Blog

12

1

Paleohacks is a participatory site. If you truly believe something is offensive or counter to the FAQ of this site, please flag it. If you have enough points, you can vote to close a question. The moderators are different people with all sorts of different levels of involvement, so we can't often catch bad things in time and sometimes things are borderline and we aren't sure whether or not to delete them. If we vote to close, things automatically close and never get any community input. We do delete and close a lot of stuff though, mainly obvious trolling, ads, and things that are really really obviously offensive. But we miss things too.

Also, the site will automatically close or delete things if they have enough flags or votes to close (I think it needs five). It's magic and it's great for us mods since we don't have to do anything, but it requires your participation.

What doesn't help us is to answer the question with complaints about the moderators or about the site having questions you don't like. That's not an answer and that doesn't make the site better.

UPDATE BY PATRIK: If you haven't read the FAQ -- please do.

Edit: also if you are mad about something being closed, you can vote to reopen!

flag
9 
 Here's to the moderators that allow us users to post and go about our lives, while they work behind the scenes to make this such an informative site. – Tom R. Nov 3 2011 at 2:28
4 
 Less Kamal. I hate that guy, he sucks and stuff. It is totally unacceptable that he is the way that he is and it needs to stop. – Stabby Nov 3 2011 at 3:54
4 
 Hey! How do you know my middle initial? Did I share it once or something? Do you have pages worth of dirt on me like Mari and you aren't bluffing? Well Kamal, you have sealed your fate. For too long you have been a thorn in my side, Kamal the Camel, what with those things that you do that are really bad and such. You know what I mean! Expect to die soon. – Stabby Nov 3 2011 at 4:23
4 
 I've been compiling erroneous Stabby quotes for years. Even before you were on paleohacks. Ever seen The Truman Show? You're Jim Carrey, I'm Ed Harris. Ever seen Zoolander? You're Derek Zoolander, I'm Mugatu. Who cares about Stabby Raccoon anyways? The man has only one look for Christs sake! Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigre? Theyre the same face! Doesnt anybody notice this? I feel like Im taking crazy pills! – Kamal♦ Nov 3 2011 at 14:10
4 
 PH Bromancing. Get a room guys. ;) – gilliebean♦ Nov 3 2011 at 20:08
show 5 more comments

17 Answers

15

Perhaps a button that say something like,"New Users are highly RECOMMENDED to read and understand these concepts before asking questions."

Important links and buttons at the top of every page (not computer-literate enough to know if this works in this interace) could be:

1) Paleohacks FAQ -

2) Paleohacks abbreviations

1) Top 10 (or 20) Myths of Paleo with references - it seems many repeated questions on the same issues are asked by newbies.

3) Paleo resources - print and online

4) how to use Paleohacks to search and use the interface

link|flag
5 
 Agree. Maybe a "sticky" post at the top to deal with these for newcomers who may be completely overwhelmed by the abbreviations and often complex nature of discussions. – Harry Nov 3 2011 at 15:45
4 
 FAQs are a bit like the instructions with self assembly furniture, you only go and read them after you have gotten yourself into a mess :) – Matt Nov 3 2011 at 15:55
2 
 Not that you are necessarily not aware of this, but if you're not then your post is deeply ironic: we have something like what you suggest already in place, built into the fabric of the site. paleohacks.com/questions/28585/… It is linked to in the FAQ. (I know that most long-time paleohackers probably haven't looked at the FAQ in a while ...) – Paul Nov 3 2011 at 19:18
And of course your suggestion would make it all much more visible. – Paul Nov 3 2011 at 19:18
1 
 No! The site looks so clean now. – Kamal♦ Nov 3 2011 at 23:48
show 3 more comments
13

