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New Feature: rate comments

October 5, 2008 admin

For a week or two now you’ve been able to give a thumbs up to comments posted on this site, but the means to express your disapproval with a comment has been missing.. Well, its missing no more. Thanks to c0der, you now have the option of rating each and every comment on this blog either positive or negative.

The appearance of each comment is determined by it’s score. Currently each comment rated above a score of ten gets one of these icons in the upper right hand corner:

comments rated above twenty get a background color highlight and an icon like this:

comments rated below negative ten get converted to a slightly faded smaller font, while comments rated below negative twenty get converted to mouse type: tiny little mouse type, like this.

So now even if you’re shy and don’t feel like leaving comments you can join in the meta-conversation by rating up comments you agree with and rating down comments you disagree with.

Please use this power for good instead of evil. I know you’ll end up using this however you want, but I think its reasonable to keep all honest comments that are on topic above -20, even if you don’t agree with their premise. I think mouse type is best reserved for spam, obvious trolls and nonsense posts. Better to debate points, rather that simply trying to silence alternative viewpoints.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to solicit your general feedback on this site. Do you like this new comment rating system and feel like the thresholds are set appropriately? What are your favorite/least favorite things about this blog and what general improvements would you request? I can’t promise that I can address all concerns, but I’d love to hear your opinions.

Last but not least a huge thanks to c0der, who fixed up the comment rating system within a few hours. Great work and greatly appreciated!

26 Comments

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David Lereah

14 years ago

"Yeah Jock, nobody saw this coming. Nobody but us bears."

Too too funny,

Then he talked to Rennie, who set him straight!

I LOVE MONEY

14 years ago

John, the shtick is getting tired. Only an idiot would think that 'bears' buy stock and 'bulls' buy real estate. Anyone who's been bearish on the economy as a whole hasn't had all their cash tied up in the stock market OR real estate market.

Throwing your money away on loan interest and maintenance on a rapidly depreciating asset must suck.

SurreyJoe

14 years ago

Very cool new feature. VancouverCondo.info is my first stop when checking the local blogs.

As far as additional ideas if you want to attract new visitors to the blog a YouTube video would be an idea. A YouTube video contrasting the claims of some of our local marketers to the reality would be timely. How anyone can possibly claim the real estate market is 'balanced' is beyond me. A video showing the contrary evidence would be cool.

admin

Author

14 years ago

Potato Hat: interesting idea with the 'editors choice' tag, but I'm hoping this rating system will work to a similar effect making valuable comments more visible and diminishing the junk.

Vansanity: I saw that front page article on the way into work today, the times they are a changin' eh? I've posted a new topic on that.

Problem Bear: Interesting. Got a link to any news on that?

Did anyone else notice this?: Yaletown Sofa owner vanishes

john

14 years ago

I read the article let's recap here:

1) A bear turned bull and bought a place (good choice)

2) The bear turned bull's house is worth the same as when they bought 1 year ago

3) The bear turned bull has not thrown away 1 year's worth of rent

So what would have happened if the bear had not turned bull :

1) They would have bought stocks

2) The stocks would be down over 30%

3) they would have wasted lots of money on rent

4) they would be broke

Bulls : 1

Bears : -100

beta

14 years ago

Celine Dion doesn't know squat.

patriotz

14 years ago

Sorry bulls, we can’t avoid a recession in Canada.

You're a Liberal, aren't you? You want to "talk down" the economy just like your leader Dion:

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper is attacking Stéphane Dion for criticizing his government's management of Canada's sputtering economy, accusing the Liberal leader of "talking down" the economy.

http://www.thestar.com/FederalElection/article/50…

🙂

Vansanity

14 years ago

Tried to post this before, but it failed. It's on the front page of the Vancouver Sun today, an article titled "I bought a house at exactly the wrong time".

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.htm…

Alexcanuck

14 years ago

Sorry, Gadwin @ 10:39 was me.

Gadwin

14 years ago

Re Bill Good, Micheal Levy and Jock Finlayson.

I heard that, sputtering into my coffee "I saw this coming, and I'm not in finance at all!" How about some honesty out there.

