simpsonsRanked @ maggied.com

[ludvigsen]

Hey All,

Took all night, but the site is finally up. Wasn't supposed to take this long, but it's there. And somehow i have to get up for work in an hour. Christ i'm going to be tired today.

Anyway, nice little compact site with site reviews, and episode reviews. Something small, that with my little amount of free time, i can maintain it and update. Since i was pushin' to have this out asap, only season 1 is in there so far. There will also be a few added features shortly, i just didn't have time to get it up.

Read my update, and let me know what you think. It's been awhile since i've looked at simpsons sites, so i'm open to criticism on the list.

Anyway, been awhile since i've opened a new site, so feedback is always welcome.

http://www.maggied.com

[kampkrusty]

i'll do a monstro mart link exchange

[JonHillier]

Or, how about commenting on Bryan's work.


Good stuff Bryan, it's all functioning really well and I think the design stands as one of your better ones. How open do you intend the list to be to new sites, as in, do you intend to update the list semi-regularly as with the top100?

[Jukka]

woah - very good job! it works actually better than full-scale top 100 site. welcome back, b!

[mikeymansimpsons]

jesus, i really like it, so much better than top 100. hopefully this will fill the void that was left when you gave up of the top 100

[Radioactive Man]

I really like the design. Is there any way to re-order the sites by user rankings? I also can't find a link back to the homepage from the sites page. The site overall is great though.

[chesschamp9]

i like it, it's just the design i think could be a bit better. it looks to be a strong start to a site, good work

[grissom]

Nice work. Design is nice and simple, and it's good to see something to sort of take the place of Simpsons Top 100. Cool to see my site on the list too

[ludvigsen]

Good stuff Bryan, it's all functioning really well and I think the design stands as one of your better ones. How open do you intend the list to be to new sites, as in, do you intend to update the list semi-regularly as with the top100?

Thanks. Yeah, I kind of took it from a simplistic approach. Not usually the type of design I would do, but i like it and i think it works well with the site.

woah - very good job! it works actually better than full-scale top 100 site. welcome back, b!

Thanks jooks. Yeah, i like that it's a lot smaller scale. One of the big challenges i had with getting things done on the top 100 is that it was so huge. I wanted to keep this as small and managable as possible.

jesus, i really like it, so much better than top 100. hopefully this will fill the void that was left when you gave up of the top 100

Yeah, that's one of the main reasons i decided to open it. No one really stepped up with a good news/linking site after i officially shut down the top 100. Hopefully 25 top sites will do the job.

I really like the design. Is there any way to re-order the sites by user rankings? I also can't find a link back to the homepage from the sites page. The site overall is great though.

Yeah, i was going to have the order by user rankings listing in there, but just ran out of time last night (actually this morning, i'm so fuckin' tired at work today). But i'll have that in there probably on the weekend.

And yeah, I must have forgot to put a link back to the main page from the sites page. I'll fix that.



Anyway, keep the feedback coming.

[Homer the Moe]

Very very nice. And I'm in top 25 =D
Seriously though, a lot more competitive than the Top 100, I feel.

[Brad Clarke]

Very Nice Work. Very good to see you back into the community, I like the whole Idea of the site, Did you code it your self? Looks good.

[ludvigsen]

Yes, all coded by me.

[Brad Clarke]

Good work on the coding, I like it.

[Malachy]

Awesome 2 the max.

It feels like a lot of designs are turning away from the dark colors, which I always find to be a turn off, and more toward the bright and happy, like what LETS has.

Only thing I can't find is how to submit a site. Of course, Artie Sweet Artie isn't worthy at the moment, but I think my upcoming site has a chance.

[ludvigsen]

You'll find out why you can't submit your site if you read the update.

[Malachy]

My bad.

[Drew]

Good stuff, might even be better than the 100.

Did you forget about my site, or was it just past the 25 best sites?
www.indasy.net

[ludvigsen]

Yeah, i think i simply missed yours. Sorry about that. Was kinda tough going through all my old stuff trying to find links to sites.

I'll probably do a mini-update on the weekend if i get time.

