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Topics on Grupthink are designed to be persistent, so questions don't have to be posed again and again. By default, each topic shows all votes captured since the topic was created. With the timeline, you can see a topic's results and answers through the lens of any time frame you choose.

For example, let's say you have a topic called "Who are your favorite actors?" that has been capturing votes over 2 years. Using the timeline feature, you could see what people voted on during only the first three months. Likewise, you could select just the past 2 months to ignore any older votes.

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Speak Up Missoula is designed to handle questions where there is an undefined number of possible answers, such as "What's the most romantic restaurant in New York City?"

"True/False" and "Yes/No" questions work fine, too. Just be prepared to see additional responses, like "I don't know" or ""

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No problem. Just request a new one. We'll send you an email to confirm your request.

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Every answer at Speak Up Missoula has a score based on:

• How many votes the answer has received
• How highly each voter ranked the answer in his/her ballot

The more points an answer receives, the higher it will place on the topic page.

For example, when you vote for an answer in a Speak Up Missoula topic, it receives a score (between 20 and 1) based on where you ranked that answer in your ballot. Your top-ranked answer will receive 20 points. Your second-place vote will give that answer 19 points. Each subsequent vote will receive one less point. 20th-place votes, and all lower-ranked votes will receive 1 point.

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Speak Up Missoula looks at many factors when determining similarity, including:

• What topics you've participated in
• What answers you voted on
• How highly you ranked individual answers

The more of these you have in common with the another member, the higher your similarity score will be!

You must have at least 20 topics in common with another member for a similarity score to be calculated. Similarity scores are not negatively affected when two members participate in separate topics.

 

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The best way to get more accurate results from the similarity rankings is to participate in many topics. Here's what we suggest:

• Create new topics that are important to you.
• Vote on more than just your favorite answers (if you support more than one of the answers)
• Rank your answers! Pay close attention to how you rank your answers in each topic ballot and put your favorite answers first. That alone could be the difference between someone being ranked similar or dissimilar to you!
• Add new answers! You might be surprised how many people didn't think to add the answer before (or were just too lazy to do it themselves)

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"Groups" are simply groups of members! Anyone can create a group and invite others to join. To form a group, sign in and click Form a New Group on your home page. Once your group is created, you can invite people by nickname or email address (you can also invite non-Speak Up Missoula members by email address). you can also find existing grups to join by searching for groups or browsing member profiles.

"Why would I create a group?"

• Discuss private topics (currently, all group topics are private)
• Ask more focused questions that are relevant only to your group members, such as "Where should we go for Sarah's birthday?"
• Pose a topic to your employees or customers, such as "How can we improve our service?"

• Semi-private topics: Pose questions to a group of esteemed or expert members, but make the results public. For example, a dental hygienist grup could discuss "Best toothpaste"or "Best teeth-whitening solutions". The results of this kind of topic would be of interest to everyone, but should only be discussed/decided by professionals.

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The "Top Dog" answer has received the most points, overall. An answer gets a certain (hidden) number of points when someone votes for it. The number of points the answer receives is based on how highly it was ranked in the voter's ballot.

Ranking counts at Speak Up Missoula, so remember to sort your votes!

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Member Points are a measure of your level of participation in the social mindscape. As we build more cool features, your Member Points may become more important.

You can get Member Points for lots of things:

• Filling out details in your profile (some are worth more than others!)
• Voting
• Getting votes for answers you've posted
• Getting votes on topics you've posted
• Inviting friends who vote

Member Levels:
Wondering what that funny symbol next to our name is? That's your rank! After you've earned enough Member Points, you 'll get promoted to a new Member level. Here is the current point breakdown with the required number of points listed next to the icon:

1. 0 MP's
2. 50 MP's
3. 250 MP's
4. 500 MP's
5. 1000 MP's
6. 5000 MP's
7. 25000 MP's
8. 100000 MP's
9. 500000 MP's
10. 1000000 MP's

You can see a report showing your total Member Points (and how you earned them) in your personal page.

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Tags are keywords that help visitors to understand, search, and explore Speak Up Missoula. You can also assign tags to your own profile to let the world know what you're all about. We'll also use those tags soon to help you find people and topics that interest you.

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MegaTags are the most common and broad tags in the Speak Up Missoula mindscape, such as "Life", "Humor", and "Video Games". When you add a topic, you can select one or more MegaTags. Mega tags make it easier for people to find topics that interest them, by standardizing the most common tag words.

For example, when you post a topic related to video games, you wont have to add redundant tags, such as "games, gaming, video games, and videogames". By selecting the "Video Games" MegTag, you can be sure that you selected the most appropriate spelling.

In addition, we have synonyms built-in to our database. So, for example, a tag like "funny" will be synonymous with "humor", and "video games" will be synonymous with "gaming".

