Hey Scott, thanks, this is incredibly useful. Forces examination of assumptions.
Barrett you may want to pass this stuff on to Tarn or Toady or whoever else is looking at the widget specs.
Black = Scott
Red = CR
First, I think we need to clarify how potential
readers will
download the widget. I expect the actual downloading will occur over a
distributed network, however, Im unclear as to what exactly will
initiate this
process. I see that there is a function within the reader widget to copy
the
software, but how does someone without this widget initiate the
download? My thinking was that any time a reader sees a PM widget on a web page, he/she can activate the reader features on that widget, get lists of posts and if he/she likes what the widget does, he/she can copy it to his/her own PC. This is why I ended up having only one widget (we had at some point talked about having separate ones for readers and bloggers). The widget that appears on blogger websites needs to be the source for the reader's widget, since there will be no central server. Also,
do we need to add that when downloading, there should be a check to make
sure
the most recent version is downloaded? I don't know how software updates work in a serverless network, but I was assuming it would necessarily be automatic, that is, "your" widget will pick the update up from finding and interfacing with other widgets, like all the other information in network, so the updates would be sort of viral.
Second, the following statement confuses me:
Drop-down
appears with two questions permitting selection by radio buttons. Can
radio
buttons be a selection within a drop-down menu? Good point, terminology in spreadsheet is probably wrong. I thought radio buttons
are the
small circles next to possible selections and whereby only one option
can be
selected. My intent was for there two be two sets of selectable options, need to make one selection in each, two sets of radio buttons or whatever the little dealihoozles should be called. Also, can I view all posts with more than 5 pushes while
ignoring
time, or do both options need to be selected for the list of posts to be
displayed? I thought about this same question, and concluded that both selections must be made, because after the network has been up for a while, a request for all posts with more than X pushes would return too long a list. Although if it is felt that a longer "look-back" period is desirable, that's just a matter of changing the values in the options.
Third, and I dont find this to be pertinent to the
purpose
of the spreadsheet but would like to get the thought down on paper
before I
forget it. Is it better to use time or a time frame (i.e. within 24
hours,
within 72 hours, more than 3 days old, etc.)? In the current setup, a
hypothetical reader could log in at 12:01am and see zero posts while
there may have
been several written in the previous hour. I considered this question, exactly as you articulate it actually, and I felt that the time frame (24 hrs, etc) would be more desirable than the midnight cut-off. Nevertheless I set it up the way I did to avoid the request triggering a separate search and calculate operation for every request; this way the network can use a set of continually adjusting lists, one for each combination push/lookback-time selections, and not have to calculate and search anew for every reader request, but just find the current list and update it with new posts since the last query. My understanding from reading about serverless networks was that although it is more efficient to transfer information directly user-to-user, as opposed to going to a server and back out to another user, serverless networks require more or less continuous traffic among the users for updating and exchange of data, and some internet service providers may block them for purposes of economy and control. Also, I expect by using time
frame
instead, it will alleviate issues that could arise as a result of
different
time zones. Good point, not sure what the solution is. As an aside, is there a reason a reader cannot see posts
made more
than 5 days ago? I was just trying to limit the transmission of cumbersome amounts of data, and I am looking at this as what's-happening tool rather than a research tool or an archival index. So it was an arbitrary cut-off, could be longer. But seemed to me there needed to be controls on the amount of data searched-for and returned.
Finally, a few questions I have. Will readers have
the
capacity to alter defaults There are a couple of preselections and it would make sense to me if a reader could re-set those so he/she does not have to re-enter their customary choices every time, but since they're just default selections different selections can be made for every search. i.e. display order for links Probably would be no big deal to add this, but would mean another menu must appear, time
period/frame, and
number of pushes I set it up with a limited number of choices for the reason described above, to reduce the burden on the network of searching and calculating anew for every query ? Will readers have the ability to provide any feedback
to a
posts merits such as thumbs down or up? I considered this and decided not to include features that already exist in other systems, like reddit, or even Facebook. In this case I am not sure where the feed back would go, to all PM widget-holders? To the author of the post? My compromise was to include a reader popularity feature in terms of counting views, as a possibility, but again I was being conservative about what we ask the network to do, in terms of burden of data transfer and storage (which will be associated with each widget, not central). Will readers be able to suggest
a post
to an existing reader and/or non-existing reader, which could improve
information flow and readership? Same answer, I thought about this but did not include any reader-to-reader sharing/communication features since they exist elsewhere and I wanted to limit burden and complexity of the network.
I also had fun just now contemplating the concept of a non-existing reader; not sure at first what that meant, but then I remembered that I wrote some term papers for them back in the college dorm.
The following relates to the READER section of the
spreadsheet. Tomorrow I will write something up on the BLOGGER section.
First, I think we need to clarify how potential readers will
download the widget. I expect the actual downloading will occur over a
distributed network, however, Im unclear as to what exactly will initiate this
process. I see that there is a function within the reader widget to copy the
software, but how does someone without this widget initiate the download? Also,
do we need to add that when downloading, there should be a check to make sure
the most recent version is downloaded?
Second, the following statement confuses me: Drop-down
appears with two questions permitting selection by radio buttons. Can radio
buttons be a selection within a drop-down menu? I thought radio buttons are the
small circles next to possible selections and whereby only one option can be
selected. Also, can I view all posts with more than 5 pushes while ignoring
time, or do both options need to be selected for the list of posts to be
displayed?
Third, and I dont find this to be pertinent to the purpose
of the spreadsheet but would like to get the thought down on paper before I
forget it. Is it better to use time or a time frame (i.e. within 24 hours,
within 72 hours, more than 3 days old, etc.)? In the current setup, a
hypothetical reader could log in at 12:01am and see zero posts while there may have
been several written in the previous hour. Also, I expect by using time frame
instead, it will alleviate issues that could arise as a result of different
time zones. As an aside, is there a reason a reader cannot see posts made more
than 5 days ago?
Finally, a few questions I have. Will readers have the
capacity to alter defaults i.e. display order for links, time period/frame, and
number of pushes? Will readers have the ability to provide any feedback to a
posts merits such as thumbs down or up? Will readers be able to suggest a post
to an existing reader and/or non-existing reader, which could improve
information flow and readership?
