Idea on how to make "Discover people to follow" better

I have an idea as to how Brilliant can make better use of the "Discover people to follow" tab as well as getting more user exposure.

First off, I agree with Finn's suggestion here. I think it's time for a "Discover" update.

My idea is to implement "Brilliantan of the Week."

(First problem: what is the demonym for a person on Brilliant? Brilliantan? Ant?)

Some users that have surfaced since the beginning of the year have been constantly producing and sharing great problems. I think they deserve some recognition. Examples are Tunk-Fey Ariawan and Finn Hulse. They deserve to get on the Discover list. But there are a LOT of people that aren't on the list that deserve it, such as Pi Han Goh, Anqi Li, Sreejato Bhattacharya, Zi Song Yeoh, and many others. It would probably be impractical to get all of these people on the same list if that was the ONLY list that existed.

But if there was some way to showcase these users over a period of time, the users would be receiving the recognition they deserve, and the other users of Brilliant would see great people to follow. The showcase would appear under the "Topics you follow" tab or somewhere that a user wouldn't have to scroll (far) to see it.

When a person's tenure on the BOTW board is up, then a link to their profile would appear on a page about the BOTW that talks about what you have to do to get picked, what staff looks for in BOTW candidates, and the previous nominees.

So what would be in the BOTW box that would get added? Obviously, a link to the profile and the +Follow option. I think it should also have a couple problems from the user. There could be both easy and hard problems to appeal to all of the users of Brilliant. There could be a small box talking about what the user's specialty is. Another thing I think would be good is if the chosen user would be chosen about a week before nomination, where they would be asked to give a one or two sentence introduction to themself.

The "Discover people to follow" page would be left in place to show some of the top people to follow, but as Finn said, it should be updated.

So those are my ideas about implementing a Brilliantan of the Week page. What do you guys think about this? I'm interested to hear your feedback. Thanks!

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[example link](https://brilliant.org)

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print "hello world"

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2 \times 3

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2^{34}

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a_{i-1}

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\frac{2}{3}

\frac{2}{3}

\sqrt{2}

\sqrt{2}

\sum_{i=1}^3

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\sin \theta

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Markdown	Appears as
`italics` or `_italics_`	italics
`bold` or `__bold__`	bold
- bulleted - list	bulleted list
1. numbered 2. list	numbered list
Note: you must add a full line of space before and after lists for them to show up correctly
paragraph 1 paragraph 2	paragraph 1 paragraph 2
`[example link](https://brilliant.org)`	example link
`> This is a quote`	This is a quote
# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"	# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `$` ... `$` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$

Comments

Other demonym suggestions:

Brilliantine
Brilliantarian
Brilliantino
Brillianti
Brilliantic

and, my personal favorite:

Brilliantard

Michael Mendrin - 7 years, 2 months ago

We agree that the "Discover People to Follow" page is quite stale.

I am a huge fan of the BOTW idea. I think it is a much more sensible way for new members of Brilliant to both find people to follow and learn why following is cool. We will start doing it. Regarding the gritty details:

We will probably start doing it initially in a less fancy way than that, but we can certainly heap glory on designated Brilliantics and provide all of that info. We will likely do it via a Note initially.

We have an extremely large pool of epic people on this website, so we have a big backlog of members to feature. I will start reaching out to members to schedule them to be the BOTW.

Peter Taylor Staff - 7 years, 2 months ago

Wow, I'm really honored that you're implementing this idea. Thanks a lot!

I agree that notes are a good way to do it. Especially if they are universally "suggested for you," as I've seen in the past. I'm not sure if I made this clear or not, but I think that the users selected should have some kind of personal statement that they give, possibly in addition to the introduction. They could just talk about what they like about math, Brilliant, or some other topic that others will find interesting.

But thanks a lot!

Trevor B. - 7 years, 2 months ago

Yeah +1 on having some kind of personal statement. When I reach out to them I will send them a list of questions to fill out that will hopefully tease out some personality. I also think that the BOTW should happen in a note that could serve as an "ask me anything" kind of discussion, and provide space for the featured members to just talk about themselves.

@Peter Taylor – I can't wait to be write a bio (if I'm ever selected). This is a WHOLE lot of motivation for me. :D

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 2 months ago

Good job, the BOTW idea do have a great purpose! However, I think that brilliantics (whatever) who are really participating on brilliant.org will get the attention they deserved naturally. In my opinion, it will be better if other brilliantics can explore good brilliantics themselves.

For example, I followed Sreejato Bhattacharya because I saw his problems were interesting and his solutions were great so in my mind I will tell myself, "follow this person, and I can learn many wonderful things from him" and then I followed him. Currently, he has 479 followers, way less than brilliantics on the "People to Follow", why is this happening? Does that matters? Personally, I think it is not a problem at all. His problem may be quite hard for some brilliantics who are new to Olympiad Mathematics, so in their circles they won't know who he is and they won't even bother trying to solve his problem.

If the BOTW started, Sreejato is most likely be one of them and I bet his followers will increase dramatically but this time, brilliantics who followed him are most likely because "he made it to the BOTW, he must be very good, so I must follow him" then they will lose the fun to discover great brilliantics in their own. I think we should find out why that brilliantic attract us so much first, and then we follow him, not followed him and then see what can he do to amaze you. See the differences?

