The Wisdom Project Tour
Warning! This tour explains the advanced and unique features of the
Wisdom Project. You don't need to know about these features to
participate. Feel free to
just jump right
into the forums, look around, and join the debate.
But if you want to know why the Wisdom Project is the most unique idea
development on the Internet, this page explains our unique features.
When you are ready...read on!
The Wisdom Project Process
Our goal is to foster and promote wisdom-both practical and personal. I
often think of the wisdom project as a "Wisdom Machine". Just as a cider
press extracts apple juice from raw pulp, our goal is to extract wisdom from
free and open dialogue.
The main action occurs in our discussion forums and the first step to a
quality discussion is a quality topic. If you don't ask an important
question, you aren't likely to have a very important debate.
Once the question is asked, then the dialogue begins. Here are the first
two posts in a
thread from
the Great Debates Think Tank:
It is a basic internet forum...with a few carefully designed enhancements.
Notice anything unusual? Let's begin with the most basic and important
tool in all Wisdom Project Forums: The Post Rating feature.
The Post Rating Tool
At the bottom of every post you will see a link titled "Rate
this post!" When you click that link you can rate any post on
a scale of 1 to 10. The idea is for you to rate posts according to how
wise you believe it is. (Every individual is free to be as stingy or as
generous with their ratings as they want. Just try to be consistent.)
The following image points out the "Rate
this post!" as well as the other two most important buttons for
replying to threads and posting new topics.
The Post Rating system allows for a new dimension in Wisdom Project dialogues.
Not only do members openly debate and voice their opinions, they also have the
ability to express and receive secret-ballot ratings for every post. If
you stick around, you will see it is a very powerful combination.
The second enhancement that makes this wisdom machine work is located at the
top of every post.
The Solution Post Feature
The goal of the wisdom project is to find solutions to problems. To help
us achieve this goal, we have a special label for a post for when a member
wishes to present the post as a genuine solution to the problem under
analysis. (It is easy to rip apart the solutions of others, it is far
more difficult to present a better solution yourself.)
When you are composing your post, if you want it considered and judged as a
solution you believe in, then you mark the check box indicated below.
The post below is labeled a solution.
The solution feature and the post rating system were the first ideas in the
original Wisdom Project design. Using just those two enhancements we
were able to extract the highest rated genuine "solutions" from a quality
debate. We have a bunch more tools, but I don't want to overwhelm you.
You can always come back later to learn about more advanced features.
What do you want to do now?
Learn about more advanced and unique
features of the Wisdom Project?
or
Enter The
Think Tank Forums!