Post Counts Return, eh?

[chibi-master]

[quote name='Korey'][FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"][COLOR="Indigo"]I will say this though. For your one year or so being on OB, you've almost already past my post count.[/COLOR][/FONT][/QUOTE]

It will be a year in March! And I hope to have at least 825 by then! So I suppose we'll see!

[SaiyanPrincessX]

[SIZE="1"]Ah, I noticed this the other day!

I'm glad its back for the fun of it. I miss those user titles we all strived for back in the day. I think we had little colored stars next to the post count aswell, plus the title.[/SIZE]

[chibi-master]

[quote name='SaiyanPrincessX'][SIZE="1"]I think we had little colored stars next to the post count aswell, plus the title.[/SIZE][/QUOTE]

REALLY?!:o I tell ya', this just keeps getting neater and neater!:catgirl:

[James]

[font=franklin gothic medium]There was some talk a long time ago about introducing stars or icons for "quality posters". Obviously this would be subjective, but it would allow us to mark people who really go above and beyond with their contributions, even if they don't have as many posts.

We have no plans to introduce this, but I thought I'd throw it out there to see if there's any interest in it for the future.[/font]

[chibi-master]

[quote name='James'][font=franklin gothic medium]There was some talk a long time ago about introducing stars or icons for "quality posters". Obviously this would be subjective, but it would allow us to mark people who really go above and beyond with their contributions, even if they don't have as many posts.

We have no plans to introduce this, but I thought I'd throw it out there to see if there's any interest in it for the future.[/font][/QUOTE]

Sounds complicated... How would you judge the quality of a post?:confused: But still, the star idea is pretty appealing...:catgirl:

[Drizzt Do'urden]

Well I don't know if you could get everyone in the OB on board to participate, but you could go with a 'post rating system'. Something that everypost would have that every other member could click on giving said person a rating.

Sort've like the polls I guess in which one person could only vote once either thumbs up or thumbs down. Then after 5-10 votes the average would be figured up and rating would be given.

It could also go as far as to have a certain icon rating system for the amount of quality posts a person has. Sort've like a military ranking structure, private, corporal, all the way up to 4star general. (of course I'm not suggesting using military ranks, just something similar.)

[Petie]

[quote name='Drizzt Do'urden']Well I don't know if you could get everyone in the OB on board to participate, but you could go with a 'post rating system'. Something that everypost would have that every other member could click on giving said person a rating.[/quote]
[COLOR=Blue]The new version of the vBulletin software has a post rating system built in actually. I haven't had too much experience with it myself so I'm not sure if you can track the posts on a user to user basis and use that data to translate into an icon rating system for the poster but it is something to think about.
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[Mr. Maul]

[FONT=Verdana][SIZE=1][COLOR=DimGray]I'm on another forum that does that.

If people find your post helpful/good/whatever, they add to your status. It's very useful in helping to distinguish between members who believe in post quality rather than quantity.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]



[quote name='chibi-master']GWAH!!!:o I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE!!! Mark my words, I will attain the "Senior Member" title!!!:smirk:[/quote]

[Dagger]

Wouldn't using the built-in reputation system be easier than using post rating? (Or are they not two separate things?)

Granted, I'm not convinced that enabling reputation would add much to OB in particular, but it's worked okay at other forums I've been at. *shrugs* The greatest risk you run is that most people are just going to ignore or not notice it.

~Dagger~

[Allamorph]

[quote name='Dagger']The greatest risk you run is that most people are just going to ignore or not notice it.[/quote]
[FONT=Arial]> >


If it wouldn't be too much trouble to add, I don't see what employing it could hurt.[/FONT]

[Petie]

[quote name='Dagger']Wouldn't using the built-in reputation system be easier than using post rating? (Or are they not two separate things?)[/quote]
[COLOR=Blue]They are two separate things and I just went and played with both systems on my own software to do a quick comparison.

The new "Thread Rating" feature allows users to assign a rating of one to five stars to a thread, not to individual posts. The reputation system allows users to essentially rate individual posts and those ratings are translated into points that the member who made the post either gets or loses. The amount gained or lost is determined by a number of factors including your own reputation and the length of time you've been a member.

So yes, in this case, not only would the existing reputation system be easier to use, it would fit the original rating suggestion exactly. I believe the reputation system even lets you assign custom images for each rank of reputation.

[B]Edit:[/B]
Actually, scratch that custom images part. There's another feature called "User Ranks" that lets you assign custom images or text after a certain number of posts is reached. The reputation system will display little boxes by default but that image can be changed (to a star, for instance, and the more reputation you have, the more stars you get).
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[James]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Well in that case, it may be better to emphasize the reputation system on our next version, especially if we can create proper icons and stuff for it.

