mikenoodle

I would like Peter to think about whether or not we can have a post of the week, to partner with a thread of the week. It is usually not the thread starter itself that makes the phenomenal post, but it is the phenomonal answer (see earlier in this thread) that deserves the praise.

In our current thread of the week system, there is no way to praise the people who give absolute jewels in the form of answers to people's questions. There are certain threads that deserve praise as well, but is there a way that we can also have a post of the week?

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Peter T Davis

You volunteering to write the code? Just kidding, it's a great point and it would be a worthy addition. The thread of the week thing is a bit of code that a generous coder gave out freely and I adapted to CoinTalk. I do have my eye on a couple of different things that would enable recognition for such things as posts, maybe more flexible than a 'post of the week' though.

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mrbrklyn

do you have the whole code base? It wouldn't take long for me to whip it up

Ruben

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mikenoodle

The issue as I view it is this:

If you like a particular thread starting post, then you vote as that thread for thread of the week. Unfortunately, most of the time either a question asked as a starting post gets answered with a brilliant post that spurs on an entire conversation and our site becomes what we strive for. The unfortunate part? The person who provided the great insight is not recognized. It's not so important that they are, but it does provide an incentive for them to stay and share their knowledge through recognition.

Personally, I feel like TOTW should be judged by a host of things. How many views and how many posts should count, but not be the end all. Content is important as well. There have been many thoughful posts to start a thread that have just fallen flat, as well as there have been things that sparked major discussions that consisted of no more than a simple one-liner.

I felt that Peter was trying through his TOTW to just make the site a bit more fun for those who spend hours on end here asking and answering questions, participating in discussions, helping out newbs and just generally enjoying the community. I am happy to have the system "as is" and am not by any means complaining. I just wondered if we could tweek it easily enough and do more of what we'd like it to do then what it does?

Could we recognise posts and posters that we thought were most insightful, most helpful, deepest, ummmm, I dunno... ya know? Instead of recognizing people who started threads exclusively, recognise the people who make the site what it is?

I would love to see a system like this:

If we see a post that we think particularly insightful, helpful, etc., (you make up the categories, my head hurts) we report it to an admin maybe through the report this post feature. The admins can then assign a graphic like they do to nominees but something like a "star post" designation on the post. Keep THOSE stats in their profiles instead of TOTW nominations, that would be something to be proud of! You could even add it to their description by their avatar, I dunno. I think it'd be interesting, and it would be completely controlled by Peter, so it's not so much of a popularity contest.

My mentor always said, "If you point out problems without suggesting solutions, you're doing nothing more than complaining." so, here's my scrapings from inside my skull...

what's yours?

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Peter T Davis

You're absolutely right Mike, my intention is to make the site more fun for the people who put the most into it, but it is configured to 'reward' those who initially posted a thread and doesn't cover the guys who work hard answering questions and generally being helpful. I am already researching options, but it may end up being something in addition to the TOTW, not instead of.

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Catbert

What about a dedicated, locked forum that just collects and lists all the thread of the week winners? That way, members could scan the ones they are interested in and still see the most compelling posts there.

snaz

seeing as how we are on the topic. And Doug, I know it's been mentioned before, and yes, I remember your answer.
But I think a sub forum, or something of the like, would be nice for all the TOTW topics. For example all of leghigs topics... educational topics could be put in there along with all the other educational threads put up here.
I was recently trying to help out a friend (Yup) and it did take me a little while to find a few of the threads I was looking for. They were previously designated TOTW. It would just be nice if htey were all gathered together in a sub forum like "What's it worth", or "Coin Chat". I think it would be a great way for beginners to find what they are looking for without the hassle of fishing through topics upon topics of us bantering and talking about personal stories.
Just an idea.
Shawn

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mrbrklyn

I was under the impression that the purpose of this was to highlight interesting and important threads, not to feed peoples benign hedonism and egotism.

Is the volunteer spirit truly dead?

Ruben

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GDJMSP

You mean kind of like they are now ? All of the TOTW threads are in their own section. Right here - TOTW

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mikenoodle

ruben,

your depth of understanding with other people is amazing. If you don't understand something, ask a question. If you're in a bad mood, go bark somehwhere else.

