6 Answers

• Reputation: 864 Q&A: 13 0 7 584 125 1 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  6 0 One problem I see in this is for newer posters who may have asked one very unpopular question or given one very unpopular answer. If they only have 1-4 posts, that reply could get them filtered out, at which point it's even more difficult to change a negative rep to positive. I'm sure they'd just give up by that point, so the system is promoting the exclusion of differing opinions, even if unintentionally. LMNOP answered in Feedback about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by Charles B… 0 0 LMNOP, yes that is a good point and one which we have considered. Without going into details, it is designed to avoid that kind potential impact. We are also considering fin tuning different thresholds for different kinds of contributions. So, for example, your questions may be collapsed before your answers would be. In this way people could easily restore their reputation by answering but be less likely to enlist the help of others without having the reputation that warrants it. I'm glad you brought it up, especially as we may not have seen it. Thanks for that. If you do see this kind of thing happening please let us know and we'll tweak things to avoid it. Meanwhile we'll be keeping an eye on things to make sure it works as expected. Charles B commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 628 Q&A: 25 0 23 1123 1525 14 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 3

  4 1 Does that mean no one will see my questions or answers, because I have a negative reputation? :( Kristin Bell answered in Feedback about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by Charles B… 1 0 No. Your posts won't be collapsed Kristin. Your overall reputation is positive because you have shrooms and featured questions. Your reputation has steadily improved with time (it started off badly in the early days) and so your are fine. Thanks for asking and thanks for contributing. Sorry to worry you about it. Charles B commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 2266 Q&A: 38 0 8 1724 398 4 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 2

  3 2 Seems unnecessary. Basil answered in Feedback about 1 year ago | Report 7 comments by Basil, Charles B, and Basil… 0 0 Wouldn't it be easier for there to be an option under our profile information to turn off the sex stuff. That way those that don't want to read that can simply block it on their own. And those making new accounts could decide if they want that option to start on or off as one of their questions in making the account. That way the rest of us don't have to be bothered. Basil commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 Basil, I get what you are saying, but it's pretty easy to turn off the family filter and for many people (not just prudes) the first impression can have a lasting impact. So new users will always get spooged if we took this approach and might not stay long enough to know they can change their setting. Experienced users of course will figure it out easily. That was the logic anyway. Charles B commented about 1 year ago | Report 4 1 I guess I can see that. You guys are trying to draw in a larger audience of "normal" people and create a base of knowledge that the general community could use - kids, parents, etc. I respect that. Just, you know, don't go too far. I would hate to see those of us who come here for the witty and adult answers be censored or feel pushed out in order to draw in a more mainstream crowd. Long after the soccer-moms get their questions answered, us internet nerds will still be around making the community interesting. : ) Basil commented about 1 year ago | Report 1 0 I would also suggest that it MIGHT be a good thing to expose those people to the adult questions on here. A lot of young kids and confused adults end up in these parts looking for answers. Exposing them to new ideas, new - REAL - questions about sex and love could have a very good effect for those that take the time to read them - that is greater than the negative effect of scaring away some others. Additionally, if we make it difficult or confusing for people checking out the site, they will look elsewhere for answers. Every time you add a new function, new button, new on/off switch, it increases the likelihood of overwhelming people. Like those old-school economics graphs - the more buttons you have the less traffic you get. So we might be doing a community service by exposing people to real questions and answers about sex. And by adding more functions and filters, we might push more people away by confusing them. Just a thought. Basil commented about 1 year ago | Report 1 0 Oh, also - sorry I do this a lot (I am long winded) - you should add mouse-over explanations for the two different filters. The ? is good too, but mousing over what each filter does would make it more accessible. Basil commented about 1 year ago | Report 1 0 You are a right on all counts and we did consider those aspects when doing this - that's why it has taken so long and is an extremely simple and mild approach (I hope). Your point about the sex questions is a very good one. It turns out that the most popular category people choose is the sex category. They seem to have no trouble finding it! As far as the breadth of the audience is concerned, we do think that a larger community is generally better in terms of getting answers that are good and getting them faster. But that is only generally true. The contributors on QL are worth orders of magnitude more than most sites because of their knowledge, wit and open-mindedness. I don't want to do anything to change that, just attract more of them. If we find that we attract a broader but mediocre group to the community you can bet we will kill this thing. If you find that we are overdoing it anytime then let us know. Hopefully we will tread very gently and only enhance the experience for the community. Thanks for your thoughts. Charles B commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 Good point about the mouse-over. I will inform The Gnome. Charles B commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 873 Q&A: 13 0 15 328 47 6 Classifieds: 2 0 what's this? Follow Following 0 Bion Satir

