The main lesson of Boaty McBoatface

Nat Torkington:

[…] you want opinions, but you also want committed opinions. Your poll/survey/vote will erect (or fail to erect) barriers to participation, and those barriers represent a measure of commitment. No barriers = lots of votes, but high risk of Boaty McBoatface. High barriers = few votes, but from those who care.

It’s basically another example of that classic measurement of potential abuse on any online community: time to penis. Because, in any free-for-all community submission, you’re always going to end up with a picture of a penis. To rewrite the above:

No barriers = lots of participation, but high risk of unsolicited penis

About Adam Tinworth

Adam is a digital journalism analyst, trainer and consultant. He started his career publishing newspapers for the children on his street in the 1980s, edited student magazines in the 1990s, and then spent a decade as a business journalist. In 2006, he moved full-time into digital journalism development. Since 2012, he's been trading as an independent consultant, and has worked with everything from national and international newspapers, to small local charities.