Message from Yahoo!

Message ID: 389360
Posted By: heimdal31
Posted On: 2006-07-11 09:54:00
Subject: Message from Yahoo!

From another board:

Hello, I am the Project Manager for the new Yahoo Message Boards. I just wanted to let you all know that we will be adding even more new features to the stunning new boards next week:

1) Starting next Monday, all new posts will automatically be translated into Norwegian. Our Yahoo Finance development team decided that users would want this, and since we do not speak directly to users before updating our site, we will assume this is a highly desired feature. The brilliant Stanford Ph.D.'s we hired to update the site thought it would be cool! Due to disk storage issues, we regret that we will no longer be able to offer your posts in English. Please learn Norwegian, and let us know how it goes on our Feedback form! We read every form you send us!

2) As you know, we recently stopped listing stock board posts chronologically, and went to a thread-based system. We feel that stock investors do not need to clearly see the latest posts in chronological order, during the trading day, and our Ph.D. geniuses from Stanford think you would prefer to dig through threads to find old posts on your stocks. More importantly, later this month, we will be removing the dates and times from all posts, and then in September we plan to mix them all up randomly. We hope that you are not inconvenienced by reading 8 year old posts when making investment decisions. Please use the helpful Feedback form to let us know what you think. We read every one!

3) As you may know, in the Beta we switched from a simple and effective system of "recommending" posts with a click, to a more complex one in which you rate posts with stars. Of course, you can only see the number of stars for the first post in a thread, but we feel this is better even if no one ever uses it. Our Ph.D. developers informed us that "complex" equals "better". So next month, we will replace the star system with a new even more complex one, in which you will manually calculate the cube root of how much you like the post on a scale of 3.4 to 11, and then divide by pi. Please let us know what you think on the Feedback form, which next month will only accept entries in Hexadecimal. We read every post. Finally, just to get you excited and build some anticipation, I wanted to let you know that our Ph.D.'s are working on a new feature for 2007. Posts will be automatically scanned for keywords by our cool super-complex search technology, to determine if they would be better suited to a different stock b

Regards,
Yahoo Finance Development Team Manager

Message ID: 389367
Posted By: schmidt3492003
Posted On: 2006-07-11 10:01:00
Subject: better option: downrating?

What with the new rating system on the boards hiding the worst-rated posts I wonder whether it wouldn't be better for us to simply one-star him into oblivion.

Remember, if enough people rate his posts with 1 star, it effectively plonks DDT for everybody!

Message ID: 389444
Posted By: schmidt3492003
Posted On: 2006-07-11 11:31:00
Subject: The New Message Board, Plonks, and You

I'm sounding like a broken record here, folks, so I'll say this one last time and then shut up.

In case you aren't already using it, the new Yahoo message board system is available at:

http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/mb/SCOX

It features Slashdot-style modding. You can rate posts on a scale from 1 to 5, and then decide the minimum threshold to which you want your posts to adhere (the default is to display 2-star and unrated posts, which conveniently whisks those 1-star trolls into the dustbin).

I think that using the new message board and modding DDT into the ground is a much more effective tactic than plonking for the simple reason that it hides DDT from the view of everyone who isn't deliberately looking for him. Better than that, it hides all DDT-started threads on the main listing, so the cowbell is effectively eradicated. Permanently.

The problem is this. If a troll (read: DDT) registers a couple of dummy accounts, he can downrate any posts he wants to be hidden. Without metamoderation, he's free to continue this practice with impunity, and judging from certain recent activity I think he's already started. So it's important for you to mod posts you consider important -- I say give 4 stars to decent posts and 5 to good/great ones. Also, scan every so often with your shields down to 1 star and see if anything's being hidden unfairly.

Let this be your watchphrase and all will be well:

MOD EARLY
MOD OFTEN

Message ID: 389447
Posted By: b29651
Posted On: 2006-07-11 11:33:00
Subject: Re: The New Message Board, Plonks, and

censorship shit
br3n

The texts of these Yahoo Message Board posts have been licensed for copying and distribution by the Yahoo Message Board users "heimdal31", "schmidt3492003", "b29651" under the following license: License: CCL Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike v2.0.