This is a comment to Saidit users in general and the management in particular. It's a suggestion to prioritise the referencing of stories, one that I think could increase the reliability and quality of what is posted here. Compare two posts from yesterday:
The top one links to a story which includes a video of Gaddafi. It's Arabic, with French subtitles.The bottom one, an image, contains a date but no other reference. Now compare the Saidit response, as of this writing:
- 1. Received 28/8 votes & 13 comments
- 2. Received 1/0 votes & no comments
When I posted them, I was expecting no. 1 to be upvoted more, because it looks appealing. Of course first impressions are important, but they should not be overwhelmingly so. From a referencing perspective, post 2 was far more valuable. I would like Saidit to become a community which routinely digs deep on such grave matters. Ultimately, this does depend on users checking out references when posting and voting -- but let us think also about how this sort of behaviour could be encouraged. Two ideas that might help move better referenced content nearer the top:
- 1) An ability to add references supporting a post. Needn't be fancy, half a dozen textboxes would be a great help to establish reliability -- and would help readers/posters to unlearn dopamine hit/clickbaity habits.
- 2) An ability for readers to add references and/or vote on references could inspire people to dig deeper, and allow a new sort of post/conversation which is less post-specific, but grew over time as stories evolve since new links could be added. It's a step towards a full blown wiki, but only a small one that might not be too hard to code.
Over time, a big data set of references & votes could become useful in itself. e.g. It could allow automated creation of warnings, such as "Are you sure you wish to cite snopes.com - past data suggests that this site is unreliable?"
[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun - (5 children)
[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun - (3 children)
[–]Robin[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun - (2 children)
[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - (1 child)
[–]Robin[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - (0 children)
[–]Robin[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun - (0 children)
[–]Tom_Bombadil 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun - (0 children)
[–]Chipit 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun - (0 children)
[–]Nemacolin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun - (9 children)
[–]Robin[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun - (1 child)
[–]Nemacolin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun - (0 children)
[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun - (6 children)
[–]Nemacolin 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - (5 children)
[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun - (4 children)
[–]Nemacolin 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - (3 children)
[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun - (2 children)
[–]Nemacolin 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - (1 child)
[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - (0 children)