We have some very important stuff coming up soon – so it seemed appropriate to write an update to let you all know what is going on in the life of listverse and JFrater. This update includes a poll – we would really appreciate it if you would take the time to answer it for us.
To help me get a better idea of what you all like on the site, I would really appreciate it if you would answer the following poll. It will help me to hone the future lists to the tastes of our readers. You simply select the three topics (you can choose fewer than three if you prefer) you love the most and click “Vote”. You won’t be taken away from the page – the poll will update in front of you and show you what other people have selected. There will be some more polls to come in a while – to help me get some demographic information from you all (this will be optional of course). In one week this poll will close, and we will randomly pick one registered user who answered the poll to win any DVD featured on this site (on any of the movie lists). If you don’t want to register, you can still vote in the poll, but you won’t be entered in the competition.
[poll=2]
We have a title for the book! As you may know, a couple of months ago we were approached by an American publisher in California who want to work with us to produce a book based on the site. The contracts are now all signed, the book title has been agreed upon, the first chapter and table of contents have been submitted and we should have a book on the shelves within 12 months. It is taking a lot of energy and effort to get the chapters together for the book, so if it seems that I have been a little absent lately, that is the reason. I intend to work on reversing that trend.
On July 1, 2007, the List Universe was launched. In that time we have had a complete redesign (which will be unfamiliar to most of you no doubt) and it has served us well so far. But as the site is still growing and our needs expanding, we need to look seriously at getting a professional evaluation and even visual update done. I have been in contact with a company here that has designed some fantastic sites (such as kiwibank.co.nz) and will be meeting with them this month to begin the review process. If all goes well, I may engage them to give us a completely new look – one you will all love. If there is anything that you find difficult or annoying about the site (such as wondering where the contact information is), do let me know in the comments – it will help as we come to the design changes.
I am quite keen to introduce new competitions in April – if you have any ideas on what might make a good competition, please let me know. It would be great for people to discuss it here in the comments so we can gauge popularity. We will continue to have competitions on the lists as usual – but it would be nice to do something a bit different for a change.
I posted in December that I was moving into my new house in January. The move went extremely well and I am now settled in. There is lots of decorating to do but I am ploughing ahead and getting quite a lot done. I have a bunch of veges growing in my garden and have bottled my first lot of gherkins. Once I have the place looking the way I want it, I will upload some photos for you to all see.
Unfortunately we lost one of our main advertisers this month because someone complained about one of our lists (the suicide list). Not content to end our relationship with one of our advertisers, the person also complained to a second one. The second advertiser had the decency to write to me to tell me about the complaint and ask me to remove the list. I have (with regret) removed the list and our second advertiser is still on board. Needless to say, the loss of income is going to hit us hard – especially as our hosting fees are increasing every month due to bandwidth usage. You can rest assured, however, that the site will continue and we are trying very hard to find a replacement advertiser.
This month we have a submit a list competition. If you submit a great list, it has a chance of winning you $150.00 US. There are more details on the list submissions page which should be familiar to you all (I hope!) Maybe the poll above will help to make the choice of topic easier for you too.
It seems appropriate again for me to thank everyone involved with the site – particularly our admins Cyn, Dangorironhide, and Mom424. We appreciate the comments, emails, and help we get constantly from you all. It is you who make the site and without your support over the last year and a half we wouldn’t be here.
Thanks for letting us do the poll. I love the bizarre lists! btw congrats on the move!
Thanks. I would have more polls in the future. That makes it nice. Is that a real picture of your home? If so…looks nice! (love the picture of the sumo’s!)
The only annoying thing for me is I can’t get into the forums. I can log in just fine here but can’t there. Your site has to hate me or something.
#2. oouchan
The forums act independently of the main site. So you have to sign up separately for the forms.
Grats on the move J. The loss of the ad sucks hard. It should be easy enough to find a replacement though, who would refuse such a kick ass site??
Why would a advertiser leave over a couple of complaints. We always hear of people complaining about these sort of things, but to let these people force their views onto the rest of us is, well, BULL*****. If you don’t like a list, nobody here is making you read it. If you don’t like it, that’s your problem, not Jamies.
Keep up the good work, we will keep on reading.
How does advertising revenue work? There are three google ads at the top of this page. Do you receive money if I simply click on the link and go to that page, even if I don’t do anything else once I’m there? I am prepared to click on any reasonble looking link, go to a page and immediately come back here if that helps.
Every category has its good lists and bad lists. I can’t choose any category.
Don’t bend to consumer majority.
Boo! I’m the only person so far who voted for travel. The only ones I don’t really care for in general are movies and sports.
