LOST-Theories.com

The absolute reason I don’t use this site anymore at least someones got the guts to speak out. Idiots ruining the site by posting rubbish makes it really hard to use. I now only come on to hear what a minor few users have to say inc. Prof. Jaz and Kat so I am probably missing out on some really good theories because of the retarded people. Im with you all the way

Reminds me of the two bulls……………………………………………………………. Two bulls sit on top of the hill looking down at a field full of cows. The young bull looks at the older bull and says ” I’m going to run down that hill as fast as I can and have sex with one of those cows”. The older cow pauses and frowns at the younger bull and replies ” you carry on my friend because I’m going to stroll down that hill and have sex with all the rest”.

notlost good story and quite relevant although I don’t want to chastise anyone, just give some useful tips etc. to help maintain this site and keep it in the vein it was intended, I have read some fantastic theories lately from new users there are just the random few who think posting 6 theories per day is completely necessary. all that is required is that they read a few before they start posting so that things that have been discussed to the hilt can be avoided.

Is anyone else getting tired of theories that aren’t really theories?

Lecturing on a forum will almost always produce zero good as there’s rarely anyone that will listen to you.

Oh, and as for notlost, yes, you probably are missing out on some good theories (tho, ill agree, the pickings are scarce lately). It’s your decision to read interesting material or not and, as rampant as bs is on a lost theory site, there’s definitely not so many theories that a non-lazy person couldn’t weed through them without complaining, right?

Evan, my attempt was more that of educating the masses than running anyone in particular down. I like to think of us all here as a community brought together by a common interest. I was just trying to encourage some members to do a little research before posting. My intention that this non Theory post would hopefully reduce the amount of BS, Jeff the creator always said that he wanted this site to be self managed i was trying a little management. Sorry to ‘get your back up’

Just saying, it’s pointless.

The only way you’re TRULY going to be able to weed out bad posts is manually. Otherwise, youre just limiting yourself. Even the worst theories i’ve read on this site sometimes trigger a thought that NEVER would have occured to me otherwise.

Free reign to any idea, stupid or not.

Besides, you can identify the truly bad posts almost immediately just based on grammar.

ps. What does “get your back up” mean? Im 23 (so not entirely out of the proverbial loop), a self-proclaimed master of the english language, (urban slang or ye olde style) and yeah, that one doesn’t ring a bell. I hope my “back” comes down again someday…

I completely agree with most of your points but posts like ‘which lost character I’d most like to have sex with’ and ‘why do people like Hurley’ are just thoughtless wastes of space on here. Lets agree to disagree my post was more aimed towards the number of people complaining because they receive -1 without comments just trying to put them in the right direction.

I’ve never read so much back biting against new users on one site. I for one won’t be posting on here any more as I wouldn’t want to ruin ‘your’ site. I mean really! If you hate people joining in this much why don’t you just create your own private little site which only the so-called true Losties can share. Ridiculous.

And ‘younger’… how patronising is that? Okay that really was my last post, I’m sure you will be pleased :-)

Wow…way to let ‘em win mrssawyer.

Didn’t anyone ever teach you that when they ( they being your opponent and, in this current scenario, and in your words, not mine, the patroniZing folk here at LOST theories) successfully shut you up, you lose?

I dont care if this is a website or real life. What i do know is that the second you stop speaking your mind to those you disagree with may as well be the very same second you give every retard on the planet permission to never listen to you again.

Jesus didn’t mean to cause such an upset, just venting my frustrations. maybe i should remove this post before people start hanging me. kk maybe ill reword it a little possibly been a little blunt and to the point.

Is that constructed better. sorry to offend

Ok ok, hackles are down again. This IS a public forum and everyone is entitled to their own viewpoint. That includes the illiterate, the boring and the boorish, unfortunately. I do think that it comes across as an impenetrable clique at times. Probably just my own hang up.

