Excluding big new features, what are the most impactful ways we can improve the core Manifold platform. Specifc suggestions will be prefered over vague-but-correct advice.
Abstract: I came for the vision, inspired by Superforecasting and the idea of collaborative intelligence. I found Metaculus rigorous but not sticky for me, because realistically I’m doing this stuff as a brain break (replacing social media). Now I justify the time I spend because of inspiring discussions, at least at the 75th percentile (both novel Market ideas and insight comments). It makes me think way deeper than HackerNews (where I generally regret taking time to comment) .
Almost actionable: It’s deeply about what type of person+culture ends up dominating. Both that the 5th percentile isn’t embarrassing, like Reddit, and that the 75th percentile is awesome and people I can’t find anywhere else in critical mass.
Actionable: A role or at least partial-hat-wearer like HN’s @Dang. A system in the direction of sub-reddits because people are different, like I don’t care about Mr. Destiny though I 100% respect that sub-community’s right to enjoy the platform. Some filter for quality in markets if I don’t feel like wading through for diamonds in the rough.
Embarrassing to admit: I get unreasonable joy from each ❤️ on a comment (and usually wish I got more of them after investing in a well researched paragraph). I got discouraged upon realizing that my comments rarely move a market even when I think they add a ton of information (and I don’t think so often!) Basically the emotional return to really good comments ends up being disappointing usually. I’m not sure how to fix that. These are all problems with my expectations but FYI I guess.
Adding "pinned" into your profile, after a while it's very easy to lose the markets and bets from earlier.
alternatively a "starred" section in the profile for both markets and bets.When you click "boost" make the 3 options appear straight away, I don't understand why they're hidden, simplifies interactions.
@SG One Idea could be to get monthly mana rewards like how there are daily and weekly. This would make people more likely to stay on the site if they are low on mana and don't want to spend money to get more. Then there could be an option to pay to get more mana monthly the cost would be slightly lower than the cost to buy it all at once from the store. This would have appeal for 2 reasons, One if you made a bad decision and lost a huge amount you would know that you would be getting more later, the second is if the cost is lower then buying it all at once, If people were losing activity on the site they would know that they paid for something (the monthly mana) and its going to waste so then they are more likely to regain activity.
I find it hard to browse for markets I'm interested in. I feel like I'm stuck in some kind of gravity well and would like to have more ability to know what markets are out there.
For example, I would LOVE a "take me to a random market" button.
I would also like to be able to hide topics. There are times in life where I will have a more harmonious time if I don't accidentally spend all day looking at political markets and then telling my girlfriend what they say. This makes her sad.
I feel depressed when I realize how much time I've wasted on Manifold due to addiction. It would be beneficial to implement a feature allowing users to temporarily freeze their accounts, with the option to set a specific reactivation date. This would prevent users from impulsively deleting their accounts, which is less advantageous for Manifold than a temporary suspension.
I find myself often being torn between wanting to bet on a future development in a work of serialized fiction (e.g. "will it turn out that Character was secretly in Location all along?") and not wanting to receive spoilers-via-market-resolution for that development before discovering it for myself in my reading.
I mentioned this to a friend who, while unfamiliar with Manifold, is familiar with sports markets; they mentioned that, in those, the markets tend to offer an option to hide the resolution of one's bets until one gives the go-ahead. So, for instance, one can bet on a game that happens in the afternoon while one is at work, go home, watch a replay of the game, and only then click to unveil the outcomes of one's bets on that game.
I'd be interested in a similar feature for Manifold, to make it safer to participate in spoiler-susceptible markets. A button one can click in order to hide a given market's probability and/or resolution-status from oneself (and, ideally, from anyone else looking at one's portfolio, to avoid accidental spoilers from incidental conversation and/or from checking Manifold while not logged in), and avoid receiving any mana from it in such a way as might implicitly indicate those things, until one deliberately unhides it from oneself later on once the information is no longer spoilery. (Plus the addition of a page listing all markets-one-has-hidden-in-this-way by name, in order to avoid problems of people hiding markets for spoiler reasons and then not remembering how to find those markets again once safe-to-receive-the-information.)
Introduce the ability to sign in using something other than a Google Account when not using a mobile device.