Employee Of The Year

It’s no secret that Redux is crowd-sourced entertainment, and that our community is the driving force behind our infinite stream of top notch content. However, perhaps less obvious is how greatly the community drives Redux’s features and experience as well. Looking back at what we first started with a few years back and where we are now, it only seemed fair that we give it up for you guys and everything you’ve done to guide Redux to what it is today. While nearly every major move we’ve made originated from your feedback and recommendation, there are a few notable feature “wins” that are deserving of explicit recognition.

Channels: Yep, you guys made it happen. We were puzzled at how to add a clean, involving way of organizing content on the site through means other than olden world tags and meta data. Like a beam of light shining down from the heavens, the suggestion to create interest group “channels” around similar content was put forth to both allow content to be easily sorted and found, as well as unite those who shared common passion. This idea turned out to be even more serendipitous with the user-suggested advent of TV Mode soon thereafter, allowing you to indulge in a continuous stream of fine-tuned content without having to push a single pixel.

TV Mode: Oh yeah, you guys did that too. We heard how many of you liked to kick back, hang up the mouse and keyboard, and let the community take care of the rest. We took that inspiration and turned it into one of our most lauded features on the site. Lesser imitations have since popped up all over the place, though you guys can feel satisfied knowing that you lead the charge long before it became trendy.

Bumping: How does one solve the case of making Redux the most social, community-oriented site on the web? Once again, you guys had the answer: item bumping. This is one of our most treasured features that unmistakably differentiates the Redux experience from everything else, and makes hanging out on Redux such a distinctly social, energetic experience. Only on Redux can you stay involved in what your fellow entertainment addicts are enjoying in real time, without having to refresh.

This is just the beginning of a very long list of community-inspired features (Add to Channel, Personal Messaging, Activity Notifications, Filter by Type, Show Original, Share Buttons, etc.), and we’d have more time to list the rest if we weren’t so busy developing more of them for you right now. So, take a moment to admire your own ingenuity, and know that we’re always listening to what you have to say; not just because we’re nice people, but because Redux’s success depends on it.

Thanks everyone, and keep the feedback coming!

While Redux is a tight community, by no means do we want to come off as exclusive. In an effort to further broaden our offerings to as many communities as possible, we’ve just added MySpace to the list of sites that now support sharing via the Redux iPhone App.

MySpace Integration on iPhone - we've got you covered

Between that, Facebook, Twitter, I think we’ve got you covered. However, if you can think of any other networks that are missing out on your Redux goodies, let us know.

Try not to get too creeped out, though we’ve been watching you. Not just the stuff that you share, but the way you interact with others through the site. Some of these people are complete strangers, and others may very well be sitting across from you right now (as is the case with us at HQ). What we’ve noticed through these observations on Redux is true anywhere: sharing and interacting with people you already know is easier and more personal than strangers.

Register Via Twitter

In that sense, it only makes sense that there are so many strong communities of friends on Redux that are also friends offline. To help make it easier for this to happen, we’re bringing your Twitter network into the fold. Today, you can securely sign up using Twitter, in addition to Facebook and MySpace, to automatically set up a network of people you know that are on Redux. We’ll keep adding more services as you request them, though in the meantime, happy virtual bonding!

Team Redux

Now that the shockwaves of excitement from the redesign have left the atmosphere, we’re moving onto making little splashes here and there to refine the experience. With our ever-growing wisdom, we’re bringing back some of your favorite features that, for one reason or another, we’re too advanced (or buggy) for their time. The one we are most excited about Reduxing into the new design is The Bump.

The Bump is Back!!

The Bump action was a fantastic way to make sure that the best of Redux surfaced to the top each time someone propped or commented on it. It’s unique dynamic also made hanging out on the stream exciting. However, it did get a bit annoying when eon-old content continually resurfaced. To solve this, we’re giving all new posts a 10-hour bumpability window. This means that everything will be given a full day’s chance to get lots of propping and commenting action, and will then settle comfortably into the chronology of the stream thereafter.

