THUMBS UP ON COUNTING THUMBS
by hipockets | January 19, 2017 12:52 am
I follow SG by subscribing to the emailed comment notifications and use them to collect KSS’ comments for maintaining the Love KSS spreadsheet (more about that later, see the current KSS thread for its URL). I go to a thread online only (usually) when I need to clarify something about a KSS statement. Since I have a slow computer and it can take several seconds to load a KSS page, I rarely use the Thumbs Up Button (TUB), which is a shame because many comments should be appreciated by clicking on the TUB.
SIDEBAR: Since I rarely use the TUB, I have wanted for ages to email (though Lynn) Glenn – newby3867 – and thank him for being him. His comments always pertain to a discussion about a stock and usually have the ideal format—a link to information and a brief synopsis about the link. He rarely copies and pastes an entire article. If I’m on line and I’m interested in the information, I can follow the link. If not, I don’t have to scroll very far to move past his comment.
Glenn, you are a MVC – a Most Valuable Contributor. Here’s a Humongous TUB for you!
I don’t mean to slight anyone –It’s just that I always think of emailing him when I open an email with one of his concise comments.
I have learned much from many of you, and many of you deserve Humongous TUBs And special Humongous TUBS for the other Docs!
SIDEBAR: When I’m on line and scroll past a comment that does not meet the “Etiquette” guidelines, I sometimes click on the “Thumbs Down Button” (tdb). More about this later, and a copy of the guidelines is inserted below for the benefit of new members (and some older members!, too!).
SIDEBAR: While I enjoy making my contribution to SG by maintaining the Love KSS database, there are only so many hours in a day. I am a stand-in primary care provider for a 90 year old neighbor with severe short term memory problems, a broken hip, and a mentally challenged 60 year old daughter living with her. I have been active for over a year in EVERYTOWN, a grass roots movement of Americans working to minimize gun violence. (More about EVERYTOWN later ). Due to those commitments, I rarely comment and you will see few TUBs or tdbs next to my posts,
The present system of summing the TUBs and tdbs to produce one number gives us very little information. Having individual totals, and “Member since” would be much more informative. Examples: 10 TUBS and 10 tdbs is much more informative than 0 TUBS, as is 11 TUBS and 10 tdbs as opposed to 1 TUB.
I would like to see at least 4 symbols for TUBs: one each for “Thank you for comment!”, “Honor Roll Post”, “You have my sympathy”, and “That’s funny”.
A tdb click is extremely ambiguous and unhelpful. I think very few comments that deserve a tdb click get one, because it is so ambiguous. I would like to see several tdb symbols: one each for “Don’t understand your point”, “Not appropriate for this thread”, “Strongly disagree with your statement”, “Complete waste of my time”, “I agree with part of this but disagree strongly with some of it”, “Enough already!”
These ideas could be implemented by having a “Rate This Comment” button, which, when clicked on, brings up a small window with all of the TUB and tdb buttons inside and shows the current total clicks for each.
As the membership grows, the number of frivolous posts and unwanted messages in email in-boxes will grow. I think the TUBs and tdbs approach would greatly assist in the self-governance allowed and promoted by Travis. Since he has more important things to do than spend much time on TUBs and tdbs programming, I encourage everyone to use them as is. As much as improvement is needed, they are better than nothing. It is okay to give a tdb click, even if it is ambiguous, if you have a valid reason for disliking a comment. Of course, it would be helpful to tell why you are giving it, but there are members who would be uncomfortable doing that.
To refresh everyone’s memory and list them for the newer members, here are some of the ETIQUETTE guidelines that were suggested by AlanH at http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2014/11/microblog-guidelines-for-new-members-posting-rules-and-etiquette/[1] The text in bold is my attempt to give you the gist of his comment. The text in italics is my addition to his comment.
1. PROBABLY MOST IMPORTANT..…Dont abuse KSS’s or any diligent members time/energies asking for info/analysis on random tickers that you happened to stumble on, without, at least, stating why you think its interesting and what YOU have found out for yourself thus far (and, to begin with, make it concise please!). KSS is a tad busy merely saving lives between posting here, to do an hours free DD for you, lazy bones. You can use one of the numbered tabs at http://www.tinyurl.com/PagingDrKSS[2] to guide you in researching a stock and presenting your thoughts..
