Many excellent ideas have been proposed to tackle this issue, from the simple to the complicated. And according to the poll, it seems almost half doesn't think there is a problem at all! I think this post by usdcs best sums up the general feeling:
Nevertheless, I am going to try tweaking the system to see if a better compromise can be found. Being the lazy bastard that I am, I will try out the simplest tweak first, which involves an addition of only 3 lines of PHP code.Life is noisy. As I type this, my co-worker in the next cubicle is talking over the wall to the next person about a personal matter. I don't really want to listen to that.
But, I often pick up other useful business related information in the din in this open office environment. As I see it, I must learn to ignore the noise. If I were to shut down this communication "feed", I would surely miss something important.
This whole discussion has been prompted by a limited number of persons complaining about a limited number of applications. I feel that the discussion has almost become noisier than the original issue.
At best, Andrew might be able to design better "noise filters". But, I don't believe that we can, nor should we, eliminate the noise altogether. If we did that, I believe that it would impair our "hearing", as it were.
This change restricts the rise of any database entry bubble to the top of the main page (and RSS feed) to once every seven days. This means any app will get the top spot at most 4 times a month. For the engineering minded, effectively we are putting a low-pass filter over the incoming signal in an attempt to smooth out high-frequency components.
Let's try this out for a bit and see if anyone dies or any computer gets trashed as a result before exploring more complicated solutions. I may even back out of the change if enough of you think it hampers the usefulness of TPFC drastically. So let's break into it for a week or two and let me know what you think after that.
Thank you.