awesome comments
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Xianhang ZhangBumblebee Labs
1iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
2 person team
4 months old Goal is to build “provocative social
software” 2 product releases, 1 more in the
pipeline Happy to talk more after this about
collaboration.2iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
3iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
For many people, commenting is their first
and possibly only foray into the social web
4iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
“Communications tools don't get socially interesting until they get technologically
boring”– Clay Shirky
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 5
There has not been much innovation in the comment space
Slashdot pioneered their “Karma” system in 1997
To this day, I’m not aware of any other system of that level of complexity
most major sites are still using the most basic commenting systems despite their obvious flaws
6iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 7
8iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
Signal/noise ratio is too low
Insightful comments get lost
Lack of readership due to low quality
Hard time keeping track of the narrative thread of the conversation
Despite this, people yearn for conversation (Herring)
9iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
“When all you have is a hammer, all you can see are nails”
Sociability problems CAN be fixed through design. But…
They cannot be fixed through Interaction Design, a new discipline is needed
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 10
As HCI researchers, we have been neglecting the development of tools to help designers solve
sociability problems
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 11
Small, personal blogs read largely by friends and family
Social networking appsHighly targeted blogs aimed at a
professional audienceSites cultivating return audiences
rather than drive by, search engine traffic
12iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
Large sitesSites with high traffic per pageSites with low traffic per pageEntertainment sitesSites with an influx of new usersSites with controversial topicsSites with low community
involvement
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 13
Poor explanation:
There’s a lot of stupid people out there
14iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
Better explanation:
15iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
Human behavior is governed by sets of constraints
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 16
Laws of PhysicsLaws of Physics
Evolution/GeneticsEvolution/Genetics
Cultural Norms/Legal SystemsCultural Norms/Legal Systems
Contextual NormsContextual Norms
Other PeopleOther People
Free WillFree Will
= Hard constraint
= Soft constraint
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 17
With virtual systems, there are an additional set of constraints:
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 18
HardwareHardware
InterfaceInterface
SoftwareSoftware
Social SystemsSocial Systems
= Hard constraint
= Soft constraint
Individual constraints can be accomplished at different layers
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 19
20iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
Works Doesn’t Work
Personal Blogs Large Sites
Social Networks Mostly new users
Professional Audiences Entertainment Sites
Returning Users Low community Involvement
Comments work when there are strong social constraints and weak interface constraints
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 21
HardwareHardware
Interface
SoftwareSoftware
Social Systems
= Weak layers
= Strong layers
Comments fail when there are weak social constraints and weak interface constraints
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 22
HardwareHardware
Interface
SoftwareSoftware
Social Systems
= Weak layers
= Strong layers
Could Comments work when there are weak social constraints and strong interface constraints?
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 23
HardwareHardware
Interface
SoftwareSoftware
Social Systems
= Weak layers
= Strong layers
Increasing barriers to participation (registration, captchas etc.)
ModerationDisemvowellingROBOT 9000RatingSorting/Filtering
24iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
For conversation to happen, there must be a narrative thread.
If I refer to Comment X, you must have read Comment X to understand my reference
Rating systems must keep the chronology intact while making highly rated comments visible
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 25
This is most often done via threading
Heavyweight approach, lots of intricacies
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 26
Initial site developed over 12 hoursVery simple concept
27iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
28iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 29
How do we prevent this site from being just a flash in the pan?
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 30
Build remarkable content
Remarkableadjective Pronunciation: \ri-ˈmär-kə-bəl\
Something which people will remark about.
31iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
Initial user impressions are generally very positive but the site can quickly lose it’s appeal
In order to support long term growth, we needed to build conversation around each question
Design constraints: Anonymous everything Heavy reliance on external/search engine traffic Many questions, long tail of quality Primary navigation mode is random
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 32
Large sitesSites with high traffic per pageSites with low traffic per pageEntertainment sitesSites with an influx of new usersSites with controversial topicsSites with low community
involvement
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 33
Commenting system designed from the ground up.
Goals Drive out poor comments Support remarkable content Support real conversation Give people a sense of ownership
34iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
Every comment has vote up and vote down buttons
35iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
New comment Registered users: 2.0 points Unregistered users: 1.0 points
Vote button Registered users: 1.0 points Unregistered users: 0.1 points
36iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
Progressively degrade comment readability at lower scores
Show undegraded comment to original poster
37iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
Voting is unbounded both up and down but…
Makes it easy to find and promote remarkable comments
We are using the lack of information as a design feature
Actual Score Displayed Score
-2.3 -2.3
1.7 1.7
3.5 3.0+
98.6 3.0+
100.1 Awesome
38iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
Non threadedComments are sorted by displayed
score, then by date postedReply button on all comments
(coming!)All replies to your comment are
highlighted
39iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
Original posters are highlighted
Identity can be established while maintaining anonymity
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 40
Visiting a question/comment you made automatically upvotes all it’s children
Returning to a question/comment rewards your repliers
You are personally in charge of voting your repliers correctly
41iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
All comments at 3.0+ are displayed in chronological order
Conversation can happen at 3.0+This is the default if you post as a
registered user (2.0) who replies to a poster who regularly returns (1.0)
42iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
Commenting systems are generally horribly designed from a sociability perspective
Better conversation is a force multiplier for the social web
Awesome comments is a ground up rethinking of how commenting should be implemented
Still very much an experiment, details will change as the system matures
43iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008
Bumblebee Labs: http://blog.bumblebeelabs.com
Am I Normal or Not?: http://www.aminormalornot.com
Email me: hang@bumblebeelabs.com
Need a designer? michael@bumblebeelabs.com
iSchool Research Conversation - October 24th 2008 44
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