2. The Bio threads are fundamentally about investing. Comments should be restricted to investing topics that relate to the thread’s title. Better to say nothing than say something that is not relevant to that title. Comments are NOT a replacement for Twitter or a place for innumerable Twitter references. [ Sidebar – on a personal note, I have sight in just one eye, and I have a large ball of floaters in that eye. Several twitter references in one comment are an unreadable visual cacophony to me, and I dislike them intensely. I have tdb-ed some of them. ] There is a ‘Club House’ thread where you can banter all day…..disinterested others can avoid subscribing to it.
3. Avoid posting non essential, polite responses. Posting a ”Thank You” to Fred for wishing you Happy Birthday will clog up 1000+ email inboxes of 1000+ people. Use the Thumb tick instead……it says all that needs to be said, and accumulates against the friends name forever. Heart felt ‘Thank You’ posts for special outstanding informative comments are welcome. Give the gift that lasts…..a thumb!
4. Insofar as possible, stay on topic, or at least relevant to the core bio tickers. AlanH set up a new thread for questions/answers/info about other stocks of interest (which KSS/Travis and doubtless others can mull) here : http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2014/11/microblog-kss-club-house-other-interesting-tickers/[3] . Please subscribe / bookmark and use it.
5. Before you ask a question, ALWAYS do a comment search to see if its already been asked/answered here or elsewhere. To search the whole page you are on, use ”CTRL-F”. To search just the comments on the page you are on, use the search box just before the start of comments. To search the main threads, use the search box near the top of the page, or use Google with the search phrase: site:www.stockgumshoe.com xxxxxxxxxxxxx where xxxxxxxxxxxxx is the term you are searching for.
6. So that people can more easily track past information using comment search; please start ALL posts with the relevant $XYZ ticker (s). No ticker? Then the comment is obviously not about investing, so you have probably posted on the wrong thread…..or a thumb would have done just as well. Better to say nothing than say something that is not relevant to the thread title.
7. When calling attention to information from other sources, do not a cut and paste the whole blinking text! Post a link to the information and give a short summary so that others can judge if it pertains to something in which they have an interest. Thank you again, Glenn! 🙂 Remember that 1000+ people will see the comment, and not everyone will be interested in that particular topic. Also, the longer the comment the more space it takes up on computer monitors and the more time it takes to read the comments. And the longer it takes to load the thread. It just took 14 seconds to load “The Twelve Biotechs of Christmas: One” thread. It’s not always that bad, but sometimes it’s worse..
8. It’s easy to set up new threads if there’s any other topic you feel needs its own home…..so any suggestions welcomed…… that is IF you’re prepared to be Thread Leader and Referee. No passengers on this site!!
9. Be judicious when inserting images. I have an older computer with mediocre graphics, and it takes longer to load comments with images. Please use just the link to the image , not the image itself.. There have been images that in no way pertain to the topic of the comment, images that added nothing of importance, images of text in which the text was so small that it was unreadable, and images of diagrams / flowcharts that were unreadable. There was an image that was so large it consumed all of the display on my 21” monitor but added absolutely nothing !! I have tdb-ed some of those. So has someone else.
Providing a link to an image is great. Inserting the image itself can be a disservice for many of us.
SIDEBAR: For those who are not aware of the LOVE KSS spreadsheet, it lists links to over 1100 comments in which Dr. KSS[4] specifically thought a stock was worth buying, and links to over 1250 comments about his thinking on other stocks. There are also links to all of his threads, his thinking about a few IPOs, and some of his miscellaneous thoughts. And, there are over 100 links to information about technical analysis and over 550 links to all sorts of topics about investing, such as definitions . Did you know that there are at least definitions for 838 investing terms that begin with the letter ”F”?
SIDEBAR: Returning to EVERYTOWN –
Since 9/11, less than 150 people have died inside the United States due to terrorism, yet we are spending billions of dollars annually to try to prevent it. But since that date, over 300,000 have died because of gun violence (about 90 per day on average), and the cocooned brains in our federal government and some of our state governments have done nothing.
Our goal is to reduce violence, not to ban all guns. We will never be able to prevent all gun violence, but thousands of lives can be saved and an immeasurable amount of suffering can be prevented by preventing straw sales and implementing and enforcing thorough background checks. The number of people killed or injured during future mass slayings can be reduced by limiting the sale of certain types of firearms and bullets (and large capacity magazines) to well-qualified types of individuals.
