An Idea About Posts

[Guest]

Reading the stuff on these forums makes me want to stop reading them.

We cannot simply stop people we don't like.
That defeats many goals of all of this.
But it is like email where 90% of it being spam is killling email.

Here is an idea.

At the top of each post is a button:
Valuable and NotValuable.

The reader can click on it. Software keeps him from using it more than once per post.

Instead of displaying a post count with each post, there would be a +8 or -2 indicating the percieved value of that person's posts.

So, when you read a post and see -8 you know what you are dealing with.

If a guy has a -8, the number of posts he can make per minuite is limited.

If all the bad guys gang up on a good guy, well, the forum belongs to the bad guys. So be it.
Al Schneider

[Guest]

Valuable ;)

[Terry_Holley]

-3 ;)

Terry

[Guest]

y

[Fred Zimmerman]

Of course, the data derived from such a system would instantly become meaningless.

Why?

Am I to leave my judgement at the door when clicking on a post? Must my appraisal of the post be colored by perhaps 10 to 20 other magicians about whom I no nothing? It would be a different matter if this were a closed group comprised of members who are intimately aware of each other's values, beliefs, and desires. If that were the case, then I'd at least have some reference points when considering the data. I'd still make up my own mid, but the "rating" would have some substance.

And like most thinking people, I wish to keep an open mind while reading a post, no matter what another's opinion may be. Therefore, were I to suddenly see a "rating" appear, I would instantly ignore it. Its origin is unknown, the criteria on which it was based is unknown, and the agenda fueling it is unknown. Dubious data at best.

To depend on information this flimsy to shape your judgement has dangerous implications.

And if other magicians on this forum are anything like me, suggesting that I ignore a post because it has no value would only encourage me to read it just so I could make up my own mind. I don't need anonymous people trying to think for me - I already have a government trying to do that.

This is the perfect example of an idea that sounds good at face value but falls apart under scutiny. It's also a perfect example of sugaring the ground to keep away the ants.

Fred Zimmerman

[Jonathan Townsend]

Lots of interesting ideas there. Al, are you suggesting the BBS keep an average of all ratings for all posts for a poster? An average rating for each post?

Originally posted by Al Schneider:
...If a guy has a -8, the number of posts he can make per minute is limited.

if a guy is making posts per minute, I'd be concerned as well.

I was under the impression that commercial announcements were put in just a few places here and we don't get much unsolicited product related postings here.

okay, that said, buy my book, drink Coke and whatever happened to that missing penguin?

[Pete McCabe]

On Slashdot a group of moderators rate good posts by number, and you can set your account to show threads with all posts above a certain number expanded and the rest collapsed, so you can access them if you want. Of course, Slashdot has thousands of users and threads routinely run several hundred posts.

The more I think about it, the more I think that a "suppress" button would be the best option for the Genii Forum. (Assuming UBB has this feature.) Basically, every post comes with a button which, if you click on it, will keep you from seeing any posts by that user. This feature was first developed on usenet (i.e. alt.magic), where it had the unfortunately extreme name of Killfile.

You don't see it as often on web-based boards, but it's really the best solution to this problem. If you don't like someone, click. If I don't like anonymous posters, click. Anybody who's a jerk and pisses everyone off finds that no one ever responds to their posts any more. Usually on your "my profile" page you can see how many people have suppressed you.

This is the ultimate self-policing solution to the problem. I believe some versions of UBB have this option (also called "plonking"), but I don't know if it can be turned on in the Genii version.

[Guest]

Dear Pete

+8

[Guest]

It's already available for most forums. I don't know about infopop which is used here. It's available for phpBB and SMF forums, I know. It's called Karma and everyone earns a Karma rating by how valuable their posts are. If you don't get any votes, then you stay neutral, which is fine.

Those who do nothing but argue and start fights end up with a bad karma rating. Not sure what controls can be setup from that, but I would certainly imagine a quick report could show the top people with bad karma ratings, and take it from there.

[Fred Zimmerman]

I would definitely get behind a suppress button. That puts you in control

However, I must admit that I do experience a certain amount of enjoyment reading certain train-wreck posters. I visit forums partly for the voyeuristic thrill of watching public meltdowns.

But that's my neurosis. I can suppress or not.

Good idea.

[Guest]

The words offered here are changing my point of view a bit.

I never want to simply cut someone off because I don't like them. This is not reasonable in a freedom loving country like ours.

