DISQUS

Eric Wahlforss' Blog: Post-Hej! Backchannel reflections

  • ruiwen · 2 years ago
    Nice observations. The lack of any identification on the Onelinr channel definitely gave participants more "freedom" in their posts. Glad we had both channels going during Hej! though. Feel that it gave a far more in-depth perspective into the emotions and mood of the audience in real time. Instant feedback anyone?
  • martin · 2 years ago
    As a presenter at the Hej conference, what are your feelings on the audience hacking away in the eerie glow of their MacBooks during your performance?
  • ericw · 2 years ago
    Well, that's the way things are at these conferences :) I was hacking away quite a bit during some of the other talks. Luckily, much of the lost attention was "re-captured" by the backchannels...
  • sriram · 2 years ago
    During conferences, usually one doesnt give 100% attention to the speaker. Assuming 65% attention is given, i guess the backchannels merely provide the listeners a good option for their remaining 35% of attention. =D

    Hmm...I dislike the idea of moderation. I think one essence of Onelinr is that it provides an unguarded pathway for airing of views and comments.

    How about this? Create two categories, moderated and unmoderated. People can choose between these two options and then accordingly add the number of moderators they want and set the 'moderation level' to the level they're comfortable with. As opposed to hiring moderators across the board. For instance, event A can have tight moderation but B has a slightly slack one (determined by organisers). Event C can have no moderation whatsoever.

    Give the power to the people!
  • sriram · 2 years ago
    and yep...your idea of giving the option to the user for moderation will work.
  • ericw · 2 years ago
    sriram: good point about the moderation issue. i've been giving it some more thought and I agree that "real-time" moderation is not the nicest thing--sort of a mini-version of a chinese firewall. I have another option here: A subtle thumbs up-down icon on the right hand side of each oneliner, where users could vote up or down oneliners (mini-digg). oneliners which are voted down become faded or get some other marker. hmm, it's a though one...

    also got some feedback from beata on it. she wants to use Onelinr in her next conference, too. she thinks it could be a useful tool for the moderator to tap into.
  • sriram · 2 years ago
    Quick thoughts from the back of my head. I see a fundamental difference. it depends, if you want to give moderation to select few or to all.

    If you want to have a selected person(s), then they could have the extra option of an "X" button next to posts.

    If you want to give it to the masses, the users could digg it. But issue would be how many diggs mean ultimate deletion? Who decides this? What's the cut off point?

    Unless, you have a "flag (or flagg =P) if inappropriate" button. The moderators can then decide if the post is deemed inappropriate.
  • ericw · 2 years ago
    ah, true. a mark as inappropriate button might do the trick :) . on digg-style: I was just thinking in absolute numbers. the problem with these ratings is that suddenly you get this less-initimate-rating-system-feeling in the chatroom, which is usually not so good for the community-intimacy-feeling. so a simple "Mark as inappropriate" button might be better. I too agree on the moderation options. most channels would be completely unmoderated whereas a few ones would have one or more moderators. hmm hmm.
  • sriram · 2 years ago
    yeah...should also think about not affecting the flow of the chat. Meaning users shouldn't be forced to take any extra step (page pops up, additional mouse movements to other parts of the screen, new sentences to type etc). It all should go with the flow with minimal disturbances to hand or mouse movements.

    That mark as inappropriate button could come at the end of the sentence as opposed to a fix spot at the right or left hand side of the screen, for instance, so it minimizes hand movements and increases the user's flow with the postings.. ;)
  • sriram · 2 years ago
    it will also be a good indication on where the sentence ends. one thing i notice with onelinr is that if it's not a onelinr, it takes an additional step of looking for the original sentence.
    -------
    Hi my name is Sriram Krishnan
    and I come from Malaysia
    Introduce yourselves guys
    ---------

    Reading bottom to up is confusing in this case.
  • ericw · 2 years ago
    ah all good points, will try to find time soon to fiddle with some UI tweaks and introduce some of the features we've discussed. i'll let you know.
  • sriram · 2 years ago
    awesome. looking forward.
  • sriram · 2 years ago
  • martin · 2 years ago
    sriram: I guess I prefer conferences where it's possible to attend 65% of the talks and then pay close to 100% attention (whatever that means).