Ranks, Thanks and Titles
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No, but you mentioned giving certain privileges to "higher ranking" posters and not to others, and I don't really see why everyone shouldn't have access to the same features. Just because someone doesn't have the time to contribute as much as someone else, it doesn't make them a less valuable or respected member of the community IMHO.
Two points:
- I intentionally proposed a system where time has very little bearing on rank. Therefore, even if you don't have much time to contribute, you can still become a valuable and respected member of the community very quickly.
To be more clear, one good post will score you significantly more "points" than a million bad posts (a bad post earns nothing). The only reason that more posts might help you is that if you if make a million posts, there's a reasonable chance that one of them might be useful
- It's never going to be the case that everyone has the same features on the forums.
We already have admins, moderators and contributors. They each have special features, or, the least, some kind of special recognition. Soon, people will have the ability to post to the main site, to run their own columns. They'll be able to act as editors of small sections of the site and even run their own teams of contributors. All of this will have repercussions in the forum (necessarily) so that they can maintain some degree of editorial control over those threads that discuss relevant sections of the website.
Addressing the issue of privileges for "normal" users, I don't see why those people who are respected and have proven themselves as trustworthy shouldn't get access to those features that we're currently not allowing for fear of abuse. Taking the example of link posting, the intention is to enforce moderation for these posts. However, moderation takes time and delays the post from being made. We could enforce moderation for everyone. But if the community feels that certain people are trustworthy, aren't we wasting our time by scrutinising their posts?
Similarly with the newbie moderation system. Currently, newbies have to make three posts before they can post freely. But wouldn't it be much more logical that if a newbie's first post is inspiring and useful then they can escape the moderation period early?
Regarding the current system, my point was I don't really see it as a "ranking system", it's just a post count and I think that's fairly obvious to anyone who looks at it. If you don't like the titles that go with it, you could just scrap them, although it does make it easier to see at a glance whether you're talking to a new member or someone who's been here for ages. If people actually were engaging in competition and spamming the forum in order to achieve Frightknight status or whatever, then I agree it would be a problem, but I've seen no evidence of that happening. Anyway, that's just my two cents.
This is really a secondary concern to me. The only reason I mentioned the current system is to show that it isn't doing anything for us, whereas it could be a useful tool.
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Again, more confusion.
We're going have to change your nickname to Hordriss Alan
This whole ranking system in either incarnation isn't really necessary in my mind. As far as I'm seeing it we're all of equal contribution and value here whether we post once or over a thousand times. If someone's playing up we simply report the post and let the moderators do their work, job done.
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I have to agree with Mashi one hundred per cent. The ranking system is a harmless bit of fun for those who like those sorts of things, but it soon loses its novelty value, and I doubt anyone who's been on the forum for more than two months will care any longer; correct me if I'm wrong. Changing the system might provide some new novelty value, but it would soon wear off again. As for questions of spammers, yes I'd say the current system seems to be working, so making the changes sounds like a lot of effort for very little gain.
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This whole ranking system in either incarnation isn't really necessary in my mind. As far as I'm seeing it we're all of equal contribution and value here whether we post once or over a thousand times. If someone's playing up we simply report the post and let the moderators do their work, job done.
And you don't feel it's worth giving recognition to people who make the most awe-inspiring, clever, humourous and well-loved posts? Even to emphasise the important posts to Google? Even so that newbies will be able to quickly find the best and most interesting posts?
Seemed like a harmless and highly helpful system to me
What about "Knewbie"? That counts as a rank, right?
ehhh, I suppose you could call it a rank, since you are a Knewbie until you make 3 posts. But technically, it's a group and your rank is "Dungeoneer".
As for questions of spammers, yes I'd say the current system seems to be working, so making the changes sounds like a lot of effort for very little gain.
The current system is only working in the sense that there is little spam.
It is not working in the sense that it is still causing us grief to moderate posts and users and that it is sufficiently unfriendly that it is probably pushing people away. The current system is going to change. The key is to finding a system that minimises spam while also minimising unfriendliness to newbies.
Hence my desire to move to a more open system where only those things that spammers are interested in are restricted and where those restrictions are controlled by the community's objective opinion of the user's prior posts.
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I realise that I never posted an update about this.
Just to let you know that this particular feature has been abandoned. I didn't particularly want to implement something that a large swathe of the community was against when it related to the ability of people to interact on the site.
I am continuing to look for a way to better recognise people's contributions, probably as a replacement to the old "post count". However, such a system will be little more than "harmless fun" as HStorm has phrased it, and will have no bearing on anything.
In terms of spam prevention, this continues to be a problem. We've had a few situations recently which have made me uncomfortable in trying to balance between wanting to encourage new users, but not wanting the site to be used for spam. I am continuing to consider how best to deal with this.
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You think it's just spam? I'm pretty sure that some bots have started to bust into the forums. I got a PM off one a few weeks ago and I noticed some posts looked like they'd been written in a bot...ish style.
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There are bots. We usually have one or two posts and accounts to delete every day.
The bigger problem is human constructed posts. Since they actually take 3 minutes to craft a post and, often, ask a sensible question or make a sensible point, I usually feel obliged to spend 10 minutes emailing them to tell them that they're welcome to join in, but they're not welcome to spam.
Inevitably they argue and refuse to change and then I delete their accounts anyway. But it's a waste of my time.
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Sad to see this feature go - I quite liked having the ability to 'thank' people while it lasted, I just wasn't sure about the idea of linking it with a ranking system. Still, we're all capable of using words to thank people for their posts, and indeed that's probably a better way of doing it.
I can't remember if there's a page about forum rules when you create an account. If not, maybe there should be? Write a big clear warning about how your account will be deleted if you post spammy links. Then you needn't send them individual emails if they do it anyway - just go ahead and delete. They can't say they weren't warned.
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Have you considered little 'Award' pictures or banners? Like a little image you can stick on your info bar or signature when you post? You could make a little ceremony out of it: at the end of the year stuff gets awarded to the funniest, most insightful, etc.
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Nice idea, SpectralScorpion. We used to have annual award ceremonies on the newsgroups I frequented, and then in one of my LJ communities - stuff like "poster of the year", "newbie of the year", and the examples you gave there. It can be quite time-consuming to organise, though, and doesn't really work if not many people bother voting.
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It can be quite time-consuming to organise, though, and doesn't really work if not many people bother voting.
I thought so. The KM forum doesn't really have that many regular contributors (off the top of my head I count 7) so voting could be a waste of time. Maybe Mystara could just decide them? He runs the forum so he probably sees the most of it. shrugs
I could always try and design little badges in Paint.Net. I'm not an artist by trade but I use it regularly and have made various little creations in the program.
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Have you considered little 'Award' pictures or banners? Like a little image you can stick on your info bar or signature when you post? You could make a little ceremony out of it: at the end of the year stuff gets awarded to the funniest, most insightful, etc.
That's basically the system I'm looking at, at the moment.
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Speaking of bots...well you can see for yourself
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