I think this is an excellent site with some really good theories and I have spent the last couple of weeks catching up on many of the posts before joining in. Some of the contributors on here have amazing minds and it is fascinating to read what others make of Lost.

Evansucks: Just a minor note. I wrote ‘patroniSing’ because I am English and strangely enough that’s how we spell it. As for letting people ‘win’ by not speaking up… Well didn’t anyone ever teach you that there are times when its NOT worth banging your head against a wall?

Mrs Sawyer I wasn’t meant to sound derogatory I am just not great at expressing myself. The theories you have posted here have been spot on alike many other’s. I apologize sincerely to have caused so much anger at my post and would feel awful if you stopped using the site because of one post I have worded badly.

Evan - Get Your Back Up (Cat like anger - When a cat raises the hair on his back in anger)

Mrs Sawyer I am also English surely we should be friends. Come on lets make up I’ll buy you a beer and some flowers if only you forgive me. Seriously it was never meant to be a nasty post just some advice to stop the newcomers getting ribbed.

Sleepz sorry I should apologise to you. I had a hormonal ‘lady’ moment. I understand your frustration at some of the posts on here - there have been many things I have personally disagreed with. I’m not a hugely confrontational person generally (today notwithstanding) so I prefer to ignore posts rather than comment on them if I think they are daft.

Look at it this way though, we need the stupid posts to stand against the truly great posts. Light vs. Dark. Good vs. Evil. Ooh its almost like a metaphor!

And of course you may buy me flowers and a beer! I thought the romance had gone out of our relationship ;-)

I agree, I was not really commenting on the bad theories just the ones that have had no thought. There actually can’t be a bad theory as long as its a theory nobody really knows whats going on so all theories are equal in the eyes of Jacob or whoever. Seriously my intention was to help everyone and the site I have just gone the wrong way about it. Friends

With passionate arguments like that the passion will never go………

sorry what I meant to say was ‘With passionate arguments like that the romance will never die………’

Friends indeed. Vive le difference!

Great. Thanks

Im tired of hearing people complain. Everyone seems so biased on this site. What really constitutes a true lostie?? Its insane. No opinion should be considered stupid, no matter who posts it or how far fetched it may be. I think for those that are sick of people posting ON A PUBLIC forum, you need to get your own site for what YOU consider true losties!

Kat, Thanks for the support. I agree with what you are saying and have myself considered not bothering anymore. But I really enjoy posting on this site even if it is to release my brain. BadAzz Seriously dood I’m not trying to moan here just try and keep the number of theories to a sensible level. All I’m trying to say is that if new users read a few theories first before posting 10 theories of their own the place would be an easier place to navigate and they wouldn’t get shot down in flames so negatively. I agree this is the best place to release the BS in your brain that comes from lost but it should at least be a crack at a theory or an unanswered question for debate. I’m regretting posting this now as I feel I have come across as a moaning git that wasn’t the intention. BTW i don’t consider myself anymore of a lostie than anyone else just trying to help manage the site a little

And Kat not sure if this debate will ever be over.

Sorry to harp on but, with regard to the moaning badazz were you not the one ‘moaning’ about people not leaving comments when they give negative response’s. We all have a gripe now and then don’t we mate

I have a suggestion for Jeff that might help the situation:

Could we develop an “LOST Theories.com etiquette page” where new users could go and get familiar with how the site works, proper noting of sources, etc? I’m relatively new and am now paranoid if I’m considered a nuisance or if my views are valued/respected. Not to digress, but am I an Other or a Lostie? ;-)

2nd point: as more episodes are released, more facts are revealed which further narrows the possible theories, which unfortunately, may decrease the flow of interaction ont this site. I enjoy the debate. If it dries up, then so does the fun of it. The downside of lots of traffic is navigating it. Its hard to read 100+ theories with a long string of posts with links, etc, Its human nature to want to jump in and start having debates. If we utilized the features Jeff built for us more effectively, there wouldn’t be as much “tonnage of post” to wade through. Just a thought.

