[Subjectivist]

After being gone for awhile I've had some time spent elsewhere, partially on youtube, and coming back to it now, I'm instantly seeing that the site needs a 'Thumbs up, Thumbs down' feature for each post like Youtube does, with a counter for reads as well.

The thumbs up, thumbs down feature lets the reader gauge how popular/ unpopular any particular video is instantly. Also, to gauge the reader reactions to the comments posted below each video. In my experience it leads to instant feedback for 'what works, or what doesn't work'. Consider that they used to film TV shows like All in the family to live studio audiences. The actors, masters in their craft, could judge from the audiences reactions, what was funny, what was not, what was politically correct to say, what was controversial, and they could learn from this process.

This is something that peakoil.com desperately needs, real-time feedback from the audience.

Consider- Can this be done?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

Before you open the thread link it shows the view count and number of responses right next to the date for the most recent post. Just because they are called something besides thumbs up doesn't mean the data is hidden.

[Sixstrings]

True, but I think often times folks don't want to write a message for what ever reason. A thumbs or "like" button or such may be a "gateway" to ease some folks into more active participation.

That's actually a good point, for lurkers to have an input / then that encourages them to maybe post.

I was thinking about this, actually "thumbs up" and such would be helpful.

Sometimes someone has a great post, but maybe one doesn't want to respond to it / there's nothing to argue with but yet it's a great post. Would be helpful to have like 5 stars and you can click a star (similar to a facebook "like"), or, just have "likes" such as on facebook, so that the poster sees that people appreciated it even if nobody replied.

Overal, reddit has a very good system with "karma" and upvoting / downvoting to push posts to the top or the bottom.

[ROCKMAN]

"Personally I'd rather see more thoughtful responses than thumbs up counter." Just a little side note for folks who haven't traveled much to other lands: pointing a "thumbs up" at someone isn't always a compliment. Some of our English-second-language readers might get confused. LOL.

Like Pops implies full responses are much more important. Even more so if they disagree In my opinion.

[Outcast_Searcher]

"Personally I'd rather see more thoughtful responses than thumbs up counter." Just a little side note for folks who haven't traveled much to other lands: pointing a "thumbs up" at someone isn't always a compliment. Some of our English-second-language readers might get confused. LOL.

Like Pops implies full responses are much more important. Even more so if they disagree In my opinion.

I absolutely agree. OF2 would get many many thumbs down, for example, from all the short term doomers who don't like him pointing out signs of economic growth, and yet he provides a refreshing balance to the "zerohedge" economic slant that this site tends to have (which isn't usually valid on a SHORT term basis, IMO).

I can also see certain personalities plastering thumbs downs on 90%+ of the posts, given how negative they are in general. And that would teach us what?

Thoughtful comments that bring insightful ideas or new information or just an interesting slant are what makes this site worth visiting, IMO, not voting on the popular flavor of the day.

Also, when it's deemed worth it, the polling feature allows a more subtle way for people to express their views on a given worthwhile topic.

[Pops]

The best part about the forum format to me is the little ongoing conversations on particular topics where you can really "drill down" as they say. Much more interesting than the sorta drive-by trolling typical in comment boxes as on our front page. The same dozen guys saying the same 2 or 3 things over and over and over every day - or a 500 comment omnibus box like on TOD or Gail's.

I've always wished for better integration on our site, a comment on a front page news article would start a thread instead of a dead end comment box. But hey, hasn't seemed to shut me up so far, LOL

[Plantagenet]

Pops is exactly right.

The psychology behind a "thumbs up thumbs down" rating system is actually creepy---its based on "Pavlovian" response or what psychologists today call "operant conditioning"----i.e. the discovery that people can be "conditioned" to behave in certain ways by the feedback they get from their environment. The "thumbs up" feedback system tends to produce homogeneity---you get a lot of similar posts with similar popular viewpoints.

The advantage of the current format used here at PeakOil.com is that it encourages longer discussions between people with different viewpoints. Sometimes very long discussions. Thats a good thing.

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The one suggestion I would make to bring in more people would be to get rid of the "members only" restriction on viewing some topics. Often these are the most interesting and most active topics, but casual readers never see the true level of posting activity here because some of the most active topics here are hidden from non-members.

This is what a verse in the Bible calls "hiding your light under a bushel". IMHO lets stop hiding things and let our little light shine.


Lets get rid of "members only" classification and let lurkers and other visitors see all the interesting posts in what are now hidden "member's only" threads

[Pops]

Moving the OT stuff to members only was me.

Today there are thousands of both general interest and narrowly focused sites but when you google Peak Oil you get wiki and then us.

Seems like what you see when you get here should be peak oil.

[dolanbaker]

Moving the OT stuff to members only was me.

Today there are thousands of both general interest and narrowly focused sites but when you google Peak Oil you get wiki and then us.

Seems like what you see when you get here should be peak oil.

Yes, the OT stuff should be members only, as you say, there are plenty of other sites for general chat.

[ROCKMAN]

I see the guest view as something of a recruiting device. If the readers are truly interested and what to ask questions and make comments then they can join. It isn't as though it's difficult to do.

[ROCKMAN]

Indirectly, of course, but this event does link to the general nature of all global resource depletion IMHO:

"Chemical giants DuPont and Dow Chemical Co agreed to merge in an all-stock deal valuing the combined company at $130 billion in a win for activist investors that could spark further consolidation in the farm chemicals industry. The deal to combine two of the biggest and oldest U.S. chemical producers is a prelude to an eventual split-up of the combined company into three discrete businesses, Dow and DuPont said on Friday. The proposed split would create businesses focused on agriculture, materials and specialty products. Excluding preferred shares, existing shareholders of Dow and DuPont will each own about 50 percent of the combined company, to be called DowDuPont. The merger, one of the biggest of the year, will allow Dow and DuPont to rejig assets based on the diverging fortunes of their businesses that make agriculture chemicals and plastics."

All together now: We are the world! LOL.