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?