Windosill by Patrick Smith

1. Frau
   April 27th, 2009 at 5:44 pm

   "Like Patrick’s pervious game,"

   Pervious = permeable, approachable ??

   I know it should be previous.

2. DaveL
   April 27th, 2009 at 6:11 pm

   Good find. I love this guy's work.

   As for site recommendations? I think you need to freshen up the layout and move to three columns. Navigation and important permalinks on the left (the nav tabs are easily overlooked in the current position), content in the middle and ad's on the top and right. The logo could also be more prominent. Finally, I think you need to start (tastefully) injecting ads (including pimping your own store) every 6th post or so. You gotta pay the bills right?.

   The only other nitpicks I have are being able to log in from a comment box without being redirected away from the post/site and to allow the UQ to go three pages deep. That's free content for users to browse, click and hang around so why let posts disappear after they drop off page one? Another reason is that some popular posts have been bumped off the Que by unpopular/spam submissions and they need another page or two to stay in the game.

3. su.wei
   April 27th, 2009 at 6:16 pm

   the ability to log in without leaving neatorama would be nice.

   also being able to leave comments from the home page.

   and maybe let users edit/add tags to stories posted.

4. Pezz
   April 27th, 2009 at 6:17 pm

   Crowdsource designs for the apparel part of the online shop.
   The blog is already fantastic.

5. su.wei
   April 27th, 2009 at 6:22 pm

   oh yeah! and instead of having several different things on the front page of the store for different types of shirts, why not clean it up a bit and have just a link for shirts that then gives you the ability to select more specific types. i think it would make the store a bit cleaner cut

6. Sean D. Freuduh
   April 27th, 2009 at 6:29 pm

   This is a simple suggestion, but I think that it would make viewing Neat-o-rama far more enjoyable: Make it so that there is an option to make all links open in new tabs. I hate following a link (forgetting to hold "Ctrl" down), accidently closing it intead of hitting "Back" and then having to track down where I was on your site...

7. Alex
   April 27th, 2009 at 6:34 pm

   *previous - fixed now, thanks Frau!

8. chrismandogwood
   April 27th, 2009 at 7:25 pm

   You might consider getting a graphic designer to re do your homepage. While simple is good, neatorama does need an update.

   Also, maybe consider getting a tumblr or twitter to expand your online presence.

9. Edward
   April 27th, 2009 at 7:27 pm

   As much I would love a smoother login system, my suggestion is that you need to put more of the store items in line with the posts. I understand that it might make you feel a bit whorish, but I actually like seeing your picks.

10. poofytoo
    April 27th, 2009 at 8:40 pm

    I love this game - played the first few levels and I'm addicted already.

    The front page can be cleaned up a little. If possible, it would be nice if the front page displayed the thumbnails of some feature posts/items from the store (moving the posts and the navbar on the right down a bit).

    And perhaps you should add some more color to your layout - I think the ads would definitely blend in better that way.. The ads just.. don't seem friendly at all right now.

    Also.. have you thought about getting twitter to get more followers..?

11. DrewT
    April 27th, 2009 at 8:48 pm

    I LOVE Neat-o-rama in small doses. Unfortunately, I can't read my RSS aggregator all day, so there are occasions where I scroll through the first six or seven posts at the top, and then "mark all read" something on the order of 60+ posts. Could you consider offering some options to the RSS subscription settings? Maybe a way to subscribe to favorite categories, or just offer a "lite" version of the RSS that isn't so post-heavy?

    Also, I would love a code -- fun game! Glad I had a chance to read it rather than skip past.

12. Mike Skalnik
    April 27th, 2009 at 8:49 pm

    I think it's a great store, so the only recommendations I have is, how about some more awesome products?

13. Johnny Cat
    April 27th, 2009 at 8:51 pm

    What's so hard about holding down Ctrl?

    I think Neatorama is, at the moment, perfect. The Queuebot is finely tuned, following his recent acid bath (Thank the Maker!), and there are lots of cool posts by the authors. Keep rockin, don't change.

14. Sphax
    April 27th, 2009 at 9:24 pm

    I understand that having some comerciales on the side bares contribute to fund the well-being of the site, but it can be rather annoying. The best improvement I could proposed would be to reduce the size of the ads-banners or put them at the end of the page in order for people not to see them too much.
    Also, some section of the site could have some multi-langual translation ?

15. keegan
    April 27th, 2009 at 9:45 pm

    I'd look into developing an iphone/smartphone friendly option; i don't have the technical knowledge to speak on it fully, but i mean in the way that myspace and facebook have mobile browser "versions"

16. aza
    April 27th, 2009 at 9:55 pm

    windowsill - beautiful game!