Hopefully you find a new, BETTER advertiser.
stevek (4): that is exactly what I thought. I am disgusted that a company I have had a good 1.5 year relationship with would just dump me. They haven’t returned a single email either.
astraya: We make money when people click the google ones – the rest make money just by people loading the page (and the ads) – there are basically two types of ad – CPC (pay per click) and CPM (pay per 1,000 page loads of the same ad). A mix of both seems to be the best for revenue. I am pretty pleased that we have managed to run the site all this time with 5 figure expenses (which includes my salary of $0.00) just on the ads – without requiring subscriptions or other money-grubbing schemes
downhighway61: that is funny actually – I thought it would score higher and it is a topic I quite enjoy writing for. Maybe after a while of voting it will rank higher
thanks for the daily list!
nuriko: you are welcome – thanks for acknowledging it
thanks!!!
I enjoy the lists and look forward to new ones whenever I surf through my Netvibe feeds.
In fact, I remember one list mentioning Hitler wasn’t really a vegetarian. It was funny because a few days later, there was mention of Hitler being a vegetarian in the Watchmen movie and I later told the hubby about Listverse and reading that it wasn’t true.
See? Learn something new everyday through these lists!
Melody: that is our aim
There should be another Hitler related list coming soon to.
That was hard picking my top 3 list categories. And to the person who complained because of the suicide list – i could put something nast here but i won’t. Just know i’m saddened at some people’s ignorance.
Love the site, Frater. One of the few that i check every day.
Good luck with the ads, I’m sure you will find a new one soon.
Anyway, keep on with your list, it makes me less ignorant everyday!
Jfrater – in the wide, WIDE world of the Interwebs, the List Universe is one of maybe a half-dozen sites that I am compelled to check EVERY day. It’s always good for a laugh and, even though I pride myself on my vast knowledge of weird and random information, I always learn something new.
Sorry to hear about you losing a major advertiser thanks to some interfering busybody. For some reason, people like that find themselves unable to just peruse another site when they get offended and instead decide to ruin things for everybody. Hope you find another advertiser soon. Keep up the great work on an awesome site!
Hey jfrater! How about alphabetizing the lists besides subject categorizing? You know, for indexing? I love this site so much! It’s crazy that some people take some things either personal or too serious that it screws it up for others. If I don’t like something, I don’t look at it. Leaving is just a mouse click away. I bet that there are other lists somewhere else similar to and even far worse offensive than the ones that are protested here. Anyway, keep up the good work.
Thanks for keeping us updated! It sucks that you lost one of your main advertisers due to one of your hundreds of lists.
Someone else posted it, and I just wanted to second it…Listverse is one of the two non-work sites I check every single day. The other is my gmail account. I am always excited to see what the new list is. I am so glad of your success in this site, and I hope that more opportunities come your way!
One suggestion…It would be great to have some alternative search options on the All Lists page. It can be rather difficult to find a particular list with the sections how they currently are.
Well, sorry to hear about the advertisers, but I wish it were other advertisers that dropped you. Every time I go to the site, some ridiculous pop ups occur. I get a DIET.COM one every time, and a random pop up with it. I also sometimes am reading a list, and some big loud noise comes up which I cannot find on the page. The banner ads don’t move, and the source is never found. As soon as I close the tab for the list however, it dissipates. The worst part is, the sounds are like 5 loud trailers playing at once.
My pop up blocker can’t even get the pop ups, and the noises get me so frustrated with the site I just leave for the day instead of reading all the lists I want. Please fix this crap. It aggravates me. Thank you.
If this is a double post, sorry something happened.
JFrater:
1) I honestly think that you and your site are the best thing that has happened to the Internet in a long time. Thank you for all your efforts.
2) Hmmm… off the top of my head, I would suggest having a caption contest of some sort. They’re pretty much my favorite kind of contest. Maybe there are better-suited ideas for contests for Listverse, but I can’t come up with any right now…
3) Since you ask, I do have an itsy bitsy complaint about the site, but I don’t think it has too much to do with design.
I find that most of the lists, old and new, have items numbered as a countdown (in other words, as through and through top 10 lists), even though many of these are supposed to be “in no particular order”. I think much confusion would be avoided if new “top 10/15/etc.” lists were indeed numbered as countdowns, BUT the lists which are in no particular order were simply numbered 1, 2, 3, and so on, in order to avoid complaints about “X not being #1″ in lists that aren’t even supposed to be “top 1X” lists. Just sayin’… 
3) I’m looking forward to the book! But please take all the time you need; you shouldn’t rush genius, right?
Thanks for the suggestions so far everyone – I will definitely look at the archive page to see how it can be improved.
Just wanted to let you all know that the latest list (bizarre people) has been removed – it was not original.
You should host your own videos on Fliggo. There are so many lists with video clips that don’t work because whoever was hosting them at YouTube took them down. With Fliggo, you can create your own site for all of them.
