Diary

Board Meeting, May 7 2008

Board of Directors.

Posted to Diary on Thu May 08, 2008 at 01:51:07 AM EST. RSS.

Agenda, minutes, chat log.  Incorporation is under way!  Also, a clarification on editorial powers.

This meeting was relatively quick, mostly devoted to status updates.

After our Articles were formally adopted by the Board, we sent them off to the California Secretary of State on April 25 for registration, the first step in incorporation.  The next step is to file a Statement of Information form and register with the Attorney General once we are acknowledged by California.

In response to a complaint about a changed headline, we also discussed the scope of editors' powers at this meeting.  Since the creation of editorial powers on Trees and Things, it has always been the case that editors may incorporate suggestions from the subqueue comments, even to the extent of changing the title of a story or adding content.  This was implicitly assumed because it was the editorial policy at Plastic, the site that inspired this one.  Reviewing the existing guidelines, we found there was no stated direction one way or the other on this issue, so we adopted an additional guideline to clarify.

(RD)

Tags: treesandthings, statistics, site traffic (all tags)

This story: 12 comments (0 from subqueue)
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1

I dropped the ball on this meeting

3fingerspointback.

Thu May 08, 2008 at 01:58:12 AM EST

5.00 (informative)

There should have been a heads-up quicklink posted a few days ago warning that a meeting was about to take place.  Also, I didn't think to put the editors issue on the agenda until after the meeting had already started.

We always try to schedule BoD meetings on the first Wednesday of the month.  Everyone is always invited to join us in chat and share any issues they have.

(is 3fingerspointback)

2

Re: Board Meeting, May 7 2008

pO157.

Thu May 08, 2008 at 06:34:51 AM EST

5.00 (astute)

In response to a complaint about a changed headline, we also discussed the scope of editors' powers at this meeting.  Since the creation of editorial powers on Trees and Things, it has always been the case that editors may incorporate suggestions from the subqueue comments, even to the extent of changing the title of a story or adding content.  This was implicitly assumed because it was the editorial policy at Plastic, the site that inspired this one.

Welcome to my world, man or woman. Do you know how hard it is getting Foreigner lyrics accepted as the headline? Or, God forbid, a Hip-Hop-Headline? Oddly enough, the week where I went on a crazy bender of Lethal Weapon cliche headlines, that was cool. I don't get it.

I'm beginning to think there is not the 100% love for Foreigner that I had assumed there was worldwide. Which is odd, because I determined yesterday that 100% of my co-workers loved ABBA. It only took me 2 years to figure that out, because ABBA is usually people's dirty little secret. In fact, I'm pretty sure J. Edgar Hoover just made up a story about liking women's underwear so people wouldn't discover his true kink... dancing around with a lampshade on his head while belting out the lyrics to "Gimme Gimme Gimme."

3

^ 2

Hmmmm.

MayorBob.

Thu May 08, 2008 at 08:02:01 AM EST

none

More like hopping around in a teddy to the tune of "Dancing Queen."  Full disclosure, the wife & I, our two daughters and the eldest granddaughter all love Abba.  This July we're going to see our second performance of "Mamma Mia."

Here's some food for thought on how to get people to catch Foreigner Fever -- come up with a story line that will factor in all of Foreigner's hits and get some Broadway mogul to bankroll it.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

4

^ 3

Re: Hmmmm.

pO157.

Thu May 08, 2008 at 08:28:11 AM EST

none

More like hopping around in a teddy to the tune of "Dancing Queen."  Full disclosure, the wife & I, our two daughters and the eldest granddaughter all love Abba.  This July we're going to see our second performance of "Mamma Mia."

I know! They are coming back again next year, so I will go see it the 2nd time, and my co-workers and I are going to make it a work event.

Here's some food for thought on how to get people to catch Foreigner Fever -- come up with a story line that will factor in all of Foreigner's hits and get some Broadway mogul to bankroll it.

It would work even better if we hire some ex-Nazi to write the script and get more investors in the play than there are legal shares. That way when the horrible script tanks and it closes after one night we get the investors money, and nobody is the wiser.

7

^ 4

Re: Hmmmm.

MayorBob.

