The Quotables Blog

One of the most popular requests we get from Quotables users is for a daily quote service by email. Well, we listened folks, and we’re delighted to be launching The Daily Quotable – pinging a bitesized nugget of inspiration to your inbox every day!

Simply sign up here, or use the form below, to receive a quote a day cherry-picked by the Quotables team. We’ll be serving up a mix of the most loved quotes of each week, plus themed quotes to celebrate holidays and special events, and we’ll be asking some guest quote-lovers to hand-pick their own favourite quotables from time to time as well.

For now, we’re keeping things simple: you’ll receive your daily dose at noon GMT, in plain-text format, with the option of clicking through to a beautiful, shareable e-card of the quote, created using our Quoto service. (you can send your own free e-cards at Quoto anytime you like!) They look a bit like this…

In the future, we may introduce more personalised options, so that you can pick a theme for your daily quotables – such as motivational, or funny – or select a time to suit your timezone, or even receive daily email reminders of your own favourite quotes from your Loved List. Let us know if you would be interested in using these kinds of features by sending an email our way, or leaving a comment below.

For now, all you need to do is sign up to The Daily Quotable list to be subscribed – you don’t even have to be a member of Quotables!

Remember, we’ll never spam or share your details, and we welcome all your suggestions for ways we can improve our services.

Here at Quotables, we’re always working on the next thing that will make your quote gathering and sharing experience better. Recently, we made several exciting projects that each explore new ways to interact with the quotes we love. You can take a quiz to see what you know about your favorite TV show characters, send a card to a loved one, join an intense debate, design your own instagram-style quote image, or even release a quote into the wild to inspire a stranger. These projects were extremely fun for us to make. We love the feedback we got, and we’re looking forward to finding new ways to delight others with the power of an awesome quote.

Now, what we really want to know is: what can we do for you? What new tools do you want? How do you want to be able to use your quotes through Quotables? What would you like to see more of? User feedback is hugely important to us, and we’d love to hear your ideas, please take a moment to select from the options in our simple poll:

Thanks for your feedback! You can also email us with your ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Your input helps us continue to give you the best possible online quoting adventure we can. Stay tuned for more awesome stuff from Quotables in the coming months.

It’s not about the size of your conference, but how you use it.
— Alexis Ohanian

This week Quotables has been attending SXSWi (South By South West Interactive) – not in person, but through our new conference quoting app, SXSW Quotables.

We’ve been live-quoting a number of keynotes and sharing them both on the SXSW Quotables and @sxswquotes, allowing users to experience the conference vicariously through the power of digital media. As an added bonus, it allows us to save some of the choicest SXSW quotes for posterity.

One of our favourite events of the conference was from Bruce Sterling. Here are our Top 20 quotes from his talk!

1. Usually I don’t talk about politics, I’d much rather talk about technology and really cool ideas. But I think it’s important to talk about politics.
— Bruce Sterling

2. I’m interested in things that have one foot in fantasy and a toe in reality.
— Bruce Sterling

3. For four days, SXSW is the world capitol of the web.
— Bruce Sterling

4. I criticize stuff that doesn’t exist yet.
— Bruce Sterling

5. The passage of time turns cyberpunks into design professors.
— Bruce Sterling

6. Teaching in design school vs. simply designing stuff is disgusting incompetence and passionate virtuosity.
— Bruce Sterling

7. What makes the world work, what makes things better, is passionate virtuosity.
— Bruce Sterling

8. Microbes aren’t in the bible.
— Bruce Sterling

9. Washington DC is a Walmart of brothels.
— Bruce Sterling

10. It brings out one’s inner Bill Hicks ladies and gentlemen.
— Bruce Sterling

11. US politics is a joke to anyone outside the reach of Fox News.
— Bruce Sterling

12. If Bill Hicks was looking down on Texas right now he would not be a happy man. He’d be scolding you worse than me.
— Bruce Sterling

13. I want to formally declare my passionate solidarity with the millennials. Boomers shut the hell up!
— Bruce Sterling

14. American people should be in the streets… Madison style.
— Bruce Sterling

15. People under 25 are the victims of a decaying status quo. It’s a gerontocracy.
— Bruce Sterling

16. Another world is inevitable. The future is unwritten. Good luck to you.
— Bruce Sterling

17. Women of SXSW, do not embrace a coward!
— Bruce Sterling

18. I’m not gonna cry because this event has grown too big to have my epic house parties anymore.
— Bruce Sterling

19. Italy is the one country in the world where cyberpunk is a native practice.
— Bruce Sterling

20. Wikileaks and Facebook – which weren’t even around five years ago – have more political clout than the state department and the US military combined. It’s nothing to clap about. It’s actually a calamity.
— Bruce Sterling

Have you been following SXSWi? What have been your favourite talks or panels?

