Comment On Announcement: Content Survey

In before Mandatory Fail Day

eh, i'm assuming this is the same survey as linked to from the MFD article (which i didn't read *cough*)

Alex is giving you a chance to have a voice. Because this may be difficult to grasp, I'm going to speak to you in a language you'll all understand:

if(this.opinion(mandatoryFunDay) == TOTALLY_SUCKS) {
survey = SurveyFactory.get(DAILY_WTF_SURVEY);
survey.mark(mandatoryFunDay, TOTALLY_SUCKS);
}

If you don't do this, then Alex will never know that we think that comic is a total $%@%# $#%$%$ %$%#@$ %$#%#$ (pardon my .NET)

Do your patriotic duty! Fill out the survey!

WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?

Don't make me accuse you of hating America.

I wasn't sure how to parse, "What the 'off-topic Friday' articles like Souvenir Potpourri?", so I just chose Indifferent.

I don't post too often, but just want to say GREAT site. I love featured articles, I read 75% of the comments.

The only feature I don't really care for is MFD like most others. I still read them, but they became way better since reader made comics in the comment section.
I would say don't renew it, or if you do make sure you improve graphics, and the jokes.. If you can do both those, I would be all for them again

gabba:

I wasn't sure how to parse, "What the 'off-topic Friday' articles like Souvenir Potpourri?", so I just chose Indifferent.

That should be: "What about the 'off-topic Friday' articles..."

gabba:

I wasn't sure how to parse, "What the 'off-topic Friday' articles like Souvenir Potpourri?", so I just chose Indifferent.

i sense another name change coming on

thedailtyWTOTFALSP.com

catchy.

I'd like to see some better comments, please.

Speak Up:

if(this.opinion(mandatoryFunDay) == TOTALLY_SUCKS) {
survey = SurveyFactory.get(DAILY_WTF_SURVEY);
survey.mark(mandatoryFunDay, TOTALLY_SUCKS);
}

I like that TOTALLY_SUCKS is a constant.

J:

Speak Up:

if(this.opinion(mandatoryFunDay) == TOTALLY_SUCKS) {
survey = SurveyFactory.get(DAILY_WTF_SURVEY);
survey.mark(mandatoryFunDay, TOTALLY_SUCKS);
}

I like that TOTALLY_SUCKS is a constant.

I always define it right before FILE_NOT_FOUND in my projects.

I think we should see more of that JimBastard guy. Check the forums.

I come here to see pictures of animals, and for some reason, those pictures keep getting deleted from the comment sections for the Comic.

I thought you were serious about having more LOLCATS on this site.

Speak Up:

Alex is giving you a chance to have a voice. Because this may be difficult to grasp, I'm going to speak to you in a language you'll all understand:

if(this.opinion(mandatoryFunDay) == TOTALLY_SUCKS) {
survey = SurveyFactory.get(DAILY_WTF_SURVEY);
survey.mark(mandatoryFunDay, TOTALLY_SUCKS);
}

If you don't do this, then Alex will never know that we think that comic is a total $%@%# $#%$%$ %$%#@$ %$#%#$ (pardon my .NET)

Do your patriotic duty! Fill out the survey!

WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?

Don't make me accuse you of hating America.

I like how you used a Factory.

I voted for more lolcatz because pussy always brightens my day.

That last option should be "If you don't kill it, I'll kill you."

I sent this to Alex but sharing it here as well

Thanks for all the hard work. You will never please everyone--we sure are a picky bunch. Please remember, it is usually the disatisfied customers who speak out and not the satisfied ones like myself. I really enjoy the forums a lot--try to intergrate them more into the site. I like the community feeling that the forums have because it is usually people talking about issues that I am having or that I can relate to. Stick to your core, don't go all Amazon on us. Code WTFs, Error messages WTF, Forum WTF, etc... Good luck and thanks!

Speak Up:

Don't make me accuse you of hating America.

What do you mean? America's a great place! It's just a pity it's full of Americans ;)

Fred Bloggs:

Speak Up:

Don't make me accuse you of hating America.

What do you mean? America's a great place! It's just a pity it's full of Americans ;)

Is ridiculous wen usa people call his country america. Is like japan people calling japan "asia".

Can we get a "whenever it pops up in my RSS reader" option for the first question?

Alex P.:

Sure, there are page views, referrers, visit paths, and all sorts of other statistics and numbers I could try to distill, but nothing beats just asking you directly.

Almost all usability gurus are telling us not to trust what the users say on the surveys but what we watch them do, and then you send us a survey.

