Which new features do you want the most?
On the Places page, if a shop has been closed, it’d be great if the map marker was in a different color, or grayed out or something. The number one listed tea place in my area has been closed for a few years now, yet as it (was) the closest to my location, it is still listed first. Or perhaps an option to not view places that have closed.
It will be awesome if u could put a background image in the account page :D
perhaps like a twitter of “what tea are you drinking now?” hahahah
I don’t know if this has already been requested, but I would like a way adjust how many times I have drank a particular tea without having to add a new drink note for each time I have had it?
a place where I can add a status update!! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought of quips or thoughts I wanted to share on this site, but couldn’t because there is no available place except for the tea ratings. For instance, if I am frustrated at not having access to hot water for tea! Where can I vent that?
yeah… that means pushing tea in my friend’s faces. I haven’t got many that appreciate it the way I do
Um yeah, so? It’s your page. I hate it when people tell others what to write (or what not to write) on their own page. Usually gets them defriended.
I see your point but if there is nobody on my fb to “talk tea” with then the fun of a status update is lost. Atleast here if I post something about not having any hot water available, people will understand my frustration and even sympathize. On fb… it would be more like “so what?” or “drink water instead” etc.
Oh the perils of people not seeing eye-to-eye about what we’re passionate about. ;o) I get how you feel, ’though my friends tend to moch me about how intrenched I am in this passion so quickly…
I second, third or whatever this suggestion, facebook friends really don’t understand my obsession, to bad you couldn’t link this with twitter or something. Status updates would be a great feature.
I think I might be misunderstanding you (Seattle Tea Snob) but Steepster is linked with Twitter. When you write a tasting note, there is the option to post on facebook or Twitter. (Lower left corner, you can check one or both boxes).
Yeah sorry I wasn’t very clear about that, I do have the feature that you mentioned set up. I meant that a sort of reverse connection would be neat, such as folks here on steepster being able to see our tweets.
I figured I wasn’t getting it straight. That would be neat. Very few of my FB and ‘real life’ friends are big into tea either.
Ohhh my friends mock me to. but I don’t care! ha.
Is anyone here on FB?? If I can add you, and make a special “tea friends” list then I CAN post status updates! not as fun as if it were on steepster but better than nothing :)
I’m not on Facebook anymore, wasted to much time so I shutdown my account. I am on Twitter @seattleteasnob and hoping to be on Google+ in the near future. Also, something to think about, we could create a new tea and call it “status update” and everytime someone reviews it it acts as a status update. Not a great idea mind you, but it would show management we are serious. :)
Oh I’m not on twitter. Without a smartphone, there is really no point, and my life is consumed enough by internet communication as it is! :P
hehehe I’ve done the status update thing. I titled it “My version of a status update” by “Ramblings of my mind” —maybe if we all start using it, or some variation of, then they will implement it on the site? :)
its 2011 and you don’t have a smartphone?!? how is that even possible? :)
I like the status update thing perhaps i’ll steal it :)
Most of my spare cash ends up going into tea… and I haven’t got the monthly budget to add data charges so either way I’m broke! oh and my laptop just died— This one is borrowed til I can get a new one, in a year or so lol
Yes, please!! if we all do it then who knows what will happen :)
I am not sure if this has been previously posted, and I will admit, I am too lazy to look and see if this has been posted already… But, I would like to have an option to organize my virtual cupboard into teas “I share with friends”, “I drink daily”, “Sunday teas” ect? This along with the ability to edit how many times a person drinks the teas on their shelf would be ideal editions to this site.
and how much of it they have! I never buy more than 50g at a time, less if it’s an option
Just do a search. We already have tons of repeat posts/threads here because people are too lazy. Please don’t clog steepster with spam just because you’re lazy.
Irony, I tried a search and not even my post came up..? It only came up with 8 posts (8 months old) on cupboard oragnization, but not about virtual cupboards, I got lucky I guess, I hope. ;o)
Opening a discussion thread seems to bring me to the beginning of the thread, rather than to the part I last read up to. Is there a way to work around this?
