WSO Updates and Suggestion Time
Fellow Primates,
As you know or have likely seen, we've made some big changes recently and we're really excited about the growth of the community and where we're headed. I'd like you all to use this thread to share three things to help us keep improving and pushing forward:
- What annoys you the most about WSO?
- What do you like the best about WSO?
- What improvements / suggestions would you make to help us get better? Improve content, expand reach, land more sponsorships, improve layout, features/function? etc.
Here are the latest changes/updates in case you missed them.
New WSO Header
As you can see, we have finally removed the 728x90 big banner header across the top of the site. While we will lose significant ad revenue from this move, we think in the long term it is better for the business (and looks much cleaner) to promote the WSO products and services (and our affiliates). We hope you like it and you'll support WSO by helping us spread the word about our services.
We are extremely excited about our Company Database. Not only have we passed over 2,100+ companies added, but we have also already collected over 1,000+ reviews and compensation data points. This is incredible growth for only a few months so I'd like to thank you all that have contributed and continue to spread the word. I'm very confident that in a few years this will be an incredibly robust research tool. We need to improve the user interface (and will do that soon), but we're off and running thanks to a tremendous response from all of you.
WSO Conference
We are almost out of earlybird tickets which is a GREAT sign still 4 months away from the conference date. Venue announcement should be coming hopefully this upcoming week...we're trying to find the best space possible that can scale if we get hoards of monkeys buying tickets last minute.
Save $ and buy your tix here before earlybirds sell out: http://wsoconference.eventbrite.com/
Comments
I know some of you were annoyed when we took away the comment titles in the forums bc it removed the "new" for comments you hadn't read. On monday we will be pushing thru a new system so that the comments you haven't read will appear slightly lighter grey (the ones you have read will be slightly darker grey). I also realize the the links to jump to the "new" comments is not working properly - we are working to fix that by end of day Monday as well.
Those are the main updates for now. I hope that none of you hold back and help us improve.
Thanks for all your suggestions so far....you all are the reason we've been able to improve over the years.
Stay Strong,
Patrick
Mobile version of the site!
The most annoying part about WSO is the trolls. Please hire some moderators. Posters who do nothing but give snide answers should not be allowed to post. A lot of times there are threads posing legitimate question, yet the only people answering are trolls.
I like the certified user. It allows you to see whose advice you should listen to and whose is best ignored.
You need either mobile website or an app.
We have mods but you can't ban people because you don't find them funny/helpful/whatever
What good does a person serve if 90% of their posts are snarky comments? If you let those people hang around, you are just damaging the image of WSO.
KKS, agree that out of hand trolling could damage WSO long-term, but sarcastic comments and humorous responses are very much in-line with the goals of the site. Recall that Patrick's goal is to create " the largest and most entertaining finance community online" - so to have a dry, serious forum is not what he's looking for.
As you're still fairly new I'll give you the benefit of probably not having experienced the full turnover yet, but once you've been here for a while, you'll realize that a lot of the advice sought on the site is really just the same 20 or so questions asked over-and-over again, so the humor and inter-user conversation becomes vital to retain the existing members.
If we juxtapose M&I as a comp here, where the content and interaction is much more purely informative, you'll realize that M&I builds its own irrelevance for each individual reader, as there's no need to really come back once you've read-up on the career you're pursuing. It's better that WSO is a mix of both because there's the incentive not only to attract the initial user, but also retain them with the opportunity for entertainment and relevant discussion.
Side note, the idea that CaliforniaAnalyst is "one of WSO's biggest trolls" suggests that you don't follow the site to the extent that the implied magnitude of your opinion would demand.
I couldn't agree more. Maybe not a ban, but bigger rewards for those with helpful, constructive comments. Too many people say some douchey remark just to get points...
Mobile version and preview function for comments.
^ As one of WSO's biggest trolls, I do not find it surprising that you would say that.
The list of users under top monkeys and top silver bananas are no longer clickable to access their profile.
You need an app. Seriously, stop beating around the bush with this and get an app. Raise the money for the programmer, put out an internship notice for a programmer to program an app for Android/iOS, whatever you need to get it done. Don't waste time on a mobile site, just commit to an app.
I said it before and I will say it again. A CorpFin/CorpStrat/CorpDev (all in one) forum would be beneficial and most likely see more traffic than something like Asset Management and Venture Capital. There are more users interested in those career paths than the majority of other career paths discussed on this site.
Nefarious, thanks for the comments:
List of users is no longer clickable because having 700 links on each page was really hurting our SEO. You can still easily jump to tohose user profile pages by clicking any user in the forums or see the full list of top users in any category by clicking "more". I did see that the tab links arent working though so we'll get that fixed asap.