I couldn't expect less from TDWTF :)

"...Sure, there are page views, referrers, visit paths, and all sorts of other statistics and numbers I could try to distill, but nothing beats just asking you directly..."

Translation: Too damn much work. Get the users to do it instead.

I can't get enough of the errors in public places.

I should have put this in the comments on the survey, but forgot:

I voted "please please please kill it" for MFD, but my vote would change to "I really couldn't care less" if you added a second RSS feed that didn't include MFD.

Das Boof:

I'd like to see some better comments, please.

There's millions of 'em. They turn blue; then they turn red; then they get eaten by a pacman, then they go nuclear and have to be cleaned up by a highly-trained cadre of specialists.

You need to upgrade your RSS feed, my man.

I demand that you use more lolcats on this page.

But not just normal lolcats.
I'd like the kind of lolcats that <BLINK> and <MARQUEE>.

Please, please, put links to surveys and such in a static container somewhere, instead of inside the articles (or comments...). Those of us who sometimes blackout for a month or two, and then don't catch up on reading the articles until right before endterm exams, tend to find out about these things way too late...

Addendum (2008-04-02 15:40):
O wait, there it is :)

Tei:

Fred Bloggs:

Speak Up:

Don't make me accuse you of hating America.

What do you mean? America's a great place! It's just a pity it's full of Americans ;)

Is ridiculous wen usa people call his country america. Is like japan people calling japan "asia".

Give it a rest. There is no continent called "America". There is a "North America," a "South America," and even a "Central American," but there is no "America." "American" is a recognized shorthand for "person from the United States of America" the world over. No one else calls themselves "Americans" in general usage, and no one calls anyone else "Americans" in general usage either. Nitpicking on this point is ridiculous. If you want to be pedantic about something, find something that at least has some validity to it.

JDM:

I voted "please please please kill it" for MFD, but my vote would change to "I really couldn't care less" if you ...

... used a Diebold machine to count the votes?

Speak Up:

If you don't do this, then Alex will never know that we think that comic is a total $%@%# $#%$%$ %$%#@$ %$#%#$ (pardon my perl)

Fixed that for you!

C'mon, Alex. TRWTF is that your survey allows multiple submissions from the same session! I suspect you're going to get LOTS of votes to kill MFD... ('course, that's likely to be the case even without multiple submissions).

I just wanted to repeat what I put in the survey comments where the general public can see it:

All the article types sort of run together for me, aside from MFD and then only because it's got pictures. I like the articles for the most part though, so keep up the good work.

What I seriously think of MFD (speaking from a little illustrating/writing experience) is that it's got some 2 fundamental problems, namely the presentation and the humor. Notice I said presentation in place of art. There will always jerks who hate your style and they can, quite frankly, go to hell. While I think a neater implementation wouldn't hurt, it's your coloring that really pours salt in the wounds. Simply learning to fill in the entire area would be a marked improvement.

As for humor, I think you had some good ideas albeit with some pacing or dialogue issues. Additionally, some of the uglier art probably got people more focused on negative analysis and they picked out some things that otherwise might've flew under the radar. You could've probably made it through with bad art or weak punchlines, but both together are a formidable obstacle.

If you're interested in improving, try registering at a forum like Comic Genesis (formerly Keenspace). There's a feature there called "How Not To Run a Webcomic" (or something similar). You can see how many of the pitfalls you fall into and think of ways to avoid some of the worse ones. I don't want to come off as a braggart by linking you to some of my work, but I'd love to take a shot at posting something (to illustrate some suggestions) in a future thread.

If, however, this was all an elaborate ruse to increase user participation, it's been an astounding success. I love the mix of cruel, clever, and weird replies that have resulted. Thanks for reminding me that not everyone on the Internet is a lazy, talentless, unfunny loser.

I read MFD for the reader-made comics.

Hmm, SpectateSwamp should do the scriptwriting.

First ever comment...

I give MFD a big "Meh" simply because it doesn't capture the humor of the rest of the site. If you made a webcomic about idiot programmers and funny technical mishaps, I think it'd be much more fun to read and fitting for this site. As it is now, it's like reading a bad version of Dilbert.

Also, remember that "When writing, what is subtle humor to you is non-existent humor to your readers. Aim for blatant humor instead."

The rest of the site is great. I especially like Error'd and CodeSOD. In fact, if you have enough submissions, I'd suggest updating Error'd once a day! (Although there HAVE been quite a few repeats lately...)

