Activity Stream Questions
calkins
March 31, 2009, 01:34 PM posted in General DiscussionI'm trying to utilize the Activity Stream to see if it's a useful tool for me. I know it's still in beta, but I'm confused about a few things:
- Why do only a few comments get feedback (green and red backgrounds), but most don't? Is there a typical timeframe we can expect feedback, at least during a typical work week? Will responses be quicker in the "final release"?
- Why do community posts show up in the Activity Stream? They seem out of place. I've also noticed that some community posts are posted twice in the Activity Stream.
- Will traditional characters be an option in the final release?
Some suggestions and glitches:
- I think the Elementary level should still show pinyin in the pull-down menu.
- Could there be a way to subscribe to multiple levels, or all levels? I think it could be beneficial to see higher level comments, even if you don't want to join in. The ability to see lower levels can also be beneficial.
- Could there be a pull-down menu (similar to the one in Conversations) where you could choose to only see "My Questions" or "Replies To My Questions"?
- If you're on Page 3 of the Activity Stream and you click your browser's back arrow (to go back to Page 2), it actually automatically redirects you to the page you were on before you went to the Activity Stream (i.e. to the Me page, My Lessons tab). Actually, I think this is a Cpod website-wide glitch...it happens anywhere on the site that has marked pages (Community, Lessons, Groups, etc.).
I'm starting to see some potential value in this tool, I'm just trying to understand it a little better. And I will happily eat my words from a previous post if it turns out to be useful ;)
zhenlijiang
April 16, 2009, 12:55 AMi feel like a hotel guest who did something stupid like using way too much toilet paper than the plumbing would take, calling the front desk. but may i ask that the Intermediate Activity Stream please be cleaned up for us--it's been clogged for the past two days. 真不好意思, and thank you so much in advance.
PS please send someone to the room when i'm not in--so embarrassing, the way they get in a good look at your face while pretending not to.
jckeith
April 01, 2009, 05:42 AMHmm, I seem to remember seeing it in more than one place, but all I can find now is this comment that Matt left in the Activity Stream (Elementary only?).
calkins
April 03, 2009, 05:31 AMEven though many of the comments on this thread were lost, I hope Cpod gets a chance to address the above questions, and possibly provide more insight into the final release.
Thanks!
John
April 04, 2009, 05:45 AMCalkins,
Sorry it took me a few days to get back to you. Here are my answers:
1. As JCKeithe surmised, the feedback feature works only on answers to the pre-determined questions. There are certain cases where allowing feedback on everything might be (1) unwanted, (2) confusing for learners, (3) confusing for our own teachers. We're looking at how to expand this in the most logical way. It should happen very soon.
2. The community posts show up there because they're another form of activity from people at your level. Practice is the major goal of the Activity Stream (getting people more active), but we also want to encourage all kinds of user interaction.
3. Yes, in keeping with our commitment to traditional characters, we will support them for the final release.
4. Adding pinyin to Elementary questions is definitely something we can do. Personally, it really bothers me that there's no way to copy the text of the question, since it's inside a drop-down box. This affects all levels. There are tons of reasons why I might want to copy that text.
5. We wanted to keep the interface as simple as possible. Subscribing simultaneously to multiple levels seems inherently complex, so for the time being we just support an easy switch from the sidebar.
6. There could be more "show only..." options, but it's more complexity. Twitter is our inspiration here.
7. The pagination issue is related to the classic "AJAX loads VS. browser back button" problem. We'll see what we can do.
calkins
April 01, 2009, 05:15 AMThanks jckeith. Where did you hear about the feedback? Maybe I'm not looking in the right place for instructions. I've looked on the blog here and here, as well as the Help section.
It would be a shame if feedback was only limited to responses. If that's the case, then many new 汉字 posts will be teaching us bad grammar.
calkins
April 06, 2009, 01:27 PMJohn, thanks for your answers, especially since you provided them over the weekend.
I still have some questions. I'm not trying to be a pain in the arse here, I'm really just trying to understand the purpose of this Activity Stream. Based on your answers, I'm still not getting it.
1. As JCKeithe surmised, the feedback feature works only on answers to the pre-determined questions. There are certain cases where allowing feedback on everything might be (1) unwanted, (2) confusing for learners, (3) confusing for our own teachers. We're looking at how to expand this in the most logical way. It should happen very soon.
My understanding is that the main purpose of the AS is to get users to practice writing Chinese in small chunks.
If that's the case, I can't understand why feedback/correction would be unwanted or confusing. Without proper feedback, the tool is almost useless - how will our Chinese improve if we continue to make the same mistakes without correction? We can't leave it to the community to make corrections (blind leading the blind).
2. The community posts show up there because they're another form of activity from people at your level. Practice is the major goal of the Activity Stream (getting people more active), but we also want to encourage all kinds of user interaction.
I'm with Sebire on this one. I don't understand the community posts being here. Users can't reply to a community post, within the AS, so I don't see how it encourages more interaction. And do the community posts really get filtered into the AS based on level? How does that work?
6. There could be more "show only..." options, but it's more complexity. Twitter is our inspiration here.
I understand where the idea comes from, but why limit Chinesepod to what Twitter is doing? I think they serve two completely different purposes. One more drop-down box may seem like more complexity, but it's less complexity for the user (i.e. fewer pages and comments to weed through, less time needed, etc.).
7. The pagination issue is related to the classic "AJAX loads VS. browser back button" problem. We'll see what we can do.
I'm sure your tech people have a handle on this, but just in case they're not aware, this might help:
AJAX: How to Handle Bookmarks and Back Buttons
In the latest N&F, you said you wanted more feedback...this is mine. As always, thanks for listening and constantly improving!
sebire
April 06, 2009, 06:36 PMI think that just getting people to write stuff is good. It makes people think. However, in terms of improving ones writing, or at least production of sentences, then one needs feedback.
If the levels were mixed up, then maybe people with higher levels of Chinese could help those at lower levels. Whether people will actually do so is a different matter.
henning
April 06, 2009, 06:44 PMAs my post above has been lost in the update fire, here a small summery:
Paid homework correction. Questions for each lesson. Answers limited to a defined length. Pay per use. Communication stays private.
Result:
Users --> proficient
CPod --> rich
kimiik
April 06, 2009, 07:43 PMHenning,
From other sources, I can get the all the answers to the question I ask. But a special pay-per-use subscrition on Cpod would still have a big advantage.
Here is the differences it would make :
Other sources : bothered + slow + not always reliable
Cpod users : unpredictable + not always reliable
Cpod + special pay-per-use subscription : rich + quick + quite reliable
Also it doesn't bother me in the least if the communication is public or private as long as I get an answer.
sebire
April 04, 2009, 09:09 AMHave to admit, am not a big fan of community posts in a the Stream. I want to see other people's responses, rather than the posts I've already seen on the boards. The concept is nice though, Chinese in digestible bites. Now all I need to do is teach all my friends, then I can pack a lot more info into text messages...
jckeith
April 01, 2009, 04:33 AMApparently, CPod staff can currently only provide feedback for posts which are replies to the pre-determined list of questions.
Cheers for the suggestions. I hope the CPod staff take a look, because you have some good ideas.