Why are you so insistent on an app if a mobile version of the site does everything that an app would? We are already in the process of developing a mobile site and we're confident it will completely change the user experience across all platforms. We hope to launch this within the next month. No beating around the bush, just was trying to find a way to get it done well across ALL platforms (not just android) without bankrupting WSO. I think we're very close, so thanks for your patience on this....
Ok, let's give it a shot. I will try to get this added asap and give it 3-4 months to see if it gets any meaningful traffic.
Thanks, Patrick
If the mobile version of a site is done correctly then it can most likely take the place of an app. Sometimes sites will launch a mobile version and it is absolute shit. There is typically less room for error with an app. Glad to hear you are working on this to give users the ability to use this site on the go.
Happy to see you have come around on the CF forum. If you need help with it in any way let me know.
Thanks for the reply. I think I speak for everyone when I say this a great community for driven individuals and we appreciate your hard work and "open door policy."
STOCK PITCH FORUM, INVESTMENT DISCUSSIONS.
I think the FAQ section, more specifically, the Intro to WSO/WSO101/Acronym section should be highlighted/stand out more. This is definitely important for new users - they can quickly find out what WSO is about, learn the acronyms, and I would assume that it would be easier for them to participate in the forums.
the spam threads that clog up the new forum topics on the side. captcha for posting plx?
Not a suggestion but I really like the fact that there's an open and ongoing discourse about ways to improve the site. That will really give it long term viability in my mind
Definitely agree here. Happy to hear about the corporate forums
Is it possible to have a suggestion box for thread deletion? Some searches give a page that is totally irrelevant, for example: years old with one or two bullshit answers for a specific topic like recruiting at a particular firm for a particular year...such dead posts just take up space and will eventually choke out the site.
Agreed.
Patrick, I want faster horses.
Will you settle for a new font? Coming later today....
How about some way to clean up all the quoted text in replies. On long threads where the replies have multiple messages quote, it's pretty cumbersome to read when the text gets so squished together.
Anyone have comments for the Company Database?
Sure,
It would probably be advantageous to have a clickable alphabet (0-9,A,B,C,D....Z) at the top of the page so people can sort by name.
Noted!
this was done...
This has been requested before I don't remember seeing a reply and that is to have some kind of notification for when someone quotes something you wrote. This would be especially helpful in long threads where you don't always want to scroll through the whole thing just to see if somebody replied to your comment but rather get a notification and go straight to the point in the thread where you were quoted.
yeah, I know we can notify you thru an email when someone posts new comments to a thread or someone REPLIES to your comment, but checking to see if we can get a notification when some quotes you. That may take some extra coding but will look into it.
thanks
Whats the difference between someone replying to your comment and someone quoting you?
ads/spam - especially that swis army knife. there has to be a better/cleaner way to promote the guides/mentors.
I have a suggestion on the company database....
there's one reason I haven't added a company review. I don't know if my post will be anonymous or not. I'm not going to take a gamle on outing myself on the board.
If the contributions are anonymous, you should put that in big bold letters. If they're not - you should make them anonymous. Obviously the reviewer should see who's posting it, so they know if it's a first-post troll or not. But I don't want anyone else seeing where I work!
Yes, the posts are anonymous. We will work on getting that into the warning / notice.
Company Database:
1) A feature that will send me a notice whenever a company I choose has something new added.
2) Every company listed should say what is inside. If I want to get a feeling for the Phoenix market, I do not want to have to click on every company when few of them have data. Obviously MS will have stuff, but the smaller ones are what will make this database important.
1) We'll check on that, we are discussing upgrades on individual pages already. A subscribtion option doesnt seem far fetched to me (like LinkedIn does)
2) Explain more on "What is inside" You can research firms by location already, but what sort of data are you looking for.
Maybe a subscription. I was thinking a check-box that said "Notify me when new content is added for this company" or something simple.
Nefarious / Others:
We now have a CorpFin / CorpDev / CorpStrat industry forum. We will be moving appropriate threads there over the next few days, but just wanted to give you a heads up that it is live: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/corporate-finance-corp-dev-corpora…
Let's see how it does :-)
Fantastic news.
Thanks man.
I think his whats inside point is that having a company listed under X location or X type doesn't help if that company only has a company overview cut and pasted from their site. If you could mouse over the name and it said something like Compensation, interview, review to tell you that those sections had data, it would be very helpful.
