Upcoming Member News

EDIT: After reading some of the comments, how about have all new submissions displayed on the top page (thumbnailed) but also have a "popular" section - based on comments or views. This way we can keep the gems alive for longer.
The Member News section contains gems and sometimes the not-so-much-of-a-gem post pushes it off the page. A proposal I have is to introduce a digg type system - have a look at the upcoming section under the Member News.
When you first post something, it goes in the Upcoming pile and shows up as text only on the top page - it will still show as normal in the paginated results in the order that posts are posted.
The only difference is the way its displayed on the top page. When items in "upcoming" get a certain amount of comments, it gets promoted automatically to being a thumbnailed item on the top page under Member News.
Folks spamming their own items with comments will be relieved from duty. A person who is answering other members comments on an item that they posted will not usually be considered spam - should be obvious in the way comments are posted though.
Do you think this is a good idea? If you have a different proposal then let me know. I can implement the above fairly easily in about an hour using selects based on comment count. Anything too advanced will need time and get prioritized against all the other stuff that needs being done (like adding category names to items).
I cant implement voting easily at the moment either.
If you are interested in reading about life in Japan, seeing photos taken daily around Tokyo, like Japanese subculture (anime, manga, figures, Dollfies) then you may want to start delving into the Japan or Figure categories for a start or have a gander at all photo articles.
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Web Surfer, 大学生 【だいがくせい】
http://aoiichiguin.blogspot.com/
yeah that sounds goood! But what about people that have multiple accounts?
never really thought of that, but that's true one can make ghost accounts and self-servingly spam comments on their own post, folks like this should also be relieved from duty.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Folks doing that are easily spotted ^^
Wannabe Web Developer
http://www.sakuafk.com
Even though they have multiple accounts, high chance is that they post from the same computer so Danny can easily spot those people with multiple accounts
-1
http://necrophadian.blogspot.com/
id rather see a thumbnail, grabs my attention faster than text, like they say a picture is worth a thousand words. my .02 $
already left the world
I concur with you~ I'm more of a visual type of person.
Thumbnails give us an idea what the Article is all about.
Experiment volunteer for social dysfunctionality
http://coffeebugg.blogspot.com/
Third that motion.
http://nopybot.com
Fourth. I have to go through so much text at school/work, thumbnails just work better for me.
Graphic Design student | Receptionist | Otaku
http://sukidesho.blogspot.com/
I agree with you 100% I've gotten some strange looks from time to time relating to that ^^;
Art Student/Freelancer
http://jenarwen.deviant.art.com
I also agree. Small image with a line of text?
Student
http://vegasmind.e3b.org/
+1, a thumbnail w/ just a liltte text will work well
Student
http://hugodeathy.deviantart.com/
+2 now, a +3 will get you a rare item.
Plain text is easy to miss, with an visual aid it will catch peoples attention faster.
Your local Otaku Cashier.
I kind of agree with Necrophadian, but this will help out with pushing the less than interesting stuff off the front page and lets people see member news items that others think is worth the time.
Programmer/IT/Student
http://wickedotaku.blogspot.com/
I don't know about implementing something based on comment count like that, Danny. I think some items that would deserve to be featured on the front page for a little bit might not get the comments, but would be equally helpful/interesting to others as those news items that do get a large number of comments. I think a voting system would work best, although, I don't know how that could be implemented. Simply setting a cookie to see if someone voted before could be bypassed by clearing cookies, and counting votes per IP address won't work very well because some people are on networks where other people on the same network also visit dannychoo.com I have no idea how it would be done personally, but I think that's what would work best.
Actually, I think I'll look into how that can be done, for my knowledge in the future. :p
free lance otaku, full time Protector of Peace.
high comment counts meant high viewership. and it also means that readers have comments after reading it. Reasons could be they wanna share their 2 cents, or answer questions that the news uploader asked. There is a high interactivity between the two parties..
Whereas a news item with high viewership but low comment count means that it does not create interactivity between parties.. possibility becos it's....Boo Boo news. >_<
Voting.. hmm.. Have you thought of spamming votes? Which is easier to spot? Votes spammers, or comment spammers? My 1 cent. ;D
...but I imagine Danny will continue to hijack posts he considers gems regardless of comment count?
