Poll: Future LinkSwarm Features
I've been hellish busy at work lately, which has had the unforeseen effect of discouraging me from working on work projects at home, meaning I have of late been without a compelling at-home adventure project. This coincides with a critical-mass peak in self-loathing at the realization that it's been way too long since I started talking about LS 2.0, so I've been trying to pick that back up and start figuring out where I want to go with it.
Pre-2.0, which is going to be a fukload of work and will certainly take me a while, I'd like to bring alpha queue reject reasons back for everybody, only done right this time. I already have this mostly completed apart from niceties -- such as testing -- and in a perfect world would be rolling it out today or tomorrow.
What would you like to see in the future?
We already have a thread around with feature requests that had a lot of good ideas and generated lots of "2.0" promises from myself (which I can't find immediately... anybody?) but let's have another.
In particular, I've been thinking about a couple things that may be good ideas but may not be a good fit for our crowd. That's where you come in.
1) MySpace-style homepages. I know, I know. It chills my fuking guts. MySpace is a wasteland of navel-gazing idiocy. Having said that -- having felt it vibrate like a spear in my vitals -- it's something that a lot of people would probably love, and it's probably possible to have it without letting it get intensely meep. You'd be able to make your user account page look the way you want, and the clipswarm would evolve into a larger mini-linkswarm of your own, with pictures and links to your favorite sites and meep on it. Maybe even user comments. Tell me how you feel about that.
2) Right now, the front page is a reverse chronological list of all links. In this brave new web too oh world, some of the better sites list by popularity instead; that is, you see the most popular stuff on that site in descending order. Flurl has a good representation of what I'm talking about. Del.icio.us's popular page is another, and there are plenty more examples I could link to. This would be the default view. You'd still have controls on the page to sort by reverse chronology if you wanted the old style, of course, but everyone with an account would be able to vote on links and drive them to the top of the default view. I've just started thinking about this and haven't worked through all the ramifications, but it would basically mean anyone checking out LS would see the best stuff we've put up over the last hour/day/whatever.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Pictures of fat women?




Jan21 '07
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Something like 'Stumble- that would randomly display links from clipswarms. There's a lot of gold to be found there. I like the idea of personalized account pages it would be interesting to see what people do with them.
Jan21 '07
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A swarmified MySpace? hmm...provacative.
Other suggestions:
I guess those we move like "enhancements" than they are "features". . . will mull it over some more.
Jan21 '07
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Yeah, but people are idiots.
Can you write a script that forces the "most-viewed" links to move up the page? That would prevent people from ganging up on links.
Jan21 '07
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Glad to help this thread.
Jan21 '07
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Yes on fat girls and homepage's.
Jan21 '07
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NUMBAH WON! The abiity to preview comments before posting them.
NUMBAH DEUX The link in Forum meepe goes to that last post, rather than the first
NUMBAH FWEEE cil whitey
Jan21 '07
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Can we get a libertarian filter?
Jan21 '07
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it would be interesting to have that link popularity concect affect a person's rad factor. High popularity = bonus rads.
and I still think a chess/poker room would be grand.
Jan21 '07
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I second LOki's request for the ability to preview comments prior to posting.
I would also like to see the LS login moved up to the top. It seems to be creeping further down the page.
A spin-off of guitar_jon's idea of link popularity affecting the rad factor would be to have a link's popularity affect a swarmer's bitterness rating. Currently, there is no way to 'heal' a poor bitterness rating even after a swarmer has learned what is and what is not swarm worthy.
Maybe have an age based scale where after a year, a rejected link rolls off the books and the bitterness rating is improved.
Jan21 '07
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+1 vote for myspace style profile pages. Specifically the ability to add your own links and have comments. Perhaps instead of having links submitted to the front page, you combine this with your other idea and make the front page of LS show the most popular (clicked) links from people's profile pages?
Also, I'd like to have the ability to clipswarm journal posts/link comments/forum posts.
Edit: also, if you're going to enhance the profile pages, how about giving subdomains to alpha members? so lefen.linkswarm.com would bring up my SwarmSpace page.
