Taking Stock at the Two-Year Mark
Note: We’re moving this post up from yesterday to encourage more input. It’s that time of year when we ask you to tell us what you’ve liked and haven’t liked on the site over the past year and what you’d like to see more and less of going forward. We’ve said it before, but we’d…
Note: We’re moving this post up from yesterday to encourage more input. It’s that time of year when we ask you to tell us what you’ve liked and haven’t liked on the site over the past year and what you’d like to see more and less of going forward. We’ve said it before, but we’d like to have more architectural appreciation posts. Given our own lack of formal training, we’d be interested in hearing from anyone who would be interested in writing occasionally about the borough’s architectural past and present. Other than that, we have an exciting (we think) new feature coming out in January that will being some order to the service component of the Forum. Also on our wish list: Video house tours of brownstones. And while there are times we wish there were less bashing of new developments on the site, we feel duty-bound to continue to hold bad developers’ feet to the fire. And, of course, we wish people could be a little nicer to each other in comment threads, but that comes with the anonymity of the medium.
Great site, one of my absolute favorites.
How to make it better?
— Labels/tags on each post so people can explore the site by category.
— Move the blog-like “forum” to the proper message board software you use for the Brooklian boards. Currently the same questions get asked too often on the Forum because old questions and helpful answers scroll away and are not very explorable.
— Create some sort of directory of Brooklyn tradespeople where people can rate their work (a la Servicemagic or Angie’s List).
Keep up the great work!
This site was a huge help in my recent purchase of a brownstone in Boerum Hill, and I’m still reading it daily. In particular, I don’t know what I would have done without the recommendations in the forum.
One thing that might be cool, if a bit time intensive, would be a page for each property on the market with space for specific comments and feedback for each one (I was addicted when the my house was up for discussion a few times). Maybe keep track of price adjustments, time on market, and final prices once it’s sold. Could gain a lot of good data about what’s actually happening in the market in a few months’ time.
I’ve been hooked since I discovered the site over a year ago. I’ve learned a great deal about neighborhoods, building codes,attitudes about gentrification, and especially about preservation and development in all parts of Brooklyn. The latter may not have been my initial interest, but as things develop here in Brooklyn at the rapid pace that this last year has seen, it’s very important to have one source that keeps up with it all, either through Mr. B’s reporting, or the information given by posters. We all, owners and renters alike, have a huge stake in knowing what is happening around us.
As to improvements – I would like to see more articles about neighborhoods, especially those outside of the usual haunts, as well as the interesting posts that would pop up occasionally asking or giving information on buildings of historic or architectural interest.
I don’t want the site to be like Apartment Therapy, but occasional articles on interior design are good, especially as relates to combining old house charm and detail with 21st century needs and equipment. I especially like DIY suggestions, as we all can’t afford to just hire people to do everything, nor do we all want to. I especially enjoy comments from people like Yente, who have great hands-on and creative suggestions on a multitude of topics, because of their own renovations/restorations.
In that vein, it would be great to be able to post pictures, if only in the forum section. I love seeing other people’s homes and projects.
Lastly, at some points this last year, you had a weekly post with interesting stores and businesses listed. Please bring that back. I think you must have run out of stores, or no one was contributing, but perhaps if it was expanded to businesses other than retail stores or restaurants? I think that would be a great resource for all of Brooklyn.
All in all, I enjoy the site very much, trolls not withstanding. I had no problem with registration, but I understand why that didn’t work too well. I guess if someone takes the time to constantly hijack one’s identity, it means I’m doing something right by pissing them off. Good. Best of everything to you Mr. B, and everyone else here, in the new year.
I think the site is fantastic. My husband thinks I’m obsessed! We have been in the process of looking for a house in a specific neighborhood over the past year and this site has been extremely helpful to us in our search. I think this site is a great resource!
Thanks and have a wonderful New Year!
Add a garden design section
I’ll just repeat what everyone has said above: love the site and read it daily. One feature I hope you continue (and maybe expand) would be your trips to nabes outside the BH/BoCoCa/Slope/Clinton Hill/Fort Greene area. For someone who doesn’t time to explore, it’s great to get a feel for all the great buildings that I’ve yet to see firsthand. Again, great job and keep up the good work in the new year!
I love your site as well and thank you for it. I too would welcome you posting examples of what you consider ‘good development’. Your editorials lose some credibility as it seems like you hate virtually everything.
I found your site when I moved to Cobble Hill over a year ago, and have loved it since. I can only imagine how much time you put into it.
Here are a few suggestions for improvements:
1. Include tags with each post, and then links to search on those tags. Thus, when visiting the site, readers could click on the “Park Slope” or “Williamsburgh” or “Renovation” links and see just the posts that have been tagged as such.
2. The above feature would help readers get “neighborhood feels” better. Another way to do this might be to, once in a while, devote a week to a specific neighborhood.
3. Any extra info about school districts is helpful. I know that in a couple years, when I move (within Brooklyn) again, that’ll be as big a concern as the quality of construction…
Thanks for a great site!
I love your site. It has given us the courage to renovate our home which we have owned for many years, and which is comfortable but needs work. The many contributors to your site give us the enthusiasm and couirage to go on. Please keep after bad developers. Someone was killed at a site being demo’ed in Harlem yesterday.
And finally, one request. You seem to keep a rolling 2 year archive of the forum -could you keep the even older archives around on the site somewhere where they can be searched – some info and recommendations don’t get stale and would be good to be able to find them.
Happy New Year, Mr. B.