I like all the new posters posting tons of stupid theories. It makes me laugh and I get to flame them. Post away newbies. As for you sensitive, artistic types, ease up already. Most of these new losers just post a couple of times, realize they suck, and move on.

I think the ratings and flagging mechanisms on the site are the solution. Don’t like a theory? Rate it down. That’s what it’s there for. Perhaps soon I’ll add a feature where you can set a rating threshold for views of theories. For example, you could say, “only show me theories that are +5 or higher.” Or something like that. Then, rating theories down would effectively “weed them out.”

Also, don’t forget about views like “highest rated theories” and “most interesting theories.” The most interesting is especially relevant, because it shows the theories that the community here is buzzing about right now. It factors in ratings, number of comments, number of unique commenters, recency, recency of comments, and several other attributes to determine which theories are the “most interesting” to the LOST-Theories.com community.

Yeah, well…popular doesn’t necessarily mean good! One listen to your favorite pop radio station should tell you that. :)

Can’t say I totally disagree with you about that theory, but I don’t think it’s my place to get involved there. I’m just providing a service for people to post their theories — I’m not in the business of controlling which ones are the most popular or highest rated — that for the community to decide!

I’m not sure what’s up with that most theories category — I didn’t realize it wasn’t working right. I’ll look into it. Thanks for pointing it out.

I don’t know, Jeff. I’d agree with you completely if it seemed as though the system as it exists now really measures what the community thinks. But it looks to me as though it actually measures what the community reads. And what’s the community most likely to read? Well, the way things are set up, I think it’s obvious that folks will tend to gravitate toward things at the top of the “Highest Rated” and “Most Interesting” lists. So it’s really not surprising that these lists have become so top-heavy, because they’re almost designed to feed into themselves and snowball. Now, I know you can’t help it if new people to the site only read the first two or three theories on these lists and then bury the rest. And the “Most Interesting” list has helped excellent posters like jazprof be noticed, so that category is working to an extent. But I’m not convinced that the metrics as implemented really do reflect what raters really think on this site. (And that’s speaking as someone who has more than his share of theories on the front page of the “Highest Rated” list.)

Of course, I can’t see behind the scenes, so I don’t have all the facts. This is just how it looks to me. And, more importantly, I have no ideas for correcting the issue, so in the end I must bow to your expertise in spite of my caveats.

For what it’s worth, though… if I were going to request a filter, I’d prefer a user filter more than a rating filter. I have certain people I like to read and I’d hate to never see their posts because my filter waited for 5 people to rate them positively first… but everyone else was waiting too so nobody read their post at all! :-)

Actually, you can totally see behind the scenes. The source code for this site is all open source. If you think you have a better algorithm, I’d LOVE to hear it. I’m always looking to make improvements.

Prof and others:

Take a look under “Users” to the left. I’ve just given you some more options. Does this make you happier?

Katrina: I also fixed the “most theories” in the process. Thanks again for pointing that out.

JC re: open source

Heh… that’s awesome. But, as I said… I’m no help in that area and I’m sure you’ve created a perfectly good algorithm for the “most interesting” list.

My concerns, though, weren’t so much about the rating system or the algorithm per se. The issue wasn’t so much with what the system has as it was with what the system doesn’t have. Currently, the system encourages people to read posts that are the most read. Which tends to make those posts become even MORE read. How, then, can we even say the Gedanken post is the most popular when the vast majority of people who favor it have only read a few posts on the site as a whole? Of course, I’m only guessing that the vast majority of people who favor it have only read a few posts on the site because I don’t know what the stats are (which is what I was really referring to by mentioning that I can’t look behind the scenes and know these things). So my perceptions on the matter may be skewed.