Commuter, i think he means knowing how many reviews / compensation data points, etc are there for each company before clicking into the company and appropriate tab
So a mouseover with quick data points Comp (3) Review (6) Interview (2) (or vertically)
plus having a similar format on the individual tabs as Patrick mentioned.
Justin
Need to talk w developers and see what the best way to get this information across - might be a mouseover, might be something else. Thanks for the suggestion - solid.
This is what I was thinking. Thanks for the follow-up.
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/how-should-i-read-wsj
Shit like the first reply in this thread has got to get cut down.
agree 100% - that user has been warned. no need for that.
Not sure if this would be too much, but perhaps a custom user "tagging" system similar to user industry status. Maybe SECfinance was helpful in a post about fixed income because of his expertise and I want to remember that. I would tag him with something along the lines of "fixed income expertise" and that's something I may see in his profile or if I hover over his username
I feel this is more ambitious than some of the other stuff, but absolutely love this idea. Would also be cool to have a page only you can view that lists all the notes you've made on users and links to each one. Again, pretty big undertaking though.
hmmm,i really like this idea but it won't be easy.
What if to start, we add in a tab into the "Recent / Tracker" tab called "My Friends", so any threads your friends are commenting in or creating show up in there?
Then from there we can try and figure out how to put in notes in your friends list...i think using the friends list probably makes the most sense here: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/my_friends/[user account #]
thoughts?
There seems to a be a problem with viewing the profiles of people you invited that accepted.
I invited some fellow monkeys and in the "Accepted" sub-tab of the "Invitations" tab of "My account" I see that they accepted but I can't view their profiles from there as WSO asks me to Log in again but never accepts my credentials.
Hopefully this is just on my account.
FYI,
I am not seeing the new CorpFin forum in the forum drop down.
Thanks - fixed...my screw up, I added it to the wrong menu before. It's called "Corporate Finance" in the drop down.
Maybe I am pointing out the obvious, but with ~90% of WSO users either in school or recently graduated (includes 0-5 years), do you have any plans for reaching out to the experienced crowd? Not MD level, but maybe the 25-35 group.
I am finding that WSO is quickly losing relevance as I no longer want my questions answered by those who make up your 90%.
As an example, I would not want to be an IB Associate and take or ask for any advice given here -- knowing what the crowd is made of. However I would likely have questions that need answers and would appreciate a place to get them. What if I am an IB VP looking to jump to PE after a clear no-go for an MD promotion? Do I ask the recent grads? Sure, there are some people on here who would likely be of assistance, but not many.
I see all the time how people talk down about "trolls", unprofessional postings, and generally people realizing how cool it is to casually swear all the time. But honestly, this youthful feeling sorta makes WSO what it is and I think WSO has done a great job preserving this. But maybe there is something to the more professional feel site as well.
Just a thought as I am sure you are always considering expansion options.
sk8, thanks for the feedback. I agree with most of what you've said except I wouldn't underestimate the ability of the board to answer more senior questions. Sure, you may have a few idiots chiming in, but I would bet that a high level question would more likely get answered by one of our highly qualified Certified Users. I'd say try us out -- we have more senior members lurking than is immediately obvious (over 1 million visits and 600,000 uniques per month).
We do want to keep it fun on WSO, but that doesn't mean we can't also be more professional and attract more senior professionals and Certified Users. In fact, it may not seem like it (because we've had so much growth in the 20-22 age group in past years), but as the community "grows up" (we're only 6), we've also seen an acceleration in Certified Users as our members land the jobs and get promoted.
We will still have that influx of young chimps asking "what are my chances?" questions, but I hope as the years move on, the network of senior professionals will also continue to grow alongside these young prospectives that are seeking guidance. I think with the WSO Conference this summer will help that even further (Along with a more formal Happy Hour / events schedule where more networking opps and friendships can be made).
You said "Sure, there are some people on here who would likely be of assistance, but not many." My question to you is if there is just one person that gives you a valuable answer for free in the boards, isn't that worth the trouble?
I'd love to hear any ideas you have on how we could attract more senior talent. I know with Wall St. Mentors we have a great network we can also tap (why we run the Q&A videos and webinars, etc): //www.wallstreetoasis.com/wall-street-mentors-finance-mock-interviews
We also have some very very senior mentors in that the WSM network that could help that VP you mentioned if he couldn't find good advice in the forums.
Thanks, Patrick
Make the private messaging on chat better, communication only works one message at a time and I'm used to having a bunch of conversations going at once. Everyone isn't always available to talk and it's impossible to keep track of each line of though without referencing the last couple of sentences
How do you have so much free time to chat during the day that this is actually an issue for you?
