Category Sort Order_504

Category Sort Order
Category Sort OrderShare this Blog Entry: We8217;re in the middle of a massive project to change the category sort order in order to correct an unintended consequence.Right now, all articles in the category view (example of what today8217;s 8220;Skiing8221; niche looks like in terms of the sort order) are currently sorted by SUBMIT DATE (date the article was originally submitted).We thought 8220;Submit Date8221; was the best sort order because this would ensure that articles that were edited after they were made live would never get an unfair exposure advantage by being able to cycle through the 8216;category view8217; each time their edited article was re-approved.Very soon (late this week or early next week), all articles will be sorted by 8220;1ST PUBLISHED DATE8221; (date your article was 1st published on). Most members who have complained about the current way we sort it feel that we should be sorting by MOST RECENTLY APPROVED date8230; but that doesn8217;t solve the fact that we can not give an edited 038; re-approved article an unfair position in the category view; thus the 8220;1st Published Date8221; sort order solution.Key Insights into our systems: We8217;re in 604 niche markets at this time and each of the 604 category views are pre-generated hourly (to improve site load speed). That means two things: Your article may not appear in the category view until up to an hour later after it8217;s approved for the 1st time If more than 30 articles are approved for the 1st time in that category within the time since the last time the pre-gen process was run (between 1 to 59 minutes ago), your article may be bumped to page 2 without every having seen page 1.This would be important if it really mattered, but our internal stats continue to prove that category position MEANS VERY LITTLE8230;despite many members who have 8216;tested8217; the importance of having their article make it on page 1 in the category view of their niche.Usually I believe the market is always right; except this time, I believe many of our members don8217;t have all of the facts about how we build traffic and exposure to each of your articles8230;that might lead a member to believe that the category view is really important. Please read my October 2005 blog entry on [Why The Booster Rocket? Effect]So, you might be thinking, 8220;If my article position in the category view doesn8217;t really matter, why would they be changing the sort order from SUBMIT date to 1st PUBLISHED DATE8230;after all, seems so inconsequential, right?8221; Answer: Because by sorting by 1st Published Date, the member experience will be closer to that which is expected and newly approved articles will get a higher chance of seeing page 1 of the category view of each niche we8217;re in, rather than being buried 2-20+ pages deep into the category view just because they were submitted 6-10 days ago.The net result of this change is that ALL members will get a higher chance of seeing their article show up in page 1 of their niche/category. Kind of ironic considering it was Premium/Platinum members who gave us this feedback that our sort order was 8216;wrong8217;8230; yet now, in order to help our Premium 038; Platinum members get an experience that is closer to their expectation of the 8216;way it should be8217;8230; Basic/Basic+ level members will see an advantage when this change is done because their articles were normally 8216;lost in the category pile8217; (because their article submit date is usually 5-15 days before their articles are approved) as some might perceive it. Complex, eh?When this category article view sort order is done, I8217;ll post an updated comment to this entry indicating it8217;s been done.For now, any questions/comments?** UPDATED March 6th 2009: This job is now completed. All categories are sorted by 1ST PUBLISHED DATE date instead of SUBMITTED DATE.
Many years ago there lived an Emperor who was so exceedingly fond of fine new clothes that he spent vast sums of money on dress. To him clothes meant more than anything else in the world. He took no interes
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写给自己的二十一条，送给不是那么顺的姑娘们

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