Well, Blurtit is an ever-evolving and ever-changing beast. We're continuously looking to improve the site; with some changes more noticeable then others!
However, towards the end of 2012 we realised the site really needed a major update. We wanted to introduce a cool new design and some awesome features, but we also wanted to 'reboot' the concept of the site.
Relaunching Blurtit in 2013
While Blurtit has always been a great place to connect with people, ask questions, post answers - we also wanted to be a bit more ambitious and become the funnest, friendliest and most helpful Q&A community on the planet!
That's where the idea behind creating a "handbook for life" came from.
Our challenge was to build a community of people sharing their advice, knowledge and life experiences through Q&A... Especially all those answers you wouldn't find anywhere else on the web.
So we closed down the site to make all the technical changes, and then relaunched the community in March 2013 as an invite-only "Beta".
The goal was to spend a few months testing out the new site, listening to feedback, and also beginning to develop the new community.
The users that took part in this Beta stage were a mixture of friends and family, social media and digital experts, and also people that requested an invite by getting in touch with us.
What's next for Blurtit?
July 2013 saw an end to that part of our evolution, and the beginning of an exciting new one!
We've removed the need for an invite code, and are currently opening up the site to users old and new!
However, these are still early days - and there's still so much we can achieve.
More specifically, there are three main missions I hope we can all work towards as a community:
1 - Creating Team Blurtit
We'd like a group of "core users' to take charge and really lead the community.
By encouraging user-volunteers to help us run the site, we can make sure Blurtit moves in the right direction, and really does become a Q&A that is both helpful and fun!
For those of you interested in taking part in "Team Blurtit", there'll be blog posts and newsletters coming up with more information - so keep any eye out.
You can also contact me on [email protected] anytime!
2 - Quality vs Quantity
For anyone familiar with old Blurtit, you'll know that we've always been fond of games, competitions and having fun on the site.
While this is definitely still the case, we think that previous concepts like "points for answers" and "leaderboards" may have encouraged an ethos of quantity over quality.
This new Blurtit is all about taking a different approach.
We'd like to provide really helpful and considerate answers, more than just a link to another site or a 15-second answer.
We encourage people to take their time and really show off their knowledge, as this will really help promote what Blurtit is all about!
3 - Spreading the word
To become the most helpful Q&A site on the planet, we're going to need to think BIG.
This means sharing our awesome answers on Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus... But it also means getting in touch with the most helpful, fun, or interesting people we know, and inviting them to take part!
For more info on all of this, you can check out our Blurtit Blog on Tumblr or keep an eye on your inbox for our weekly Community Updates newsletter.
