" he asked.
"Stories," I replied.
"So why not use stories?" he asked.
"Because of years of tradition using 'diaries'," I responded.
"What do you think the community thinks?"
"I don't know. I'll ask them."
"Do you think it's clear to new users what this 'diary' stuff is all about?"
"Beats me. Good question."
"Would people prefer being 'authors' to being 'diarists'?"
"Beats me. I'll ask them."
So here I am, asking you. Do we stick with "diaries", or do we transition everyone to "stories"? I'm interested in the long-time power users, of course, but also more recent members of the community. I'm curious if the word "diary" dissuaded (or encouraged) people from participating. So please share your thoughts on the matter.
Additionally, I've got two quick site updates --
1) We're close to launching a design refresh that I think answers critics who think the current look is too cluttered. Essentially, we're stripping the hell out of this place and going for a minimalist look. The new look is scheduled to hit at the end of the month. Note, this is just updating the look, not the functionality of the site. It shouldn't affect your ability to get around the site and find your favorite features.
2) We are in the process of sketching out a new community adjudication process for problem comments. The "hide" rating is not long for this world. It'll be replaced with a process that allows individuals to flag potential problems. The broader community would then adjudicate the comment.
The end result would be real punishment: if the community ruled against the commenter, then that commenter would receive a time out (exponentially increasing in length each time a new comment was hidden). If the community ruled FOR the commenter, the people flagging the comment would suffer their own time outs.
This is still a very early concept. At some point in the next month I'll have wire frames and a more fully developed plan, and I'll bring them to the community so we can all discuss the full concept and have you guys offer your feedback. I just wanted to make sure you all knew that we are working hard to come up with a way to better moderate the community.