Speak Up:

Alex is giving you a chance to have a voice. Because this may be difficult to grasp, I'm going to speak to you in a language you'll all understand:

if(this.opinion(mandatoryFunDay) == TOTALLY_SUCKS) {
survey = SurveyFactory.get(DAILY_WTF_SURVEY);
survey.mark(mandatoryFunDay, TOTALLY_SUCKS);
}

If you don't do this, then Alex will never know that we think that comic is a total $%@%# $#%$%$ %$%#@$ %$#%#$ (pardon my .NET)

Do your patriotic duty! Fill out the survey!

WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?

Don't make me accuse you of hating America.

Featured/Blue comment please! (Don't mind MDF, but the comment was hilarious nevertheless)

Alex, could you please create a chart after the survey is over
just so that we can see how much MFD haters are out there ^^

Regards.

I love Mandatory Fun Day, the comments are crazy fun.

I second that.. the MFD comments are some of the funniest things I've ever read!

Thirded, big time

splaestro:

C'mon, Alex. TRWTF is that your survey allows multiple submissions from the same session! I suspect you're going to get LOTS of votes to kill MFD... ('course, that's likely to be the case even without multiple submissions).

Course, this might be a bit of a honeypot to lure people in, and then reject their outpouring of bile when they attempt to spam the system with MFD hatred.

It's what I'd do, anyway...

omglolcats:

I second that.. the MFD comments are some of the funniest things I've ever read!

The comic itself makes me want to puke so badly that I only very very rarely make it as far as the comments tho ... :S

Tei:

Is ridiculous wen usa people call his country america. Is like japan people calling japan "asia".

It's an American thing. If you don't get it, you're probably not American.

maeghith:

Alex P.:

Sure, there are page views, referrers, visit paths, and all sorts of other statistics and numbers I could try to distill, but nothing beats just asking you directly.

Almost all usability gurus are telling us not to trust what the users say on the surveys but what we watch them do, and then you send us a survey.

I couldn't expect less from TDWTF :)

How do you know we aren't watching you

Erik:

Tei:

Is ridiculous wen usa people call his country america. Is like japan people calling japan "asia".

Give it a rest. There is no continent called "America". There is a "North America," a "South America," and even a "Central American," but there is no "America."

Thanks, now everybody unerstands why "americans" don't see how ridicule they are being.

Now, Alex, about the survey... People don't like MFD. You shouldn't need a survey to discover that.

But it is your site. If you like writing it, go ahead. Everybody else can just ignore it.

I like many of you don't really care for MFD - but the only reason I check it out is for the user submitted comics. They are interesting and funnier than the original.

What Alex should do is just put out the blank there and let the users make up their own comic and submit it.

;)

Keep MFD. Keep the replies!

More articles!

Someone You Know:

gabba:

I wasn't sure how to parse, "What the 'off-topic Friday' articles like Souvenir Potpourri?", so I just chose Indifferent.

That should be: "What about the 'off-topic Friday' articles..."

No. It should be thedailywhattheofftopicfriday.com.

(Off-topic: Alex, just use Website.RenameTo() and you're all set!)

As for MFD, I suggest you replace it with a periodic "reader submitted comics" thread. The comments are hilarious. The comic, not so much.

OTOH, I wonder if it would be as fun if we didn't have it to make fun of, which is a very ironic dilemma. Is it right to keep a retarded kid^Wcomic around, just to make fun of it?

Zee:

I like many of you don't really care for MFD - but the only reason I check it out is for the user submitted comics. They are interesting and funnier than the original.

Only some. IMO, about two thirds are much worse. So much so that I often skip the MFD-comments.

Is ridiculous wen usa people call his country america. Is like japan people calling japan "asia".[/quote]

Give it a rest. There is no continent called "America". There is a "North America," a "South America," and even a "Central American," but there is no "America."
[/quote]

Sooo... you are saying that, although there is this BIG piece of land floating around, whose north part is called "North America", whose central part is called "Central America" and whose south part is called "South America", this piece of land as a whole is not, in fact, called "America"?

You almost got me there...

Tei:

Fred Bloggs:

Speak Up:

Don't make me accuse you of hating America.

What do you mean? America's a great place! It's just a pity it's full of Americans ;)

Is ridiculous wen usa people call his country america. Is like japan people calling japan "asia".

Dropping the "United States of" out of "United States of America is equivalent to dropping the "People's Republic of" out of "People's Republic of China." Only difference is that the PRC doesn't share part of its name with the continent like the USA does.