Ranks, Thanks and Titles
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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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