March 2008 Update
Published on March 31, 2008 - 44 Comments
Last month we missed our update due to a few other issues arising, so I figured it was time to do a new one.
First off, all of those who are still waiting for competition prizes - my apologies for the delay! Virgin Money (the company I use for the Listverse Credit card) has been a constant problem since I moved to them. The good news is that the problems are all sorted now so the rest of the prizes should start shipping in the next one or two days (depending on Amazon and other stores).
Those of you who read the site forums will already know this, but in roughly 2 months I will be leaving the United Kingdom to move back to New Zealand. For that reason I have started my big burst of tourism (hence my trip to Rome this past weekend). The site will continue as before and this trip gave me a chance to try out automatic posting (which means the site will automatically post lists I have made in advance without me being here to do it). It worked very well so the trip home should produce no noticeable downtime.
I like to occasionally let you know the latest stats, so here they are:
Comments: 48,000
Posts: 575
Registered Users: 2,030
RSS Members: 4,100
All in eight months! Pretty impressive I think.
It is hard to believe that in four months we will be celebrating our first birthday! I think we should do something special for the occasion so if everyone can have a brainstorm and give me some ideas I would appreciate it. It would be nice if I could get the eBook done for then, but it is a time consuming process so I don’t think that will happen.
You may have noticed that we have had a number of submitted lists from new users lately - since adding the easy submission form, the number of entries has been dramatically increased. I appreciate it and hope it continues. If you want to send in a list - do so - even if you don’t have all the items or even the text - sometimes just a list of ideas is very helpful.
There is no doubting that the user contributions here are what really makes the site what it is. For that reason, I would love it if you can all give me your wishlist on what you would like to see here - either as suggestions for most lists of a particular type, or things you will like to see added, changed, or removed. We have stabilized now for the most part but it is always good to know what people want when we are planning for the future.
We seem to have put an end to the “first post” craze that started growing. It annoyed a lot of people so we put up some basic rules of etiquette for posting. These are not hard and fast rules designed to prevent your freedom of speech - they are a guideline that can, if necessary, be broken. Thanks to all for adhering to them. I will probably move them to their own page on the site eventually and get rid of the text under the comment box for your convenience.
A number of regulars (including myself from time to time) have taken to gathering on an IRC channel for chat. To get to the channel you need to go to EFnet and join #Listverse - there is normally at least one or two people there - and oftentimes more. If none of this makes any sense to you, check out this article on the forums for help.
I would like to also take this opportunity to briefly mention the Listverse online shop! If you love the site and want to wear our logo or buy other cool merchandise, check out the store.
Related ListsTop 15 Clever AdvertsTop 15 Strange Religious Candies Top 10 Amazing Paintings on Feathers Your Questions: Ask JFrater |
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1. cowboy - March 31st, 2008 at 8:51 am
it’s really hard to believe that listverse is barely into its first years. why, it was only a few months ago when I first found this site, and it was just a wee lad…
haha! i love this site jamie, i think i speak for alot of people here when i say i get pay to surf listverse at work.
2. DanOhh - March 31st, 2008 at 8:53 am
Thanks for the update and good luck on your move J.
3. dangorironhide - March 31st, 2008 at 8:56 am
Congrats on all the stats & shiz J, you’re doing a great job!
Cowboy: Here’s another one getting paid to look at LV! haha
4. Anthony - March 31st, 2008 at 9:03 am
Thanks for plugging the guide Jamie.
And let’s all hope that Listverse keeps growing, as I’m sure it will!
5. Cyn - March 31st, 2008 at 10:58 am
so glad things went as smoothly as they did over your weekend away. maybe free you up a little more, eh? and yes, time indeed does fly. kinda odd though. i feel like Listverse has been here longer than it has, it has the ‘feel’ of a much more established site. which i think speaks well of you, the list contributors and commenters. we are a community. in general, a very intelligent and well spoken one. and i agree, LV’s 1st bday oughta be something special! not sure what though. i bet our community will come up w/ something way cool to do.
and just congrats J. thank you for all your hard work. i am so glad you took this on. so glad i found LV.
6. littleboots - March 31st, 2008 at 11:12 am
I can hardly imagine the time and intelligence it takes to make up a list, therefore i can and do appreciate how hard jfrater and the other list submitters must work to keep us informed and amused. I am often saddened by the way some commentors are so narrow minded as to sling insults at people with ideas and views unlike theirs, but unlike them, I appreciate anothers point of view. So although I am mainly a lurker, I have been visiting this site daily for a few months now, and tho few comments are made by me, I wanted to take this moment to say thanks for all the hard work. I think I learn something new everyday, thanks to listverse.
7. stevenh - March 31st, 2008 at 11:28 am
dangorironhide, cowboy:
The only thing better than getting paid to read LV is getting paid to create a new list
I’ve got one up today and one on the way….
whooo hooo!
8. Randall - March 31st, 2008 at 11:37 am
jfrater:
2. AHA! Back to the sheep! To the gritty streets of Christchurch!
Kicked out by the Brits were you? That’s okay. So was I, in a manner of speaking. Ah well. New Zealand is better anyway. (But where is Old Zealand?)