Assuming they’re not, though… If a solution could be found it would be in making more ways for users (and especially new users) to find posts. I presume one of the main reasons we have “Highest Rated” and “Most Interesting” categories is to allow folks who don’t want to wade through “Most Recent” to take a short-cut to “the good stuff”. But these two methods of finding what’s good favor posts that are being read, and the truth is that quality appears to have very little to do with whether or not a post gets read at all, much less widely read.

So what if we brought back things like “most likely”, “most creative”, and the like, but also made them + or – ratings. No average score, just three or four ways to look at the post. Or what if we had a way to rate the users themselves? If users could rate comments, then it would encourage more thoughtful and constructive comments, and perhaps a search for the “Highest Rated User” would likely reveal a person whose theories are also well thought out, whether or not chance happened to favor their theory getting read rather than buried. Or, what if users were required to pick a pre-set theme for their theories (time-travel, paranormal, supernatural, science only, etc.) so that theories could be looked at by theme? Then new folks might have a chance to realize that not every theory on the site is about time travel. (And maybe theories like “Gedanken” wouldn’t have a chance to snowball in the first place.)

These are things I hesitate to suggest, JC, because I don’t want to send the message that I’m not thoroughly impressed with this site. I love this place. It’s the only Lost site I visit. The only forum-type site I visit. The way this site was put together is pure genius. And I like what you’ve done with the new options under “Users”. I do think that’s a step in the right direction.

Currently, the system encourages people to read posts that are the most read.

Okay, I think that’s a far assessment — but which ones do you think I should encourage reading, instead? I think we currently feature the highest rated, most interesting, and newest theories. If you have suggestions as to which other sets of theories I can programatically feature, I’ll be happy to consider it. Obviously, it can’t be subjective. I can’t programatically feature the theories you think are good. I can do anything algorithmic, like, “highlight the theories posted in the last week without any comments or ratings.” Stuff like that I can totally do. Seriously, I’d love to hear your suggestions.

You want higher-quality posts to be featured, but how do you define higher-quality? And is your definition of higher-quality something that can be written into a mathematical formula? Because if it’s not, then you want editorial control. And this site will never be editorialized, because i simply don’t have time to editorialize it. And, you would probably not agree with what I think is good, anyway.

I don’t think I want to bring back “most creative” and “most likely.” That stuff frustrated the more causal users of the site. I got e-mails like, “Why do I have to go through so much work to rate a theory? I don’t want to decide if it’s creative or likely and I don’t want to have to comment it on it — I just want to say ‘I like it’ or ‘I don’t’.” Of course, you can’t please everyone.

Rating the users themselves is actually something I could implement very easily, and I’ve considered it. I am sort of hesitant, because I don’t want it to turn into a popularity content or a flame war. But, if people like that idea, I’ll think about it. I sort of like the idea of programatically rating users better. That is to say, if you post a lot of theories that get higher ratings, then your user rating goes up. If you post a lost of theories that get flagged as “trollish,” your user rating goes down. That kind of thing.

The theme idea is already built-in! You can already add themes to your theories, and you can already browse by theme. The only problem with this is that I don’t have anyone to actively maintain the list of themes, so it falls out of date. Hint, hint. If someone wants to volunteer, I’d be happy to give you access to the admin interface for doing that.

These are things I hesitate to suggest, JC, because I don’t want to send the message that I’m not thoroughly impressed with this site. I love this place. It’s the only Lost site I visit. The only forum-type site I visit. The way this site was put together is pure genius. And I like what you’ve done with the new options under “Users”. I do think that’s a step in the right direction.

Thanks for the kind words. I know you’re just trying to make this site even better, and I appreciate it. Suggestions from people like you who are here all the time are always more than welcome. :)

Thanks JC! :-)

Well, first off, to be honest I have no clue as to which posts should be more read. I’ve just observed that relatively few posts are getting read. That is, I’d like to see more posts read in general. By saying I don’t think quality is something that makes a post more likely to be read, I was really saying that random forces seem to have an inordinate amount of influence on a post being read at all. And certainly I agree that any solution to this problem has to be one that doesn’t require the site to be moderated by anyone other than the users themselves. This is why I suggested the other categories for evaluating posts, because this would make more “Most X” categories that might give other people a chance to be read. Right now, there are four “Most X” categories (highest rated, most interesting, most commented, most votes) but they all measure similar things so they all produce similar lists (again, granting that the “most interesting” category is helping some).