If a seperate window or thread could open for each conversation, it would really be useful.
agree this needs improvement....when i contacted the people at chatroll about it they said they were working on it...i will email them again.
thanks
response from chatroll not promising: "Hi Patrick,
We do have development of that feature in our development queue, but it will likely be a few months before the feature is implemented.
If having that feature is important for you, we can provide you with a development fee to have it done much sooner. Please let us know if you would like us to quote you the development fee.
Best regards, Chatroll Support"
I will ask them how much to develop this...
If I were you I would be searching for a different provider.
If we are talking about the actual chatroom it might be worth looking into getting an IRC channel and rolling that into the HTML site. Your programmers should know more about that.
Some minor updates here:
Upper right corner now shows your WSO Credit count and Bananas (so you dont have to go to your account page to see where you stand)
Read comments slightly darker grey to make new comments jump out a bit more
Please keep the great suggestions coming.
Nefarious, we've considered IRC but we would really prefer to keep it an integrated Drupal solution so usernames, user profile pics and moderators carry over to chat. Chatrolls PM function sucks but other than that it works pretty well.
I noticed the addition in the upper right. Nice touch.
I year ya about chatroll. Wasn't sure if you are currently paying them a fee for their service. I thought the response you posted about them wanting to charge you a fee to get off their assess and accommodate you was horseshit.
Not sure exactly what you are currently working with, but some other options are Cbox and RumbleTalk. Always good to know what else is out there.
another update. New My Feed tab: //www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/now-follow-your-favorite-wso-members-in-ne…
Ive already used it, and I definitely love it. Though I advise not having TNA on your friend's list :-p
I am liking the SB liquidity we've had recently, but is there a way we can see who is throwing shit? I'm seeing a lot of fine posts get MS thrown at them for no apparent reason. Most "forums" have a reputation system similar to our SB/MS system, which allows you to see who is giving what.
With random MS getting thrown everywhere with no accountability, it may be hard for new users to see who is a good source of info and who isn't.
Some updates on Notifications --
Now you will get a Private Message every time:
...more updates coming soon!
Just an FYI Patrick, I'm getting double bonuses for each 100 banana points earned. When I hit 800, I got 5 WSO credits, and when I hit 801 I got 5 WSO credits. Not sure if this was a one-time bug or not but thought I would relay.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/apyB93-1FHk
LOL, needin' some lovin, Pat? Here ya go (NSFW, unless you're Patrick): http://www.tempu.com/welcome.html
not sure if this has been suggested before but I think a "favorite/unfavorite this post" function would be pretty useful, so then somewhere you can view your favorite posts with helpful content
You can bookmark any thread you want by clicking the little bookmark icon at the bottom of the original post. Then you can see those under "My Bookmarks" tab view under the Recent menu. http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/tracker/bookmarks
You can bookmark any thread you want by clicking the little bookmark icon at the bottom of the original post. Then you can see those under "My Bookmarks" tab view under the Recent menu. http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/tracker/bookmarks[/quote]
Oh sorry thanks; good feature to know about. Much appreciated!
This font sucks, sorry.
try it for a day and tell us if you feel the same way after....hard to get used to something new, but it's pretty clean IMO.
Yea, I didn't want to be so negative right away, but the font itself is a bit thin to be reading on a computer. It would work better with different colors, but I doubt you guys want to change that.
Also, a couple of things are "broken" after the change, but I'm sure that's just temporary.
My bitching might also just be a result of staring at the CFA ebooks all day though.
The font isn't bad, but it's messing up some of the quotes & the user's industry icon and/or the follow button isn't in its right position.
Not sure if it's been suggested elsewhere before, but how about allowing us to select which page of the thread to view from the forum?
"Thread title here" 1 2 3 ... Last 120 Comments 1 hr 30 mins ago
I really like this new font
i hate the new font.
Make a top comment (SB) part for each user, so that I can go to swagon's profile and check out his funniest moments. Or go to others profiles and see the most useful comments
Either way, it will be funny or useful, the two things WSO is all about. And Finance somewhat.
And I've mentioned this before, but I really think that the rank for trollers/ users with negative banana points should be sperm!
Please take my suggestion seriously, it is not meant as a joke. It's funny, sure, but 100% serious.
Thanks Patrick for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Sperm.
I don't really care about the font, but is anyone else experiencing formatting issues on the site because of it?
Using Google Chrome.
This is getting fixed right now as we speak. Should have these formatting issues worked out by end of day.
some of these formatting changes have been fixed in chrome and FF, but as usual, IE is being a bitch. Will update when we get IE cleaned as well....
Ya, the issues I found are gone now.
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