PickySite

PickySite is a social networking site uniting website creators and promoters, as well as everyone else interested in Internet technologies.

PickySite allows you to read various topics and comments posted by other members of the site. You can also stop being a passive reader by registering and taking part in building this community of the new millennium.

Once you load the main page of the site, you will see the best topics selected by our users. But the site is not limited to that. You can go to the “Posts” section (containing topics of individual members, communities and groups) and read various topics to learn from the knowledge and opinions of other members. Bear in mind, however, that topics can be very different. If you don’t want to get lost in a multitude of opinions, use our navigation menu:


As you know, the “All” tab contains the most recently posted topics and the ones that have been featured on the main page for their value for the community.

Group topics usually belong to members of certain communities posting to a single blog. This section allows you to find specific information or materials you may need.

Personal topics form a virtually endless feed of posts by all PickySite users. Remember – not everything is posted on the main page. You will find tons of useful information in personal blogs that all site members automatically get upon signup. This is an ideal choice for those members who want to start expressing their thoughts immediately, but prefer to stay away from large and hectic communities to “grow up” in their personal blog (which can be called a personal diary that everybody can read).

The “Corporate” tab contains topics posted by representatives of various IT companies. Each company has a rating and members can vote for them in the same manner they vote for each other. If you like a company, that’s where you should leave your testimonials – either as a comment or a vote. Employees can also identify their membership in a company here.

Finally, the TOP tab contains the very best of what PickySite has to offer: blogs, topics and comments to them. The tab also contains the most popular, demanded and useful information on the site.

You can track recent topics and comments using the side panel and the “Recently written” block by switching between its “Topics” and “Comments” tabs.

Rating reflects the consequences of members behavior. The more interesting their topics and comments are, the more users will want to rate them higher. Curiously enough, the opposite is true as well: the less sense their posts make and the ruder their comments are, the higher the chance that they will find themselves deeply in the negative zone.

All members with a positive rating can rate other members, blogs, articles and comments. Their votes can be negative and positive. We urge you to treat other members opinions with respect.

If members like a specific user, they can load his/her profile and vote, which will increase the rating. If the community dislikes a member, his/her rating is likely to go down.

Remember – you can’t buy positive rating!

Unlike the real world, where strength may not depend on intelligence, the strength (skill level) of PickySite users directly depends on their popularity. That is, if topics and comments of a specific user receive positive feedback, his/her strength is growing.

The more negative votes your comments and topics get, the weaker you become.

The notion of “skill” is used when a user votes for blogs, users or companies. The higher the skill level, the more weight the vote will have.

That’s right, you don’t have to be a PickySite guru from the very beginning and know the site structure by heart. You can start by reading the following: main, new and good personal topics.

Here is a short description of these pages:

- The main page contains only those topics that have earned the community’s or (rarely) the project administration’s respect. In other words – as soon as the rating of a specific topic reaches a certain positive threshold, it is automatically moved to the main page. It’s really simple.

- All new topics (in personal, collective and corporate blogs) can be seen on a separate page with the most recently posted materials. The rating doesn’t matter here. Just bear in mind that a topic is considered “new” for about a day after being posted.

- Good personal topics are comprised of all personal blog posts. All the topics in this section have not yet been rated by other users (their rating is 0) or the rating is positive (but below the threshold allowing it to be placed on the main page).

These are just a few sections containing the materials of interest on PickySite, but they are the most important starting locations for you until you get familiar with the rest of the site.

Unfortunately, you can only watch. Watch and think. Check for updates and monitor recent comments and topics on the site. To do that, take a look at the “Recently written” block in the right-hand column.

You can also see which communities (blogs) on PickySite have the most weight and the most votes. This information is available in the “All blogs” block.

If you are not quite sure what you want to read, try “finding the truth” using the tag cloud located in the center of the right column. Tags characterize topics and their content. Topic starters can assign different tags to their topics to help other members find them.

Great! We are really glad you made this decision and welcome you on PickySite! Once you register (don’t forget to click the activation link that will be sent to your email address after registration), you can login and start exploring the site.

