This is not so much an error as it is feedback and it concerns likes. Ill be tagging
Avasarala
for this as i think this is her forte
I was not sure if this constituted its own thread or not, but for now, ill be posting it here
This is a partial repost of
this and
this about having a dislike post button. In high-speed threads, often the first 10 replies see so many people like a post which is just a oneliner, and they like it because summarizes
the truth most of the times, or it gets a lot of likes because its a
staff member who wrote a comment.
Example of a regular user getting a ton of likes for essentially what amounts to oneliner,
here. (The third response also gets dozens of
likes for a oneliner. And yes i am aware that its a sarcastic take. That's not what i am referring to.)
Example of a staff member getting a ton of likes (simply for being staff?),
here.
I don't think such posts give way to more indepth discussion, the first example more than the other as atleast the staff provides an opinion. But i dislike that staff gets likes simply for wearing a different hat.
I realize that this meta-example is much more difficult to change than for the users, so down below, i am operating off the first example. And i even liked these posts in the first place aswell.
I am more for a system that encourages
critical thought amongst its users. That does mean threads will get slower paced, but
quality rises. Even when a post is clearly sarcastic in nature, i don't feel that
likes should be used in order to
support certain posts.
What +1's/-1's tend to do is that users quickly won'tt use the system for what it is meant to do
(Meaning upvoting quality posts/downvoting shit posts) but rather abuse the system into
agreeing with someone. You should get an upvote for a
quality* post and a downvote for a
shit post, but such systems establish that even oneliner crap posts (that speak ''
the truth'') get a ton of likes. This is a negative by-effect of any like system really. Its just a social
hack to agree with a user.
There are some suggestions/solutions i would want to propose, and they originate from the site Tweakers.net and the zDoom forums.
These also deviate slightly from the likes issues and more into generic feedback, but i hope that's okay.
- Replace the like system with a modbot. This is a bot that will provide a poster with a drop down menu where a poster can write a short note why this post needs a spotlight and also allows a user to vote on that post. With enough votes, this post will be given an encapsulating banner stating spotlight. Ofcourse, this system can be abused too, which is where neural networks come into play and machine learning (which is why
Beard of the Forest
needs to see this). The modbot needs to be trained into recognizing what constitutes an overkill of votes and reasons and what does not. A vote should only be registered when a reason is given.
- Alternatively, this modbot can also be used in conjunction with the current like system, but then it should be trained to look at posts and make a deviation between intents and quality of posting. A oneliner post usually contains not enough depth to be worthy of a like, but, as my examples show, can also imply sarcasm. Ofcourse neural networks are terrible at detecting sarcastic intent so some assumption has to prop up here. Posts that can truly encapture both sides of the coin in a oneliner are very rare, thus posts getting a ton of likes usually get these for the proverbial truth speech. I don't believe a truth post encourages quality, which is, a more in-depth post, though still short, that encaptures and articulates why. I realize that this is not a very coherent post, but i do think that the current like system has to go or can be trained to filter out the extremes. Posting on GAF for the most part should be about quality discussion, not about ''truth'' posts getting a lot of likes. I understand that these truth posts encapsulate the feelings of many, but at the same time, those posts don't promote quality discussion, i feel.
- Posts that are clearly trash are currently now reply-banned, and although it stops a user from participating, people can still quote and reply to that post, potentially been able to derail a topic again. I propose moving these posts to a Hall of Unpleasantness. Example is here. This is a non-writable (Purely for watching purposes) where threads and posts are moved to simply perish. The Hall of Unpleasantness should serve as a continous example for new users to highlight these posts and threads that aren't up the terms of this site. This could even be automated when a user gets reply banned for a particular post, then all the users quoting that post are moved aswell. Essentially this defuses the entire argument, yet the posts still exist somewhere. For threads, it constitutes just moving the thread and all its contents over. Occassionally things may look incorrect, but the HoU isn't meant to look correct in terms of post progression: Its to serve as a permanent reminder.
- Within the HoU, you could have a sticky thread called Gallery of Useless Bumps. Whenever someone would do a necrobump to an old thread, such a post can be moved (Automatically?) to this sticky thread, with his post containing the thread title from where it originated from. Example of this is here.
EviLore
is aware of a Mod document i gave to him recently from another site i frequented. It contains some points that could be applied to current developments in terms of moderation.
The above is a public extension of what i wrote to Tyler in the PM, hence why he is tagged for this purpose aswell. This part references multiple parts of the site, so multiple people should see this i feel. Alternatively, i may throw that mod document here with Tyler's blessing. (And Tyler, consider this also feedback
)
This is some of the stuff i have thought about recently on improving QoL. Thank you for reading,
Red.
