I've been on WSO for about a year or so. It's been an excellent resource to me so here I am attempting to pay it forward. I don’t know if any of these ideas have already been mentioned either on separate forums or directly to the mods, but here it is:
1) The way I see it, WSO users more or less fall into three categories (and of course, some overlap across categories):
- Those seeking knowledge (prospective monkeys)
- Those who have knowledge (experienced users)
- And those coming to read/post/discuss random articles related to bus/econ/fin.
Currently, if you are to browse a certain forum topic, ie I-Banking Bullpen, it's set up in a conditional formatting to just separate one post from the next.
Recommendation:
Color-coding the threads within each forum to one of three colors:
- Color A - topics seeking advice
- Color B – topics giving advice (how-to's – interviewing, resumes, networking, etc.),
- Color C – general stories/articles.
This would allow users more focus when browsing the forums to quickly find exactly what they are looking for. Maybe when a post that was at one point “seeking knowledge” has been answered, a moderator can change that color to Color D for a question that’s been answered (could be VERY useful for prospective monkeys).
2) Currently, I set “WSO-->account-->track” to a bookmark so I can quickly access and view whether there is a new reply to posts I’ve recently commented on. I think having a notification bar would be far superior (if plausible).
Recommendation:
Notifications. Who doesn’t love that +1 red box when you sign into facebook? I have absolutely no idea what kind of bandwidth something like this would require, but again, just an idea.
3) Everyone hates threadjacking.
Recommendation:
Inception. A thread within a thread! Alright, maybe a sub-thread, where readers can create a related, but slightly off-topic thread that can be easily viewed by whoever is reading the main thread.
There have been numerous threads where users want to post a related question, but either 1) don’t want to go through the trouble of creating an entirely new thread, 2) feel that simply posting on the main thread will garner more views than a newer, separate one.
4) Quicker access to the highest quality threads/discussions.
Recommendation:
Add functionality that essentially aggregates ALL the SB’s given in a particular discussion (not just the main post) and create a separate ranking for threads that accrue the most SB’s.
There are some really quality arguments/discussions out there that probably get lost because even if you look through “Hot Topics” or “Average Rating - # of Votes”, you simply won’t find them. It’s shifting the emphasis from quantity (hot topics) to quality (total # of SB’s in a thread).
5) Want to hear about a particular story?
Recommendation:
Create a poll suggestion box where users can submit ideas or topics they want the interns/long-term posters to discuss
Maybe have one mod/intern sift through these questions and pick what they think are the top most 5interesting ideas each week, create a poll, and publicize that poll for monkeys to vote on for a “Story for Next Week Series” .
6) Reduce trolling.
Add some functionality that allows users to vote (in addition to the SB/monkey shit) on each post.
Maybe if a certain post OR user receives some arbitrary ratio of “thumbs-downs” or whatever, a moderator gets notified (again, I have no idea what kind of bandwidth something like this would require), and he/she can remove the post. Or…somehow this post gets removed by itself, and can get restored pending review from a moderator.
And lastly…
7) Just for fun: Adding more time ranges to the SB rankings (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.) on the bottom right of the page :)
I’m coming for you ANT!
Then, maybe adding some kind of functionality that would allow users to directly click and track that specific author’s posts. It couldn’t hurt, right?
Let me know what you guys think of these suggestions, whether you like them, love them, hate them – and post some more suggestions of your own below!
Thanks for reading
I like the notifications idea, I always forget where my SB's are coming from or which threads I made a meaningful reply on
Trolling is necessary to the experience on WSO.
I can think of 1 other group.
Ha, I actually put trolls in my original post, but then edited it out since it didn't go with what I was trying to say...plus I address trolls later on anyway.
thanks Ultima, will take a look at these tomorrow, and will make sure Patrick takes a look at all these.
Ultima - thanks. A lot of these are being worked on actually except for the color coding idea.
I'll give a more thorough response when I have a minute.
Thanks, Patrick
Ultima,
Thanks for the suggestions. Glad to see people coming up with creative ways to improve WSO. Some quick thoughts:
1) Color coding. It sounds like you're looking for a way to improve browsing efficiency. I think the "mouseover text" that was implemented last year is a great way to cut down on having to click threads to find out what they are about. I foresee a number of complications with your proposal though, including overlapping categories (Seeking Advice threads usually become Giving Advice threads). Furthermore, I think anything that requires active participation from moderators would not only create a burden for the site, but also create the possibility for differences in opinion.
If WSO were to implement this suggestion, I recommend the following: When a user creates a thread, give them an option to select a "thread classification" box. The thread classifications could be things such as "Seeking Advice" or "General Advice" or "News" etc. Then, perhaps implement a filter capability.
2) Notifications. Looks good to me.
