Off-topic posts bump unrelated content: 3 category-sorting proposals

Off-topic posts can bump old and irrelevant information. This information may be old, defunct as of currently, or outdated. With more and more New Members joining the DevForum, off-topic/bump-posts are more common.


Proposal #1: Top Rated (aka Most Liked)

Similar to Roblox, there will be a top-rated sort. However, it would be measured differently. Roblox uses a like:dislike ratio and auto-converts to percentage. Since there is no possible way to thumbs-down a post, it would be possibly measured in three ways:

  1. How much likes a topic has
  2. A day:favorite ratio for more relevant information
  3. A reply:favorite ratio for more relevant information.

I personally would prioritize option three, because it calculates relevance and how likable the topic is. To demonstrate why #3 is more accurate than #2: old threads may still be relevant. How to use DataStore2 - Data Store caching and data loss prevention was created on June 2018, and is arguably one of the top tutorials on the DevForum.

Since option one is still accurate, there can be an option that says “Top Rated” and an option that says “Trending” (option three).

Although there is the “Top” feature, the majority of users may not know when a specific post was made.


Proposal #2: Anti-bump Mechanic

This proposal shows no apparent/visual difference. The anti-bump mechanic is a feature that sets an exceedingly high character count (ie 225) for threads older than a month. This is to prevent replies that come out like:

“Thank you!
“This is amazing!”
“OMG you are such an amazing dude thank you so much!!”

But rather state important flaws, concerns, or anything else along those lines. This is “automated quality sort” to some extent, for me.

On top of this, when reaching the proper character count, there would still be a UI that shows “this topic is … old, do you want to bump” (the system right now).


Proposal #3: Quality Control

Although bumping can popularize old threads, it’s best if the staff chose what to bump.

There are two options for this proposal:

  1. Staff bump topics (this can be automated to some extent, ie staff chose to bump specific topics every month automatically).
  2. A UI that says “Staff Picks” - staff chose what content to put there.

Since this thread is specifically targeted to #learning-resources, this (as well as all the other proposals) would be easy, since all the content there is quality, and community resources/tutorials are rarely created in comparison to other categories (ie #development-support).

Although all of #learning-resources consists of quality, the content on option two would show tutorials/resources that are general (ie how to layout builds/UIs), and for resources, useful resources (ie anti-exploit, data-store, etc.)


You may vote for multiple

  • Proposal #1
  • Proposal #2
  • Proposal #3

0 voters

  • Prop. #1 Opt. #1
  • Prop. #1 Opt. #2
  • Prop. #1 Opt. #3
  • Prop. #2 Opt. #1
  • Prop. #3 Opt. #1
  • Prop. #3 Opt. #2

0 voters

  • I like this idea
  • Keep everything as-is

0 voters

Bumping is against the forum guidelines, and when threads are necrobumped (revived after having seen no activity for months) they tend to be locked. In general off-topic posts can be flagged and are taken care of that way. What problem are you addressing here that isn’t solved by aforementioned?

1 Like

Even though it is against the rules, some users would tend to say phrases like:

Once they are flagged/deleted they would still bump the topic. I also wanted to address better solutions to sorting out a topic.

Thank you for the concern.

A necrobumped topic generally disappears from the latest posts quickly again after being locked. Perhaps the poll needs to include an option to keep everything as-is, for those that see little problem in this.

1 Like

Since the poll includes checkboxes, a user can chose none. However, to show the percentage of how many people disagree, I will add your suggestion.

When we move out a bump, we have the option to reset the bump too, which we do.

3 Likes

This post has not received the support I desired.

Out of 13 voters, 12 are against this idea (92%). These results, as well as multiple replies, have made me aware that this idea lacks an accurate understanding of how bumping works.

Thank you for those (specifically @TaaRt) for making me aware of this; I will take this information into consideration.