The idea is to create a sense of community, not feed people's egos. Some of us who have stayed here a long time sometimes leave and move on. I have a background in web communities and it is community takes a truly good site with a solid reason for people to come together and makes its members feel something more. This in turn drives their desire to make the site better. Which on turn makes the site better.

In the case of CT, I think a sense of community is what Peter has tried to foster since day 1. There have been some memorable people over the years that for many reasons have moved on. When the idea of thread/topic of the week was brought in, it was not perfect. I merely made a suggestion of how we could tweek it to make it do more of what it was intended to do IMHO. When I made the suggestion, I said that we could praise the people who help make the site better, which in turn might make more people come together here and also get people to stay longer as members.

We have had 16,000 members, how many do you think are actually still around? Isn't more opinions and knowledge better?

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mrbrklyn

I agree

I'm not sure what your driving at here, but this conversation has focused on rewarding people with TOTW and MOTW door prizes and ribbons.

Now mind you I don't have as much experience with web communities as you have, but, nevertheless, I have it on good authority that volunteer enthusiasts continues to be the only driving force for internet based communities, whether they be usenet, gopher net, compuserve/aol, mailing lists or bulletin board services like this one.

Recognition in the community can be helpful in formulating a community, but invariably generates a old boys network. In the end, it is not the competitive nature of individuals that fuels a community such as this, but the collaborative nature of the individual that drives it forward.

The TOTW concept is good because it entices participation on multiple levels. First, you get to vote for a thread of the week. Secondly, it gives a focus to interesting threads which otherwise might be overlooked by users of Coin Talk. The reward system itself is probably not a good idea, and in fact is now fueling a negative dynamic to the forum.

Now, I say this in complete ignorance because I barely know how to use the internet, and type with two fingers at a time, being the old fashioned druggist that I am. So you are welcome to discount this opinion at your discretion.

Thank you for listening

Ruben Safir

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mrbrklyn

That's OK but that is not real user friendly. If they added one more field to the database which is an enum, and index on it, then they can create a single click entry into the nominated TOTW threads without the trappings of the nomination announcements, and that would be a useful and interesting thing, IMO

Ruben

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mikenoodle

I disagree that it's influence has been negative. Giving focus is a good reason to have a TOTW award in and of itself. Personally I wish that as I look at today's posts there was a way to determine which posts were TOTW nominees by some icon. THAT would direct me to these threads. I don't open every thread and I don't read threads based on the number of replies. Some way of knowing the nominees would be helpful.

Something else that would be helpful is limiting people's nominations. Certain people tend to nominate 6 posts a week for TOTW. It would be more interesting to see what 30 people thought, but we would have to figure a way to get more people involved.

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GDJMSP

You can see exactly who nominated any thread by going to the bottom of the page.

And you can easily see all of the threads that have been nominated simply by clicking on the Announcements link.

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mrbrklyn

I'm glad you disagree, but my observation is that your not correct. What forms a solid community is shared experience, collaboration and comrade, not boosting egos. If you want more involvement you need to delegate more communal responsibilities. But if you think you can get 40 people participating by creating a competitive environment where people believe they have extra status with the mods because of gold stars, it's not only not going to happen, but it will have the reverse affect that your desiring.

These forums always succeed with the work of people like Doug, and have you noticed how many gold stars he has for interesting threads? He gets nothing in return other than companionship and the opportunity to teach and learn.

Every major community out there functions like this. The Linux kernel community is basically run by a half dozen close associations of Linus. PHP, about 3 developers do 90% of the work, Umbuntu John and about 3 guys, WorldVista, Kudas, Greg and Nancy, NYLUG - Ron and Peter, NYLXS - Myslef and Michael Richardson, CABAL - Rick Moen, W3C - 4 active people essentially, even with the board overseeing there efforts today... etc etc etc....

Your going to have to show me a template for success of what your saying. Also, what drives these forums is companionship more than education. It's collegiate, no question, but that is a side effect of some core of knowledgeable people sitting together over a mug of beer and talking shop and allowing newbies to sit over their should without fear or loathing and participate.

BTW - your missing a lot of interesting stuff if your not reading most of the threads.

Ruben

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