3) Threadjacking. I don't see too many instances where threadjacking with related questions is an issue. Usually it keeps the thread going or opens up a new, insightful way of approaching the original question. The main issue I see is threadjacking by trolls. I think the best way to manage this is probably moderation. Creating sub threads or "related" threads seems like a technical, organizational nightmare for little value add.
4) Silver Banana sorting. This seems like a good idea as well. Just be warned, you're likely to get 90% political threads. Political threads tend to be very lengthy and have a whole lot of SBs/MSs.
5) Certified User Discussion Box. If users have burning questions, they should probably just post them in the forums. From what I've seen, if you send a user a PM with a link to your thread, they are usually pretty good about weighing in. Creating a structured system with polls and certified user responses seems like unnecessary additional administrative burden.
6) Reduce Trolling. I personally would love to see a large reduction in the trolling -- particularly in the "stupid one-line" responses. Rather than send a notification to a moderator when a certain MS count has been reached (administrative burden), perhaps just have a post get deleted once it receives a certain MS count (three?)
7) Interim Rankings. I'd be interested in interim rankings as well. I thought the "banana count in the last 30 days" section was interesting --- not sure what happened to it. Similar rankings for SBs could be interesting as well. That said -- you've got a LONG way to go before you catch ANT, especially at your current rate of two per year.
I agree with the drop down box and the filtering capability. This was what I was envisioning. Also, I'm sure that there are a number of people out there that would voluntarily moderate these threads if WSO chose to reclassify threads once questions have been answered (without compensation).
If you type in "threadjack" into the searchbar, you'll see a number of times where users start off by saying "sorry for threadjacking....[insert new idea here]" I agree that there are times where it is simply an extension of the original question/post/discussion. However, I don't think adding this functionality would be an organizational nightmare. It could be something as simple as adding another box to the right which simply says "Related topics", and it might only be the top 3-5 sub-threads that get posted to that box.
Say one person is asking for compensation for a particular company X for position Y (treasury), and another wants to ask for company X position Z (IBD) on the same thread. Anytime compensation is asked, the original poster probably needs a data set of 4-5 before he can conclude this value is correct. Others visiting the thread that want to know as well would have to sift through various, possibly alternating posts, to find the correct data. Sure, this isn't the best example, but I'm confident you can see the benefits of reorganizing these threads.
OK. Agreed.
This is where I was suggesting that it gets removed automatically, but then it goes to some moderator(s) that can restore it pending review. We're on the same page here.
Ha, yes, I know I'm not catching ANT's all-time record, was more of a joke. FWIW, I created this account a year ago but really only started posting here maybe a few weeks ago regularly.
But anyway, it'd give people more near-term incentive to improve the quality of their posts if they could view the interim rankings.
First off, thank you for all these comments / suggestions...here is a bit more long-winded response to each point.
Color coding: I think this could work, but I'm concerned with what Compbanker said. There are threads that overlap into two categories so not sure if that would be the best way to splice or code it. Not a bad idea though...might be something here, need to mull it over with me team a bit more.
Notifications. Absolutely agree we need to get this going. Right now we only have PM notifications. One change we did implement a few days ago is the ability to Follow other users (the small blue plus signs next to usernames) and keep up to date with what your favorite users are saying under "My Feed" tab (under Recent menu along with your My Bookmarks and My Recent POsts tab). I will create a new post to announce / explain this feature further and additional functionality we are working on now for it.
We just brought on a TON more mods to our team so I think you will see an overall decline in trolling posts and threadjacking. We like to keep a healthy balance between fun and learning but if every post / comment is a joke obviously the usefulness aspect declines. So we're usually watching that ratio very closely.
We will look into bringing out better threads but right now we have 2 systems...Most commetned and highest ranked. The highest ranked list: //www.wallstreetoasis.com/rankposts I think does a pretty good job at pushing up the best all time posts from WSO, but maybe a third system would help...just not sure if that is aggregate SB count in a thread or not (sometimes, threads with less comments and a lot of 5 star rankings doesnt have as many SBs as an annoying political thread like comp said). will think about this as well.
Agree with Comp here. The whole point of the forums is to keep it open so all can benefit from the responses.
Again, I expect trolling to drop over next few months...we are warning the offending users (small subset) and that shoudl clean up 90% of it.
This is still there, we just moved it into the Top WSO Monkeys block in right column under "Active monkeys" tab. If you click on that it will take you to the view that shows the most active monkeys in last 30 days...but now i see that is broken :-) on it!
More to come soon....
Would it be possible to have a formatting section on the FAQ page? I am talking like how to embed pictures, bold font, etc. - Just a thought that might make it easier for newer users.
you should consider offering free job board access to anyone who goes over to JD oasis to make a post to give it a nice kick start, lol
bump.
i just noticed that i get messaged when i'm quoted in a thread; it think it would be simpler if my quoted replies were somehow incorporated into the "My recent posts" tab instead?
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