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Cleaning the Archives!

Stephane BoucherAugust 10, 201216 comments

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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Comment by CryptomanAugust 9, 2012
Hi Stephane. I think this is a great incentive to improve the site. I will do my best to contribute as much as my time allows. I thought of a possible scenario where a thread may be misplaced but it could be useful to others in another discussion group. Shall we simply give a thumbs down for such threads or is a third type of vote (besides the thumbs up and thumbs down) needed in the system to highlight such cases? Regards...
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Comment by Hesham ShokryAugust 10, 2012
I am logged on but still can not see the "thumb up/down" buttons or links.
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Comment by stephanebAugust 11, 2012
Hesham, I am not sure why you cannot see the thumbs. May I suggest you try to logout and login again? To logout: http://www.embeddedrelated.com/logout.php Then, login again, and go to: http://www.embeddedrelated.com/groups.php You should nee the thumbs. If you don't, please let me know. Thanks.
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Comment by RoshAugust 11, 2012
hi Stephane nice idea.i will do my best. Regards Rosh
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Comment by mongerAugust 12, 2012
Hi Stephane, I see some thumbs (actually arrows) up/down after a few tries logging out & in, but after clicking 1, I need to submit which leads me to a new site reddit.com which requires to login. Is the one required for the new system ? gr, monger
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Comment by stephanebAugust 12, 2012
Hi Monger, you are confusing the Reddit rating system with the thumbs up/down system. To verify if you are logged in on EmbeddedRelated, have a look at the horizontal bar right under the menu, it should say 'You are logged in as ...'. Once logged in, you should see the thumbs.
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Comment by mongerAugust 29, 2012
Hi Stephane, after wandering about some more, I noticed the thumbs in some places (eg article /137029-1), but not in all. Esp: article 128 by Jason Sachs. Why could that be ? gr, Monger
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Comment by stephanebAugust 29, 2012
Hello Monger, for the moment, we still use the star rating system on blogs and books, and the thumbsup/down for forum discussions. This could change in the future.
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Comment by cfeltonAugust 12, 2012
It would be nice to change the "vote" after clicking. I have incorrectly clicked the wrong vote a couple times and don't have a means to change.
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Comment by cfeltonAugust 12, 2012
Also, it will be difficult for anyone to work all the way through 65k items. If everyone starts from the end (oldfirst) you will only have a fraction covered. It might be useful to add a "show me a random page". Then you will get better distribution over all items.
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Comment by cfeltonAugust 12, 2012
The "oldfirst" only appears to work for the first page? When hitting next, the second page is more recent (August 2012).
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Comment by stephanebAugust 12, 2012
Chris, indeed, the sorting doesn't seem to propagate with the page numbers, it works only with 'next' and 'previous' page. I will fix this. And I agree that there should be a way to modify your vote. I will investigate. Thanks for the comments.
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Comment by cfeltonAugust 12, 2012
The vote number isn't the same when viewed in the listing vs. the page, at least not for nasa-celebrates-successful-mars-landing topic. The list shows +2 and the page show +6.
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Comment by Ragnarok700August 12, 2012
If this is not already possible and I am simply unaware, may I suggest to add a page where it lists the thread by ascending order of the number of votes on it and it's age? This way, that page would list first the pages that have received no votes yet and also ordered starting with the oldest ones. Should be a good way to figure out not just the oldest ones but the ones that nobody looked at yet (for the most part).
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Comment by duceSeptember 6, 2012
Has the ipad winner been selected?
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Comment by stephanebSeptember 8, 2012
> Has the ipad winner been selected? Yes! And it will be announced early this week - thanks for asking.

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