| Overall: | 6 | 2 |
| Design: | 3 | 2 |
| Navigation: | ||
| Usefulness: | 3 | 1 |
6
2
The problem
The Internet has revolutionized communication, but it could do better. The big problem is that the Web still can't handle hundreds of people coming together and having a discussion. We're still relying on old metaphors and old ways of communicating. Consider the comments you see below a popular news article: it's not a conversation, it's a cacophony. High-quality comments get submerged, the same topics endlessly repeat themselves and hardly anyone bothers to read what's already been written.
The solution
yoomoot offers a new way of having an online discussion which solves those poblems with three key features:
1. Permitted participants can edit each other's posts, encouraging the improvement of existing posts over the unnecessary creation of new posts.
2. Every post has a summarized version, so that you can quickly scan over the summarized version of a whole conversation.
3. Every reply has to be worded as a question and answer. So instead of an overwhelming mass of undifferentiated comments, everything is neatly organized according to the specific question it addresses. Additionally, wording thoughts as Q&A forces us to think carefully about the point of what we're saying, encouraging structured, goal-focused thinking.
Compare this conversation: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=346593
With its yoomoot equivalent: http://yoomoot.com/bookmarks/the-zeitgeist-movement-observations-and-responses-activist-orientation-guide/ (be sure to click "see discussion overview")
Is the yoomoot version significantly easier to get an overview of?
Any other feedback is very much appreciated of course, but that's the question I'm really interested in.
Very good site. I love the category-navigation.
The answer on the question "why use yoomoot" on the root site is not so well. When you are completely new to yoomoot, you just don't know what's exactly meant.
The design could reflect better, what the site is about. The image under the categories browser for example is confusing, it makes the site appear like an sample page or something.
To answer your question: yoomoot serves a brilliant overview, very good!
I would have to say that the yoomoot version is different; completely different to that of the given example in the civfanatics forum. So it was difficult at first to understand what it was doing.
At first, I wasn't sure where all the replies from the civfanatics forum were, but I'm now pretty sure that they are collated as 'questions' at the bottom of the post.
Yoomoot does give a good overview of the topic, but the design isn't doing it any favours. I think that the site would benefit greatly if the various features and important points were highlighted and explained, so a first time visitor can quickly grasp what they're looking at.
So in answer to your question, yes, yoomoot does give a better overview of the topic, but as a first impression it was very confusing as to what I was looking at, and it took quite a bit of time to understand what the site was doing.
I hope this was helpful; it seems like a great product but the presentation is its weak point.