We still allow (and encourage) you to fine-tine your topic with custom tags to further define your topic.

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There are RSS feeds for all topics, or for any one tag and topic.

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We require registration to vote, add a comment, add a topic, and add answers, because we want the information at Speak Up Missoula to be as valuable as possible to visitors. By requiring registration, we make 'vote stacking' non-trivial and enable the meaning to emerge from the network of members, votes, questions, and tags.

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If you try to create a new topic or add an answer that is substantially similar to a topic or answer that's already been asked or added, Speak Up Missoula will suggest that you use the existing one instead. Keeping topics and answers unique in this way is helpful to visitors because they don't have to decide which "What are the coolest sports cars of all time?" topic to answer, and don't have more than one "Lamborghini Countach Quattrovalvole" to vote for. ;)

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Yes! Just create a Group and invite the people you want to have included. With Groups, you can create topics that are:

• Completely Private: These topics are only viewable by Group members
• Semi-Private: Outsiders can view the topic and results, but cannot participate directly.
• Custom: Outsiders can view the topic and do one or more of the following:
  • Vote
  • Add new answers
  • Comment on the topics and answers

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Our goal is to highlight quality content and hide unwanted content. If enough members think that something is unhelpful or not relevant to the topic, it may be hidden. Also, for people who have adult content filtering turned on, some content may be hidden if it has been marked as "x-rated" or "r-rated".

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Simple answer? We don't. The members do. Based on the reactions from the members and some complicated (and secret) algorithms, Speak Up Missoula will let you know the quality of different pieces of content based upon what you, the members think.

There are exciting things in store for this new feature; so stay tuned!

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All content submissions on Grupthink (answers, topics, and comments) can be rated for quality (relevance, adult content, helpfulness, etc...). This system is completely separate from the answer voting mechanic, so it doesn't affect answers' positions. It is merely a way to encourage people to post the most helpful, creative, and compelling content, while hiding abusive or irrelevant content.

We give special distinction (little icons, currently) to content that rates highly, and we automatically hide content that rates too lowly. The tolerance by which either of those effects happen can be customized by your Grupthink administrator. Moderators can also use the quality scores to quickly respond to bad contributions.

In addition to that, we also reward people who get high ratings for their topics, answers, and comments. In fact those members who have highly ranked content will have a stronger affect on the quality score for a given item, once they rate it. Conversely, those whose content has been rated fairly low, overall, will have less "say".  To be clear, though, the "weight" that each member carries does not apply to answer voting.

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'Cred.' Short for 'credibility.' Speak Up Missoula tracks what others think about your contributions. Based on other's ratings, your credibility will go up or down. One of your contributions could be rated as 'funny' or 'lame,' one moment and your cred could be +1.845. After a few days of providing quality content to Speak Up Missoula, you will notice that how you rate contributions changes your cred. Then, through combining your ratings and the opinions of others, your cred will increase. Be careful, though. If you start producing poor content, or become less active, your cred will diminish.

Beware: simply rating material, posting bogus answers, or otherwise trying to cheat the system will not help. Not only is it unhelpful, but other users may start to rate your content as poor and it could, in fact, be detrimental. So, keep the good content coming!

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Topic authors can optionally end topics. When a topic is finished, voting and answering become disabled, but everyone can continue commenting. This option is useful in situations where a topic is time-sensitive, such as in predictions and contests. Eg, "Who will get get the oscar for Best Supporting Actress?" or "Create our new logo!".

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This special label shows that the item described in answer has been finished or completed. This answer type is useful for questions dealing with wishlists. For example, in the topic "How can we improve Grupthink" we will mark answers as "Done" if we implement the feature (or fix the bug) described in the answer.

Answers that have been marked as "Done" do not appear in the default topic view, since it would be silly if the first few pages of a topic were filled with answers that were no longer relevant as "wishes".

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In certain topics, like contests or problem-solving, you may want to know which answer the topic author chose as their top vote. For example, in the question "How can I have x-ray vision?", it will be helpful for everyone to know whick method worked best for the author.

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If you use Internet Explorer:

1. Right-click the image you wish to use
2. Select "Properties"
3. In the properties window, highlight the entire address (from "http://" all the way to the right)
4. Copy the the highlighted text by pressing ctrl+c
5. Go back to the topic edit form and Paste (ctrl+v) the address you had copied into the image field.

If you are using Firefox:

1. Right-click an image
2. Choose "Copy Image Location"
3. Go back to the topic edit form and Paste (ctrl+v) the address you had copied into the image field.

Once you click "Get Image", Grupthink will attempt to download and preview the image for you. If it shows a different image, or if it fails to download any image at all, it is possible that the website has disallowed direct downloads of website images.

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Contact us!