Celebrating Pagalpan:Database of "insanely-great" posts.

Plumber · 11:24 PM

This idea is something which Mahesh came up with in one of the other thread: Having a database of insanely-great/excellent/your favorite etc. posts.

The purpose is to celebrate some of the insanely-great posts on PG and give people a one-stop shop to get easy and convenient access to some of the best and recommended-by-users posts.

This is how it will work:
Generally:

1) A user will pick up any thread which he thinks was/is popular/contains good post(s).

2) He will go through the entire thread or a part of it, depending on his own time constraint.

After that's done:

1) He will make a post mentioning insanely-great post(s) with following compulsory-details:

a) Thread title
b) The post's link
c) Poster's name
d) Context of the post: Like what was it that provoked a brilliant refutation, or what was it that encouraged a very-wise post.
e) Reasons as to why you find the post insanely-great and worthy of mention in the database. (2-3 lines, if not more)

These are the obvious benefits of the idea:

1) Being a democratic and user-driven method, it allows every puy to express his/her opinion as to favorite posts which he/she would want to recommend to other puys.

For example: I was going through some of the earlier posts on "sachin past his prime thread", and I am quite sure that some of the posts there are worthy enough to be recommended to puys.

2) Allows a noob to go through some of the blockbuster posts and threads, and get a feel of the best discussions (or the worst

) that PG has seen.

3) Since the user is not only giving the link but also the background/context of the posts, it will give viewers a certain perspective, and will allow them to appreciate insanely-great posts, without compelling them to go through the whole thread.

This is just a start. The floor is open to suggestions to make this idea work, and to criticisms, if any. Once we are done with that, we can start posting the links to the best-posts.

Looking forward to puys' participation...

Cheers!

PS: I wish to clarify that I don't want to generate any needless controversy here. It's just an attempt to execute an idea, which someone else had proposed, but still was good enough for me to be convinced about and have faith in.

Added later: The Finalized-Rules:...

These are the mandatory details that a user will have to provide for the insanely-great post that's nominating:

1) Thread title
2) The post's link
3) Poster's name
4) Context of the post: Like what was it that provoked a brilliant refutation, or what was it that encouraged a very-wise post.
5) Punchline: A statement from the post that's witty/profound/quotable.
6) Reasons as to why you find the post insanely-great and worthy of mention in the database. (2-3 lines, if not more)

Optional details:

Summary/Digest: A short synopsis of the thread, and re-interpretation
of insanely-great posts.

deep_agrawal

Great idea.
I needed one clarification.
Is it that people will be assigned certain threads or the user can randomly select his/her post?
Also, i feel the post should be put up on this thread only after it is reviewed by someone. Else, the thread may get cluttered with posts which may not actually merit enough attention.

buck_was

Nice idea.. another prospective spamming avenue..

but fraught with the risk of misinterpretation! Some absolutely serious n straightfwd posts might bite the dust on this thread

Plumber bhai.. how abt leaking some taps of your own? :P
Why don't u supplement ur start with an example.. kya hai, thoda aasaan ho jayega for others to comprehend ur desired 'format'..

aim-wsc

My first question- is it restricted to chitchat forum?

anyways you guys carry on your discussion; i'm already posting my fav. article

1. Life at Wharton pagalguy reports

2. link post no. 1
Http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/558488-post1.html

3. pagalguy

4. first post of life at wharton, introductory post.

5. well! It's like a dream come true post. we can feel it as the captain says, ''I've been waiting for this thread''

Plumber

Quote:

Originally Posted by deep_agrawal

Great idea.
I needed one clarification.
Is it that people will be assigned certain threads or the user can randomly select his/her post?

No, we can't have a model where you assign users a few threads, since this would limit the scope of threads. Even if there's some latest post (like made 10-15 days back) and is worthy enough to be considered an all-time great, it should be allowed to find its due in this database.

Also, i feel the post should be put up on this thread only after it is reviewed by someone. Else, the thread may get cluttered with posts which may not actually merit enough attention.

Hmm...Interesting...should we review and vet the choices? On this question I am open to hearing from mores users/mods etc...On one hand, if you allow people a completely free rein, they might post any random post as insanely-great. On the other hand, if you have a review-mechanism, you are completely giving decision-making power to a few users. Both have their pros/cons. I would like to see users given a choice to post the links with all the necessary details stated, and in the event of someone choosing a random post as insanely great, mods having the right to delete the posts. Again, modalities of this ought to be worked out. In any case, we ought to have guiding principles to help people to decide what is it that they should look for in a post, before they choose it as insanely-great.

Quote:

Originally Posted by buck_was

Nice idea.. another prospective spamming avenue..

but fraught with the risk of misinterpretation! Some absolutely serious n straightfwd posts might bite the dust on this thread

Plumber bhai.. how abt leaking some taps of your own? :P
Why don't u supplement ur start with an example.. kya hai, thoda aasaan ho jayega for others to comprehend ur desired 'format'..