I like the idea of rating individual posts (even if it's simple, like thumbs up or thumbs down).

Thread ratings are nothing new and we did used to use them years ago. They were never terribly successful. This was because a couple of threads would carry ratings while most didn't... most people just wouldn't bother rating a thread.

But yeah, we'll see. I'm sure there are plenty of options to make sure that we can recognize contributions from members in a variety of ways.[/font]

[Korey]

[quote name='James'][font=franklin gothic medium]Well in that case, it may be better to emphasize the reputation system on our next version, especially if we can create proper icons and stuff for it.

I like the idea of rating individual posts (even if it's simple, like thumbs up or thumbs down).

Thread ratings are nothing new and we did used to use them years ago. They were never terribly successful. This was because a couple of threads would carry ratings while most didn't... most people just wouldn't bother rating a thread.

But yeah, we'll see. I'm sure there are plenty of options to make sure that we can recognize contributions from members in a variety of ways.[/font][/QUOTE]
[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"][COLOR="Indigo"]
Alright hold on, let's discuss why Rep is a bad idea. I am a member of Shoryuken.com, that has post thumbs up or down and lemme tell you, while it may emphasize good posts and things of that nature...it also opens the door for "gang raping" of posts or members that may not be popular. It's not really representative of good posts or not, just a popularity contest more than anything. So I'd say nay to that, unless we could disable that feature.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Petie]

[quote name='Korey'][FONT=Franklin Gothic Medium][COLOR=Indigo]
Alright hold on, let's discuss why Rep is a bad idea. I am a member of Shoryuken.com, that has post thumbs up or down and lemme tell you, while it may emphasize good posts and things of that nature...it also opens the door for "gang raping" of posts or members that may not be popular. It's not really representative of good posts or not, just a popularity contest more than anything. So I'd say nay to that, unless we could disable that feature.[/COLOR][/FONT][/quote]
[COLOR=Blue]That's something I've seen happen and it was a concern of mine as well. I've also seen it work well too though so it can vary.[/COLOR]

[Allamorph]

[FONT=Arial]Hmm.

Then again, that depends on the member base we have, and I'm not entirely certain the members here would decide to do that sort of thing. I mean, if I have a beef with somebody, I'm not going to go around "thumbing-down" every post or thread they make. That's petty and childish, and feels cowardly to me. Like I'm hiding behind a system.

I mean, "post-rapage" is a potential problem, definitely, but I'm not sure how much of an actual worry it is.[/FONT]

[Shy]

[size=1]I don't see the point of a rep system. It just seems like another popularity contest to me.

-Shy[/size]

[Dagger]

[quote name='Allamorph'][FONT=Arial]I mean, if I have a beef with somebody, I'm not going to go around "thumbing-down" every post or thread they make.[/FONT][/QUOTE]
In my experience, this usually isn't possible to begin with. I'm guessing that the parameters can be adjusted, but most forums don't let you rep the same person (positively or negatively) twice in a row; you have to spread around your reputation-giving for a while before you can go back to them.

~Dagger~

[SunfallE]

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"][FONT="Lucida Sans Unicode"]I would want to know how it works before I could be in favor of a rep system. Mainly because part of the reason theOtaku's system uses hugs now instead of votes is because people [I]did[/I] run around and deliberately vote down people's submissions. I remember the complaints over that.

I'm sure a forum is quite different, but I'm more in favor of the concept of simply allowing a thumbs up that a post is good quality and nothing else. Otherwise I say no to voting period. The idea of what's considered quality to begin with, varies so widely that the option to vote something down seems pointless.

If something truly [I]is[/I] bad, that's what our report bad post function is for. Being able to vote someone down just because... their grammar isn't the best or their point didn't go into as much detail as someone else's... I don't agree with that, [I]at all[/I].

But positive reinforcement for those who do go the extra mile, that I can agree with.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Petie]

[quote name='Dagger']In my experience, this usually isn't possible to begin with. I'm guessing that the parameters can be adjusted, but most forums don't let you rep the same person (positively or negatively) twice in a row; you have to spread around your reputation-giving for a while before you can go back to them.

~Dagger~[/quote]
[COLOR=Blue]You are indeed correct. While that can be adjusted, the default is to require you to rep 25 different people before you can rep the first person again. This is why I wasn't entirely worried about abuse of the system and while it can still happen, even with that restriction in place, we also generally don't seem to have the member base that would abuse it.

