I feel like a lot of potential is lost if we don’t encourage asking questions and making smaller contributions (like on fb and the open thread) on the forum. I do understand that these kinds of posts don’t fit into the main section of the forum. But what’s the reasoning behind not having any subforums? I often think of issues I would post in subforums of this site, which I wouldn’t bring up facebook (because 100s or 1000s will read it) and that doesn’t fit into Main.
An open thread is a nice step in the right direction. It does have significant disadvantages to subforum(s) though in my estimation:
No headlines for posts, so it’s not scanable
You have to see the full post rather than the headline only
It’s not that visible and the headline “open thread” doesn’t really intrigue me as much as other posts.
Also, I feel like topic-specific subforums would generally lower the barrier for people to post something. I guess I have this intuition because the posts won’t be seen by (as many) people who are not interested in your post’s topic.
Good suggestion! This would solve the headline issue, though the issue that you don’t have a list of simply headlines in front of you would still be unsolved.
Perhaps there’s an easy way of having the headlines of all the comments appear in the OP of the open thread? The person that opens the thread could manually add them of course, but that involves work.
I’d also prefer subforums, but split by subject matter rather than level of depth.
I see the main value of them in making it easier for people to navigate old discussions when they’re interested in specific topics (I found this a big problem with LessWrong). Since I think they’re mostly an indexing tool, I’m not sure how this would have a significant effect on critical mass—though I could be wrong on that.
This seems like a good idea. I second the point that they could be easy to navigate. Which means it may become similar to subforum s, but with the advantage that there’s still a place where all posts are listed.
Does anyone know a site that has implemented this in a useful way?
EDIT: To qualify, there’s lots of sites using tags of course. I’m referring a system where you have a ‘reasonably small set of tags’ as Owen suggests and those are very visible. E.g. they are displayed on the main page as the ‘official tags’
Hey Soeren, I agree that retaining small contributions is an important challenge. I also agree that the open threads as they currently stand, probably don’t fully meet that challenge. Since the first open thread was so popular, we could break pieces off it by 1) putting the meatier posts as articles instead of open thread comment or 2) having topic-specific open threads e.g. “Career advice thread”, “Far future discussion thread”. I think it’ sgood to keep thinking about this.
I feel like a lot of potential is lost if we don’t encourage asking questions and making smaller contributions (like on fb and the open thread) on the forum. I do understand that these kinds of posts don’t fit into the main section of the forum. But what’s the reasoning behind not having any subforums? I often think of issues I would post in subforums of this site, which I wouldn’t bring up facebook (because 100s or 1000s will read it) and that doesn’t fit into Main.
An open thread is a nice step in the right direction. It does have significant disadvantages to subforum(s) though in my estimation:
No headlines for posts, so it’s not scanable
You have to see the full post rather than the headline only
It’s not that visible and the headline “open thread” doesn’t really intrigue me as much as other posts.
Also, I feel like topic-specific subforums would generally lower the barrier for people to post something. I guess I have this intuition because the posts won’t be seen by (as many) people who are not interested in your post’s topic.
By now I’ve read Ryan’s comment on subforums (https://www.facebook.com/groups/effective.altruists/permalink/743662675690092/?comment_id=744027525653607&offset=0&total_comments=14). In my estimation the lost potential outweighs the costs, so consider this a vote for subforums (or at least main/discussion). I’m happy to be convinced otherwise though.
[We Could Encourage Headlines in Open Threads]
Like above. Jacy does it.
[Encouragement and qualification ;)]
Good suggestion! This would solve the headline issue, though the issue that you don’t have a list of simply headlines in front of you would still be unsolved.
Perhaps there’s an easy way of having the headlines of all the comments appear in the OP of the open thread? The person that opens the thread could manually add them of course, but that involves work.
I’d also prefer subforums, but split by subject matter rather than level of depth.
I see the main value of them in making it easier for people to navigate old discussions when they’re interested in specific topics (I found this a big problem with LessWrong). Since I think they’re mostly an indexing tool, I’m not sure how this would have a significant effect on critical mass—though I could be wrong on that.
We could also make better use of tags.
Yes, if there were a reasonably small set of tags used consistently, and a way to navigate by them, that would work just as well.
The subforums approach essentially forces that indexing work up-front at the time of posting. Otherwise it’s pretty similar.
This seems like a good idea. I second the point that they could be easy to navigate. Which means it may become similar to subforum s, but with the advantage that there’s still a place where all posts are listed.
Does anyone know a site that has implemented this in a useful way?
EDIT: To qualify, there’s lots of sites using tags of course. I’m referring a system where you have a ‘reasonably small set of tags’ as Owen suggests and those are very visible. E.g. they are displayed on the main page as the ‘official tags’
I think that would be a good feature. Current tags aren’t very useful.
Hey Soeren, I agree that retaining small contributions is an important challenge. I also agree that the open threads as they currently stand, probably don’t fully meet that challenge. Since the first open thread was so popular, we could break pieces off it by 1) putting the meatier posts as articles instead of open thread comment or 2) having topic-specific open threads e.g. “Career advice thread”, “Far future discussion thread”. I think it’ sgood to keep thinking about this.
Regarding subforums, I’ve written more here.