On 2007-01-21 at 15:30:51, Lefen pooped back and forth... forever
Jan22 '07
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Comment previews, text search... all this stuff is obligatory. That is, it's considered standard in any non-meephat engine. Small stuff. Think big, meepgots.
Now that's a nifty idea. Would it make this idea redundant if your user page were available at http://www.linkswarm.com/lefen?
Jan22 '07
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1) I feel like some customizing is cool for the user profiles, but I'd vote against myspace-style setup. That said, you could make the option available and I wouldn't use it and I'd probably be about as happy.
2) Sure.
Also agree with comment previews/moving the login to a viewable location-I think its usually buried under our pron advertising.
I'm somewhat frustrated with the rejected links. Most of them have zero worth and I'd like to not see them at all. Possible to have a separate "reject swarm"? I'm aware I can just logout-I'm lazy. Cannot think bigger than this at the moment-get back to you.
On 2007-01-22 at 10:54:17, acheron pooped back and forth... forever
Jan22 '07
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I wish there was a better IRC interface tied to the main page, there is a ton of funny meep that happens there that most of you meepgots are missing.
Something like this.
Jan22 '07
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AJAX, baby!
Jan22 '07
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Yeah, either way is good. It occurred to me that if you gave people the ability to make their own mini profile-swarm then people might start promoting the direct url (ls.com/username) around the internet a bit (like in personal info on other sites), so it'd help drive traffic to linkswarm and give a sense of ownership.
Jan22 '07
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I like the idea of a 'reject swarm' with rejected links on a different page.
LK's IRC interface would be great. If automatic log-in was part of it, then I think that the IRC would get a lot more use, by a lot more swarmers.
Changing the link order to reflect the most-clicked links would only perpetuate their popularity, and push the rest even further down the page. Not such a good idea.
For those of us with young families and stealth-kids, maybe a 'porn-swarm' page would be possible. This would remove the problem of accidentally clicking a dodgey link at the wrong time. ( It might also see more good porn links).
Jan22 '07
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werdz lefen.
I would choose not to participate in the personal pages. Get active in the swarm and get to know people or get a myspace, yahoo other personal webpage. Maybe a link to personal webpages for those who choose to have one?
Jan23 '07
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I'd like to see an opinion/editorial category. Perhaps new members should acquire a set number of rads before they can post in the forums. It might head off the occasional tidal wave of meep that hits from time to time.
Jan23 '07
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I'd like to see an MY meep IS RIPPING
Jan23 '07
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^ A good illustration of my point.
Jan23 '07
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Text Wars should have the ability to have you transported, Star Trek style, to visit someone else for the purpose of kicking their meep.
Jan23 '07
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^ For a mere pittance, emailed to Vas, you can exact a likewise revenge.
Jan23 '07
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Let's stay on track, meepgots. My meep is ripping.
That's sort of the tragedy of humanity, though. You're always going to have the mushy human factor whereby people gang up, pile on, and vote how their friends voted.
Most-viewed would not necessarily correspond directly to most-liked. If people subsequently downvoted the stuff at the top, it would float back down to the bottom. As long as people voted, and voted accurately, any anomalous meepgot votes should get drowned out by the consensus.
Jan23 '07
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I think it would be nifty to be able to view a list of links submitted under their respective catagories.
fuk, never mind
<------ idiot
On 2007-01-23 at 10:19:10, ghostrider pooped back and forth... forever
Jan23 '07
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sorting on votes/views/random, etc. and filtering on rejects, etc. seems fairly straightforward.
myspace-style user pages? jesus meeping christ, people.
that's all for now.
Jan23 '07
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I had the same idea a while back. I called it 'Pinkswarm'.
And as far as the myspace-style debacle goes - perhaps refering to it as mypsace-style is a bad idea. I like the concept and I think it could do great things for the site in ways of organization and traffic. However, people automatically poo-poo it because you group it with myspace. A lot of other places use a similar style user page, and if sculpted with linkswarm hands, this could be a great thing.
I also think a better irc interface would be nice, but the potential increase in traffic leads me to think that more channels would be necessary - I like #megarad the way it is :<. I like how other sites use an irc pop-up applet, and incorporating an auto-login (ls username auto-logs as irc username) would be meep-on-toast.