I’m torn between Bizarre, crime, history and people as very favourite.
I can’t remember how I initially got tuned into this site, but I can say that this is the only site that I check daily. I try to refer anyone with any intelligence at all to the site also!
The thought of an advertiser dropping you over some douchebag complaint sucks, but as stated before, something better will come along!
I have to say that what i enjoy most is the intelligent comments/arguements/debates. There are almost too many intellects here like, but we can cope. My personal faves are the philosophy/theology, and music debates.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks Jamie for creating such a wonderfully addictive site, and thanks to Cyn, Dangor and Mom for ensuring we all play nice!
Can’t wait for the book. I hope it’s going to have a sample of the comments from the lists – they’re a big part of what makes this site so entertaining.
Lizzie: I have mentioned that to the publishers and they are okay with the idea – so fingers crossed.
The book wont have to have lists excluded like the suicide one right? Cause everyone likes a real intense list
I remember the old site… Yes, I remember it very well… Also, who is the douchebag who complained to the advertisers?
yup this is one of only about three sites that i check daily and i love it. i seem to learn some usful facts but also something completly random which is 9 times out of 10 funny
will this book be out in the UK? cos i want to buy it! i cant beilive that your advertiser just dumped you because someone made a complaint! if they dont like the list then they shouldnt read it!!
Sorry to hear about your advertiser, but good luck.
This site is the among my top ten favorites.
I’ll hurry to check out the list submission page for the first time.
Such a bummer that some douchenozzle lost you an advertiser!
I totally love this site, and like others have said it’s one that I check every single day!
The ONLY thing I can possibly complain about, is that when you click on a link it takes you offsite, (both on mainsite & forums), and it would be super awesome if it could open the link in a new tab or new window. The old version of the forums did this, but from what I remember the mainsite has always navigated you away. It’s not a huge deal, since it’s easy enough to right click & select “Open in new tab,” I just forget most of the time
Great update
… I’ve been familiar with the site for a long time (almost since the beginning I think), and I think it’s come along greatly! I’m really excited for the book! Plus I’m glad I had a chance to see the suicide list before it was taken down. Keep up the great work!
Bizzare??? NOOOO probably the category i skip the most…
I must say about the suicide list. I personally thought it was a serious list, however do understand the ever growing dangers of depressed people going online and looking up ways to end their life. I think it might be prudent, as a disclaimer to have an “adult” section for certain lists, I dunno just a thought.
I too was really concerned when I first saw that list, I thought it was close to crossing the line but I wouldnt complain.
Wow. I can’t believe someone would drop such a popular site over someones stupid complaint. All my comments are really awkward…but your site really rocks.
With the suicide list though its not like it said “Yo your life is worse than Amy Whimehouse’s, so kill yourself!” You can’t hold a little list on the web responsible for some little emo kid taking like 5 bottles of tylenol.
Pity we dont know who complained about the ad.cause a bit of tar and feathering would be the order of the day.
Thanks for the update, as for comment 37 I mentioned in a past list that mayby have a password for registered users, to open up LV or something like that
Ya man we need to find the snitch
The bizzare lists are always my favorite, they are so… well, bizzare! lol
I think it’s stupid that someone would complain about one controversial list when, lets face it, you have many lists on here that could be complained about. What happened to free speech and such? I do understand the need to placate advertisers, though, it’s just a shame that someone would complain in the first place.
Just want to say how awesome this site is, I originally found it through a friend posting a link on a forum I frequent, and only came here to read the list in question… Now this is one of my most frequented sites!
Cool, the 3 I voted for ended up being the most popular with everyone else. Good idea to do a poll.
I am finding it incredibly interesting to see how you are all voting – I think I generally agree too. Tomorrow’s list should satisfy the majority based on the results
Dear jfrater, I absolutely adore your site and lately have been checking for new lists every week. My favorite list is history lists by the way, the more pictures the better. Anyone who says otherwise smells funny and their mothers dress them silly. Anyway I saw that you mentioned you were using a company to redesign or makeover the website. I recently became friends with some people who run a web design company and they may be able to help you if you are not 100% on the company you already have lined up. Email me if you are interested! These people are great by the way, they do things with websites that are amazing!
I wish I could have chosen more categories,- I would have liked to include History and Travel.
congratulations!!!
not only to the administrators but also to the readers!!!
we will soon have a book??
yeah!!!
yeah!!!
it’s been,,uhhh,,5 months since i discovered this site….because of “The Book of Lists 2″….
certified “Listomaniac”…
hwahahahah…
im very excited…can we shorten the waiting period for the book??like 12 days??
hehehe…
I LOVE BIZARRE lists…
thank you…
salamat..
only three choices, that’s even tougher than cutting a list down to ten
. So voted strategically to get a better score for choices 2,3 and 4.
