Suggestion List of members with the most positive comments

[pauldw]

It seems like looking at the ratio of good reaction scores to total posts (and screening out people with only a few posts since there wouldn’t be much statistical relevance in those cases) would create a decent metric showing how helpful any given member’s posts were seen by the community. Of course, one can just look at any given person’s two numbers and calculate it. But that’s a person by person thing. It might be interesting to have a list somewhere on the site listing perhaps the hundred most positive ratios, as that might make it easy to go through those people’s posts and see interesting things we might’ve missed. On the other hand, if such a list would just create bad feelings, it might not be worth it.

 

[Wookie]

where do you find how many followrers they have or in fact how is following?

I have no idea how to see who is following me. I see who I am following by clicking on my name.

 

[RIHappyDiver]

Well, I had to look. Two on my list are no longer living.... now I'm depressed

That’s ok. I only had 2 followers, and neither have been on for at least a year. Conclusion, if you want to get someone to leave SB, have them follow me.

 

[RIHappyDiver]

where do you find how many followrers they have or in fact how is following?

Click on your avatar and then click on your name. Scroll down till you see “About”, then click it. Scroll down and, voilà, there are the lists. Or list if you aren’t following anyone or if no one is following you. OR, no list if you are neither following or being followed. Sad.
Oh, I guess that’s technically me now.

 

[Wibble]

I thought it was already a given to ignore the Pub.

What’s the pub? Never seen it

 

[Wibble]

FYI: Others can see who you follow and who follows you, but can't see who you ignore.

Follow??? As in ooh, it’s the messiah, or baaa baaa black sheep?

This isn’t faecesbook. The point of a specialist forum is to discuss topics closely related to the subject matter, scuba diving.

ScubaBoard is the last remaining significant forum on scuba diving; all the rest have been beaten into disuse or closure by the useless ephemeral faecesbook platform who's ONLY raison d'etre is to chase eyeballs and "reactions" in order to drive revenues from stupid advertisers. ScubaBoard is an amazing resource for the diving community and is a searchable, open resource that's easy to use. The self-moderating aspects of people being able to post critisim of others, especially pompous self-promoting "hyper-experts", makes the content more valuable.

To constantly chase "likes" and other reactions means people's behaviour will be altered, to the detriment of the community.

One of the great features of ScubaBoard is there's few obvious cliques. Many of the other forums -- and former forums -- were riven with tribalism almost tantamount to bullying. Sure, there's genuine attacks on people who post BS or who's postings are constantly negative or deprecating; having a large community tends to identify those people quite quickly, or certainly differentiate "trolls" from people having a bad day.

The concept of changing post visibility or order according to some popular plebiscite is doomed when discussing technical matters.


The recent update to Xenforo v2 made a massive difference in usability and reliability. ScubaBoard is now the largest forum by usage and probably content. It's well moderated -- fairly light touch -- and has decent ethics and protocols. Long may it continue.

 

[rhwestfall]

Yep, you haven't been in the pub...

 

[Scraps]

After reading this thread and agreeing with a lot of the comments about the problems and biases inherent in the various ranking methods suggested, I re-read the OP.

The purpose of @pauldw's suggestion was to identify members of the board whose contributions were adjudged most helpful by the rest of the community. It seems to me that he has a worthwhile purpose.

There are ways to accomplish that purpose that don't involve counting.

For example, we could have a thread in which members 1) identify other members of the community--whether they follow them or not--whose contributions they find helpful, useful, informative, amusing, or otherwise worth reading, and 2) explain why.

I'd probably have a dozen or more on my list, and my reasons for including them would be varied. Some come across as excellent teachers I'd like to emulate. Some, like our physicians, have particular expertise that can answer specific questions and prevent uninformed speculation on broader issues. Some bring perspectives I'm not otherwise likely to encounter. Some consistently have well-written posts. Some are amusing. Some seem like people whose company I enjoy.

It would be nice if our lists weren't frozen in time and we were allowed to update them from time to time as we become more appreciative of other contributors.

A contributor who shows up on several people's lists for plausible reasons might be someone whose posts deserve careful reading.

 

[Akimbo]

For example, we could have a thread in which members 1) identify other members of the community--whether they follow them or not--whose contributions they find helpful, useful, informative, amusing, or otherwise worth reading, and 2) explain why.

That echoes my thinking. Let our member's opinions do what computer databases can't. We can start in the Member's Picks forum.

Suggestions​

1. I recommend one thread for each member that someone wants to point out. One thread for everyone will result in discussions and comments getting confused and harder for other readers (members and guest) to keep it all straight.
2. Over time, duplicates are inevitable. Moderators have tools to merge duplicate threads into the original first for that member.
3. Format: I also believe that a common format for the OP would be valuable to readers. We can experiment and critique that format here before launching but your suggestion is a good start.
4. We can add a "most helpful members" forum (actual name to be determined) if/when a large enough number of threads are added to justify it.
5. We could add Title Prefix flags if it makes these posts easer to find in different thread views.

Suggested Thread Format​

Thread Title: {member name:} {Optional brief comment}
Title Prefix Flag: Notable, Helpful, Kudos, ??? It should be short

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We have a first draft already:​

TSandM -- Her Greatest Posts

One way to honor our friend might be to gather together some of her most memorable posts. Some of them are funny, most are informative, and some, in retrospect, are heartbreaking. Lynne Flaherty may indeed be lost to us, but we can keep her with us in spirit: She lives on in her writings...

scubaboard.com

I would like to see actual links to her posts so readers can drill down. It is really easy with ScubaBoard's new unfurled links, example below:

FAQ - Unfurled links in ScubaBoard posts

Unfurled links in ScubaBoard posts This is one of my favorite new features in ScubaBoard 2021. Unfurling simplifies including links to other posts in ScubaBoard or any publicly accessible site on the Web. What is an unfurled link? Here is one inside ScubaBoard...

scubaboard.com