Proposal - A Summary Thread!

[Walkman]

In this subforum threads have a habit of growing with a rapid speed and it can be very hard for people, such as myself, to make the time so that one could follow up on the subject in question.

My proposal would be to establish a Summary Thread were members could write short (or long) summaries over certain threads so that people who does not want or can read all the pages (such as the 900+ in the case of the LA-thread) still can get a decent picture of how the case evolves.

Any thoughts?

 

[Cloxxki]

In this subforum threads have a habit of growing with a rapid speed and it can be very hard for people, such as myself, to make the time so that one could follow up on the subject in question.

My proposal would be to establish a Summary Thread were members could write short (or long) summaries over certain threads so that people who does not want or can read all the pages (such as the 900+ in the case of the LA-thread) still can get a decent picture of how the case evolves.

Any thoughts?

You are are right, we need to manage the data. Cut the rubbish from the pearls. Orr the other way around?

Not sure about forum setting constraints (time to edit a post). But in my time as a forum moderator, I liked to use the original post to summarize the dozens or hundreds of pages that followed. A bit Wikipedia avant le lettre. One the original poster and mods can do this, but I seemed to get decent response to the concept. Kept things tidy.
For instance, with the all-goes-LA thread, a summary is desperately needed. What do "we" got on him? Lists of possible breaches of law or WADA code, lies, unpleasanties, conflicts of interest. Allowing, say, 60-80 characters per item, and a shortened link to more. Yes, it will be hard, and it will be long.
The Contrador case seems close to conclusion, so too late for that. But a list of facts, circumstances and possible explanations and rulings would have been great for anyone to read. Keeping it all up to date though, would be a job. A proper job. At least average national wage level.
Any volunteers?

 

[The Hitch]

Alberto Contador thread

Haters say he should be banned.

Fans say he shouldnt be banned.

Rafael Nadal thread:

Bunch of pics of Male tennis players without their shirts.

Football thread:

Intelligent posters listing an anthology of reasons why footballers would dope, and facts that indicate that they very much do dope, + scientific evidence that shows that they do.

A few haters of cycling and 1 or 2 people whose motives are difficult to establish, make snarky comments about how they wish some epo could make them do bycicle kicks.

Cadel Evans thread

Aussies say he doesnt dope cos hes an Ozzie and they are all heroes.

Haters say he does dope because of who his team managers are/ have been, and his performances

 

[DirtyWorks]

Hitch has it about right. Some discussions that go on for far too long will end up with short and sweet summaries. It has downsides, but not many.

I'd make the summary thread read only and let the moderators pull comments out of the more chaotic thread that deserve mention.

Shouldn't this be in the 'about this forum?'

 

[Nederick]

Is there any forum software, or would it be hard to develop, a platform where factual posts for example can be flagged up as such by say moderators, and then you could either choose to view the thread filtered only for factual posts? I think it'd be a shame to lose all posts, but be nice to follow a thread from start to finish with just the 'facts'.

 

[ElChingon]

Man the laziness of people never ends...

If you don't want to read it then its up to someone else to condense it down to meet your time constraints. I'm sure the world will get on that ASAP.

Its a forum of supposedly a sport you are interested in and you can't invest any of your precious time to read a thread which has your attention.

Time to close this thread, and for the OP to seek another hobby.

And Hitch summarized every thread in this forum, minus the pictures.

 

[doolols]

The Hitch has it, as others have said.

I don't know about this forum, but a busy forum where I was a moderator was run by volunteers, and most members had absolutely no idea just how much time moderation takes, especially as a group of mods. We had a view recently when Francois spent an enormous amount of time removing and splitting posts from the LA thread.

Sorting wheat from chaff is the perennial problem with user-contributed data, which is why journalists are trained and paid for their work.

 

[Cloxxki]

The Hitch has it, as others have said.

I don't know about this forum, but a busy forum where I was a moderator was run by volunteers, and most members had absolutely no idea just how much time moderation takes, especially as a group of mods. We had a view recently when Francois spent an enormous amount of time removing and splitting posts from the LA thread.

Sorting wheat from chaff is the perennial problem with user-contributed data, which is why journalists are trained and paid for their work.