The first thing you’ll see in the left part of the main menu is a new button called “WRITE”. If you press it, you will be able to post your thoughts to the site.

You can also join any of the blogs you like. This will enable you to track changes in all the topics posted in them (and receive email notifications), as well as post your own ones later on.

A couple of words about voting. This is a very simple concept. The lower left corner of any topic (either in the list of topics or on its detailed view page) has a “value indicator”. The number on the indicator reflects the number of positive or negative opinions about the topic. In other words, this is the topic’s rating. The green color of the indicator tells us that the topic is successful and useful, while the red color is a sign of general disapproval. If it’s your first time on the site, you probably haven’t voted for any topic yet. Therefore, you will see two arrows (up- and downward) and a dash (“—“) between them. Clicking the upward arrow will mean that you liked the topic. Clicking the downward arrow will mean the absolute opposite. Clicking the dash will mean that you abstained from giving any rating. Please note that you can’t vote for the same topic twice, so you won’t be able to change your opinion afterwards. As you see, voting is a snap.

Voting for comments is also easy. Opposite each comment is its rating (reflecting its value for readers) and, of course, the up and down arrows. The voting principle is the same as in the above paragraph.

You can also vote (in other words – express your opinion) on any blog page or user profile. Please bear in mind that users also have skill levels. The higher the skill level, the more experienced the user is. Combined with a high rating (community votes), it makes that person a site veteran you can (and should) learn a lot from.

Remember, voting is an integral part of the community development process. This is the only way the “wheat” (valuable information) can be separated from the “chaff”. Therefore, we urge you to vote and express your opinion about everything you read on the site: posts, topics, comments, people and the community as a whole.

Site users can demonstrate their interest to specific blogs by joining them – to do that, you can use the "SUBSCRIBE TO BLOG" button under the blog name:

Once you have connected to a blog, you will be able to add topics to it. All the connected blogs will be visible on your profile. You will also receive email notifications about blog updates, which is very convenient.

Great decision! Click the “WRITE” button in the main menu to load the topic submission page. Below is a brief overview of the internal navigation menu.

The “NEW” tab contains links for posting new text posts (your thoughts), surveys (for finding out others’ opinions) and topic links (if you liked something on a different site, you shouldn’t copy it to PickySite; this is a violation of the author's rights - so just place a link to the necessary page and several lines of text to describe it). You can also start a public blog and become its administrator. Please note that this feature is only available to users with ratings of 5 and above. Finally, you will see a link for updating the company information. A rating of 5 and above is also required here.

The “Drafts” tab contains all of your unpublished posts. You can come back to them at any time.

The “Published” tab stores all of the precious thoughts you decided to share with the community.

There is nothing difficult about creating a new topic – the page is full of various hints. Don’t forget the most important thing, though – if your post has more than 3-4 paragraphs of text, use the CUT tag (an icon showing scissors) for “cutting” the topic and adding a ”Read more” link. Just put the editor cursor under the main (introductory) paragraph and click the CUT icon. You should see a tag. Now you topic will only contain the main thought at the very top and a “read more” link for those interested in more information.

If you are a regular reader of a public blog (subscriber) and have a sufficient rating, you will be able to post to it – just select it from the list while submitting your post.

You can select an interesting post by clicking on the Heart icon, placed to the left of the post. Once you do it, the text appears in the Favorites section of your profile.

You can read the site rules here.

Great, don’t keep them inside. There are two ways to satisfy your curiosity and clear things up.

First of all, the site has (and will always have) a special help blog dedicated to the PickySite project. Head right there, look through its topics and comments or join it and start posting your questions. They will be addressed either by the site administration or other users.

However, if you don’t want to make your problem public, use the on-site messaging system. Find any administrator, moderator or an experienced user and ask your question. Use the “Write a private message” link on the profile of the person you’d like to contact. If you are contacting an administrator or a moderator, your will definitely get a reply. If you chose to contact another user, just hope that he or she is a decent person and will get back to you.

Join us! United we will be able to make it through the hardships of these uneasy times and avoid making incorrigible mistakes in the future!