Give something a bump and see for yourself!

We’ve been making lots of progress on some very, very serious things at Redux lately. The stream redesign was a long, labor-intensive process that involved a lot of thinking and creative, followed by a whole lot of tedious work. After suppressing our creative instincts for so long, something weird was bound to happen. This inevitable weirdness ended up taking the form of our latest toy: the Doodler.

The Doodler allows you to express your reaction to content with not using boring, been-there-done-that words, but rather: drawings! Just to illustrate how eloquent this feature will make you look, allow me to share a few examples of how it has helped me get my point across.

The Doodler allows you to express your reaction to content.

(talent optional)

Feelin' kinda blue?

We've got a few dozen shades.

And one final one from our lead GUI designer

…and so on.

Give it a scribble and finally let everyone know just how you feel.

In our relentless quest for making it easier to enjoy more sources of entertainment, we’ve just added the ability to see videos in-line from Break.com, EscapistMagazine, and LiveLeak.

See videos in-line from these fine sources

Now videos shared from these sources get embedded and displayed just as easily as those from YouTube, Vimeo, and a dozen or so others.

These guys are kept in-line too.

This makes it easier to enjoy more content, as well as making it easier for your fans to watch, comment, and prop stuff you share from more sites.

Enjoy!

Team Redux

The must-anticipated stream redesign finally cracked its beak through its shell and crawled from the primordial server ooze to your browser. It only took us a year or so to do it, and we’re quite thrilled to finally have it in the wild. Based on the last few days of feedback, we seemed to have gotten it right – much due to your guidance along the way, of course.

A highlight of the redesign we’re particularly happy about is the much-desired Notifications feature, which allows you to stay on top of conversations and items you’ve participated in, and lets you know when someone new has become your fan.

New Notifications System

We’ve also cleaned up the Channel system and made it easier for you to find stuff and people according to interest.

Navigate Channels Easier

Oh, and the layout and general site are much simpler and prettier, but that’s only incidental since we’re engineers.

Dive in and let us know what you think.

Team Redux

Like any enduring act that’s more than a one-hit-wonder, it’s been a gradual rise to the top. After a few rounds of tweaks and revisions, the Redux iPhone App has been gaining attention, momentum, and fans. How far it will go is unknown, though at the very end of last week, we’re proud to celebrate its sure-footed climb to the #34 spot for Top Free Apps across the entire iTunes iPhone App store.

Redux on the Charts

We’re all proud, not just in the sense of our own vanity, but because the quality of the Redux App is wholly dependent on the community behind it. So, nice work everyone, and thanks for taking Redux to such great heights in a whole new community.

Team Redux

Well, it has been about a year since the stream hit the scene in all of its paradigm-shifting glory. With only a few minor tweaks since then, it’s done a pretty great job at helping people discover great content in an oft-imitated, never duplicated interface.

We’ve also learned a ton from using it over the past year, both from watching it at work and listening to your feedback. At this juncture, we’re taking it all into account and embarking upon a major redesign of everything from the ground up. It’s mostly in our heads at this point, though expect to see some previews here as things move along.

For now, get any additional feedback and suggestions to us while you can, and we’ll expertly sculpt it into the vision in our heads.

More updates soon.

Team Redux

Just one day after the launch of our Redux iPhone application yesterday, we’ve seen over 10,000 user sessions on the app (and growing ), so we thought it would interesting to analyze usage statistics to guide us in improving the applications, and to learn a bit more about our users.

A feature in both the Redux iPad and iPhone application is the ability to easily share content you discover with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, or via Email. But iPad users seem to share differently than their iPhone/iPod counterparts.

34.5% of shares on the iPad were made to Twitter vs 15.2% on the iPhone/iPod

30.3% of shares on the iPad were made to Facebook vs a whopping 65.5% on the iPhone/iPod

Could this be because the initial adopters of the iPad are more likely to be adopters of Twitter? Of course, the audience using the Redux apps may not be representative of the larger audiences using the iPad & iPhone, but this is really interesting nonetheless!