Posted on 10/02/2008 7:31:16 AM PDT by PAR
Moderator- Following is a suggestion to add a feature to this board. Feel free to move this as it is clearly not news. I post it here because I hope that it will generate the greatest amount of feedback.
I have no programming experience whatsoever so I don't know if it is possible or if it were possible if it can be done cost effectively, but the suggestion would be to rate the stories posted on a scale from 1 to 10 and then show the top rated stories in a sidebar similar to the "Breaking News" sidebars on the right hand of the screen. I would suggest that only signed in members be allowed to rate stories. The sidebar could be placed below the other sidebars that aggregate top stories/editorials- so assuming this would be feasible the basic structure of the page would not have to be altered much to accommodate such a feature.
What are the potential benefits? Aside from existing members being able to more quickly identify what they will read first, my hope would be that aggregating the most popular/highest rated stories and making it easier to find them quickly, it might attract people who otherwise would not come to the site. Who knows, these people might initially come here to check quickly to see what the definitive conservative web site thinks is important and then gradually be converted.
Two other potential sidebars could be "most viewed articles" and "most responded to articles". I know that when I come to the site (Normally right after checking Drudge), the first thing I look at in determining what I am going to read is the title. Next (and I admit is much further down on the totem pole), is number of responses and number of views.
I suppose some who very much like the existing sidebars could argue that the new sidebars could usurp the existing sidebar's popularity. You could also argue that the existing sidebars get the job done in this respect. But I don't know why they couldn't live side by side (pun intended). I have found that if I have not been able to check FR for a couple of days, that I miss some very good stories that are not in the existing sidebars that I suspect I would have seen if the stories were rated.
Another criticism of this idea could be that Jim/moderator could view this as losing some editorial discretion since the ratings sidebar would be mechanistically determined. I would suggest that Jim simply reserve the right to use his discretion. Another suggestion would be to consider a small sidebar of "Jim's Picks".
If putting something like this in place would be very expensive and time consuming, it may not make sense to do it on a trial basis. But if it isn't that expensive or time consuming, maybe a trial period makes sense. I am not familiar with the intricacies of how the site is managed, but maybe the programming could be outsourced?
I admit that I have only contributed a fairly small amount to Free Republic in the past. But even though I was recently laid off and have no good prospects right now, I would be willing to contribute at least $100 toward getting this done.
Popular keywords.
I suggestd a similar new sidebar the other day, but instead of the 1 to 10 ratings just use the # of views stats and show the 10 or 20 top viewed threads from the previous 24 hours
I like the idea of a rating, a must read rating to help me find the most important articles when I have very little time to spend.
YouTube, DIGG and other sites have this feature. Would love to see it on FR as an option setting as opposed to just having last 10 news stories in a box.
Kind of the Digg.com concept of user ratings on stories. Interesting. I like the idea as an additional grouping in the “sidebar”.
I’m sure people here visit other BBs. There are off the shelf, free or near free php/etc. structures that have stood the test of time on the internet. They are designed to keep most popular topics on the top. Tons of other features.
Free advice here. I charge millions to others for the same.
Great idea!
- 10 articles with the most replies
- 10 newest articles
- 10 top rated articles
There are way too many posts consisting of only “Bump” or “BTTT,” and this proposal would be the end of that nonsense.
Cannot get the Presidential candidates into spell checker and you want a whole new feature?
You can already do this with the “Activity” tab at the top of the screen.
“Cannot get the Presidential candidates into spell checker and you want a whole new feature?”
?
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