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New User Account Restriction

Help stop idea blurt
  (+6, -11)(+6, -11)
(+6, -11)
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Limit new accounts to posting one idea per day for the first month.

You might guess who I'm referring to at the moment, but they are not exactly the first and I'm sure they won't be the last by a long way. New users often get intoxicated by the fact that they finally have somewhere to dump all the crazy stuff going around their head that no one else will listen to. They then dump just about everything in their skulls within a week or so, with little editing. Maybe imposing a little restraint might give users pause for thought.

Actually, maybe this should just always apply to all of us - not many people have more than one really good thought per day.

wagster, Mar 06 2009

Halfbakery Evolution Halfbakery_20Evolution
[DrBob, Mar 09 2009]

Go ask Alice Go_20ask_20Alice
I can't argue with my subconscious. [nineteenthly, Mar 09 2009]

[link]






       //.....all the crazy stuff going around their head...// phew - that means it's not me then!
xenzag, Mar 06 2009
  

       // not many people have more than one really good thought per day.//
I have rather more than that, but most of mine involve Giselle Bundchen and a catering pack of chocolate sauce.
AbsintheWithoutLeave, Mar 06 2009
  

       yeah well... my writing skills are *not* going to be what yours are no matter how long I thrash an idea about before I post it and most of the buns I get are for the ones that I just hold my breath while writing hoping the muse won't get bored and bugger off to the 7-11 or something in mid-sentence. [ ]
FlyingToaster, Mar 07 2009
  

       //most of mine involve Giselle Bundchen and a catering pack of chocolate sauce// Excuse me, but you do know there's a queue?
MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 07 2009
  

       not a new idea, wag. not sure where the others went i.e. making newbies wait a while before posting.
po, Mar 07 2009
  

       jutta killed and ate a newbie raw the other day, that should keep them quiet for a bit...sorry we're boring you... little baker keeping you busy? :)
FlyingToaster, Mar 07 2009
  

       The new baker is keeping me busy and underslept. In fact he's keeping me lots of things except gainfully employed. As for being bored - I'm never really bored, not here, not elsewhere.   

       [po] - I'm sure it's been suggested before - in fact I'm not sure that it's even a good idea, being a bit censorious as it is. I nearly boned it after posting - which is a sure sign that I really shouldn't have posted it. (Note to self - drinking and baking don't mix).
wagster, Mar 07 2009
  

       Surely one of the best forms of gainful employment is childcare? You may not be paid for it but it's extremely valuable to yourself and others?   

       I waited about a year before i posted, i think. There are also gaps in my postings due to the feeling i was either wasting my time on here as such or posting crap.   

       Drinking and baking mix if you drink something high in caffeine rather than ethanol, i think. Then again, it might lead to flaming, which is ironic considering the relative flammability of caffeine and ethanol.
nineteenthly, Mar 07 2009
  

       oh heck if it were not for new people coming on here and posting a zillion silly/bad ideas at the gate there would be a dull drone of mediocre dribble belching outta the oven for the most part I think.(please remember that my laptop came without a comma key before you slice me to bits.)   

       And every now and again there seems to be a break through when the baker either slows down and perhaps reads the help file or just begins to listen first and then speak.   

       Just as in real life conversations there are those who talk over others and there are those who listen well and then thoughtfully reply.   

       I myself love the baker who somehow skids in here for a few brief moments and drops a creative bomb and then leaves never to be seen or heard from again. The buns pile up it seems forever... haunting us who can't get past the usual mediocre stack of 8 stale pastries donated from trusted friends acknowledging that we still exist.
blissmiss, Mar 07 2009
  

       Three suggested alternatives to this idea which could lead to the same result....   

       1) The very simple unobtrusive approach
Move the member's name to the top of the idea - just above the 'bun:bone/vote unit'. An increased awareness of the username responsible will result; and ideas posted by prolific brain-bubblers will get less attention by recognition of the username alone.
  

       2) The honesty model
To the add idea form, add a checkbox labelled "This idea is nonsense and I know it". All ideas thus checked could be shown in grey in the recent post view; or certain filters could allow them not to be shown at all. Sometimes I'm in the mood to read crap nonsense ideas; but quite often I get fed up reading through them looking for a good idea to which my contribution might actually help.
  

       3) The more technical approach
A small 'stat' next to your name on a new idea: "Note:Idea ratio" - in red if under two, in black between two and ten and in green in over ten. (Only counting annotations on the ideas of others).
  

       For example: "—wagster, Note:Idea ratio 20, Mar 06 2009" (e.g. for each idea posted, twenty annotations are made).
Or: "—someone, Note:Idea ratio 0.5, Mar 03 2009" (e.g. for each annotation made, two ideas get posted)
vincevincevince, Mar 07 2009
  

       Many people seem to start posting slowly then speed up. If there was a delay, it seems to me that the glut of ideas would simply be delayed, so there'd be no practical difference.   

       Ideas with lots of negative votes are probably bad in the real world sense, but may provoke interesting discussion. I wouldn't want [benfrost] to delete Vagina Jam, and in fact in a way it's a good idea because it's a work of art.
nineteenthly, Mar 07 2009
  

       That initial idea dump doesn't bug me at all, actually, I'd say just get it over with - it's nice to see what people have been up to. The authors often have thought about those ideas for quite a while; if one person just posted everything that comes into their head for a day, that might be annoying, but that's not what these are.   

       It gets annoying when the author doesn't handle the reactions well, and there may be a higher chance of that happening if they don't wait for the reactions to the first idea before releasing the second. But that's kind of mild.   

