[Feedback Thread] How can WE improve on the PD forum? Suggestions welcome!

[Xorkoth]

I really wish there was a big and dandy syrian rue thread but that would take a lot of work patching together old threads and stuff i suppose. Lurking in other forums with a similar type of thing might help me out enough though.

It really does take lots of work to patch together old threads, I did a good handful of the Big and Dandies back in the day and I can attest to the time commitment.

Seems like you guys have kept the place running well, that makes me smile

 

[Solipsis]

I really wish there was a big and dandy syrian rue thread but that would take a lot of work patching together old threads and stuff i suppose. Lurking in other forums with a similar type of thing might help me out enough though.

We have a more general Harmala thread here:
http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/61037-The-Big-amp-Dandy-Harmala-MAOI-alkaloids-Thread

I'd say it should be a fine place to discuss syrian rue and any combinations with it, don't you think? I've given this thread's TT, links and OP a small update.

Don't think anyone answered my casual asking in social, so I might as well ask the folks who would know. What happened to the Index link at the top of the PD main page? Was it lost during the site upgrade (or is it just my computer not displaying it)?

If the former, it'd be nice to get it back, makes it annoying to get to the index.

Definitely agreed, I will look into it right away.

Could a mod insert a link to the "Second Edition" of the 2C-E big & dandy at the end of the first one:
http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/271342-The-Big-and-Dandy-2C-E-thread-(Reorganized)/page44

Cheers and thanks mods!

Sure! edit: done

It really does lots of work to patch together old threads, I did a good handful of the Big and Dandies back in the day and I can attest to the time commitment.

Seems like you guys have kept the place running well, that makes me smile

Glad you think so, good of you to drop in man.. that promptly takes me back to days of yore :D

GENERAL QUESTION:

Does anyone feel like we would benefit from a second version of say the Psychedelic Index without any images, for mobile users?

 

[f33lg00d]

This board should be renamed hallucinogen drugs.

 

[Transform]

I'm not sure I agree with you there.

A psychedelic substance is a psychoactive drug whose primary action is to alter cognition and perception.

If anything, I'd call it psychedelics, dissociatives and deleriant drug discussion but PDDDD as an abbreviation would become a mouthful!

 

[Thorns Have Roses]

I see the header is back up, thanks guys.

 

[abracadabra girl]

Call more attention to the index. In the page header it doesn't look like a link - underline it or something. Also sticky it but not in the archive. It needs to be front and center. I had to click through 3 other threads to get to it but it's so helpful it deserves more emphasis. The organization of the OD header (with the directory as one of the links in the table) makes more sense to me.

 

[Xorkoth]

Good ideas, we're always looking for ways to make the Index more prominent.

 

[Rorthron]

I did not have the time to read all the previous 25 pages, just some scattered posts, so these have possibly been suggested. If so, that's a vote
a) make a possibility of tagging individual posts. Sometimes it is difficult to find something. And I have found myself loosing hours over google or the search engine trying to find some bit of information. tagging would definitely be helpful for that. Mods could be taggers, or all BL Crew, or anyone...
b) add a "facebook inspired" "like" button. Some posts are better than others and more informative than others. Many times I just want to say what others have said, but having a thread with repetitive information is useless and I end up not posting anything. However many threads are just plainly repeated posts, over and over again, which would be reduced if A "Like" system would be implemented. This would also improve the visibility of the most relevant posts

 

[Xorkoth]

Regarding tagging, we have considered this years back. I actually started a tagging system in Trip Reports that hasn't been maintained, but works great for those minority of threads that we tagged. It's an intense amount of work to tag threads, and even more to tag individual posts. However I agree that Bluelight's search engine is crappy, and it's not always easy through Google either. Also, only mods can edit other peoples' threads/posts, there is no way to make crew or regular posters able to do that (unless it's your own post).

Regarding the "like" button... nice idea. Unfortunately that's a Bluelight-wide thing. It could be brought up to the admins, but I feel like it has been discussed before and the vote was no... we didn't want the competition factor that could happen (though I don't see that happening in PD, but again, changes like these are site-wide).

