<ABC 7:30 Report: Richard Heinberg & Prime Minister Kevin Rudd The Oil Drum A Pretty Stunning Graph of World Cement Production (and China is Certainly Using It)>

185 comments on New feature trial: Comment rating

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

| Show without comments | PDF version

Rethin on June 19, 2008 - 10:34pm Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

What is the purpose of the rating system if we can't filter by rating?

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
TrueKaiser on June 19, 2008 - 10:52pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

well it will automatically put the positive ones near the top. the 0 in the middle and hide the negatives at the bottom, if it's similar to the one i am thinking of.
expect to see every tom and harry with the snake oil energy solution dejor of the week get rated +1 or +2. at the same time watch as people who point out problems, debunk said articles with those (sarcasm)pesky things called facts(/sarcasm), or just plain bad news.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Kiashu on June 19, 2008 - 10:55pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

That would make it confusing trying to read threads of discussion...

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
BOP on June 19, 2008 - 11:00pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

SuperG:

The above post shows 5 little icons next to the time stamp but Rethin's post only shows 3 little icons. Can you explain what these are for?


It seems that the far right one with chevrons collapses or expands the comment thread but not sure about the others.


Thanks.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
grass on June 19, 2008 - 11:07pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The one with three icons are for permalinks, isolating the thread and going to the top of the comments, the additional two icons appear in all comments that are replies to new threads, and they direct either to the comment being replied to or the comment that began the thread. You should be able to hold your mouse over to see what they are.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
BOP on June 19, 2008 - 11:50pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Thanks!

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Dryki on June 21, 2008 - 1:05am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Moderation is useful. Only by registered users, and there should be a history of how those registered users moderate. Unlike what most are suggesting, I'm thinking only negative moderation - for the purpose of removing spam and trolls should be permitted. That makes the rules much easier to follow.

However, you have also changed the UI. All these little icons are a PITA. I can feel my brain burning energy trying to shift from text mode to visual mode on each and every post now. (Stuff on this at useit.com.) That is a different issue than moderation. There ought to be a way to turn the icons to text mode.

Why use 8 bits when 64k will do? I dunno.

I find I've largely stopped reading TOD since they appeared. But hey, maybe you will gain a bunch of other people. That's a policy decision. Me, I'm mostly out of here.

cfm in Gray, ME

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
River on June 20, 2008 - 12:00am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

In the Navy we had a saying...'If it's working, don't fix it'.

I believe TOD will become dominated by smiley faced cheerleaders for technofixers, who may or may not have an interest in selling a product that they are cheerleading. I visit TOD for an exchange of ideas and occasionaly let off some steam. If my comments are no longer appreciated or are 'low rated' and pushed off thread then I will have no reason to continue to come here. I am long past the point where I am interested in a report card.

Imo, it is a dumbass idea...give me some negs, I can take it.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
cjwirth on June 20, 2008 - 12:50am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

My sentiments exactly. I have often commented that TOD should be renamed TSP (The Solar Panel). Lots of technofix posts here, and little of the stuff that is in my Peak Oil report (Google or Yahoo search: Peak Oil impacts). TOD is "Peak Oil light," that is, we are facing Peak Oil, but solar panels and high tech Rube Goldberg devices will save us, somehow. There is little sense on TOD that we need liquid fuels, not electric power. Rarely do I see stuff here about Peak Oil reality: When oil gets too expensive, the highway system and power grid will fail, and so too will all of Rube Goldberg stuff. We are facing mass fatalities and need posts on risk management and planning for Peak Oil impacts.

Given the high number of technofixers at TOD, a bad rating on my comments could mean that I'm telling it like it is.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
River on June 20, 2008 - 7:38am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

cjwirth...I gave you a good rating because I agree with you.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
eric blair on June 20, 2008 - 8:36am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I have often commented that TOD should be renamed TSP (The Solar Panel).

You do understand that solar energy is why the oil exists in the 1st place, right?

