I agree sniper, even though ive got a few helpfuls some have also been deleted and in all fairness, some users are just so happy that someone replied to their post they click thanks! Its also good because newcomers like myself can see all the helpfuls on peoples names and think damn, he has been really helpful so its pretty safe to trust him in advice!
That's part of the mirage...point systems don't gauge credibility....they gauge popularity. And in a sense that's dangerous, in that someone who is naive might trust someone based on that. The most trustworthy person here, in my opinion, is Sniper...yet he has only 20 helpful points. That shows me he's not into this whole fake prestige thing, where the value of his contribution is tied into some lame point system....he's the administrator, he could give himself 1000 points...why doesn't he?...because he doesn't care about points, because they don't really mean anything, how many points he has is not related to his contribution to the site...they are nothing more than than thank-you's and have very little to do with contribution. Point systems are, for the most part, popularity contests...the more posts you make and the more receptive people are to you the more points you will generate. If you think that points mean anything else you're deceiving yourself.
Most of you are very young...the age range of this site is between 14 and 21...some are slightly older: AT's 24 and so is BigB...I'm twice as old as AT and have a son his age...so my take on things is going to be different...when you get to be middle-aged you won't care about these things either.
To some extent, I have to agree with Eg that the helpful posts doesn't measure how helpful you were, but really how often you post as a regular. I mean I have 48 points, some of which I'm sure I didn't deserve but at one point I had more than AT (and so do zRock and Ex) yet I think we would all agree that AT is more helpful as the quality of his posts are usually higher and more detailed than some of the younger posters (including myself) being more experienced. The same applies for BigB etc. Quite frankly a few people do. Hence the reason for suddenly calling the events a few weeks back the "helpful posts war".
Exactly, Addis ! if no one cared then there wouldn't have been a competition to get them...to get more than the other guy.
I wouldn't say it's about popularity, sure things like voting for class president and whatnot are almost always determined by popularity but a large amount of the people who give helpful points are new members who have no idea who anyone is. They see the message below every second post and distribute points to whoever they think deserves one...usually. There are always exceptions of course, some new members give everyone a point like it was said before. And some active member, I won't name anyone, don't give any points to anyone regardless of the merit. I personally just look at it as a small token of good will. It's a little more tangible than just saying thanks, and this way you might have a better idea of whether it was actually useful info or not, so you can make other post of similar value. Just my take on the matter.
I dont know about the regular post thing. Im a regular but im ahrdly helpful and O think my helpful posts reflect that. I have no sudden burning urge to suddenly try and take over ex with points, ill try to help if i can. I wont post otherwise and i certainly wont dispute others' posts when there trying to help to.
If you like point systems...and alot of people do...that's OK. I'm just saying that they are an inaccurate gauge of performance or contributions...and they do have a tendency toward popularity clicking...on one of the sites I attend there was a situation of some members grouping to give each other points...so..the administrators instituted a cap...whereby once you hit someone up, you have to hit 9 other people before you can hit that person up again...spread it around...I believe Sniper had that here as well with the old reputation system...which I personally think was a superior system... I'm not trying to be argumentative...I'm just trying to raise a discussion on this...in my opinion the old system was vastly superior and more equitable...this system is too wide open to be abused.
Point taken, and i understand you werent trying to argue but just getting your point across! I believe Dev Hardware forums has the reputation system and i quite like it!
I knew the whole time you're just expressing you opinion, like all of us, and that's great I wouldn't be bothered if and Admin decided to throw out the helpful point system and reinstate the old rep system. But refresh my memory how exactly does the rep system function?
Hi Exfoliate, Sniper could describe it much better than me...he had a fairly unique system ( unique compared to other systems I've come across anyways ). So...I'll leave Sniper to explain his own system...however, generally speaking, they're based on various things not just one... 1. how many points you have are based upon seniority, the amount of points people have given you, the amount of posts you have, and the amount of points that people have taken away from you... 2. all these things factor into how many points you have for instance...you might get one point for every 50 posts you make you might get five points for every month you are a member you might be given one-ten points for a good post you might be deducted one-ten points for a bad, insulting, or vulgar post you might get rewarded bonus points for extra duty ( moderating, administrating, creating a sticky post, etc...) they don't all work this same way but...because the point system is not based on ' one ' thing...rather many contributing things...it is a more ' honest ' system. In my opinion. Eg
That sounds really solid! Bring it back if you ask me (not that the Thanks! system was a failure, I shouldn't be saying anything negitive about it as I won a cool prize because of it)
Hi Exfoliate, For instance...in your case...by the above system... Contributing posts 2232= 44 points Member 8 months= 40 points Member awarded points ( let's say an average of 1 point per 30 posts )= 74 points Member deducted points ( you've been a bad boy let's say 1 point every 70 posts )= -31 points Administrative Extra Duty points ( let's say you've been on staff 4 months and you get an extra 10 points a month and 2 of your posts were made stickies for 1 point each )= 42 points Grand total: 169 points That way your points aren't tied to just post count, or just member clicking...it gauges the overall performance on your contribution. Eg Edit: you could also consider points in other areas eg. member referals, etc... if I were a new member to this site and didn't know any better...I'd think by looking at members like 01boland who has thousands of posts but almost no points that these members are not very helpful at all... but that isn't true...she is very helpful...alot of forums would kill to have regular contributors like her...no one is attracted to join an inactive forum where posts are far and few between, where you might have to wait hours or even days for someone to even respond. In my opinion...a system that rewards the ' whole contribution ' is superior to the one that only rewards ' one aspect ' of that contribution.
Hi Exfoliate, Sniper's reputation system was different than what I just described...but I think it was still better than the present system... the system I described was based upon various forum systems I have encountered...that attempt to create a system that is more accurate and less prone to abuse. And implementing a system such as this would not mean everyone would start from scratch...once you figure out the point counts ( eg. 1 point for every 50 posts, 5 points for every month a member) you could tally up pretty close to where an ' active member should be. Mind you it'd be alot of work. By applying the same point stucture as I used with you to Sniper ( allowing an extra 10 points per month for administration )...he would have approx. 814 points. You would find that this type of system is more accurate in most cases. Eg
Might want to PM an admin, I think we should go with your thoughts. I'm sure there would be some of us that would be willing to help out where we could.
Hi Exfoliate, I'm sure Sniper will stumble on this eventually and decide what he thinks is best for the site...maybe he likes this system...obviously Sniper realizes that change is good for a forum...he's made several changes since I've been here...and I'm confident he knows what he's doing. I appreciate your support!!! Eg
Don’t worry guys! Notes have been taken, some excellent feedback you guys have given here. Bringing the points system back is a possibility, possibly with the thank you system mixed in some how. Well it seems, this is not what triggered Dave to post this, most likely because I told him to avoid using shorthand so much as he did, well he hasn't come back since posting this. Any way, I will be updating the whole site with extra features, so I have added it to my to-do list.