Another idea is for customizable LS themes, allowing people to chose one of several layouts, and then a menu where they can plug in codes to customize the colors of the background, links, clicked links, text size, etc.
that is all for now.
On 2007-01-23 at 12:36:02, guitarjon123 pooped back and forth... forever
Jan23 '07
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In the style of trying to "Think Big" here is one quick thought and something I have been looking to have done rihgt in a site and just haven't been satisfied.
I would love to see...
A) Some allotted Secure Storage Space for alphas. Be able to mark folders public, private or share with certain members.... For File Sharing/ Collaboration on Projects/Written Works etc...
B) Don't know if this is possible, but goes along with the IRC, is Online Collaboration tools. for people who want to chat and log ideas and what not.
C) I do like the thought of a personal Linkswarm... Not the MySpace type of personal page... But more... MyInterweb Portal...
Say I want LS to be my one stop Interweb Shop... I can open and close sections i.e. Journal/Forums/ Links... Using those cool open/closed ">>" or "^" meepons we are starting to see, which dynamically free up space on your meep...
THis way... If I want my daily routing to be Linked in my own section I can have that...
CNN Daily Show Whatever
....
D) How a bout this?? You guys ever at work... and really want to go to that site?? You know?? The one with the boobies? Or the One with that vid that looks just a little NSFW?
What about a way to mark the page to be pulled into a portal of somesort, so that you can see it without having to visit meepinyourmomsass.com while at work?
E) Along the same lines...Though this is more cosmetic... I love the # Site where all the IRC links go... It would rock if there could be a switch to turn the thumbnail images to full size without having to click them and go to said NSFW site?
Whew... I shall keep trying to think of giant changes.... C'mon folks....
Jan24 '07
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I'd like to preview my journal entries before submission.
I'd like an easy way to reference other swarmers, submissions, journal entries, forums and such in comments to links and in other areas of the site.
I'd like some sort of window to the rest of the web feature where we can compare what we're talking about to what similar (and meeptier) sites are discussing.
I'd like my radfactor to be affected positively when a link gets a bazillion hits or a meepload of comments.
I would like to see the swarm accept YouTube and similar sites by adding some sort of video-only repository that works more efficiently than a journal or forum devoted to YouTube entires.
I would like to see a Rotten Library/Wikipedia type addition to the Swarm where we all contribute to the edification of our audience by explaining things in a particularly LS fashion.
I like the personal pages upgrade idea as long as it serves as an extension of our Swarm identities and doesn't become narcissistic donkey meepma. I'd love to drop a bevy of photos, personal videos, likes and dislikes and so on into it. But, the social networking is already taking place on the higher level of the site's forums and comments - y,know?
I'd like some way to contact everyone here at once, or to contact a specific group of people (like just the Alphas) at once. If this already exists, forgive me.
I'd like some sort of aggregator that allows me to choose how I view the links on the main page. By most comments, by those submitted by alphas, by those submitted by a specific person and so on.
On 2007-01-24 at 12:06:06, Lownotes pooped back and forth... forever
Jan24 '07
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That wouldn't really be fair (not that it matters) as some links stay in the number one spot for awhile due to topicality, interest, etc.
Jan24 '07
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Perhaps links with a lot of hits or comments would go into a pool, then once a week the alphas vote for best link of the week or something like that. Just a thought. The submitter gets a small radfactor bonus. The same happens at the end of the year with a slightly higher bonus. Those links all go into a hall of fame.
Also, the rejection bitterness rating should wipe clean each year. You would have two ratings - total and this year.
On 2007-01-24 at 12:10:44, Lownotes pooped back and forth... forever
Jan24 '07
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Worth thinking about. Not sure how to implement it. Plenty of lurkers hit us up for porn, and requiring opt-in would kill that. Easiest way might be a user preference allowing you to opt out.
Also not a bad idea, and frees me somewhat from the constant background anxiety that the inevitable decisions I have to make about presentation are going right up someone's meep. On the other hand, quite possibly fated to be misunderstood, under-used, and potentially a vector for self-meeping-over in the hands of the less-than-diligent. ("Hey, let's set background black, and text black, and links black. Cool. Why can't I see anything? How do I shut this off? Let me PM someone for help. Wait, can't see links either. Uh...")