We now have almost 4 million supporters and a donor base of over 85,000. We show up at statehouses, make calls and send emails to let legislators know that they are expected to stand on the side of public safety and will be held accountable for that at the ballot box. Over 18 states now require background checks, and we recently made significant progress during the November 2016 elections when voters in four states (Nevada, Washington, Oregon, and California) approved more stringent checks.
Over 80 % of NRA members feel that stronger background checks are needed. If you agree and want to help save lives and prevent the anguish of the people losing loved ones, please join EVERYTOWN at http://everytown.org/[5] . Membership is free If you join us, we will be one person closer to reaching the critical mass of public opinion needed to get the attention of local and national politicians.
If you agree with our goal, please join us. Also, please copy and paste the above 4 paragraphs into emails to your friends.
- http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2014/11/microblog-guidelines-for-new-members-posting-rules-and-etiquette/: http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2014/11/microblog-guidelines-for-new-members-posting-rules-and-etiquette/
- http://www.tinyurl.com/PagingDrKSS: http://www.tinyurl.com/PagingDrKSS
- http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2014/11/microblog-kss-club-house-other-interesting-tickers/: http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2014/11/microblog-kss-club-house-other-interesting-tickers/
- Dr. KSS: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/dr-kss/
- http://everytown.org/: http://everytown.org/
Source URL: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/2017/01/microblog-thumbs-up-on-counting-thumbs/
I agree with the thought about posting pictures when a link is enough. It takes up to a 1000 times more bandwidth for a picture than for a link and slows down page loading. That is a huge factor for those using phones or Ipads, etc as it costs to use bandwidth.
This is very well thought out commentary and should be read by everyone. I am out the door but will be more specific when I have some free time. Thank you for sharing some great ideas for improving the threads.
Great post, hipockets, and thanks for pointing me to Everytown!
I agree heartily with guidance #6. I read most comments through the e-mail notification on my phone, so even if a comment was posted “in reply” to something else, I will have no idea what is being referred to unless the ticker is listed.
Thanks for this HiPs. Im astonished that in ‘The Most Advanced Nation on the Planet’ you guys have so much problem with downloading. Here I sit on a boat in UK and I can download in nanno secs. Makes you wonder who the vilian is.
Hipockets, thanks for this post. I was glad to see your reference to the LOVE KSS spreadsheet, as I had the same idea to create a spreadsheet. However, I am not able find the spreadsheet you mention after using all your search suggestions in item #5. Could you possibly post a link to the spreadsheet? TIA
Hi ricklesroc and welcome!
Comment search spreadsheet in the current biotech thread
There shall be two
one HiPockets is librarian – KSS Da Man
one OpposableThumb is librarian – Gummie Biotech
ricklesroc —
http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2016/12/the-twelve-biotechs-of-christmas-one/comment-page-12/#comment-4916265
Whew! The referenced comment is Number 4916265 . I have sorted through over 4,000,000 emails! Not all of them from the BioTech threads, of course.
Question: What do SoGiAms thread rules, the U.S. Constitution, and Christianity all have in common ?
Answer: They are all good systems, but no one ever follows them.
Well God’s law was given by God to reveal we can’t keep the law. It shows us we are not sinless but sinners. The law is the strength of sin. It reveals we are all sinners. And only one is without sin and that was Christ. For the law is the strength of sin. And sin is the strength of the law. Oh death where is they sting ? Oh grave where is they victory? Thanks be to Christ! Death is swallowed up. FYI
Thinair
Wrong discussion group for this post?
.constitution and Christianity reference was what? Read what I was relying to.
Thanks for the suggestions and ideas, HiP — the longer I run this site (we’ll hit our tenth anniversary in March — time to come up with a celebration!), the more I find that adjustments and improvements have extremely different impacts on different readers. We have been through four or five major redesigns and major foundational shifts in our software during that time, and are finally stable enough to try rebuilding and improving some more aspects of the site… next will be improvements to the reviews systems for investment newsletters, since that’s still 90% of what brings readers to Stock Gumshoe, but I’m also always looking for ways to improve the discussions — and we are working with Dr. KSS to see how he wants the future of his biotech discussions to look.
