Discussion on Forum Post Ranking

Ug · #1 4th June 2004, 02:44 AM

I've posted a discussion about post ranking - i.e. "newbie" or "Fedora Pro" in the Suggestions & Feedback forum. Please check it out here, and let us know what you think.

[Edit]Due to an error on my part - conversation will have to continue here.

Varkk · #2 4th June 2004, 01:40 PM

Invalid thread specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the webmaster

jale2ice · #3 4th June 2004, 01:50 PM

Yeah, Ug... What happened?

It seemed like an interesting discussion... I wanted to continue putting my 2 cents in.

ghaefb · #4 4th June 2004, 09:43 PM

that's funny

Thoreau · #5 5th June 2004, 02:01 AM

where'd it go? I wanted to see the out come of the thread.

Ug · #6 6th June 2004, 03:18 AM

I do have a confession to make. My mouse slipped when editing the thread - and it got deleted.

So if you want to carry it on here - please do! I'm feeling quite guilty...

Tashiro · #7 6th June 2004, 03:40 AM

Hey Ug,

Don't feel guilty everybody makes mistakes!

Anyway I believe that adding "junior member" and "fedora master" is a good idea. (this was mentioned in the delete thread)

Adding spedial ranks is a good thing too, cause i'm a newbie now with almost 25 posts which makes me a member. Cool to be part of the community!! But if I post about 75 more then I will be a "fedora pro", I am sure that I will be at that point still a novice in my skills!
So those special ranks are perfect to grade someone his or her skill!!

Tashiro

crackers · #8 6th June 2004, 06:16 AM

From the *ahem* previous thread, I noted that the titles were "kewl" but they conveyed absolutely no meaning beyond the fact that somebody posts a lot here and has nothing to do with their actual abilities regarding Fedora and computing. (To be honest, I was actually a little insulted to be a "n00b" when I first started posting - I've been dinking around with Linux since the Dark Ages!)

On the Sun Java Developer's site, the forums there have the ability to assign a certain "value" to questions by the poster (Duke Dollars) and for the poster to award all or some of the "Dukes" to people responding to the thread. While the system isn't perfect, it does work fairly well in being able to tell whether or not a response from X might be just what you're looking for, just by the number of "Dukes". One of the down-sides is that there are an extremely large number of "drive-by" postings, where the poster gets his/her one question answered and "skips town" leaving the Dukes un-rewarded. (There's also a large number of "do-my-homework" requests, which get the attention they richly deserve.)

If the system is based as it is now, what's to stop some knucklehead from posting random garbage to each and every thread, just to drive up their posting tally and get an even "kewler" title?

My suggestion is that the "kewl" titles be dispensed based upon a similar point system, with everyone getting a "starting balance" that seems reasonable. Of course, the Moderators In Their Infinite Wisdom, might feel it would also be appropriate to award a larger beginning balance to those they deem worthy.

Not only is this a nice (albeit virtual) way of saying "Thanks," but it will be easier to see if someone actually knows what they're talking about in general terms. I don't think we'd experience quite as much issues with drive-bys as the Java Forums, but, to be honest, I don't know how much effort would be required to modify this forum's software to incorporate that feature.

And can we make the damn reply-fields a bit wider? I feel like I'm typing in a closet!

Ug · #9 6th June 2004, 06:38 AM

lol.

What I posted before deleting it *ahem*, was that we just have a couple of ranks for posting. Which actually sound like just Forum ranks. i.e. Forum Newbie, Forum Member, Forum Regular.

Then we could assign a few other titles based on experience, helpfulness etc. I'm not quite sure what these would be or what the criteria would be though.

One thing I don't want to see though is user custom titles, when the user can decide - then it just gets a bit silly.

crackers · #10 6th June 2004, 07:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ug
Then we could assign a few other titles based on experience, helpfulness etc. I'm not quite sure what these would be or what the criteria would be though.

That's the beauty of a numeric-based system (based on the number of Fedora F... okay, I don't know what to call 'em) - you can adjust "titles" separately and the forum software translates 1000 FF's to "FEDORA GHOD!". It'd obviously be hit-or-miss at first, but pretty soon you'll get a good statistical analysis and be able to tweak along the way...

Quote:

One thing I don't want to see though is user custom titles, when the user can decide - then it just gets a bit silly.

Silly-ER - I think we started off as "silly" (but kinda "cute" in a non-teddy-bear-like manner)

Ug · #11 6th June 2004, 08:13 AM

I'm a bit unsure about a points system. I'm gonna need a bit more convincing.

There seems to be something a bit too inhuman about it.

crackers · #12 6th June 2004, 08:53 AM

Well, the interesting thing about it is that the person who started the topic (and possibly assigned a value they think is appropriate for the "correct" answer) is the one handing out the points. So you get a pretty even distribution system based on request/answer/reward. For example, a poster describes a problem and assigns 10 FFs to it:

"Wow! That fixed my problem exactly! Here's 10 FFs for your effort!"

"Okay, that didn't quite solve it but it got me started in the right direction - you'll get half the FFs"

"Lots of people replied and gave valuable hints - 1 FF to everyone!"

Not saying it's perfect system, but I think it's a bit better than "rankings" based on the number of posts.

(Yes, I'm on vacation with nothing better to do than hang around here... beats yard-work any day!)

Ug · #13 6th June 2004, 09:46 AM

We tried the "Resolved", "Not Resolved" thing with the threads in the Support forum. Which failed pretty bad and that relied upon user input in such a way as you're saying.

The problem is - is that newbies and casual visitors just don't bother with that stuff.

genci · #14 6th June 2004, 11:01 AM

I agree that the number of posts a person has can bear no relation to their technical ability. However I find that assigning "points" to posts to be confusing to the forum newbie, causing more problems to admin when someone gets it wrong, forgets to assign points or demands their answer was the deserving post etc ...

I really wouldn't like to see this forum use that system. If someone posts bad advice, it normally gets corrected by a another poster so whether your problem was solved by a newbie or guru, it doesn't matter.

However, the current "ranking" system could be modified so that you have a New Member status for the first X amount of posts and then you become a Member. The Member status level should last for quite some time - possibly 499 posts. Next level of Senior Member is 500-999 posts. Only above that level would you introduce a status of Fedora Pro and then so on. You can, like some forums I know, remove the actual post count from displaying under the persons name - it can still be viewed under the profile though. This gets around the whole "post count" issue.

Admin should retain the right to change a person's status to a higher level earlier when a member obviously has the history and know-how behind them.

So, in summary:
New Member 0-24 posts
Member 25-499
Senior Member 500-999
Fedora Pro 1000-1999
Fedora Master 2000+

And, remove the actual post count number from being displayed.

My 2 cents

Ug · #15 6th June 2004, 11:43 AM

By that reckoning even I wouldn't be a "master"!

It's not very practical though, and is more or less what we have now. Back to the drawing board methinks.