17. Chunkie
    April 27th, 2009 at 10:28 pm

    I think the blog is excellent, but i think you should have some sort of a contest in order to redesign the background (don't chnage the posts, though!) I also think that as far as the shop goes, you should 1.)have more diversity of products and 2.) have a place where people could post links to their etsy shops.

18. Johnny Cat
    April 27th, 2009 at 10:32 pm

    Whatever you do, don't follow mental_floss's decision to tax comments with those annoying flyby ads that you have to scrutinize in order to close.

19. Jo Jo Damia
    April 28th, 2009 at 12:05 am

    Patrick Smith's stuff is awesome, thanks for the update

    As for the site I'm a fan, but you could do more with the retro style found elsewhere in the blog (Like the nifty watermark in this text box). Also the text on the bottom and sides turns into an absolute jumble on smaller screens, If you guys re-worked it a little, maybe dividing up the text a bit...

    Finally, ask for user input like this more often, you never know when a web author might stumble upon the post and give some helpful hints.

20. Travis Sellers
    April 28th, 2009 at 1:37 am

    1. Use advertising space on the right to present items in the store... scrolling images of the newest and best selling products.

    2. Ability to view upcoming Que links based on current link that is used... I know, I'm confused too... each blog post is listed in a category, so a post for Arts and Crafts would have a link to view Arts and Crafts in the upcoming Que.

    3. New merch

21. CianCon
    April 28th, 2009 at 8:10 am

    Does Neatorama really need a change?

    Well ok...but if you do change anything then make sure that people can give feedback on it. And if the changes are mostly unwelcome then make sure you can change things back!

    One idea i have is to allow people to subscribe to certain posters and receive an email anytime that that person posts an article.

    Another idea is to pretty please give me an activation code because WINDOSiLL is amazing!

22. IJustSmileandNod
    April 28th, 2009 at 10:13 am

    I'd like to see neatorama offer, date browsing, so incase if you miss one days posts, you don't have to go through each page looking for them, you could select from a calendar the date of the posts you wish to see. This type of indexing is a little different that what everyone else offers, and in the case of neatorama that has a plethora of posts daily allows you to keep up with the content easily.

    Also, consider setting up a page number selection format rather than having to scroll through each page to get to older content. similar to what is available at the bottom of a google search or other sites.

    I also like the idea of setting links to open in a new window, every so often if I forget to hold CTRL I hate that it takes me away from neatorama.

    I'd love a code and thanks for all the great work and content keep it up

23. xadrian
    April 28th, 2009 at 10:39 am

    I don't think it needs much of a change to how it looks. I agree with the login bit. I read most of the site from Google Reader and only go to the site if I want to comment.

    I also would encourage a user submitted product gallery.

24. Martin
    April 28th, 2009 at 2:40 pm

    I like how the site looks, but I think you might consider the idea of placing the ads of the right banner lower, I think "categories", "last posts" and "collaborations" should be placed above the ads

    I believe that you should try to put more ads in the right banner and not in the upper banner, because now I can see an ad that is totally green and it doesn't look good over the grey.

    I wish that helps and that I get rewarded as well

25. CLynch
    April 28th, 2009 at 2:54 pm

    Change nothing. Why fix it if it isn't broke? (can I have the access codes cause you guys are so awesome)

26. ted
    April 28th, 2009 at 6:22 pm

    Not enough political posts.

27. Allimar
    April 28th, 2009 at 6:48 pm

    I'd also like to see the store become more "Neatorama" and less just random stuff.

28. bud
    April 29th, 2009 at 2:50 am

    I doubt there are any more activation codes left, but what I would like to know is, how do you know you can go no further in the demo version, as the key blocks are not so obvious to find.

    By the way, I was extremely pleased to find windosill to be the open ended exploration game that it is, I thought it might merely be something more conventional with neat graphics.

29. unbelievable
    April 29th, 2009 at 5:29 pm

    Not to be a suck up but I think the best thing you could do to Neatorama is advertise it more: it rocks. Oh and maybe a slight refresh of the logo (I don't mind the rest of the design).

