Cleaning the Archives!

Posted by Stephane Boucher on Aug 10 2012 under EmbeddedRelated.com   

There are over 65k discussion threads in our forum database.  Out of these, I would say about 20% are of no or very little value to visitors of EmbeddedRelated.com.  Some are old questions that have never been answered, others are too off-topic, and even some spam might have passed our filters and moderation.

Today I am asking for your help to clean the archives.

I have implemented a 'thumbs-up thumbs-down' system for every single thread archived on the site.

What I am asking you to do, if you feel generous, have a few minutes, and would like to help me make the site a better place, is to go through a few threads and give your opinion through the thumbs-up/down system.  

Basically, before voting, simply ask yourself this question: 'could this thread (still) be useful to someone?'

If the answer is no -> thumbs down!

If the answer is yes -> thumbs up!

If you are not sure, simply leave it.

And to make things a little exciting, every vote you will cast will be like buying a lotery ticket.

Indeed, every vote will be recorded with its unique id and your own user id.  Early in September, I will have my database spit out one of the votes randomly and the lucky user who's vote this will be, will either win a new iPad or $500 (depending on the user's location and/or the user's choice).

Please note that you have to be logged in to see the thumbs up/down system (it isn't currently visible to guest visitors).

If you have forgotten your password and/or username, you can quickly and easily recover it here.

You'll notice that there are two ways to cast your vote.  The first one is by viewing a list of threads, like on this page, and the other way is by viewing an individual thread like on this page (notice the thumbs in the right corner).  Again, you need to be logged in to see the thumbs.

Obviously, most of the time, you will have to open a thread to view it's content before you can cast a vote. But sometimes, in the case of a spam post for instance, a bad thread can be detected directly from the listing page.

To help you get going, may I suggest you start with the older threads?

Many thanks in advance for every second you spend on the site - your support is greatly appreciated.

Best Regards,

Stephane Boucher

p.s. Yes, there are a few mecanisms in place to hopefully prevent people from abusing the sytem

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posted by Stephane Boucher
Although Stephane holds a master degree in EE (Digital Signal Processing), he has been concentrating for several years now on helping fellow electrical engineers find and exchange quality information by publishing EmbeddedRelated.com, DSPRelated.com and FPGARelated.com.

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