Explanation: Does having a board set up like Straight Dope where you see EVERY SINGLE comment in a row and every one is (in theory) by default given equal weight a much better model for discussion than, say, Reddit where you have top-voted comments?
Yes, I think so. Everyone is allowed to decide for themselves which points are most important- it’s nt being filtered for you. You also see how the discussion evolves chronologically, so everyone is having a similar experience. I find Reddit very hard to read.
I think both formats have their strengths. Linear threads are better for back-and-forth discussions with details.
On the other hand, Reddit is so huge that it probably needs that kind of weighted format- it’s quite common for reddit threads to have more than 1000 comments per day, and that would be pretty unmanageable with a SDMB-style system. I think it’s pretty unusual for a SDMB thread to get more than 50 or 100 comments per day, so a linear format is easier to manage.
My intial response was to say linear is better but the post above makes me think that it may be more that there is size limit above which meaningful conversation and discussion becomes well nigh impossible. The advantage of linear may be more a function that it correlates with being under that threshold.
I dislike having things censored or kept from me by anyone’s decision; one should see everything, good or bad. One can always skip the boring parts, but it is up to oneself to decide what those may be.
Life is not a popularity contest.
I’ve never visited Reddit: how are posts ranked? Does everyone get to vote on how much they like the visible posts? If so, wouldn’t that produce a feedback effect, where only posts in the top 50 would ever have a chance at being in the top 10? Also it would tend to favor early posts, as those would be visible from the start.
I could see the value of a voting system where we could rate the posts, here, in a given thread, and, as an option, sort the posts by their ratings. But it would tend to dislocate conversations. Think of the issue we already have with responses to zombie threads and posts: you’d get much more of that.
I was thinking more of the difference between linear flat and threaded. Linear flat can be easier to read, especially on a small screen. Threaded can be nice since more discussions and digressions can be self-contained and easily skipped visually. So a side question, if I may: Does anyone switch out of the default linear mode to hybrid or threaded?
Voting can help when there’s a lot of comments by individuals. Especially when it’s the type of format that is known for generally having a lot of terrible or pointless comments, such as most news comment threads.
Many people here in the past have said they just go straight to the “New Posts” button and start browsing there. Me, I go down the list, forum to forum from GQ to The Pit, find doing it that first way to be horribly confusing (and jarring when I am thus skipping around between threads on wildly different topics)
NOTHING replaces this format of forum for focused, meaningful discussion. Shit like Reddit and Twitter and streaming-comment sites like Cracked make it impossible to do more than spray-tag the wall and move on; unless you want to dig and dig and dig you’ll never know what anyone said in reply to your post. Good enough for the dim of mind, short of attention span and Twitter generation, but I’ll take old-school forums, thanks.
ETA: Let’s not even get into Fuckbook, which has replaced most discussion/hobbyist/fan websites and is like trying to communicate by messages in bottles.
[QUOTE=Amateur Barbarian]
ETA: Let’s not even get into Fuckbook, which has replaced most discussion/hobbyist/fan websites and is like trying to communicate by messages in bottles.
[/QUOTE]
Is this a play on words, or are you talking about the actual (and NSFW) fuckbook site?
I am glad to hear that I’m not the only one who can’t stand (or read) Reddit. I thought it might have been just another sign of my aging brain’s inability to adapt.
SMDB also (sometimes with Mod prompting) encourages forking any separate issues that arise into their own threads to keep things focused pretty well.
I don’t think Cracked was developed with anything but drivebys in mind, but both Reddit and Twitter have Reply functionalities that specifically alert you when someone replies to something you say which is more than the dope which simply notifies you if someone posts in a thread you’re subscribed to.
Yes, blindsided by reality, as so often happens.
This. I spent exactly three seconds there, nearly retched, and ran back to the SDMB as fast as my fingers could get me here.
Conversations are conversations. We here are like groups of friends and new acquaintances, sitting around the living room with a few drinks, talkin’ about stuff – one person saying something at a time, everyone listening to what each person says. Or, if you need to tune out for a bit or go take a pee, that’s fine, too. If the conversation gets stale for you, there’s another group of friends talkin’ about something else just next door.
(Try to ignore the burning house down the street. The mods – I mean, the firefighters – will be here in a few minutes!)
I can’t stand it either. I keep trying to get on board, because so many of my friends love Reddit, but I guess I got used to the SDMB way of things first. It’s hard for me to move away from that.
Slate is the same way.
I founded and maintained a series of forums in a specific topic, none of which ever exactly burned up a server farm but all of which maintained a very solid anchor for the online community. The first was a FIDO group; another was a Usenet group; the rest have been independent forums like this one. Even now, the last of them is managed by an interested group and carries ten years of solid, linear discussions of interest, there when the community tires (as it frequently does) of the fast-moving vapors on the equivalent Frackbook page.
yes I agree…< but be nice to those of us with short attention spans:D
I have nothing against those with short attention spans or who like their information moving faster. I just wish (1) it didn’t draw so much away from the more structured-discussion sites and (2) may I never hear another 140-character character tell me it’s just as good as all that long, boring stuff.