Only "popular" blog posts shown on the front page in BYOND Discussion

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ID:132759
 
Nov 12 2009, 11:42 am
What would the world be like if only blog posts with a notable "yay" count were shown on the front page? That would mean that anyone who wanted their posts to be shown there would have to get people's attention somehow (open to ideas on that), and if you actually want to read a blog consistently you'd have to subscribe to it.

End result:
- Good blogs actually get more members.
- No more junk on the front page.
- People might actually have a reason to "yay" posts.
- Front page looks good for visitors.

Problem:
How do people get their blog posts noticed if they're not on the front page? How do people get others to visit their blogs in the first place? How do you let others know if you blog or post actually has meaningful content?
#1 Nov 12 2009, 12:12 pm
By having a function in dream maker that people can use to advertises random live byond games.
#2 Nov 12 2009, 12:17 pm
In response to Chowder (#1)
Chowder wrote:
By having a function in dream maker that people can use to advertises random live byond games.

That wouldn't help anyone find blogs, though.
#3 Nov 12 2009, 12:33 pm
This is actually pretty timely, since one of the web things I'm working on is how we filter the front page for language. We've been wanting something like this for a while now where only the best blog posts get highlighted, but it's been kind of difficult to tell how to do this properly.

There are pros and cons to this approach because if we don't show new posts without yays, how will they get yays? It seems like we would still need a way to handle that. This is sort of a big design question so I'm open to suggestions from all over.

Lummox JR
#4 Nov 12 2009, 12:58 pm
If by "front" you mean http://www.byond.com/members/ then I am going to give this the biggest nay possible.

Basically, you'd be removing the only thing that makes members different from non-members (other than file hosting, which I can get for cheaper else where) unless you are "popular" enough.

Haven't people been complaining for a long time now that members do not get anything particularly worth the price involved... So you suggest giving them potentially even less than they are already getting?

If you ask me, it all seems like a bad idea. Sure, getting rid of the junk posts is a good idea, but not displaying posts unless they are "good" seems like a really bad idea to me. (Depending on what you'd consider good, taking a look at the front page at the moment, I'd say maybe 1-2 posts are actually good)

I'm not even going to get started on the differences between popular and good, and how they are not the same thing.
#5 Nov 12 2009, 1:04 pm
Instead of forcing this upon the front page, maybe users could customize it for themselves, possibly with an option to hide all posts with the difference between yays and nays under a certain number. If this were to happen, it would be nice if we could hide specific users from our own front page as well, which has been requested before.
#6 Nov 12 2009, 1:12 pm
If you don't like the front page, you can simply subscribe to blogs that you like and check for updates via your My Account page.

You know what's popular and gets a lot of "yays" on the Members pages? DBZ and Naruto posts. People picking on easy targets with personal vendetta posts. Random pointless posts about the latest mini-meme within the BYOND community.

Get real. What's popular on BYOND is usually the lowest common denominator. The type of system you are suggesting assumes that there is a wealth of valuable content out there getting ignored. There isn't.

This is a community full of internet kiddies and trolls. Like the incredible failure of the ranking system back in 2006, another petty popularity contest is the last thing this place needs.
#7 Nov 12 2009, 1:29 pm
In response to Lummox JR (#3)
if we don't show new posts without yays, how will they get yays?

1) By people who have friended your blog.
2) The same way other bloggers get eyes- promoting themselves. If people are writing useful blog posts, they should have no trouble plugging themselves in where relevant- "Hey, I've run into this Design idea before, here's a fleshed out blog post I wrote about it" or "Hi Chatters, what do you guys think about my games progress? Check out my blog!" If one is having trouble promoting one's own blog, there's probably a reason for it.

The front page is a steaming pile of garbage- personally I'd rather have one good post make it to the front page a day than fifteen crappy ones posted in as many minutes.
#8 Nov 12 2009, 1:55 pm
In response to Airjoe (#7)
Airjoe wrote:
1) By people who have friended your blog.

What happens if you are fairly new to BYOND and have yet to create friends? I'll assume they'd post on the forums alerting the community about their posts.

The front page is a steaming pile of garbage- personally I'd rather have one good post make it to the front page a day than fifteen crappy ones posted in as many minutes.

So essentially, if this was put into place and people claim that my blog was no good, I might as well not waste my $18 on a membership. I can easily find a site that will host my files for free and I could care less about the benefits I get in games. Though, I am not going to argue with you about the front page having horrible content, as I do agree. But there are probably better ways to go about fixing the 'front page problem'.
#9 Nov 12 2009, 2:03 pm
In response to Lummox JR (#3)
You could make it so there's like some frame around something like this:
-------------------------------------------
Random Blogs:
[Insert Random recent blog]
...
[Insert Second Latest Blog]
[Insert Third Latest Blog]
-------------------------------------------
Then Another frame under it:
-------------------------------------------
Top Blog Posts:
[Insert Latest Blog in the Top Blogs List]
....
..etc
-------------------------------------------

