Site Update: An Appeal, An Apology, And More

It seems like things are in a constant state of flux these days! People are going back to work, business are re-opening (if they aren’t going under!) and here on Listverse we have a pile of changes happening quietly behind the scenes. This update is my way of letting you in on the latest website news. Read on!

8 The Apology

It is appropriate that I start this off with the apology portion as it clears the air before proceeding. As you will know if you have been a regular reader, over the last five years I have suffered a great deal of loss within my family: both my parents, a brother, two cousins, two aunts, and two uncles have all died. During that time I found it difficult at times to dedicate the time I should have to Listverse. With grief comes anger and I allowed that to overshadow some of my interactions with the writers, the administrators, and most ashamedly, with you the readers. A few commenters have even mentioned here that they feel singled out by me for attack. It is unacceptable regardless of my personal circumstances. I am profoundly sorry.

7 Politics . .  Bleurgh

As we move on toward the election cycles I’d like to ask for a touch of extra care in self-moderation. I won’t be banning politics as a topic but I would like it if we can all (and that definitely includes me!) either leave politics out of the comments unless pertinent to the list, or we really need to mention politics, do so with the spirit of kindness for the person to whom you are speaking. We have let the mainstream media and politicians themselves goad us into division: let’s show them we’re not gullible and be extra nice to those who oppose our views. It may not make a difference beyond this site, but it will at least give us all an oasis in these troubled times.

6 Change To Payments

Starting in May, we stopped offering payments to new writers. Previously published writers who were being paid continue to be paid for future submissions, and all submissions sent in prior to the new policy will also be paid for if they are published. This removal of payments only applies to new contributions from new writers. After three submissions are accepted and published, we will promote new writers to paid staff. The reasoning for this change is two-fold:

A. We have over 5,000 submissions to process due to a massive influx of lists from people hoping to make writing their new career. Almost all of these submissions are from people who have never read the site and found us through YouTube videos or websites suggesting us as a “quick” way to make money online.

B. We want to revert to the sort of writing standards we had when we launched Listverse in 2007. Back then we didn’t pay for contributions. I did most of the writing and occasionally our readers would send in their lists for us to publish. This really helped grow our amazing community of people. You may have noticed that I am writing more again, and I am hoping to get more contributions from you guys . . . the actual readers of the site. That leads us to:

5 Priority For Regulars

This only applies to our regular readers and commenters: if you have submitted a list in the past and it has not been responded to, please send me an email and tell me the email address you used to submit. If you are a commenter, please also tell me your username. You will be given immediate priority in processing of submissions. My goal is that by the end of May we will be publishing almost exclusively content from regulars like you and our own columnists we have come to love over the years. Please note: as I said above, all submissions prior to May are still going to be covered by the old payment system. Click this link to send me an email to bring my attention to your submissions.

4 The Appeal

I want to appeal to all of our writers from the early years of the site. If you are here and reading (and I know some of you are, right Maggot?) please consider writing for us again. I have spent the last week processing some site code changes that apply to old lists and it brought back such a lot of memories. I would like to bring some wonderful moments like those we shared back then, to the here and now for all of the new readers who have since joined us. No one writes better for Listverse than someone who loves Listverse. Also, we are happy to publish your lists under your nicknames on the site. You do not need to use your real name if you do not wish to do so.

3 The Virus

From next week my home nation of New Zealand will be moving to a lower level of lockdown which will mean restaurants and shops will return to normal opening. I am going to take that as the queue for the site to move on also. I want to now put a lid on our lists relating to Coronavirus; I think we’ve had our fill. If something really novel or outstanding does emerge, I’ll still consider publishing it, but for now I would like to focus on getting the site back to basics: fun and fascinating top 10 lists.

2 The News

Having just made that announcement about virus reporting, I’d like to ask for some brainstorming from you guys around how we approach our weekly news article. Morris M. kept us entertained for many years and Jonathan H. Kantor took over, but with all the news being about or relating to the disease, news is hard to keep interesting. I’d also like to keep political news to a minimum for the reasons mentioned earlier on this list. So here’s your chance: tell us what you think we should do (if anything) for our weekly news summary. Do you have a brilliant idea for how we can mix it up and make it more broadly appealing? If so, hit the comments and tell us!

1 My Personal Social Media

Partly due to the deaths mentioned in my apology above, I deleted my social media accounts (I kept the Listverse accounts active of course). I have now re-opened both Facebook and Instagram accounts. I would be more than happy for anyone here to add me as a friend on Facebook. My personal life is not the most thrilling but I’d love to share it with you all as much as I share my lists and thoughts and feelings here on the site. So, if you want to see my cooking, renovations, likes and interests, and probably a few drunken moments from the past that I am somewhat ashamed of, add me on Facebook (my main social media) and add me on Instagram (I’ll follow back). The accounts are also found in my author blurb on the lists I have written here.