We can't put this kind of work on mods, and requesting to be appointed as one for a specific cause also seems odd.

Together, posters can do a lot, though.
Let's say I volunteer to summarize the LA stuff. If we keep every single item to about one line of tekst, plus a link to something informative or factual, that'd be great.

Say, I offer a list of categories for "The clinic's info and view on LA" summary.
Doping: Direct positives, caught team mates, outspoken team mates, bad doc associations, and misc.
LiveStrong: declarations, various claims and issues, .org/.com issues, dubious transations, name rights, hidden agenda
Conflicts of interest : any sponsorships, claimed connections, and various
Non-doping Fraud: participations in various companies plus their issues, Landis/Hamilton claims of fraud.
Confirmed and potential outright recorded lies
Bullying behavior on and off the bike, in and outside of press
List of legal cases LA was involved in.Summary of possibe legal issues LA might be facing
Personality traits. The line-up of blondes. Daddy issues. Psycho-analysis

If such categories would be more or less agree to, anyone could pose not-yet-listed bullet points to be listed below them. One-liners, preperably with forums or outside link. Additional links or items, mention them and they'll be added in the original post.
The whole summary would read as a web-index or of the nothing-overlooked story on LA's existence outside of the bike racing.

I'm not the best informed LA ex-fanboy, but for this reason I know it would be good to be able to tie all the tids and bits together. In this specific case, I'd very much appreciate a graphic overview of LA's associates. The personal manager, co-team owners, the helpers and pawn. Those still on the yellow team, and those now generally considered as anti-LA. This would be a paragraph on its own. Who's still milking, and whose switched teams. Perhaps, who never had a good thing to say?

Anything against such a manner of working for the Clinic? I know from my own experience that it's hard to read up on stuff even if you're interested in it.

 

[skippy]

Item # 6 unfortunately overlooks the amount of time required to be invested to stay “ au fait ”with the thread before adding a pertinent comment .

Francois the postman or other moderators should not have their time wasted picking their way through regurgitated items or stopping a few posters quarrelling about a point of view !

Forum visitors are looking for relevant facts not squabbles , I have no time for side issues and would welcome the précis such as the “ hitch ” demonstrated in item #3 !

 

[Berzin]

Any news worth reading about will be splattered on the front pages of most internet cycling websites.

Everything else is just opinions from defenders and detractors.

 

[DirtyWorks]

Is there any forum software, or would it be hard to develop, a platform where factual posts for example can be flagged up as such by say moderators, and then you could either choose to view the thread filtered only for factual posts? I think it'd be a shame to lose all posts, but be nice to follow a thread from start to finish with just the 'facts'.

At least a few do. Maybe even a later version of CN's application. But, you run into the many problems of crowdsourcing stuff. Follow articles on slashdot.org for a while and you'll see some of the problems. And slashdot does a good job at minimizing the problems.

 

[DirtyWorks]

Man the laziness of people never ends...

If you don't want to read it then its up to someone else to condense it down to meet your time constraints. I'm sure the world will get on that ASAP.

Its a forum of supposedly a sport you are interested in and you can't invest any of your precious time to read a thread which has your attention.

Time to close this thread, and for the OP to seek another hobby.

And Hitch summarized every thread in this forum, minus the pictures.

There are degrees of interest. You and I may be happy to wade through the back-and-forth but many, many more won't because they aren't that interested. It would be good to build a wider audience for CN.

I don't check the something-about-wonderboy thread very often because so much of it is some new attempt at making the story less bad than it was and all that follows. I'm not lazy. It's just not that interesting.

 

[ElChingon]

There are degrees of interest. You and I may be happy to wade through the back-and-forth but many, many more won't because they aren't that interested. It would be good to build a wider audience for CN.

I don't check the something-about-wonderboy thread very often because so much of it is some new attempt at making the story less bad than it was and all that follows. I'm not lazy. It's just not that interesting.

