Scoop

Let's see how far we've come.

pO157.

Posted to Scoop on Sun Dec 02, 2007 at 08:17:58 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

It has been six months since our last meta discussion. How has it gone?

As one user commented, this place is getting better and more active as each week goes along. Since dropping off after that last meta discussion, our daily visits on average have been increasing steadily to almost 1000 a day. We are up to 615 users after port1080's advertising campaign although a small fraction of the accounts registered actually comment on a regular basis. There was an original effort to promote stories on digg and the more people who submit our discussions or 'digg' them the better chance there will be that the story brings more people here. We are very lucky to have a dedicated board of directors who care about the place and want to see it succeed as well as a good editing staff.

Considering it has been over a year since the first article questioning the survival of this site ran and the first meta writeup I think it is impressive that TnT is still around and active. Where is TnT going to go and how are we going to get it there? What would you change, if anything?

< Dead Dog Wagging

Everyday Pressures Of The Modern Social Order >

Tags: edited by Port1080, written by pO157, meta (all tags)
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4

the pros and the cons

wetkarma.

Tue Dec 04, 2007 at 05:28:20 AM EST

5.00 (brilliant, brilliant)

The best thing that TnT has going for it is its transparency. After somewhat of a mistart in the early stages re: user logging, the BoD has done a fantastic job in pushing the site forward. One of the things I -really- liked was a recently article which embedded a YouTube video, maybe someone could respond to a comment on how to do that?

As far as what to change - I'd like to see the articles themselves get sorted based on user feedback - digg style. Right now article aging means that active article discussion roll off the main front page which limits the ability/stickiness of drawing in new users who might be disinclined to be the first ones to comment. If however you have a 60+ comment thread to participate in, then the site is far more interactive.

Naturally articles DO have to roll off eventually, but I think the number of comments should extend the lifespan of a given article - eg. For every 5 new comments the article gets X time extra on the front page. Just a thought.

Memory is a strange bell, jubilee and knell.

9

^ 4

Transparency rules!

Lou.

Tue Dec 04, 2007 at 12:40:57 PM EST

5.00 (funny, illiterate, funny)

I have to agree about how great the transparency is here.  Not only is it good practice, but now I can see who has down-modded me or voted against a story of mine with ease.  This makes plotting vengeance easier than ever!  Back on Plastic, I had to create complicated flow charts and spread sheets to triangulate those who were disrespectful.  As you can guess, this method is time consuming and inaccurate (my apologies to those who I destroyed in error...you know who you are).  Now that I can see who dissed me and when, my retribution is swift, overwhelming, and best of all, sure!

Thank you, TnT!

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

5

^ 4

Re: the pros and the cons

pO157.

Tue Dec 04, 2007 at 06:31:26 AM EST

none

As far as what to change - I'd like to see the articles themselves get sorted based on user feedback - digg style. Right now article aging means that active article discussion roll off the main front page which limits the ability/stickiness of drawing in new users who might be disinclined to be the first ones to comment. If however you have a 60+ comment thread to participate in, then the site is far more interactive.  

Brilliant! And perhaps implementing subsections would be good, so you could click on "Sports" and see all the sports entries (even the unpopular ones) in the last weeks or something.

Spread it on!

6

Re: Let's see how far we've come.

dgraham.

Tue Dec 04, 2007 at 10:24:59 AM EST

4.66 (interesting, brilliant)

One thing I noticed that could be quickly fixed is that when you're reading comments and pause to plus or minus a QL is that it takes you back to the main page, not the page that you were on.

Also, I completely agree that implementing subsections would be really great.

Finally, I'm sure there's already someone who can/will do it, but if not, I don't mind volunteering to work on the site, as that's what I do. So please let me know if I can help out with some minor upgrades or anything.

7

^ 6

Re: Let's see how far we've come.

profwhat.

Tue Dec 04, 2007 at 10:40:16 AM EST

none

I'm sure there's already someone who can/will do it, but if not, I don't mind volunteering to work on the site, as that's what I do. So please let me know if I can help out with some minor upgrades or anything.

hooray!

8

^ 7

Re: Let's see how far we've come.

dgraham.

Tue Dec 04, 2007 at 12:15:35 PM EST

none

Is there someone I should contact, to let know?

Also, is it possible to read comments that were posted during submission after the post is published?

10

^ 8

Re: Let's see how far we've come.

profwhat.

