Andrew and I never got the chance to give you all the nitty-gritty from our trip to SXSW and that crazy award night. Our spirits were high; the tension was higher. The MC called out the nominees, and as I heard him say “Fluther,” those words kept going through my head: it’s just an honor to be nominated, it’s just an honor to be nominated. And after the award went to another site, that’s actually just how I felt.

It really was an honor to be nominated. We’re proud of Fluther, we’re proud of this community, and you all should be proud of what you’ve helped build, too. We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: the site is really nothing without you. So even though we didn’t get a chance to thank you on the podium, I’ll do it now:

We’d like to thank all the jellies in the collective–and especially our moderators, who work tirelessly–for making Fluther what it is.

But let’s be frank. We’re all really in this to win. That’s why we’re happy to announce we’ve just been nominated to the 2009 Webware 100. That’s right, another juicy award. This time you can vote without bothering to verify your email. So, Flutherites, what more can I say? You are the greatest. Now let’s go win us an award.

Please vote now. It’ll literally take 5 seconds.

We need your help. Fluther has a chance to to win the People’s Choice Award at SXSW. Whoever get the most votes, wins. Anyone can vote, one vote per day.

That means if you all vote right now, and then tomorrow, and the day after, until March 6th, you can make Fluther win, and all of us very, very happy.

It’ll just take a second. Make the puppies proud.

Puppy photo by emarquetti.

We’ll be there at the award ceremony on March 15th, drinking bubbly and crossing our fingers.

And, of course, this award is for “Community” so it really belongs to all of you. Seriously–we’re nothing without your intellect and lurve.

You can help us by quickly registering and voting for us (hints: num stars = fingers on a hand) in the panel picker app:

http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/1128

It will just take you a moment and we’d appreciate the help.

Also, if you’re planning on attending SXSW, let us know so we can all have a Fluther lunch.

Thanks.

I also want to apologize to everyone, both new and old users. When we made the iPhone app, we imagined it as a satellite to the main Fluther experience; we never expected it to be Apple’s featured social networking app for nearly two weeks. As such, we didn’t flesh out the story of Fluther on the iPhone… we assumed people would already know how to use the site. So, I apologize to our new users for not giving them enough tools to really understand how Fluther works before they ask a question.

While I was at SXSW, I followed the various threads, from how we should accommodate new users to how we should determine what questions are appropriate for Fluther. Throughout the conference, I’ve been in awe of how passionate the discussions were and how many wonderful ideas were being generated.

And my heart broke with how many people were frustrated by the site.

So, in that light, we’ve decided to rework the question and response guidelines and make them more accessible for new (and old) users. We’ve re-opened the Man o’ War campfire chat for discussion about the site (feel free to vent).

As we think about how we can maintain our community as we grow, keep this in mind:

It’s natural to be protective of the culture that we’ve created on Fluther, especially as we go through periods of growth. However, in order to protect the culture of Fluther, we cannot create a culture of exclusion. We can’t cross the line from good-natured snark to being rude, because then we not only alienate new users, but we also alienate existing users who become afraid to post because they’re worried that the community will tear them down for asking a “stupid” question.

I’m excited to hear your responses. Please respond in Man o’ War.

And remember, this community is truly awe-some.

As a fun experiment, we decided to make a special version of Fluther just for those of you with questions about SXSW. If you’re going, try doing some asking and answering.

We’ve already got our first hit at downloadsquad! Thank, Jay!