Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

DaveNet Talk Radio (meta)

Author:Phil Wolff
Posted:12/22/1998; 4:14:57 PM
Topic:How are we doing?
Msg #:1665 (In response to 1662)
Prev/Next:1664 / 1666

Hi, Dave.

Thinking about Discuss features and your comments on deleting posts.

You should have an alternative to out-and-out deletion. For instance, if there were more metadata attributes to a message and to a contributor, they might include:

Language Usage (G, PG, R, MA)

Moderator rates relevance to topic (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) with 3 default and 0 being so off topic as to be sheer noise.

Meta (none, some, mostly). This is a post about the system or its hosts. This includes newbie posts, raves, rants, suggestions, etc.

Bad jokes (0, 1, 2)

About contributors:

Potence. Moderator's rating of this poster's watchability based on previous posts (0, 1, 2, 3) where 2 is default.

Readability. Moderator rates how well this person expresses themself.

Combine the metadata with filters, flags, and preferences for viewing and the user gets a more crafted experience. As volume goes up, using a moderator's cues becomes vital to separating wheat from chaff. As a moderator, you're choice is binary. I'd like to see the system let you use shades of grey.

And by a moderator voting on posts and exposing the popularity of threads, the goals of

- sharing knowledge and

- expressing oneself

are joined by the goals of

- getting an opinion favorably rated.

The design goal is no longer just to create an open chat room or web board, a place to visit and chat. The design goal is to give an editorial board the ability to shape the conversation like a talk show host and the show's producer. (DaveNet radio? Are you ready?) The producer does some screening for relevance, tries to sequence the callers to make an interesting balance of personality, rhetoric, fit with the host. Unlike a talk show, online you can work in 256 colors, not just "you're on the air."

One caveat to this approach; people adapt to the tests. How you apply ratings might shape the content you find. I'm thinking about the positive hygiene effect. Consider your last DaveNet. If you get no response you're more likely to try something different than if you got a bunch of raves or rants. If you rate posts and posters high for mentioning Frontier, you'll get lots of Frontier posts.

Yours in metadata. (there's a pun in there somewhere...) - Phil

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