-
however still scares me.
It genuinely scares you? It causes you a great fear, creates a nervousness, it frightens?
And even understanding that it uses permissions, it still scares you?
Does it trigger palpitations? Brings on hot sweats of anxiety too?
I don't doubt that the first time you noticed it you might have been subject to a little consternation as a result of a temporary confusion... but scared?
Yes it's different from how it used to be.
Yes it doesn't drive a hard wedge of separation between the concept of "private" and "public" whenever you view search results ("today", "following", "search").But it's a really super simple concept:
- If it's in a forum the permissions are: Whomever is permitted to read this single forum.
- If it's in a private message the permissions are: Whomever the message is shared with.
- If it's anywhere else (every page when you're not explicitly within a single forum or your messages) then #1 and #2 apply and you see a collection of items based on those permissions.
That's it.
Nothing more complex, nothing sinister or "scary". If you're allowed to see it you do, if you're not then you don't.
On following, such stats are a very poor indicator of whether someone's posts are interesting. Some people follow others merely to witness the train crash better. Without knowing the reason for a follow, one could never draw a reasonable conclusion about the motivation behind it, and so how could it be determined that it was because of something "interesting"?
A better indicator would be a rep system in which the rep was semi-public and people could see the measure of a person and see which individual comments contributed to that.
It would be extremely effective at guiding new members of the community as to who is valued and who isn't, and it would be hard to game.
Therein lays my hesitation... you would be ripped to shreds and your reputation destroyed, without a chance of choosing to make changes to your behaviour in future (as the measure would have been made and a strong measurement would survive such changes in behaviour).
Other members would be put on a pedestal and given authority through their status. Thus making them somewhat immune from being absolutely vulgar and horrible people to others, knowing that their reputation would survive and protect them.
I know how to build such systems, and the best ones are not there to cynically drive engagement through gamification... they genuinely offer a good measure of what the community appreciates and likes. The issue is that all such systems that quantify behaviour lead to a drop in the quality of behaviour as they merely reinforce the historical behaviour rather than truly encourage new and perhaps better behaviour. Communities stagnate rather than evolve, as existing behaviour becomes codified and forms a feedback loop that amplifies it.
- If it's in a forum the permissions are: Whomever is permitted to read this single forum.
Velocio-
It genuinely scares you? It causes you a great fear, creates a nervousness, it frightens?
And even understanding that it uses permissions, it still scares you?
Does it trigger palpitations? Brings on hot sweats of anxiety too?
It is clearly a phobia and should be treated with immersion therapy, perhaps you can embed a widget that displays his personal email in line too.
But assuming he just forgot to use the past tense, there is a kernel of truth in his observation. It could be off-putting to new users not to have their private and public content clearly segregated, without that everything feels a bit public, a bit like those anxiety dreams where you find yourself turning up to work naked. I suppose the question is whether new users will understand the layout quickly enough that it isn't a problem, or whether people will get discouraged from using the forum before finding out how it works.
middleofnowhere
I assumed.. however still scares me.
I'd think it might scare others.. why scare anyone?
Following stats seem like good feedback for users to know if others find their posts interesting.
If made public it would also reward them with status.
Is it just functionality not yet developed or is there an active philosophy against driving engagement through 'gamification'
Its ironic that vbullitin had 'friends' which served no functional purpose other than status.
Even more ironic that I think hippy won the game and I still think its a good idea.