Thu May 08, 2008 at 10:02:36 AM EST

none

Genius (albeit borrowed) idea on how to finance the play.  One can easily imagine you in a smoking jacket inviting a silver-haired matron into your office to "discuss her investment options" ala Max Bialystok.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

5

Re: Board Meeting, May 7 2008

port1080.

Thu May 08, 2008 at 08:38:01 AM EST

5.00 (informative)

Stumpstat is still working.  It's at http://www.treesandthings.com/stumpstat/ (no "s" at the end).  Our number of comments and number of stories run is definitely down a bit, probably due to the summer.  Historically we have a lot less traffic in May/June/July, with things normally picking up again in August.

6

^ 5

Perhaps it's because I'm dense.

MayorBob.

Thu May 08, 2008 at 09:59:19 AM EST

none

But, what exactly is stumpstat telling you here when it runs the gamut over a variety of time periods telling you that 1 percent (through 100 percent) of commenters wrote 100 percent of comments?

Also, and this is probably apt because you're an editor, what is the status of editors being able to promote a diary entry to a story?

Illegitimi non carborundum.

8

^ 6

Re: Perhaps it's because I'm dense.

port1080.

Thu May 08, 2008 at 10:26:27 AM EST

none

But, what exactly is stumpstat telling you here when it runs the gamut over a variety of time periods telling you that 1 percent (through 100 percent) of commenters wrote 100 percent of comments?

It's just a metric to give you an idea of how "deep" our participation is - in other words, are just a few people making a majority of the comments, or do most people make about the same number of comments?

Also, and this is probably apt because you're an editor, what is the status of editors being able to promote a diary entry to a story?

It's being worked on.  The "easy" solution didn't work like we thought it would, but profwhat is working on it.

10

^ 6

Statistics To The Rescue!

logan.

Thu May 08, 2008 at 04:46:27 PM EST

none

First off, here are the stats:


  • 625 comments were posted by 46 users

  • 100 percent of commenters wrote 100.00 percent of comments.

  • 75 percent of commenters wrote 98.24 percent of comments.

  • 50 percent of commenters wrote 94.24 percent of comments.

  • 25 percent of commenters wrote 79.36 percent of comments.

  • 10 percent of commenters wrote 52.64 percent of comments.

  • 5 percent of commenters wrote 46.08 percent of comments.

  • 4 percent of commenters wrote 39.36 percent of comments.

  • 3 percent of commenters wrote 31.68 percent of comments.

  • 2 percent of commenters wrote 23.68 percent of comments.

  • 1 percent of commenters wrote 14.40 percent of comments.

For reference, each comment corresponds to 0.16% of all comments.

Analysis:

The data shows us what percentage of commenters were responsible for what percentage of the comments. Starting at the top, 100% of all 625 comments were written by people in the set of 100% of the 46 users who made comments, which is almost meaningless. The really meaningful data comes at the end of the stack:

  • 46.08% of all comments (288) were written by the same 5% of our users, which is 2-3 people. Anyone wanna guess who? :-)

  • 52.64% of all comments were written by the same 10% of our users, which is 4-5 people.

What's a little more encouraging is the jump from the 10% to the 25% bracket: 496 comments were by 25% (11.5) of the users. Subtracting out the top 10%, 7 people in the next bracket made 329 comments. This makes for less of a "hockey stick" graph that usually signifies an echo chamber. Jargon aside, that means it isn't just 2-3 people talking to themselves.

Still, in final summation, more traffic would be nice.

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

12

^ 10

I'm part of the problem.

pO157.

Thu May 08, 2008 at 08:45:49 PM EST

4.00 (interesting)

I was in a slump for a while due to the demands of work and such.

Unfortunately, I recently found myself embroiled in my own personal hellish episode of Law & Order which has sapped what little time I have had to myself over the past two (2) weeks. My writing skills (or lack thereof) have most been directed towards writing civil complaints, freedom of information requests, and scathing communiques to bureaucrats. The good thing is the light is at the end of the tunnel. Or maybe its only just begun.

9

^ 5

Re: Board Meeting, May 7 2008

3fingerspointback.

Thu May 08, 2008 at 02:06:12 PM EST

none

Thanks.  It's embarrassing that I couldn't remember the proper name of that feature.

(is 3fingerspointback)

11

Is There Anyway

thefadd.

Thu May 08, 2008 at 07:55:43 PM EST

none

To see all new/unread comments on the entire site?

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

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