I'm new here, but I agree with the option to Private message people. :)

link|flag
Often people list their emails on their profiles; but in the absence of that, this might be a nice option. – gilliebean♦ Nov 3 2011 at 20:04
1 
 oh. gillibean you're a moderator, how wonderful. take it up with PaleoHacks to do this! :) – Henry S Nov 4 2011 at 3:28
1 
 this would be my #1 request for PaleoHacks. – Jack Kronk Nov 4 2011 at 14:34
3 
 I'd modify that a bit - you have to achieve a certain level of status before you're allowed to private-message people. Adds in a bit of a safeguard for the receiver (who might then be more willing to be contacted), plus an incentive for the person who wants to send a message - you have to 'earn it' first. – Betsy Richter Nov 5 2011 at 0:10
You are guaranteed to be picked up by spam bots if you list your email in your profile. – Wisper Nov 7 at 11:51
13

I've never asked a question because I always find the answers by using the excellent search function. I think the site is a terrific resource.

link|flag
6

Good place, this paleohacks.

I sometimes see new people ask questions that have been asked dozens of times before. Then people come on and show them links to other threads stating the same question.

Maybe make it even more clear to new guys that they can search for stuff and find answers to questions they may be having.

link|flag
15 
 I understand the desire not to have constant repetition and I do agree that many questions--especially yes/no question can be answered by searching the old posts. But, I don't see why it is always a problem to bring up a question again. Not all questions got good answers the first time through. New information is always coming available which could potentially change an answer. And, new members are joining all the time who may be able to bring a fresh answer to old question. The old posts are still available to reference, but there is no interaction there anymore. – Kewpie Nov 3 2011 at 1:22
Good points, Kewpie. – Anonymous Chump Nov 3 2011 at 1:31
2 
 yah good points... I get what you are saying, but I only partially agree. The part I don't agree with is that there is no reason to ask the same exact question and get a whole bunch of people responding with a lot of the same answers and have 2 different threads going that are essentially hashing out the same conversation. – Jack Kronk Nov 3 2011 at 14:50
1 
 I think there should and can be interaction on all the older questions. I often like to stroll through random questions that I've never read and smatter my daily allowance of up-votes... – gilliebean♦ Nov 3 2011 at 20:08
1 
 Jack what if someone has a better answer or that new science leads to a new information? – The Quilt Nov 3 2011 at 21:33
show 4 more comments
6

A mobile site would be nice. Sometimes I'm out and about and need to quickly search something.

link|flag
1 
 I agree! Patrik, is there a mobile option that you can turn on in the backend? – gilliebean♦ Nov 4 2011 at 17:55
I can access the site pretty easily on my phone using opera browser for mobile phones. – Caveman formally known as Dan Nov 5 2011 at 4:52
5

Would be nice to be able to add people to your contacts and have a PM system of sorts, so you could network or ask questions without having to put everything out in public.

link|flag
2 
 Always room in your profile for contact info in your bio. Or a link to your blog/twitter page. – Matt Nov 3 2011 at 1:36
I know, but perhaps I don't want to network off of this site? Sometimes I like to keep PM's strictly within the site, instead of having my email or Facebook account for all to see. – Nemesis Nov 3 2011 at 21:14
1 
 Some might not want that info available to all though. – mari Nov 3 2011 at 21:14
5

How can you make the PaleoHacks moderators make this site a better place?

In my opinion it is simple - Follow the golden rule and thumper rule.

For those of you who don't know:

Golden Rule: Do Unto others as you would like others to do unto you!

Thumper Rule: If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all!

PS> don't be a d**chebag.

link|flag
5

A participatory site is perilously close to democracy so it's going to be messy. IMO, PH is an amazing site with just enough "clutter" to encourage and support creative discussion. If a comment offends me, I'll either withdraw from that thread or type a rebuttal.

EDIT Jan-10-12: I notice that the number of questions is sky-rocketing. And I can't help noticing how many exact-duplicate and off-topic questions are coming through.

So, I'm changing my answer. I'd like to see a requirement that new questions must receive 4 "Open" votes before making the list of active questions--Patrik could create a pending tab and allow moderators and/or people above some points-threshold voting access or something. Those who choose to vote are responsible for searching for recent duplicate/very similar questions since they can probably remember seeing them anyhow.

link|flag
5 
 Nance -- this isn't a democracy. This is a benevolent dictatorship run by me & my hench-men & hench-women. :) – Patrik♦ Nov 3 2011 at 19:28
Good! I feel much more secure now. :-)) – Nance Nov 4 2011 at 16:07
I know I'm still pretty new here, but I would be totally OK with a time delay between getting an account and gaining the ability to ask a question. If you had to wait a week before asking your question, you'd be a lot more motivated to surf around the site and maybe find the other threads asking the same thing. – Kelly Jan 11 2012 at 2:17
That's a great idea, Kelly! I spent a lot of time reading at first and that makes sense. – Nance Jan 11 2012 at 2:35
4

I'm a new member and I often do searches on a topic and find an "answer" that I think is incorrect or incomplete. However I hesitate to post my view if it's older than a month or so. How old is too old for me to post a comment?

link|flag
Good question, particularly because, as Kewpie pointed out above, the interaction is dead on the older posts. Maybe the older ones can close after an amount of time or something like that. – Anonymous Chump Nov 3 2011 at 1:37
7 
 If you post a new answer to an old question that's good. YOu can get the necromancer badge too. – Bread-Eating Beelzebub Nov 3 2011 at 1:43
2 
 If it's a comment to an answer then the person who answered it will receive a little alert letting him or her know that he or she has a comment. So the person who answered will see it but it's unlikely anyone else will. So you could just add an answer to the thread and address that person's answer. The answer to the old thread will bump it back up to the top of the board. (You could then also add a comment to the other person's answer so he/she knows you've given a new answer. Can be nice to get that other person involved in some dialogue.) – Paul Nov 3 2011 at 1:48
I love that there's a necromancer badge for that! – Jeff Nov 3 2011 at 2:34
4 
 OMG, I so want to be a necromancer. Thanks, Melissa and for the explanation, WCC Paul. – Renee Nov 3 2011 at 2:41
2

Let's say Gary Taubes updates his blog and a user notices and wants to spread the news. Would it be appropriate for said user to post a simple message here, maybe use the [meta] tag?

I'm wondering because I just checked his blog for the umpteenth time this week.

BIG NEWS: No update!

link|flag
3 
 It's called rss :) – Bread-Eating Beelzebub Nov 3 2011 at 1:22
1 
 You could always ask a question about the blog post. Ideally a question other than "Hey have you guys seen this?" A question that will get everyone talking about it .... – Paul Nov 3 2011 at 1:50
Good point WCC. Sometimes going that extra step to formulate a good question makes a big difference. As Bonnie Raitt said-- Let's give 'em something to talk about, let's give 'em something to figure out... – Kamal♦ Nov 3 2011 at 14:53
2

I like that up or downvotes are anonymous, but I think downvotes should be required (or at least encouraged) to include a brief explanation or reasoning for a downvote.

link|flag
1 
 Ah, that most contentious of issues :) paleohacks.com/questions/18088/… – Kamal♦ Nov 3 2011 at 1:18
2 
 Matt- please explain to us right now why you downvoted whatever you downvoted :) – Kamal♦ Nov 3 2011 at 1:44
1 
 I just found out that I can downvote, when I couldn't before. So I downvoted some random comment just to see if I could, then immediately eliminated the downvote. But I still got my "critic" badge for it! – garymar Nov 3 2011 at 4:46
1 
 Kamal, I did comment on my downvote (not necessarily saying that I downvoted though), and do comment most of the time. Not that I downvote too often, I'd rather upvote good answers above a bad answer. – Matt Nov 3 2011 at 11:47
3 
 How about separating the Up votes from the Down votes. A question with 5 Up votes is clearly different from one with 20 Up votes and 15 Down votes. – AdrianaG Nov 4 2011 at 13:33
show 15 more comments
2

This seems to have turned into a feature request thread...

Anywho... the ability to take back an up or down vote would be nice. You can only do that right now by setting it in the opposite direction. It'd be nice to be able to set it back to "no vote." But, maybe it's possible and I'm missing something.

link|flag
It is possible, or at least I've done it before. In fact, I just did it with your answer: I voted it up and then clicked on the up arrow again and it went away. Maybe it's too late once you've switched to a different page though. Hmmm ... let me see. – Paul Nov 3 2011 at 23:37
I left and came back. Still works. But I assume there is a time limit of some kind or other. (Going to change it back to an upvote now though ...) – Paul Nov 3 2011 at 23:38
There's a time limit of a few hours, I think. – Olivia Nov 4 2011 at 12:49
It can be done. The answer is here: paleohacks.com/questions/30304/… – Ambimorph Nov 4 2011 at 15:00
@Ambimorph: This is what I just said. The only question is the time limit. I just tried with an upvote of mine on one of your posts (not difficult to find, if you know what I mean ...) and couldn't reverse it, because it was too long ago. – Paul Nov 4 2011 at 22:14
show 1 more comment
1

Phase out the anonymity. I have never heard a cogent argument for anonymity. This is not a whistle-blower site, it is not needed. Anonymity creates more 'chaff' and 'noise'. Anonymity is, IMHO, perhaps the worst thing about this site. Cheers to all.

link|flag
No, no, no. As long as comments are attached to usernames and accounts, PH can handle anonymity - warnings can be issued and accounts can simply be suspended. But I wouldn't post some stuff here if I knew my employer or other people I know could easily find it. – barefeet Nov 6 2011 at 10:05
Barefeet: Why would you have a problem with your 'employer or some other people' seeing that you posted a comment/question/answer about paleo-type diet, health and/or fitness? This is where I just do not get it. Where is all this fear coming from? – John J. Collins Nov 6 2011 at 17:04
Anonymity is essential. Most people do not want their private views on all kinds of topics available to all. We might be advising the sugar industry for work or have a very fat customer who eats pies all day and we do not want them to know our views on eating or whatever. – EnglishRose Nov 7 at 8:38
0

How about giving out prizes for best question/answer of the month or something like that?

link|flag
0

While it may seem obvious, there's a difference between adding a comment and answering a question. I got caught up my first time here by "Answering" a comment on the root post which was then woefully out of context. Might want to explain that in the FAQ.

I would love to be able to subscribe to all answers and comments from a question. Is that possible?

Nice site!

link|flag
1 
 Look at the bottom of this page: "question feed." You can also get feeds for individual users by going to user pages. I suspect many people subscribe to my user feed, for example, because the things I say are so scintillating. – Paul Nov 4 2011 at 11:54
Thanks Paul -- I subscribe to the Question Feed, but that only gives the questions. It would be super to be able to subscribe to all posts/answers on a particular question - preferably feed, but even email notice of new comments/answers would be helpful. Alternately, when there are a lot of comments, they are collapsed and to check for new ones is tedious. It would be nice if one could "expand all". Then I could at least search on various terms to see if there's added content. – Evelyn aka CarbSane Nov 4 2011 at 12:23
The option to show Comments in reverse chronological order would facilitate following up at rhe Comment level. Keeping up with the Comments (not Answers) on a monster thread such as the recent Jack Kruse thread is downright tedious. There is a better way. – AdrianaG Nov 4 2011 at 14:55
No, no, Evelyn, not the feed on the main page, the feed on this page. Each question has its own feed. But it will only get you answers and not also comments, I believe. – Paul Nov 4 2011 at 22:02
Ahh, I see now Paul, but the comments tend to hold a lot of the action. Yeah, Adriana that might be a good idea. As it is also when comments are collapsed they are out of order by voting. At least being able to "expand all" would be helpful. Not optimal but could use browser search and/or scrolling to see if there's anything new. – Evelyn aka CarbSane Nov 6 2011 at 11:39
show 1 more comment
0

Networking in order to get in touch with more localised people (and therefore resources) would be great - I love all the answers but as an Australia am often having to re-interpret the American versions... It seems that I can get a hold of a lot of things that you can't in the US and then vice versa.

oooh and don't shoot me down but swapping recipes in a whole other section would be fun!

link|flag
0

A very good site. I post on a lot of topics in a lot of places and also advise on sites and terms (attorney). I think the balance is good here and towards free speech and of course the main thing that makes it good is the contributors and their efforts to help. Also if sites are too censored people do not go there and do not post and they die.

link|flag

Your Answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.