Any other sites anybody think is missing that should be in there? Please critique the list.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

Wow, excellent work Bryan. So clean and simple.
I haven't seen any major episode ranking pages around, besides ours at Simpson Crazy and the one Jon had at BTL. I'll be interested to see how your list compares to this (http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/members/reviews/top_episodes.php).

re: missing sites
Just D'oh It was working a few weeks ago, not sure if it's totally gone or if they've just had server problems
Maggie & Eric is still around (IIRC you always had it pretty high) - http://www.maggieanderic.tv

[tim]

nice design. works well.

thanks for the ranking. one question: it says "4 reviews" and yet i don't see any... got any plans for that?

also, i think it may be a little unfair to have the season 1 episodes placed in the rankiing before any other season. maybe its just me, but people might think that it is just a ranking of those episodes, and once all of the other seasons have been entered, season one episodes will already have that advantage (or disadvantage, depending on its rating.) just a thought.

[Jolly Bengali]

Yeah, i think i simply missed yours. Sorry about that. Was kinda tough going through all my old stuff trying to find links to sites.

I'll probably do a mini-update on the weekend if i get time.

Any other sites anybody think is missing that should be in there? Please critique the list.

http://www.nohomers.net/showthread.php?t=51071

I've been maintaining that list for a while, with the top 100 down... I'd say all those sites deserve a look, if not a slot. Hope that helps.

You asked for a critique, here's mine - I'd bump down Cape Feare due to it being basically dead, I'd push up the Guide to Springfield, bump down the Collecting Simpsons due to a lack of updates, and I'd put Springfield Files up higher since it's one of the few places to find decent, original, creator-written content. But the list was very good, overall. Appropriately conservative. Not sure how or what I'd throw in there that isn't on there, but Hans off My Moleman might be a nice place to start.

A more efficient, stripped-down version of an old favorite - very nice work.

[kampkrusty]

i'm not sure if Monstro Mart would be worthy, but if it isn't, maybe the new design will make it less like a disjointed site

[ludvigsen]

Thanks for the feedback Jolly. I'll definately go over your thread to see what i missed.

nice design. works well.

thanks for the ranking. one question: it says "4 reviews" and yet i don't see any... got any plans for that?

also, i think it may be a little unfair to have the season 1 episodes placed in the rankiing before any other season. maybe its just me, but people might think that it is just a ranking of those episodes, and once all of the other seasons have been entered, season one episodes will already have that advantage (or disadvantage, depending on its rating.) just a thought.

By the first comment, does that mean you want to find out what those 4 votes were? All it would be is just numbers and they average out anyway. No real point to it.

As for the fairness of the seasons, i don't think that'll really matter much. I think the earlier seasons will get a more solidified score faster cause it would have far more votes. But i don't think it'll present that big of an advantage or disadvantage. Either way, i plan on getting all the episodes up pretty quickly.

[Jolly Bengali]

I think he meant an actual text review... I do remember that was an amazing aspect of the old top 100, even a line of text as a brief description would be great... but can't have everything.

[ludvigsen]

I thought of that, but i wanted to stay away from the site being bulky.

This way it's real simple, and i don't have to worry about a lot of work maintaining it. More of the reason was, i didn't feel like making a whole other script of code to spit out all that information. :p

[Jolly Bengali]

Fair enough. You might want to consider at least updating the text profiles for each site... maybe to have a more personal feeling or something. I realize they were the old ones provided by the webmasters, but still, might be interesting to have your rationale. Wouldn't take that long.

[kane]

hey bryan, hit me up via PM/email (suckat@hotmail.com), IM or whatever, ive got a great idea in helping you get these episodes done quicker.

a while ago i had plans for a huge episode guide a while back when i was doing tomacco.net and as things never took off, i have a HUGE (just about complete) collection of episode guides that were never used; synopses and long descriptions, aswell as well over 100 episodes framegrabbed, though they probably wouldn;t be too useful.

anyway, i'd happily give up these, even add them to the site for you myself (since you have little time), since it really is some great written stuff by the general discussion nerds and myself, going to waste. thought they may be useful.

[tim]

By the first comment, does that mean you want to find out what those 4 votes were? All it would be is just numbers and they average out anyway. No real point to it.

no no no, i thought there were actual reviews. i guess its just a little misleading. perhaps 'votes' instead of 'ratings'?

