Subject:
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Re: Cleaning up the main homepage
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.admin.general
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Date:
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Thu, 9 Mar 2000 10:35:40 GMT
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Viewed:
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718 times
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In lugnet.admin.general, Todd Lehman writes:
> All,
>
> I've been up most of the night tonight recoding and retesting the code on
> the server which displays lists of messages, in particular the root home
> page <http://www.lugnet.com/>, which gives a top-level overview of current
> activity in the system.
>
> Recent off-topic (non-LEGO) debates in .off-topic.debate and one of the
> .admin groups have really begun to wear on a number of people. (In fact,
> one person left in utter despair this week.) This needs fixing fast, or
> we'll lose more people.
>
> It was always the intention of the homepage to show a quick summary of recent
> activity in the system, but it was never the intention for "icky" stuff to
> choke out the "fun" stuff. In the past, the "icky" stuff was easier to
> ignore, but as we grow, the "icky" stuff tends to stand out more, because
> there are more people around fanning the flames.
>
> Off-topic debates and administravia of certain types also tend to generate a
> lot of rapid replies -- often blizzards of posts. Naturally, these can
> really overwhelm or scare away people who come here to get a break from the
> real world and who just want to enjoy some good old-fashioned LEGO • discussions.
>
> Thus, to lessen the noise levels on the root homepage, the server now "hides"
> messages appearing in the following parts of the newsgroup tree:
>
> lugnet.admin.*
> lugnet.market.auction
> lugnet.market.jambalaya
> lugnet.off-topic.*
I’d argue that the problem with the admin groups is that there is too little
participation on the discussions there by the general LUGNet masses. Debates
tend to be dominated, normally, by the “usual suspects”. Anything which
exacerbates this, in my opinion, is not necessarily a good thing. If the
contents of the posts in these groups is “ugly”, perhaps better phraseology is
required – not bowdlerization.
As far as the .auction posts are concerned, I have no real opinion either way
as they are all, currently, held in one location – and most users know where
this is. As for .jambalaya I only read this group when a post catches my eye
on the homepage. :-)
Scott A
>
> (This isn't perfect, and the list may need a bit of adjustment up or down,
> but I think it's a good starting point And actually, I wish this had been
> in place since day one. I hope many people haven't been scared away because
> of this flaw.)
>
> The main homepage and subsequent pages via the "more" links are the only
> places where these groups are hidden from the display. You can still see
> the groups in all their glory by clicking into them using the links in the
> light blue band at the top, or by using the Traffic Report page:
>
> http://www.lugnet.com/news/traffic/
>
> Additionally, when an article in a list is hidden, it tells you how many
> articles in hid and in which groups (with links). Just in case you want to
> check it out. For example,
>
> (Not shown are 3 messages from lugnet.off-topic.test, lugnet.admin.general,
> lugnet.market.jambalaya)
>
> While this change probably comes as a "good thing" to most web-interface
> users, I realize that it may also come as a "bummer" to some people (power
> users, or those who want to read everything as soon as it appears) in that
> it makes them work a bit harder to uncover every single last message. I'm
> sorry for that, and I hope at some future point to have a completely different
> and more customizable solution in place, but for now, this seems like the
> right thing to do. It's the lesser of two evils.
>
> Someone said it pretty well the other day...I can't remember the exact quote
> but it went something like this:
>
> "It really bummed me out when I went to the lugnet homepage and _all four_
> of the latest messages were the subject line about this stupid religious
> debate. I don't care if my god can whoop your god. Can we get back to
> talking about LEGO?"
>
> The religious debate messages _were_ properly all placed in the .off-topic.
> debate group, but they also showed up on the main homepage. Although the
> main homepage wasn't designed as a newsreader, that's how people use it.
> This change is for those people.
>
> Additional background:
>
> http://www.lugnet.com/admin/general/?n=4812
> http://www.lugnet.com/admin/general/?n=4814
> http://www.lugnet.com/admin/general/?n=5012
> http://www.lugnet.com/admin/general/?n=5019
> http://www.lugnet.com/off-topic/debate/?n=4449
> http://www.lugnet.com/admin/general/?n=4817
> http://www.lugnet.com/admin/general/?n=5014
>
> --Todd
>
> [flames/comments/opinions/huzzahs to .admin.general]
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Cleaning up the main homepage
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| (...) That's certainly not a problem at all. The admin groups exist at all because it's better to have things out in the open for people who care, than to have them be completely private. People who care what goes on, will participate. People who (...) (24 years ago, 9-Mar-00, to lugnet.admin.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Cleaning up the main homepage
|
| All, I've been up most of the night tonight recoding and retesting the code on the server which displays lists of messages, in particular the root home page (URL), which gives a top-level overview of current activity in the system. Recent off-topic (...) (24 years ago, 9-Mar-00, to lugnet.admin.general, lugnet.announce)
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