Privacy & Discovery
We know that Voxers value their privacy, but that you're looking for ways to discover new neighbors and interesting content that are publicly-accessible on the site, too. As we add new features and keep making changes to the site, we’re trying to balance those needs along the way. It’s kinda tricky! Here are some examples.
Private messages in Vox are just that, private. So we’ve been thinking that the right way to keep them private is to keep them inside Vox. Today we're making a change to the email notifications you receive when someone sends you a private message on Vox, which means we're going to ask you to log in to read your private messages. It’s a simple change, but it seems to make more sense and has the added side-benefit of letting you compose replies right from where you read the message.
On the flip side,
we’re making some slight changes to your comment emails, too. We're adding in a
link to the commenter's latest entry, as well as a link to answer the Question
of the Day. This is where that public discovery thing comes in -- those links
are meant to give you more opportunities and inspiration to go read and
post.
There are more discovery and exploration features being launched all over Vox. In our last release, we added in links to previous and next posts when you're viewing individual posts. So if you're enjoying the post you just read, those links will let you scan and see what other posts you might like to read from that Voxer.
One of the most
consistent bits of feedback we get is that Voxers want
more and better ways to click around and explore the site, and that’s exactly
what these changes are meant to provide. Let us know what you think! We want to
get all of your feedback on the new features, as well as your suggestions for
how to keep improving in the future.
- Krissy
Comments
I would hope that people have a good enough grasp on the concepts surrounding email security to be able to protect their own email inbox from prying eyes. This new feature makes one more place to have to check for messages... Boo!
Suggestion: It would be nice if this was a setting that could be toggled on/off under the Privacy & Notifications section of our Account Page.
I also agree that i'd rather get my private message in my email. michael has a good suggestion above me. I would like a better way to navigate the site...though the explore page works well.
I do think that there are tons of opportunities to answer the question of the day...but you know sometimes, frankly, the questions are often uninteresting to me.
I'll also agree with Katiebell on the QotD. I needs some serious help.
that way people could still find it when searching vox outside of my neighborhood but would keep it off google or not visible to non-voxers.
it's like a "xanga lock" for specific posts. i don't know if that would be useful to others or not... but i would love it.
Along with michael™'s suggestion about the abitlity to toggle whether we get notifications in email or by logging onto the site, I wouldn't mind if the ads associated with the post were included at the bottom of the email. I would like the convenience of choosing and appreciate you have to pay the bills.
I like the way you all are making stuff happen, let us try it out, and figure out ways to act on our feedback. That's a good cycle.
Or indeed to use Open-ID, like on Livejournal?
Forcing people to join Vox in order to comment severely reduces Voxers ability to meet and have open dialogue with non-Vox Bloggers on their blog. There must be another way to provide complete privacy for those who want it, along with access to other Bloggers for those who dont want to be limited.
I would also like a sitemeter feature, so I can see if anyone is actually reading my blog (since most people cant comment).
I like reading both my comments and my private messages in my email inbox. Many people cannot open blogs at work, but they can read their email. Also, I find it a little strange that I can read a comment in my Yahoo Inbox, but I have to log in to Vox to read a private message ??!?!?
Other than that, I'm fine with the new changes. I really don't mind. ^^
As mentioned above, I would also really love some sort of counter/site meter option so I can tell how many people have visited. This would be a really great feature.
And about the QotD -- one thing that bothers me is that they are sometimes centred around a very specific community and that excludes everyone else from answering them. For instance, I appreciate that the highest percentage of Voxers might be American, but featuring a question on the "Final Four" (I had to look that up to find out what it was) is rather odd since it very clearly shuts the door on anyone who doesn't follow American basketball! I understand that not every QotD can be applicable to everyone, but it would be nice if such explicit exclusivity could be avoided. Otherwise I agree that the simplest way to deal with QotDs that seem silly is to send in ones that you think should make the cut.
Thanks for always being so alert to ways of improving the Vox experience. I absolutely love this site and the team that's working on it.
Comments are not getting sent to my e-mail account! Why?
Also I'm against anonymous posting. You want to see the show? You got to be the show.
I think OpenID would be a good start, as I was saying in that post, I have to point out that some friends and family are not involved in the blogging culture and are not interested in becoming a part of it. It has been noted in the news that there is a generational gap in use of the Internet: Generation Y (a.k.a. The Millennials, or Boomer Echoes in some cases, referring to the Baby Boom echo) tends to use MySpace and IM heavily, while Boomers and Depression Era (Greatest Generation) folks generally prefer e-mail (I cannot count the number of chain e-mails my grandparents are wont to pass around).
I do not expect my parents or grandparents to show much of any interest in VOX, much less even at all. It would be a boon to have a one-time pass to posts that VOXers are comfortable sending to such family, without compromising other post security. I am fairly confident it can be done, as Oleg pointed out this is a feature already on Flickr, which has been much compared to VOX; and it seems to me that VOX was set up to be more friendly to posters with families.