How Does it Work?

Purpose

The purpose of this site, The Smarter Forum, is to discuss future, and how we want it to be by providing creative solutions. To do this, we need to discuss what the current challenges are and how we can creatively solve them. Please keep in mind that whenever outlining a problem or challenge on The Smarter Forum, spend at least equal amount of time and energy proposing a solution! Whenever outlining and reasoning a desirable future outcome provide also your view how to get there!

Site Structure

This is a schematic of The Smarter Forum's structure and functionality. All registered members of The Smarter Forum gain access to forums to post new forum topics and comments, and to vote on other members' posts. Forums are for discussions that are central to our life and that are relatively general.

In addition to the central forums, this site also supplies more specific areas called "Groups" with access only to members who have joined these groups. Groups are centered around very specific interest groups, and discussions in group are very likely not very interesting to general public. Thus groups are ways to keep specific interest and communication about them "contained" within these groups. It is up to the registered The Smarter Forum members to join themselves in specific groups of interest.

Forum Structure

The Smarter Forum is divided into forums, which are the "large" containers of forum topics, and topics within the forums. Forum topics consist of the first "forum topic" submission and comments to the topic, which all collectively form a discussion thread.

New Group Request

Currently there is no automatic way to set up a new group. If you'd like to set up a new group for a specific purpose, please contact the webmaster.

Taxonomy

It is a mandatory requirement to categorize each post using taxonomy terms. This is necessary for information organization such as grouping, quickly finding relevant information, and searching. It also provides a quick way to learn about a subject. There are four levels of taxonomy categories available, and every registered member has the permission to add new terms to the level four - the detailed level. If you need to add a new term at a different level, please request the webmaster.

Requirements for Postings

As all postings and their authors are rated by other users for the quality of thinking, members should do their homework first before submitting anything. Postings should form a complete case to serve as a quality new discussion topic or a comment or a group page or event. Fragments of text and such should not be posted to avoid negative feedback in terms of votes.

Editing Submissions

All members can edit their own Forum Topics, Comments, Calendar Events and Group Pages. The potential problem with later editing is that if other members have cast their votes already, they may not necessarily know or want to vote again to change their vote (for example if you are hoping to turn negative votes into positive ones by editing your post). It is better to think through your post before submitting so it does not require later editing. Instead you could reply later in the discussion thread with your improvements.

Treatment of Spammers

Spammers will be banned either by admins or other members. Admins can ban spammers directly, other members can vote down their content. When the minimum points threshold is reached, spammer is automatically banned from further submissions.

Posting Limits

A member can post up to 5 new Forum Topics or up to 10 comments per a 24-hour period. This provides another reason to think well before posting anything, and to not waste your limits on posting nuisance.

Voting on Content

Members need to be logged in to vote, and they can vote on all other members' content - Forum Topics, Comments, Group Pages or Calendar Events. Voting on members' own content is not allowed. It is possible to vote in two directions - up and down. Content that is good should receive "up" votes and poor content "down" votes.

Voting widget consists of three boxes - a large box showing the total votes that the piece of content has received so far, and, for registered and logged-in Members, two small boxes marked "+" for voting "up" and "-" for voting "down". A site Member can click either on the "+" or "-" signs to cast their "up" or "down" votes. If both voting signs are grey and Member is not the author of that content, Member has not voted on this particular piece of content, and voting on the content is available.

If Member has already cast a vote on a piece of content, the vote is highlighted with the sign of the vote painted black. Voting on the piece of content, or more precisely, changing the original vote option, is available. The Member simply needs to cast their vote again to change their mind, all scores for content and users are automatically re-calculated. However, it is not allowed to vote multiple times in the same direction. This will result in an error message stating that "Oops! There was an error in submitting your vote!".

Voting on Own Content

Voting on own content is not allowed and will result in the following error message:

The Points System

The purpose of these forums is to design solutions through creative thinking. Voting on content to filter out the best ideas consist an integral part of the forums. Members earn points for voting and via voting they assign points to the content and other users.

As you can see, posting low-quality content with the intention to earn points will result in elimination of these points and more rather fast. Plus it only takes 100 "Down" votes to ban a member completely from further posting. Therefore it is imperative to post only quality content that is well thought-out. Most points are earned by posting quality content and which other members like and vote "Up".

Giving Points to Other Users

It is possible to give some of your points to other users. If you have earned some and feel that there is a member who should receive some of your points, you can directly transfer some of your own points to that member. To do this, simply click the "Give points" link at the end of each forum post.

Subscriptions

It is easy to subscribe to content, and to do it in many flexible ways. You can subscribe to all content by a user, type, category, or everything going on in here. You can select to receive private messages or e-mail notifications about your subscribed content.

Private Messages

Private messages are for members to communicate privately without having to reveal their real contact information. Private messages can also be used to receive subscription notifications.

Groups

Groups are special interest groups for members of The Smarter Forums. Any member can subscribe themselves to any group open for new members, and participate in the group's activities. Events in calendar specific to a certain group only are only visible to that group's members.

Calendar of Events

Calendar of events is provided for groups to inform of upcoming events.

Picture Galleries

The Smarter Forum takes advantage of Picasa in providing picture galleries. We don't want you to upload your content to this site and have to store it if this functionality is available from Picasa for free. To post your Picasa picture gallery inside a post on this site, simply copy the RSS feed link next to your Picasa gallery and paste it into the "tag" like this: (replace "tag" with your RSS link). Important - you need to make your gallery publicly available to make it visible. For example, this RSS link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/schema2020/albumid/54009...

will create the following picture gallery:

File Uploads

It is possible to include files with posts (all types of posts including comments). File uploads are limited to 2MB.

Still No Answer?

If your question is still unanswered, send your question to webmaster (only available to registered Members).