Summarize: List Random Blogs at the top of the page, and right below it the top blogs.
Just a suggestion.
#10 Nov 12 2009, 2:19 pm
In response to Megelic (#9)
Almost exactly like what I was going to suggest.
Like already stated many times throughout this thread, putting a large limit on the posts given publicity on the members page is a bad idea, and would kill the traffic to those posts and partly the point of posting them in the first place. It'd also make the community seem even less active. It will also obviously prevent posts getting yay'd enough to appear on the new suggested page.
The current scheme should be kept, and if you want to add the gist of the suggested changes, you could highlight quality (or perhaps popular, since quality is too difficult to determine well) posts in a separate, isolated frame (box), where they'll be at the spotlight for a while.
#11 Nov 12 2009, 2:25 pm
In response to The Magic Man (#4)
I agree. A lot of people who comment on my blogs don't do it because they have my blog saved, they just see it on the website. Usually its game updates, sometimes its personal/political; which is one reason why I was one of those people who REMOVED the yay or nay system, because it didn't necessarily reflect on the quality of CONTENT in the post, only peoples personal opinions :p

Like Silkwizard says, we'd end up with DBZ and Naruto posts across the board, and as much as I don't have anything against these people who like fangames and have done one myself, I don't think I want to see it crowding the recent post list over its favouritism.

(To be honest I would like to see fangame/anime hubs being split up into a different list entirely like it was before, just my opinion)
#12 Nov 12 2009, 2:42 pm
What if yea votes by Members acted as a "forum bump" for blog posts on the front page? Nays would prevent bumps.

Every 24 hours it takes an additional yea to bump. After a week the post is unable to be bumped.
#13 Nov 12 2009, 2:49 pm
In response to Lummox JR (#3)
This sounds like a repeating argument, but you could always have the main guilds and dream makers auto-approve, which would give people a big incentive to submit their content to or through those guilds.
#14 Nov 12 2009, 2:50 pm
In response to Calus CoRPS (#8)
Calus CoRPS wrote:
What happens if you are fairly new to BYOND and have yet to create friends? I'll assume they'd post on the forums alerting the community about their posts.

This is moot by the below point. If there's valuable content, you can plug it when appropriate. You can crosspost to the game guilds. You can discuss with people in games and chats.


So essentially, if this was put into place and people claim that my blog was no good,

If people claim your content isn't good, they wouldn't check it out of it was on the front page either. And again, just because you're not on the front page doesn't mean you're invisible. You can still plug, people can still watch your blog, you still have an RSS feed.

I might as well not waste my $18 on a membership. I can easily find a site that will host my files for free and I could care less about the benefits I get in games.

I don't think anyone spends $18 on a membership for a blog, considering there's only about a million websites which will give you a free blog. You spend $18 to support BYOND while getting some neat little perks. And, guess what, just because you're not on the front page doesn't mean you don't have a blog!
#15 Nov 12 2009, 2:51 pm
In response to Calus CoRPS (#8)
Calus CoRPS wrote:
So essentially, if this was put into place and people claim that my blog was no good, I might as well not waste my $18 on a membership. I can easily find a site that will host my files for free and I could care less about the benefits I get in games. Though, I am not going to argue with you about the front page having horrible content, as I do agree. But there are probably better ways to go about fixing the 'front page problem'.

Is getting your blog posts listed on the front page really the only thing that makes membership worthwhile?
#16 Nov 12 2009, 2:58 pm (Edited on Nov 12 2009, 3:07 pm)
In response to Foomer (#15)
Foomer wrote:
Is getting your blog posts listed on the front page really the only thing that makes membership worthwhile?

Personally, the only reason why I get a BYOND membership is to get my post shown on the front page and to support the BYOND developers. But, if my posts are not going to be shown on the front page, I rather not buy a membership. I'll just donate money from time to time.

I have nothing to back the following statement up, but I'm fairly sure you'll see a decline in memberships bought. In my opinion, a lot of people buy memberships to have their post shown the front page along with having a place to upload their files. News flash, not everyone supports the BYOND developers.

[EDIT]
I created a poll, I am fairly interested in seeing the results.
http://www.byond.com/members/ CalusCoRPS?command=view_post&post=85558
#17 Nov 12 2009, 3:03 pm
In response to Foomer (#13)
Foomer wrote:
This sounds like a repeating argument, but you could always have the main guilds and dream makers auto-approve, which would give people a big incentive to submit their content to or through those guilds.

If by auto-approve you mean would automatically be on the front page, but would still need to be approved by guild staff, which is what I think you mean- this is what I've been suggesting for months.
#18 Nov 12 2009, 3:05 pm
In response to Lummox JR (#3)
Do both. Have only the "popular" blog posts show up at the top, and at the bottom of the list show the most recent 3 blog posts. This way, all get shown, but those that aren't "popularized" stay at the bottom of the list. Those that get the votes stay at the top, and the ones that get the votes come along less often, so the better ones stay there longer.
#19 Nov 12 2009, 3:06 pm (Edited on Nov 12 2009, 3:14 pm)
In response to Foomer (#2)
Ah I thought you meant reviews for games...
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