Thanks to Jamie, Mom, Dangor and especially Cyn, who toils tirelessly to raise the standard in the comments, for all your efforts bringing the site to us.
Two items that would really help here, would be some way to add an edit feature to the comments. I know it has been stated that this is a failing of being basically a blog format, but can something be looked at in the redesign process?
Second item, some way to prevent identity theft. I know we are not going to beat all the trolls all the time, but stopping them from being able to steal the ID of registered users would a. save the mods quite some time and b. stop people from assuming I am more of an opinionated clown than I really am.
Cheers
Lee
k1w1taxi: both of your issues are close to my heart but so far from being possible. I will investigate the editing of comments – now that we have more highly toned code, it may be possible. We had the feature once.
Huh. The advertiser dropped the site after only ONE complaint? It wasn’t a lot? Could you let us know which advertiser that was so we can launch a counter-complaint campaign? Seriously, it’s not just the site that would drive me to that, but the fact that it’s restriction of your right to free speech. An advertiser that removes their revenue from your site after one complaint is not worthy of my business. I would greatly appreciate it if you would let us know who it is.
I was wondering about the other list yesterday. I couldn’t load it anyway. Thanks as always for a great site.
50. Cedestra : It’s not the fact that one advertiser dropped the site, it’s the fact that others could have. And for LV, no advertisers = no site, one list is a small price to pay IMO
k1w1taxi -
Question: What two lists did you remove and are they going to be included in the book when it comes out?
I’ve been reading this site since it first came out and i think its a shame that an advertiser get upset over educational lists (for the most part). How ridiculous.
jFrater – Listverse has become my first stop practically every day. There’s always something new and interesting to read, regardless of subject. Very well done, and kudos!
Is there a way that authors of submitted lists could be given limited access to make corrections and updates to their own lists?
Another suggestion: Perhaps on the home page put an archive navigation link section in place of the “Latest Lists” on the righthand side. It would link to a specific category on the “All Lists” page:
ARCHIVES
Most Recent
Administration
Art
Bizzare
Competitions
Crime
…
It seems like the “Latest Lists” section on the home page is redundant, considering you have “Most Recent Lists” as the primary feature.
Another suggestion: comments preview and editing
(Er, whoops, looks like someone already suggested comment editing)
53. STL MO – YES, I also load LV as good as FF kicks in. Also an authors access to their lists would be great! I was just thinking about a list yesterday, which I wrote ages ago – funny how extra little points of explanation would be so helpful – but besides that – I’d love to go back and update all my annoying grammer and spelling…. (please, for the sake of the book, and my sanity/perfectionism).
As for ideas; I have lots, but No.1 would be to ask the public just as you are doing, as a thousand brains are better than one. I also used to love all the level-headed JFrater comments; the personal touch helped the site feel like extention of your world, which was welcoming. I know its hard to please/appease everybody.
As for affording to run the list, let me throw this out. If you currenty spend $xx,xxx.xx keeping the site online, surely you could just use this money to buy your own server. They are only a few thousand. I have no idea if you would lose the gimmick of not have a ‘www’ in front of the address, but as most people just bookmark the site anyway, it instantly loses any gimmick value. I currently run several web sites for just £10 a year – simply to register my .com domain names.
I could go on, but that’s not my place. What will the future hold? Well, one thing I can see clearly is a keyword search engine. If a user wants to know about ‘star wars’, or ‘money’, or ‘peanut butter’ or even ‘tips’… er well there you go.
oh, did I say ‘as good as’, oh.. if only I could edit
lifeschool: the majority of the ongoing cost of the site is bandwidth – the servers are not the majority of the cost. We get a HUGE amount of traffic every day and we have to pay for it. I will definitely try to replace the other advertiser in the meantime.
As for grammar and spelling in the book – every list I put in the book is being edited (and in most cases re-written) by me as I go
jfrater, i can’t really say i dislike any topics here -different ones appeal on different days (i did pick 3 faves for your poll though).
comment preview & pre-post corrections would be great! but letting people go back and edit old comments -erasing “mistakes” in the debates instead of acknowledging them, etc. would be bad.
after reading this i did find the “search” feature on “all lists” that had previously escaped me. that said, a more clear way to search for a keyword would be lovely -there are a few older lists i’m following the comment evolution on and i’ve had to bookmark them in my browser (safari) as finding them on the archive page is a bit of a chore.
your mods do an amazing job, walking the line between letting people express whatever opinion they have and taking pointless spam/trolls out to the curb (on that note you really should recycle jamie!)
if you do shell out for a total site redesign, please try to keep some familiar visual elements/spacial placements, another site i visit just “upgraded” the layout and seeing everything in a new visual area of the screen is a big readjustment (and thus creating a “lost” feeling i dislike).
just my thoughts