Are there too many people on Fluther now?

yes. i hope this doesn’t become the next yahoo! answers.

I dont know. I just signed up for one today. Its not going to be that popular unless everyone is bored and Is avoiding studying like myself.

http://www.fluther.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/01/stemming-the-tide/
Do you think we should be removing more questions?

Maybe if there was something like the duplicate story feature on Digg, but with duplicate questions…?

@bluemukaki: So is it the repeat questions or the quality of questions in general?

@andrew: Well there are a fair few repeat questions, but there are also some dumb questions, maybe once the user base becomes a bit more constant the collective will steer their questions in the right direction? voting systems work but are annoying, but maybe volunteer moderators like the users with a huge score (or do they do that already?)

If you don’t mind me butting in, I think we just need to give time for the dirt to settle to the bottom again. I’d hate to deprive someone from asking a question, but it probably would serve everyone best if the asker of a dupe was directed to similar, already asked questions to see if those sufficed.

Obviously, there’s more spam/troll activity, but I think that gets ignored and swept away quickly enough as long as there aren’t too many users who are feeding that kind of activity. Plus, it’s kind of fun to solidly kick them to the curb.

@bluemukaki: That’s what we’re hoping. Already we’re seeing an increase in quality from four-five days ago. Also, as we flush out some more iPhone features in the next weeks the quality should improve. We also have some really exciting community features we’re moving up.

My biggest concern is the quality of questions and protecting our existing community; I never want the site to feel like Big Green.

I’m new as heck, but i do want to just state how much I like the quality of the community that i’ve seen so far. Particularly the delightful level of literacy. Love that!

(I would NEVER set foot in yahoo answers.)

Oh, and the spelling. God help us.

spelling? look, not everyone has F7 at their “beckon call”

What is this F7 you speak of? O.O

<.<

>.>

Heh.

@shockvalue Ha!!!! Funny!!!

I like to correct people. You know, just for chagrins.

I’M SO EXCITED FOR RISERS RESPONSE
(payback)

I know. Waiting for the shoe to drop.

@andrew. Also, the lack of sleep and enabling of my internet addition. When are you guys going to roll out a recovery program?

I believe that it is the influx of iPhone users that could degrade fluther.com

Unlike the business minded Palm Treos, the iPhone is “hip” which usually results in less than satisfactory content.

Highest regards,

Daniel Riser

P.S. I wrote this on my iPhone.

ooh! internet addition! now we just need some iPhone subtraction…

Sh1t.

Okay, you got me.

More people means more expertise on which to draw. I was a little worried about this, myself, until I saw Ben say that a lot of new users just post the first question that comes to their mind to see how the site works. The signal : noise ratio does seem to be rising again, thanks to Ben’s and Andrew’s expert moderation.

This type of thing is cyclic and will happen again and again-as the adage goes: the only constant is change. The two best recommendations I can propose for iPhone users:

Flag as abuse feature

and

A bigger, less buggy text window to type in

Thanks Fluther Gods-you know I think you’re all awesome!!!

not too many people just too many dumb questions. Just because some moron thinks their funny.

The only problem I have with the huge influx of new users is the “text-like” spelling. I don’t find it hard to type on an iPhone and I have giant fingers. I think most iPhone users should be able to spell boy (not boi) etc. I also feel like our average age has dropped significantly.

Hopefully over time this will correct itself.

As sndfreq said, this is cyclic. I believe this is the second influx. Just waiting for the dust to settle now…

And at the idea of fluther veterans, I’d say there definitely are. Most of us with the 4 digit scores have been around for awhile. Off the top of my head (don’t kill me if I miss you) there’s kevbo, sndfreq, sferik, mirza, gailcalled, klaas, poser, johnpowell, peggylou… I think gooch is from the first wave, but he’s still been here for a long time.

Why not tie flagging to the point system? For example, if a you flag a question that is removed by the moderators, you would get points. If you ask a question or make a comment that gets removed, you are penalized points. Users with negative point values would get removed from the site.

As fluther attracts new members, you’ll probably need more help from the core/veteran members to regulate it. I think the focus should be to do whatever you can for the veterans whenever there is an influx of new users. It is the veterans that separate out the dross and set the example.