So now its someone's duty or volunteer's task to summarize any super long thread so the lazy can get the cliff notes so they don't have to read all the flame wars and choppy conversations due to some posts being removed for what ever reason(s)... its a FORUM! thats how they work! What now we're going to have a sub site that reports on the forum? Man if people are not going to put some time into their hobby then its someone else's duty to make it easier for the newbie to get on board... its never going to happen based on the mass number of people pitching in to do this overly selfish task (to the lazy).

If people are not interested in a thread then as you state they shouldn't read it. I have yet to click on the cat thread because I'm not interested or will there be a cliff notes version of that as well for the newbie cat lover

People who are truly interested will read enough to get a grasp of things and post/reply.

Can't wait for the "how to ride a bicycle" FAQ!

 

[mewmewmew13]

Hey now! Cat Thread: cute pics and stories about cats

there.

BTW
Hitch might be the perfect guy for the job.

 

[Dr. Maserati]

So now its someone's duty or volunteer's task to summarize any super long thread so the lazy can get the cliff notes so they don't have to read all the flame wars and choppy conversations due to some posts being removed for what ever reason(s)... its a FORUM! thats how they work! What now we're going to have a sub site that reports on the forum? Man if people are not going to put some time into their hobby then its someone else's duty to make it easier for the newbie to get on board... its never going to happen based on the mass number of people pitching in to do this overly selfish task (to the lazy).

If people are not interested in a thread then as you state they shouldn't read it. I have yet to click on the cat thread because I'm not interested or will there be a cliff notes version of that as well for the newbie cat lover

People who are truly interested will read enough to get a grasp of things and post/reply.

Can't wait for the "how to ride a bicycle" FAQ!

I am sure you made an apt point, but could you shorten this a bit. I am part of the new generation that can only digest 140 characters at a

 

[ElChingon]

I am sure you made an apt point, but could you shorten this a bit. I am part of the new generation that can only digest 140 characters at a

I will if you digest all your other posts on the forum...

 

[ElChingon]

Hey now! Cat Thread: cute pics and stories about cats

there.

BTW
Hitch might be the perfect guy for the job.

I didn't complain about the cat thread only posted that I don't read it and why.

Hitch already summarized everything, by the way.

 

[BroDeal]

If people are not interested in a thread then as you state they shouldn't read it. I have yet to click on the cat thread because I'm not interested or will there be a cliff notes version of that as well for the newbie cat lover

Heathen! You can haz cheezburger. You cant haz summary.

 

[ElChingon]

Hey now! Cat Thread: cute pics and stories about cats

there.

BTW
Hitch might be the perfect guy for the job.

Heathen! You can haz cheezburger. You cant haz summary.

Haha, mew3_13 provided the summary I'm all caught up!

 

[Cloxxki]

Can't wait for the "how to ride a bicycle" FAQ!

I used to be moderator on mtbr.com
I co-wrote an FAQ thread sticky on the 29" forum which got huge amounts of views and seem to get people exactly the info they wanted, where they wanted it.
It was quite satisfying to be able to not only discuss with peers, but also to leave something behind for newbies.

I'd have loved it, when I first visited The Clinic, and wondered why all these guys were so blasé about everyone doping, where they got that notion from. It took a huge amount of reading, which could have been prevented, for me and thousands of others, by writing a condensed post, once and for all.
Undoubtedly there is a book titled "All you wanted to know about doping in cycling but didn't dare ask". But some prefer web content for being up-to-date. Or price.

Forums are what they are, but it doesn't mean they cannot or even should not be more.

 

[Polish]

In this subforum threads have a habit of growing with a rapid speed and it can be very hard for people, such as myself, to make the time so that one could follow up on the subject in question.

My proposal would be to establish a Summary Thread were members could write short (or long) summaries over certain threads so that people who does not want or can read all the pages (such as the 900+ in the case of the LA-thread) still can get a decent picture of how the case evolves.

Any thoughts?

I volunteer to summarize a "Lance is Awesome " thread.
Quiver at the thought.

And of course it would be in the "Pro Road Racing" forum.
Not the "Clinic". Will keep it free of SSDD.

Actually, there is already a "Official Lance Thread" over there.
Most popular thread with almost 7000 posts.
But it's been locked since TdF 2011 boo boo boo.
Anyway, I volunteer to summarize it.