- Mar 10, 2004
- 5,113
Well, I have heard from enough people to finally give in and add a couple of new features to improve the site. The first is a reputation system to give credibility to informative and experienced members. The second is an infraction system to assign consequences to people that routinely break our newly published rules. I am not a big fan of rules, I would rather let good judgment rule the scene around here, but enough members have told me through the years (and especially last few months) that some rules should be in place. So now we have rules. Its all for the better I guess.
Reputation - The new reputation feature allows users to gain or lose reputation based on the content they provide on the site. This is not a popularity contest as I saw another user put it in another section of the forum. It is simply a way to give credibility where due, so that others may have a little more confidence in th advice given by users with high reputations. You can use this feature or not, doesn't really matter. I have absolutely no idea how it is going to shake out. There are a BUNCH of settings and thresholds I had to mess with, so i will fine tune them over time to suit our site. Basically, when somebody registers on the site they start with a gray button (under your "location" when you post) and are one click away from getting a green button. Somebody has to "approve of your post" for this to happen. In other words - somebody has to find your post useful and actually care to click on the "old fashioned scale" icon above your "location" when you make a post. As more and more people click this scale and "approve" your posts your reputation builds. I assume the green button will turn another color or something once your reputation builds to a very high level. But basically if you have a green button then you at least have a clue about something you said in the past. On the flipside, if you keep throwing bad answers out, or giving bad advice then people can "disapprove" your posts and ultimately get you a red button. I assume it will be red, we'll know once the first person gets there. Don't worry, it will take quite a few haters to get you a red button, this is pretty much reserved for the worst offenders that consistently give bad advice. Over time most people should have green, many will have gray, and a few will have red. I will be adjusting the settings as we go until it is dialed in. If you don't like this feature just pretend it doesn't exist.
Infractions - This is intended to give consequences to rule violations. Basically each user is allowed 3 strikes. Then you get a "time-out". Since the amount of users who have had posts deleted can probably be listed on one hand this won't apply to most of you. Here is how it works, the site now has a set of published rules. If you make a post that violates those rules then a moderator or me can edit the violation out of your post or delete the post and an infraction will be created. The infraction serves 2 purposes - 1st - it sends a notice to the user with a note from a moderator to let them know what was wrong with their post. 2nd - it will issue 10 infraction points towards the user. This is an automated thing, so if you feel like breaking lots of rules then you will need to keep your own score as nobody is counting on our end except the forum software. Once you reach 30 points your account gets put on hold until enough infractions expire to make your account "live" again. Once again, this is all automated - so we can't make your account live, you just need to wait it out. Each infraction has a 10 day duration. So if you are a bad boy or girl 3 times in one day you will get 30 points, account put on hold, and you will not be able to post again for 10 days until the infractions expire. Based on what has happened here in the past I doubt anybody will ever get a "time-out" but the worst offenders will at least know where the "line" is and can dance along it accordingly.
Reputation - The new reputation feature allows users to gain or lose reputation based on the content they provide on the site. This is not a popularity contest as I saw another user put it in another section of the forum. It is simply a way to give credibility where due, so that others may have a little more confidence in th advice given by users with high reputations. You can use this feature or not, doesn't really matter. I have absolutely no idea how it is going to shake out. There are a BUNCH of settings and thresholds I had to mess with, so i will fine tune them over time to suit our site. Basically, when somebody registers on the site they start with a gray button (under your "location" when you post) and are one click away from getting a green button. Somebody has to "approve of your post" for this to happen. In other words - somebody has to find your post useful and actually care to click on the "old fashioned scale" icon above your "location" when you make a post. As more and more people click this scale and "approve" your posts your reputation builds. I assume the green button will turn another color or something once your reputation builds to a very high level. But basically if you have a green button then you at least have a clue about something you said in the past. On the flipside, if you keep throwing bad answers out, or giving bad advice then people can "disapprove" your posts and ultimately get you a red button. I assume it will be red, we'll know once the first person gets there. Don't worry, it will take quite a few haters to get you a red button, this is pretty much reserved for the worst offenders that consistently give bad advice. Over time most people should have green, many will have gray, and a few will have red. I will be adjusting the settings as we go until it is dialed in. If you don't like this feature just pretend it doesn't exist.
Infractions - This is intended to give consequences to rule violations. Basically each user is allowed 3 strikes. Then you get a "time-out". Since the amount of users who have had posts deleted can probably be listed on one hand this won't apply to most of you. Here is how it works, the site now has a set of published rules. If you make a post that violates those rules then a moderator or me can edit the violation out of your post or delete the post and an infraction will be created. The infraction serves 2 purposes - 1st - it sends a notice to the user with a note from a moderator to let them know what was wrong with their post. 2nd - it will issue 10 infraction points towards the user. This is an automated thing, so if you feel like breaking lots of rules then you will need to keep your own score as nobody is counting on our end except the forum software. Once you reach 30 points your account gets put on hold until enough infractions expire to make your account "live" again. Once again, this is all automated - so we can't make your account live, you just need to wait it out. Each infraction has a 10 day duration. So if you are a bad boy or girl 3 times in one day you will get 30 points, account put on hold, and you will not be able to post again for 10 days until the infractions expire. Based on what has happened here in the past I doubt anybody will ever get a "time-out" but the worst offenders will at least know where the "line" is and can dance along it accordingly.
