Chat
Okay, obviously, I broke the chat. I was trying to improve it, but it turned out to be so tenuously put together, that I was never able to put it back the way it was after I started messing with it, and .... it broke. I'm working on finding both a temporary and a long term replacement for it, but I am failing to find a chat that:
- Can be installed on my current webserver (PHP 5)
- Allows users the features of the old chat
- Allow security features that weren't in the old chat
- Integrates with current ZPI security/authentication
And that last is really the crux of the problem for me. I'll probably put something together this weekend that doesn't do the last bit but will allow the other options.
We'll see.
Upcoming Features (?)
I am looking at a couple features I need your help thinking about and working out the implementation of.
The biggest question I have is about roles and points.
I'm working on a system that will include automated filters to assign quality points, voting mechanisms that will allow a user to gain points through public opinion, and then, as more points are gained, they should increase the rights of the user. I'll explain more about what this would mean later, but suffice it to say, I hope to give more power to the end users through community controls.
The question that I have is are there any special roles that make sense? Even honorary ones...? I'm planning on putting together a few things with the next revision of the site:
- (Better) Chat
- More useful/relevent front page, possibly based on role/points
- More organization and singularity of information -- more on this later
- More roles
- (Functioning) ZEN Tool
Roles
As I mentioned, I want to give people more options to do more stuff. But this will mostly relate to some of the new features I hope to be adding on, so I'll skip the detail here.
Organization & Singularity of Info
Information is only useful to humans if it can be located and identified and understood. I think there is a lot of info on this site, and I think some of it is buried so deep that it's impossible to make heads or tails of it. I think what is being done with the dictionary is good, but I think we can make it better. If we have each word we're defining as an individual entry into a database, we can then search and organize the data on the fly. I think the forum is the first step of information (theoretical), the article is the next step (presentational), and a database with information broken down into individual entries (programmatic) is the next step.
Points, Roles and Community Action: What it all might mean...
If you're still reading, I'm impressed, but if you want to understand what kind of filters or community involvement I might be talking about, read on.
Using filters, we might be able to assign quantitative values to what might be considered qualitative judgments. For example, I might filter for swear words and/or offensive language and deduct points for it's use. I might also run a filter to count the number of words versus the number of capital letters, spaces, and new lines. I might even run a filter for L337 speak phrases or IM shorthand. In this way, we might be able to assign a numerical value to the post that has just been made, based on readability and such.
After the post has been made, it is left to the court of public opinion, and it might get voted to get more or less points.
With these points, users might be able to request to be added to special roles. Some users might be experts in subject areas and be able to take questions submitted by users to a database, others might opt to be able to become a peer reviewer and your votes might count for more.
Ultimately, I want to give more control of the site to you all as site members. Of course, this doesn't make the moderators any less powerful, it will just hopefully allow a more organic process to give more advanced/trusted users more appropriate levels of access.
All that needs to be said is this: FIRE = BAD |
Um, wow... Sounds like your almost wanting to rebuild the entire site. But I have to admit they are some pretty good ideas, I can just imagine the pure pointless yet amusing ability to see exacle how many words any one member has posted. I'm pretty sure the imformation would have no use to a regular member, an admit or such may find some use but I'm not sure... for all i know and care you could collect carrots and build forts of mushrooms and broccoli, but it sure as hell would be some nice little thing to look at. Builds character don't you know.
Yeah.
I look forward to its compleation and I wish I could help but I know nothing about web design. I know alot about hardware tho!
Ether way I like the Ideas and I like the Public Opinion thing in particular. I dont know how you plan on doing the public opinon thing quite yet but one way to do it would bee putting a thumbs up and a thumbs down below each comment in a thread....
Will you hold me back? If need be I will leave you behind...
Awesome ideas Eliot, looking forward to how everything is going to turn out.
After the twist, you'll feel a snap and the body goes ragdoll on you.
- Brock Samson
I like a lot of this stuff, I have a few suggestions for you:
Sitckying pages: Stickying the most important threads would make them easier to keep track of.
Filtering: This idea sounds nice, but I would suggest that if you plan on this, quotations should be acceptable as having a zero point value. That way, if somebody uses l33t speak or whatever it is as an example he or she don't get filtered as being a bad boy or girl.
Also, if you put misspelling in the filter, zombification is a misspell because it only exists as a word on this site.
You lose.
Wow, sounds like you some great things planned Eliot. I guess i should start working on my capitization now.
Winning isn't a reason to get a reward but one less poke in the eye, while losing gets you two.
I won't put misspelling in the filter, I will, however put words to watch for, such as swear words, 1337 speak, AIM speak and such. What I realized is that if I made it binary (you get the points or you don't) it wouldn't be as effective as figuring out ratios of good to bad. In this way, users who are older members may be able to get away with a post that's well below par, without affecting their points that much, even if they lost some points on the post. Of course, just because it makes it through the automated filter, that doesn't mean that a mod wouldn't pull the post, and we might even be able to make it so that enough negative votes automatically pulls the post for review.
So, no one should worry about a filter pulling posts or not allowing their posts through.
However, I still would like to know what privileges people think would be appropriate.
All that needs to be said is this: FIRE = BAD
As for the position and roles, I do believe it is a great idea to build the ranking system and roles to be community vote able. I am going to use sanchez in example. When sanchez gets enough points (whatever level of points is selected to become a special role) sanchez is marked for review. In order for sanchez to take on any specified role, he must be voted into that specialty based on the information he knows more about and has shown in depth knowledge of within the forum discussions. So promptly I know that sanchez is well studied in firearms, thus I would vote him into a Weapon specific role. In my opinion, people voted into specific fields should be given slight moderation controls over the forum subject they are specialized in. When I say slight moderation roles, I mean they will be given the ability to vote off or review forum posts in that specified forum field. Thus if sanchez disapproves of a Weapon vs. Weapon post by a newcomer, sanchez can reply with a review on the topic and then vote for or against it as seen fit.
This idea would be available for all users. The objective is to get people into the habit of thinking hard and long before posting. It will enable us to get more information flowing.
Suggested Roles:
As for the important forum topics being lost within the millions of other posts, I suggest giving the Moderators power of stickying topics. This way we can pick out the good topics with great information and can sticky them for easier finding. Sorry, but the Archiving is not working. Sticky is the only way to go from my opinion.
As for the filtering, I think it is a wonderful idea. I do not have any input on how many points will be removed or allotted for posting within the specific requirements due to not having the required information to what exactly will be deductible and what will be positive.
From here we roam back to the roles ideal. The higher the role, the more points are allotted or removed for voting. In example- a New User will be able to remove or allot 1 point per vote, where a specialized user can remove or allot 10 points per vote.
Please post exactly what you would like to program the site to remove or allot points for.
In Example:
Negative:
Positive:
Give me some more information and I will give my view. Would also like input on the ideals I have posted.
"The tender fingers of admin are hovering over the ban button; it is our job to keep them there" - Holy Book of Mod
if we're gonna be graded for grammar can we please get a spell-checker option? I isn't good with the gramma
oh it'll get you somewhere, it'll get you bait
We use to have one, but there are many other ways to spell check. Like - oh.... Firefox, using a Document program on your computer such as Microsoft Word...
"The tender fingers of admin are hovering over the ban button; it is our job to keep them there" - Holy Book of Mod
NIE,
I'm a little conflicted about word count as a positive. I sure like to talk a lot. But that doesn't necessary mean what I have to say adds to or detracts from the overall site gestalt. Sometimes being to-the-point ought to be worth points, right?
I messed with Texas.