3. 48,000 comments! Of which, 37,362 have involved me insulting someone! Yay me!
4. Mom can bake you a cake. I want the piece with the big “L” in frosting.
5. Six lists are currently in the assembly stage, besides the one I sent you Friday. The oft-mentioned wine list; greatest modernist works of literature; another song list; a list of classic, unsolved UFO cases; Top Sages of the 20th Century; the art list we had talked about a long while back. I find this list-making to be good work-avoidance–keeps me from writing the stuff I *should* be writing.
6. I DO have a minor suggestion, nothing big. How about under the heading for each list, besides the date it was written, you list the date/time of the latest comment? Or would that be difficult?
Thank you again for starting this site. Your thoughtful work has helped me forget… the tragedy….. *sniff*…. bless you, strange man from another continent.
–Randall
9. fulcizombie - March 31st, 2008 at 12:18 pm
i love this site more than life itself.
jfrater, there is a monument to your image in Central California, if you are ever in the neighborhood
10. Prozacsoldier - March 31st, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Kudos to you, jamie!
If in eight months you achieved all of this, imagine what you can do in another eight months.
11. Prozacsoldier - March 31st, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Aaa h and kudos to all the users who post and comment on the site, too! I’Ve Been here since august and this is perhaps one of the sites i visit very often.
12. SlickWilly - March 31st, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Jfrater: I think, as we are approaching the 1 year anniversary, you should award the top commenter (being Randall) with a special version of the “I’m smarter than you because I read Listverse.com” with the words “…And I’m smarter than most of the people there, too” written on the back.
13. sam - March 31st, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I too am a “lurker” but i do throw my 2 cents in every now and then. Great job Jamie! I look forward to getting on to this site every morning at work
Good luck with the move and keep up the good work 
14. Csimmons - March 31st, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I can’t believe the site is just 8 months old! It seems way too popular to just be that old. I am sure that eventually it will become very popular and be one of the most popular sites, congrats jamie for the stats and making my free-time meaningful!
15. Csimmons - March 31st, 2008 at 12:56 pm
slick: I agree with that, of course you shouldn’t do it now, you should do it about a week before the site’s b-day so it get’s there on the anniversary.
16. Catriona - March 31st, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Well done Jamie…maybe we could have a ‘Listverse’ Party at Mamans to celebrate! I’m sure she’d bake you a cake
17. MichyMoonshine - March 31st, 2008 at 1:44 pm
2,031 users now =]
I’ve been stalking this site since….
…
Quite a while, now actually
So I thought I’d finally register and comment =]
18. jfrater - March 31st, 2008 at 2:04 pm
MichyMoonshine: Glad you spoke up! Welcome.
Catriona: Hmm - that sounds like a damned good idea to me! I had better book it in
Thanks all for the supportive comments - they are much appreciated.
19. Lewis - March 31st, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Wow, nearly a year? Pretty damn cool!
20. Catriona - March 31st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
…we could all come as our favourite list ROFLMAO
21. Chica - March 31st, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Oooh I haven’t been here in awhile, the site looks fab, and is actually centered on my screen, so that’s nice. You’ve done great with this site, glad it’s been such a hit for you.
22. Mom424 - March 31st, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Jamie;
Congratulations! I have no idea what I used to do BLv (Before Listverse). I love this site. I second Slick’s suggested gift for Randall :). In lieu of baking you a cake I will try and get my Aunt Norma’s recipe for the moistest, bestest chocolate cake ever. (It has sauerkraut and coffee in it).mmmm
If you make it to Belgium on one of your “jaunts” and are close by the village of St. Mard, I would appreciate some pics. I was born in Marville, France, but we lived in Belgium and my parents took no pictures. I am curious.
I am working on some ideas for new lists and will get them to you when I can.
Thanks to Randall, Bucslim, Dischuker, Slick, Romero, Mystern, Jw, and all the other intelligent, witty and varied folks that frequent this site and keep me coming back.
Keep up the good Work!
23. goof_ball - March 31st, 2008 at 4:41 pm
This is totally random but someone needs to do an “April Fool’s Day Pranks” list.
24. Cyn - March 31st, 2008 at 5:20 pm
21. Chica
and where have you been? *grinz* bit different, eh? glad you like the look. you should come back more often so i can harass..errr…read, yeah…read your comments. *grinz*
25. Bad News - March 31st, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Jamie, A suggestion — could you make each registered user’s post a hyperlink to their profile?
26. Bad News - March 31st, 2008 at 5:46 pm
/\
||
||
make that “…each registered user’s name at the top of their post”
27. cowboy - March 31st, 2008 at 6:10 pm
dangorironhide: i… feel like i almost know you. haha!
stevenh: you’re right, that IS better! We should all contribute at least one list at one point or another, i feel.
28. MethodMan - March 31st, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Hmmm…we could start using our own calendar system based off of Listverse…
For instance, we are in the first year of our lord JFrater, and any year before that is referred to as Before Listverse, so 2001 is like year 7 BLV.
