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Winter happy hour

When we had OP's 4th birthday party back in September, there was a lot of interest in getting together more often, so I agreed to organize quarterly gatherings. As promised...

OP Happy Hour
Wednesday, Dec. 19
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
At Fuse
Special guest: Beta version of the new OrangePolitics! (code name: "OP 3.0")

I will demo the new site and take your suggestions for improvement. There will also be socializing for everyone (ie: non-geeks)! Bring your favorite elected official. Media are welcome as well.

We'll be done in time for you to watch the game at 9:00. Please come!

Issues:

About This Web Site

Comments

In case you're wondering

Submitted by Ruby Sinreich on December 15, 2007 - 2:46pm

In case you're wondering where this is, "Fuse" is Tijuana Fats for you old-timers, and "Henry's" for you Gen-Xers. It's now got a great view of Rosemary Village! ;-)

I'd like to get a rough idea of how many, if any, are coming on Wednesday. Can you drop me a line at http://orangepolitics.org/contact or post a comment here?

Here's a preview of the new

Submitted by Ruby Sinreich on December 17, 2007 - 2:17am

Here's a preview of the new "Hall of Fame" function that makes a bunch of stats public on OP 3.0:

Top 10 commenters of all time:
Ruby Sinreich 1359 items
WillR 821 items
Dan Coleman 609 items
Tom Jensen 380 items
Mark Chilton 344 items
jehb 161 items
Mary Rabinowitz 154 items
johnk 125 items
ethan 50 items
admin 42 items

Ruby, does that function

Submitted by Fred Black (not verified) on December 17, 2007 - 2:46am

Ruby, does that function allow you to get that data for each OP year? Also, some of the "Ruby" 1,359 items probably should have been admin, right? :-)

It shows the top authors and

Submitted by Ruby Sinreich on December 17, 2007 - 5:42am

It shows the top authors and commenters for the current week, month, year, and all time. As for my identity, sometimes I'm not even sure myself.

Ruby, I'll come to yours if

Submitted by kirsten (not verified) on December 17, 2007 - 10:33pm

Ruby, I'll come to yours if you come to mine! ;-)

I'm definitely going to try,

Submitted by Ruby Sinreich on December 18, 2007 - 2:09am

I'm definitely going to try, Kirsten...

Heh, a gentle reminder to

Submitted by Jason Baker on December 18, 2007 - 7:30pm

Heh, a gentle reminder to change my nickname from my initials to something people might recognize, I see.

One suggestion, from a former message board administrator who won't be able to make tomorrow's event: if it's possible in the software you're using, consider noting commenters for past week's performance, or eliminate the short term notoriety all together. I've found that even in the most "civilized" forums, any extra incentive to make a comment when the substance of that comment isn't graded leads to a downturn in the quality of the discussion, even if it's not from blatant one-word posts. Of course, maybe you have some meta-moderation tools up your sleeve to fix this... :)

Good idea, Jason. But you

Submitted by Ruby Sinreich on December 18, 2007 - 9:33pm

Good idea, Jason. But you presume that being near the top of the list a good thing. I don't always see it that way. :-|

Also, a lot of comments were made by folks with accounts but when they weren't logged in, so those are not included in these tallies.

Nice to see a familiar face

Submitted by James Barrett (not verified) on December 19, 2007 - 8:01pm

Nice to see a familiar face on a presidential race questionnaire today. See question #7 -- http://www.10questions.com/

Of all of the problems

Submitted by fhblack (not verified) on December 19, 2007 - 8:30pm

Of all of the problems facing this Republic, I would not call the lack of transparency the number one problem!

Vive la difference!

Submitted by Ruby Sinreich on December 19, 2007 - 8:54pm

Vive la difference!

>Of all of the problems

Submitted by Bill Rehm (not verified) on December 19, 2007 - 11:55pm

>Of all of the problems facing this Republic, I would not call the lack of transparency the number one problem!

Perhaps not, but the lack of transparency certain leaves the cockroaches a lot of latitude.

(obviously not talking about transparency on OP)

When will those of us who

Submitted by Terri Buckner (not verified) on December 20, 2007 - 12:30am

When will those of us who can't make tonight's happy hour get a preview of the new site? BTW, I'm pretty sure I have made more than 42 posts, even considering that the first year or so I posted without my last name.

Terri, the beta site will be

Submitted by Ruby Sinreich on December 20, 2007 - 3:18pm

Terri, the beta site will be available for playing with by the time OP goes on vacation for the holidays, Dec. 23rd. (I'll be announcing this shortly.) I'm also working on a site tour and/or screencast to help people see the changes.

I thought this was be

Submitted by Ruby Sinreich on December 21, 2007 - 10:14pm

I thought this was be obvious, but some folks (elsewhere) seem to have their knickers in a twist about it so let me clarify: the top commenters list that I pasted above, as well as the rest of the new site, are still in an experimental beta-testing phase. I am about to release it and ask for your feedback, so if the numbers are bunk please just say so.

But even after that, I wouldn't take any of these stats too literally. I never thought people would feel upset to not have the full volume of their comments counted. To the contrary, I actually thought it might encourage some people (maybe including me) to chill out and let others have some some room at the table.

I would never post just to

Submitted by Mark Marcoplos (not verified) on December 22, 2007 - 12:36am

I would never post just to pad my stats.

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