However, it is OK if you simply want to limit what you see. That is the indivicuals choice.

So I see a variety of options. I like karma a lot. It is kind of like mine. But no action is taken on it. The viewer can choose, however, how much karma he can take. Also, the viewer can choose to not ever see someone. This sounds good to me.

I understand that none of this solves all the problems. We wouldn't have these problems if it weren't for all the people around. However, maybe it could reduce the problem. It seems there is some combination here that is good.

Of course, making it real is another issue.

Al Schneider

[David Mitchell]

Originally posted by Jonathan Townsend:
Lots of interesting ideas there. Al, are you suggesting the BBS keep an average of all ratings for all posts for a poster? An average rating for each post?

On a completely unrelated topic.. you can definitely tell how long Jon's been using a computer, I've not heard the term BBS since I stopped using my Commodore-64 and 2400 baud modem.

David.

[Scott Fridinger]

Some type of Filter system would be nice. If you don't like reading what Joe Blow has to say you click Ignore and none of his post show up.

[Guest]

on another forum (re: software for musicians) this topic also came up a while ago, and the Mod recently has been trying out a toggle button for ignore/unignore

to me that seems a little more forgiving than a plonk or a killfile as a way to unclutter an otherwise useful thread ... for those occasions when someone finds a troll at the bottom of a bottle, or when two otherwise respectable posters inexplicably get into some kind of off-topic catfight

of course, it could also be used more permanently :help:

don't know if this is a feature that can be turned on in UBB or if it needs to be hand-coded

[Wolfgang]

One problem with blocking post would be that you would read a topic and then an unblocked poster would make a comment about a post that you did not read because it was blocked and then the whole thing somehow gets out of sequence.
Here is the easiest method: You see the comment of a poster that you do not like you simply move on, even if the post is not blocked you do not have an obligation to read it....... :confused: or maybe I am the only one here with no gun to his head?????
Richard what is going on are those people beeing forced to read it all? Am I the only lucky one? I better renew that Genii subscription soon that it stays this way.
Joking aside, I would love a perfect world in which people use real name to post on an online forum, but it looks like a lot of people are not sure of their opinions and do not really want to be associated with them.....

[Pete Biro]

Let's just leave things alone.

[Guest]

Well.

There is no gun to my head.

When I get on a thread that seems interesting and after reading about 15 posts in which people are attacking each other, it seems pointless to read on.

Is that voiding the reason for the whole thing?

Yes, I can just read and take it.

However, I have been on several forums of which this happens. My decision was to simply stop reading those forums. Yes it is my loss I guess.
It seems that the valuable readers simply went away and the reamining readers enjoyed bashing each other.

I feel kind of like the kid walking to school that gets picked on by a bully every day. Hey Al, that's life, get over it and enjoy getting picked on every day. Well, that's why I took up Karate. No one picks on me anymore.

I think part of life is improving your life if possible. If that doesn't work out, then I'll just pick up my marbles and find another game.

Al Schneider

[Guest]

moral pressure can help, too ;)

dear Mr. Schneider,

I for one hope you don't pick up your marbles and move on

well, I'm just a hobbyist / slacker / willing audience member / not much of a practitioner at all

and I only visit this forum a couple times a week and don't read every thread so I probably missed something

to me it seems there is a pretty good signal-to-noise ratio here compared to other forums

sure there is some clowning (presumably friendly) ... and when the unexpected bitterness or animosity clutters the forum, it's there for everyone to consider in their own ways ...

hope you stay around,

Kevin

[Guest]

kfortin

Your words are very kind.
The Genii Forum is a good place.
Unfortunately I am licking my wounds from another battle. I had hoped intelligent words on this forum might be heard by others. However, my bag of marbles rests here for now.

Al Schneider

[Jim S.]

Originally posted by Al Schneider:
kfortin

<snip> However, my bag of marbles rests here for now.

Al Schneider

I'm glad your marbles rest here. I seem to have lost mine...

[Guest]

The "ranking" or "rating" idea is something we've implimented @ the new SONIC*MAGIC forums. Though we're but a few weeks old, the concept has been readily recieved by our existing members and I do believe this, along with some of the guidelines I've personally put into play, is helping us avoid the "trivial" junk such as "What is your favorite" and "Who is the best" and of course the all time popular "How do you do ... "

Banter can be fun and has its place but I do agree with Al, there are days when you just don't want to deal with any of the dribble and silliness that comes about. :help: