10 votes

Daily Tildes discussion - thoughts on sorting for topic lists?

I've made a couple of fairly minor changes to sorting for topic listings recently:

  • pulled the sorting options (most votes, most comments, newest) out of a dropdown list and made them into tabs, to make it easier to switch between them
  • added an "all time" option to the time-period dropdown

The default sorting on the site is also still currently set to "newest" since the activity is low, and I think that's the best way to make sure new posts are getting seen.

I'm also planning to add a sort along the lines of "recent activity" where it will behave like a forum - new topics still come in at the top of the list, but any time a topic gets a new comment it moves back up to the top as well. This will mean that active topics stay near the top, instead of gradually being pushed down by new ones, regardless of how active they are.

Any thoughts on that idea or the other changes? Once I do add the "activity" sort, do you think that's a better option as the default for now, or should I stick with "newest" (or even switch to one of the others)? Any other suggestions or ideas for different sorting methods?

7 comments

  1. [2]
    Amarok
    Link
    I love having these options as tabs for one-click access - simplicity is king. Maybe we can even let users define their own views someday, once the tagging systems are all grown up. I'd stick to...

    I love having these options as tabs for one-click access - simplicity is king. Maybe we can even let users define their own views someday, once the tagging systems are all grown up.

    I'd stick to newest for now, though I definitely want to have the 'recent activity' option as well. It's always bothered me that other aggregators so aggressively turn over their content - some threads deserve following for days, weeks, even months in rare cases. We need to make sure tildes can support a longer-term view of its content than all of the other failing aggregators out there.

    I'd also start thinking about how to keep 'new' submissions healthily mixed into all of the views, so that fresh content has a larger number of eyes on it than the new queue ghost-towns of sites like reddit and hackernews. We need to be better at that too.

    4 votes
    1. cfabbro
      Link Parent
      Yeah, the New section ghost-town problem is a huge problem IMO, and very much needs to be addressed somehow. That was why I suggested combining Newest + Recent Activity so it would encourage...

      Yeah, the New section ghost-town problem is a huge problem IMO, and very much needs to be addressed somehow. That was why I suggested combining Newest + Recent Activity so it would encourage people to spend more time in Newest. Or maybe even reserving some slots for Newest submissions at the top on every sort tab, even the Most ones.

      2 votes
  2. [3]
    cfabbro
    (edited )
    Link
    I wouldn't mind a Recent Activity + Newest combo for sorting where 2-4 "sticky" type slots at the top of the page are reserved for recent comment activity posts and the rest underneath it are...

    I wouldn't mind a Recent Activity + Newest combo for sorting where 2-4 "sticky" type slots at the top of the page are reserved for recent comment activity posts and the rest underneath it are newest posts. The Recent Activity mechanic being combined with Newest will also help encourage people to continue visiting the newest section after it is no longer default. Recent + Newest would also work well as the default sort IMO.

    p.s. OP comments not triggering the "Recent Activity" bump is probably necessary so it doesn't get abused, along with maybe not having individual back and forth replies triggering it either.

    Some other future topic sort ideas:

    • Adding Ranges to 'other period', E.g. between X date:time and Y date:time.
    • Supervoted (similar to gilded on reddit) to highlight topics that have been supervoted
    • Best Comments (best ratio of good comment tags in the topic)
    • At some point a Rising section since Newest can get overwhelming at scale (implemented better than the useless reddit one)

    Some other future comment sort ideas:

    • Supervoted (highlight supervoted comments)
    • Best Threads (best ratio of good comment tags in the thread)
    • Recent Activity (similar to topic one but for comment threads)
    • Newest & Oldest sorts
    4 votes
    1. [2]
      Amarok
      Link Parent
      Regarding the ranges - it'd be nice to be able to set and save my own range definitions. I find myself wanting 'last month/30 days' and 'last three months' or 'last six months' from time to time....

      Regarding the ranges - it'd be nice to be able to set and save my own range definitions. I find myself wanting 'last month/30 days' and 'last three months' or 'last six months' from time to time. Early days for that on tildes I know, but it'll come. :)

      4 votes
      1. Deimos
        Link Parent
        Just in case you haven't noticed, you can already do this - click on the time period dropdown, and choose "other period" at the bottom, then type in "30d" or "90d" or "180d" or whatever you want...

        Just in case you haven't noticed, you can already do this - click on the time period dropdown, and choose "other period" at the bottom, then type in "30d" or "90d" or "180d" or whatever you want (leave off the "d" for hours instead of days).

        You can't natively "save" the different periods, but it's easy to enter and you could always make a bookmark.

        3 votes
  3. rkcr
    Link
    The fact that the different sorting options are just query parameters makes the default moot to me; I have a bookmark that goes to my preferred sort. I think that the current sort methods...

    The fact that the different sorting options are just query parameters makes the default moot to me; I have a bookmark that goes to my preferred sort.

    I think that the current sort methods (+activity) are sufficient for launching Tildes.

    2 votes
  4. nothis
    Link
    IMO the fact that the new queue has to be specifically searched for is a real problem with reddit and once user count rises it might be good to “force” people to have a look there. Maybe add one...

    IMO the fact that the new queue has to be specifically searched for is a real problem with reddit and once user count rises it might be good to “force” people to have a look there. Maybe add one “new” post at the top, even if sorting is set to hot/best? Of course it’s questionable if you really want to “expose” users to the unfiltered new queue but it seems like a reasonable trade off.

    2 votes