This is so funny, because this was a feature I was planning to suggest, based on how useful I found the Android widget.
A few observations
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Definitely agree on the tick marks for goals with at least one data entry for today already.
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Agree with wanting to be able to sort by deadline as well as date of most recent data. Specifically, I want goals that haven’t been updated for a while to be at the top while goals that have just had data entered at the bottom.
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I personally don’t see the need to see the last entry, let alone the timestamp. Perhaps @apolyton can elaborate on his reasoning?
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I’m much more interested in there being a text box for comments next to (or below to conserve horizontal width) the current box for data.
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Show the exact number of safe days next to the slug/pledge. As I have previously mentioned, I tend to have a lot of green goals, but I would really like to know at a glance if a particular green goal derails in 7 days, 11 days, 27 days, or 63 days. Also, while I also like the actual date of derailment listed as it currently is, often I don’t know off the top of my head what the day is, and for more distant dates, I certainly don’t know the date, so say, if a goal of mine derails Mar 5, I don’t want to have to first think about what the date is, how many days are in February, and then do date math in my head.
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I agreed with @strickvl at first; after all, I don’t think newbees would (or should) have many goals that they would need it in this kind of vertical list form. However, after thinking a little more about it, it hit me. This new style may help a LOT, especially if my suggestion #5 is implemented. The graph is more interesting for QS-type people, but if Beeminder is to grow, it needs to appeal to non-QS people who may not care at all about data visualization and the current focus on the graph (with the bar above it containing the derailment info seeming like a border) probably contributes to these folks’ confusion about the fundamental value proposition of Beeminder.
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Speaking of newbees, for users with only one goal (or zero!), will there be a sort of placeholder goal at the bottom of this list that visually indicates to new users that this list is meant to grow. Otherwise, I see new users being even more confused by having one more page to look at their data. Perhaps this new page should only be activated once a user has two goals, so as to not overwhelm the newbee as well as to introduce this new tool right when it’s actually relevant (users may forget that this is even possible).
@drtall apolyton and my list is sorted by due date…are some of your goals archived/inactive or in a custom order?
Oh, and @dreev, when you talk about the possibility of “quitting” Beeminder, you should be careful that you’re not accidentally triggering the Chris Carter Effect. I know you shared the basic profitability stats before, so I’m personally not worried about Beeminder’s continued existence, but you certainly don’t want to risk scaring some users into migrating to another platform.
Edit: I just realized I completely forgot to answer the question about beemindable growth metrics. Here are some possible metrics to track / suggestions for things you can do.
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Watch a person new to Beeminder use the site to look for areas where new users tend to get confused.
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Write up new documentation. For this and #3, a lot of the material is already pretty much written and ready to go, but is buried in the blog and this forum.
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Highlight case studies on the front page (instead of a small link to testimonials, which are a wall of text and about Beeminder in general instead of a specific use case). There is also a link to an “Overview” which has some of this stuff, but I think the problem is that the Overview page is too long/detailed while the front page is not detailed enough. Thus, users arriving at the homepage without any prior knowledge of what Beeminder is are liable to be really confused about the concept and the value of Beeminder. I think you should emphasize how Beeminder manages to enforce consistency but not at the expense of flexibility, which I see as the primary way Beeminder is different from the competition. This can lead to a discussion of the akrasia horizon for adjusting rates; the multiple ways Beeminder allows you to add data (autodata, on the website, email); how responsive the support staff is to any problems, including errors that cause an unwarranted derailment; even some sneak peek of advanced features like retroratchet (also an opportunity to advise users to start off with a easy/gentle rate, so they don’t make a too ambitious commitment and actually derail in the first few days) and auto-sum. As it stands now, I think the overview and the intro video don’t present topics in the optimal order nor with the optimal emphasis on the basic concept versus mere logistics.