After browsing through several pay-to-write websites Triond has became one of my favourites. However what I like about Triond I will leave for another post. Despite all the nice things about it, there are several points that definitely could be improved.
I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised when one of the items I intended to put on this list got resolved just before I posted this article. We now have an online editor for our content. Thank you Triond for making article corrections so much easier now.
So here is my list of things that I think should be improved:
Remember Me
Most modern web applications have this feature, especially ones that have their users coming back often. It's just so frustrating to leave the site for a while in a tab, and have to re-login when the session expires. It isn't that hard to implement, and I am sure I wouldn't be the only happy to see this option.Requests
Some of the other writing websites have the request functionality. It basically means users can ask questions or requests topics from other users. Personally I think it is a good idea, especially when you feel like you could write about something, but cannot really think of a specific topic to focus on. This kind of mechanism also encourages community behaviour and user to user interaction.Profile/Website Link in Comments
I do realise that this is something that could easily get abused by spammers, therefore I wouldn't be pushing for a free-form field to enter your url. However I like checking what people who commented on my stuff have written in the past, and not having even a profile link for the logged in commenter is a slight disappointment.Comment Tracking
While I am on the subject of comments it would be helpful if you could easily track your own comments that you have made on other people's content. You don't always want to become a friend or a fan of someone, you might just be interested in that one discussion. And checking the page every day is not a convenient way to do it.Google Analytics
It is quite frustrating to see traffic hitting your pages, but not being able to determine where is it coming from. Considering I might be placing links on several websites it helps to see which ones bring visitors and which ones need adjusting. Lack of this functionality also means we have no clue how people are finding our content through search engines. Sometimes tweaking a sentence or two can make a huge difference, but right now there is no way to measure it.
It doesn't even have to be Google Analytics, any kind of statistics package would be good.Forums
I think people have been mentioning this for a while. It helps grow the community, and allows Triond to keep more in touch with their user base. And if this isn't enough, most forums usually reduce the load on support staff, as new users would very often ask simple questions on the forum, where they get a quick response, rather than send emails to staff.Photo Galleries
There is no easy way to create photo galleries, when for example you would like to share your experiences from a holiday trip etc. Of course you can create an article with photos, however there is no way to show bigger versions of the picture once the thumbnail is clicked on.
The same applies to Picable, for a photo sharing website to not allow bigger previews is a bit of a shame. If we just want a quick gallery without an article, it would be nice to have some way to link photos into groups in Picable. That way you could point a user to an "album", and let them go through say your last holiday...In the Works
Create some anticipation! Rather than post a blog entry when something is done, Triond could have a "to do" list, letting the users know what could be coming in the near or far future. This wouldn't have to be very detailed not with specific dates. But would definitely stop people from repeatedly asking and whining about features once they know they are coming.