[ludvigsen]

Well, if i used vote, it's assuming you are voting it in for something, which you're not. You're giving it a rating.

[buh]

i really, really like that design and layout. the whole idea of the site is awesome. something nice'n fresh for the community.

[Drew]

I think its a good idea not to have text reviews. To many people spamming. It would be constant work to filter out.

Also to comment on the design, its simple and efficient, which I think works very well for what it is. Glad to see you have some remaining interest for the Simpsons sites.

[Adam]

i have to admit i didnt actually think you'd do anything more in the community even after you put up a coming soon page so its good to see you pulled through.

i too was confused by the word 'reviews' and not being able to read them. you should rename that to 'number of votes' or something.

i know the focus is on rankings but simpsonsRanked is such an ugly title and i know you're not going to change it but i just thought i'd let you know. and i dont mind the logo font this time!

i'm glad you finally moved on from greyblue but am disappointed to see the homer in space image logo on the site. you should move on! separate the site from its past. dont try to make that picture the one that people will remember the site by, because we remember the top 100 from that.

[gpm]

yeah, but after so many years he probably got attached to the homer in space pic.

i like it, like adam i didn't think you'd actually do it. the HGS desription is ironic though, and... LETS is third?

[Malachy]

no no no, i thought there were actual reviews. i guess its just a little misleading. perhaps 'votes' instead of 'ratings'?
Yeah, I made that same mistake.

[Jukka]

and... LETS is third?

and folder is #2.

[Malachy]

Top 3:
Folder
LETS
Archive

[ludvigsen]

In my personal opinion, the folder is better than LETS. So far it look like people agree with me. And archive always gets ranked less publicly just because it's not flashy.

I think its a good idea not to have text reviews. To many people spamming. It would be constant work to filter out.

Also to comment on the design, its simple and efficient, which I think works very well for what it is. Glad to see you have some remaining interest for the Simpsons sites.

I may change the word to votes, then. Thought it was pretty clear. But i want to keep the site simple, and don't want to deal with a lot of text reviews and filtering. I want the process to be pretty blind with little work. It's just more stuff i'd have to deal with. One thing that's clear about what people like about the site is it's simplicity.

It's less about interest in Simpsons Sites as it is about the episodes. I had a site (simpsonsepisodes.com) that never got off the ground which was a very complicated public ranking system that rated the episodes, the directors, the writers and the seasons. I had it nearly totally complete with a lot of programming involved. I just never got the time to get the last little bit of it done. Would have been a great site, but i thought this would be an easier solution.


i'm glad you finally moved on from greyblue but am disappointed to see the homer in space image logo on the site. you should move on! separate the site from its past. dont try to make that picture the one that people will remember the site by, because we remember the top 100 from that.

It's not the main image of the site. I thought it made sense to make that the image for the episode rankings. And i don't think it's a bad thing to remind people of the top 100. It was a great site, and i enjoyed working on it during it's prime.

[mikeymansimpsons]

here here! i really stand by your opinion bryan

[ludvigsen]

Oh, and as for the name, it's a hell of a lot better than Simpsons Interactive. If you can blow me away with a better name, Adam, go ahead. I kinda like the name, it's simple, and works for the site.

Oh, and about the descriptions, i used old top 100 accounts from awhile ago. So yeah, they are out dated. I just didn't have time to change them. I did 3 write ups for sites that were never in the top 100, and trust me they are kinda hard to write without sounding repetitive. I much prefer the owners writeups to mine. When i get the listing by score in, i don't think that many will pay or care too much about my ranks.

[Jolly Bengali]

:/ but it seems like having that would actually make it useful for the site webmasters, in terms of what you liked about the site... could add some character. And yeah, might be repetitive, but so are Simpsons sites in general... there has to be a reason why you put some sites in certain places, so simply transcribing your own thought process could be very interesting. But I appreciate wanting to keep it as labor-minimal as possible, and I'll stop asking for it after this.

[tim]

Well, if i used vote, it's assuming you are voting it in for something, which you're not. You're giving it a rating.

whoops, i meant another word for reviews.

it's not a big deal.

[Adam]

i've just noticed my (and everybody elses) email address is being displayed when you click my name. could i please request, personally that you remove this as i've had huge spam issues recently and am currently on as clean a slate as you can get when you own two big sites.

i dont see the huge need for it to be there since nobody would need to directly email me from your site, since any emails would relate to my sites which they can already get my address from.

thanks in advance.