One challenge is ongoing, and that’s how to balance the casual and occasional readers, who probably make up 99% of the readership, with the “power users” like yourself and the core group of biotech/KSS enthusiasts who subscribe to everything — and the balance is both for my time and focus, as you have suggested (when I’m restructuring the site or coming up with new ideas, I’m not writing articles), and for our financial resources… we like to keep the membership costs low, but major changes to fairly high-traffic sites like this require substantial investments, even if those changes are aimed primarily at lower-traffic parts of the site like the comment threads. Every improvement adds complexity, which makes every future improvement more challenging and expensive.
On the specific points about feedback and the “thumbs up” functionality, I agree that there’s room to improve substantially — that’s a software module that we bought and integrated, not one that we wrote, so we’ll have to see what kind of flexibility exists to tinker with it. And on the email subscriptions, I sympathize — the push for etiquette and consistent comment formatting is somewhat Sisyphean, but worth the continuing effort… though there are also as many folks who would prefer more images and charts, and who prefer a more “organic” stream of thoughts (probably most of them are not subscribers to the email comment notifications, I expect — most of the active KSS threads only something like 75-100 email comment notification subscribers, a very small portion of the article readership… largely, I expect, because it can be an overwhelming flood of emails).
StockGumshoe.com is changing in small ways every day, and we are continuing to plan for bigger and better things… I hope we’ll be able to improve some of the areas that you find frustrating and continue to make it easier and more fun for more folks to read and comment. Thanks again for your thoughtful feedback.
Cheers,
Travis
Travis : You, Lynn, Dr. KSS, and the Thinkolator have been an important and large part of my daily life since 2012, so I hope you viewed my starting this thread not as criticism, but as “constructivism”. I admit, though, that my thinking was a tad self-centered, due to the hours I spend each week maintaining the DA MAN spreadsheet. That’s my way of contributing, hopefully in a non-intrusive positive fashion, to the many remarkable KSScolytes that contribute so much to the biotech threads. If I were truly a “power user”, I could probably find a more meaningful contribution.
…..It just occurred to me that this ‘THUMBS UP ON COUNTING THUMBS” thread could be used as a “suggestion box”, a place to post more “constructivism” thoughts about the site. I invite others to add their desires / thinking / comments. ……
I will post some other thoughts in separate comments below, so that readers can TUB or tdb them individually. Please do not feel obligated to respond to any of them.
I cannot get used to comments being listed in reverse chronological order! I wish the newest comments were placed at the bottom of the page, and the newest replies to a comment placed at the bottom of the replies to that comment. This makes sense now since there are only so many comments per page before a new page is started.
Agree wholeheartedly
The newest comments are generally at the bottom, unless they are replies to an earlier comment (in which case they’re nested under that comment). That said, after you first post a comment you (but not other people) will sometimes see it pop up at the top of the list to let you know that it was posted.
Travis: I think what Hips is saying (and I agree) is that the nesting of replies to comments is newest first. I read sequentially from top to bottom, so its a pain to read from the bottom up. But unless I do this, context is often lost.
It’s like a check book. Search is the best way (easiest) to find comments .
It would be nice to have the list of page numbers found at the end of the comment section duplicated at the beginning of the comment section.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Subscribing to new threads – It used to be that I could subscribe to a new thread by clicking on the “Subscribe to this thread” button at the bottom of the page. The software was able to pick up my email address from the log-on and automatically subscribe me. Now a new page opens and I have to enter my email address manually.
It used to be that, if I tried to subscribe twice, I would be notified that I was already subscribed. This no longer happens.
When I try to check what I’m subscribed to, if I go to http://www.stockgumshoe.com/comment-subscriptions/ and enter my email address I get the following message: “You have request [sic] to manage another email address and this is forbidden.”
OOPS. This is no longer a problem, because I just discovered that, at the bottom of each emailed comment notification, there is this statement: “….You can remove this subscription or otherwise manage your discussion subscriptions here: http://www.stockgumshoe.com/comment-subscriptions/?srek=7……..”
Travis the idea came to mind of replacing, or adding, the number of post made. Several of the forum web sites I visit do make that information available either visually or searchable. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a number. It could be a graphic of coffee beans or the dollar symbol. Then if you could click on post count and a column summary would popup. I use it on the other boards to get an idea of who the user is.
