Here’s an update I’ve wanted to do for a long time—when you post a comment on a quote, now it’ll show up immediately, rather than force the page to reload.

As requested, I’ve also created a new leaderboard, which is based on your average points per quote for the last few weeks. It’s an interesting new way to see who contributes the best stuff. Take a look and let me know what you think!

//ron, who is so far beyond exhausted

By popular demand, a new points system is rolling out today! Not only do you get points from posting popular quotes, but now you’ll even get points from being tagged in popular quotes. After all, if you had something good to say, then you deserve a cut of the reward.

Read more about the new system here, and keep sending in your feedback!

//ron, who’s certain Heath Ledger made a great Joker

Every so often, you read a blog or journal entry by a friend (or stranger) and think, “Okay, I have to quote that.” Now, you can use the simple new bookmarklet to quote more quickly. Try it right now—it’s made of awesome.

Speaking of blogs, CSS expert Christian Montoya ( Montoya) recently praised Quotelet as being, well, “better than bash.org”. (Some of his suggestions even made it into a recent code update.) Check out Christian’s review.

Do you have a blog? Send in your links if you write about Quotelet, and the most amusing posts will be featured here!

//ron, who’s looking forward to an amazing year

In the Top section, you can now see how you rank among everyone else who has posted quotes. Congrats to everyone in the top 10! Now you can tell your friends to look at this leaderboard as you explain, “This is why I’m hot.”

(If your friends ask what’s going on, you might even reply, “This is why I’m hot. This is why I’m hot. I’m hot ‘cause I quote; you ain’t ‘cause you don’t.”)

//ron, who quotes like a harpoon daily and nightly

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend watching An Inconvenient Truth. I watched it for the first time earlier this month, and was downright startled at how much our environment has changed in the last ten years. It was unsettling to learn that some of our American-made vehicles don’t even meet the legal environmental standards in places like China, and that the global level of carbon dioxide has been steadily increasing. You can read more and watch the trailer at the documentary’s website.

(This post is brought to you by Blog Action Day.)

//ron, who despises seeing people litter

As you’ve probably noticed, a lot of new people have joined the Quotelet community—welcome!

Here are some changes from the past week:

• If you have a message in your Inbox that you need to follow up on later, you can now mark it as unread.
• Fixed some silly bugs with inviting friends, viewing quotes you’ve posted, and viewing quotes you’ve added as favorites. (Thanks  hookedonphonics!)
• Added yet another Easter egg... here’s a hint. (No, that’s not it.)

Found anything else that needs tweaking for the next code update? Send in your feedback!

//ron, who is enjoying some delicious apple crisp

A lot of you like to post quotes that either include a bit of context, or a comical excerpt from one of your conversations. The problem is, when doing this, you’ve probably noticed that the text box for entering your quote is simply too small! So, for your quoting pleasure, you can now resize that box—simply click and drag the gray bar beneath it. The same facelift applies to other places throughout Quotelet, so go ahead and play around. :)

Edit: Kudos to Justin and Carina for being majorly helpful in finding bugs in this code update!

//ron, who is amused that Sammy Jankis is in Season 2 of Heroes

Quotelet now has on-site notifications! You’ll receive these notifications if you’re tagged in a quote, someone comments on one of your quotes, or someone replies to one of your comments.

If you receive a notification, a yellow indicator will appear on the right; click it for details. Now it’s even easier to find what your friends are saying.

//ron, who can’t wait for the new seasons of The Office and Heroes

This week, Quotelet’s getting a little facelift, and a much speedier Top Quotes section (sped up by 14x!). The big news today, though, is a useful new feature—quote sharing! Now below every public quote, you’ll find a “share” link. Click it for some convenient options for sharing quotes:

• Have your own website or blog? The HTML option gives you code to simply paste right into your site. Show off your favorite quote!
• Share the funniest quotes with friends via e‑mail or Quotelet messages. Or, share in style on Facebook or AIM, and make your friends LOL.

This is especially handy if you’re quoting someone who hasn’t signed up with Quotelet yet! First, post a quote from that person. Next, use the “share” feature to send that person a link. Remind your friend to sign up, and repeat until s/he’s convinced. Happy quoting. ;)

//ron, who’ll love sharing quotes constantly now

Well, I’ve been looking forward to this day for about a year now, ever since settling on a name for this project... Quotelet is now officially open to the public!

That’s right, invitations are no longer necessary for joining Quotelet—all you need is an e‑mail address. The past week has been very hectic, setting up the site for public consumption and finally doing a decent makeover of the Welcome and Home pages. (Tell me what you think!) Several parts of the site are also significantly faster now—“Top” is twice as fast as before, “My Favorites” sped up by 11x, and “My Quotes” sped up by a whopping 30x.

To help you stay on top of what’s new with Quotelet, there’s also a new Subscriptions page, featuring Quotelet’s free RSS feeds for the latest quotes and this blog. Go try them out!

I have to thank carina and monizzle for their help testing and brainstorming about this huge update, as well as the people who have been quoting their friends here for the past few months. You all rock, and once I figure out something nice to do for you early adopters, you’ll be the first to know. :)

//ron, whose hands nearly fell off during this code update

Hiya, I’m Ron, and I’ll be using this blog to track the development of Quotelet.

The Quotelet concept started as a pet project in college. My old roommate Andy and I were obsessed with writing down quotes that we’d heard from friends, professors, TAs, and each other. As the list grew unwieldy, I made a little database so that I could add hilarious quotes, track who was involved, and best of all, look up every quote that a specific person said. It was perfect for lifting spirits during late-night study sessions and ‘til-morning programming frenzies. Everyone who saw the database loved it, and most continually asked me when I’d rebuild it so that they could add their own quotes.

I finally found free time to listen to them after college. I spent a few months designing a brand new system, and finally launched the website in February 2007. You can now browse hundreds of quotes on Quotelet, look up quotes based on who was involved, vote and comment on quotes, and more!

Quotelet’s in what the Web 2.0 crowd would call its “beta” stage—I’m still rolling out new features every week or so. The site was originally invitation-only during early development, but that’s going to change soon. Keep your eyes peeled!

//ron, who’s losing sleep over Quotelet and loving it