So… I guess in general I was suggesting there need to be more “Most X” categories, but I see your point in not wanting to burden the users with generating these. Unfortunately, at the moment that’s the only idea I’ve had on this score.

Yes, I have seen the themes as they are built in to the site, but how does one attach a theory to a theme? I mean… I can go and post under a theme in “Themes” but in the “Add a Theory” workflow I can’t pick a theme I think my post fits, can I? If I could, that would be helpful.

Oh, and I might as well throw this out there since filters were brought up… would it be possible to make it so that whenever I flag a theory as debunked, obsolete, whatever, it’s immediately filtered out of my own view? I mean, it could still take several flags to be officially moved to another category, but if I didn’t have to continuously see it myself while I waited for a bunch of other people flag it, that would be great. In general it would be a huge improvement if when I cycled through theories I only saw the ones I wanted to see over and over and not the ones where reading once was enough.

Actually, this kind of filter might generate another “Most X” category. If people actively excluded theories they no longer wanted to read, we could assume that the theories they keep are ones they’re reading even if they don’t choose to vote or comment on them. So this might be a way to measure the activity of all those “lurkers” out there. Theories with the least amount of “exclude” flags could be at the top of the “Most Watched” theories list. I imagine such flags would be used more often if they actually came with the benefit of eliminating the theory from the user’s personal list right away, meaning the flags would become a more accurate measure of what discussions people are keeping personal track of.

Just a thought. Thanks again for listening, JC!

When you add a theory, it asks to to select related themes. That’s all there is to it! You can also add related locations (the beach, the caves, the Swan, etc.), related events (Locke gets shot, Charlie dies in the Looking Glass, etc.), and related characters. And, you can browse by all of these.

That was the original idea for the whole site. Sadly, not everyone takes the time to add themes, locations, events, and characters, but you can!

Kat: That’s exactly what I suggested back in comment 33, but people poo-pooed on it. Just goes to show again: I can’t please everyone.

I still think it’s a good idea. You choose a rating threshold. For you, maybe it’s -4 or -5. For me, maybe it’s +2. For someone else, maybe it’s 0. You never see theories that are below that threshold unless you ask to.

Seems like a good plan to me.

Dude… “related themes”… I must be totally blind… I swear I looked at that add a theory screen a dozen times and didn’t see that… and I was looking for it!

Anyway… that’s cool. :-)

Jeff - I like the idea about the ability to filter theories below a certain threshold. Could you set up a system by which a user can filter out (for themselves) theories based on keyword search? I think if I see another theory about “Alien clones of Christian Shephard are Jacob’s ‘Bad Twin’ from Purgatory because DHARMA is really the crash survivors from a parallel dimension’s alternate future” I may need to take a oil drill to my eye socket.

Perhaps you would be well served by setting up a feature request form, now that I think of it. All in all, very impressed with the progress I have seen grow with the site’s membership. I am glad to see that you take it seriously enough to make time for our considerations and requests. Keep up the good work, man.

LC - Some good ideas in there. Most of them aren’t trivial to implement, though. I definitely do take this site seriously and want to make it what you guys want it to be — but I also do put it together for free, in my spare time. So, I’ll definitely add those to my “ideas to consider” list, but I can’t promise anything! :) Thanks for the suggestions!

We seem to have “course corrected” :)

Awesome site Jeff.

I think people are finally using the voting and rating system now.

And now.. Dear Santa, my Christmas list :)

Some type of word search system for the site. Click on your own name in your profile to see your previous posts. A new pic of Kate everyday :)

Namaste!