I concur with the comments above pictures might be better than text. btw lol on "my brothers nekkid GF pics", are we allowed to post those? ^^
-1
http://necrophadian.blogspot.com/
was wondering where that came from meself. WTF? O_o sometimes text wins
Closet Otaku
I think in concept the Digg idea sounds great. However, in practice I believe that it really discourages new / less active users from posting. The problem with Digg currently is that a small group of users pretty much dominate the front page. It's true that these users might have the most interesting stories but often time just the fastest one to post. This sort of competition like system creates little incentives for your average users to post since they believe that they have no chance of beating the more established users.
I was all about the Digg system before, but now all I can see is this elitism, and users become competitive with each other or try different tactics to get "vote up", including cheating. I don't know the DC community as a whole will benefit from a Digg-like competitive system. There are much to be said about a good user story getting buried by not as interesting ones, but at the same time there are might be more to loose by creating a competitive environment in the community.
I really enjoy the editorial type system you've been using by promoting user stories that you deem interesting. I think it's better to have a unified editor than a free-for-all system at least for the moment. Just my 2 cents.
part time illustrationist, doll clothing seamstress
http://puppy52art.com/
I agree with this one ^^
IT Architect
Well the difference is in Digg's case, some crazy broken (ie: exploitable) algorithm is at work that weights users. The competition lies in the fact that if your stories are dugg, you get accolades in the form of "weight" that you can throw around. I doubt Danny was planning to implement his idea this way.
Student & Authorized Chicken Slapper
I actually think this concept is a good idea. Usually the good items tend to get the most comments anyways. And the not so good tend to not...
So I say Implement it.
part time illustrationist, doll clothing seamstress
http://puppy52art.com/
I actually like Flickr's "favorites" it allows me to "bookmark" photos which I enjoyed. But at the same time it doesn't really affect "ranking" Not sure how difficult it is to impliment that tho.
http://www.khimhoe.net
more ppl favorite/bookmark it, the higher the ranking?
part time illustrationist, doll clothing seamstress
http://puppy52art.com/
well i think you'll only see "ranking" (for the most favorited) if you go to a certain page?
Student/Freelance Programmer
But there are many posts I like but just; don't feel like/don't have time to leave a comment.
Also, I think you told off Agito666 for flooding 2 post of great fanart.
Then you just let Tenrou flood so many senarios?(at times, 4-5 post in one day?)
-1
http://necrophadian.blogspot.com/
perceptive but i think tenrous posts are usually interspersed with other peoples posts.
I don't think Danny did it on purpose. It's probably just that Tenrou's post are a bit more inconspicuous. as Agito's fan art are black and white and tend to be more prominent, thus easier to catch.
and though I do enjoy reading Tenrou's posts, and I daresay in its own way it does adds quality to the site. but you're right 4-5 post might be a unfair to others who ends up having their posts pushed down.
大学の学生 1st year
http://www.twitter.com/NaKAhi70
I agree with you DC it's good to organize it in a way like that.
C. Engineering Student
http://otaku.baywords.com
Not sure I really like the idea...
Ha!
I like the idea, "digg" system is good and I always want to go back to some of the really good posts.
Ronin - Looking for #1
http://unit-1978.deviantart.com/
I agree, I think the thumbnail pic is better than pure text. If the pic is interesting enough it will get a hit. If its actually good people will find out and as someone else stated, the topic will stay up for longer regardless.
Love the new look Danny.
The Sword of Magus
http://daichouginga.blogspot.com/
Well, as long as the normal chronological member news exists, it's ok to implement another type of member news system. Though do you think it will make some kind of competition here? xD
Dropping computers, starting all over again at Journalism
http://immalion.com
Voting would be nicer, but if you can't for now, by comments is nice too. :D
NEET
mm, competition shouldn't be a focus for news which should inform, so I agree with the caution in going digg-y.
The problem with any sort of 'popular' section is that its existence and being labeled popular tends to make it unauthentically self-perpetuating, like how observing quantum states changes outcome; how can these popular upcomings be made pending without having too much visibility and suffer in a typical way, like this example:
It's like "Top 10 downloads" on sites, where because they are simply linked and marked as such, remain in those spots forever.
Is it enough to consider something popular by considering the comment to views ratio?
(hmm, finally found my earlier comment regarding this: http://www.dannychoo.com/detail/mac/eng/image/3432/Member+News+Etc.html#comment204437 )
and many points made overall, in that thread, to review:
http://www.dannychoo.com/detail/mac/eng/image/3432/Member+News+Etc.html
Shooting EM beams onto stuff and checking to see what comes out.
http://kikenshisou.wordpress.com
http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2008/07/digg-bot-man-ar.html
Will there be a DC bot man =)
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
LOL!
