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This!!! I've noticed how "forums" (as opposed to reddit-style discussion boards which are moderated) tend to have this sort of "first post!11!!!" behavior. If y

This!!! I've noticed how "forums" (as opposed to reddit-style discussion boards which are moderated) tend to have this sort of "first post!11!!!" behavior. If you look at that user's post history, he or she has contributed, but - also is providing lots, and lots of commentary. And while that commentary is useful, it's not necessarily moving the ball on solving whatever the problem of the day is. I see the same thing in travel forums frequently.

sbjs 8y ago
I think about community quality content a lot. I see a lot of abuse of this all over reddit and other forums and stack overflow too. People have figured out how to game the system. I think the internet is ready for some forum software that uses machine learning to decide whether content is high or low quality. It could analyze the replies, the context, the content, the user's history, posting rates, all sorts of data is available to recognize low quality content and low quality users. Especially when you realize that a lot of reddit accounts are bots that farm points and then get sold. ML seems like the only real way to protect communities against this!
- iforgotpassword 8y ago
  > People have figured out how to game the system. I think the internet is ready for some forum software that uses machine learning to decide whether content is high or low quality. Great idea. Then there'll be absolutely no chance people will find a way to game the system.
  - perl4ever 8y ago
    Mission accomplished: https://xkcd.com/810/ https://xkcd.com/810/
alkonaut 8y ago
Some guy answering every post with some generic "try these troubleshooting steps" which are all completely unrelated to the question. That guy should be a bot or a sticky post... I'm wondering if there are sites that have people on agreements to answer "200 posts/month" for a fixed pay or something, or get paid per answered question within 48h. In any case: it's not helping.
- csydas 8y ago
  I get you're being a bit coy, but I have no trouble believing it's just some person who enjoys the small power rush of being "the guy w/ the answers". I've seen this tons of times with employees in Slack/Teams chat, ones who just chime in on virtually any topic with a copy/paste answer and a condescending attitude. It's a power thing, they enjoy being the one who knows everything and lays down the law. From both a technical and managerial standpoint, it can be insanely frustrating, with the only bright-side being that for very basic questions you at least get good coverage.

sbjs 8y ago

I think about community quality content a lot. I see a lot of abuse of this all over reddit and other forums and stack overflow too. People have figured out how to game the system. I think the internet is ready for some forum software that uses machine learning to decide whether content is high or low quality. It could analyze the replies, the context, the content, the user's history, posting rates, all sorts of data is available to recognize low quality content and low quality users. Especially when you realize that a lot of reddit accounts are bots that farm points and then get sold. ML seems like the only real way to protect communities against this!

iforgotpassword 8y ago
> People have figured out how to game the system. I think the internet is ready for some forum software that uses machine learning to decide whether content is high or low quality. Great idea. Then there'll be absolutely no chance people will find a way to game the system.
- perl4ever 8y ago
  Mission accomplished: https://xkcd.com/810/ https://xkcd.com/810/

alkonaut 8y ago

Some guy answering every post with some generic "try these troubleshooting steps" which are all completely unrelated to the question. That guy should be a bot or a sticky post... I'm wondering if there are sites that have people on agreements to answer "200 posts/month" for a fixed pay or something, or get paid per answered question within 48h. In any case: it's not helping.

csydas 8y ago
I get you're being a bit coy, but I have no trouble believing it's just some person who enjoys the small power rush of being "the guy w/ the answers". I've seen this tons of times with employees in Slack/Teams chat, ones who just chime in on virtually any topic with a copy/paste answer and a condescending attitude. It's a power thing, they enjoy being the one who knows everything and lays down the law. From both a technical and managerial standpoint, it can be insanely frustrating, with the only bright-side being that for very basic questions you at least get good coverage.