[GET-dev] web hits ranking

[krobasky at gmail.com]

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 24, 2010, at 11:07 AM, Alexander Wait Zaranek <awaitz at post.harvard.edu 
 > wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 24, 2010 at 10:06 AM, Kimberly Robasky  
> <krobasky at gmail.com> wrote:
>> But before we do anything, will GET be search-engine ready after   
>> Clinical Analysis
>> paper is accepted? If not, what else has to happen before we can  
>> register it for
>> crawling by Google/Yahoo?
>>
> This needs its own discussion thread!
>
>> Without further ado, here are some ideas for getting web hits ranked
>> by the community:
>>
>> * Incentive: top contributers win $500 (full package) sequencing  
>> from 23andMe
>>
>> This is better than a cash prize because it will have a tendancy to
>> only motivate those with a sincere interest in the field, and not  
>> just
>> random hackers and ne'er-do-wells.
>>
> Why not award this prize to a PGP participant of the individuals
> choice (could choose themselves but it has to be somebody registered
> for PGP).
>
>> * Link exchange:
>>
>> This is a well-known key component to building online traffic.  GET
>> should have a published directory of links whereby like-minded
>> webmasters can submit links to their website after they have shown
>> that they have linked to us.  I have a PHP module that I developed  
>> off
>> an open-source base that does this, and can probably be integrated
>> into GET with a little effort.
>>
> Since we sell advertising spots

Who sells ad? Where ?

> this would have to be discussed with
> Jason and thought about very carefully.   Consider Wikipedia.  The
> only thing advertised on their site is their own donation box.
>
>> * Interactive Banner for Link Exchange
>>
>> We need to have a banner that can be delivered for link exchange (see
>> above).  We can be a little creative about this by including maybe
>> some kind of AJAX application to stochastically pull an unrated link
>> from a high-auto-score variant to include on the banner, along with
>> buttons to allow us to capture a rating from the mere act of clicking
>> our banner.
>>
> Maybe I don't follow how this might work.  But, again, I'm skeptical
> that we want to offer "like-minded web-masters" space on the
> main-site.  No?


Are you familiar with the webhosting "link exchange" strategy?

>
>> * Referrels
>>
>> Another key component to traffic-building; we can offer bonuses to
>> people who refer a winner - say, $300 (minimal package) in sequencing
>> from 23andMe.  The MIT guys that one the DARPA red-balloon contest  
>> did
>> this.
>>
> Sounds great.  This seems far safer and if we can get our contests
> publicized on Slashdot, CNN, blogs, etc.  we would be off to the
> races.
>
>> * Object of the "game"
>>
>> Rate links and/or editors (cannot rate editors you've referred, out  
>> to
>> 3 connections?)
>>
>> Rating system:
>> 10 points: rate a link
>> 5 points: thumbs-up'ing a popular editor
>> 1 point: thumbs-up'ing an unrated editor
>>
>> For this to work well, it's essential that ratings should include a
>> comment field so raters can explain their rankings (there was a  
>> recent
>> Science paper that kind of backs this up!).
>>
>> None of these components would take a terribly long time to develop,
>> and I think it's pretty important to get it rolling quickly if we
>> don't want to be displaced.  Can we have this ready and waiting for
>> immediate release when the Clinical Analysis paper has been accepted?
>>
> I wouldn't wait that long.  I'd try to get this working on the dev
> site immediately and then rolled out to production when we feel it's
> stable!

>
> Maybe others will chime in.
>
> Thanks,
> Sasha