- AoDC
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Programatically invading forums.
Posted by: x Foman123 x
Posted by: AoDC
Wasn't the whole point of hiding Post Counts to avoid a forum member looking "above" another? Instead of that, we now have these new groups/titles/status' that basically show the same thing. Everyone should be equal, and individual only by Username (and perhaps a custom Halo 3 Symbol etc).
While your goal would certainly result in a nicer environment and a more ideal atmosphere here, it is also, unfortunately, wholly idealistic.
The basic reality here is that "forum elitism" is impossible to avoid. Every time one kind of meaningless statistic is taken away in order to reduce forum elitism, another takes its place. This is blatantly evident in the Halo 3 and Optimatch forums, where such ridiculously meaningless traits as join date, number of games played, rank, favored playlists, and even your player avatar/colors/armor permutation may be cited as a reason that your opinion is somehow less meaningful. How many times have you seen a poster say something like "guys who use the Elite model tend to suck" or "players who use Hayabusa Armor are not very good"? The same is true in reverse. Look at the unearned respect that is nevertheless given to any BNet user with Recon armor, orange text, a special title, or who manages to get a Bungie employee to post in his or her thread, solely for those reasons.
All of this is plainly evident and easy to prove, despite the efforts of the BNet administrators to put everybody on an equal plane. We can run around saying "the only thing that should distinguish you is the content of your posts" all we want -- and it's true. But the basic fact here is that this is a site that caters to fans of online video games. These fans, by nature, enjoy competition, ranks, and individuality. You can't get them to just say, "okay everybody is equal and I will evaluate people solely based on the content of their posts" and have no way of measuring, ranking, or evaluating the quality of those posts. With no way to measure it, many video gamers (especially some Bungie fans, who are used to having every aspect of their games tracked and quantified into statistics that can then be compared to others') are unlikely to pay any attention to the rhetoric that some of the community members here (who are only trying to help) continue to write.
The fact is that every time you eliminate one kind of measure used to elevate or detract from a user's posts, another one will be created. As a result, forum elitism cannot be eliminated here. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, necessarily, because I actually think that it is NOT a bad thing. I'm just saying that it cannot be eliminated and that's the way it is.
Thus, although we now realize that the site's administrators are unable to eliminate the forum elitism that comes inherently with this site based on its membership, I believe that the Web Team now also realizes that they can make small attempts to control it. Since we can all agree that users should distinguish themselves based solely on the content of their posts and contributions to the Community, this means that the site's administrators can create measures that will funnel and direct the forum elitism inherent in this site into something constructive. In other words, if people are going to engage in forum elitism anyway, why not create a "statistic" or "measure" that can indicate the quality of their membership here, which is much more relevant to the validity of an opinion or post, rather than something completely irrelevant?
Now, if you have a rank such as "Heroic" or "Legendary," it means that you are a longtime member of this site who has managed, for the most part, to stay out of trouble. As a caveat: the member titles are not a quantitative measure of the quality of posts or contribution to the Community, but rather a measure of how much the site "trusts" you to be a good member. And while this system is certainly not perfectly tuned and balanced yet, it is definitely a step in the right direction.
The more ways that users can be distinguished based on post quality and community contributions, the better their posts will become. It is not a matter of eliminating forum elitism, but rather guiding and controlling that same elitism into something that will create a better environment for all of us who are big fans of this site and these forums.
Well that was a kick in the balls. Didn't expect a response so in depth.
While your goal would certainly result in a nicer environment and a more ideal atmosphere here, it is also, unfortunately, wholly idealistic.
You've right there said it "would certainly result in a nicer environment". Then you twist it to be anti-realistic, despite the fact that it did and has worked in the past.
The basic reality here is that "forum elitism" is impossible to avoid.
So if you can't beat it, join it? This is a response to a lot of the Halo 3 Forum points as well. As well as the possibility of cheating, was this not one of the reasons the Halo 3 Leader boards were never created?
The more ways that users can be distinguished based on post quality and community contributions, the better their posts will become
This makes no sense. Actually, in the little sense derived, it reinforces my OP. If a user feels their rank makes them above others, then Elitism is a problem. Equality is important in the forum.
[Edited on 01.27.2008 4:04 AM PST]