SummitPost Version 3
SummitPost Version 3

SummitPost Version 3

Page Type Page Type: Article

Overview

There has been a lot of discussion with respect to the recent changes on SummitPost, which is being considered SummitPost version 3, but most of that has been either individual conversations or open discussion in the forums. Since many members do not read the forums here is an overview. Nor do I expect any of you to weed through all that crap!

I haven’t tried to make this pretty or perfect… just informative.

**** Newest Item: Updated Page Editor ****

Matt has implemented a new page editor to make it easier to submit content to the site, including both editing pages and uploading images. For those used to the old process, the old editor will continue to remain available.

Since this is a new tool, there are sure to be some bugs. Please see the New Editor Feedback & Bug Reports thread to highlight issues or discuss the changes.

See the New Editor (SPv3) Tutorial article for complete details.

Site Speed

Montana Matt did a huge amount of work here to assure the site was fast. Several members have noticed without even being aware this was worked on. I’m not going to bore you with the details (as if I knew them), but thanks Matt for the good work here!

Look and Feel Changes

Home PageSP Home Page

Josh Lewis contributed a TON of work and free time here to make the improvements we see all over the site, and Matt of course spent a lot of time here too. A few others and I did some testing, but Josh and Matt deserve all the credit here. To save my own time I am not going to spell it all out… just look around!

Great work Josh!!! And thanks Matt!

If you see any issues, there are several threads to use to highlight them. Please comment if something isn’t working!

Report Bugs Here

SPv3 formatting problems (if the issue is related to formatting, either on the site or more likely how something is negatively affecting your pages, report it in this thread, not the 'Bugs' thread)

If you are wondering if your issue may already be known, please refer to this page Josh is maintaining: Known Issues and Bugs for SP V3

SP new changes (this is another thread just talking about some of the existing changes) Not critical reading.

People may also notice the work on the home page. Mostly Josh’s work I think, with Matt too of course. Some of the older discussion about it is visible in the following thread if you are interested. But this is old news now. SP Home Page

Also, note that the elves have been doing a good job keeping fresh content on the page... check it out!

Picture of the Moment

POTMPOTM

Most members have noticed the Picture of the Moment (POTM). I’ll give myself credit for this idea, and several others have provided good input with respect to how it works (to avoid manipulation, the precise details are not spelled out, and they have changed several times). And Montana Matt of course did all the work to actually make it happen. Thanks again Matt!

Voting

VotingVery Good Page = 8/10

Big change here in how votes are counted and page scores are calculated and how they affect power points. You can mostly blame me for the mechanism, but I had great input from other members too, and again Matt of course did the work in implementation.

Please don’t vote a 10 on everything now!

I am mostly referring to mountain pages and other content. If it is a superb page 10s are great, but if not, other scores are certainly appropriate and no longer frowned upon. And of course you should still give my pages a 10!

:-)

So when voting please evaluate the value of a contribution towards SP. Does a page have good information and improve the site? Votes of 6 through 10 increase a page’s standing.

Is a page inaccurate or in need of improvements to meet the standards of other pages on SP? Votes of 1-5 will decrease a page’s standing. Try to offer constructive comments that explain your vote if a member has made an honest effort but needs to make changes.

An overview of changes compared to the old system:

The voting algorithm was modified so that 6s though 10s are treated as positive votes to varying degrees, and 1s through 5s lower a page score. Page scores have also been adjusted to cover a larger distribution with most pages ranging from 70% to 95%. A page with a score of 75% is no longer a terrible score like it was in the old system.

Since 6s through 10s increase page scores to varying degrees, members are better able to provide accurate feedback on a page when considering other pages on the site. Members are free to reserve 10s for the very best pages encountered. When receiving a 6 or 7 on a page, this is still benefiting your page score. A 7 is always a positive vote!

Power points have also been adjusted to better reflect the effort and value of various objects, place a greater emphasis on the value of high quality contributions, and to reflect that pages in the 70% to 80% deserve more credit than those scores warranted before. Section 2.3 of the SP FAQs lays out the relative values of different objects and pages, and how increasing scores result in more points.

Previously most high quality pages were worth 20-40% more than lower quality pages, whereas now most of the best pages are worth 40-100% more. Even if a page has only one vote though, it is going to have an impact on your profile so please do not be discouraged!

