[IDEA] - (minus) button for posts AKA hide useless posts through user votes

[ShadeDream]

I'm not even sure where to start with this.

I really don't have a hard time reading... personally, I think this is a bad idea. For example, I've seen mob mentality take over a few threads. (mobs which I led... but may have been wrong... and that doesn't mean they should have been deleted)

It's not about having a hard time reading. It can be really annoying when you want to go over a thread to find something or just to review the thread and you have to browse through a bunch of crap.

I think it would ruin the community of facts and ideas when they are put to a hidden vote, as opposed to open conjecture.

One perfect example of why this wouldn't work.... someone tries to scam another member in the open, everyone votes it down, the post dissappears. As opposed to being removed by a mod and having the user banned. Or not even scam, just break the rules.

In my opinion this is closed minded thinking. If people see a scammer or a scam about to happen, they report the post. Nothing disappears, posts become hidden but they can be unhidden by those who want to see them. Take a look at the "ignore user" feature.

On another note, I wasn't referring to hiding threads, such a button would only appear on posts. So the thread would still be visible but posts within would be hidden. More important/useful information would become more accessible.

I was thinking that the option would be personal for everyone, So if there was a thread that i could "minus" then it would only be me who couldn't see it after that. It wouldn't be based on a voting thing.

I would love to be able see a more targeted "what i want to see " bhw homepage.

This could be another option. Though it may be more resource intensive if everyone is able to have their personalized BHW and hence not as viable.

 

[Amsterdammer]

I like the idea of selecting but may I suggest a twist?

I believe Captain Jack Sparrow created something to highlight the OP in a thread. If you were to expand on that you could also change colors on posts with over x amount of thanks too for instance.
Simply doing something like that cleans up most threads I suspect. Doesn't solve the scrolling problem it creates but could have the added bonus people will want to reach that status. On the other end, good quality posts do run the risk of going unnoticed.

Just a thought.

 

[azguru]

After browsing the forum more frequently than usual for the past couple of days, I have to agree that it would be a good idea to filter out useless posts. Unfortunately, there are way too many of them. (Ill admit, I made quite a few stupid threads as a n00b)

I rarely find useful posts these days. Yeah, there are a lot of them, but you have to sort through a lot of bullshit first to find them. As a newbie, I didn't mind reading everything because I didn't know shit, but now it is frustrating to have to read so much useless junk just to find one valuable post. I think the lack of quality content can drive away a lot of the insightful professionals in this industry, so all these useless posts are really detrimental to this forum's image and brand equity.

I think a +/- "rating" system would be great, but I think it would be abused (we are blackhatters after all). Plus, it is hard to define "useful" when it comes to threads because the utility of the thread is relative to the person reading it.

Honestly, I think the best thing to do would be to make the Jr. VIP section more active. While a Jr. VIP status is not a representation of how successful one is, it certainly eliminates some of the complete newbies and leechers. The Jr. VIP forum has the potential to be a discussions ground for experienced IM'ers.

Most Jr' VIPs post in the main forums, because that is where the posts get the most attention. If Jr. VIP contributors started posting more exclusively in the Jr. VIP forums, I think that would help towards reaching the goal ShadeDream is talking about.

Don't get me wrong. This is not supposed to be some Jr. VIP elitism, and this is not meant to make information exclusive for only Jr. VIPs. Instead, it is intended to allow more experienced IM'ers to have a source of quality content to browse. Jr. VIP is not very exclusive - all you need is $97 and a short history on this forum. $97 is more than affordable for anyone who could be considered a professional in this industry.

And, of course, the implementation of this would not require any modifications to the forum's code: just more people sharing in the Jr. VIP section.

 

[bk071]

I voted yes. Definitely a good idea.

Would come in handy to hide the ass kissing posts, (almost all) posts about rep and thanks e.g. "Ohey I hit xxxx rep gimme some more" and of course stupid posts by newbies *even some jr vips and senior members fall into this category*.

Personally I think the forum needs lots of updates. Not saying DD and team are not working hard but to be honest BHW has been over run by newbies who couldn't pay $10 for a warrior forum membership and has recently turned into a circle jerk and ass kissing spot for a lot of so called reputable members that are actually noobs with no idea wtf they're doing.
These warrior forum newbies are not bothered to use the goddamn search function and at the rate these stupid posts are popping I'm afraid BHW will become a second digitalpoint in a few months.