The only thing I’m addicted to right now is winning.— Charlie Sheen

Quotables has got competition fever this week, thanks to our brand spanking new games at Quizables.

Quizables is a new quiz website powered by real people’s favourite quotes.  Join fellow gleeks trying to top the gleederboard in our Glee quiz, use your action hero knowledge to Get To The Chopper or prove your sports credentials with our Picklive Football Manager quiz.

The latest addition to our family of quizzes is The Big Bang Theory quiz, which challenges you to identify quotes from the shows characters before the clock runs out.

If you are the brightest and the best, you will rise to the top of the periodic table and the player sitting at the top of that table on March 15^th will win Series 3 of the Big Bang Theory on DVD.

A die hard Gleek? Then head over to our Glee quiz, if you can top the Gleederboard then you are in with a chance of winning the latest series on DVD.

How does it work?

1) Head on over to Quizables
2) Pick your favourite quiz and get playing.
3) If your favourite quote is missing, add it up!

Welcome to the Battle of the Tablets: iPad 2 vs Android Xoom! As tablet computers become ubiquitous, the debate between Apple-fanatics and Android-enthusiasts is heating up. Which is better? You decide.

Join the Apple vs Android debate at Debatables and you’ll be entered to win the ultimate prize: your choice of a brand spankin’ new Apple iPad 2 or the stunning Motorola Xoom tablet!

The rules are simple. Here’s all you have to do to enter:

1. Sign up at debatabl.es

2. That’s it!

How it works:

Simply go to Debatabl.es and pick your side. Champion your opinion by submitting quotes and “support”ing those of others and you’ll see the results instantly. Achievements are unlocked by the most passionate and vociferate debaters, and when you sign up you’ll be entered into the competition.

For full terms and conditions, go here.

Whose side are you on? Sign up at Debatables now to get started.

We have 5 copies of Alan Bennett’s A Life Like Other People’s to giveaway on the blog today. Our Web Editor Nicola was lucky enough to be one of the 20,000 ‘givers’ at World Book Night this weekend, and she has 5 copies left of Bennett’s poignant memoir to share with some lucky Quotables fans!

Here’s World Book Night’s description, to whet your appetite:

Alan Bennett’s poignant memoir recounts the marriage of his parents, the lives and deaths of his aunts and the uncovering of a long-held secret. First published in the acclaimed collection Untold Stories, this tender, intimate family portrait beautifully captures the minutiae of the Bennetts’ domestic life: their disappointments and pleasures, tragedies and successes, and underlying it all, their suspicion that they were somehow different to and lesser than other people.

With warmth, candour and sadness, Bennett writes of his parents’ slow shuffle towards old age. From their understated early morning wedding, to his mother’s mental illness and their unceasing concern and support for each other, A Life Like Other People’s is at once heart-rending and life-affirming, engaging, intelligent and funny. It is Alan Bennett at his best: a work of art that confirms his status as one of Britain’s greatest writers.

To be in with a chance of winning, here’s what to do:

• For 1 entry, simply leave a comment below.
• For 2 entries, leave a comment below and tweet the following message: We’re giving away 5 copies of Alan Bennett’s ‘A Life Like Other People’s’ on the @QuotablesHQ blog today! >> http://qtbl.es/dNmcsq #WBN

You have until midnight GMT on Wednesday 9th March. After that we’ll draw out 5 lucky names and contact the winners – good luck!

‘Reading is Sexy’ image found on Tumblr.

‘Man overbored’ image found on Pinterest.

“There’s no point debating anything online. You might as well hurl shoes in the air to knock clouds from the sky.”

— Charlie Brooker

Not anymore! Debatables is a brand-new online debating platform, powered by Quotables. We’re raising the tone of online debate, one quote at a time.

Simply go to Debatables, take a look, and pick your side. Champion your opinion by submitting quotes and “support”ing those of others and you’ll see the results instantly in our unique and dynamic visualisation. Achievements are unlocked by the most passionate and vociferate debaters, and there are prizes to be won.

