Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

1. Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

   #1

   I've been here a while now. Long enough to observe a problem. As a lot of you know, and some of you I have discussed with, the attention a sub receives is fickle. The few days it receives on the frontpage, probably constitutes 30-50% of the votes/comments it will ever receive, unless it reaches some extended fame through HoH or other means.
   
   But the thing about that time-period, the lime-light if you will. Is that it isn't by any means measured in an exact way. Since everyone is free to post as many subs as they wish, the time your sub receives up there is completely dependant on who/how many posts next, and how much. With a stroke of really bad luck, your sub could be drowned(pushed down) in a day or two.
   
   Now, it would be safe to say that, the longer your sub stays up there, the higher the chance of receiving votes/comments. And it's really the first couple of days that we as authors(if I may be so presumptious as to assume that title), watch our most recent creation and await feedback. Once that sub dips below the horizon, we know that the battle is lost.
   
   My suggested solution to this problem, would be that instead of just putting the subs in a descending order. We could divide these sections into Days, so for instance, anyone posting on Sunday, would all end up in the same section, meanwhile pushing down last Sunday's submissions in a descending order, like this;
   
   Sunday (New posts on Sunday collected here)
   Monday
   Tuesday
   Wednesday
   Thursday
   Friday
   Saturday
     Sunday ---> (Old Sunday dissappears below the horizon)
   
   This way, everyone would be guaranteed 7 Days of lime-light for their subs. And instead of the big chunk, you get an appropriate Icon with your name under it, and when you hover your mouse over it, it shows the flavour text.

2. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

   #2

   You picked good timing to post this - for me at least. Normally I would say it's fine just the way it is, but I do feel like a post I made was just pushed off the board in a couple days after a barrage of cosmic era subs.
   And i'm not saying Scrasamax was wrong in posting them - on the contrary; good on him for being so productive! Nor do I make a habit of whining that my subs don't get enough attention -  it's just unfortunate the sub I made requires at least one more vote for it to be valid with my guild quest, and now that it's been pushed off the front page, I think it may not get that last vote without me plugging it in the forums :(
   
   I don't mind the sound of a weekly roster. Although i'm not sure if it will be an issue if there's a really productive week and the front page ends up with multitudes of posts...
   Anyway, i'm not sure - I can definitely see your reasoning behind this suggestion.
   It would be cool if one day we could personalize our front pages to show EITHER the current format, or the weekly roster, but that would suck with programming for Strolen.
   
   Not to derail, but personalized front pages with custom skins etc would be cool! 5.0 perhaps? :D

3. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

   #3

   So would this be roughly like what you're aiming for?

4. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

   #4

   
   So would this be roughly like what you're aiming for?
   

   
   
   Something like that, yeah.

5. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

   #5

   Gossamer, I too think it a good idea to give everyone 7 days of spotlight on their new subs. I have some concerns abt your suggestion of revamping the frontpage though, mainly w.r.t to the pt SE raised on whether it would get too long if the Citadel has an esp. productive week with incoming subs. Maybe cap the no. of recent subs under each day, show the total no. of subs posted versus current no. of subs now showing and allow people to load more subs if they want to like we currently have with the Most Recent Subs box?

6. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

   #6

   Moonlake: It might help to imagine the boxes I drew as collapsible. I didn't draw them that way, but that was the way I was thinking about it. So your homepage wouldn't necessarily be any longer than it currently is.

7. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

   #7

   Okay, then that should be fine.

8. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

   #8

   I like the 7-days of spotlight format as a starting point, but I'm still going to offer an alternative: use a queue.  If your major concern is that a sub not leave the front page until it has at least 3 "good" critiques and/or votes, we could implement something similar to what they do on Scribophile.
   
   Here's the concept:
   Scribophile uses several different "spotlights" to help work get posted.  There's a main spotlight, a new member spotlight, and a good critiquer spotlight.  When you post your work, it goes in the queue for one of these spotlights.  A work is only moved out of the spotlight when it has received 3 "long" critiques -- comments/suggestions of 125 words or more.  This ensures that every piece receives attention, at the cost of it maybe not appearing for a few hours if the spotlight is full.  That's where the extra spotlights really help.  Every newbie's first post goes into the "new member" spotlight (we could up it to 2-3, since we have lower volume), and the "good critiquer" spotlight gets filled with subs from the members who made the most "good" comments/ideas etc the day before.
   
   Hell, we could even add "guild" spotlights or "quest" spotlights if we wanted to, but then it becomes a little more tricky to keep track of.
   
   The advantage here is that every piece is guaranteed a basic level of attention, where the 7-day spotlight does not make the same promise.  We don't necessarily have to move a piece out if it has received 3 comments, either.  If there are no other pieces in the queue, it could stay up there until someone posts something new, giving it a little extra "bonus" time. :)

9. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

   #9

   I like it.
   
   Still want to figure out how to incorporate ideas into it too. Unobtrusive, but able to be read and voted on immediately.
   
   Eventually we can get back to the personalized homepage. I actually had that to a point back in V1.2534389679965454 beta 1 Carrot. It more allowed an amount of submissions of each type vs. just overall.
   
   For the moment, this is what I would prefer.
   
