I made a forum, sort of!

[Razasharp]

I decided to try something different for my GameSlurp site - originally it was meant to be a gaming news site with a forum bolted on (we had a vB forum on there), but after designing the editorial sections I decided I didn't want to be a full time writer! *rolls eyes*

So I wanted to create something that plays on the slurp aspect of our name, and came up with a microblog-forum-tag-link-rating site lol

Basically, any tag (or link) can be rated 1 to 5 stars, and if the tag is a game your ratings get tracked/slurped over time - if it's not a game, your average is submitted to the tag's page.

Here are some example pages:

My #KZ ratings: http://gameslurp.com/Azz/kz
The #KZ landing page showing average scores: http://gameslurp.com/tags/kz

Links can be rated too, and the average for each link is added to the parent domain's site - I intend to display stats for such sites later.

It's a very early alpha (took a couple of weeks to put together after the base app with auth was created - and we only spent one day on the design so that's not final at all) so still very rough around the edges. If anyone's interested in joining let me know and I'll send you the link.

What do you think?

(Btw it's built in Rails 4)

 

[jmurrayhead]

Looks interesting.

 

[Razasharp]

Thanks Jason. What do you think of the slurp aspect? (Ratings over time)

Are you working on much at the mo? Any new projects?

 

[jmurrayhead]

Thanks Jason. What do you think of the slurp aspect? (Ratings over time)

Not sure I understand it - what benefit does it provide? Apart from that, it looks like an interesting concept of forums meet twitter.

Are you working on much at the mo? Any new projects?

I had started a couple things a few months ago, but I'm also back in school and currently taking a Calculus course, so there went all of my spare time.

 

[Razasharp]

Not sure I understand it - what benefit does it provide? Apart from that, it looks like an interesting concept of forums meet twitter.

I guess there are two main benefits - the first is we track what our users think about games over time, and display it in a graph. This shows dips and peaks (at some point I will make it like soundcloud so mouse over will show the post content as well). We also track what people think of other tags (such as consoles) as well as how they rate links - to help show which publications are well liked, and which not so much.

The second benefit is that people can either just make posts and not clog up threads if they wish. A thread is created when a post gets replied to, or when one is specifically created.

All ratings take place in post using the slurp character, eg $+++++ is a five star rating. There are also aliases such as $like or $dislike.

Aside from that, a thread page shows meta data such as who has replied, tags mentioned in the thread, links posted in the thread etc.

I had started a couple things a few months ago, but I'm also back in school and currently taking a Calculus course, so there went all of my spare time.

Sounds cool! I don't think I have the brain to go back to school.

Nice to see DB still going... and with similar colours to GameSlurp

 

[jmurrayhead]

I guess there are two main benefits - the first is we track what our users think about games over time, and display it in a graph. This shows dips and peaks (at some point I will make it like soundcloud so mouse over will show the post content as well). We also track what people think of other tags (such as consoles) as well as how they rate links - to help show which publications are well liked, and which not so much.

The second benefit is that people can either just make posts and not clog up threads if they wish. A thread is created when a post gets replied to, or when one is specifically created.

All ratings take place in post using the slurp character, eg $+++++ is a five star rating. There are also aliases such as $like or $dislike.

Aside from that, a thread page shows meta data such as who has replied, tags mentioned in the thread, links posted in the thread etc.

Very interesting concept. Are people actually using it that way on your site? Was there a bit of a learning curve or something they picked up on right away? Or is it pretty much automatic and they just go with the flow?

Sounds cool! I don't think I have the brain to go back to school.

ugh, this has been the worst term ever. I'm really burnt out, but not much longer to go and then I'll be on to bigger and better things.

Nice to see DB still going... and with similar colours to GameSlurp

Copy cat...

 

[Razasharp]

Very interesting concept. Are people actually using it that way on your site? Was there a bit of a learning curve or something they picked up on right away? Or is it pretty much automatic and they just go with the flow?



ugh, this has been the worst term ever. I'm really burnt out, but not much longer to go and then I'll be on to bigger and better things.

Copy cat...

Yeah, but to begin with I launched the beta with just basic posts and nothing else, and introduced the other features over two weeks or so. I think once the new design is done and I get some devs onboard people will use it more.

lol re colours - GS has had that green for about 5 years

 

[jmurrayhead]

Yeah, but to begin with I launched the beta with just basic posts and nothing else, and introduced the other features over two weeks or so. I think once the new design is done and I get some devs onboard people will use it more.

Ah, I see

lol re colours - GS has had that green for about 5 years

Green has been my favorite color since the early 90's. I win