We are facing mass fatalities

Ok. Fine.

and need posts on risk management and planning for Peak Oil impacts.

Before totiania was into I-O PNK, he was into earthmarines and being killed by the young. And most of the 'planning' tends to be 'plan on a violent death at the hands of others'.

So it you have a better 'plan' - let us know.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
cjwirth on June 20, 2008 - 10:22am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Yes Eric, I knew that at age 10 (1957) that oil is old solar energy and a lot of stuff about oil and energy. My dad was a technician for Atlantic Richfield Refining company, testing motor oil. And I read the 600 NAS study cover to cover. The rest of your post is pure drivel.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Aniya on June 20, 2008 - 4:56pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hi Cliff,

I'd like to respond to your comment and your exchange w. Eric to illustrate what I'm trying to say in my comment to Super G.

Here's an example of where - possibly - you and Eric may be talking past each other.

My take on Eric's post is that he's feeling some desperation. I could be mistaken, only he knows, of course. I'm just guessing.

You answer him in a straightforward way until your use of the word "drivel" to describe "The rest of your post..."

Is there any other way to talk about this?

To me, the last question of Eric's post seemed sincere.

Maybe it's not; I don't know. I'd like to, though.

If Eric is sincerely interested in your ideas about risk management, is there a way he could say this that would enable you to hear it as such? (ie., As a sincere question?)

I don't know.

I'm not very good at these type of "translations", for eg. see: www.cnvc.org, www.newconversations.net and something I need to find a link for: Thomas Gordon's "active listening", and another group (don't have the reference) on "Appreciative Inquiry". That said, I have seen such "translations" facilitate the conversation.

Dear Super G, why does my comment come with a little green "1" when I hit the post button?

Now it has a little green "0". (It changed before I posted it.)

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
cjwirth on June 20, 2008 - 11:21pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I don't know or care what Eric thinks or feels, I just respond to what he writes.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Rethin on June 19, 2008 - 11:41pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Now why in the world is my comment being down moded?

Down ratings should be reserved for comments that violate the reader guidelines. Do not rate a comment down just because you disagree with the opinion being expressed.

Its not even an opinion for christ's sake, its a question. Why would anyone downmod a question?

This is not going to end well.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
TrueKaiser on June 20, 2008 - 10:08pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Exactly!
this is how slashdot ended up. the moderation system did the /exact/ opposite of what they wanted. people who knew about the subjects of the story's were modded down especially if it's a story about power, or anyone who did not buy into the 'cult of the mac'. once a post reaches -1 it by default is collapsed and moved down thread invisible to all but those who expand them or those who have their settings to show all posts -1 and higher.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
MikeLaBonte on June 22, 2008 - 4:13pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

So far I am unable to see how comment ratings affect the page. A good example of the use of ratings is NewsTrust.net, a news aggregation site. The focus at NewsTrust is on good journalism, and most stories listed there are ordered by journalistic quality. People rate the stories using a fairly sophisticated system. The reviews can be rated by others, and those ratings affect the weighting of each review into the total. It works quite well, helping to filter out people who try to game the reviews.

To mimic this at TOD we would need a single set of rating controls in the comment submission area, where a logged in user could rate the blog post itself while writing a comment. Then each comment would have controls so others could rate it, as we have here. But to be like NewsTrust, each user would only get one rating for the post. So all comments by a user would have the same story rating value. And if a user's comments get low ratings, their story rating has less effect on the overall rating.

It may be easier to just submit TOD stories to NewsTrust. A bunch are already there, some submitted by me. I see Prof. Goose has rated some NewsTrust stories, although he might get bounced out for not using his real name, and he got dinged once for giving a TOD story the highest possible score. TOD stories tend to fare well at NewsTrust, because evidence, sources and balance are respected there. But 1.0s and 5.0s are rare ;)

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

185 comments on New feature trial: Comment rating

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

| Show without comments | PDF version