The point calculation for routes and canyons has been increased from 60% of a mountain page to 80%. The points for an article has been increased to 120% of a mountain page. The lowest scoring images are worth less than before, and the maximum score for an image has decreased to 1 point.

Almost every member’s power point total decreased to varying degrees when compared to SPv2 (every single one of the dozens of members I checked). Still, many members remain unchanged when compared to another’s overall point total. Comparisons to some members may show an increase or decrease in relative ranking due to the sorts of contributions that each member may have been made.


Thread on the voting system discussion is here (this thread is a beast... the above is a better overview): Changes to the Voting System

The SP FAQ has also been updated... there is a tiny link at the bottom of every page, and here: SP FAQ

The relevant FAQ updates are to sections 2.3, 2.5, and 2.6

More changes coming!

Montana Matt is working on more changes, with help from several others. To get an overview and comment on proposals, or make proposals of your own, or see what is being worked on, please check out UserVoice. There is a link at the top of EVERY SP page, and here:

SummitPost Suggestions / UserVoice

And future updates will be made to this article as well for cricital items Not every little thing though (has everyone noticed you can mark pages as being 'Under Construction'). TONS of work is being done by many great folks and I will not have the opportunity to cover everything!

Now make your voice heard!


Images

View SummitPost Version 3 Image Gallery - 3 Images

Comments

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Viewing: 1-20 of 29
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Marcsoltan

Marcsoltan - Jan 29, 2013 6:59 pm - Voted 10/10

Great Idea!

As a member who tries not to read all the entries in the forums, and being an occasional visitor, I think this article is a good idea and it will go a long way to clear up some confusion that many members may have.
Good job Chad. I know you were kidding, but here's your 10x10 anyway.
Marc

mrchad9

mrchad9 - Jan 29, 2013 7:03 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Great Idea!

LOL... I was referring to votes on my mountain pages Marc!

Yes, folks such as yourself (who do fantastic work in the real part of the site) were who I was thinking of when I put this together. It's hard to find anything in the forums at this point, much less a summary.

Marcsoltan

Marcsoltan - Jan 29, 2013 7:52 pm - Voted 10/10

Re: Great Idea!

LOL back....I know you were referring to your M&R pages, but I wanted to vote on your article too.
I also know that you had my opinion about the voting system in mind, and I appreciate it.

Liba Kopeckova

Liba Kopeckova - Jan 29, 2013 7:47 pm - Voted 10/10

Thanks Chad...

I don't usually read forums either. It is nice to read about it in this form. So, how shall I vote on your photos submitted for this article? ha

How about votes which were inherited? e.g. someone adopted a mountain page, example Lizard Head which had a great page by Aaron Johnson, all text was deleted, they got empty page with lots of votes, put little information about it, but not to the previous standard? I guess here the wiki style would be good... Anyway, thanks for keeping us up to date.

mrchad9

mrchad9 - Jan 29, 2013 9:48 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Thanks Chad...

Glad it helps Liba. If anyone wastes time voting on those pics... shame on them!

Too late for them to get POTD anyway. :-)

Elves can delete votes if they see an empty page, but I don't really think that situation is a big concern. Usually folks who bother to take pages like that do a pretty good job, so maybe they should keep the votes as an imaginary bonus.

Josh Lewis

Josh Lewis - Jan 29, 2013 9:29 pm - Voted 8/10

Good Keeping Folks informed

Matt and I didn't get to explain about the technical side of what we did. But perhaps that makes it more of a mystery. ;-) It was a pleasure working with Matt. There was once were we both felt very different about the frontpage coloring. I wanted a faint yellow on the sides, while he wanted a powerful yellow. I came up with a compromise color which is what you see now. But had he not stepped in with his more powerful color, it would have looked a bit duller. From my end it very much felt like a collaboration. Matt would only approve of things that he thought worked out which most the time he liked my suggestions. A lot of this styling was made last July when I started styling my pages. I wanted to show SummitPost that it had the possibility of creating a modern look. My styling efforts paid off.

One might ask why gradient colors? Because that's what we see in nature. Things are not usually one solid color. This in turn creates a pleasing result. Thanks Chad for writing the article on this.

P.S. My 8/10 boosts this article. My 8/10 from now on means that I think this is "pretty good" or "great".

mrchad9

mrchad9 - Jan 29, 2013 9:43 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Good Keeping Folks informed

Nice comment Josh. Also feel free to edit anything in it if you feel an addition or clarification might be needed.

