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scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
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I agree with both Vlamm and masseur regarding the title 'veteran', it is completely pointless. Unless 'veterans' are given special privelages, etc then it seems something of a silly title to me, it does create divisions and fences some members off from others. Having said that, the term is used so often that I think it would be very difficult to get rid of it. The terms I used before, les nouveaux veterans, etc are terms I have coined to help me in my history of Esato, they aren't terms I would want to apply to Esato in general.
I have always been in favour of scrapping those things, which set some members apart from others e.g. the post count. Perhaps a better system would be a choice of 'titles' one could take upon registering that would donate one's field of interest or area of expertise e.g. Sony-Ericsson, GPRS, Nokia, etc. Not only would it do away with the post count, but it would provide a means for members to identify those members who are best able to answer a question they have.
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"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC
[ This Message was edited by: scotsboyuk on 2004-12-14 00:51 ] | |
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axxxr
Joined: Mar 21, 2003
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From: Londinium
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On 2004-12-14 01:45:12, scotsboyuk wrote:
I have always been in favour of scrapping those things, which set some members apart from others e.g. the post count. Perhaps a better system would be a choice of 'titles' one could take upon registering that would donate one's field of interest or area of expertise e.g. Sony-Ericsson, GPRS, Nokia, etc. Not only would it do away with the post count, but it would provide a means for members to identify those members who are best able to answer a question they have.
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I could'nt agree more with you more!
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[ This Message was edited by: axxxr on 2004-12-14 01:06 ] |
scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
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Some members seem to expect me to be 'elitist' or very much in favour of some sort of 'Esato elite', however, I am very much against the idea of any sort of 'class division' on Esato. I do think that more established members should be given a bit of respect if they provide useful information, just as newer members should be afforded that respect. The difficulty is that suggestions on this sort of thing seem to be greeted with a mixture of hysteria and mistrust. Any proposed change to how Esato operates, no matter how sensible or how insignificant the change may be, seems to be regarded as being an insult to laffen and/or the moderators, every member of Esato and Esato in general.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
fetzi
Joined: Oct 26, 2004
Posts: 230
From: currently warsaw
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In my opinion a rather 'formally' change in the look of members identity won´t change anyone´s attitude towards the forum?! The 'veteran' thing is not so much about a prove of power or wisdom or whatever - unless I´m offending now someone feeling as veteran 
For me it´s about the post count - at least it gives you an idea of the interest and relationship of the individual member with respect to this forum. A 500+ is of course quite a sign of 'veteranity' in this forum - this number of posts is a sign of either hard work or much fun or a little bit both of ´em - a sign of a positive members attitude.
And this is helpful in the beginning, because as a newbie you generally tend to rely on experienced members answers - hell I remember I was kind of upset when I got first time into a 'discussion' with a 500+ - and I bet I´m not the only one around here. And as long as you´re not a one time poster but willing to join the community you will learn that there are quite a few differences between a 500+ and another 500+ - but that´s not so important at the beginning when you´re asking for help because your phone broke on.
Any conclusion to draw? Go on esato - it´s good to be here..
Pop! Goes The Hamster... And Other Great Microwave Games |
vanquish
Joined: Mar 20, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Wor Newcastle Phone: V600i
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When i first joined the first thing i thought was wow! Stuff for my T300!
I had no idea about this whole 500 post thing, and so called "hierarchy" in Esato, until i got to the 500 mark, and then other more established members started to drift away, and there are not that many older members left that we see posting on a regular basis.
But alot of the time, newbies are great because they give me info i dont even know! Like one newbie's first post was amazing, great info.
I don't think so, just welcome them and make friends, thats what i do. Pm them about their mobile phone and have a chat about the stuff they have and why they have joined, even try and help them!
That's the best way to make them feel welcome.
Or we could disable the post count, and everybody could be communists and all equal!
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scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
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@fetzi
The post count is next to useless in my opinion, I don't think it gives a very good account of anything. Someone with a lot of posts may not necessarily be posting anything of any great use. I have always been, and still am, in favour of scrapping the post count.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
fetzi
Joined: Oct 26, 2004
Posts: 230
From: currently warsaw
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Quote:
| this number of posts is a sign of either hard work or much fun or a little bit both of ´em - a sign of a positive members attitude. |
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this is enough 'anything' for me, but of course it must not be your understanding..
Pop! Goes The Hamster... And Other Great Microwave Games |
scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
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From: UK
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On 2004-12-14 11:55:18, fetzi wrote:
A 500+ is of course quite a sign of 'veteranity' in this forum - this number of posts is a sign of either hard work or much fun or a little bit both of ´em - a sign of a positive members attitude.
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That's a fair point, but equally a high post count can be the result of posting lots of tosh. Some members seem to post just for the sake of it, perhaps to increase their post count. Some members seem to put a lot of stock in obtaining a high post count, personaly I don't. I prefer to take each member as I find them and not use a number to define them, instead relying on the quality of their posts and their attitude.
Having checked the rankings I see that I have the 9th highest number of posts, whilst pachy, a member I greatly respect, has the 13th highest number of posts. Does this mean that I have a more positive attitude towards Esato than pachy did? Does it make me more knowledgeable than pachy? Does it make me a better member than pachy?
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
fetzi
Joined: Oct 26, 2004
Posts: 230
From: currently warsaw
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On 2004-12-14 15:50:24, scotsboyuk wrote:
Having checked the rankings I see that I have the 9th highest number of posts, whilst pachy, a member I greatly respect, has the 13th highest number of posts. Does this mean that I have a more positive attitude towards Esato than pachy did? Does it make me more knowledgeable than pachy? Does it make me a better member than pachy?
