4 ms·

If you post your request/pitch as a comment here you'll get bonus points for courage.

by andr 17y ago

prawn 17y ago
I don't need any more domains or side projects, but I've always thought that large-scale online conversations (Slashdot, Huff Po, etc) are still yet to be done that well. MassiveDebate.com could be a suitable domain for someone tackling the problem. As a reader, one problem is in getting an overall feel for the 'lean' of the conversation. There must be a way to incorporate this in large discussions, or to categorise posts by theme ('Thinks murder sentence given was too short', 'Thinks sentence given too long', 'Discussing increased police attention for bikie gangs', etc). Or identify key contributors by post volume or karma within a thread. Or provide ways for a reader to seek out arguments with people they disagree with, or to mostly see like-minded commentors (confirmation bias). Another problem for readers is knowing where to start. Oldest topics first or newest? Randomised order? I've wondered (half-baked idea) about topics along a horizontal axis with responses hanging down the vertical axis from each parent topic. Might be something in that, or could just be a usability disaster. Or maybe the viewport is fixed (no horiz scrollbar) but you hit arrows to each side to browse top-level topics? Each sub-topic could have a header that included info about the originator, key contributors within, general lean of the contents ('Strongly favours those that think the sentence was too light.'). Another issue is in finding the most worthwhile comments (Slashdot has moderation and so on that can be helpful but I've only ever used it as a set-and-forget thing to browse at +2 with Funny discounted heavily). The biggest news network in Australia doesn't even have this (or threading, or anything useful) in its commenting system. It's flat, no notifications, no ownership of an alias, no prevention of people impersonating others, no up/down vote - and it's been like that for years! As a contributor, a big problem is the perception and reality that a lot of comments are drive-bys. Forcing, encouraging or using a default setting of email notification could help there, but in a way that doesn't leave you diving for the off-switch once the replies start getting heavy. I think the PHP BB (or maybe it's a competing forum I'm thinking of) system of sending one alert only until you return to view the thread has merit. Providing quality tools/experience for regular contributors could encourage people to hang around and build up their karma within the system, etc. How do you tackle a 500+-post conversation? Is it even possible?
- arethuza 17y ago
  Wasn't there someone on here a while back working on a system that can extract topics from text - he was wondering what to do with it. Perhaps a site with some kind of personal Bayesian filtering to categorize posts - the sort of thing I do in my head when reading comments on the BBC site (where most posts fall into my "Foaming at mouth Daily Mail reader" and "Naive Socialist" categories).
- jodrellblank 17y ago
  I dislike the way that massive debates turn into selective replies, and think it would be good to try a debate of 2 sides, instead of a debate of 500 serial replies. When you visit the site, you see the current state, and you can look down the points and rebuttals on either side and contribute to those bits specifically and 'push' the center line one way or the other. Tug-o-war style, not HN comment style. Not sure how well it would work in reality - I'm guessing a bit tediously.
  - ErrantX 17y ago
    This was my thinking too... pick (or have users submit) some option A or option B news stories and then give then let people post debate comments/points for either choice. Upvotes should hopefully drag good comments to the top - then perhaps a "show of hands" to decide the issue Fighting trolls would be hard.
  - prawn 17y ago
    What about some measure of negative karma for not responding to a point? You could either concede that your opponent had made a strong point and/or respond with a counterpoint. If you left a point unanswered, it'd show a hit against your profile and sit in your dashboard of unanswered points.

If you post your request/pitch as a comment here you'll get bonus points for courage.

by andr 17y ago

If you post your request/pitch as a comment here you'll get bonus points for courage.

prawn 17y ago

I don't need any more domains or side projects, but I've always thought that large-scale online conversations (Slashdot, Huff Po, etc) are still yet to be done that well. MassiveDebate.com could be a suitable domain for someone tackling the problem. As a reader, one problem is in getting an overall feel for the 'lean' of the conversation. There must be a way to incorporate this in large discussions, or to categorise posts by theme ('Thinks murder sentence given was too short', 'Thinks sentence given too long', 'Discussing increased police attention for bikie gangs', etc). Or identify key contributors by post volume or karma within a thread. Or provide ways for a reader to seek out arguments with people they disagree with, or to mostly see like-minded commentors (confirmation bias). Another problem for readers is knowing where to start. Oldest topics first or newest? Randomised order? I've wondered (half-baked idea) about topics along a horizontal axis with responses hanging down the vertical axis from each parent topic. Might be something in that, or could just be a usability disaster. Or maybe the viewport is fixed (no horiz scrollbar) but you hit arrows to each side to browse top-level topics? Each sub-topic could have a header that included info about the originator, key contributors within, general lean of the contents ('Strongly favours those that think the sentence was too light.'). Another issue is in finding the most worthwhile comments (Slashdot has moderation and so on that can be helpful but I've only ever used it as a set-and-forget thing to browse at +2 with Funny discounted heavily). The biggest news network in Australia doesn't even have this (or threading, or anything useful) in its commenting system. It's flat, no notifications, no ownership of an alias, no prevention of people impersonating others, no up/down vote - and it's been like that for years! As a contributor, a big problem is the perception and reality that a lot of comments are drive-bys. Forcing, encouraging or using a default setting of email notification could help there, but in a way that doesn't leave you diving for the off-switch once the replies start getting heavy. I think the PHP BB (or maybe it's a competing forum I'm thinking of) system of sending one alert only until you return to view the thread has merit. Providing quality tools/experience for regular contributors could encourage people to hang around and build up their karma within the system, etc. How do you tackle a 500+-post conversation? Is it even possible?

arethuza 17y ago
Wasn't there someone on here a while back working on a system that can extract topics from text - he was wondering what to do with it. Perhaps a site with some kind of personal Bayesian filtering to categorize posts - the sort of thing I do in my head when reading comments on the BBC site (where most posts fall into my "Foaming at mouth Daily Mail reader" and "Naive Socialist" categories).
jodrellblank 17y ago
I dislike the way that massive debates turn into selective replies, and think it would be good to try a debate of 2 sides, instead of a debate of 500 serial replies. When you visit the site, you see the current state, and you can look down the points and rebuttals on either side and contribute to those bits specifically and 'push' the center line one way or the other. Tug-o-war style, not HN comment style. Not sure how well it would work in reality - I'm guessing a bit tediously.
- ErrantX 17y ago
  This was my thinking too... pick (or have users submit) some option A or option B news stories and then give then let people post debate comments/points for either choice. Upvotes should hopefully drag good comments to the top - then perhaps a "show of hands" to decide the issue Fighting trolls would be hard.
- prawn 17y ago
  What about some measure of negative karma for not responding to a point? You could either concede that your opponent had made a strong point and/or respond with a counterpoint. If you left a point unanswered, it'd show a hit against your profile and sit in your dashboard of unanswered points.