boost + stars = most starred

Thursday, 26 April 2007

boost + stars = most starred
We've been working on ways to find good content on Xanga for a while now.
Boost was good at finding pretty good content, but not so good with the multiple step nomination process.
Stars are good cause it's really easy to vote (already 250,000 votes!), but it's also easy to game and give 'fake' stars.
Then we thought, wouldn't it be cool if we could take boost's ability to find good content and combine it with the ease of voting in Stars?
Starting now, if enough people give a lot of stars to a weblog, photo, or video, it will be automatically submitted to http://star.xanga.com. There the academy of xanga users (aka you!) can provide checks and balances by voting on what's best. This should make it pretty hard to game Stars. If the academy of xanga users agrees that the post is really good, it must really be something - so we'll give it a rare "Star Award"!
We also built in a system where if people try to game it by giving out fake stars or not honestly voting, the academy will fix it and the person's star power will go down. We hope this system will be easy to vote and show the best content on Xanga.
Please check it out and tell us what you think!

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looking good
- 4/26/2007 8:08 PM
- OwenHiggins (message)
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As with Boost, it doesn't work for Safari.
- 4/26/2007 8:09 PM
- HomerTheBrave (message)
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great idea!
haha most my readers don't bother to boost, but they'll star me. yay ;P
- 4/26/2007 8:57 PM
- junshien (message)
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hey there sup yall im hannah i just youre name on my xanga coooolnessss mannnn
- 4/26/2007 11:30 PM
- sexybanana06 (message)
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something you may want to consider to reduce the number of unwarrented stars given, is to revoke someone's ability to use a star. a simple method of childhood psychology, if someone abuses something, take it away. i'm only not sure of how realistic it would be to hunt down those who are truly gaming; as well as how you should differentiate between who's gaming, and who's simply enthralled by content that really isn't worth a star.
- 4/26/2007 11:31 PM
- chocolatemilkbob (message)
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Well, I'll just have to give this post a vote.
- 4/26/2007 11:40 PM
- Alice (message)
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That's a really interesting idea. I checked it out after spending the last few weeks using boost. It looks okay. I hope it works well. - JN.14:27 Rom.5:8
- 4/26/2007 11:55 PM
- Romgenesis (message)
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I still hate it so much that I cannot get the words out to compliment you and your colleagues on the outstanding job done with the outside commenting. That deserves praise HUGE. People who use the stars do not. They deserve a boot to head. I do include myself in that as well. I've already pity starred friends and family.

Wait a minute! This allows people to opt out of being featured by not having the stars and identifies those who are self-promoting and needy! Awesome!

I change my mind. I always wished that people would wear tags that identified them as what they were. This does that. Nice.
- 4/26/2007 11:56 PM
- Boowasborn (message)
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That is one cute pooch.
- 4/26/2007 11:57 PM
- Boowasborn (message)
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I really like its simplicity. So far it seems less cluttered and less "buggy" than Boost, which is very good indeed (Boost would often freeze up on me while I was voting). I'm glad the leaderboard is still there as well.

One thing I think I liked more about Boost however was the ability to easily nominate content (kinda like Digg). If I knew I'd eventually get to vote on the content I nominated, it made voting on the rest of the nominations more enjoyable.

Pete
- 4/27/2007 12:41 AM
- pedrothepoet (message)
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sweet!
- 4/27/2007 12:54 AM
- mary
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I like it if one does not feel like commenting can give stars. Lots of good content on Xanga. Judi
- 4/27/2007 1:20 AM
- jassmine (message)
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I think this is a really good compromise. Not too easy, not too hard. I hope the staff is still trolling around and looking for good content themselves to nominate as well. Kudos.
- 4/27/2007 2:36 AM
- Nathon (message)
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Am giving you a 5 stars then....
- 4/27/2007 2:58 AM
- janleemark (message)
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Slight problem: This post, rated 4.5 stars with 10 votes, ranks lower than a site with 5 stars from 2 or 3 votes. There ought to be more weight given to the number of votes, don't you think?
- 4/27/2007 3:08 AM
- XristosAnesti (message)
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Does that mean Boost is dead ?
Does the star system mean only those that have a huge following will get enough stars to get the coveted award. What about good content that has only a small following.
- 4/27/2007 3:13 AM
- DougandaBug (message)
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I am not really aspiring to have a STAR blog in terms of popularity...so although I think it is a cool idea, it will probably not change my Xanga behaviour.
- 4/27/2007 5:24 AM
- Zeal4living (message)
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awesome. more new things to xanga. :)
- 4/27/2007 6:34 AM
- starberri92 (message)
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I love it how you guys are always trying to improve Xanga. I originally started blogging with LiveJournal, but switched because a lot of my friends used Xanga instead. I still preferred LJ for a while, because it had more features, but over time I fell away from using it altogether and Xanga has really stepped up. It's great that everything is so customizable but you can still opt-out of pretty much whatever you want. Props to the staff!
- 4/27/2007 7:22 AM
- ael_ecurai (message)
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not a bad idea
- 4/27/2007 11:23 AM
- nothingnormal (message)
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Sorry but I hardly see how it will determine good content... it was obvious with boost that if you would show a little booty or boob or take a scanky picture in the mirror of yourself in some degrading position... you would wind up on the top... Quanity does not mean quality... do we loose our ability to make a post inappropiate?
- 4/27/2007 12:44 PM
- timfalter (message)
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That should have said MARK a post inapropiate...
- 4/27/2007 12:45 PM
- timfalter (message)
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Is it possible to just have it for one's subscribtions? I'd be more interested in seeing my xanga buddies' best posts - that'd be pretty sweet.
- 4/27/2007 2:37 PM
- shadowkari (message)
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Ok, I wondered what those stars were for. lol
- 4/27/2007 4:34 PM
- MarkLupton (message)
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woo!
- 4/27/2007 5:52 PM
- warhammer300 (message)
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