Idea: sort posts in thread by star count

just wanted to pose an idea to the ones who run ATS, often i want to know if there is any important posts in a thread beyond the first page, sometimes threads can reach page count well into the hundreds and i unfortunately just dont have enough time to read every post on every page, but i have noticed the important posts tend to get a fair amount of stars. currently threads already are sorting, by time of post. so it is all in sequence, im wondering if you might implement the option for a member to sort the posts in a thread by star count. this would be a very easy and effective way to see all the most popular posts to a thread in sequence, personally this idea really really excites me, there are countless threads that i have already resigned myself not to bother revisiting, that i would however be very excited to revisit if we had this function.


another idea i wanted to pose was an option to create a polling system during thread creation, we already have members creating polling threads but without an actual function to facilitate it they merely ask people to post their vote and then the posts must be counted, a function which gives an multiple choice field (defined by the OP) that members can select their vote would not only make it easier to cast votes, it would also make it easier to see the results of polls, this would also allow members to cast their votes anonymously rather then having to make their vote a post of its own with their member name attached to it.

i have seen both these functions on other forums/sites already so it is clearly feasible. if ats is not interested in implementing either function i ask why not?

thank you in advance for any informative reply/consideration.

kinda hard to follow a multiperson conversation as it is, be even worse if it was all jumbled up according to "popularity". In long threads, the first twentyfive pages would end up being short sarcastic posts, that wouldn't make a lick of sense without knowing what they were responding to

reply to post by pryingopen3rdeye


The problem is, sometimes a controversial post will receive no stars even though it is much important, and a post which simply agree with the general population's ideologies will receive all the stars in the world, simply because the poster can't think for himself and just agree with everything he sees. Star are not as much an indicator of "quality", they are more of an indicator of "popularity".

I'd personally never use a "posts discrimination by order of stars" feature.

pryingopen3rdeye
just wanted to pose an idea to the ones who run ATS, often i want to know if there is any important posts in a thread beyond the first page, sometimes threads can reach page count well into the hundreds and i unfortunately just dont have enough time to read every post on every page, but i have noticed the important posts tend to get a fair amount of stars. currently threads already are sorting, by time of post. so it is all in sequence, im wondering if you might implement the option for a member to sort the posts in a thread by star count. this would be a very easy and effective way to see all the most popular posts to a thread in sequence, personally this idea really really excites me, there are countless threads that i have already resigned myself not to bother revisiting, that i would however be very excited to revisit if we had this function.

Stars are only about 1/2 the time or less an indication of anything substantial. They can mean everything, nothing and anything.

reply to post by pryingopen3rdeye




Awful idea.... the thread would not flow.

I hear ya, I usually don't end up going past page 4 unless there's something really special going on.

Downside, I have a hard enough time following replies to my own posts already and I know what page my comments on. I can't imagine attempting to do so when posts are being scattered for stars.

I suppose they could add a sort feature, default like it is now but options to sort viewed thread by stars. Although, as said, you're not actually getting the best of the thread as one might expect. Only the most popular.

.....i have noticed the important posts tend to get a fair amount of stars.....

AHAHHAHHAHAHHHAHHHAHH!!

Stop it OP, you are killing me.

reply to post by pryingopen3rdeye


Sorting by stars is not a good idea imo. Picking and choosing like that eliminates the continuity of the thread and makes for lazy membership readers.

If you can't be bothered to live ATS life "warts 'n all" why bother?

Starring a post may not be the same thumbs up opinion of all and reading what goes before and after is better me thinks.

Also...some of our popular members get starred just because they are who they are. Stars for the member and not their words.

Take the time to read and that's how the diamonds in the sand are found.

reply to post by pryingopen3rdeye


Your second idea is a good one. Delphi forums has a poll function. I thought for sure we'd get a polling function with the new design but alas we are still in the dark ages here. But we can choose black or white backgrounds whoopie

Isn't it ironic that you can't star posts in the board business forum ?
2nd

reply to post by pryingopen3rdeye


Whats important to some may not be to others..

Maybe put the one with the most stars first but the rest stay as they were.

Judge not a post by the quantity of stars, but by the quality of it's content... But let's leave it where it is...

reply to post by pryingopen3rdeye


I think it's a great idea.

All the more useful when one is in a hurry or with limited time to read threads.

I'd love to be able to toggle back and forth between highest star rated posts first vs sequential time based listings.

blupblup
reply to post by pryingopen3rdeye

 

Awful idea.... the thread would not flow.

Like taking the pages out of a book and shuffling them before reading, definitely no flow

If bias and partisan ship does not exist then your idea would be great.

Too bad.

It wouldn't be useful for me because well..... I actually don't care about how many stars a post got. (Or flags for a thread) Most stars are on page one anyways. But if it is implemented I would also like to add a feature to hide all stars (& flags) just like we can hide avatars.

Polls were here on ATS a while ago but I don't know where they are now.

I would say if you are going to do anything like this, I would move the high content posts with citations and sources to the front. Generally, a well thought out post with sources won't need a pre and post flow. The point is simply articulated in regards to the OP or a reply. But honestly, I'd leave it as it is.

If I need or want to sort its typically because I'm interested (good or bad) about a particular posters posts. With that you can filter posts in thread and does all I need it to.

reply to post by pryingopen3rdeye


i cant believe how many people are responding saying they wouldn't like a layout like that, nowhere did i state it should be a default layout, i meant it as stated in the op as a sorting OPTION, if you dont want it sorted like that then you would just ignore the option and go on reading the thread as you always have.

but then at least those of us who would enjoy the function would have the OPTION, as it is now we all must stick with the default sorting NO OTHER OPTION.

as for flow, if i were to be reading a thread that was sorted by star count and i saw a post that i was interested in more context i could click the "reply to" quick link to see what post that person is replying to. i could also clearly see the time stamp of the post for context of how far into the thread the post is.

if the person is replying to someone but did so by replying to thread then it is already out of context no matter the sorting function, or do you think all posts and replies to posts are perfectly in sequence? i frequently see people replying to a post that was many pages back, if they dont include in their post who they are replying to then flow is already broken, no matter the sorting.