[B]Edit:[/B]
Negative repping can be disabled completely if it became an issue. In that case, the reputation system would closely resemble theO's hugs.
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[Allamorph]

[FONT=Arial]Right, so you can see how little I'm concerned about it.

Although, you know, if I felt like abusing the system in that way, I could figure out a way to deal with the countermeasures. But that's far too much an energy expenditure for something like that, don't you think? :p

[B]Edit:[/B]
[quote name='SunfallE][COLOR="RoyalBlue"][FONT="Lucida Sans Unicode"]Mainly because part of the reason theOtaku's system uses hugs now instead of votes is because people [I]did[/I] run around and deliberately vote down people's submissions. I remember the complaints over that. [/FONT'][/COLOR][/quote]
Yeah. But then again you have many times the number of members available to vote for/against, as well as many more [I]submissions[/I] on top of that. I think the population and posts per day here would make the system [COLOR=DarkRed]Petie[/COLOR] mentioned a lot more effective in dealing with that sort of thing.

And again, compare the average ages of those doing the voting stupidity on TheO and the average age of the members here. We all have our snitty moments, but by and large I doubt the majority of us are that immature.[/FONT]

[Horendithas]

[COLOR="Indigo"][FONT="Arial"]Well so long as there are controls in place to keep it from being abused, I don't see a problem with having post ratings. =P Also...[QUOTE=Shy][size=1]Oh man I hated those old post count-based titles. Now I'm going to have to become a mod again!

-Shy[/size] :([/QUOTE]Why haven't you chained him back up yet Dessy? He's practically begging for it! :D[/FONT][/COLOR]

[jomz]

[quote name='Indi'][COLOR="Indigo"][FONT="Arial"]Well so long as there are controls in place to keep it from being abused, I don't see a problem with having post ratings. =P Also...Why haven't you chained him back up yet Dessy? He's practically begging for it! :D[/FONT][/COLOR][/QUOTE]

Oh noes!

Des is hunting the boards again with a tranquilizer gun? Quick, hide!

:-P

[SunfallE]

[FONT="Lucida Sans Unicode"][COLOR="RoyalBlue"][QUOTE=Petie][COLOR=Blue][B]Edit:[/B]
Negative repping can be disabled completely if it became an issue. In that case, the reputation system would closely resemble theO's hugs.
[/COLOR][/QUOTE]In that case I see no reason to not give it a try. So long as we have the means to fix it should things become a problem, I'm fine. I just remember how much of a headache the other was so I'd really hate to see that again. o_O I do agree with Allamorph that it's unlikely to happen here, but I still like knowing what the options are.

Also... Dessy![COLOR="Indigo"] Indi[/COLOR] is right, what are you waiting for? Chain Shy back up immediately! :D[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Drizzt Do'urden]

I was just curious if there was anyway to take down the number of posts before you could rate somebody else. I understand the worries of....I believe "Post-Rappeing" was the best term I've seen used. But rating 25 different people can sometimes be a stretch, unless you go back into the older posts I suppose.

I have to agree with Petie that the regulars we have at OB are above that sort've behavior, I know we have some new members and that breeds some concern I'm sure. So a couple of questions, or things to think about may be better.

1.) Making the feature only available to Members as opposed to New Members, (I think the standing is 100 posts to become a member?) that ensures that a person is at least ACTUALLY interested in being an active member.

2.) Allowing guests to rate posts, I know most guests are just using search engines and hitting the OB for one reason or another. Are you planning on allowing guests to rate posts?

Just a couple of things to clarify, also to add when do you think this would be implemented. I read mention of the next version of OB, but alas my member status keeps me out of the loop as to when the site is due for update.

[Petie]

[quote name='Drizzt Do'urden']1.) Making the feature only available to Members as opposed to New Members, (I think the standing is 100 posts to become a member?) that ensures that a person is at least ACTUALLY interested in being an active member.

2.) Allowing guests to rate posts, I know most guests are just using search engines and hitting the OB for one reason or another. Are you planning on allowing guests to rate posts?[/quote]
[COLOR=Blue]1. While there is no way to disable the feature completely for members with less than a certain number of posts (default: 50), reputation changes from those members will not actually count until they reach that required number.

2. Since how much reputation you give/take is based on a number of factors tied to your account, there is no way, even if we wanted to, to enable reputation for guests.

And just as a quick update, I was wrong. The default number of different people you need to rep before repeating is 20 though this is an editable option.

Also, and I realize I'm a little late on bringing this up, but has the Thread Rating system really been around for a while and I've just never seen it used?

Finally, since there seems to be some actual interest in this plan, would anyone object to my adding a poll to this thread so we can take a more formal vote on enabling reputation?[/COLOR]