Site Feedback Was this post helpful? [yes/no]

[m060mm]

I feel this button has a purpose distinct from a 'like' button or a 'favorites' button. If you disagree feel free to merge with another thread but please don't delete/lock.

Our goal is harm reduction: a means of prioritizing helpful replies would be in everyone's best interest.

I understand and agree with a 'like' system being ineffective because without explaining, it's useless. An explicit 'did you find this post helpful' with a yes/no option would be very different.

To avoid cluttering this with an example thread, I'll summarize. These are the 'types' of replies that come to mind when thinking about common BL topics:

• Harm reduction advice (helpful)
• Journal citations (helpful)
  
• Anecdotal evidence (generally helpful)
  
• Meaningless agreement: 'f&b is right' (generally unhelpful)
• Threadjacking: 'my situation is similar but different, help me' (generally unhelpful)
• Off-topic (generally unhelpful)
  
• Broscience/inaccurate facts (unhelpful)
• Antagonistic (unhelpful)
• Dick-sizing with dosages (unhelpful)

I'm sure I missed plenty but you get the idea.

I know we don't have an entirely responsible community, however I feel the majority of members would agree with my broad bipolar categorizations.

I don't see this solving all of Bluelight's problems. I see it serving to highlight the less situational, more definitive answers.

'This is your first time banging dope man? I'd strongly advise you against combining it with a benzo.'
3,499 out of 3,500 users found this post helpful.

Alternately, misinformation would be quickly voted as unhelpful. Hopefully this would prompt OP to do further research.. or at least wait for more replies before taking the aforementioned bar.

The coup de grâce: Allow sorting of posts by date (default), or helpfulness ratings. Poof. No more '(heroin) Can I take barz wif H?'

I don't think people would misconstrue 'was this post helpful?' with a like button. Some may, but the majority will take your suggestion. When you see a sign on the door saying 'use bell', how many people knock? Few. Fewer, at least.

Finally, it would reduce clutter. There would be fewer replies that are simply 'what he said' or 'thanks.' The support/gratitude would be implicit. (This would be especially nice considering those who love to quote OP's four-screen long post just to +1.)

Our purpose is to disseminate timely, accurate information. This system doesn't ensure that but I have yet to realize how implementation of this system would result in a net loss.

Are features like these something that can be opted into?

(I'd also like to see a favorites button for alternate reasons. [my post re: favorites])

 

[TurelGrigori]

I understand the helpfulness of rating systems in many sorts of online environments, netflix, stumbleupon, and reddit being just a few.

People really vary in whats useful to them on BL. I think a ton of suboxone threads or posts could be highly rated at one point in a particular sub-forum and decide BL is a suboxone forum I was looking for tips on how to shoot up safely, I'll look else where.

Posters do prioritize threads by posting in them which bumps them to the top- I sometimes worry that that too can cause misconceptions that BL is about the topics on the front page or not about topics that have sunk to page 2 or 3. Mods often compensate for this and other problems with sticky threads-but sticky threads are ignored by many people who have transversed other boards already and often completely ignored by BL regulars. 'Most useful' or 'like' or ratings would imo get cliquey and noisy. I nominate myself as spokesson for Greenlighters in Opposition to 'Like Buttons' or other Integrated Post or Thread Rating Systems. Golbip-TRS for short. If it gets tried why not in a single forum, like say Announcements.

There is no substitute for digging in to BL and finding out what is really useful for you- Regarding useful reference material one can always submit useful content from threads to the HR workshop. Separating pure, accurate information from chatter has been many a BLer's goal but its often more appealing to folk as an idea than actually doing it. Though some still plug away at it.

 

[felix]

My name is felix and I am a Reddit addict. (click on my avatar, hah.)

I know all about their karma/saving system; it's the thing that makes Reddit work. I love it.

I've also been a MeFite since the 1990s, and I love their "favourite" system too.

however, we run on different software. I'm not an expert on vBulletin and I don't know off the top of my head if we can implement such a thing or if it would be appropriate for this type of hierarchical-chronological discussion forum. do you have any examples of vBulletin-based forums where this type of feature is successfully and constructively utilised?

it would be wonderful to have a method of presenting only quality information here. but do we store these karma points against each post, or against each user, or both? who gets to vote - staff only? registered users only? lurkers?

i'm sure you appreciate that the implementation of such a feature would fundamentally change the nature of the Bluelight experience for everyone, forever, so it's not something that's gonna happen overnight.

If you disagree feel free to merge with another thread but please don't delete/lock.

I promise you that this will not be deleted or closed. I'd love to explore this too.

The coup de grâce

upvoted for proper use of circumflex.

thanks for bringing this up - excellent post.

 

[Enix150]

Very interesting idea. It would definitely change the dynamics here! Not sure how I feel on the matter...

however, we run on different software. I'm not an expert on vBulletin and I don't know off the top of my head if we can implement such a thing or if it would be appropriate for this type of hierarchical-chronological discussion forum. do you have any examples of vBulletin-based forums where this type of feature is successfully and constructively utilised?