Old School WB

Old School WB - Jan 29, 2013 10:03 pm - Voted 9/10

9 out of 10

In keeping with the new paradigm; I only gave this page a 9. I mostly gave this because of the hard work and effort you boyz must have given to this upgrade. I am not a programmer, but I know they charge a lot of money on contracts. All the work must of consumed a lot of time. Thank you. Even though my power took a huge hit, I love this website. Keep up the great work.

Kevin

mrchad9

mrchad9 - Jan 30, 2013 12:01 am - Hasn't voted

Re: 9 out of 10

Most everyone's power dropped by about 10-30%, but since it affected everyone there was only small shuffling when compared to others. I suppose we could have just multiplied them all by 20% and then some would go up a little and some down a little, but I figure its the same either way.

Most of the shift is probably due to lower values for images.

I didn't post this for votes. Just the best mechanism I could think of to get these changes in front of people outside the forums. If folks want to vote an article, I'd rather they go hit up Redwic's fine submission on glacier worms!

Glad you like the changes!

Old School WB

Old School WB - Jan 30, 2013 12:55 am - Voted 9/10

Re: 9 out of 10

Yeah Man! The article on ice worms rocks! I am going to post a link on some local climbing blogs. I will try to hold back on my habit of giving the article 10 out of 10.

Josh Lewis

Josh Lewis - Jan 30, 2013 1:22 am - Voted 8/10

Re: 9 out of 10

I lost roughly 40% of my power. But no biggie, I'm happy the priorities were shifted in the right direction for where points are assigned. That is way more important. Regarding voting 10's, yeah it's a hard habit to break, I caught myself voting 10's the other day and realized once again that we can vote honestly now.

hansw

hansw - Jan 30, 2013 4:34 am - Voted 10/10

Votes 1-5

Thanks to all of you working on improving SP.
Just a thought about giving pages in need of improvements votes 1-5. Let say the page gets improved to a high standard. I suspect it will have to live with the low votes for ever since no one keeps track of the votes cast.

mrchad9

mrchad9 - Jan 30, 2013 11:36 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Votes 1-5

There is still a feature where you can PM members about a vote. If a page has votes in the 1-5 range, and then a lot of work is done on the page later, then I hope folks feel free to use this feature. I wouldn't consider that vote grabbing.

If someone spruces up a page significantly I would be happy to take another quick look if it was mentioned to me.

Josh Lewis

Josh Lewis - Jan 30, 2013 5:20 pm - Voted 8/10

Re: Votes 1-5

If the above method doesn't work out and you feel as though the vote is out dated, just PM the elves. We'll take care of it.

Redwic

Redwic - Jan 30, 2013 8:34 am - Voted 10/10

Thanks!

I don't care what version SP is, I think you still deserve a 10/10 score for this informative article. I make a habit to not compare/contrast different articles, as each article contains different subject matter. When voting, I personally look at effort and content, first and foremost.

One recommendation I can give to other SP members for the new voting scheme is that if anyone gives a "down-vote" (or lower-than-normal vote) to a page contribution, inform the contributor why the down-vote occurred and what you think would make the page better. That will help contributors, and could possibly improve existing page scores if revisions are made, accordingly.

I appreciate the efforts of you, Josh, and Matt (among others). SPv3 is definitely an upgrade.

mrchad9

mrchad9 - Jan 30, 2013 11:38 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Thanks!

Thanks Redwic... but I promise you... you spent more effort on your article than I did on this thing. Beginning to end that was a great read!

yatsek

yatsek - Jan 31, 2013 7:07 am - Voted 9/10

Very good!

But this article lacks one important link.
Also, I think one thing needs correcting. The caption below the "Not a 10!" pic shouldn't read "good page=8" but "Very good page=8"

mrchad9

mrchad9 - Jan 31, 2013 2:25 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Very good!

As you wish!

yatsek

yatsek - Jan 31, 2013 3:49 pm - Voted 9/10

Re: Very good!

Wow, amazing! Oops, I said that again.:) As "Wow!Amazing" stands for a 9, I have no choice but to up your grade.

alpinedon

alpinedon - Jan 31, 2013 1:09 pm - Hasn't voted

new Look

Looks superb! Thanks to everyone for putting in such a great effort.

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