Board Control And So Forth
Complaints on email and twitter have reached a critical mass, so: Something Must Be Done about the board (artist's impression @ right).
You may have noticed that the points system broke during the Great Malware Disaster and I haven't fixed it. There are multiple reasons for this: the code that did that was in a custom module I had made up and the only place it existed was on the test server. Due to some bad archiving strategies it is no longer extant. Before I set to replacing that I wanted to see if moving to the new version of Drupal was feasible, something that required checking each of the dozens of modules installed on the site to see if it had a viable Drupal 7 version.
I've been waiting for a bit and now I'm pretty sure I'm not going to make the move to 7 until next summer, so it makes sense to implement something now. However, the board has gotten very large and a number of stupid people have infested it and it's clear we've again outgrown our system.
Thus I have…
A Job
I'm looking for a developer familiar with Drupal who will work with me to produce a commenting system in the vein of Reddit or Slashdot that automatically filters poor quality comments and draws attention to high quality ones. This can be an assemblage of existing modules—though I've looked and that is not in the cards, I don't think—but will most likely be a module of its own, one that ideally will be submitted and maintained in the community at large. We'll work together to establish requirements and then establish a price for the whole thing.
I imagine this is going to take a while as we hash out what's possible and what isn't; getting it right and getting it into a maintainable state is more important than speed. My previous experience with freelancing leads me to believe a lot of low quality code gets pushed out the door very quickly. I'm looking for this to be more of a long-term relationship where person X is brought on as part-time Drupal guy, completing projects at a fairly leisurely rate as time and funding allows.
If you're interested, email me with who you are and your ideas for the project. If you do not have a track record I might be impressed enough by someone who can already show me a prototype—who's started something already—to overlook that.
In the meantime I will reach in and restore the dirty hack I dirtily hacked the first time around. Give me some time, a week or so.
While I am guilty of complaining how I miss points, don't misunderstand me. The reason for visiting MGoBlog is the top notch content that you have never failed to provide. The site is just good enough that I, and several other participants, became spoiled.
Thanks for listening, making attempts to return the points system, and spoiling us further. You rule.
something like they have on facebook and on twitter when some responds to you, you get a little notification?
i would definately support that or an email notification. I would think that you could make a little notification section up by your account on the main page and when ever you have one or more there will be a little red square with the number of notifications and you can click on the box to expand it and see the updates.
Either that, an email, or a screen that you can check that shows all replies to your comments.
But a notification screen for replies would be nice.
What is the system at reddit like? Basically like ours was before?
I was thinking more along the lines of that globe icon on the upper bar of the Facebook homepage that you can click to give you a drop-down list of "Notifications". For Mgoblog, these would probably revolve around replies, but maybe a notification when a certain number of people have viewed content you created, or when x number of up- or down-votes have been cast for your content.
I definitely like the "Tom" button on the MGoBoard sidebar. People should be able to track posters of their own choosing in a manner similar to the Tom button. I don't think that "friending" each other is the word I would use to describe it, but there are definitely some posters on the site that are better writers than others. Blocking people (and other Ultra Mgoboard functions) would also be cool if they could work in a browser-based format. I don't have a smart phone so I tough it out in Chrome.
Yea I've always thought a notification would help. Private messaging would be awesome to add, but I don't know how hard that is to do or whether it would appeal to a lot of people.
I think it'd be cool to follow certain people, but I don't know how often I would use that. Off the top of my head of regular posters/diarists I can only think of 4-5 that I would take the time to follow.
I really think that having points back on will help with content (Stats don't win games? WTF?).
Serious flame-wars going down all day today. Luckily I know when to keep my mouth shut and enjoy the fun.
But yes, real negs are an absolutely essential facet of the board's ongoing efforts to self-police. Logic and evidence are nice, but it's hard to get someone banned without sending them to Bolivian first.
I don't know about private messaging, either. It seems like it would take a lot of time and resources for a service that can easily be provided, for free, by a half-dozen (or more) better-known chat sites.
I got into the stats one for like 9-10 comments. I actually had a serious discussion involving reason and logic. Only negged like once for that, and a few times in that other awful one about "firing RR".
Long live the Dirty Hack!
A reddit-esque voting/comment system would be amazing.
this.
"You rule."
Ah, this sounds like an awesome job. Maybe my summer plans will fall through and I can apply.
Does the filtering system have the means to remove short posts which often don't say very miuch and just cluttler up the board, often with back and forth squabbling. It seems lately that there are tons of posts which don't add anything of substance to the discussion.
