QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS SITE

[jimhelm]

I bet you wish you could have just hit a little + sign huh?

[xoxoxoBruce]

No, that's like whistling at a chick hitchhiking, while you blow by at 65.

[infinite monkey]

Yes,it is like that.

[Griff]

Not that Bruce ever passed by a chick hitch hiking.

[sexobon]

Should we dispense with annual moderators elections and just hold special elections if a moderator resigns, is impeached, banned; or, kicks the bucket?

I realize that some may like having elections to gauge their relative popularity even though they're not at all likely to change the status quo; but, the competition seems to detract from the spirit of the holiday season.

[glatt]

I think the elections are good. People should have a choice.

The job has been a lot easier since UT changed the sign up procedure.

[sexobon]

Yeahbut, UT's getting up in years and sometimes forgets to get the ball rolling in a timely fashion. After elections, he forgets to update moderators' names in the Cellar introduction. I think he just gets a tad overwhelmed what with the holiday season and all.

Perhaps we should at least move the elections then. How about April 1st?

What say the wolf lady?

[BigV]

April first is fitting.

who you calling a lady!?

[SamIam]

I like April 1, too.

Getting back to the "ratings" thing:

Originally Posted by Griff

I'm with im on this. There are individuals here who post a fair amount of dreck and occasional irreplaceable brilliant insight. Would they keep posting if they got slapped down 9 of 10 posts? I'm willing to wade through the flotsam.

One of the other forums I visit has a "Thanks" feature (for your incredibly useful, insightful, whatever) post. The names of the people thanking the poster are shown below the post. Naturally, there's always a gang of the usual suspects who thank each other, but if someone posts something really good, I'll notice all the "Thanks" beneath and decide to read it to see what all the fuss is about. It's a very large forum, and the "Thanks" help seperate the wheat from the chaff.

While the Cellar is nowhere near as large as this other place, I can still see where a thanks/plus system might be helpful here and even kind of fun. I don't get discouraged from posting on that other forum if my every word is not greeted with universal acclaim, and no one else does either. It's no different really from starting a thread and seeing if you get any bites. Sometimes you do - sometimes you don't - no biggie.

Rep points are kind of fun, too. The system I'm familiar with lets you give other posters rep points for a really great post, but the rep points are added to the username field rather than the post itself. If you want to make a comment along with your rep point, it gets sent to whoever made the post as a pm, but the rest of the board doesn't see the personal comment or even who it was that awarded the points.

I think either or both of the above might be interesting to try. We could have rep points and/or "Thanks" for a given trial period and then everyone could vote if we want to keep them or not.

[infinite monkey]

I am still with griff who was with im.

Rating of any kind is extraneous and distracting. What's all the fuss about? Usually much ado about nuttin' (see merc wtf.)

[SamIam]

Yeah, but you and griff could be thanking each other and giving one another rep points for these very posts and no one could thank me, never mind giving me rep points and that would prove YOU are the ones who truely understand the Cellar gestalt if only we had a rep point system.

[sexobon]

Sam, can users there turn these features on and off themselves as we can do with some of our post displays?

[User Control Panel>Settings & Options>Edit Options>Thread Display Options>Visible Post Elements>Signatures, Avatars, Images.]

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by sexobon

Sam, can users there turn these features on and off themselves as we can do with some of our post displays?

[User Control Panel>Settings & Options>Edit Options>Thread Display Options>Visible Post Elements>Signatures, Avatars, Images.]

The two forums I'm familiar with which use rep points do allow people to turn that feature on or off. One of these forums also allows people to "thank" posts and you get thanked whether you want to be or not.

[ZenGum]

Jim's sockpuppets would be thanking him all the time!

[DanaC]

Having had a bit of a think about it, reading others' thoughts on it, I've changed my mind. I don't think rep or like/thank options would be a good addition to the Cellar.

They work brilliantly on the gaming forum I frequent...though not everybody thinks so...and they did end up changing the system to end the 'rep wars' and spates of 'gangrepping'...

It works on a gamer site...because we just gamify it. When the game's down and people are bored they take their guildwars to the boards and play them out through the rep system.

Nowadays since they changed the system it's nowhere near as gameable.

Shame, really, I used to like the old rep system. The new one doesn't allow personal comments to be sent with rep points. They used to be fun. Now is more like a post rating system.