Pokemon master
http://thecococafe.wordpress.com/
While I like having good news items featured, the only issue I would have with a popularity system is that labeling something as "highly rated" or "popular" might cause newer but equally good items to become neglected.
Dance Trooper: DCX-001 O.D.E. (Order of the Dancing Empire)
http://dannychoo.com.my
That's a great idea to be implement. Another thing will be, Comment-Reply-Notice, users will be notify once their's someone replying to their response by clicking "reply to XXX's comment". That's another thing I notice most users had suggested.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
On the to-do list too ^^;
Student
Yeah, I second that, "Comment-Reply-Notice" would be awesome:)
Student
http://www.tecurious.com
My 200 cents:
You've increased the number of member news articles being displayed on the top page. That alone should increase awareness/viewership and allow the "gems" to stay visible longer.
That said, increasing viewership for articles which people clearly care about is good for obvious reasons.
On the other hand, many people will end up only looking at the articles that are in the "top 5" and ignoring others. This will discourage posting of niche articles (anime/figures/etc is a pretty small niche in itself), reducing the variety of posts, and discouraging people from posting - people want someone to comment on them, and if they're not getting any comments they're going to stop posting. That in itself helps weed out "gem" posters/articles from "not-so-gem" posters/articles.
I can't really say what you should do... I like the idea of giving more recognition to those who put in the effort, but I can see this easily degenerating to the top 5 member articles being as follows:
Panchira Shots: Week [whatever number has something really intense]
Panchira Shots: Week [another number with something intense]
Omg hot girl
etc etc
While those are things that this site is about, what "the masses" (read: horny teenage boys) are going to both view and comment a ton on isn't necessarily what "the masses" want to have on this site all the time. I personally would say a "gem" article is one with 25 well-thought-out comments (discussions, etc), not one with 1000 "OMG SHE IS HOT I WOULD LET HER [insert something not that funny]" comments
I think this is a bad idea, Danny. I like what you're trying to do, but it's impossible to do it in a balanced+fair way.
A simpler way, perhaps, would be to bold or otherwise draw attention to news posts with high comment numbers, but not make them stay on the page any longer than others. Then perhaps further increase the number of member news posts displayed on the front page by having only the first X posts be displayed with images, and the rest just be text.
Or, go with the voting sort of system, and bold news posts with high votes.
Perhaps implement a system merely of FINDING the gems by allowing the sorting of news posts by # of comments, or # of views, or # of votes, or # of RECENT COMMENTS (this is important in making sure that originally exciting, but now old news doesn't get viewed).
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Thanks for the feedback. What I dont want to do is to do nothing - moving forward with change is for the better. Just need to find a way to make *most* (not all) of the folks happy. I will get complaints no matter what I do - impossible to please all (bill cosby again ^^;)
Video Reviewer of Anime Figures, Mecha and Merch (youtube.com/user/Actar576295)
http://actar.wordpress.com
Perhaps have 2 thumbnailed sections. Member News and Popular News.
http://animaticfigmation.com/
I prefer the thumbnail style, a lot of the articles that I find interest in aren't the hugely popular ones, and I often find interesting news items under Items currently being read now or Latest Items, more so than on the front page.
Graphic Arts Student
I think it sounds like a great idea, however I personally would have to see it in action before I could decide if I truly like it. But it seems like it would be a great organizer for lost gems.
university film student | ecchikid | the Archivist
http://www.vimeo.com/longhim
I'd say no to this idea - it's true that gems are sometimes buried, but it's not that big a problem and judging by comments here I suspect many people (like me) just go through everything anyway. It's true that good news items to tend to get more comments, but there are some good ones that simply aren't very discussion worthy; likewise, there are some not-so-good items that get far more comments than they should. It's simply too difficult and needlessly complicating to try and balance it.
What I foresee, really, is pictures of 2D and 3D hotties dominating the thumbnail spots. Those types of posts tend to attract lots of comments (mainly of the "I want her" or "how I'd do her" variety) and even good gems about other subjects don't usually get that many.
university film student | ecchikid | the Archivist
http://www.vimeo.com/longhim
Hmm...so basically what Calan said a couple of comments above. Sorry for not reading everything clearly before commenting.
Pseudo-Graphic Designer, 触手 wrangler, H-Man
http://lightningsabre.blogspot.com/
I usually look it up in order it was posted, so maybe it's better that way for me to know what I've read and haven't read than by popularity of the post.