"Well, yes, some people rang the alarm bells and screamed from the rooftops, but we were having so much fun and making so much money we ignored them, used a compliant media to ridicule them and drowned them out with fluff and distraction.

Now that the party is over let's get those without a hang-over to clean up the mess, I don't feel so good, I'm going to lie down."

ProblemBear

14 years ago

Hate to change the subject, but what this about Mayor Sam Sullivan in an in-camera meeting with the developers of Millennium Water. It turns out that the developers are having trouble getting the funds to complete the project.

Just heard it on CKNW.

Anyone care to comment?

Big Crash

14 years ago

Last Friday, BOC announced that it injected 12 billion dollars into the banking industry to help small businesses and average joes get loans. In other words, they are saying that the banks do not have liquid "money inventory" anymore since they have suffered huge losses from sub-prime market and bad loans. Their balance sheets are showing Loans on the asset side and bigger number in Loss from Bad Loans + Operations on the credit side. You can only hide a stench for some time and the shit is going to hit the fan soon… Who is the fool now??

Gadwin

14 years ago

Canadian commodity exports will stall, leading to a slowing of Canadian economy:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC….

Sorry bulls, we can't avoid a recession in Canada. House prices will only free fall that much more if we have a recession.

patriotz

14 years ago

As usual when I'm confused about the economy, I called Jock Finlayson. He's the big thinker over at the B.C. Business Council and probably the best economic forecaster in the West. He's never political or an alarmist. It's always just the facts.

And the facts really don't sound very good.

"I wouldn't feel bad about buying," said Jock, listening to me fret. "Nobody saw this coming. We're in a hurricane, but in a hurricane you don't know how bad it is until it's over. And it's not over."

Yeah Jock, nobody saw this coming. Nobody but us bears.

Note the article doesn't mention the BC bear blogs, just the US ones. How convenient.

Anonymous

14 years ago

"Front page of the Vancouver Sun, an article titled “I bought a house at exactly the wrong time”

http://www.canada.com/vancouve…..7543978415

It’s a good read. "

well, if he'd read vancouvercondo.info he wouldn't be in deep doo doo…

john

14 years ago

Bad day for bears once again. So much for snatching up homes at firesale prices. Meanwhile I keep getting more and more credit cards, SUVs and condos. I'm richer than ever.

Vansanity

14 years ago

Front page of the Vancouver Sun, an article titled "I bought a house at exactly the wrong time"

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.htm…

It's a good read.

Also, driving in this AM listening to the Bill Good show… the tone has changed there significantly. They were talking about how mortgage rates continue to climb and could see double digits down the road. People's ears are starting to perk up a bit.

Potato Hat

14 years ago

Hey Pope,

Love the site, and check it every day. As for problems, I'm probably confirming what you already know, but the biggest issue is the comments section. At times about 80% of the comments here appear to be posted by trolls, people yelling at trolls, people sarcastically immitating trolls, and people appluading the sarcastic imitators as 'geniuses.' There was also that guy who yells about gold in all capital letters. He was cool.

Hopefully this new rating system will help pick out the most worthwhile comments, and make it easier to skim through the dregs. One thing I'd also suggest is maybe implement an "Editor's Choice" flag that you could apply to particularly good comments. I've seen that used to good effect on other sites.

betamax

14 years ago

Wow, this all happened over the last hour… I’m exhausted.

LOL, me too and I'm not even in the market now.

I keep thinking of Tom Petty's song "I'm free…free falling."

Gadwin

14 years ago

Rich Asians? It looks like Asian economies are headed down the drain:

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/235561,an…

With plummetting Asian economies and a plummetting U.S. economy, how many layoffs do you think B.C. will face? With no more "Rich Asians" to buy our real estate, and people in B.C. facing layoffs, it could be bloodshed for Vancouver real estate next year!

Vansanity

14 years ago

What a crazy morning! TSX began with a huge drop of over 1100pts!! Currently its stabilizing around 600pts down. Dollar slipped 2 full cents. Harper warns of recession. Construction Permits down around 15% in August in Canada.

Wow, this all happened over the last hour… I'm exhausted.