Good. Feasible. Likely.
Good but not likely -- more-focused tools exist elsewhere.
All over it already. Pulling in RSS feeds also in the works.
Not really possible without running some sort of caching service. If we were to just embed links, you'd still be making direct requests to the NSFW site. Unless the folks monitoring your Internet usage are morons, they're looking at all your requests -- not just the URLs you type into the location bar.I like this one because 99 out of 100 people reading it have no idea what you're talking about. :) The lolserver, as your irredeemably insouciant cousin christened it, isn't really part of the Swarm and while definitely not private, I haven't broadcasted its existence, either -- and still amn't, for reasons currently uncomprehended even by myself.
Preview is de rigeur; expect it everywhere. It'll happen. Everyone can basically stop mentioning it retro-actively into 2001 and you'll still get it whether you like it or not.
How do you mean?
How do you mean? Like those little trackback sections blogs usually have?
Great and completely desireable idea where everybody wins. Possibly difficult to pull off. Rebuilding the radfactor is going to be one of the more mystery-laden bits of the rewrite; I'll see if I can make it smarter than it currently is.
It accepts them now. (?) If you mean the high reject rate of video submissions, that would be because the vast majority of them have a really negative reward-to-suck ratio. If you mean the literal inability to submit such sites... there are a couple viral-video sites currently being blocked, but it's due to over-aggressive spamming by their owners/marketers, not content. That spamminess is part of the reason for the bad happiness quotient. Since videos are The Current Next Big Thing, everyone and their flamingo is putting up a generic youtube-style site, downloading all the videos they can get their hands on, and then flogging the URL so they can strike it rich. If I had somehow foreseen the bewildering millions being made in this arena, I would have lived a second life being one of those persons. Since I didn't, they can all go meep themselves.
If we could somehow get a stream of decent-enough video content, I'd be open to having, say, videos.linkswarm.com so all of you wierd meeps that desire your Internet experience be studded with frequent motion pictures could rededicate yourselves to a Swarm version thereof.
Sounds like a labor of love, and something I've been wanting to do since forever. Personally, I've been basically devoid of more right-brain activity since I threw myself into more full-time development, but I could always redouble my drinking efforts and see what I could get started.
I've tried a few mailing lists but they go largely unused. There could be a group-PM function. There will also possibly be an Alpha-only forum.
EDIT: CRABS
On 2007-01-24 at 12:25:13, vasudeva pooped back and forth... forever
Jan24 '07
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it would be nifty to have an easy way to find forum and journal threads. I hate not being able to quickly find that great journal from a couple of months ago because it isn't on the "journal meepe" list anymore and I can't remember the title of it or who authored it. Not sure how to accomplish that, but Lefen's idea is a partial solution:
Perhaps a link to a "journal meepe" and "forum meepe" page that has a much longer history than ten links for each. The lists could still be in reverse chronological order, maybe with controls to sort them some other way.
I would like to extend this to a general "nsfw" page, but there should be a feature that publicly flogs submitters for not marking nsfw links as such: "(User x) rapes kittens without astroglide" or some such message at the bottom of the front page.
i like this idea, but with exceptions for special cases like blackjesus or franz
How about an option to mark journals "for alpha eyes only?" Hopefully people wouldn't overuse it; a quota per user could be implememted.
I propose a list of the best of classic very best of meepedup-funnay-evil-gross-cool etc meepe that has ever been submitted, sort of an Official Linkswarm Clipswarm. Everyone, or probably just alphas and betas, could submit their favorite past links for consideration for inclusion on the list. It could possibly a link added to the "swarm" drop down list at the top of the page, giving the list it's own page. The list would obvioulsy be limited in size or what would be the point.
Jan24 '07
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Being part of the disenfranchised 99, I am wanting this broadcast, at least to me...
Jan24 '07
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I think some sort of interswarmer commerce section might be cool, as long at it doesn't turn into something ugly maybe an "honor system" auction format or some meep.