Any idea what version of vBulletin we're running? I'm pretty sure it'll work with 3.8 and later, but I haven't done a real search for other forums implementing it yet. However, Tasking Mickey gives a good answer here: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?p=2187760#post2187760

 

[Damien]

I have been visiting a forum that has this very feature. It doesn't rank the posts though, it just has something underneath that says "was this post helpful?". I've actually found myself going to click it when visiting here lol. At the site I go to it does tie into the rep system though I don't know how much it depends on it to function. It looks like this:

 

[alasdairm]

Any idea what version of vBulletin we're running?

4.1.4.

alasdair

 

[Enix150]

^ Thanks aladair! Then yeah, we'll definitely be able to implement something like this (if that's what gets decided on).

I have been visiting a forum that has this very feature. It doesn't rank the posts though, it just has something underneath that says "was this post helpful?". I've actually found myself going to click it when visiting here lol. At the site I go to it does tie into the rep system though I don't know how much it depends on it to function. It looks like this:

Do you know whether they're using vBulletin? It will probably say what software they're "powered by" at the bottom of the any page in their forum.

 

[felix]

I've remembered another vbulletin site that uses the 'Thanks' feature: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1147017

Users can 'Thank' people for making helpful posts. Underneath each post is a list of everyone who thanked the user for that post, e.g:

The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to MSE Lawrence For This Useful Post: Show me >>
catz747 (19-02-2010), hart3uk (19-09-2008 ), Ice (09-09-2008 ), SavingMoney z (12-11-2010)

All of these 'Thanks' are counted towards a user's profile and displayed next to their avatar, at all times.

That entire site is a car crash, aesthetically speaking, and I wouldn't want ours to look anything like it. I think the 'Thanks' system just adds to the visual clutter and probably does nothing to help you decide which posts to read or not. It saves no time, and by the time you get to the 'Thanks' section you've read the post already, regardless of how many times people have 'Thanked' it.

a means of prioritizing helpful replies would be in everyone's best interest.

I've been thinking about this some more. Our posts are displayed in chronological order. They are a conversation that only makes sense when they are all viewed, and in the correct order.

We're not like Reddit (for example) where threads are pretty much throwaway items. We look after and archive our quality threads and it's the moderators responsibility to keep things on track and free of garbage.

The amount of things posted on Reddit every day is so huge that they *need* a way of filtering out the wheat from the chaff by using a karma system, which hides all the dross. If Bluelight's activity is akin to a dripping tap, theirs is more like the Niagara Falls!

So yeah, I'm coming (back) round to the idea that this is not something that we need here. I personally do not see a problem with people replying to a post to say that they agree with it - it's all part of the conversation.

------------------

I don't have the last word here - but I can't see us ever implementing this feature when we have so many other things on our to-do list already. Sorry.

 

[alasdairm]

i've long been of the opinion that, for me, a huge factor in the success of bluelight is its victory of substance over style. i looked at a forum yesterday which used this feature in two ways - they added the 'thanks' feature which felix describes above. it cluttered the threads with so much 'noise' that i had to pick through the thread slowly and deliberately to find individual posts. it made me absolutely cringe.

secondly, it added a star rating (out of five stars) to the thread descriptions on each forum home page and, again, it turned that page into an unreadable mess.

if you think a post is helpful, post in the thread and say it's helpful and tell us why it's helpful. i.e. engage in discussion!

alasdair
--

(5 stars!)

[size=+1]9001 users found this post helpful![/size]

 

[Apostacious]

I think that felix and alasdairm have said it best, but I'll chime in really quick anyway...

I am of the crowd that finds reputation systems, rating systems, and thanking systems to be wrought with potential for making this forum a popularity contest. I think that such features on any forum, moves said forum away from a discussion-focused forum, as most will find incurring the ratings/thanks/reputation to be goal of the forum, rather than promoting good on-topic discussion. It seems that most rep-based forums all eventually end up only giving rep to the ones that those of rep like, and tends to devolve the forum into a quantity-over-quality focus, where those of the most rep tend to have the most posts, even if not a single one of their posts were helpful. So, in other words, the purpose of posting on the forum is then to please those of rep, and that doesn't always involve promoting good discussion. A thanks system is basically a very public reputation system, and is even more liable to guide discussion away from HR, and more towards garnering more thanks. There are moments where good HR, or even good discussion in general, involves unpopular or even controversial posting. A reputation/thanks/ratings system would discourage such posts.

 

[felix]

There are moments where good HR, or even good discussion in general, involves unpopular or even controversial posting. A reputation/thanks/ratings system would discourage such posts.

this is absolutely correct. the phenomenon is obvious to see in Reddit, where a lot of discussion is about upvotes and downvotes and karma points. thankfully, the karma system itself takes care of that by hiding most of the completely useless chatter.

so yeah, it would be a shame to have peoples' energies diverted to something so pointless when they could be spending their time & brainpower on quality posting instead.