       [Bends over crib, makes appropriate cooking noises. I mean cooing. Cooing!]
jutta, Mar 07 2009
  

       I haven't checked this with other users', but i think earlier ideas might sometimes be better than some later ones because they're like first albums or first novels - people may have spent years thinking about the early ideas, and later ones are just blah. If that's so, it may be that one can spot users who have rejoined from the quality of early ideas - no bump in quality at the beginning.
nineteenthly, Mar 07 2009
  

       Perfect sense.
wagster, Mar 07 2009
  

       I like [vincevincevince]s idea. Display their bun/bone totals on their ideas so they get embarrassed when they have over nine thousand fishbones and about three buns. It should discourage them posting complete drivel without discouraging decent ideas.
Bad Jim, Mar 08 2009
  

       That assumes that nobody ever trolls here. That might be true now i come to think about it, but as i've said before, ideas can be bad for interesting reasons.
nineteenthly, Mar 08 2009
  

       I think if a user's overall bun to bone ratio was shown, we would be somewhat bias before we had even read the idea. It may help eliminate an annoyance, but it may create a bigger problem.
saprolite, Mar 08 2009
  

       //somewhere to dump all the crazy stuff going around their head that no one else will listen to// No! Don't take that away!
pertinax, Mar 08 2009
  

       You can quite often guess who's writing something already, for instance [beanangel] eschews punctuation, [vernon] is very long-winded, [po] doesn't use capitals much and so forth.
nineteenthly, Mar 08 2009
  

       hmmm. unless my alto ego...   

       oops, nearly gave it away..
po, Mar 08 2009
  

       Tell me you don't post as [beanangel]!
wagster, Mar 08 2009
  

       [beanangel] already had at least one alias.
nineteenthly, Mar 08 2009
  

       nah, what would we do without all the bogus stuff to lay bones on...? (but I didn't bone this)
xandram, Mar 09 2009
  

       Could it actually be that this place is a productivity tool? If we didn't dump stuff here which preoccupied us, would it result in it impairing our performance in real life? Would we end up getting distracted more from what we're actually supposed to be doing?
nineteenthly, Mar 09 2009
  

       I quite like that one [n'thly] when challenged previously, I've suggested that I'm "conducting research" - but an online productivity resource? Could work.
zen_tom, Mar 09 2009
  

       wagster, we've kind of been down this road before. I've added a link to Halfbakery Evolution which was something I posted about five years ago. The issue of new user accounts was discussed there and in the end there were no physical changes to the way that the 'bakery works.

Some people have left, others stayed, 'bakers come and go but the 'bakery goes on, it seems. My conclusion is not a very original one I'm afraid. if it aint broke, don't fix it!
DrBob, Mar 09 2009
  

       The trouble is, [zen_tom], it conjures up a rather lavatorial image of this place, which is unfair. It does, however, explain my "Go Ask Alice" dream. See link.
nineteenthly, Mar 09 2009
  

       Ditto Dr.Bob.
blissmiss, Mar 09 2009
  

       Absolutely, [blissmiss].
nineteenthly, Mar 09 2009
  

       Nah - this was a silly idea. Just let people post stuff - stupid or not. They'll be put right soon enough.
wagster, Mar 09 2009
  

       I quite liked [vince³]'s thing about having a "This idea is nonsense and I know it" button.   

       It might allow for a softer layer of moderation where ideas can be [marked-for-nonsense] and moved to a virtual holding cell (for those users who elect not to see "bollocks" ideas via their views) rather than having them led off directly to the guillotine. It would be difficult to decide without controversy what was bollocks or not - but if we manage to do it for deletion, mightn't it be possible for nonsense?   

       The downsides might be an increased number of ideas (and storage space required to keep them) arguments and fights about what was, and was not nonsense - requiring a more rigorously defined set of "not bollocks" principles that can be applied over and above the current deletion criteria. Assuming (big ask) that got into place, it might help people to find (and post) the sort of stuff they're interested in. In addition, marking your own idea as "bollocks" might allow you to fiddle about and/or play with it until such time as you're happy, prior to elevating it to the bakery proper for peer review (yes your favourite text editor works fine for this too)   

       Having said that, something like this has come up before in various guises ("Users' Very Own, Private, Online, Idea Scratchpad", "Halfbakery Graveyard", "Archive Deleted Ideas", "Baked Shelf") each with a slightly different take; [vince³]'s version being yet another form.   

       While it might be interesting to think about what adding an additional layer might add - it's worth bearing in mind that adding an extra layer of complication may not provide enough benefit to justify itself.   

       On reflection, it sounds like a bit much.
zen_tom, Mar 09 2009
  

       In the fullness of progression who is to say where a silly idea leads . The mass of blind seeds do count .
wjt, Mar 09 2009
  

       ''The Days of the Moderators" was quite the answer way back when. Roaming henchmen and women who chopped off your head if you dared post a crap idea.   

       And then came the pendant police to clean up in their wake...
blissmiss, Mar 09 2009
  

       Admittedly I have been a tad shy as of recent.   

       Whoops! //I nkow// Goodun. I have to agree with po.   

       No chance of a cow udder brassier idea formulating from here. (Probably baked any the hoot.)
skinflaps, Mar 09 2009
  

       [blissmiss], I think you mean "pedant police". However, I have been known to hang from people's necks, usually just above the bosom, glinting with pseudo-religious connotations.   

       Or am I just being pendantic?
theleopard, Mar 09 2009
  

       uh oh did I just catch a leopard in a trap?
blissmiss, Mar 09 2009
  

       Meow!
theleopard, Mar 09 2009
  
      
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