10 replies to this topic

[MrHappy]

Alright, so some months ago, I commented that one important feature we'd all benefit from would be a hosted database where you could record and view users' results/statistics of nootropics and supplements at a glance.

So, I finally got off my behind today - figuratively speaking at least - and registered for a domain name & some hosting - RATEMYNOOT.COM / http://ratemynoot.com

Brokenportal has asked me to post this topic here.

I want to broadcast upfront, that this is IN NO WAY intended to be competition to Longecity or any other forum. Quite the opposite. This is also a non-profit exercise. There will be no discussion forums on the site, however, with Imminst blessing, I am considering user links, that allow users to create a link to eg. their Longecity profile or topic/thread for private messages and follow-ups. I would obviously include a disclaimer that the site is in no way affiliated with Longecity, etc. Of course this would mean they would need to be or register as a Longecity user - I'm hoping this will help bring in more Reddit /r/nootropics members as Longecity users and increase the size of the community.

In my mind, I think this would be a unique concept that will complement new and existing discussions by being a handy/quick resource to compile data from threads / nootropics users' experimentation in a way that makes it easy to determine how (subjectively) effective a nootropic or combination of nootropics actually is. This should also reduce the regular amount of duplicate posts along the lines of 'what is an effective dose of', 'does this noot work with x ','is brand x better than brand y', 'what supplement is good for x', etc. <yawn>

The plan is to be able to be able to quickly choose a combination of brands / supplements, doses, test duration and ailments from a drop-down list and enter your results.. OR choose an ailment/issue and quickly see a list of supplements and/or sort by results and metadata, with links to Longeicty forums and PubMed. I still need to finish formulating how to collate the data in a way that makes it both accurate and useful. I have a few ideas involving 'tags' and review weighting, but they need to be thrashed out in some alpha-testing.

If you think this is a good idea and you can see benefit to the Imminst community, I'd love to throw the concept around a bit here for further input and collaboration. Additionally, if this concept excites you and you'd like to help, I'd be more than keen for brains and time.

Importantly, if I'm treading on any toes, or if you can see any potential problems regarding Imminst/Longecity, please let me know!

Some of the items in the feature to-do list, so far:
An embeddable stat counter for threads
Personalised URL to share your nootropics experiences
A noot / combination trial graph per record, with markers at key dates and many important data types
Powerful search and analysis functions.
iPhone app for daily personal data logging, per noot trial
..and more.

The biggest differences between this and polls is the dynamic nature of the data capturing and structure - a poll, once created, cannot be instantly updated with new parameters / fields to capture additional information. eg. say you create a poll about piracetam and choline and you would also like to record dosages.. not so easy to do and you'd have to preset ranges of doses to select. How do you then capture additional information, like other supplements they were taking that may positively or negatively affect the results, or side effects they experienced and collate them in a way that demonstrates either dosage, additional supplement or pre-existing condition as a statistical factor? How would you update the poll if the science behind the protocol changes/improves? Currently, you'd have to create a new poll, each time the variables change and capture the data all over again, which doesn't lend itself to creating a usable long-term resource. Also, the poll counts don't easily show selectivity - eg. 10 bad results were all users that either took high doses, or smoked cigarette, or drank alcohol, etc.

Since this will have to be built from the ground up, there are security and reliability advantages to developing the code and database on a separate server - in the last few months, the forums have reached a level of speed and reliability that has made the user-experience considerably more pleasant and consistent than previous months. I wouldn't want to open the door to any possible crossover, database load or accidental code changes affecting the existing ImmInst user experience. Plus, as a separate resource, should this concept get right up the FDA's nose, the separation of this resource from ImmInst could be a useful thing, particularly as I'm not located in the US.

So.. thoughts? Brains? Help offered?

[protoject]

It's kind of a cool idea, actually I'm glad you posted this because I've also been hankering for some serious data collection and compilation and organizing it into a visual format for users. Something streamlined and user friendly but also very data focused. I started compiling info into Docs. Maybe that could be useful if I actually get the ball rolling. now, I think it would be important for there not only to be the collection of "subjective" data but also "objective" / "experimental" data to weigh against, also perhaps with varying levels of confirmation stated [kind of like those supplement and medication analysis sites where they have a range of likelihoods on whether something would help or not based on how much data is availible and what kinds of studies the data is based on] ..  I'll try to come back to this later with you as I have been trying to shift my sleep schedule lately so Im very sleep deprived and kind of stupid at the moment :(

[MrHappy]

I like the idea of objective testing.. Perhaps an embedded dual n-back game or similar..? Not sure how you would objective measure depression - daily psych evaluation seems a bit too much to ask.. :p

I've started building the database schema for the main application, but I still need to finalise the fields, of course.

[brokenportal]

I like the idea of seeing about bringing more people in from Reddit and what not, upon thinking about this some more, what do you think about having something like a standardized form for pinning nootropics stacks in the nootropic stacks forum? You could come up with a standard thing for people to write, with a standardized title, and then start pinning them. For example, "Post your stack with the title, 'your names stack' and invite the stacks moderator 'John Smith' to the topic using the invite button. They will then decide to pin it or not or get back to you with what to change." Then the "stacks moderator" presumably you, could also go around and find stacks in the website, ask the people to post them in the particular format, and then pin them. People can then give positive reputation points and stars to the ones that are the best. You can search by amount of stars I believe. If you agree to this or some version of it then we'll have to run it past the moderators and directors.

You could then even index them all in a post or page, and even create a poll for them. You can update the poll every time a new one is added.

If you still want to do your idea in a separate site and it might cost anything then let us know here and we can also run that past the board and see if the funds support can be gotten for it. Youll want to make the case clearer for why this will satisfy nootropics people in a way that the forum currently cant, and also make the case clearer for why it might draw in more people. How many nootropics people do you think your idea would reach, (how many noots people are in reddit for example) etc.

[Purpose]

Great idea!

Any idea when it'll be up?

I'm keen if you need a beta tester or feedback (i do a lot of internet marketing).

[CIMN]

I think that you should keep up with the site its good.

http://www.gwern.net/Nootropics

heres a idea from their site:

"that would show which are the cheapest and which are the most expensive in categorized system, then you could move unto charting evidence for efficacy and you could analyze which would have the most bang for the buck in a charted system.

• for example.
  piracetam vs modafinil
  closer to left vs closer to right
  cheaper vs more expensive
  more anecdotal evidence vs more referenced evidence
  lesser cognition improvement  vs greater cognition improvement (in terms of referenced study)
  well anyways thats just something i was thinking of in idea
  
• i think it would be like charts on a graph,
  the hardest part would be charting the efficacy of what would be deemed as 'more cognition enhancing, and likely that may be deemed to a averaging of anecdotal points vs references supporting "more cognition enhancing" but i think its something that can be done, just a future proposal i guess."

Edited by CIMN, 07 August 2012 - 12:53 AM.

[brokenportal]

Is there anything you need to finish this up, and would you consider running this through a Longecity page?

[MrHappy]

More hands and a 36 hour day.

[daryl]

Just stumbling onto this old thread now and wondering how things are going with this project? It sounds interesting and I look forward to seeing what it's like when launched.

[MrHappy]

daryl, on 08 January 2013 - 03:47 AM, said:

Just stumbling onto this old thread now and wondering how things are going with this project? It sounds interesting and I look forward to seeing what it's like when launched.

Life and work have been slowing down the progress. Looking for collaboration, if anyone has skills in php, mySQL, AJAX and javascript.

[daryl]

Sorry, I'm no coder, I know a fair bit about digital marketing though so let me know if you ever need any advice on things like search engine marketing and optimisation