Mods are doing their job fine but there's probably too few of them to handle all the shit recently... At this point I think it'd be great to implement something like what OP has suggested and let the users take a little care of the forum too.
Now giving newbies/trolls the power to hide posts automatically by downvoting it would not be the best idea either so I guess the best bet would be to set a filter so that only members meeting a certain criteria can downvote a post. And once the post is hidden, it automatically goes into moderation queue and mods can take a look. And if they find someone abusing this feature, boot them off the forum. Much like users abusing the rep/thanks feature.

I don't mean to be harsh but considering BHW's rate of growth, we need stricter rules. Anyone who violates them gets a vacation, violate them again and you're pushed off the BHW horizon.

If there are not enough mods, get more on board. I'm sure there are many members who will volunteer for the job... hell I will devote some time to make this community better for no perks. No exec status, no cool colors for my username, nothing. I just don't want BHW turning into Digitalpoint or WF or whatever. It was superior and it needs to stay that way I'm sure there are others who feel the same too.

Damn this turned into a long ass post

EDIT: Before someone comes here and tells me I have no idea how much work would be required to do what I have suggested... I understand that. The points I made above and merely my opinion and a representation of how I see things. Many will disagree and I'm completely fine with that It was just a suggestion anyway.
And and don't mind the typos.

 

[ShadeDream]

Now giving newbies/trolls the power to hide posts automatically by downvoting it would not be the best idea either so I guess the best bet would be to set a filter so that only members meeting a certain criteria can downvote a post. And once the post is hidden, it automatically goes into moderation queue and mods can take a look. And if they find someone abusing this feature, boot them off the forum. Much like users abusing the rep/thanks feature.

I think something like this should be kept simple. Putting down voted posts through moderation queues would be a hassle to deal with for the moderators. Maybe not everyone should have the right to vote but as I said this should be kept simple. Down voted posts would still be around, they would just be shown as hidden, something like the spam comments on YT. You still see them, but they are hidden, so you know there's no point in reading it because it's bullshit.

Or even if users would be able to hide posts on an account level so the posts are only hidden to their account, that would be good enough too.

 

[tacopalypse]

i think it's a great idea. as the forum grows larger, it becomes less practical for mods to manually delete the ever increasing number of spam posts. it's like a game of whack-a-mole where the number moles just keeps increasing and increasing.

so the solution proposed in this thread, would mean that instead of members reporting posts to mods, we just allow members to directly delete posts via a voting system. and then it would just be the mods' responsibility to make sure the system doesn't get abused. to me this makes a lot of sense.

 

[secretboy08]

So, you are saying my competitor can come to my thread along with his friends and hide all the posts with good reviews. That would be great for my business. yay

On a second thought, same I can do in my own thread with negative reviews. I wont on principle, but there is nothing stopping any other guy from doing the same.

It would be like a war in BST.

 

[Conor]

I'll take advantage of this bump, is there any news on the implementation of this? I think it's a great idea.

 

[ShadeDream]

So, you are saying my competitor can come to my thread along with his friends and hide all the posts with good reviews. That would be great for my business. yay

On a second thought, same I can do in my own thread with negative reviews. I wont on principle, but there is nothing stopping any other guy from doing the same.

It would be like a war in BST.

It could always be disabled for the BST. Problem solved.

 

[GreyKnight]

Yes, this is great. But make it that the post will be minimized not after -1 but after -5, for example.
And add that the users can only vote if they have a minimum of 100 posts and 3 months as a user in BHW.

 

[LakeForest]

Why didn't I see this thread before???

I think this could work, but it would have to be personal.

The posts you minus cannot affect the threads you see; I'm basically controlling your account and censoring your information.

 

[TehEpidemick]

yeah, disabling this feature for the bst would be a good solution.

I like the idea, get rid of all the thank you and repeat questions.

 

[kinlee]

This is a great idea! The only problem I can see is groups forming and abusing the system, down voting certain people they have beef with. If the post has been hidden there should be an option to "show this post" so if it was truly beneficial or valuable to the thread, people can still up vote it to bring it back to life.


Another idea that would work with the voting system would be some sort of "top comment/post/answer"
But have it as an option if the OP wants it implemented in their thread.

Similar to this system: http://webmasters.stackexchange.com...-trailing-slashes-from-url-with-htaccess?rq=1

Except only have one or three post that can make it to the top, things would get too disorganized if all posts get organized in a vote count hierarchy.

There are plenty of times where I've found the greatest answer to a question buried deep within the thread. It becomes very time consuming especially with a huge forum like this, If you can find what you're looking for quickly people will always come back for more. It should also help encourage the community to want to help others in the forum. (Who doesn't want to be sitting at the top? Give them a nice shiny badge too for being awesome =D) The OP should have the last say though, in case a troll or completely unrelated post makes it to the top. Give them the power to either leave the top posts or select from one of the posts that has helped them the most.