Thread of the Week

November 10, 2001 7:19 PM

Idea: every week, each user gets to vote for one thread as Thread of the Week. Monday, the winning thread is linked in the sidebar. Occurred to me as I was reading the smoking thread, which I almost missed completely.
posted by lbergstr to feature requests at 7:19 PM (5 comments total)

If the idea of a weekly contest seems too cheesy, I dunno...I would like a way to register the opinion "this thread really stands out", and for users to be able to search for threads which have gotten that rating from a substantial number of people.
posted by lbergstr at 7:21 PM on November 10, 2001

Although some sort of carrot to dangle that might lead some folks to take more care in what they say and how they say it couldn't be a bad thing.

Maybe The Thread of the Year could get a pony!

The logical extension of a ratings system leads us into plastic/kur05hin/slashdot karma-esque territory, though, and I think recent consensus is that that's not something that is really MetaFiltro...That said, I understand you mean a way to rate threads in their entirety rather than individual comments, and that would certainly facilitate automation the kind of thing that Matt was asking for here. Hmmm.


posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:45 PM on November 10, 2001

whats next, door prizes? a cake walk?
posted by clavdivs at 7:55 AM on November 11, 2001

I'd like to see something like this too. However, it does risk being kinda corny, and has been proven to be cumbersome. Sites like Slashdot and Everything2.com have rating systems, which tend to cause the submitting public to be more interested in trying to get others to vote them then in just speaking their mind. The art of writing as a popularity contest. Eh.

When I find a linkpost or thread that I want to have easy access to again in the future, I put a link to it on my userpage. You could probably do something like that. Use your MeFi user page as a place where you personally nominate what you think should be the post of the week. It'd be a vote of just one, but you'd sorta get what you want. *shrug*
posted by ZachsMind at 1:49 PM on November 12, 2001

Just to clarify, I wasn't suggesting a rating system. More the ability to mark that one amazing thread out of dozens before it disappears into the archives. Can't really see where the 'popularity contest' critique is coming from, though, since it's the thread as a whole, the collective effort, that would get singled out.
posted by lbergstr at 8:18 AM on November 13, 2001