[garret]

really good :D

[Jukka]

i agree on adam's opinion. please, remove mine also.

[gpm]

In my personal opinion, the folder is better than LETS. So far it look like people agree with me.


Yeah, the folder has a hell of a lot more original content than lardlad. And that's good considering these days original content is all about episode downloads and nothing much else.

[Ryan+]

I like the simplicity of it all. It's a basic concept, but works well. Good job. ;)

[ludvigsen]

Yeah, i'll remove the email addresses. That was the way the script was before, so i just left it. Won't be home until tomorrow night or perhaps sunday. But i'll do that first thing when i get the chance.

[thecapecoddah]

looks great, bryan... excellent work.

and enjoy writing code & making a thumbnail for each and every simpsons episode, hahah... I would despise doing that these days.

[Adam]

Yeah, the folder has a hell of a lot more original content than lardlad. And that's good considering these days original content is all about episode downloads and nothing much else.


the folder and lardlad have two different goals. i've exhausted the chance to offer originality over the last eight years and my goal now is simple. that when the show finishes (if ever at this rate) lardlad will be the place to come to for multimedia. more pictures, framegrabs from every episode, sounds from every episode, and a complete episode guide. these concepts aren't original but i'd be the only site doing it with 10 years behind me (framegrabs maybe not so, but sounds take years to build up.) and i wouldn't need to update anymore.

everyones entitled to their opinion though and i havent even raised an eyebrow at bryans decision to put the folder before lets, and that because it truly deserves its position there. and i'd hope that had the rankings been reversed jukka would feel the same.

[tim]

i don't think its still impossible to be original after 8 years. sure, it sure as hell is difficult to come up with new ideas, but you shouldn't rule out the possibility.

[Jukka]

good speak, adam. folder and lets are different kind of sites. so is archive. they all three walk the path of their own. visitors of these sites (imo) differs and so does opinions. people look different things on these sites and that's what they offer to their visitors.

i don't mind if lets would have been listed before folder. in fact, it was listed before folder many years on bryan's previous ranking site. it didn't put down my work cause being in top3 is anyway a real honor to any site owner. anyone of us three could be number one (imo). it's just whose opinion it is.

[chesschamp9]

wow, im not sure if anyone else noticed this but the no homers club isnt listed on there. im sure that it should be though

[Homer the Moe]

Its just a discussion board...primarily, I mean. I don't think the actual solid content on the NHC can rival the top 25.

[chesschamp9]

well no, but it still is in that top 25. as it is also a site so it is possible for it to be listed there

[Johnsy]

Great idea, good to see something back at maggied.com. Excellent work.

[ludvigsen]

good speak, adam. folder and lets are different kind of sites. so is archive. they all three walk the path of their own. visitors of these sites (imo) differs and so does opinions. people look different things on these sites and that's what they offer to their visitors.

If these 3 sites were to merge into one, there wouldn't be a need for any other simpsons sites. Truth be told, these 3 sites are in a class of their own, and everyone else falls far behind.

As for No Homers Club. It's basically a message board with a couple add-ins from the old ET to spice things up. I've never allowed message boards on the top 100, so i'm not about to change. Either way, it's not top 25 worthy, in my opinion.

[ludvigsen]

I just added in Seasons 2 and 3. Also added in pages to view the list by public rating.

Check it out
www.maggied.com

[grissom]

Wow, my site's number seven based on public ratings.

[Radioactive Man]

As always, the public ratings suck ;)

[mikeymansimpsons]

lol, just cos you weren't there hehe. good job grissom, people who put alot of work into their sites get rewarded

[Radioactive Man]

I actually wasn't talking about that. Simpsons Crazy at 24?

[Bartesque]

do you change what episodes and sites that are on the front page? Anyway, you should so the public ratings becomes more accurate.

[ludvigsen]

If you read the update, it'll tell you. Or you can just hit refresh.

[Jolly Bengali]

I'm genuinely hurt that people are rating SW that low... heh, ah well.

Nice page though Bryan, the sorting is helpful.

