Notice Board
Notifications and Announcements
On this page, Knew The News publishes brief notifications about additions or modifications to the website, including functionality as well as rules and conditions.
(25.04.2013) All-Time highest net worth leaderboard
An all-time highest net worth leaderboard now displays the highest value a player ever achieved while playing Knew The News.
(05.04.2013) Automatic ordering of options
When enabled, options on questions are automatically ordered by their relevance.
(01.04.2013) Responsive Design introduced
The website was completely revised and a new mobile and touch device optimized layout introduced.
(20.10.2012) Smart text contents
Whenever a user adds the url to a youtube video, the video will automatically be embedded in the display of the posted text. If a link to a question or a user profile is posted, it will be converted in the output to simply show the title of the question, or the user name accordingly, with underlying link.
(10.10.2012) Question Proposal
Instead of completely eleborate all aspects of a question, including possible outcomes and likelihoods, users may now simply ask a question and submit it to be finished by one of the super users on the site.
(20.09.2012) US Presidential Election Center
Knew The News launches its first Special page with a special widget: A map of the United States with each state represented using colors dependent on current predictions. The page offers a brought variety of questions surrounding the race, its candidates and related topics.
(14.07.2012) Rewording: Markets are Questions, my friend
Knew The News changed its wording. Although the game still is correctly described as "prediction market", from now on, we'll simply name it "questions". Since, that's simply what it is.
(20.06.2012) New categories in Sports
A number of sub categories have been added to the Sports category: Boxing, Cricket, Golf and Cycling.
(13.06.2012) Enhanced Question Creation
The question creation wizard has been enhanced with the ability to fetch background information about a news topic by simply providing an url to an article on a news site. The wizard automatically reads the keywords from the given page, a summary and an image - if provided by the website.
(12.06.2012) Design Changes
Instead of the colored bubble, the users avatar is shown along with his name throughout the site.
(01.06.2012) Question Sponsoring
Knew The News introduces the sponsoring of questions by promotors of the site. On a promoted question, a prize is raffled among the players whos first, unsold prediction was made on the winning outcome.
(02.05.2012) Question option images
Question options may have own images associated which are used to generate a more pleasant graphical user interface experience.
(19.04.2012) Likeing of comments
Like and dislike is being introduced on comments.
(12.04.2012) Short selling
Expert mode users may bet against options. Players are able to predict that a certain outcome may not occur in their opinion, without the need to buy stakes on each of the other options. To accomplish this, the stake size is provided using a negative value (although the stake is substracted from the users account of course).
(02.04.2012) Question stats: Visits
Question visits are being counted and the total number of visits on a certain question is displayed.
(29.03.2012) Subscribe to questions
To follow developments on a specific question, a user may now subscribe to questions of interest. The user will be periodically informed about what happens to questions to which he subscribed.
(27.03.2012) Better related news retrieval
To achieve better news sources related to questions, from now on keywords for news retrieval me be chosen directly.
(23.03.2012) Enhancements on profile pages
The position lists now have paging functionality enabled, allowing the display of large numbers of positions. Additionally, sent invites are shown in an extra area, with the ability to resend not opened invitations.
(09.12.2011) Tag clouds in category question lists
In addition to the overall tag cloud displayed on the home page of Knew The News, every category listing now shows its own tag cloud, including any tags associated with questions within the category.
(03.12.2011) Improved search functionality
Search queries may now be performed in a "any of these words", "all of these words" or "exact phrase" form to make it easier to find desired questions.
(01.12.2011) End of Beta stage
During twelve months since go-live of the news prediction site Knew The News, the website reached a fully functional, reliable state - based on players' efforts.
(04.11.2011) Deactivated question options
To eleminate side effect from the system change which prevents option values to drop below 1%, this restriction is lifted for any option which has been deactivated from predicting.
(15.10.2011) Competitions testruns
Competitions are emerging to Knew The News providing an additional dimension of competing in news prediction. First test run is ready to launch and more will follow. Stay tuned!
(21.09.2011) Notification settings
On the profile page the user may configure notifications to be send by email or to be added to their profile, or to be omitted all together.
(14.09.2011) Knew The News compete!
On each question details page, the "compete" section displays the player's performance in relation to the performance of the player's friends. The section shows the amount of money the player invested and what this investment is worth on an yet unsettled question. On settled questions the section shows the final performance of each player.
(02.09.2011) Knew The News WordPress Plugin
Knew The News offers users of the widely spread and popular blog publication appliction WordPress the oportunity to easily integrate content from Knew The News in their blog posts and articles using the Knew The News Associate Markets Plugin. Integrated dialogs allow the user to select and embed question widgets from Knew The News, and even allow the user to create Knew The News questions - from within their WordPress blog administration.
(28.08.2011) First community pushed decision
After a "pattern" in betting was discovered which allowed riskless high profits, the community discussed changes to Knew The News which could prevent people from making gains simply by betting a specific sequence of predictions. These changes were discussed and voted for, and eventually have taken effect now.