Tue Dec 04, 2007 at 07:27:55 PM EST

none

The Board of Directors.  Don't worry about contacting them; they should all be reading this, and they'll contact you.  :)   Seriously, start with 3fingerspointback.

13

^ 10

Re: Let's see how far we've come.

dgraham.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 09:10:50 AM EST

none

Awesome, thanks!

11

^ 8

Re: Let's see how far we've come.

thefadd.

Tue Dec 04, 2007 at 07:39:32 PM EST

none

Also, is it possible to read comments that were posted during submission after the post is published?

They stick with the stories between the write-up and the comments. This story just didn't have any.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

12

^ 11

Re: Let's see how far we've come.

port1080.

Tue Dec 04, 2007 at 09:30:53 PM EST

none

They don't stick unless you change your viewing preferences.  In the "View" dropdown box right under the story (but before the comments section) you can pick "editorial only", "topical only", "all comments", or "mixed" (which is, I believe, the default).  If you picked "editorial only" you can view the sub-q comments, and if you pick "all comments" they also show up.   If you pick "topical only" or "mixed" then they are hidden.  By default in Scoop the editorial comments would also show in the "mixed" mode, but at some point one of the developers hacked "mixed" so that editorial comments would not be shown by default, to make the site more like Plastic.

Ce n'est pas une pipe. C'est une signature.

14

^ 12

Re: Let's see how far we've come.

dgraham.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 09:11:39 AM EST

none

Thanks! I think that solves my problem :D

1

Re: Let's see how far we've come.

tomc.

Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 08:59:03 PM EST

none

I guess everything's okey-dokey.

2

^ 1

Re: Let's see how far we've come.

thefadd.

Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 09:10:26 PM EST

none

I know right. Nine poll votes and no comments.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

3

Re: Let's see how far we've come.

Lou.

Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 10:01:54 PM EST

none

I like it...what I like most of all is the transparency.  I may not read the board minutes every time, but I know they're there.  P

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

15

...and where we go next

logan.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 12:59:11 PM EST

none

The logical followup to a story like this is to ask "what now?"

Are there any burning issues, feature requests, bug reports, or general kvetching that need to be addressed?

I'll throw one out right now: we have the new logo and I have the release for the use of the logo in hand. As far as I know all we need to do is upload the image and rock.

Any one else? New business, people?

-=Logan
Research, facts, a Republican needs not these things.

16

^ 15

Re: ...and where we go next

dgraham.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 01:28:29 PM EST

none

I just noticed that the site that is meant to hold the list of feature requests does not work :/

(http://wiki.plastiverse.com/index.php?title=Development_Priorites)

17

^ 16

Re: ...and where we go next

thefadd.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 02:05:36 PM EST

none

Yeah...I run that and not very well...I was in the midst of making an upgrade just before thanksgiving to combat the spambots, hit a snag and haven't gotten back to it yet.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

18

^ 16

Re: ...and where we go next

logan.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 02:16:03 PM EST

none

Yup, the problem is that spambots had killed most of the useful content. I tried going in and editing it out, but found that the spam reappeared in minutes. Thefadd's fix was to add/enable a $user_editcount to limit the amount of edits a user (or bot) could make, but there are some bugs. The wiki is a lower priority than the main site, so it's been back-burnered.

In the meantime please post any feature requests etc here or in a diary so they don't get lost.

-=Logan
Research, facts, a Republican needs not these things.

20

^ 16

Re: ...and where we go next

thefadd.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 02:35:25 PM EST

none

It's actually back up now with the requirement that users register to edit. I've got a few other spam combating fixes I'm fiddling with but as helpful as that site as been the spam has been rendering it almost useless.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

23

^ 20

Re: ...and where we go next

dgraham.

Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 11:58:24 AM EST

none

Spam does that. Is there any really fully effective way of preventing spam?

19

^ 15

Re: ...and where we go next

zyxwvutsr.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 02:17:06 PM EST

none

Fix the CSS for list items in preview mode. Please.

21

^ 19

Re: ...and where we go next

thefadd.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 02:42:01 PM EST

none

I'd like to see improvement in the comment posting too. I haven't thought about all the details but it feels less intuitive than it could. Also, I'll repost my pie in the sky long down the road idea that we should be able to save drafts of comments and come back to them later.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

22

^ 21

Re: ...and where we go next

dgraham.

Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 04:07:03 PM EST

none

That shouldn't be too hard to implement, though? And it does sound like a great feature. Although, people could just jot things down in word/notepad themselves I guess.

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