DIGG Style Comments

One of my favorite websites to frequent is Digg.com

When someone posts their comment on an article there are little Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down buttons.  Readers can click the Thumbs Up and the Thumbs Down button to indicate if they like someone's comment.  Each comment shows a number.  A positive number indicates that most people like the comment and a negative number indicates most people do not like the comment.  If the number goes too far negative, the comment is hidden, with the option to show the comment.

I would love to see a feature like this on JWN.

Simon, some great technologies to enable this feature are jQuery and AJAX

Examples: 

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1049874/jquery-thumbs-up-and-down-rating-system
http://docs.jquery.com/Tutorials:Getting_Started_with_jQuery#Rate_me:_Using_Ajax

Thanks,

Else

Simon is planning on adding a feature similar to this when he updates the forum.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/forum/announcements/179630/1/Preview-of-new-forum-layout-design-screenshots

Personally, I find this feature very annoying.  I have to continually unclick the hide in order to follow the thread of the conversation (in Youtube, you have to hit "reply" to do this).  I also find that on some forums, this feature promotes conformity, with unpopular views (at times insightful and worth hearing) hidden from view by the cliquish majority (or a minority who bothers to use the feature).  I believe in giving an equal voice to all users.  I would hate to spend a long time writing a difficult post just to have it hidden from view.

sorry to be a broken record on this But I believe an Ignore button would solve the problem - we all know the posters that add little or no value to us personally (and I stress personally, as it will be different for each of us)

The purpose isn't so much to ignore people as to serve as an indicator of whether or not people like a certain comment.

People still read digg.com? ;)

Honestly I'd much rather see standard discussion board software used on JWN.  Maybe something like vBulletin.  I know Simon put a lot of work in this forum software, but it lacks dozens of wonderful features present in modern board software.

Plus vBulletin is stable.  I still get an error screen about 10-20% of the time when I view Active Topics, not to mention the fact that new pages to threads are sometimes not accessible until even more posts are made.  vBulletin is also way faster.  I visit several forums that have many, many more simultaneous users and vBulletin is significantly faster.

If he switched to vBulletin, Simon would no longer have to spend countless hours trying to add features to this proprietary board software.  Someone else does all the work. :)

Like Leo, I certainly don't want the majority determining what I see.    At most, I might enjoy a feature wherein threads that got enough "recommends" where put on a Greatest Page.

And like Besty, I think an Ignore function could be useful and helpful (although honestly, where I have it available to me, I almost never use it).

The purpose isn't so much to ignore people as to serve as an indicator of whether or not people like a certain comment.

agreed - Ratings serve a different purpose. Perhaps the ability to rate an entire thread, to rate a specific comment and to ignore and rate certain posters would cover the bases :-)

Simon has stated that he plans to institute an ignore button, if for no other reason than he is tired of hearing about it.

ye true - i have banged on about it - I will be on Simon's Ignore list - that's for sure :-)))

I already use jQuery a lot and intend to use a lot more AJAX in the next version of the site. I'm thinking of things like automatically updating the topic lists as people make posts and showing new replies to a topic while you may be typing yours. I don't think vBulletin does this. I'm trying to break away from all the 'me-too copy' forums which all work basically the same way and look at sites like facebook and the new Google Wave which are much more interactive.

The rating can be used to lots of things from hiding or promoting certain topics to finding things you would probably be interested in to effectively making the community moderate itself ... imagine some spammer or idiot posting porn that *everyone* can remove!

Lots of work to do but I intend this forum to be better than the existing commercial or open source apps that are available (because I intend to make a sellable product out of it eventually).

An "ignore" button that a user can choose which posters to hide is a great idea, with the default being nothing hidden.  A rating system that doesn't hide posts I don't particularly care for, but it is way better than a feature that hides posts on the basis of ratings.

The rating can be used to lots of things from hiding or promoting certain topics to finding things you would probably be interested in to effectively making the community moderate itself ... imagine some spammer or idiot posting porn that *everyone* can remove!

The problem, as I have seen in other forums, is that a lot more than just spam gets removed that way.  Interesting, contentful, worthy posts get hidden merely because they are unpopular or go against majority opinion.  I have seen boards narrow their discourse considerably through this.  I think a "report spam" button might be better imo.

I actually like the board the way it is, it's simple and easy to use.

Although there are lots of posts I want to ignore, esp when a thread deteriorates to name calling and socializing for pages and pages

it's all part of the feel of what's going on with individual  posters interactions, which we can learn alot from.  I guess it's part of being a community for me.

Even though some comments are unpopular or rated low, goes against the majority, it may be the one bit of info that touches that one person.

There are lots of gems hidden in these threads.

I do like thumbs up/thumbs down, if for nothing else to show appreciation or agreeing with the comment.  I probably won't use Ignore as it's difficult to follow the discussion w/o knowing what some are responding to, and heck, what if they mention my name, I want to know about it!!!!!!!!!!!

I just hope it does not get into a competion type feeling, one up etc etc, 

The way it is people can use their own judgements and thinking abilities while being part of the discussion, not that people  won't do it if improved.

I really dislike reading at other boards and comments have been deleted by the person that starts the thread.

Hell, I don't know, I don't participate in very many other boards.

purps

Cool.  I love jQeury!  I've been using it at work everywhere I can.

Personally, I find this feature very annoying.

+1

There are boards where lurkers can register their "smilies" approval/disapproval on a thread or a post.

I like a discussion board with clean, sharp lines.  Easy to use and as little clutter as possible.