I'd also like a little playpen/purgatory for retards, with option of making good and unretardeding themselves.
I've said this before, and pledged involvement (and subsequently meeped off with) a weekly/biweekly/monthly swarmer article section that is largely topical. I'd love to hear this week in molecular physics, with FRANS, or IOWA WATCH, with meepninja, or Lownotes' poorly engineered personal hygene applicators of the month. (you get my drift)
Jan24 '07
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That's actually a cool idea that we should have thought of years ago.
Even better, we can get started on this today, if you guys are of a mind. The best way to vote I can think of is to go make a comment with the words 'clipswarm' and any form of the word 'vote' in the link's comment page. E.g...
or
Just make sure the words "vot" ("vote", "voted", "voting", etc) and "clipswarm" are in there. In a few weeks I'll query out everybody's votes in a new thread, tally up the winning links, and I'll use that as the default clipswarm instead of the stupid random thing people see now. Maybe we can so something else cool with it, too.
Freakmachine, this is your idea -- why don't you start the thread with your post and my post in it and see if we can get it started? In fact, I'll hand out an HTML snippet you can post when voting that will link back to the thread so a year from now we know what the meep we were talking about.
Jan24 '07
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Sweet, I'll do it tonight after work.
It would be nifty to have the user name above the avatar pic in forum threads be a link to that users account so as to easily send them a pm or something, rather than having to look them up in the memberlist.
Jan24 '07
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Oh duh. This is done, as it should have been about 4 years ago.
Hurry up with that thread, meeples. I want to get this show on the road.
Jan24 '07
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The lolserver, as your irredeemably insouciant cousin christened it, isn't really part of the Swarm and while definitely not private, I haven't broadcasted its existence, either -- and still amn't, for reasons currently uncomprehended even by myself.
I was not aware that cat was in a bag...oops...
Another thought I would love to see... and I know this makes me look like an interweb retard.... but I'll go ahead and embrace my retardedness in LKs purgatory... oh look... a spider...
anyhoo... whenever I'm writing a comment I see these awesome smiley dudes I have the choise of using up there!
But what I would love to see is the ability to highlight a portion of my text within the comment box, then click from a selection over on the right like...
I'm sure this would help a lot of newbs and "forever newbs" like me, be less iritating.....
Oh and while we are on the comment section... Spell Check??
Jan24 '07
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how about breaking the front page into two sections of swarmed links. One for articles and one for videos?
Jan25 '07
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I didn't read this entire thread, so if I repeat someone's idea, oops.
Vas, you talked about the Myspace thing being meep and whatnot - and you're right Myspace IS meep. But, everyone has an account. The reason it's lame is because the users, the music, the graphics, the home pages, the unicorns - it's a hodgepodge of emo assrape.
User profiles, pics and bio's are not new, and Myspace certainly didn't create the idea, they just found their nitch (teenieboppers) and it exploded. I think all the things that are wrong with Myspace could easily be avoided in an LS version. Also, having an account page within LS would be different because everyone knows eachother and 50% of the peeps here are interesting, maybe 60. Anyway, in my opinion, I think this site has the right members to make something of that magnitude worth it for everyone. Even if the Alpha's were the only accounts to get em'. I bet you'd see a lot more revenue, and how can you complain about that?
It would be interesting to have a featured "member" banner that rotates on the site somewhere (sort of like the quotes at the bottom), linking to their member page. This way, when you log into LS, a new Member banner, linking to their account page/bio can be viewed. Macjams.com does this and it's really badass. I know there are a lot of interesting members here that I know nothing about and this would give me a chance to get to know them. User created banners would be interesting.
As far as links, on BD, I find it works great to have the front page in order by date, and the category pages, or archives if you will, by ratings. Another words, I want to see what new meep came out for the day, but when hitting the archives, I want to see the most viewed, or popular. If it's days old, who cares about the date it was released.
Seeing rejected links within the approved links irritates the life out of me. Especially when a link was approved and it's rejected repeat is directly under it. I would love to see a seperate area for rejected links, because some are good - it's just messy when they are combined.
Lastly, this place needs a new look and I want to help.