One of the most challenging (and rewarding) things about building a software product in the midst of a community of passionate users is knowing when a feature is being rejected by the community because it’s something new and different and when it’s really something that doesn’t jive. And to boot, online apps tend to have a symbiotic relationship with their users where features evolve based on the community and the community in turn is shaped in large part by the features that the site grows which just adds complexity to figuring these types of things out.

Most of the time we feel like we’re doing a good job of that around here but our recent introduction of ratings shows that we too can miss it. Universally controversial both inside and outside of Tabblo, ratings ended up being something that we decided to launch for two reasons: 1. to help navigate the growing wealth of content on the site, and 2. to give one more axis for feedback, mostly for people who were looking for something that was somewhere between the favorites list and the comments.

The debate on why ratings were not good for Tabblo started in the forum, continued in support emails, and culminated yesterday in a tabblo by one of our users who felt strongly enough to consider quitting Tabblo altogether. We had been working on a replacement for ratings that felt more “Tabblo” and this morning we pushed it up to the site.

Introducing, the Tabblo wink.

Where the old dreaded Netflix/Amazon/YouTube 5-star widget used to be, we now have a small Tabblo icon. If you mouse over it, you will see a “Wink if you like this tabblo.” Winks are then used as an input to determine what shows up on the “popular” page (and to avoid people who may want to game the system, we’re not quite ready to say exactly how we weigh them) but nowhere else on the site. That is, you’ll never see a “this tabblo has X winks” message, and we may just never divulge just how much a wink counts for.

I hope that this is acceptable to everyone who chimed in over the last couple of weeks on all sides of this debate (both inside and outside of Tabblo). For sure I can not promise that we won’t have other equally controversial features coming down the road, but I can least promise you that when we do, we will address the issues that come up in the same way we did with ratings— openly and collaboratively with you all.

We’re launching Tabblo Valentines today so that you can spread some love with the expected Tabblo flair. Using one of three new folded card templates and the Tabblo editor you’ve come to know, get your photos and words into a custom card that is uniquely from you.

But wait, there is more. All you’ve got to do is bring your creativity and we’ll do the rest. We’ll print the card, stamp it, and ship it— all for $1. And the best part is that you don’t need anything more than your Valentine recipient’s email address (or Tabblo username, more on that below). That’s right, after you enter their email, we can take care of getting their real mailing address by sending them an email on your behalf. And while they’ll know you’re sending them a bit of Tabblo love, we won’t reveal your design or your special message for them.

As far as we can tell, Valentine’s Day was really blown out in the US as one of those manufactured holidays that serves as another reason to buy Hallmark cards, flowers, and chocolates, so the big question for us was: why jump into the fray? We’re doing it for 3 reasons.

1. Gifts are better when they are personalized and we at Tabblo are all about that. Down with cards churned out by the millions and canned sentiments!

2. Doing it all for a buck seemed like a really compelling notion for people tired of overpaying at the store. Or worse yet (as in my case), buying a bunch of overpriced cards that never get sent because of missing addresses, stamps, etc.

3. And this one really matters: over the last months, we’ve had a lot of folks who’ve become friends on the site, and one of the most common requests we hear is users who want more ways to show appreciation over these new found relationships. Auto addressing is made for these folks and we’re hoping that in lowering the friction, all of you will find it that much easier to send Valentines to your favorite Tabbloers.

I know I’m looking forward to sending some to the folks whose work has brightened my days on many occasions over the last seven months.

In what was one of the most controversial features here inside of Tabblo, we’ve just launched ratings for tabblos so that you can vote your favorites to the top of the pile.

Here is how it works: for each tabblo you see on the site (except for your own) you get one vote. All of the votes are added up anonymously and the best tabblos get to go to the top of this page. Don’t try to vote more than once per tabblo because you’ll just be over-riding your previous vote.

So why was this a controversial feature to implement? Simply put because we’re all geeks here at Tabblo and we didn’t want the site turning into high school again (where the cool kids vote for each other). If everyone is giving everyone else they know a 5 on every tabblo, it’s going to be a pretty useless feature to help navigate the wealth of content on the site.

And what a wealth we’ve got! The sheer amount of stunning, beautiful, and inspiring tabblos was the reason why we ended up rolling out ratings in the end. It wasn’t that long ago that checking the “most recent” tabblos a couple of times per day was a sure-fire guarantee that you wouldn’t miss anything spectacular, but this is just not the case anymore, and as such we’re launching ratings so that you can help each other stay on top of the hottest stuff on the site.

Oh yeah, and we’ve also added a low-resolution sniffer to all of the images on any of the printed products (posters, books, cards, etc.) as well as a whole new way to make sure that no one ever gets an access denied when you’re sending them an invitation to a semi-private tabblo.

Happy 2007, y’all!