(01.08.2011) Super Users
In addition to the former MVP concept (which are now to be referred to as Category Editors), the Super User is introduced to Knew The News. Read more on this on the Team page.
(03.07.2011) Forums introduced
Discuss on Knew The News: The Knew The News Forums.
(30.06.2011) User awards for exceptional achievements
Users are awarded badges on their profile page to indicate exceptional achievements on the Knew The News leaderboards. Each month, the first three members on Communication, Predicting, Question Creation and Overall are awarded a Gold, Silver or Bronce badge.
(20.06.2011) A new MVP
bernardo has joined the team of MVP's. See the full team here: Knew The News Team
(14.06.2011) Online member context menu
When hovering over the name of a member at any location of the site, a context info box will popup which displays some basic information about the user, and, more usefull, allow the player to directly send a friendship invite, and messages - without the need to switch to the members profile page.
(06.06.2011) Gameplay change now deployed
Knew The News has changed the calculation of earnings on predictions, as announced earlier.
(01.06.2011) Live activity
On the frontpage, a newly introduced widget shows various activity on Knew The News as it happens, live.
(29.05.2011) The question maker mug
During June, the question creator on Knew The News which questions attract the most activity and earns the best ratings (by other players) will be rewarded a special prize: The unique Knew The News mug.
(21.05.2011) Leaderboard rearrangements
The leaderboards have been slightly rearranged and some new ones are introduced to show more detailed the fields of community activity of the users.
(18.05.2011) Anouncement: Gameplay change
Knew The News will change the calculation of earnings on predictions. Currently, the earnings are calculated based on the value of an option after the stake was bought. This will be changed to be based on the value of the option at the moment before the stake is bought. This way, the user will become the amount of money in return which the value of the option promises him to get.
This change will allow the user interface to be simplyfied, but will only be applicable to predictions which do not exceed a stake size of 100$K. In addition, to make the user interface even easier to understand, the ability of entering own betting amounts, to make predictions private and to define own selection entries on the dropdown list of the stake size input box, are going to be removed.
For those familiar with the game, these extended functionality will be made available again, whenever the user explicitly activates the "expert mode". Calculation of stakes will be according the described change for stake sizes of 100$ and lower. For any amount exceeding 100$ the new method will be applied to the first 100$, everything above 100$ will be calculated in the current manner.
If you wish to comment, or to discuss these changes, feel free to add your opinion on the Knew The News Forums, or to contact Knew The News directly.
(26.04.2011) The May Mug Contest
For the most effective player during the month of may, a special prize is rewarded: An unique Knew The News mug.
(26.04.2011) New Design, Phase III
No new functionality, but a redesign of the user profile page an the leaderboard pages are introduced.
(20.04.2011) Rich text editors
An optional rich text editor allows formatting in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (wysiwyg) way on question creation and about-me info on the users' profile.
(12.04.2011) Question creation assistant
To make question creation easier for the unexperienced, the process of question creation is now assisted by a wizard which guides the question creator through all necessary steps.
(02.04.2011) System change: Timezones
In order to prevent the settlement difficulties due to the switch to and from daylight saving time, Knew The News date/time calculation library has been rewritten.
The site now depends on settings concerning the timezone of the user, instead of a simple offset value.
(23.03.2011) Question Ratings
To express your appreciation towards the question creators, players may rate any question regarding their value to the site. Any rating is per se a positive rating, down votings are not possible. Rating is possible by giving a star score: The scale:
- useful
- valuable
- very good
- awesome
- epic!
(20.03.2011) New Design, Phase II
The second redesign phase bring you new functionality: From now on, the user is able to rearrange, the context boxes on the right side of the page, bring them into order by drag and drop, and even hide those which he doesn't like.
(13.03.2011) New Design, Phase I
Knew The News makes major changes to its layout and design. In this first
step, the page width is increased, offering more space to display information.
Additionally, new colors are introduced and a completely new designed header and
footer integrated into the site. More changes are to come.
Many thanks to 
gotmick for making design proposals
and working out the prototypes.
(04.03.2011) Team Page and FAQ
An overview over the current members involved in Knew The News as MVP and category editors can be accessed on the Team page. Also, an additional Frequently Asked Questions section has been introduced on the FAQ page.
(23.02.2011) Favorites
Users may now manage their own lists of favorite questions on their
profile. To add or remove a question from the list, the icons
and
have been introduced on the social media bar of the question details page.
(17.02.2011) The community leaderboard
The default leaderboard has been replaced to reflect the users community activities rather than their wealth. The users are rewarded points for different actions on the site, such as commenting, creating questions, making predictions and friending other users. This is the exact calculation of the points:
| Points | Action | |
| 1 | per comment | |
| + | 2 | per flag |
| + | 1 | per 10 distinct users predicting on any of the questions |
| + | 1 | per 50 predictions made |
| + | 2 | per friend |
| + | 1 | per rating score |
| =============================================== | ||
| = | total | community points |
(12.02.2011) Comments list
To keep up to date with the community discussions on various topics, the newly introduced comments list can be of some help. Here, you will find any comments posted by users: Comments.