If you were not on the "People to Follow", I will still follow you. I remembered it was because I saw your note on The Importance of C. However, your followers will be slightly lesser because brilliantics who don't do Calculus won't notice that note but your achievements here, in brilliant.org, will still remains as awesome as you are now.

However as I mentioned previously, BOTW do have its own purpose which is already very obvious, I am just expressing what I think about People To Follow, not saying that I disagree this idea. :)

Christopher Boo - 7 years, 2 months ago

@Christopher Boo – I agree that Brilliantics get deserved attention naturally. Through the creation and sharing of great problems, people like Sreejato get the attention they deserve. I definitely think Sreejato is a great person to follow. But for some reason, I never actually clicked the button to follow him, which I just did. If he had been featured on a BOTW before, I would have seen that I wasn't following him and followed him much earlier than I did. Granted, I see a lot of his problems from the people I did follow sharing them, but I would have liked to see them firsthand.

Ideally, BOTW wouldn't be a "He made it to the BOTW, so he must be very good, so I must follow him" situation. That's why I think the people mentioned should not just be names on a note. As Peter said, the notes would have a short bio, their interests, and the problems/notes that they share and contribute the most, as well as a couple examples of those problems.

For example, Tunk-Fey Ariawan posts a lot of high-level calculus problems. If he were featured, it would say that he contributes challenging calculus problems, so a person who is in a lot of low levels for their topics (and may have not even learned a single bit of calculus) would ideally not follow him because they would see that he contributes a lot of things that they would not solve or even look at.

Back to the idea of getting attention naturally. Consider a person who follows the Best of feeds and very little else, maybe just a couple users. They aren't going to get exposed to a lot of problems. Therefore, they aren't going to see the problems that are contributed but not reshared by the Best of feeds. Yes, the problems shared by the Best of feeds are often created by the users who would be candidates for BOTW, but when you have a small sample size or problems trying to encompass a large number of users, there will be some people who slip through the cracks and not get the attention they deserve.

Personally, I think you are a great person to follow because from my perspective, you were one of the first people that posted chemistry related problems and notes. Chemistry is one of my favorite subjects, and the fact that you were posting chemistry-related content was great, so I followed you. But you also post a lot of great math problems and sets, such as the Telescoping Series set. If you are featured, it would say that you post lots of great math and chemistry. And if a person doesn't like chemistry, they're not obligated to follow you. But it took me a long time to actually find your chemistry content, because that isn't something that can currently be shared by a Best of feed.

In case I didn't make this clear earlier, I don't think BOTW is supposed to replace the "Discover" page. The "Discover" page is for the universal BOTW, the best of the people in certain topics. But as Finn said, I think it is time for it to be updated, as I agree with Peter that it has become stale. But replacing it with BOTW would be a mistake, in my opinion.

Thank you for your feedback! I'm glad you like the idea!

Hey everyone, I've also started to put up questions, this is one of them. Please see and tell me how it is?? @Trevor B. @Finn Hulse @Sharky Kesa everyone, please see and tell...

Ashu Dablo - 7 years, 2 months ago

Please don't spam this thread with self-advertising.

I am really sorry.I sincerely just wanted to get my problem verified by people of your ilk since i am newer than you all.. Sorry again.I sincerely apologize if i offended you. Sorry.

@Ashu Dablo – Hey man, you're a phenomenal user and Brilliant is happy to have you. I looked through a bunch of your problems. You've got some great ideas, but try to make them clear and easier to understand. I remember being in your exact situation two months ago. Keep up the great work, post decent solutions, write great problems, and before you know it, you'll be like me and Trevor! :D Good luck!

@Finn Hulse – Thank You Finn... You are great :)

@Ashu Dablo – Just stop by any of my posts if you ever want ideas or inspiration! :D

Personally, I like this idea, as people can get recognition and fame.

Sharky Kesa - 7 years, 2 months ago

Well Trevor really liked this idea in this way there will be like a weekly winner for each topic and there should also be a criteriation which includes problems posted, solved, streak points and overall performance for brillite of the week

Milun Moghe - 7 years, 2 months ago

I love this idea!!

Eddie The Head - 7 years, 2 months ago

I think you and Sharky would make excellent candidates for BOTW. Glad you like the idea!

Thanks!! :)

@Calvin Lin , @Suyeon Khim , @Silas Hundt and @Finn Hulse , I'm interested to hear what you think about this.

Freaking brilliant dude! Unfortunately, a lot of the staff members have been pretty inactive, like Peter and Silas. But yeah, you have some fantastic ideas. These are the kind of thing that Brilliant will be looking for when they choose monitors... Hint hint wink wink. ;)

This has actually been one of my ideas for quite a while [I have to stop keeping my ideas to me and start posting them].

Mursalin Habib - 7 years, 2 months ago

Brilliantic and Brilliantarian are my favorites. Anyways, fantastic idea! A box showcasing certain users talents with a brief summary about them. There would be a space labeled "Check out some of "------"'s problems" with links to a couple of good problems". The page would definitely take a bit of clever web-design, but hey, this is the site for the most gifted people on the planet. :D

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$