 

[Solipsis]

Maybe people should learn to tag their own posts like with twitter hashtag labels, although I don't use twitter and may not understand what I am talking about properly :D Other than that, just bookmark?
I agree about the intense amount of work, that was what I was thinking. It would be a very 'costly' service to provide for people.

@the like button: *dislike* actually
It really bothers me to see every single post being scrutinized like on drugs-forum, expressing one's opinion about other people's posts is fine and possible now but I happen to dislike the competition factor and the atmosphere that is carried with it. Maybe if you live in the US you are more used to it, since many things are apparently more competitive there.

 

[Rorthron]

@the like button: *dislike* actually
It really bothers me to see every single post being scrutinized like on drugs-forum, expressing one's opinion about other people's posts is fine and possible now but I happen to dislike the competition factor and the atmosphere that is carried with it. Maybe if you live in the US you are more used to it, since many things are apparently more competitive there.

There are two annoying things on drugs forum that actually sustains that competition, the first is that bad reputation can be added to posts, something that could be circumvented if there was only a "like" button, meaning no negative feedback. The second thing is that users have a sort of "karma" that is calculated, I guess, from the amount of positive votes. This generates the competition. If no karma is added to the user (again, like in facebook) then I cannot see why would competition arise. If we are promoting posts and not users, the only competition is for content (which is good) and not visibility and self promotion (which is bad).

[oh and I live in Europe. Midnight is in Europe ]

 

[Xorkoth]

I see your points. I'll say it's very unlikely to happen here, it's been brought up before. But I can see how promoting content could be a good thing.

 

[Thorns Have Roses]

b) add a "facebook inspired" "like" button. Some posts are better than others and more informative than others. Many times I just want to say what others have said, but having a thread with repetitive information is useless and I end up not posting anything. However many threads are just plainly repeated posts, over and over again, which would be reduced if A "Like" system would be implemented. This would also improve the visibility of the most relevant posts

The danger of a like system is that it reinforces popular opinions, which may be untrue or at least less than ideal. Spending some time around the place one will come to recognize the more reliable posters and trends in opinion on a given subject. For those who lack familiarity or have only a cursory interest in a subject, repetition serves as a decent guide for reliable advice.

It really bothers me to see every single post being scrutinized

I fear that that sorta thing encourages mediocrity and demagoguery, as democratic systems (which is what a (dis)like function is, when you get down to it) tend to do.

 

[Roger&Me]

the idea of adding a "like" button to BL is one that i've seen several times recently, and i think it is literally a terrible idea.

"liking" something by pressing a button is such a 1-dimensional, vapid gesture. and it leads to a situation where people think posts with higher number of "likes" are more reliably correct, which may not be the case, which could have disastrous consequences.

a like button may be just fine on something like facebook where nothing of importance is being discussed, but the nature of a harm reduction drug forum means that potential life-and-death issues are being discussed, and they need to be approached with more care than just allowing people to press a button to express their opinion. its totally inappropriate for this board imo.

 

[swilow]

"liking" something by pressing a button is such a 1-dimensional, vapid gesture.

Couldn't have said it better myself

I just think that accumulating 'likes' is of very little value.

A 'true' button would be more useful.

But ultimately, taking 5 minutes to write a simple reply is always going to be helpful and useful to our community.

 

[ParappaTheRapper]

I think that the display of users browsing the forum, as well as browsing the archive should be grouped together. That is very misleading and hard to follow for new users.

 

[swilow]

^I agree that's its a pointless distinction....but I don't know if anything can be done about that, and its a systemic function anyhow...For those sort of things, raising them in the Support forum is perhaps a better idea.

 

[Xorkoth]

Yeah, I think it stems from the fact that each forum and its archive are defined as separate forums, and each forum's viewers are listed separately. But couldn't hurt to bring it up in Support.

 

[Solipsis]

People who have older monitor screens with lower resolution, what is your experience when using the Psychedelic Index page of PD?

Is there a huge demand for a stripped down version? Like a mobile version?

 

[Bagseed]

I'm browsing from a pretty old laptop at the moment, 1280x800, and I don't have any problems using the index. don't know about something like 800x600 though.