Continuing from the “the-twelve-biotechs-of-christmas-one” thread:
Alan, you have contributed more to the success of the biotech threads (and their usually friendly ambiance) than I could hope to contribute in 10 lifespans. But I most respectfully disagree with you: I think it is okay to give a TD without an explanation, and I encourage members to do so if they so choose and if they have a legitimate reason. I totally agree that explaining why one gives one is more productive than just giving one. As HN mentioned elsewhere, a TD is very ambiguous and can mean many different things. However, several TDs on a comment should make the author reconsider his or her thinking and hopefully make his or her future comments more acceptable. It could also act as a guide for other members.
Some members might not want to take the time to compose a reason; some do not want to be overtly critical; some might feel unsure about putting their thoughts into words. By the way – time itself can be a problem – I have noticed that giving either a TU or a TD can sometimes take over 15 seconds for the software to register the action and get back to the thread. Being usually impatient, I don’t give enough of either one.
One TD is meaningless, and can be easily offset by a TU from another member. I have offset a few myself, as well as offsetting a few TUs. That’s why I would like to see the number of each, both for the comment and overall for the author , posted with the comment.
I love you too Hips…your spreadsheet efforts are Herculean. But Id prefer to know why people disagree. We’ll have to agree to disagree.
Love you , too! So much, when I grow up, I want to be just like you!
Well, almost, anyway…… :>) :>)
johncolts54 — about your TD on the-rest-of-the-12-biotechs-of-christmas/ thread — I searched for your posts and found none of them, in my estimation, that deserved a TD. The one that you received must have been negated by a TU.
Please do not take offense at, or be put off by, achandra13’s reply to your question about $AUPH. S/he contributes many good ideas to the site on a regular basis and was trying to be helpful.
Your reaction is one reason why AlanH has always felt that every TD must be explained. It can be upsetting to some members, especially new ones, to receive one and not know why. I agree that explaining is ideal, but I feel that we will eventually have a more focused group if everyone feels free to chime in, even if it is just with a click on an icon.
Being new to the group, you might not know about the DA MAN spreadsheet, which is a database containing many of DR. KSS’ opinions about biotech stocks, along with a lot of other information. At the moment, there are links to 2,686 of his comments about biotech stocks, so it might be a good starting point for doing your research. The spreadsheet is for Irregulars only, so I’m sending you a link to it through Lynn. That will give you my email address, too. I’m better at copying and pasting for DA MAN than I am at investing, so I won’t recommend anything about which stocks to buy or sell. But I will be happy to answer other types of questions if I can, perhaps like a “big brother” investor would.
That idea just broadened into trying to establish a “big brother / big sister” volunteer group for new members such as you. New members often seem to feel hesitant about asking questions or making comments. Perhaps communicating for a short time through email with a mentor would help them in getting started.
Returning to your TD, please do not let one TD prevent you from participating in any way you feel is appropriate or from asking questions. Almost all of us started out feeling unsure of ourselves. Just remember a TD is just someone’s opinion. The TDer might have clicked on the wrong icon, or arose from the wrong side of the bed. But if you get several on one comment, that could be significant, and you might think about what you wrote. : > )
Which leads me to another idea. We need to define what types of posts deserve an unexplained TD. Obviously, anything that departs greatly from AlanH’s etiquette guidelines deserves one. What else, gummies?. This is a community project. Give us your ideas.
Arch1 – You provided a good example of one reason why I advocate no-explanation TDs.
I gave you a TD and explained why. You felt it necessary to respond to it. Someone else wanted to respond to you. I felt it necessary to tell you that you provided a good example.
There are now four more totally non-stock-related emails clogging all biotech gummies’ (that subscribe to Dr. K’s threads) inboxes. Imagine the number that might result if all TDs were explained.
I repeat that I agree that providing an explanation is far and away the best thing. It’s just not always practical for several different reasons.
Changing subjects, I felt badly that johncolts54 was so taken aback by a TD. I emailed him through Lynn, told him about the DA MAN spreadsheet, and offered to act as his “big brother” and help him with SG in any way that I can. That gave me the idea of starting a volunteer program of big brothers / sisters for new members.
You seem to have a great deal of time available for SG. Why don’t you volunteer to be a big brother the next time a new member has a question?