In celebration of our launch, we’re having a competition alongside our Oscar Debate. To be in for a chance to win Every Best Picture Oscar-Winner on DVD (that’s a stonking 82 excellent films!) all you have to do is…

• 1. Sign up at debatabl.es
• 2. That’s it!

For full Terms & Conditions, go here.

Whose side are you on? Visit debatabl.es now to get started.

Glasgow Film Festival is the UK’s fastest-growing film festival. Now in its 7th year, its exciting programme and plethora of events across the city are difficult to ignore. This year, Quotables is getting in on the action!

Last Friday, we were at FilmCamp, hosted by Glasgow Short Film Festival, live-quoting loads of wonderful talks from filmmakers and featuring quotes on the big screen. We also be hosted a Twitter feed  for those in attendance to share thoughts and allow others to attend vicariously through the FilmCamp hashtag. You can see an archive of quotes from Filmcamp here.

So as you don’t miss out, we’ve compiled our recommendations for the rest of the Fest.

Every year, GFF pays homage to a great actor or actress. This year, they’ve broken from tradition to celebrate a living star. The Meryl Streep Retrospective is screening Meryl classics throughout the week, including The Bridges of Madison County, A Cry in the Dark, and a Quotables-favourite – featuring Meryl’s marvellous turn as the wonderfully acerbic Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada. Look out for our Top 20 Meryl Streep Quotables in the next couple of days!

On Wednesday, GFF’s new ambassador, comic book writer Mark Millar, will be discussing the latest in comic books at the Mark Millar Workshop at the CCA.

This Friday, ComicCamp, will be well worth a look for all comic book lovers, video gamers and filmmakers alike. It’s free, and you can book your place now via the Glasgow Film Festival website!

Also on Friday, Glasgow-based production company Sigma celebrates its 15th Anniversary with the World Premiere of their latest film, You Instead. Directed by Glasgow’s own David Mackenzie, it was shot in 5 days at least year’s T in the Park. We recommend you check it out!

Though it’ll be sad for the festival to end, we’re looking forward to this year’s Closing Gala – Kevin MacDonald’s The Eagle – on Sunday 27 February. Closing just in time for the Oscars, we’re all very excited for a night of movie excellence.

These are exciting times here at Quotables HQ…

For a long time users have been telling us how much they would like to get their hands on a Quotables API, to create apps around the wealth of quotable inspiration available on the site. Well, we listened folks, and we’re delighted to say that an API has been created and is almost ready to be released! We’re putting the final touches to the documentation, but in the meantime we decided to get creative and see just what we could come up with ourselves…

Every year, the whole of Mint Digital – Quotables’ parent company – gathers together for an annual WebApp Weekender: five days (the ‘weekender’ was back in the old days) of coding, designing, strategising, feasting and drinking. This year we were holed up in the gorgeous Manor House Hotel on the Dorset coast, and divided into three teams to get stuck into this year’s challenge: to drive engagement to Quotables using our nifty new API. In between huge four-course dinners, sleeping in four-poster beds, and enjoying the sea air, the three teams managed to come up with five amazing campaigns in five days:

Quotagram

A brilliant use of the Instagram API, Quotagram allows you to add quotes (in Helvetica) to Instagram images. Yes, it is lolcats for hipsters.

Quizables

Awesome quotable quizzes against the clock, our favourite quizable so far is the Glee quiz, complete with Gleederboard.

Please Release Me

A fantastic international art project aiming to be the world’s biggest quote distribution movement. Please Release Me is going global and making quotes pop up in all kinds of unexpected places. Think Bookcrossing with quotes.

Quoto

Joy, delivered. Beautiful custom cards, both print & digital, made with love by the team at Quoto. We launched with a 48-hour Valentine Workshop, sending out nearly 700 cards.

Debatables

A debating platform powered by Quotables, designed to raise the tone of online debate, with added game mechanics. You can champion your opinion on Debatables by submitting quotes and supporting those of others, seeing the debate shift in real-time.

Pretty impressive, huh? Team Asimov, who developed the first three (count ‘em!) projects, scooped the winner’s title after the preliminary judging last week, but the overall winners will be decided in four weeks, with various metrics being monitored as the campaigns progress.

What campaign gets your vote? And what would you like to see built using the Quotables API? We’d love to hear your thoughts, leave us a comment below…

Want to enter? Here’s how:

1. Take a photo featuring a quotation.
2. Find the quote in your photo on Quotables. Add it to the site if it’s not there!
3. Upload your photo to our Flickr group.
4. Insert a link back to your quote on Quotables in the photo description on Flickr.