[Malachy]

Simpson Crazy has a 5.6; I wouldn't put too much stock into the public ratings.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

lookin' good.
Error: 7F03 isn't "Crepes of Wrath", it's "Bart Gets An F"

Also, if I'm viewing the public rankings and vote for a site, the link should take me back to the public rankings and not to your rankings, IMO.

[Bartesque]

If you read the update, it'll tell you. Or you can just hit refresh.

too much text.

[Jordan]

I'm liking the simplicity of the site which probably makes it really easy to maintain.

Great work.

[Nasty_b]

Design: A
Nice and simple, easy on the eyes & easy to navigate. I like it.

Content: A-
Not as big as the simpsons top 100 used to be, but its nice and simple and it's a great way to list a big majority of the sites in the community.

Overall: A
Good site, I'll definately keep visiting.

[sweetmercifulcrap]

Kicks the 100's ass. Great work bryan

[ludvigsen]

lookin' good.
Error: 7F03 isn't "Crepes of Wrath", it's "Bart Gets An F"

Also, if I'm viewing the public rankings and vote for a site, the link should take me back to the public rankings and not to your rankings, IMO.

Oops, while doing the episodes it's a lot of copying and pasting, so it's quite tedious, so not surpring i made at least one mistake. Thanks for the catch, i'll go ahead and fix it.

And as for the link, it's hard coded in there. I'll eventually modify that so it sends you back to the page you were actually on. It's just kinda dumb at the moment.

Heh, i also noticed:

7F04 - Treehosue of Horror

[Adam]

nice additions but my email address still appears :(

[Bartesque]

nice additions but my email address still appears :(
i can't see it. try refreshing.

[Adam]

all fixed. it was a link when i wrote that post though. he was online and working on the site so i guess he did it sometime between then and now.

[SIP.TK]

I like the simple design, well done.

[ludvigsen]

all fixed. it was a link when i wrote that post though. he was online and working on the site so i guess he did it sometime between then and now.

Yeah, when i put in the other fixes, i forgot to remove the link. Went back and fixed it after i sent the email out last night.

[Nasty_b]

8. The Simpsons Archive
Internet's clearinghouse of Simpsons FAQs, program and character guides, reference lists, extensive episode capsules, news, upcoming episodes and other related information.
Webmaster: Jouni Paakkinen


Rating: 689655172413792976896.0 Reviews: 145

23. The Simpsons Gallery
This Simpsons media website opened January 21, 2001. Since then has the site grown every day. Now we got more then 400 original images and 15000 framegrabs. We also got wallpapers, desktops, scenes, tutorials, movie references and a lot more.
Webmaster: Henrik


Rating: 20.0 Reviews: 80

I think there's something wrong...

[Radioactive Man]

Yeah, no wonder I didn't make the list. How can I compete with a 689655172413792976896.0 rating.

[Adam]

heh. i decided to save the page to my desktop and see what could have caused this. simple. editing the html by using figures greater than 10 in the dropdown menu, then voting via your offline copy of the page will actually add that score to the database and then recalculate the average.

so uuh, why am i telling you this? so bryan will fix it quicker :)

[Jukka]

heh, bryan made a nerd-a-mistake for his website. fix it, b!

[chesschamp9]

i still see this.


Rating: 675675675675675983872.0
Reviews: 148

i also noticed guide to springfield usa

Rating: 434782608695651991552.0
Reviews: 23

Hows that possible to get that high a rating with only 23 reviews?

But back on to the site, me likee

[Jolly Bengali]

The explanation is literally two posts above you

[ludvigsen]

Yeah, late night programming causes me not to do some very simple checks. :p And i hard coded the IP for some reason. Dumb. That's what happens when i'm in a hurry.

Anyway, i just gotta filter out reviews that are not in the 1-10 range, and grab the IP directly, not from the form. This'll be fixed when i get home from work today. I actually noticed this problem a couple days ago, but didn't have time to fix it.

I'll probably remove all reviews from the past few days or something so the numbers actually make sense again.

Oh, i also gotta fix those ugly ass screenshots on the main page. Haven't had a chance to make the thumbnails yet. So i just resized the regular images in the meantime.

[ludvigsen]

Problem fixed. I didn't have to delete that many actual reviews it seems. I just deleted the ones that were not in the 1-10 range, and it looks about right for where the sites should be, so i left everything else untouched.