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I just mentioned it to distinguish between members with a lot of posts and those without - where 500+ is a lot for me. How much more posts a member has is fortunately not so obvious because not always presented in the post and in my opinion negligible for the average user.
And yes, it´s good to take each member as you find it - but if you´re completely new to any forum and have nothing to rely on than the entry date and/or the number of posts (because you have absolute no idea of the peoples' behaviour or character) - what would you look after?
Pop! Goes The Hamster... And Other Great Microwave Games |
scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
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@fetzi
That is a very good point you raise about what newbies are to look to in order to find the appropriate person to seek advice from. I rather like the idea of members being able to select particular areas of expertise to be displayed in their posts, that would allow members to 'home in on' those members who had certain areas of expertise, they were interested in, listed.
There is also the idea of allowing members to rate each other based on how helpfull and/or informative one has been. I realise that such system isn't perfect, but it could work.
Another idea to help newbies is to allow individual threads to be rated. I have seen this feature on other forums and it might allow newbies to quickly identify those threads that the community regards highly. Perhaps Rubbish and other non-mobile related threads could be excluded from such a system to lessen the chance of members promoting their own threads or downgrading others'. If it was kept to mobile related threads then it could prove a valuable resource, especially for newbies.
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"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC
[ This Message was edited by: scotsboyuk on 2004-12-14 16:18 ] |
fetzi
Joined: Oct 26, 2004
Posts: 230
From: currently warsaw
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@scotsboyuk
let me extract this to save place instead of quoting.. 
1. Expert ranking
2. Mutual members ranking
3. Mutual thread ranking
1. Then we would have a real class-community, though it would provide some sort of a higher professionality of this forum. But it´s arguable whether this is intended.
2. I guess the mods wouldn´t appreciate that for beeing more work to delete senseless rankings, let alone the 'ranking fights' which I guess could (not must!) been arised through this.
3. This would of course be a great help - but it´s nothing more than just another form of faq - which are already provided in a voluminous number but seldom used (and I´ll bet there would be a lot people interested in having their thread ranked as high as possible).
I guess (hope?!) it´s ok the way it is - the number of posts CAN give you a slight idea of how trustworthy a member or its answer is, and fortunately we´re not dealing with people posting wrong answers intentionally. But I´m looking forward to your reply..
Pop! Goes The Hamster... And Other Great Microwave Games |
dave_uk
Joined: Mar 06, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: London, UK
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@scotty
'Ello mucker!  Those are a couple of good ideas - I guess the integrity of those doing the rating is quite important though. In the absence of such an improved (and possibly more complicated - I don't know how it works on other forums [forae?! - it's been a while...], I mainly stick to this forum) system, I would advocate keeping the pot counts. I absolutely agree that it is a very flawed method of differentiating between members, but the point that some method is better than no method is an important one.
I barely remember what it was like when I was new here, but I would offer the following as an example. I just read a thread a few minutes ago (so eroded is my memory that I can't even remember which one) where a newish member has asked a question which has been answered incorrectly by one user, and then correctly by masseur. Now, any of us would generally have an idea who the reliable sources around here are, but how does the new member know who to listen to?
The other slight issue I have with self-proclaimed expertise is that there are an awful lot of members (mostly, incidentally, at the newer end of the membership spectrum) who seem to answer questions definitively even though their opinion is just that.... opinion, and based on nothing more. I would prefer a system where the community judges the credentials of a particular member/thread (as Scots also suggested) than one where members rate themselves.
Dave
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Ayush
Joined: Sep 12, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Hyderabad, india
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Well I was never daunted when I joined the forums :-) i was welcomed by the members
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scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
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1. I don't think it would create a class structure, after all, how much of a class structure can be created on an internet forum? If anything, it might promote the idea of trying to help others more as there would a 'reward' of sorts for one's efforts. Perhaps members could even have a 'feedback' section in their profiles, where other members could leave comments on how helpful that member was; there would need to be some sort of system in place to stop members flaming each other this way though.
Why exactly would they be 'senseless' if they allow newbies to fins a member who the community rates as being helpful? I think the idea of 'fights' breaking out is being dramatised somewhat, I am quite sure there would be a spot of that sort of thing at first, but as people realise that the ebst way to get ratings, from members other than their friends, is to actually provide help it would no doubt lessen as a problem
The FAQs are seldom used, as far as I know anyway, so a different form of FAQ isn't all that bad an idea if it means that members are using that information more than they are now.
No doubt there would be people wanting to have their thread ranked highly, but it would actually have to be a good thread for members other than their friends to rate. If the numbe rof votes for a thread was displayed along with the ranking, it would help to indicate whether the majority of Esato thinks it is a good thread or just a few.
The post count is useful to an extent, but only so far as indicating how active a member has been. The post count indicates neither quality of post or the knowledge inherent to that poster. Why not get rid of something, which is all but useless and replace it with something that might actually provide a benefit to members?
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
tranquil
Joined: Dec 15, 2001
Posts: > 500
From: Oslo, Norway
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I guess most +500 posters know who to listen to.
We all know that very few in here is as helpful and knowleged as Masseur and a couple of others.
These few are an asset and a very educating part of Esato.
Speaking for myself; I try to keep my mouth shut unless I know the answer and guide new members to the right forums when posts are made in the wrong one and incurrage them to add more info to their questions if their topic lacks info.
I find most of you helpfull to newbies but what allways make me laugh is that when a new member identifies themsevles as female "everybody" jumps in to give a helping hand, then after a few posts some members try to pump them for info on who they are. (Wonder why there is so few girls in here...  )
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Posted: 2004-12-14 01:45