What I'd also like to see is if someone negs you, they have to post so you know their reasons for inferring you should go to Bolivia.
Thus the neg for both.
I think you're putting a little too much weight on a single mgopoint. People don't get sent to bolivia because one person randomly decided to neg you, they get there because of constant stupid posts that everyone hates.
No to the last point. This has been discussed before. The entire thread would quickly turn in to chaos if everyone had to tell an idiot that they're being an idiot.
You're about to make Dark Blue a very happy man.
And by "Dark Blue" I mean him and the rest of us. Thanks!
a happy man last night /complete homo.
Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the board.
-Travis Bickle
A +1 to you sir for referencing Taxi Driver.
am i the only one who has come around less lately bc of the aforementioned problem?
that and the insane amount of nonsense that goes along with lack of neg bangs / ban hammers.
also, by less i mean every 5 minutes instead of every 4.
school's wrapping up. somebody's gotta have the summer off where they have nothing better to do than dedicate 15 hrs or so on this blog like we used to. Bueller?
How many moderators are there currently?
The lack of the bright red NEW box on new posts has definitly kept me away I don't have the desire to reread and filter through peoples responses.
i used to just ctrl-f "new" to find the additions. scrolling through nonsense is a pain
I think I miss this more than anything.
I can't program for shit but I will be donating to help out. Anything to neg some of the shit that has been posted around here lately.
always
<3 <3 <3 swoon <3 <3 <3
I misread the main page title as "Birth Control". Then I wondered, where is Brian going with this?
Dearest mgocommunity please repeat after me.
BRAIN COOK IS NOT MY FATHER NOR DOES HE OWE ME ANYTHING. THEREFORE IT IS ILLOGICAL TO WRITE HIM EMAILS OR OTHERWISE COMPLAIN TO HIM ABOUT MGOBOARD, OR STUPIDS NEGGING ME, OR VARIOUS THINGS THAT ARE UNIMPORTANT AND OUT OF HIS DIRECT CONTROL.
Thanks.
NEGGED.
Actually, wouldn't providing feedback be useful to the owner of a website that derives a significant chunk of its revenue through user visits?
Also, he does control the board.
So if your doctor or bank teller was doing something the wrong way you wouldn't complain? Brian is in the service industry, and we're his customers. To produce the most revenue, feedback is an essential part of a service business.
If you are sending Brain emails about interesting topics or what not then I suppose that is fine. I do not get the impression that is what has happened here. The only email Brain probably wants to see regarding the board or negging is "I will write the code for mgoboard."
Under normal circumstances, one would directly pay a doctor for a service. I'm not sure comparing Brain to a 'bank teller' is the direction you want to go but none-the-less, a bank provides services for which money changes hands. No one here is paying Brain for anything. One might donate money but there is no pay for service. Thus, Brain does not owe you anything.
In closing, I do not get the impression that the goal of mgoblog is to generate 'the most revenue.' For this I am thankful.
I absolutely think he tries to generate the most revenue: it's his job. That's why the site is as good as it is, because Brian wants to draw and maintain readers. If he didn't try to do this, there would be no TomVH, no UFR's and the like. He sells ad space for a living, the better the content, the more clicks, the more ad revenue.
My point was that by telling Brian that we want negs back, we're communicating that his site would be better (and thus clicking on more ads/pages) with them. I haven't emailed him about this, but I think it's great as long as people are respectful.
You could post a Sears applicance manual and I'd upvote you because of your avitar.
If there is better beer than Dogfish 90 I've never had it.
Example of useful comment:
Example of useless content:
"What defense should RR have run in 2009? This is important.
Yay, two of my favorite online communities making sexy-time!
"... and a number of stupid people have infested it ..."
I'd still like to see a plot that shows when new users were added.
If there were some way to filter out all cat pictures and "I see what you did there" pictures, I'd be happy as a clam.
Well done sir.
Slightly off-topic, but site-related... Is the Android App still in the works? Someone affiliated with the blog sent out a call for people willing to test one in early March, and I emailed within minutes but never heard anything back. Anyone out there lucky enough to get a prototype of the app? Or know a timeline of when it might be ready for the population at large? I'm very eager for it...
I'm the lead developer for the MGoDroid app. We're planning on releasing MGoDroid on the Marketplace sometime next week, if not sooner. Your email probably got lost in the torrential onslaught of emails we received when Brian retweeted the beta announcement. Send an email to [email protected] and I'll send you the app tonight.
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