29. Cyn - March 31st, 2008 at 8:43 pm
28. MethodMan
BLV and ALV? i like it!
30. babygirl2882 - March 31st, 2008 at 9:06 pm
I love this site. I wish I had the time to read all the comments but I don’t always so I just read the list
but great job!
31. stormy617 - March 31st, 2008 at 9:19 pm
littleboots For a long time I have been a mostly lurker posting a few comments here and there.
In the last couple of days I have been commenting a little more and as a result the very thing that usually keeps me from posting happened right off the bat.
I am contemplating going back to mostly lurking!!
32. islanderbst - March 31st, 2008 at 10:25 pm
keep on posting!
lurking is for scary monsters and tax deadlines
33. JwJwBean - March 31st, 2008 at 10:54 pm
stormy keep posting. I have always enjoyed your comments.
Babygirl, the comments are so great. They are the real reason I am so addicted.
Randall, you can be a right ass sometimes, but I LOVE reading your comments minus a few novellas you have posted
Mom you are another I love reading the comments of and I would love that cake recipe.
I am thankful to have found listverse and really enjoy the site, the forums, and IRC. I have enjoyed getting to know so many people on IRC. I love my I’m smarter than you… shirt. I love my margarita I just downed. I should stop posting now.
34. jfrater - March 31st, 2008 at 11:20 pm
For those wanting a list of famous April Fools Day Hoaxes
35. Miss Destiny - March 31st, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Well, thanks for the update, and thanks even more for the site! I like waking up in the (late) morning and reading the new list of the day over a bowl of cereal. It’s my newspaper every day! I’m still going through the archives and seeing old lists I’ve missed, eventually I’ll get to them all.
A whole year of LV already? I only started visiting the site a few months ago, but I had no idea how long the site had been up before that, just happened by it on a random Google search. Yay for Google! Double yay for ListVerse!
36. stormy617 - April 1st, 2008 at 12:19 am
stormy keep posting. I have always enjoyed your comments.
Babygirl, the comments are so great. They are the real reason I am so addicted.
Randall, you can be a right ass sometimes, but I LOVE reading your comments minus a few novellas you have posted
Mom you are another I love reading the comments of and I would love that cake recipe.
I am thankful to have found listverse and really enjoy the site, the forums, and IRC. I have enjoyed getting to know so many people on IRC. I love my I’m smarter than you… shirt. I love my margarita I just downed. I should stop posting now.
JwJw: Thanks I always enjoy reading your comments too, anytime I see your name on here I think about our *twin* fathers. LOL
I would also like to say that I totally agree with your assessment of the others mentioned above.
There are a lot of other commenters on here that I really enjoy reading what they have to say but it is 3 am and I am to tired to list them all LOL
I just spent about an hour in the forums trying to play catch up on reading and posting on all the getting to know each other threads.
My next day off I am going to try to tackle getting on IRC, I just hope that I will be able to get the client to install on my computer. it is really old, I have one of the most shitty versions of windows (ME) and some things i can get to install but for others I have some kind of internal error that wont allow the installation.
I am off to bed and I think that you should have another drink and keep posting……….drunk posting is the most fun posting LMAO
OH and cyn I cast my vote for the BLV ALV idea. I think that the first day of the first month of our new calendar should be they day the site was born!!!
So the day before the sites first birthday will be our New Years Eve and we can have our own *Party* on here to celebrate,
JFray!!!maybe that is something that can be used with whatever type of birthday celebration we come up with and we can turn it into a two day party extravaganza!!! One day of celebration is just not enough for this fantastic site!!!
37. stormy617 - April 1st, 2008 at 12:31 am
Hey Jfray that would be something that would be great for the store.
A Listverse’s very own calendar, we can use it to honor our lord Jamie,:wink: and this will be the start of us creating our very own religion 
38. stormy617 - April 1st, 2008 at 1:02 am
edit * we can use it to worship and honor our lord Jamie.
Hey just think you could make up your own *Universial* holidays and everything for your calendar. LMAO
39. Mom424 - April 1st, 2008 at 4:45 am
Xenu eat your heart out! You’ve nothing on our Lord Jfray.
40. MethodMan - April 1st, 2008 at 8:01 am
See post 28
41. stormy617 - April 1st, 2008 at 10:13 am
Yea MethodMan: see what you started LOL!!!
42. Amanda - April 1st, 2008 at 10:48 am
Em. I tried the whole IRC thing. I got stuck. It says I am not authorized to use the server…
43. Csimmons - April 1st, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I truly love this site for three reasons,
1)The lists:I love waking up every morning with blood-shot eyes and reading the new list just before I head off to school.
2)The commentors:I love reading the comments on this site, such as Randall’s and Mom424’s and Mystern’s, and…ahhhh! There are just so many great commentors on here
3)The forums:Since I can’t get on IRC(I will eventually figure out how)I still have the forums which are just so much fun to post on.
I too agree with the listverse calendar thing, all hail Lord Jamie Frater and his wonderful lists.
44. warningdontreadthis - May 17th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Best site EVER!