Would show an idea that has had votes but is neutral (ie. four positives and four negatives), and continue to have no icon for an idea with no votes. Suggestions for the new icon? (how about an empty plate?)-- Jim, Jul 17 2000 Empty plate! Why didn't I think of this! The original 0, a pile of cumbs (left over from the nonexistant croissant, presumably) just wasn't recognizeable at all; things looked much better without it. (One less little picture to deal with.)
But yes, the scoring has more dimensions than are currently displayed in the overviews. Originally, "controversial .. unanimous" showed in the icon color - fading to grey as people voted in both directions - but the picture became too busy, and broke down for lack of a 0 icon to fade when the bread crumbs were ditched.
I'm against showing the second dimension for 0 only; now you see it, then someone votes, boom, you're losing the information - that's not good.
If people really think they need it, we can try showing it again for everything. Alternatively, there could be a most controversial 10, rather than a top 10, to look at for the things people really disagree about. But right now, I'm happy to just not show that information in the overview.-- jutta, Jul 17 2000 Perhaps keeping the +/- and the activity level dimensions separate would solve this "losing the information for nonzero" problem. Sure, it'd introduce a new icon, range of icons, or other scalar indicator, but a clearer understanding of the actual popularity and controversy levels of an entry would be immediately available.
High rating, high activity = wildly popular, not controversial
High rating, low activity = liked my some, but largely ignored
Neutral rating, low activity = ho hum
Neutral rating, high activity = highly controversial, denizens divided
Low rating, high activity = people hate this
Low rating, low activity = disliked by some, largely ignored
It'd be even cooler if the activity level were indexed against the number of times the idea had been viewed, or the total activity on the site, but this might be overkill. Then again, activity could be votes + links + annotations, a simple measure.-- jplummer, Jul 21 2000 I definitely want a "most controversial 10". I think it should be measured by "min(minusvotes,plusvotes)", not "minusvotes + plusvotes", otherwise it will tend to be an amalgam of "top 10" and "bottom 10" (not that "bottom 10" exists, but anyway)...
Or perhaps we could have both "most controversial 10" and "most active 10". But once we're talking about "activity", we might as well score by annotations and links as well.
Or maybe all this quantification and ranking is silly, and we should just enjoy the ideas.-- egnor, Aug 20 2000 <giggles> I like it...-- StarChaser, Aug 20 2000 Good luck showing a recognizable tuna melt in 15x25 pixels (let alone the smaller format). People already have trouble recognizing the croissant and fishbone...-- egnor, Aug 20 2000 How about scaling either the icon or the title line according to the number of votes, positive and negative, the idea has attracted; this could be done by greyscale or color spectrum. At least perusers could figure out at a glance the difference between completely uninteresting ideas and those behind whose nonicon a fierce but equilibrated debate was raging. Alternatively, scale by how many annotations it has attracted.-- hagfish, Aug 05 2001 I was about to suggest this, but hey! It already exists!
I'd suggest a ~ myself.-- Almafeta, Oct 20 2004 Kudos to you for the efforts spent searching before posting.-- bristolz, Oct 20 2004 Hey, that reminds me about this idea I have about how everyone could have tails.
Yeah, searching is highly appreciated.-- sartep, Oct 21 2004 No! Please not a 'most controversial 10' list. We would never see the end of threads that should in all respects be m-f-d'd.-- RayfordSteele, Oct 22 2004 Empty plate!
Like the Empty set except there is something in it.
The bit of junk mail stuff in the pages of a book when someone unexpected knocks on the door.-- popbottle, Jul 14 2015 random, halfbakery