  0 0 I know a lot of work has been put into them - my feedback is not meant to be harsh or anything, but since you ask, neither seems necessary to me. First, moderators seem to already delete the really egregious/offensive/unintelligible questions and answers, and I haven't been aware of a huge problem of really bad responses clogging up the site. Given that it hasn't been a problem for me, the introduction of a filter just seems kind of snobby. If you can point me to a question where people with a lot of "thumbs down" caused problems, I might understand better. About the "family filter", I don't like the name - it is a sex filter. "family filter" just sounds like doublespeak and reminds me of Republican "Protect families" initiatives that are really about promoting conservative values around sex. Anyway, its hard to judge the sex filter because I don't know what the aim is; are you trying to draw more participation from kids or parents-sitting-with-their-kids-at-the-keyboard to the site? If so, I guess I can see the point, although an argument could be made as to whether it is a good idea to keep sex info away from minors. If the sex filter is just for adults who have family-values (or whatever), then I wonder: Are there really grown adults who can't stand seeing and skipping over a question about sex? And is that the audience you are seeking? One thing, though, that I find more annoying is filters that are on by default. Should filters be elected, not assumed? Since it is not hard to turn them on, I think people can make the decision on their own. Anyway, those are my reactions - its not going to drive me away or anything. :) Bion Satir answered in Feedback about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by Charles B… 0 0 Andrew, Thanks for the frank feedback. It is helpful. I agree about the name "family" filter (even though I hate to admit that I came up with it). Now that you mention it I agree it sounds very neocon. I also suggested XXX filter, but that was rejected. Perhaps the obvious "sex" filter as you suggest is the best way to go. I will raise it with the Mushroom who tends to be the arbiter of taste on these matters. I agree that the filters impact is minimal and that was the intention. The overall quality of the content is very good and so it should have little effect. Of course we'd like to keep it that way and we hope this will assist. The filters also give more power to the community. Voting has a little more power to affect the actual site and the community has proven to be good at avoiding censorship while easily identifying garbage. I mentioned in another comment that the sex filter (call it what is) is turned on because new users will not be familiar with the ins-and-outs (so-to-speak) of QL whereas for others it's a trivial click. We are not afraid of sex talk and don't find that the community is either. In fact we are proud of it. But as you point out, the explicit nature of some of it makes it less than ideal for parents with kids around etc. Thanks for the help and for not being driven away. Charles B commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 4209 Q&A: 121 4 6 1581 87 19 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 5 Russ Campbell, NWEBS

  1 2 I looked for the setting choices for the new filters and haven't found them. Are they actually up yet or are we just discussing it first? As to the invention of them - anything that fine tunes the experience in Qland certainly is a plus and you guys have obviously put a bit of thought into it, so, bravo! Certainly having a filter on the more controversial (sexual) topics is appropriate. As far as filtering out the negative reputation folks, doesn't that occur already with their posts falling to the bottom of the heap of all the answer postings made on a question? I have wondered at times when my own down thumbsy number increased where it had occurred and will look over my last few posts, but often can't figure it out. I think that it should remain anonymous (hey, you can't please everyone), but it might be nice to be able to know what contribution someone found objection with (is there some way that could be indicated in my own personal "Recent" listings?). I mention the above as way of referencing your monitoring of malicious down-voting, which is appreciated. I wonder if questions, answers and comments shouldn't just fall into a category of dormancy as it relates to up and down votes after a period of time. I try to write my posts with the thought that I actually add to the conversation or contribute some piece of my own knowledge/experience that is useful. Looking things over before actually publishing them I often ask myself if I was to read this a year or more from now would I still be happy that it is out there. Some of that comes from posting under my own name and not having the mask of a nom de plume. Personally I appreciate the avatar images that people use and wonder why some folks never select something to use. I don't think it should be an immediate requirement as someone will register to contribute on just a particular topic and we are all the better for it. However, I think that continued long term existence on the forum with a generic gray outline headshape is a bit too removed from fully participating (plus it is hard on these eyes searching the grayed-out fine print for a name). Russ Campbell, NWEBS answered in Feedback about 1 year ago | Report 2 comments by Russ Campbell, NWEBS and Charles B… 2 0 I found the filter on/off buttons - thanks! Right in front of my face. What is the saying? - If it was a snake it would have bit me. Russ Campbell, NWEBS commented about 1 year ago | Report 1 0 Thanks for the comments Russ. I agree about the avatars, they add a lot and make things easier and more enjoyable. Not much we can do to get people to do it though. The good thing is that most regular contributors have great avatars. As far as down-votes are concerned, I don't think it is much of a concern for most people. Generally people get down-voted if what they have to say is not helpful and sometimes because it is controversial. We will undo down-votes that seem malicious and if necessary warn or suspend the user. We're NOT looking to become quality police, the community will decided on the quality by voting and overall this seems to work very well. If at any point it doesn't, or the filtering approach takes on a life of its own we'll just kill it. The approach we're taking is one that has been taken by other sites with mixed results. In some cases it has very beneficial effects, in others it's irrelevant, and in some it does more harm than good. We'll see where QL falls and go from there. Charles B commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 976 Q&A: 26 0 7 567 256 1 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  1 3 I think the filters are easy to get around by anyone who really wants to and do more harm than good to the community as a whole. See Kristin's post below. She gets a lot of hate for whatever reason, but can you really tell me that her content should be filtered out? I will use this as an excuse to update my Chrome extension that automatically gives thumbs down to every single possible button when you load any page in QL. Maybe I'll even make a Firefox version. Don't worry, this is the last time I'll use this account for a while. And don't bother blocking my IP, I just change my MAC address and power cycle my cable modem and get another one. Don't try to fight the trolls. We will win. Good luck though. protosaurus answered in Feedback about 1 year ago | Report 4 comments by Charles B, NGC1275, and Lee… 1 0 Unfortunately you are quite right. A determined troll with technical know-how can always find a way. We weren't directing this at trolls so much as allowing people to filter out explicit content (on by default) and decide whether they wanted to see posts by people who tended to provide low quality answers (off by default). In the case of Kristin, her reputation is fine and her posts will not be collapsed under any circumstances. We tested the thing (and will continue to test it) to make sure that it works the way people want it to. Charles B commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 Yeah I assumed this was aimed more towards folks like good ol' Gato the Younger Younger NGC1275 commented about 1 year ago | Report 1 0 I've always wondered what exactly it is that you win? Proto? Lee commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 Trolling is its own reward. NGC1275 commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend: