You need a spinner (or if there already is one, you need a much more obvious one) so I can tell the app is doing something when I click one of the "Filter by" buttons on the right sidebar. Just go to ajaxload.info, get an animated GIF, load it in the template display:none, and then $("#spinner").show() when you make your call back to the server.
I am interested in the content of your site, but the performance is not tolerable. The load time for the first page will cause some people to go away and never come back, but that isn't the problem. The problem is that once it loads, it’s not usable. I have no idea what you are doing in the JavaScript, but it churns my CPU for about a minute as it consumes more and more memory, eventually topping out at about 300 meg. Scrolling through the list of books is too slow and jerky to tolerate.
I would suggest avoiding JavaScript altogether until you get to the root of the problem. Also, test your site on a run of the mill platform like a five year old Dell PC running Windows XP and IE7. You can probably find one of these at your office or your parents’ house. If the site isn’t quick on that platform, then half the world isn’t going come back after the first visit.
That's a great resource, thanks for putting that list together.
Some ideas for the next version:
- Paginate the book listings. Most people probably aren't going to be looking way down in the list anyways, no need to give them results they won't see.
- Add a small blurb to the main page telling visitors what the site is about. It doesn't need to be as detailed as the FAQ just something like: "Find great books recommended by hackers!"
- Give users some indication of how the books are sorted. It doesn't matter that the ranking is opaque and subjective, even a small label that said "Sort by: best" would be helpful.
I just searched in that page about Lisp and there are only two books, On Lisp and Lisp in small pieces. The most recommended book is Practical Common Lisp by Peter Seibel, this book is not on that page, so version 1.0 is very weak, there is not land of lisp (new book), nothing about clojure, etc.
Improvements to the site since the beta a few weeks ago.
- Added JQuery UI
- Each book now has its own detail page
- On the book detail page, you can see where other hackers all over the web are talking about the book. Good for those who want to research books more before buying
- There's an "Ask Question" where you can ask a question. I tried to include the standard questions we get over on HN, but if I missed one, here's the place to add it
- There's an "Answer Question" page. Don't like my list of books? Make your own using drag and drop. Site creates an url with your lists of books to answer a particular startup question. You can reuse the url in other places (like HN)
- Added a bunch of noscript text so folks without Javascript can still browse the books
- Spent way too long on load and response times (Always seems that way, eh?) First hit on an empty cache still sucks, but return hits aren't so bad.
Also added several books based on HNers suggestions.
One suggestion I would have is to tell the users upfront about the affiliate links. I don't have a problem with them but the amazon links are minified.
By not mentioning the affiliate link and only showing an obfuscated link it gives the appearance that you are trying to pull something over on the user.
I think a statement on the front page saying that links are affiliate links, or just putting the actual links on the pages would help with gaining the user's trust.
Great site:)
edit I know see this on the site: external links to amazon are through their affiliate program
No deception was intended -- I just like being able to track links with Bit.ly real-time instead of waiting overnight for Amazon reporting -- but I can see your point. Hopefully the new text will clear that up.
Truly wonderful. It's already been a valuable resource for me.
Feature request for those of us who may be checking in from time to time: is there a way to see books recently added to the list? Would be really useful.
I just turned javascript off and loaded the site -- and it's a big list of books where you can read the descriptions and click for more information. The book detail page suggests other books and provides you with a consensus and a list of formats available. Is this what you see as well? Were you expecting something else?