Allow me to give you an example of how I would go about recommending a post that I think is "insanely-great":

1) Thread: Is Sachin past his prime?

2) http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/108647-post14.html

3) Poster: MvB AC No9

4) Context: MvB making his opening stand wherein he explains why sachin, not only is past his prime but actually a loser, in a thread dominated by Sachin-fans(at that point in time).

5) Why I rate it as an insanely-great post:
He used sarcasm and stats, in a brilliant way, to drive home the point why sachin is past his prime. Even though I belong to a sect that's called rational sachin-fans

, the post was so persuasive and striking that it compelled me to re-examine my opinions about Sachin.
(I am not saying I agree with all of what he says, in fact I don't!)

Hope I have made a few things clear!

**nikhilkulk**

Nice idea... No review mechanism ever happens on PG. So it won't happen even this time as well. But the future of this thread depends on the posts that follow... Lets hope this one really stays as a database of good posts and does not get cluttered like we have seen it happen in threads like *SB hits* and *PJ threads* So please put some thought before posting here..

Cheers
~Nikhil

subodh_iit

A Nice Idea Indeed.

However I will like to propose a modification in the posting pattern. Rather than making a bland repition of the original post, let us make a better summary of the post.

This will prevent frequent non-stop posting by ppl, who get impressed by some funny post and then suddenly decided to post the link, 1 line context and some detail abt it..

To an unaquainted reader it will appear an ucharterd territory. He isnt going to bother abt it and only those ppl who have already read the post will read it again.

The way Plumber has posted, he has robbed of the sheen off MvB's great post..

Probably we can post digests here rather than posts - like Is Sachin Past his Prime Digest divided into 3-4 posts. Or Desiguru's IIT/IIM national waste digest. Or DG's IIM Interviews Digest or some other XYZ digest.

This will make sure only good posters who have understood the theme post and devote some time to post..

Plumber

Quote:

Originally Posted by subodh_iit

A Nice Idea Indeed.

However I will like to propose a modification in the posting pattern. Rather than making a bland repition of the original post, let us make a better summary of the post.

This will prevent frequent non-stop posting by ppl, who get impressed by some funny post and then suddenly decided to post the link, 1 line context and some detail abt it..

To an unaquainted reader it will appear an ucharterd territory. He isnt going to bother abt it and only those ppl who have already read the post will read it again.

The way Plumber has posted, he has robbed of the sheen off MvB's great post..

Probably we can post digests here rather than posts - like Is Sachin Past his Prime Digest divided into 3-4 posts. Or Desiguru's IIT/IIM national waste digest. Or DG's IIM Interviews Digest or some other XYZ digest.

This will make sure only good posters who have understood the theme post and devote some time to post..

Fair enough point...A good idea actually...What you are saying is rather than merely posting links, one can do some value-addition by giving a brief synopsis or something similar of the posts? You can probably expound more on what do you mean by "digest" of posts. If possible, also give us an illustration.

Also, if my comments took the sheen away from that particular post of MvB's; what would happen if I were to summarize it?

Cheers!

shubhankar85

Quote:

Originally Posted by subodh_iit

However I will like to propose a modification in the posting pattern. Rather than making a bland repition of the original post, let us make a better summary of the post.

This will prevent frequent non-stop posting by ppl, who get impressed by some funny post and then suddenly decided to post the link, 1 line context and some detail abt it..

Hmmm....I kinda disagree with a summary/review funda for the best posts....
Different people like the same post for different reasons coz everyone has their own viewpoint/perspective...
One of the objectives of this concept is to provide a Newbie with an archive of the best posts that Pagalguy has to offer...
In that case I think a review by another user will only create some prior prejudice as not every user is capable of writing good reviews.
Note that in this case, a review will only serve its purpose if it can create sufficient interest about the post so that everyone who reads the review will also go on to read the post in a manner which allows him to be receptive to what the post expresses...not just coz he clicks on a link that has been posted somewhere...

My own suggestions here:

Create a sticky thread for the best posts of each section
Create a new feauture called "Sticky posts" (I donno about the logistical feasibility of this, but would be great if this can be done)
Establish a system such that if an appreciable number of users like a post, it can be made a "Sticky post"
Create a procedure such that any post which becomes a "Sticky Post" automatically moves to the Sticky thread for the "Best Posts"...

Think this will make the entire process extremely streamlined...But dont ask me how we can achieve this..!!!

Plumber

IMO, an insanely-great post would generally be a combination of the following elements:

1) Original thinking: Thought-provoking and providing a new-angle or perspective to a discussion. For eg.: DG's posts about IIM/IIT being a national-waste.

2) Legible writing: A post that doesn't contain too many grammatical errors or typos is considered legible. Read neena's posts.

3) Persuasiveness and Clarity: Ability to appeal to both logic and emotions. For eg: most of MvB's or Pyshcodementia's posts are so effective that they make you see their points as clearly as they themselves see.

4) Lateral Thinking: Can't explain this really...Check out this post by man_friday: http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/774065-post1834.html

5) Humor: Self-explanatory.