Discussion Forum

Comment System Update & Site News

Hey guys,

I've been working on the comment system today to add a like button to comments. You will now be able to like comments that you think have been helpful, nice, constructively critical, basically whatever you like, if you like it then let that user know you like it!

This is all work that is ongoing towards a better deck rating system; the idea is that we'll use the "rep" that users gain from their liked comments to weight their voting power, the more liked comments they have, the more voting power they will have when getting decks to a new digg/reddit-style homepage. This will help good up-and-coming decks make it to the homepage where they will be in a fixed, static-content list of "hot decks" and the users that have been most helpful around the site and gained a lot of rep from their helpful comments will have have more sway when it comes to the algorithm choosing which decks to make "hot".

This new system will effectively wipe out the cheaters using multi-accounts to vote other people's decks down because:

* There is going to be no negative voting, you will only be able to "like" decks soon.
* An account with zero rep will pretty much have zero power in getting decks to the homepage. And it'll take ages for accounts to gain this power, anybody caught cheating will have all of their accounts banned and all their decks will be removed from the "hot decks" list.

Long story short... The more helpful you are around the site, the more power you will have when it comes to choosing the decks that appear on the homepage. We'll also soon be adding user stats into the mix so you'll be able to see your rep in some form or another.

Any thoughts? Feel free to share them in here, I want to get it right this time and welcome your ideas to help get us there! :)

Posted 04 September 2010 at 20:59

15 replies

Only one comment, I 'like' :p

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Posted 04 September 2010 at 21:59

[quote=DedWards]Only one comment, I 'like' :p[/quote]

Oh, you! :o

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Posted 04 September 2010 at 22:10

Simply Brilliant. :D

I like too. :o

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Posted 05 September 2010 at 06:42

I'm for it, well done indeed.

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Posted 05 September 2010 at 17:28

Whoo! Thanks so much guys im pumped we got a solution to the problem

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Posted 05 September 2010 at 17:35

Hmmm...can't say I like the pop-up for the like button though.

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Posted 05 September 2010 at 18:08

Hmm, I was debating the pop-up, I guess it's not really necessary... :P

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Posted 05 September 2010 at 20:31

I don't think so, just an unnecessary click.

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Posted 05 September 2010 at 21:01

Gary, I like this idea, but I see one flaw in it, that you mentioned in a way, and it's brought me to a question:

What's to stop the cheaters from before whom used multiple accounts to down other decks for their own to abuse this system?

In a way, I see it as the cheaters being able to use their multiple accounts to give their main one (or all of them) some serious voting power to still cheat their decks to the top of the list. It's a great idea, in theory, but would seriously backfire if someone were to exploit it.

Now, with a lot of my criticism, I have a potential fix:

Why not limit every IP to a single account, and limit that account to that specific IP only? I'm sure you guys know how to do that.

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Posted 06 September 2010 at 02:39

Heh, not everybody has a static IP address. People might want to login from multiple places i.e. home, the office, school etc. Also, if the cheaters really wanted to, they could just use a proxy to sign up multiple accounts. There's just no way that IP addresses can be used in association to accounts I'm afraid! :(

I understand the concerns, I have them myself, however... This system will hopefully make it much more of a pain to cheat (think of all the time and effort involved in pumping up your own rep and I think I may have a way to spot the accounts that try it. All I need to do is flag up the cheaters and ban their accounts and all of their hard work will have been for nothing, and something they won't want to bother doing again - that's my plan!

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Posted 06 September 2010 at 08:51

[QUOTE=Gary]Heh, not everybody has a static IP address. People might want to login from multiple places i.e. home, the office, school etc. Also, if the cheaters really wanted to, they could just use a proxy to sign up multiple accounts. There's just no way that IP addresses can be used in association to accounts I'm afraid! :(

I understand the concerns, I have them myself, however... This system will hopefully make it much more of a pain to cheat (think of all the time and effort involved in pumping up your own rep and I think I may have a way to spot the accounts that try it. All I need to do is flag up the cheaters and ban their accounts and all of their hard work will have been for nothing, and something they won't want to bother doing again - that's my plan![/QUOTE]

Agreed, the IP thing won't work. I, for one, use my home connection, my work (without them knowing :-P ), an internet cafe and my cell to connect.

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Posted 06 September 2010 at 21:38

I think this is an awesome idea, :D i don't really think the IP address thing is completely necesary, but it definitely wouldn't hurt and is a great idea. I do think the 'like' button is a good idea to make people start commenting more overall, and having no negative rating is just genuis. With how busy all the guys running the site have been with m11 and the other new additions, plus this, i think you all deserve a big pat on the back. Whatever its worth to you, you deserve 2 pats Gary. lol

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Posted 07 September 2010 at 04:11

[QUOTE=demonicdragon1701]Gary, I like this idea, but I see one flaw in it, that you mentioned in a way, and it's brought me to a question:

What's to stop the cheaters from before whom used multiple accounts to down other decks for their own to abuse this system?

In a way, I see it as the cheaters being able to use their multiple accounts to give their main one (or all of them) some serious voting power to still cheat their decks to the top of the list. It's a great idea, in theory, but would seriously backfire if someone were to exploit it.

Now, with a lot of my criticism, I have a potential fix:

Why not limit every IP to a single account, and limit that account to that specific IP only? I'm sure you guys know how to do that.[/QUOTE]

Yeah about that. See, there's a problem, mainly with families who share a desktop. Say two brothers have two different accounts on the same desktop. In your scenario, either one or both would get kicked off of the site forever.

Anyhow, a possible tracking system might work which alerts you guys if a series of accounts votes the same way on the same things. Sure it'll take a little work, but it seems like an uncheatable solution to me
(just keep the system a secret. SHHHHHHHH!!!! :) )

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Posted 07 September 2010 at 05:56

[quote=D_ROC]Whatever its worth to you, you deserve 2 pats Gary. lol[/quote]

I'll take them, thanks! ;)

[quote=whitey_mcfly;12392]Anyhow, a possible tracking system might work which alerts you guys if a series of accounts votes the same way on the same things.[/quote]

That's exactly what I had in mind, when you combine this with the time it'll take to actually make an account worth anything, if you're cheating and you get one of your accounts banned I don't think you'll be too happy about it or want to make the effort of trying again! It just sucks a bit that we're having to dedicate development time to stop cheating when we could be working on something else. :P

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Posted 07 September 2010 at 08:28

[QUOTE=Gary]It just sucks a bit that we're having to dedicate development time to stop cheating when we could be working on something else. :P[/QUOTE]

It really is too sad. :(

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Posted 07 September 2010 at 09:25