After Laughter (Comes Tears)
posted by max on June 12, 2007 at 06:45:13 PM
I've always felt that YTMND should focus more on the content being produced than the users that produce the content itself.
Back in 2004 a lot of the content on the front page included links to a user's profile and at some point in time this stopped.
While the site's identity continues to grow, there isn't much of an outlet for users to gain an identity beyond their sites.
With suggestions and help from others I've created a beta version of a new scoring system that will privately rank users based on a number of criteria. This can then be used to give users who create great content more exposure, as well as being used as a method of highlighting content that will most likely be generally well received. Obviously the algorithm will be tweaked over the next few weeks but I hope to make it a useful part of the site. I don't want to turn this into a popularity contest, so for the time being I have no plans of publishing a list of users with associated scores.
Another upcoming change is the Hall-of-Fame, which will see a total re-haul. The Hall-of-Fame has not reflected the true spirit of YTMND and has been used as a repository of sorts. A lot of the items that don't belong will be removed and a lot that do belong will be added.
With suggestions and help from others I've created a beta version of a new scoring system that will privately rank users based on a number of criteria. This can then be used to give users who create great content more exposure, as well as being used as a method of highlighting content that will most likely be generally well received. Obviously the algorithm will be tweaked over the next few weeks but I hope to make it a useful part of the site. I don't want to turn this into a popularity contest, so for the time being I have no plans of publishing a list of users with associated scores.
Another upcoming change is the Hall-of-Fame, which will see a total re-haul. The Hall-of-Fame has not reflected the true spirit of YTMND and has been used as a repository of sorts. A lot of the items that don't belong will be removed and a lot that do belong will be added.
Add a comment
For some reason I'm more excited about the Hall of Fame shakeup than the Featured Users announcement, since I know I'll never make such a prestigious position. Boil 'Em, The Internet is for Porn, and Hillary Duff is a Nazi! are way outdated and don't feel right in today's Hall, especially since they haven't really started any fads.
Max, does your algorithm for rating users take into account the fact that everybody except for you votes 1 or 5 almost every time? I was working on a statistical model for users' voting habits (just for fun, and based only on the voting histogram, which has since been replaced by a Flash pie chart [boo!]---you *do* have access to more information than we do), but it's been on the back burner for a few weeks. I was wondering if that's the kind of voter you want to favor. Oh, and have fun in Baton Rouge.
i'm not trying to be a hater here, but after witnessing the trainwreck that's happened thus far tonight it might be a good idea to make votes on all deleted sites permanent, or at least decay over time, so there will be some consequence to making intentionally sh*tty sites that are just going to be deleted in a day or two anyway when the creators want to salvage their vote score
One issue with music on the frontpage is that a lot of people like myself use "open new window" to let YTMNDs load while looking at others to get the whole "rapid fire YTMND whilst dodging sh*t" experience, which you can nolonger do because the music on the front page still plays. It's nice and all, but at the very least add an option to turn it off.
Wow, this post made me actually realize how little my contribution counts as a user. Lack of moderation and no weighted voting paired with making certain people "super-users" really makes me feel worthless. Here I was with well over 10k votes and comments on most of those, feeling like I was helping this site somewhat, but in the scheme of the site it really doesn't matter. Excuse me while I go lose interest in participating...
To me it looks like some people are abusing the featured status to post... How to say it diplomatically. Got it - crap sites. If the goal is to highlight the good content, I'd rather just have the links to their profiles so I can see those good sites they have made in the past and not the crap some are posting currently just because it will be seen regardless of votes. I couldn't care less about a colour in usernames, but that featured user's sites box could be put to better use.
I fullheartedly agree with this. This whole featured profile thing is a pretty lame idea. I'll admit, some of the users have made good sites in the past. However, the majority of the sites I have been seeing on that list over the last couple days have been subpar. Who cares about these "featured" users anyways? I could care less who makes a site. What really matters is the site itself. We are putting these "featured users" on a pedestal. That is sad to me.
THIS DOES NOT CREATE A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR NEWLY CREATED SITES.
This feature creates a lot of issues. having the featured artists newest sites on the frontpage gives them more views not because their site deserves it but because of their featured status, this means that their sites are more likely to knock off other sites from the up and coming by us lowly "normal" users because of the extra exposure of the chosen few and because of the approved user status.
for example, if a normal user and a featured user post the same site. the featured user will get more exposure and with the featured user status giving them the tacit support of max; they will be more likely to score higher. this is even though they are the same site. This reinforces the names and reputations of the few at the expense of the funny
what you should do is; keep the pink names but take the "featured artists most recently created section" off the front page and make a seperate page for featured artists with various sections such as random featured artist, newly created and maybe a profile or interview on an artist written by someone else looking into a chosen selection of their work. like a real art gallery would do, maybe talking to the artist about their work and the history behind it and their inspirations.
It's unfortunate to exclude the few that do submit good sites, but the majority of WoW, Everquest, etc. game addicts fall within that age group. I'd guess it's also the average age for fans of ebaumsworld, and the people who spammed HTPAT, as well as the habbo hotel raids. I first heard about YTMND in 2004 on a forum comprised mostly of members in their young 20s. I think the site started with mostly adults but slowly has been dominated by preteen & teen population overtime.
Although I jumped on the whole Lazy Town fad because it’s a favourite hangover cure for me, but once something becomes popular there is nothing but variants and slightly alternative manifestations of an original idea someone came up with around six months ago still around.
If you actually prevented people from making ytmnds revolving around the Lolita relationship between Sportacus and Stephanie, Transformers, Carl and Lenny, Bill Cosby, Super Mario, Solid Snake.
Originality? IDK.
I agree, too. Keep the featured user list, but get rid of the pink because it's turning into a big downvoting target. I know there is still some tweeking to do on that list because ollj, cac0, texaggie79, and a few other have no business to be on the list. I like the idea of a featured site section. I think it would be better if the sites had a rating threshold (maybe above 3.5 or 3.75) and keep sites made within 72 hours off the list.
It's kind of redundant to have the same sites on the featured list, U&C, and top viewed at the same time. Also, you mentioned tweeking the HoF. Maybe add a "Hall of Shame". A place where heavily linked, bad sites like HTPAT and linked WoW sites can be placed so they don't stay on the "top viewed" list for months or weeks on end.
I like these ideas. Instead of recent sites, and instead of random sites, the featured section could have sites that are over 4.00 stars and over 72 hours old, by those users. How often certain users are on the front page can be determined by that algorithmic scoring system max came up with. (whatever it is)
I think I agree with gr33nscr33n's 2nd comment.. but that would be a lot of responsibility for the selected users to take on. I mean, you wouldn't want the section to turn into another "Moderator Favorites". The thing is, sites are usually favorited for personal reasons, and would not necessarily be rated well by the general ytmnd populace.
In regards to gr33n's idea, I almost think there should be an anonymous poll where all users can submit one user name they'd like to be a representative for the featured category. (no self-voting though) The result? I don't know, maybe a lot of the same names would turn up.. it's always a popularity contest. The main difference is that you'd get more variety probably. Inkdrinker and others with low rated sites would show up, for example.