30. tmayton
    April 30th, 2009 at 2:47 am

    As you know, blogs have begun to adopt some aspects of conventional pre-IT revoution business models. One of the most obvious and general of these is loosely phrased "createing stakeholder ownership." While that seems like trite business jargon, it simply refers to the act or series of acts in which an organization allows personal investment of some kind from all of the people who have at least some interest in the organization. The methods are various and many. Companies ofering profit-sharing exhibit this phenomenon. Wal-Mart is famous for its success in creating local ownership via sponsoring community activites and carrying local college mechandise. Neatorama (and other blogs) ususually implement the function by facilitating a blog-exclusive social community via subscriber posting, profiles, chat options (of course comments), giveaways etc. This has been one of the leading factors in the expanse of blogging as a viable business. While not practical in traditional organizational structures, blogs further support decentralizing command and control (not complete dectralization). This stands to reason as a blog's value derives from its popularity. One option is to increase the association between posts and people who post. This could include adding his/her profile image (or another image of choice) next to his/her name as the post author. Increasing incentives to post would be another good option. This could include randomly draw giveaway or better yet, competitions based on some formula derived from the authors number of posts, average number of views per post, average user rating of posts. Additionally, neatorama could sponsor something like a recruiting program by providing incentives for neatorama users to refer other users to the site. An example of this would involve various strata of giveaway items. When a new user registers, offer a field for a referal user name worth some some value to the new user if they provide a valid user name for the person who recruted him/her. The value for this field could include some point system related to the aformentioned formula for calculating the value neatorama associates with a blogger. For this system to work effectively, neatorama must implement it as a comparative system rather than an absolute point value per reward system, the latter of which would actually motivate fraud. I don't want to take the time to go into further detail as this comment is already too long, and neatorama may have already adopted similar systems. However, should this suggestion be of value to neatorama, simply email me and I'll gather and organize the information into a detailed plan based on precedent systems and relevant business models based on scholarly journals, textbooks etc. I'm a project manager by education, but I like to do this kind of stuff for fun too.

31. Lnothing7
    May 1st, 2009 at 2:10 am

    stickers! i'll design them for free

    now gimme that code please

32. Lnothing7
    May 1st, 2009 at 2:12 am

    for FREE

33. Harsh Khetawat
    May 1st, 2009 at 3:38 pm

    Hi..I loved the windosill free stages too..They reflect style and hardwork..really looking forward to playing the full version..problem is I cant buy it where I live(India)!!
    SUGGESTION FOR NEATORAMA!!
    you know neatorama is pretty good but you could improve the site layout and other teeny-meeny things!! Small contests and other indirect forms of advertisements wouldnt hurt either!! Just stick to the basics and do what you know you are suppposed to, to promote the site and I am sure you will get several others who love it as much as do!!

34. Jeshi
    May 2nd, 2009 at 9:55 pm

    Gray is sort of a bad color for a site like this, maybe adding more color to the layout would help make everything look less bland and empty.

35. nick
    June 15th, 2009 at 2:44 pm

    adding cool pictures and color might attract more people.because (this is just me) i like sites that are fun and colorful

36. Wafercrisp
    June 24th, 2009 at 1:22 pm

    To make the blog a little better, I would suggest adding a feature that would allow fans of it to submit content to already-made entries (extra stuff that you missed and/or didn't get to).

37. konan
    June 24th, 2009 at 4:21 pm

    pimp it out with cool graphic and stuff

38. hope
    July 16th, 2009 at 12:12 am

    if anyone has a unused or reusable activation code please send it to hiphophopey@yahoo.com PPPLLLEEEAAASSSEEE??????!!!!!!

39. Kreete
    July 22nd, 2009 at 2:30 pm

    It would be nice if there was a clock here according to other countries. Also different themes would make the page more "attractive"

40. joshisamazing
    July 23rd, 2009 at 6:09 pm

    best game ever!

41. joshisamazing
    July 23rd, 2009 at 6:11 pm

    best game ever!!!

42. joshisamazing
    July 23rd, 2009 at 6:11 pm

    anyone have the code?

43. kablaouye
    July 23rd, 2009 at 6:58 pm

    A re-mixable screen so you could make it a little more like....home, and maybe some sort of list of categories of all of the reviews so it is easier to find stuff here. And a update on the site's logo would be nice....

44. kablaouye
    July 23rd, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    a game that is ''reflecting'' this site so that more people would join, perhaps pun it on other game sites.

45. Kwin van der Veen
    August 11th, 2009 at 8:49 am

    I really liked the first half of the game. What would maybe make it more interesting, is by putting more things that you can click in one room and do not let them all be a part in getting the box. So you will need to think harder to find out witch object you will need to succeed. You could even make it possible that you could succeed in multiple ways, so it would still be fun when you play it another time.

46. Jorge
    August 20th, 2009 at 10:42 pm

    Make it free! please *happy face*

47. Martik
    October 31st, 2009 at 12:05 pm

    How can we improve Neatorama (blog and/or online shop?
    ------------------------------------------------------
    ahhh.... lets see, ahhh..

    YOU CAN NOT!

    ( Is that right answer ?! )

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