What about a whole “sub-site” for this kind of stuff? Like a forum with structured subject fields. I use Arch Linux, and most Linux distros have such a structure. See Arch’s HERE and, for a comparison and much larger distro’s setup, see Ubuntu’s HERE.
I propose it because I think the structure is nice and provides what is being sought after—a place for serious, problem-solving (like the boards for hardware, networking, and kernel issues) and fun (in Arch, forums like “Try This” and (duh) “Off-Topic”).
The advantage is that stuff gets contained and the top-level and discussion boards aren’t flooded with stuff people don’t care about if they came for rationality. You could also follow topics you’re interested in (I follow an Arch forum on Desktop Screenshots, as I’m interested to see what people do with their organization for example).
I think a “Users’ forum” template is, essentially, what’s being suggested by the post author HERE. I’m a member of tons of forums and they all have something like this—a place for problem solving and a place for personal stuff. Woodworking forums have places to talk about the new tools you just bought or share pictures of your projects for example.
Oh, perhaps this would be quite restrictive and/or controversial based on various opinions of the particular media avenue… but what about a private Facebook group for LW users? You could start discussion threads, post pictures… just another thought.
The problem with this is someone would have to pay for another server, domain, etc. and that it’s be a lot harder to do stuff like integrate with stuff like the karma system.
Well, such a forum should be able to presumably reside on the same server we use already, unless space is a concern, right? Is there an issue with creating a “subsite” of sorts that uses a different code-base?
Maybe there is, I’m just not sure.
Registration could pretty easily handle the karma issue. You must register with the same username and some group of assigned moderators can check your karma and then click a link to approve your request.
That case just becomes roughly functionally identical to what I suggested
Well, sure, if you’re just talking about the karma aspect.
Re. overall suggestion, you seem to have suggested another discussion board as a “catch-all” dumping ground for off-topic replies. I suggested that there’s probably some “canned” package that could be implemented like a user’s forum.
It comes down to whether separate forum areas would be helpful or not. If it’s “just another discussion board” with the rules you stipulated… sure, that works.
If you like the separate areas and like the functionality of a forum, then I find it odd that you would criticize an mere suggestion to give it the karma functionality you proposed, while at the same time adding quite a few more features that might improve the user’s experience.
If you don’t like the forum idea in general, then just say so and you don’t have to worry about discussing the sub-topic of it’s karma integration since the whole package is moot. If you do… then we need to brainstorm a way to implement karma support and I have gotten the ball rolling :)
Ok, point. I don’t really think there’d be enough traffic to justify several sections, but I could be wrong.
Your suggestion still need more gardening solutions thou.
You may be right—not sure on the traffic either. Nor what the various “forum rooms” would be… Family? Pictures? Trips taken? Who knows.
If (big if) some karma implementation could be done, it still might be feasible to do this without human intervention. For example, my user page is “http://lesswrong.com/user/jwhendy.” If everyone else’s is the same format… it’s as simple as:
requiring every user to sign up under their current LW name (perhaps password as well so someone can’t sign up under someone else’s user name)
That’d work perfectly except the part where you need to check if the put in the right password, yea. In fact, you’re starting to make me think your plan might be the better one after all, depending on a few implementation details of LW I don’t know about.
What about a whole “sub-site” for this kind of stuff? Like a forum with structured subject fields. I use Arch Linux, and most Linux distros have such a structure. See Arch’s HERE and, for a comparison and much larger distro’s setup, see Ubuntu’s HERE.
I propose it because I think the structure is nice and provides what is being sought after—a place for serious, problem-solving (like the boards for hardware, networking, and kernel issues) and fun (in Arch, forums like “Try This” and (duh) “Off-Topic”).
The advantage is that stuff gets contained and the top-level and discussion boards aren’t flooded with stuff people don’t care about if they came for rationality. You could also follow topics you’re interested in (I follow an Arch forum on Desktop Screenshots, as I’m interested to see what people do with their organization for example).
I think a “Users’ forum” template is, essentially, what’s being suggested by the post author HERE. I’m a member of tons of forums and they all have something like this—a place for problem solving and a place for personal stuff. Woodworking forums have places to talk about the new tools you just bought or share pictures of your projects for example.
Oh, perhaps this would be quite restrictive and/or controversial based on various opinions of the particular media avenue… but what about a private Facebook group for LW users? You could start discussion threads, post pictures… just another thought.
The problem with this is someone would have to pay for another server, domain, etc. and that it’s be a lot harder to do stuff like integrate with stuff like the karma system.
Well, such a forum should be able to presumably reside on the same server we use already, unless space is a concern, right? Is there an issue with creating a “subsite” of sorts that uses a different code-base?
Maybe there is, I’m just not sure.
Registration could pretty easily handle the karma issue. You must register with the same username and some group of assigned moderators can check your karma and then click a link to approve your request.
That case just becomes roughly functionally identical to what I suggested but with much more work for implementation and maintenance.
Well, sure, if you’re just talking about the karma aspect.
Re. overall suggestion, you seem to have suggested another discussion board as a “catch-all” dumping ground for off-topic replies. I suggested that there’s probably some “canned” package that could be implemented like a user’s forum.
It comes down to whether separate forum areas would be helpful or not. If it’s “just another discussion board” with the rules you stipulated… sure, that works.
If you like the separate areas and like the functionality of a forum, then I find it odd that you would criticize an mere suggestion to give it the karma functionality you proposed, while at the same time adding quite a few more features that might improve the user’s experience.
If you don’t like the forum idea in general, then just say so and you don’t have to worry about discussing the sub-topic of it’s karma integration since the whole package is moot. If you do… then we need to brainstorm a way to implement karma support and I have gotten the ball rolling :)
Ok, point. I don’t really think there’d be enough traffic to justify several sections, but I could be wrong. Your suggestion still need more gardening solutions thou.
You may be right—not sure on the traffic either. Nor what the various “forum rooms” would be… Family? Pictures? Trips taken? Who knows.
If (big if) some karma implementation could be done, it still might be feasible to do this without human intervention. For example, my user page is “http://lesswrong.com/user/jwhendy.” If everyone else’s is the same format… it’s as simple as:
requiring every user to sign up under their current LW name (perhaps password as well so someone can’t sign up under someone else’s user name)
use that url (http://lesswrong.com/user/user_name) and find the number in between: “###” (mine is currently: “417″
if > 100, continue, if < 100, reject and tell user to get 100 more points
Not too bad.
That’d work perfectly except the part where you need to check if the put in the right password, yea. In fact, you’re starting to make me think your plan might be the better one after all, depending on a few implementation details of LW I don’t know about.