- SS_Zag1
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- Exalted Mythic Member
Sandswept Studios Design Director
Visit us and check out our games at Sandswept.net!
~~Pardon Our Dust.~~
As of late, I'm sure many of you have noticed Achronos talking about a new system he has, or is putting in place, that will gauge members based on how much bad behavior they have on their record, or lack thereof.
First off, I'd like to say that I don't know all the inner workings and details of this system, but I would like to point out that a system that 'decides' which members are good or bad members, should not only base it upon bad behavior (or lack thereof), but also the good things a member does. I believe the automated system can check for 'bad behavior' but it would still take someone like Achronos and/or other members of the Web Team to decide who has had 'more than the average member' good behavior, such as with contributing to the community. This would include things like organizing weekly games of Myth (and/or Marathon) with other members, making a very active group with lots of members and fun things to do, being in the Bungie Jumpers (Oops, did I say that? ;) and things of the sort.
Secondly, I want to say that since I don't know the inner workings and details of this system Achronos may be putting in place or has in place already, I have the same concern that Recon does, which is the fact that I'm not sure if such things I'm about to discuss have a possibility to be implemented, easily, that is. [Note: I'm going to be talking about Recon a bunch here, as he kind of inspired and progressed the idea.]
Whilst talking to Recon the other day, (and you can also see some of this in this thread) he was proposing that Bungie.net have a rewards system, not so much based on time spent here, post count, or just staying out of trouble (although the latter is certainly not ruled out), but more based on what good things you help out with or do.
A good example of this would be Recon's idea of giving founders of long-time, active, and large groups the ability to PM all group members, something many of the more popular chapter founders would like to have for weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly events. (A feature that could be abused by someone who just barely starts up a group and has a whole less credibility on his part)
Now, this is my personal opinion on what a good system would be. Yes, there are a few alternatives and other ideas, (feel free to share them) but I think this would be the one that is not only the most fun for everyone, and would reinforce positive behavior, but it sets up a very nice structure and is slightly more specific than "You've been a good member. Have a general cookie." Also, you would make sure the rewards were seen by other members who don't have them, which would definitely help reinforce positive behavior. I mean, look at the moderator's colored text and fancy avatars, those cause plenty of people to act better than they would in hopes that they may get that 'reward'. (Although many of the mods have told us they should've taken the blue pill. ;)
I believe rewards should be based on specific deeds, acts, and subjects. For example, with Recon's idea (which I didn't explain in full detail, and that's an extremely simple summary of it) members who have a large, active group would get rewards that are based around groups. Perhaps it would allow this founder to post images, use colored text, and things of the sort.
To give you a better idea of what these rewards might be, I'll give a few examples, even though some are highly far-fetched:
* Custom Avatars and/or the title "Veteran Forum Member" for long-time members who have also been very good at abiding the rules on the public forums. (Yes, Achronos, I know you said the rewards would not be custom avatars. As I said, some of these are far-fetched.)
* Perhaps allowing certain members (like the one's mentioned above) to use [color] or [size] (within reasonable limits) markup tags in either their signatures or their posts, as there have been a few times I could see using different colored text and/or larger text could be very beneficial towards separating topics, ideas, setting up gaming events, etc. This would be a feature that would require a lot of trust, as one could assume.
* Along the lines of many forum members' ideas, The Kodemyster started the thread which got Recon blabbing about this subject in the first place, being more PM box options. I know I'd personally like to have a "Sent Items" box on occasion. Even if you're not in a group, perhaps the ability to send messages to multiple users. Perhaps that's just a feature we'd all like to see set in place as is, and the real trick would be to not abuse it by spamming people. If you were found to be abusing the "Message Multiple Users" feature, you would lose it, permanently. However, that's just negative reinforcement, so you would also want to have something that enhances that feature over time... I'm not one for coming up with ideas for rewards, so maybe some of you would like to give your input on what a reward for this might be.
Responsible use of rewards would give you access to more rewards on top of that one, either being un-related to that specific reward, or enhancements of the reward you already have. And of course, as with any reward, abuse of it would have it stripped immediately, never to be obtained again by that member. Abusing one reward may also count you out for getting many other rewards you might have otherwise gotten as well.
Those are my ideas for a rewards system, I'd love to hear what everyone has to say about possibly reward systems as well. :D