100
2 votes
Apr 23, 2015

The "You don't have to respect other people's opinions" might be controversial (aka good) for philosophy purposes but dunno, i guess it's there in all the other websites for a reason.

For a first day impression, i feel like this webpage will end up unused and forgotten unless some things change. For starters, the whole "comment on anything, and we mean ANYTHING" can only go two ways. One, this place becomes the new reddit/wikipedia, with tons of "good" info and remains "the next big thing" for a while. Two, most if not all but a few pages end up empty or vandalized, with harmful opinions, wrong facts or simply trolling rampages.

Then there's also the fact that the interface might feel interactive, but it really, really is not. The "category" tool feels too much like Wikipedia's, and the Front Page feels too much like Reddit's. Wikipedia has needed to take several actions to make sure their categories don't fall into stagnation, like WikiProjects, integration with several communities (art, science and philosophy-wise) and the whole "featured article" schema. Reddit is famous enough to make such a front page sustainable, but other, less famous reddit-like websites haven't had much success.

Also, following the previous point, most options and uses of the page are hidden in plain view, so to speak. The default font usage and color combination feel dull and old, the editing is confusing (though understandable, and let me be clear on something here, i'm speaking for others, not for myself, because i can see where you guys in charge are coming from. If the moderators or admins feel like i'm criticizing too much and not doing enough, well, feel free to give me some power) and the ranking's not really optimized. Most if not all pages feel crowded with words and not enough "shiny things" to attract people's attention, though i expect that to change in the future.

Ultimately, keep in mind that this is only a first day impression. I literally stumbled upon this website hours ago, and have been this comment since. Sorry if i'm too harsh, it's just that i know that you guys can just ignore my words if you want, so i'm trying to give some actual feedback, which is more than most people do.

Anyways, it's a great concept! The execution might be lackluster, but it's only one month old!* Best of lucks with this new endeavor.

*or so you say

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100
linked reply
1 vote,
Apr 24, 2015

Thanks for the feedback.

There are not many users yet, but this is due to a simple fact: even a penny hasn't been spent on the promotion yet. The site is currently in its early beta phase and some issues need to be addressed or tested before I decide we're ready for many users. Don't worry, I devoted 3 years of my life to make OW not to give up on it eventually. It will be big one day. Just give us some time.

Among many small improvements, there are currently two big things I'm working on – a "forum system" for items and precisely categories. The forum system should be ready in the next 3 days. A significant improvement regarding categories and categories interface should be ready next week.

Now layout/fonts – here I think the exact opposite. Considering the character of the site, the layout is near perfect; elegant, clean, unique, "encyclopedic" - but not dull, and combines what's good about old school and modern. I don't think a brilliant font shouldn't be used anymore because it's old. Furthermore, in the world of "modern" Internet, where every website uses same modern fonts, looks the same, and the only thing that varies is a logo, using old good fonts may seem like something new. That's of course a matter of taste and I uderstand you would prefer something else, but certainly there won't be any major changes of the layout/graphics (not to be confused with the interface improvements) soon, as I consider it one of the biggest OW's advantages, and the feedback has been very positive so far.

OpiWiki is not about flashy things – it's about substantive content and about bringing something new to the Internet. Of course there must be a balance and I try to keep the site beautiful and substantive at the same time. The start is the key – if we start wrong, it may be hard to bring great people to the site. As you expect, OW will be evolving and there will be many adjustments regarding the way the topics are displayed, the categories, categories interface, etc.

I noted your impressions and don't worry – I appreciate such feedback.

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