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Suggestions
Here they come as promised, W
1) Bring back the rep system :)
2) Create a new forum especially for the newbies.
3) When they don't have enough rep,say 3-5,they can only post through a system that allows the mods to check every thread and post they make.If it doesn't contribute anything,you can block it. Otherwise only posts can be made in the newbie forums.
4) When it is useful (for the thread) they automatically get a rep-point,allowing them to post freely in the forums. What is useful has to be discussed and stated clearly.
5) Create a "sticky" code of conduct thread. Clear rules and guidelines about what we prefer them to post.This should automatically be linked to after joining the forums. The mods will get clear guidelines what to regard as a useless thread/post and to lock/delete in which case.
6) Anyone that has over 10% useless posts can be trown back into the Newbie forum !!!
7) The 10% rating will have to be set by a new button in each post. Click it and it gets the mods' attention. They can easily filter through all the posts. Everyone is able to report them and should report them if possible.
8) Raise the age on which people are allowed to join. Offcourse they can always click yes,im 16 but it will also keep some out. Current members should be granted amnesty :) This is mainly to keep out the children that join in and start posting rubbish. IN GENERAL older members are way more serious about things :D
9) For the newer forum membrs create a limit to the amount of posts a day,something like 10 or 20 :) If they get enough rep,this can be raised.
10-12) Fill in other members' suggestions, i ran out shortly before the dozen :)
I hope something useful comes out of this to stop the "newbie-terror".
Cheers,
Sjoerd.
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I don't know Drakkie, some sound ok, some don't. I don't have the time to go over iall of them right now, but I do want to say that age doesn't matter that much. Spastik is my favorite example.... Very mature, great guy, and under 16.
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You do really go out of your way to make new members feel welcome. Excellent stuff. In reality, it's the older members that are the ones causing problems.
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What do you want to spend more time doing? Conversing on the topics we all came here for in the first place? Or rating every post/thread there is? You're suggesting that we forego our original interest in these forums in order to spend all our time and energy policing the rest of you. Simply not going to happen. Do you have any idea how much time it would take to manage all that? How about we put you in charge of making sure every post by every relatively new member is ok before it shows up? Aside from the time it would take, it would screw up the continuity of a thread. A post made a few hours ago may not show up in the thread until right now. Should it show up in the thread in order from the time it was originally made? Or should it show up in the thread in order from the time it was approved? Both are going to make it irrelevant and confusing, regardless of its original quality.
My suggestion for you: Instead of worrying about what everyone else is doing, focus on whether YOU are truly providing useful contributions to this forum.
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I can't agree with the whole "newbie forum" idea Drakkie.
Firstly, you seem to be assuming that anything a new member might want to post or contribute is somehow less worthy or important. What if they have something really interesting or useful they want to contribute to a thread with their first post but are not allowed? In that situation everyone loses out. Also as Wouter points out it is not always the newbies that cause the issues, often it is the more experienced posters.
Secondly you have to think what sort of message this system would send out to potential new forum members. Most people join internet forums after reading as guests for a while, and then when they see a topic or a post that really interests them they will want to respond. So if someone sees a topic that he/she finds really interesting and they want to respond, only to be told that they are forbidden to join in the main forums then that person is more than likely going to think "Screw this" and not bother joining. I know that would be my immediate response if I wanted to join a discussion forum and was told I couldn't for no good reason.
You have to learn to be more trusting of people. Just because they are new to a forum doesn't mean they should be treated suspiciously, it's just not fair. :)
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[QUOTE=drakkie]3) When they don't have enough rep,say 3-5,they can only post through a system that allows the mods to check every thread and post they make.If it doesn't contribute anything,you can block it. Otherwise only posts can be made in the newbie forums.[/QUOTE]
Eeek!
Regarding rep.
The old way didn't work particularly well, and I wouldn't be particularly thrilled to see it return.
I think some sort of "user feedback" would be better, whereby people could rate another user's posts, or give criticism (good or bad).
This could be put through some sort of moderation to see who was giving what and why, and then some clever equations to provide a "score".
This would eliminate incidents of people giving +1 just because another member is their friend, or -1 because they don't like them.
Could be time consuming and complicated to both instigate and operate.
An easier way would be to allow only mods to appoint rep, as we are supposed to be identifying & dealing with bad content, similar to the above system, other users could petition the mods to give/take rep to users they feel have made a good/bad contribution.
This would make it easier to ensure that the system is not abused, but is rather elitest, and seeing as some people have enough of a problem with mods doing things anyway - it could cause conflicts.
Possibly it could be another feature of becoming a premium member?
The third idea I have would be that everybody started off with 100, and could only loose rep.
All deductions would have to go through the mods, to ensure fairness, and to prevent one person being deducted 1 point each by 10 users for one bad post/thread.
This might encourage people act to preserve a high score, more than building one up.
Would you care more about going from 100 > 99 than from 10 > 11?
The only downside to this is that someone could start off badly, loose 50 points, then reform and become a good member, but would now have a rep score which didn't reflect their current attitude.
And as has been seen so many times before, new members tend to take a bit of flak anyway, before they settle into our quaint little ways, or something like that.
As a sign off, and to echo JB, I don't think that automatically penalising new members for merely being new is very clever.
Would Napolis have come to UCP and started giving us all this wonderful info on his unique project if he had to go through some silly "probation" period?
It may also encourage people to make a lot of posts to get out of the "probation" period as quickly as possible - to the detriment of the actual content involved in those posts.
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[QUOTE]Raise the age on which people are allowed to join. Offcourse they can always click yes,im 16 but it will also keep some out. Current members should be granted amnesty This is mainly to keep out the children that join in and start posting rubbish. IN GENERAL older members are way more serious about things [/QUOTE]
you call that post serious!
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I think that everyone can agree, that since the reputation system was disabled the forum has become a better place.
Sure it pissed some people off when W turned it off but it was for the good of the forum.
I dont like the idea of a "newbie forum". Nobody no matter who they are wants to be identified as a newbie. Also most of the new users that join come from other auto forums and wouldnt even think of themselves as new to posting here.
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I don't see any of those things happening. Nor do I want any of them to happen.
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What is this 'rep' system?
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[QUOTE=blingbling]What is this 'rep' system?[/QUOTE]
you seriously don't want to know.
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[QUOTE=drakkie]Create a new forum especially for the newbies[/QUOTE]
I don't agree. Having a small number of posts at UCP does not mean that you don't know things concerning the subject. Also, having many posts at UCP, doesn't mean that you know many things concerning the subject:(
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[QUOTE=lightweight]I don't agree. Having a small number of posts at UCP does not mean that you don't know things concerning the subject. Also, having many posts at UCP, doesn't mean that you know many things concerning the subject:([/QUOTE]
This is completely and utterly correct.
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Instead of just commenting and complaining,why don't YOU guys come up with idea's,suggestions and improvements !!!
I agree some are perhaps a bit far-fetched,but i'd be more than intresting in how you'd solve the solution.
These things spoiled my enjoyment of the forums a lot recently.
The mod-team do an excellent voluntary job, but there is always room fo improvement(especially now). Maybe you should change with the forum rather than stay the same.
Good luck,
S.
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[quote=blingbling]What is this 'rep' system?[/quote]
It was a system in which users could give other users reputation points for a good or bad post. It was abandoned 4 years ago IIRC.