This is a rather primative board and I too would like to see some more advanced features. However I’ve found a decent work around for this problem, which ever thread you want to open, if you follow it to the right and click on when it was last updated, for example “1 day ago”, it’ll take you to the last page of the thread. Doesn’t always work great though, sometimes it takes you to a blank page.
You should have been here 2 years ago. No discussion boards- not even an ability to write tasting notes. Just loging.
I think I am getting to the place where I would like the option to block users. I know I seem petty and shallow, but there are times I would love to block company posts, as well as users who get my goat on the Discussion Boards. I am able to just ignore them for the most part, so it is not critical. But one day, it would be a nice option.
Adding for clarity: I just would like to block the person’s posts from my view, not Steepster overall.
Agreed. Luckily most of the users that have really ticked me off have left- but when I was going thru this experience I REALLY wish I had a “block user” button. Not sure if I or anyone else has posted this idea here, but I do know I’ve discussed this with Jason in the past.
I know we have this kind of option on Ravelry.com, so am kind of spoiled. I know I should just suck it up and play nice, but there are times when I don’t want to see the third posting of a youtube commercial for a company who is just looking for promotion and does not even have anything to sell yet.
could be, could be, but then again maybe its the self-promoted forum rent-a-cop that floats around ;)
I haven’t checked the full contents of this thread, as there are 28 pages now, so I’m not sure if this has already been suggested, but here goes.
Allow users to create a “custom blend” or “mix” entries in tasting notes. For example, I like mixing lapsang souchong with Irish Breakfast, and think it would be neat to describe that mix and perhaps save it as a frequent “house blend”.
Perhaps up to three field entries for source teas, with percentage sliders to get the final output to 100%, then the usual time and temperature parameters and notes field.
We have a company called “Custom” which is probably the best place to put these. Then in the description you could note any specific companies. Maybe that helps?
@ Jason – Yep, that’s an okay makeshift solution. Regardless, an official feature would be very helpful.
Hello, I am new to Steepster, and am slowly feeling my way around. I am new to loose leaf tea, and have for months pondered getting involved in an online forum about tea. I am glad I finally made the plunge! I like all of what I have seen so far. I looked through a few pages of replies to this post to see if my following question has been asked yet, and I haven’t seen it addressed (maybe I missed it …). My question: I would like easy access to information on specific tea retailers (experiences other Steepsters have had with buying and interacting with them) so I can decide if I want to buy from them. As I guess others do I base my decision on what retailer to buy from on more than just the availability of the product (in this case, tea) I want. I base my decision on things like: service (are they good at answering my questions, do they have a reasonable return policy, are they timely about mailing out their products, etc.), company practices and values (some of which I can get from their website, but they can print anything they want), are their products genuine (i.e. do their teas really represent how they taste, are they fresh, etc.). Certainly, I can get this information on my own by purchasing from them directly, (which is my preferred way), but with so many companies selling tea these days, I don’t have the time or money to patronize them all (and believe me, I wish I could!).
Here are a few specific examples to help explain what I mean: I have read that genuine yellow tea is hard to find, such that sometimes green tea is sold as ‘yellow tea’. So how do I know if it’s authentic? As another example, since many retailers do not give a year of pluck on the tea (which there are many, including big names like Teavana, Harney and Son’s, and Republic of Tea) I want to be able to trust that the tea is reasonably fresh (definition of which is different for each class of tea). Again, I can get this information by buying and trying the tea myself (which I have already done much of), but I would like to be able to look to the experiences of others for a guideline about the company’s reliability and integrity.
As I have done, it is possible to glean this information from reading review after review about the company I want to buy from (it seems to me that Den’s Tea, who I am considering making a purchase from in the future, has a great reputation for delivering what they say they are selling), but that can be terribly inefficient and often times feels like taking shots in the dark.