I remember crying at the end of el-hazard when I was a wee lad,
but the cartoon that really drove me to tears was "the last unicorn", but I guess that doesn't really count as anime right?
but the first anime to move me to tears would probably be Toei's rendition of the little mermaid. the anime was more faithful to the original tragic story as compared to the disney version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_dicdWC9DE&feature=related
oops wrong window... so sorry folks. ^^ and here I just announced what drove me to tears in a post that everybody reads. ^^;
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
LOL ^^;
Looking for work again
http://flickr.com/photos/darktek13/
No worries, we still loves ya :)
.NET/Web Developer
http://scrumptious.animeblogger.net
might want to bring up the posts that are top for each category instead of treating it as one. Coz i'm suspecting a lot of the top posts will be 2d, 3d, idol girls. heheh.
???Confused???
I kinda feel like it conflicts with Danny's hijacking since Danny picks out noteworthy articles to share and sometimes a lot of posts in one article may not make it like the best...er I think I'm starting to ramble, but in short I'd rather just leave it as it is now...
Myself-finder
yeah NSFW stuff might need their own catogary.
Student and full-time otaku
Interesting idea; but I don't specifically need it, especially since the amount of member news items on the top page is already a lot higher (which is good). Maybe you could have it displayed in a separated category, much like the 'items read right now' field, because I find that one *very* handy
Evil Fanfic Writer
http://acesan.wordpress.com/
Member news are one of the main reasons I like coming to this site ... everyone usually has interesting stuff to look at and read ...
I would like a way to easily spot the popular articles though, which usually mean it's juicy! :)
The other thing I'd like if there is the ability to post more than 1 picture in a post.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
More pics in one post is on the to-do list.
Student
http://anime.tedfox.com/
here's my 2 cents
i second danny's new proposal. however allow me to throw in a few more suggestions.
i would liken the proposed structure to that of a forum. over here in dc.com, we have hijacked news and members' news, which are not too different from the sticky threads we find in forums. being a frequent visitor to forums, i am all too familiar with the way it works. Popular threads on top of the boards become too wordy or verbose that it becomes a chore to have to read through tonnes of pages. Often, discussions would deviate from the main topic at hand. Not to mention the flamewars that some users ignite too...
Most of us over here would prefer articles or news to be concise and succinct. We don't want to have to read through a long list of comments either. The problem is, that exactly what this is inviting. Listing down popular posts could possibly end up derailing the main article.
I wouldn't claim to be an IT expert or anything, but is it possible to implement a time limit for popular posts? This way, we can ensure that popular posts do not turn into flame wars and that other noteworthy news are given equal limelight.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Time limit is possible and easy with mysql.
Service desk support
http://lookingglass.kokidokom.net
The digg-esqe system would work, but perhaps it would be best for the new stuff to be above the most popular, that way the new stuff would be the first thing people would read and the popular would be for the viewers who are more likely to stick around.
Comment count is not a good bar to implement this kind of system tho. I can tell that some posts, like my last one, gets lots of hits but very few comments.answering questions from other members also artificially boosts the count
Wannabe Web Developer
http://www.sakuafk.com
Instead of comment count, I would suggest member news rating system. The reason is because good member news don't always lead to a long discussion (a lot of comments).
NEET
I would support your suggestion because I don't necessarily want gems to exclusively contain news formed around a question or ending with one. Keen members have picked up on this and tend to do just this. The complementing other broad class of news merely informs.
Discussion adds to the popularity factor, since a question was asked at some point, but tends to suck up time, especially when contributing. A balance of digestive news and 'interactive news' would be what I'd like.
Student
http://kankeishorui.wordpress.com
Splendid, I think this would greatly help for us.
Full time nerd
http://www.dreaming-artemis.com
Sounds like a plan!
Troubleshooter, Universal Exports
http://funkyblueame.tumblr.com/
I like the concept of a gems page, but I think your original concept is best. You have good countermeasures in mind for those who will try to artificially inflate the quality of their items. Somehow I just know someone will try do just that... ^^;
Blogger, Figure collector, Baby Photographer?
http://www.howagirlfigures.com
more and more i like this idea since lately it seems that people just post random stuff that have nothing to do with thsi site or anything really. There have been some awesome posts as well on member news that just get pushed to the bottom cause of other people and their "crap" I think this is an awesome idea, but at the same time the ones that do get to stay on top need some form of time limit so that way people don't just keep commenting on the old ones and they stay up for too long.
Hikikomori in the making
http://supermariabros.deviantart.com/
Keep it ALIVE!