(10.02.2011) Most Valuable Players
Knew The News recognizes the achievements of active players by awarding
them the Most Valuable Player status. To become MVP, the player does not have to
be one of the top players on the leaderboard. MVP have some additional abilities,
like settling questions. Furtermore, MVP may be contacted directly by private
message, even if they are not friended. In return, MVP may contact any other
player without friending them. The MVP status is indicated by the MVP icon
at the users name.
(09.02.2011) Private Messaging
Users may send private messages to other users they have friended on Knew The News. The recipient will be notified about an incoming message by e-mail, sent by Knew The News. Both sender and recipient will not disclose their e-mail addresses by sending or recieving messages since the messages are only available within Knew The News.
(08.02.2011) Calculation Algorithm Chances
Due to the beta status of Knew The News, calculation of question movements is still somewhat experimental. To reflect new findings, the algoritms for calculation of position prices has now being changed. This might result in unexpected changes in prices, but whatever the site shows: The settlement price is always based on the buying percentage, and so, winnings are always fixed.
(30.01.2011) The Wall
On The Wall, Knew The News members can publish any message they like, express their opinion, or simply say "hello".
(29.01.2011) Promo Month February
Throughout February, Knew The News will reward specific action on the site with virtual cash.
Recommendation of Knew The News.
Sharing questions on Facebook.
Question creation.
(29.01.2011) Design reworks
Knew The News introduces some icons to mark the state of a question: Newly published, suspending soon, hot topics, and in-play.
(27.01.2011) Reward for recommending the site
From now on, Knew The News rewards any successfull recommendation to the site with an additional 50 virtual bucks.
(24.01.2011) Hints
A hint box has been added to the frontpage and shows some valuable information about gameplay and other topics surrounding Knew The News.
(21.01.2011) Customer survey
Today a customer survey has been started, asking any user for some brief feedback on the site. Some details can be read here: Knew The News Blog: User Survey
(19.01.2011) Facebook integration extended
While making predictions on Knew The News, a stream entry on the user's Facebook Wall can be automatically published.
(19.01.2011) A brand new logo
Knew The News now officially has it's own brand:
Do you like it?
(13.01.2011) Tag pages
"Tags" have become more important for the site. To reflect this, the URL to display
all questions with a specific tag has been unified:
For example, to display all question tagged with "Barack Obama", simply use this URL:
http://www.knewthenews.com/Tag/Barack+Obama
The question lists for some important tags now have a special layout, which might be
extended and enriched by some more tag related information.
(12.01.2011) Related questions
On any question page, a list of other questions is displayed. It contains questions on which users made predictions who also made a prediction on the currently displayed question.
(10.01.2011) Login rewards introduced
Once every 24 hours, a user which is on the site will be awarded a bonus of +25.00 KtN$ on his account.
(09.01.2011) Net Worth Badges
Associated with the user name, the net worth will be visualized by a little
badge. These badges are currently defined, with their corresponding lower net worth boundary:
1M+
500K+
250K+
100K+
50K+
25K+
10K+
5K+
2.5K+
1K+
(08.01.2011) Related news
Based on the tags associated with a question, related news is included on the question details page. The news are retreived from news.google.com, ordered by date.
(08.01.2011) Search functionality
Searching for questions based on a term has been enabled. The search is limited to analyse the title and the background description of the question, but covers any state and offers the ability to sort the results.
(05.01.2011) Inplay questions now highlighted
From now on, in-running questions can be marked with a special batch, highlighting that making predictions on the outcome is possible even when the event is already open.
(01.01.2011) New Category: General > Knew The News
For questions related to Knew The News, the newly created category should be used. See Questions in the Knew The News category.
(30.12.2010) Frontpage redesign, more "tour" content
As you might have noticed, the frontpage was slightly redesigned, to make important information better accessibly. More importantly, the Tour section has been extended with some additional background information. Have a look!
(28.12.2010) New leaderboard type available
Additionally to the all time net worth leaderboard, a new leaderboard type has been introduced reflecting the change in net worth a user achieves within a certain time frame. To start with, the "Weekly Gain" is made available which shows the gain achievements in the currently running week.
(27.12.2010) Challenge friends!
Use the new "challenge friends" functionality to invite Knew The News
friends to predict on specific questions you find interesting.
Click on the "Challenge friends"-icon
(
)
on the question details page.
(25.12.2010) Basic question widgets introduced
Question information can now easily be integrated into any other
website or blog page. Following the instructions on the
Widgets description page, it's a simple copy/paste
action to get the nessecary code. Watch out for the "Get Widget"
(
)
icon on the question details page.
(24.12.2010) Notice board introduced
Starting today, any relevant innovation to the Knew The News website will be announced within this block.
