I’ve unsubscribed from Slashdot, in favour of Reddit.

To the casual reader, Reddit is a page of interesting links. To hardcore Redditors (the “mob”), it’s a steady stream of fresh content, each piece to be evaluated as a candidate for the +1 vote of confidence, or the -1 vote of dismissal. Accumulate enough points—quickly enough—and it’ll appear on the front page of the site.

Perfect system, right?

Wrong.

Lazy Sheep

Why give editorial control to an elite group, when it can be in the hands of a pure democracy? Wisdom of Crowds is an appealing notion. Then again, the rebuttal is also appealling: “if the crowd is 1000 stupid people, what good is the aggregate of their erroneous opinions?”

But really, the problem is not that users are dumb. The problem is that they’re lazy. On Reddit (and also Digg) otherwise smart users are following the actions of previous users, who may or may not have made valid judgements.

Go ahead and visit the Reddit New page. See those articles that are already in the negatives? What about the ones that have a score of -1 or even just 0? Wouldn’t you rather check out a link that’s already been voted up to 3 or 4?

It only took the negative opinion of two users to condemn a page to Negative Score land. Now the chances of it being clicked and evaluated without prejudice are—to my mind—significantly lower.

What’s the solution? In Reddit’s case, I believe that on the “New” page, the current score of every article should not be shown. It’s fine to display it on the homepage, but freshly submitted articles should be evaluted, at least for that first hour, on a level-playing field.

So where does crowd wisdom come into Jobmine?

Jobmine

Jobmine is the University of Waterloo’s online tool that helps streamline the job application process for students.

One feature added last year was an indicator showing how many applications had been received for each job. Sensible, right? Gives the students a bit of perspective about what they’re up against. If 70 people are applying for 1 position, that’s 70 vying for probably 8-12 interview slots, of which only one will be selected.

Browsing through the system on the eve of a deadline, it’s obvious that some jobs simply attract a lot more attention than others. One may see in excess of 200 applications, while another has barely 20.

Is it just that one emphasizes its “casual, fun-loving atmosphere,” while another lists MS Word experience as an asset?

When the spread is as wild as it sometimes appears, I have to wonder if there isn’t a pendulum effect. Those jobs with the astronomical application numbers—does an already high count entice even more curious students to check them out?

Jobs & Links

While the “number of applications” counters on Jobmine may not serve any immediately obvious purpose, in the end, I doubt they hurt much either.

If a lazy student only applies to the jobs being applied to by everyone else, they clearly aren’t taking the co-op process very seriously.

It’s in this way that Reddit and Jobmine are fundamentally different beasts: Reddit provides momentary slices of amusement; Jobmine is a portal to an interview, and ultimately a 4- or 8-month commitment to an employer.

Whether high numbers or low, So far I’ve at least briefly scanned every single Mechanical and Mechatronics job description—plus a good deal of the Systems ones, too—and applied to those I’m genuinely interested in. Those where I can see myself being able to contribute, and where I see potential to expand and learn new things.

Because really, that’s what co-op is all about. Not just chasing the jobs that everyone else seems to want.

Mike

← Earlier Later → Posted at 6:48 pm to Internet, School.