Furthermore, I see that ratings for those who have physically visited tea stores do exist (under the Places tab), and that is helpful. But there seems to be little to no information on experiences of buying on-line, over the phone, etc.
I didn’t intend this to be so wordy, but that is how I best express myself:). I look forward to conversing with other Steepsters on this topic or on any other topic. It is good to be here (so to speak).
Here is an example of what I am looking for:
Experience buying from Jing Tea Shop: Positive. The website is simple and easy to navigate. Most teas have pictures of both the dry and wet leaves (and a close-up shot). There is detailed information about each tea (including year and time of harvest). You can order a sample (25g) for about the same price as per gram as their standard size (100g). Shipping is high compared to shipping from the US (they are in China), but the package arrived as soon or sooner than time frame given. They responded in a reasonable amount of time to two e-mail inquiries. They sent me two samples (seven grams) of tea with the shipment. From the tea I have tried so far, it is exactly as described on their website. They sent me everything I ordered (I have had a few experiences with other retailers where the tea was listed as ‘in stock’ only to find out later via e-mail that one of the teas they listed as ‘in stock’ was if fact ‘sold out’)
As final comment, I have had only one company (on eBay) that I have not had a good experience with (the tea did not look anything like the picture, the base tea was old, it was ‘flavored’ with tiny un-dried bits of fruit that stuck to the tea leaves, and it did not taste at all as advertised). Retailers I have had good experiences with: Tea Trekker (great selection, great descriptions of the tea, quality tea at a reasonable price), Seven Cups (quality ‘sale’ tea for decent prices, fast shipping), Jing Tea Shop (quality tea for good prices, timely and informative responses to inquiries via e-mail).
Maybe someone else already said these things, but they’re worth mentioning just in case. This website is great! But with these two changes, it could be sensational!
Make a search box for people too. Sometimes I want to search for a user’s profile, not a tea.
In addition, tea places should not be so specific (as in the Teavana located in Montgomery Mall over the one in Columbia Mall). I should be able to comment on Teavana as a whole and view others’ opinions. What kind of retailer are they? What if I want to compare two retailers: like Teavana and Lupicia? I don’t care about a specific location. That makes it hard to determine what people think about the company overall (not to mention time consuming to try to figure it out with the certain setup of the website’s search engine).
Actually, if someone has said these things before one should find the post using the search box and simply reply with “I agree” or elaborate on ways to make the idea even better rather than posting the same idea over again. I agree with your first idea completely. I do; however, completely disagree with your opinion on places. The purpose of Places is to be able to find places where one can drink and/or purchase tea locally. Also, reviews on a place should not be given in broad terms. Each store is run differently, may have different products, and therefore have the ability to be reviewed differently. For example, There’s one McDonalds in our area who’s food is consistently really bad and they never fail to mess up my order. It is not fair to say that every store in the chain is run like that. Another example: I sure wouldn’t want someone to form an opinion on me based on my family. There are some behaviors they have that I not only want to be affiliated with, but I don’t want to be accused of having.
I hear what you’re saying. Overall, I agree with what you’re saying. But since I’m fairly new to the larger tea world, I have only been exposed to a very limited number of tea companies. My desire is to learn about tea companies in general, not necessarily a specific venue in my town. And I have a feeling others share this desire. Don’t get me wrong; it is a good feature to search for local tea shops. But I think searching on a more broad scale should be added as well. So in summary, I’m not asking to get rid of the local search engine. But it would be helpful to have a company index that perhaps is a cumulative place for all the reviews that have been said about that company, regardless of a specific location. It’s time-consuming and inconceivable to research one company on a large scale with the search engine as is.
Yeah, I definitely think a “Companies” section would be nice- I buy almost all of my tea exclusively online and would love to know what others think of a company before buying. But I definitely think Places should be kept as it’s current status quo and completely separate from Companies.
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