   The 7-day on the frontpage breakdown. Everything stays up there 7 days. period. No collapsing, the nice date separation. (I am currently partial to the way like the quests are so it is there but not in your face). If we change the format on the frontpage, then I would want the quest listings changed to match.
   
   We could get more creative with the needing a comment identifier as well. That scribophile is a fun idea. Right now I make the text red, but perhaps we get a little more extravagant with it. Maybe I have one of the similar styled graphics that would fit the bill. But somehow incorporating that scrib thing can be managed. Food for thought.
   
   I like most of these ideas. Good thread!
   
   Brings up some older thoughts too:
   Newbie tags for their first post to be incorporated with all that.
   New submission type to request a revote after a large rewrite (or just to request more votes)
   
   I am trying to rework the submission page to better update most of these types of things. I have a draft but I haven't had a chance to really give it a test spin. I had time so decided to update linux....never a good idea by the way. Two days later I finally got it running decent. Tomorrow I install my toys and then bug hunt and fix the submission page. Chaos may play with the frontpage if the muse hits him. I have family in starting Saturday so will be very few updates from me till after the 24th. Which is why I want to clean up the bugs you all have been finding so well lately! Just an update on status so you don't have too many expectations from me to do this quick.
   
   I love the ideas, I think we are getting somewhere with this set! Keep them coming.

10. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

    #10

    I agree with and like Gossamer's idea.
    
    Strolen's idea to include the option of bringing a sub back to get more votes under a new submission type is also a good one, but isn't that what the HoH function does? I'll admit it isn't the best solution, HoH being originally intended for those subs warrenting distinction.

11. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

    #11

    I think Strolen means signaling one of your own sub that's ready for revote. You can't do this currently thru the HOH system (or in any other way for that matter) as you can't HOH your own subs.

12. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

    #12

    
    I think Strolen means signaling one of your own sub that's ready for revote. You can't do this currently thru the HOH system (or in any other way for that matter) as you can't HOH your own subs.
    

    
    
    Yes, I know what you mean. By having this new feature we wouldn't have to hope for someone else to HoH it/ask for it in order to get it the attention it might deserve.
    
    I recently came across one of Scras' submissions that was submitted last year, and had 0 votes on it. Not even a single comment.

13. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

    #13

    I'm happy to see everyone's positive responses so far, I didn't have high hopes at first, but maybe this could be a reality.  :D
    
    Dossta, I don't really understand how your suggestion would work. But it sounded good, I'm fine with any method that would give us all more exposure for our subs.

14. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

    #14

    Here's a link that outlines the process Scrib uses (on their own FAQ page): http://www.scribophile.com/help/spotlightfaq.php
    
    Just keep in mind that there are multiple works in each spotlight -- 20 or so in the main, 10 or so in each of the others -- so you always have something to read/comment on.
    
    Advantages:
    1) Everyone is guaranteed at least 3 "good" comments/votes on their work.  A sub cannot leave the spotlight on the font page until it has received them.
    2) We get to control exactly how many subs are on the main page at all times, so it never gets overly long.
    
    Disadvantages:
    1) Your work might get more *time* on the front page with the 7-day system (but it still might not get any votes).
    
    I do really like your idea of just listing the subs by name, with a hover-over function to reveal the summary.  That would help either of these solutions stay more compact, and allow us to fit more subs up on the front page every day.  Either way, I really would like a redesign of the front page to address your concerns, so thank you for starting this thread!

15. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

    #15

    There are some good ideas at that site.
    
    I will bookmark it and possibly absorb some of those ideas into the collective.

16. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

    #16

    There's some crappy stuff too (like scrib's tendency to lock a sub after it leaves a spotlight, and requiring people to pay if they want to post more than two works at a time).  The Citadel is still the best place to post ideas and concepts, and it has a better community too, imo.

17. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

    #17

    Simply because I am to lazy to track down another post I will simply hijack this.
    
    Any way we can remove the award spam from the new post section? It has literally kicked nearly everything off the front page.

18. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

    #18

    ^this

19. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

    #19

    Where is the award spam? I don't get that one...

20. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

    #20

    I think they mean Recent Activity.  I'd personally like to have a 'load more' button for those too.
    
    
    Booboo has achieved the Broken Sticks Guild
    Booboo has achieved the Lollipop Guild
    Booboo has achieved the other random guild
    ...
    
    

21. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

    #21

    All I did was label the days on the frontpage and made it 10 days of submissions. That matches with the HoH limit so once it falls off the frontpage, you are able to HoH it.
    
    Only issue I see is if we have a slow week or two so will need to default it to a minimum of 10 submissions if we didn't get that many over the timeframe. Will figure that out when it becomes an issue.
    
    Doing some bug hunting but I still want to figure out how to put the ideas in there somewhere.

22. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

    #22

    Strolen, you don't have ten days of subs on the front page. You've got eleven.

23. Re: Suggestion: A new format for the frontpage

    #23

    :)
    
    Fixed the "11" to "10". Was having issues getting the last full day but figured it out and didn't update the request. Silly numbers. Thanks!

Rise of the Strolenati-Ideas/Suggestions · All categories · Guildhall