Strolenati Council - Stubs and 100 word challenge

1. Strolenati Council - Stubs and 100 word challenge

   #1

   I don't want to go into too much detail. Mostly because I don't have time but I want to see if we can get some thoughts on it over the next few days so I can do updates, if necessary, this weekend.
   
   Both these things have similar issues which is why I lump them together.
   
   Stubs. No secret I never understood them. I still don't really.
   
   Thought 1:
   Stubs would NOT go onto the frontpage. They don't get voted on, they don't get much commenting and they push the full subs down the page quicker for no real value added. So we would still have them, still show up in the Activity list and everywhere else, just wouldn't get frontpage viewing time.
   
   Thought 2:
   Initially the 100 word challenge seemed like something new and interesting and a true challenge. As it has progressed it has raised the eyebrows of a few of us. Mostly for the same reason as thought 1 but also because rarely can you cast a real vote on them. They are like stubs, not really worthy of a true vote. They will rarely get more than a 3 or so and even the ones that are great are really not that useful. To me, the 100 world challenge would remain great as a large idea scroll with Scras's main post. However, with the trend of making them full submissions, well, I don't like it.
   
   The 100 word submissions make PERFECT ideas, of which we have an entire section dedicated to them.
   
   I like that this happened though. I really think that the ideas portion of the Citadel continues to be underused and overlooked. Since the 100 word challenge has a pretty good following, I would love to use that momentum to come up with a way to incorporate the ideas into the site better. We have a database FULL of great thoughts that could all be 100 word challenge posts. Lets figure out how to use them and reinvigorated the ideas!
   
   Plus the confuse the Guild pledges as they think a 100 word sub can count as a full sub.
   
   Thoughts on these things?
   
   

2. Re: Strolenati Council - Stubs and 100 word challenge

   #2

   Stubs are something I don't generally comment on simply because of what they are; just small tidbits of information - they don't really need reviewing as such in my opinion.
   I think Stubs would be best used in this manner:
   
   They shouldn't go to front page, but they should still be postable as a stand alone sub. The purpose of them would be to use as linkables from larger subs for additional information about something which may otherwise derail that larger sub, or cause it to go off in a tangent.
   
   

   So for example, Scras writes up an NPC post about a militant fellow in the Cosmic Era:
   
   Riker Kodal makes heavy use of Commercial armor, and in his heydey, he operated an SR/L-1 Ostrich Mech - the man was very skilled in the efficient use of this machine, and became known by his squad as the Bird'o'prey!
   
   Nowdays, after his tragic fallout with the military, he has gone rogue and amassed many followers. He is now head of an outlaw vigilante/terrorist group and has obtained many mechs and several light space-craft. Riker was well known to be racist against seibertronians; he has caught wind of The Rumor and wants to find Seibertron first and raze this fabled home-world.

   
   
   (I hope I got the idea of The Rumor right, too :p)
   
   So rather than explain what these things are in that post, making the sub too long and detailed for many people to browse through, he can offer those stub-links and people can choose to open those to get more information about those things.
   
   I dunno if you can do it, but it would be cool if you could make a 'stublink' command in the subs which makes the link green and bolded or something if it's a stub (or people could do it manually like I just did). Then people know it's a stub and can be read in only a minute or two to get extra information.
   
   ____________________________________________________
   
   As for the 100 word subs - They do have a use, in that if someone has a small, gem of an idea but can't expand it due to lack of inspiration, time or whatever, they can condense it into one of these. But i understand your issues with them, and yes, perhaps they would be best used as Ideas.
   
   Here's my thoughts for a solution:
   Perhaps you could abolish the 100-word sub thing, and encourage that they become ideas. HOWEVER, I think the main issue with the underuse of idea scrolls is that it needs more advertising! There's no real sign of Ideas on the front page, and they sit right at the bottom of the subs.
   
   Perhaps instead of this, you could remove them from the bottom of subs (I don't think too many people read all the way down to the ideas - I know I don't!) and instead make an 'ideas box' smack bang on the top middle of the main page, inbetween the toolbar and the top of the 'newest submissions' box. If people aren't interested, the most recent subs are still right there just below the idea, but at least it gives the ideas some exposure.
   
   If you're worried about them taking up too much room, put them in a smaller font (maybe with a small button on the top of it to link it to a larger page for hard-of-seeing people :p) and i'm not sure if there's word restrictions on ideas, but maybe have it 200 words or less as a limit, or perhaps a better idea than a limit: have the box cut off after 100 words, with a pull-down button at the bottom to expand it to read the rest if someone's interested in reading it.
   
   This will encourage people to post ideas because they have a chance that their name will be on the front page.
   _________________________________________
   _________________________________________
   
   And if you want to really get into it, you could have a + / - vote button on the idea which anyone over level (x) are able to utilize. For every positive vote people get 1 xp, and for every negative vote people lose 1 xp (this is so people don't just post up crap in the hopes of getting their names up.) If the idea gets -5 votes, the idea is deleted automatically. If the idea gets 10 positive votes, the user gets an additional 5xp!
   
   
   Anyway, that was my brain-spill for you. 

3. Re: Strolenati Council - Stubs and 100 word challenge

   #3

   Took the Stubs off the frontpage, will see how that settles with people. They are still work exactly the same except they don' t get frontpage time.
   
   Good thoughts to get started SE. I haven't decided my own opinion on these all the way yet. Going to tackle a bunch of other issues that came up with the site and then mess with the ideas again to see if I can better incorporate them into the site. Maybe ideas do need some frontpage action. Quick reads and easy voting with ajax so maybe slipping them in amongst the main subs would be a workable idea....

4. Re: Strolenati Council - Stubs and 100 word challenge

   #4

   I have argued in the past FOR voting, ranks, exp. and all the silly stuff on this site.  Having those arguments really helped to crystalize for me why I thought the voting and ranking system added something to the citadel.  But you are discussing here what should be voted on and what shouldn't be voted on. What is worth a vote or not. You have stated in the past that you think this site is place to celebrate each others ideas.  So why do you, Strolen, think the voting is important? Why rank ideas? Why be critical of others ideas?  Why not just make everything stub like? If everything was stub like,  people can read and comment but they won't have to score them or compare them.
   

5. Re: Strolenati Council - Stubs and 100 word challenge

   #5

   Not sure I understand your argument.
   
   I don't like stubs because they are not full ideas worth commenting/voting etc. They are meant to be chunks of text of unknown value. That is their actual purpose.
   In my mind, Stubs = Ideas. If I didn't respect others opinions so much, I would have not created them. I simply don't understand their purpose. Most of them could easily go right into the ideas section. However the ideas is a neglected section so I don't blame anybody for using Stubs.
   
   I just don't feel they count as "real" content therefor why should they go to the frontpage? Why should they get votes when they will all be voted low? And why should I count them as actual submissions? I go into some of my reasons in the announcement.
   
   You understand we are ONLY talking about Stubs right?
   
   I would never consider removing the voting from normal submissions.
   

6. Re: Strolenati Council - Stubs and 100 word challenge

   #6

   Forget stubs, real question:
   
   Why do we rank submissions? Why do we vote? 

7. Re: Strolenati Council - Stubs and 100 word challenge

   #7

   Huh?
   
   You want to start a philosophical discussion with no right answer? I am not falling for that.
   
   Voting is.

Strolenati Council - The Invasion of 5.0 · All categories · Guildhall