Improve notepad access and reliability

[carlgao]

Get rid of any user overhead for note-taking. Currently, users have to set up a course, then notepad, both of which require a variety of settings that slow down the user as the lecture flies by.
Any information such as date, class name, or lecture name should at best be automated and inferred, and at worst requested from the user after the note-taking. For example, the date and lecture number can be automated; the lecture name can also be inferred from the first line in the pad; the class can be picked from a drop-down menu (with the option of choosing existing classes or making a new one) at the end of class or lecture. If possible, integrate with courses.cs50.net for easier course selection. If FinalsClub recorded the time of each class, it could actually infer the class without asking. Also, validate the information given for the course so people can’t put fake emails or inaccurate/vague information like "unsure: Social Studies 10".
Bottom line: people are busy and look for convenience – FinalsClub needs to make the process of jumping into note-taking literally as simple as a (Facebook) login.
Make the process of finding and joining (or creating and inviting) a notepad much easier.
There needs to be a very easy way to see online friends or classmates and add them as collaborators to a note-taking session (again, remember the rush factor at the beginning of the class).
There also needs to be a similar option to request to join someone else’s note-taking session (if it is private), and see ongoing public note-taking sessions (if they are public). We envision something that looks like a Facebook/Google chat list for friends and classmates, except that clicking on a friend provides (additional) functionality to invite or join note-taking sessions. Of course, FinalsClub can play around with all the typical features of “chat” – for example, invisibility and how public or private the session is.
Note-taking should be side-by-side with an integrated system of class documents. We would suggest a Google Docs system with labels with different colors that users can pick to identify with a certain classes and categories – for example, lecture notes, problem sets, homework/essay prompts, and readings. On a left sidebar as in Google Docs, these labels would turn into a file system by class. This system could make FinalsClub much more attractive, because users would certainly appreciate one place to look at all their class stuff without having to pull from my.harvard, from local files, and from finalsclub. Unfortunately this seems like a pretty hard problem. But every time the professor/TF posts a new doc, the user would rather get a notification/have it upload automatically rather than have to check everyday for announcements.
Add a way to down-vote questions to prevent abuse or irrelevant questions.
Make it easier to create and access Notepads, especially ones currently being edited.
Create accessible direct links into Notepads
Have a separate ‘lecture’ category doesn’t seem useful – most of the time there is just one notepad per lecture (or even multiple lectures per notepad – which isn’t supported).
Fix the formatting (bullets, reduce spacing) in the archived notes:
For example: http://finalsclub.org/archive/note/4e7ae02e1ef652c441000195
Allow for the creation of Notepads by file upload, allowing notes taken while offline to be integrated in the course.
When users are viewing a pad without having logged in, they should be prompted somewhere at the top "Want to contribute? Please log in." Also, "Remember my login" if it's not there already should be implemented.
Creating a new pad from the drop-down menu at the top left while editing creates a new pad but doesn't automatically navigate to the pad.
For the sake of people who only want to use this with their friends, section, etc. as opposed to random strangers, we might want to introduce a more prominent "New private pad" feature... a small, agile group of 2-4 collaborators may be the the best model.