Originally Posted by Chad

Adding a dislike button would foster negativity, no? We want to encourage new discussion, new ideas, opinions, etc.

I don't think it would foster negativity, that's just my opinion though. How would it be different from people typing out negative responses to posts?

Originally Posted by Taunton

I don't think it would foster negativity, that's just my opinion though. How would it be different from people typing out negative responses to posts?

It's a lot easier to click "Like this!" than to type out a response, and I've found that people are lazy. Negative responses also usually involve some level of explanation, whereas one can simply run around disliking things to annoy people were there a simple button that allowed them to do so.

It's probably the same reason Facebook will never have a dislike button too.

Originally Posted by Entropy

It's a lot easier to click "Like this!" than to type out a response, and I've found that people are lazy. Negative responses also usually involve some level of explanation, whereas one can simply run around disliking things to annoy people were there a simple button that allowed them to do so.

It's probably the same reason Facebook will never have a dislike button too.

Well, the CBC website has a thumbs-up/thumbs-down thing where you can just click thumbs up/down on people's comments, and it just records the numbers of each... I don't find that to be particularly negative. I think it would just prevent people from going over the same arguments over and over again simply because there's no way to initially "dislike" a post without typing out "I disagree".

I also don't think it's necessary to know who "likes" or "dislikes" posts... just numbers would do I think. I like being able to know who "thanked" me for posts though.

if i was disliked on this site multiple times I wouldnt visit it anymore :(

Originally Posted by manu

if i was disliked on this site multiple times I wouldnt visit it anymore :(

Why though? It's not you, it's your post. And how is that different from having a lot of people lash out and type negative responses to your posts?

I participate a lot here, and I get plenty of support and negativity surrounding my ideas - that's what makes discussion great - people are allowed to say "no, I don't like your idea". A dislike button would just make it more concise and easier for the people who don't want to re-hash old ideas or simply let their voice be heard without being forced to write out arguments. Sometimes people want to just "like" or "dislike" without actually getting involved in the discussion.

Anyways, if people don't want a dislike button, then it doesn't make sense to create one. It's just an idea I'm throwing out there.

Originally Posted by Chad

Adding a dislike button would foster negativity, no? We want to encourage new discussion, new ideas, opinions, etc.

At the moment, Shanel, there is no way to manually turn it off. It's a feature we could look into. Thanks!

What? What's the difference? Half of the time I "like" something, that's it. I move on to the next post. How does that foster new discussion/ideas? If people don't need to give an explanation as to why they like something, why would we suddenly have to give an explanation as to why we dislike something?

If someone makes a post saying "I hate french canadians," I'm going to dislike the post. No explanation needed.

Seriously, foster negativity? So we only want wishy washy brainwashed life is easy peasy bullshit? Come on.

I can't even tell you how many times I've seen a post I disagreed with/didn't like but didn't feel like typing out a response to. I just don't understand the difference.

You're hot and all, but I disagree mate. (ps: totally put this here only because I haven't hit on Chad in a while, LOL)

Originally Posted by lawleypop

You're hot and all, but I disagree mate. (ps: totally put this here only because I haven't hit on Chad in a while, LOL)

HAHA. You make my day.

In all seriousness, can we have a more McMaster-looking theme? I like this one, but...its not very Mac

Get moar bandwith, it took me 5 minutes to load this page before I posted in this thread.

I have noticed that MI has been going a lot slower since elections started, and its still somewhat going on. Hopefully this means many new users?

Thanks for the great feedback everyone so far! We're working on some new themes.. so stay tooned for that.

As for the speed issue, we have plenty of bandwidth but the issue seems to be volume of users that are on the site at once which puts strain on the database. I have set new optimization options so let me know if you notice a difference in speed. I'm trying to tweak things to load faster with the server that we have. Dedicated servers cost too much money unfortunately.

Also, sounds like dislike button is getting some traction. Will definitely consider adding one to our list to be voted on!

Keep the ideas/feedback coming!

Chad, how'd you get a yellow background? >_<

or is it 'cause you're special. D:

Exec staff are given yellow. All moderator staff have yellow to show that they are moderators if they need to 'steer' threads back on topic. Our current 'Insider Agent' system is building on that and those who are Junior Agents have a badge showing they are part of the MI Staff Team, though they aren't granted moderator privileges until they are promoted to Sr Agent staff.

:@ I don't appreciate this discrimination.

-suddenly starts caring about equal rights-

Originally Posted by Entropy

I forgot to ask in my first post: The Academics tab at the top of the home page used to show the most recent topics from the McMaster-->Academics forum, but it now shows the most recent articles from Articles and Advice-->Academics. Was this intentional?

I'll look into this. Thanks for bringing it to our attention!

Originally Posted by Mr. Pink

When you are at the main page and you click General, there should be a way to either: make a new thread, or get to the 'forum display' of the General forum by clicking General a second time.

A great idea, and one I'll look into implementing for 'quicker access' to forums

Originally Posted by Mr. Pink

Add a mini calender of upcoming events around campus.

We used to have a mini calendar but it failed since we have so many events on different days, it was just a chunky calendar with each day linked to a big list of events... not particularly useful. Instead, the 'Happening Today' is a list of events for TODAY only... and also we have a full fledged calendar system here:
http://www.macinsiders.com/calendar.php

Originally Posted by Mr. Pink

Make titles that work around how liked your posts are (if liked post/total post >.5 then you are liked, etc.). this would encourage good posting. Or maybe an achievement system with badges.

We're actually working out a rewards system, and have had it on the todo list for a while now. Titles and badges is a neat concept that is worth looking into, especially for those who are 'liked' more.

Originally Posted by Mr. Pink

Maybe remove the right side.. 'Happening today' and all the mess under it. You already have 'Recent'

As mentioned, the right side 'happening today' is completely different than what is under 'recent'. Recent is newest forum posts. Happening today are events from our calendar. Also, below that are the most viewed topics of the week, etc. which are different.

Originally Posted by Mr. Pink

Make a McMaster theme using the McMaster colors.

We're working on it

Originally Posted by Entropy

Can we incorporate detailed timestamps into our posts instead of/in addition to the "x seconds/minutes/hours/weeks ago"? I can't think of a context in which it'd be useful now, but I remember needing it at one point.

Not sure what you mean by detailed... why would you need to go more detailed than the date it was posted? You are looking for a breakdown by the minute? It may be server intensive, I'd need to look into it. Though I'm still trying to see the reason for needing detailed posting times. Please elaborate?

Chad, it really confuses me that you think that having a dislike button would foster negativity, yet you seen keen on having badges/titles/whatnot for how many times you've been liked.

Wouldn't this encourage people to post what they THINK other people want to hear?

I dunno, I'd personally rather somone share their true views than hide on the internet and try to get e-fame.

Edit: I dunno if it's just me, but I don't think the "Happening Today" section works.... every time I click a link, it just tells me that there are no events to display and doesn't give me any details about the events. o_O

Edit 2: ^ That only happens on the front page. I can click "see all events" then click them on the calendar, but it's a dead link from the front page.