I’m the type who will move on if I don’t feel like a community is a good fit for me anymore. I occasionally visit Digg, but I don’t read read or write comments anymore; the signal-to-noise ratio is too high. I don’t go to Yahoo! Answers at all anymore; there is no sense of community and it’s hard to find an interesting question. I don’t go to Reddit anymore; it seemed like a bunch of white, atheist, Ron-Paul-supporting men in an echo chamber (lacked diversity).

Well this iPhone user would greatly appreciate the ability to flag posts.

Also – Even when I had non “qwerty” keyboard phones, I still refused to “text type” – hi! How r u?

It feels lazy to me. Communication has been tarnished enough, why contribute to its demise?

Highest regards,

Daniel Riser

Well here’s my diatribe for the day:

I don’t think it’s too much to ask that Flutherers make an effort to avoid “texting” their responses…it’s not only annoying and clearly lazy, but it often leads to misinterpretation of messages.

Although my own perception, when Flutherers post their responses in “txting” format, the conveyance of the message is weakened and sidetracked (“Can I get a witness?!)

Perhaps the Fluther Gods can offer a simple suggestion in the rules/orientation paragraph that discourages “texting” of questions and responses on this site.

I hope this suggestion doesn’t come off as snobby, elitist, or territorial, but I’d like to think we are a community of conscientious, considerate thinkers, and thorough/complete spelling is just one of those issues of “netiquette” that seem like a prerequisite for dialog, both for the poster, and for the “benefit of the order”.

Although I’ve only been here 5 months, it seems that this is a recurring theme that warrants attention…sorry for the rant-like tone here.

Thanks for listening; hope your day is thoughtful and productive :)

Chiming in, of course.

How about

1) Rereading your question for clarity, literacy, and originality before you send?

2) Not mistaking us for the Jr. High School locker room?

3) Remembering that only James Joyce can write a sentence that is 20 pages long and succeed in making it understandable.?

4) Not expecting us to do your homework?

5) Respecting our language instead of torturing it? (How hard is it to keep a dictionary nearby?)

6) Trying to write occasionally w/o LOL, “cool,” “kinda,” “like,” “awesome.”

7) Keeping in mind that we are an openminded, etc community (Oh, just reread sndfreQ and the other thoughtful responsers above.)

@sndfreQ: Those features will be dropping shortly.
@phoenyx: I don’t think we’ll be tying things to points very soon; We’re extremely conscious of using points only as a loose metric of experience and helpfulness… not as a carrot to increase activity or a game.

@sndfreQ, I haven’t seen the term “netiquette” for years! Are you showing your (internet) age?? :-)

The quality has certainly lowered.

To many Apple users, thats the basic problem with overflow-age of people.

I am sorry. I will try not to contribute to the general iPhone mentality. I had never heard of Fluther before I got the iPhone.

Highest Regards,

Daniel Riser

well i appreciate that, and i just wanna put something out there, and this isn’t at all directed to you Riser, but all i see now is iPhone questions and help and How-To’s…BS, there is google and iPhone sites for EVERYTHING. They are just wasting time skipping though 3 pages of iPhone questions so i can actually read something im interested in, which is why i come here, only to get so annoyed. Then i stumble awayy

Not a positive, 1st impression, iceblu. Sorry to hear that! Try asking a question or two, near and dear to your heart, then see how it goes. I agree, it’s hard sometimes to ignore all of the questions you’re not interested in, but one of the features of Fluther is to learn what you like and suggest those questions to you (this works best if your profile is fully filled out!).

i know, lol i have been on here on my friends, and i just myself created an account and started to use it. So all and all around 2 months i started viewing the site, last night i started to post… lol

Wow, that’s the first time I’ve seen someone use ‘lol’ here. Oh no! Now I’m tainted!

I will admit I am infamous for typos and occasional bad grammar/use of Emglish in general. Some things said here are very true. It does get old flipping through I Phone “help me” questions and homework/juvenile sexuality questions. But yet this does also make the site more open and honest in that we are not discrediting teenagers by saying “Well you are under 18 so you have no knowledge of worth”
But the locker room talk need to go.

No, I think the more, the merrier. You get more people with more different perspectives and backgrounds, and I like that. And you get to make more friends too.