New Feature: rate comments
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!
RSS 2.0 comments feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
“Yeah Jock, nobody saw this coming. Nobody but us bears.”
Too too funny,
Then he talked to Rennie, who set him straight!
October 6th, 2008 at 11:39 am
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.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:36 am
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.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:34 am
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
October 6th, 2008 at 11:29 am
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
October 6th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Celine Dion doesn’t know squat.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:11 am
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/Federal.....cle/507778
October 6th, 2008 at 10:45 am
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/vancouve.....7543978415
October 6th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Sorry, Gadwin @ 10:39 was me.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:39 am
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.”
October 6th, 2008 at 10:36 am
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?
October 6th, 2008 at 10:34 am
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??
October 6th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Canadian commodity exports will stall, leading to a slowing of Canadian economy:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....y/National
Sorry bulls, we can’t avoid a recession in Canada. House prices will only free fall that much more if we have a recession.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:25 am
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.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:55 am
“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…
October 6th, 2008 at 9:43 am
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.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:38 am
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.
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.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:30 am
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.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:28 am
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.”
October 6th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Rich Asians? It looks like Asian economies are headed down the drain:
http://www.earthtimes.org/arti.....japan.html
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!
October 6th, 2008 at 8:21 am
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.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:14 am
Who would have thought that the end of the world would have come on a Monday?
The Vancouver real estate market is looking more and more precariously over-valued by the minute.
You gotta wonder how many pre-sales – especially to offshore investors – are now in peril of collapsing.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:31 am
the posting in #1 spot does look like a brownsmear….
way cool!
October 5th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/.....refer=home
Hypo gets 50 billion euro bailout too.
So what you do you guys think? I’d say we’re in the 4th inning of this mess.
Next shoe to drop: Credit Cards the 55 Trillion monster.
October 5th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
The financial crisis has now spread to Asia. Looks like South Korea’s banks are having issues:
http://www.reuters.com/article.....5120081005
October 5th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
yeah pope site guy! new system is mickey mouse! dracken will like it! yeah!