If you find any other holes in my script, feel free to let me know about them.

Thanks. :)

[Jolly Bengali]

Thanks for fixing it... anything else going to be added, besides the episode rankings? New lists or anything? Curious if this is all we're going to see

[Drew]

(like springfield indulgence being added to the list)

[ludvigsen]

Yeah, i still gotta add in the "judging booth" or whatever i'm going to call it. Just haven't had a chance yet.

[mikeymansimpsons]

nice, however, im not sure about the scope of the site, there's only so much you can do with it

[Rowdy]

Great to see that The Simpsons Top 100 is still living on six years after I discovered it, albeit in a much altered form. I always thought a public ranking system in realtime was a great idea (remember The Simpsons Top 50 at getduffed.com, anyone?), so it's nice that you've finally came to that.

It's strange how at one point there were close to 100 incredibly strong Simpsons sites......now, half of Bryan's Top 25 is either outdated or rubbish. I know that the foreign sites are hard to rank since you can't tell what's going on, but you might as well throw some in there to make for a stronger overall list. Oh, and add that Simpsons Zip site. Definitely top ten worthy.

[ludvigsen]

nice, however, im not sure about the scope of the site, there's only so much you can do with it

The scope is how i want it. I don't have enough time to maintain a site that's much larger. That was why The Simpsons Top 100 went downhill pretty fast. I just didn't have the time to maintain it.

[mikeymansimpsons]

still nice though

[bluemoose]

That's a really cool site. Good work on it.

[ludvigsen]

Bump.

I've updated to Season 7. I've made a script that directly pulls the data from the official site for me and throws it in the database to make it easier on me to add all the eps. Although, i would have gotten to all seasons if it wasn't for the fact that there is a shit load of mistakes on the official site. Wrong production numbers, mistyped production numbers, mistyped episode names, etc. Had to manually change a bunch of them myself.

Anyway, those are up and will have all the new episodes in there by the end of the week.

And before you ask, i will get that judging booth in the site when i get the episodes in there so we can get a list update.

Also, i'm looking for maybe a volunteer or two to be news posters since i'm clearly far too busy to update on a regular basis, but since there is no true webnews site out there, i want simpsonsRanked to be the place for people to go to find news.

Thanks guys, let me know if you see any errors in season 4-7. There was probably a lot more errors on the official site i didn't notice.

www.maggied.com

[mikeymansimpsons]

cool. kick ass

[tim]

i could probably help out with updating web news.

[mentholmoose]

I'll help, too, if necessary.

[Rest your giant head]

I like it. Nice job,the design is perfect (simple,but nice).

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

Aside from the lack of episode screenshots, looks good.

[ludvigsen]

All episodes are up. Right up to last nights episode. Have to get the public rating page redone, then the judging booth needs to get up, redesign of the index page, and then we can do a list update, and the site will be looking how i want it. :)

EVERYONE REVIEW SITES!!! Want to get the ratings populated.

www.maggied.com

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

More suggestions:
Could do with some space between the ratings (eg "Rating: 0.0 Reviews: 0") and the title of the next episode so it's obvious that you're rating the episode above the form, not below.
Something I did on Simpson Crazy was to add a "quick rate" page, where people could rate multiple episodes quickly. Rating an episode then having to go back every time could get tiresome for a lot of people. Maybe you could add something like that, or make it so people don't need to leave the page to vote for an episode?

[ludvigsen]

Hmm... just noticed in IE, the spacing is kinda fucked so it makes it look like it's the one for below. I'll fix that with some sort of horizontal rule.

And about the tedious rating, yeah, i gotta fix that. Was just lazy coding on my part. Think i'm going to make it just go back to the page you were on. Multiple rating will be a bit tricky with the coding which i don't want to do.

[Brad Clarke]

Hmm... just noticed in IE, the spacing is kinda fucked so it makes it look like it's the one for below. I'll fix that with some sort of horizontal rule.

And about the tedious rating, yeah, i gotta fix that. Was just lazy coding on my part. Think i'm going to make it just go back to the page you were on. Multiple rating will be a bit tricky with the coding which i don't want to do.
cool, ludvigsen and you check your pm box.