Halls of Shrewd'm / Shrewdsmith
No. of Recommendations: 5
As one who encouraged the change in the Best Of list, I have conflicted thoughts. One the one hand, it’s great to have more volatility there, as the posts flip up and down the list more rapidly - and that brings potentially worthy posts to my attention, even if they only get 5 recs (eventually). On the other hand, seeing a post that has a 50% rating is pretty meaningless if only 4 people have seen it and two acolytes have given it a thumbs up.
I notice that the Berkshire board has disappeared almost entirely from that list and US Policy dominates (as it did before the change but to an even higher degree.) I do like the fact that “weird” posts sometimes arise, as did one from the “Cooking” board the other day; more circulation is a good way to recycle users and keep the content fresh. OTOH, I miss having a list of those posts which have accumulated a significant number of positive responses - although I guess I get them when I scan down the boards that I frequent and see “11” or some other double digit entry in the rec column. That will never happen for a board which I don’t normally visit, however, such as Mechanical Investing (or whatever).
I guess the only way to solve this would be to have both lists available, with a header that cold be clicked on to change the preferences. Or two lists. Or a hundred ;)
Just foaming at the mouth here, I guess.
In other news, I would like to have a board like “Land of Off Topic Posts” which used to exist at the old Fool, for those (rare) times when I have something I feel like writing and no place to put it. Silly, maybe, as there are countless sites on the interwebs, but sometimes none fit.
Finally, and strictly as an amusing thought, how about a board titled “Posts that were removed from the Fool for no reason”, as frequently happens to me (another this morning) which would encourage more cross pollination and drive traffic from there to here as people moan and complain about the heavy handed and absurd censorship which happens there.
No. of Recommendations: 3
On the other hand, seeing a post that has a 50% rating is pretty meaningless if only 4 people have seen it and two acolytes have given it a thumbs up.
Don’t hesitate. Your idea of using rec to view ratios was excellent. A post with two recs and four views is a better omen for the post quality than one with 20 views and 3 recs, and deserves more further attention - on average of course.
I have solved the problem of the Best Of lacking board diversity with the new Customize button near the top of the Beat Of page, allowing boards to be hidden from the list if/as readers want.
Your Land of Off Topics board idea is good also. The Atheist Shrewd used to occupy that domain though it is a little more focused now, so maybe we should add your board. There is also Open Letter which has a good tradition in the editorial section of papers in the past allowing public commentary, though always usually dominated by “politically on board” editors sensoring what they don’t like. Open Letter here, though, should encourage any topic to be covered whatsoever and if you posted there I believe many would follow.
- Manlobbi
No. of Recommendations: 0
Hi Manlobbi,
One of the things I like about the "Best Of" posts is to serendipitously find posts on boards that are not among my favorites or even ones I usually look at.
I would love to be able to exclude certain boards from that list (e.g.: US Policy) as that seems to dominate the best of due to the algorithm, but the customize option does not include the ability to exclude certain boards that are not among your favorites.
Thanks, G.
No. of Recommendations: 4
I would love to be able to exclude certain boards from that list (e.g.: US Policy) as that seems to dominate the best of due to the algorithm, but the customize option does not include the ability to exclude certain boards that are not among your favorites.
Don't worry, all boards that you never even visited will always appear in the Best Of page. The Best Of page is not limited to just the boards in your Favourites. It includes *all* boards throughout Shrewd'm, except the ones you specifically unticked with the "Customize".
For example, if you never visited the IBM board, and then a post appeared there that had many recs, it will appear on the Best Of page for you (and everyone). It would only be excluded in the Best Of page, for you, if you visited the IBM page and read some posts (causing it to be auto-added to your favorites) and thereafter explicitly removed it from your favorites with the "Customize" option.
- Manlobbi
