- sharpace77
- |
- Intrepid Legendary Member
Basically, I make the best topics ever.
Feedback!
Duardo: This thread is locked for being stupid.
cortana 5 : It's perpetually my time of the month and I'm just grouchy.
Foman: I see absolutely no reason, either theoretical or practical, that this is not a superb idea. Excellent work, my friend.
Daza pretty much turned this topic upside down with his idea, which I actually find far more favorable than mine, so I'm going to replace my OP with his basic idea. More info can be found on the second page.
Posted by: dazarobbo
IMO, scrap titles and put the trust rating toward something functional, like privileges. People are more likely to behave if they fear losing useful, shiny things like that.
Make things "unlockable", so-to-speak. For example, once you earn x amount of trust, you can use a certain avatar.
Others:
- Ability to create a group
- Ability to create a thread
- Ability to create a thread with a poll
- Ability to post images within a thread
- Ability to report
etc...
It's difficult to think of examples when we have no idea what the next version of Bungie.net will look like or include, but you can probably see what I'm getting at.
ORIGINAL OP
I know I don't make serious topics too often, but I'm gonna give it a shot...
UPDATE: Ok, I get that color is a HUGE issue for people. Remember, this is only an idea, so take it for what it is. I'm sure the designers could think of ways to preserve the color of titles while reducing the impact they have on discussional value.
Any member that's roamed these parts for more than few days knows that titles are a problem. Whether it's complaints that they shouldn't exist or newer members spam-posting in order to obtain a higher title, a problem exists. Most members realize after a year or two that one's title bears absolutely no relation to the content of a post, but there are still a few that feel the need to quote every mythic/ninja/employee that posts, completely removing all discussion value and derailing a topic.
That said, titles do serve a very prominent purpose: it gives older and more active members a bit of recognition and credibility. It is easy to find mods/employees in a topic and quickly find an official response to any given question. In my mind, this feature alone makes the title feature worth keeping.
But there are still problems to address. What is the first thing you see when you read a post? The user's title. It is unavoidable. The alternating shades of gray, bright blue, salmon, and gold are impossible to miss, especially with the colored text of the mods and employees. While I won't deny that this is a very cool feature for the site, it nonetheless colors the other user's interpretations of the post. Instead, I would suggest that all posts are nearly identical save the identifier next to the username that says "member/mythic member/Hates Toast." Titles are still easily visible, but they no longer detract from discussion the same way they do now.
In addition, the gold septagon next to every topic that an employee posts in often creates false discussion over on a topic that only really required a quick answer from an employee. In addition, many members will simply search the gold topics for the employee's post, quote them, and then make some lame joke that only serves to bump the topic back to the top, pushing other topics off the front page. Why not allow employees to choose if they would like to tag a topic as 'golden' or not? Instead of locking a topic, there would just need to be a link that an employee would hit to change the spacer image to that of a golden septagon instead of the default image. I don't think this would be too difficult to implement and it go a long way to reducing employee induced spam.
Finally, the titles themselves. They really don't mean anything. All we know is that a mythic member either a)posts a lot, b) has been here a while, or c) hasn't gotten banned for a while. While this is great, it would be nice to get a little background on why this particular member is so much more prominent than the 'lowly' regular members. What I would suggest is adding a tracker, either under each avatar or in the signature section, that counts how long the user has been a member of B.net, how many times he has posted, and perhaps even how many groups he has been in. I realize that bans and warnings would no longer have the same effect on member titles, so it might be helpful to add a counter for number of bans and warnings or last ban/warning as well. Most of you also know how much of a fan of the 'rep system' I am, and this would be a great place for it to reside, simple and out of the way.
I know Archy has said on multiple occasions that the Member Titles are ambiguous for a reason, but it is my humble opinion that this actually does more harm than good. It removes any credibility that higher members might have had by hiding the reasons behind their title and instead simply saying, "THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT IS."
TL;DR Version
Change this to this.
I realize that this probably isn't feasible for the current site, but maybe for the next update...? Thoughts?
Thanks acnboy34 for 'letting' me make up info about you and throw it above your sig.
Other Ideas:
Posted by: Geegs30
If anything, perhaps give them the option to turn off/on their colored text. That way, if they want to come across as just a regular forum goer and contribute to a discussion without derailing it with a potential quote spree, they can do that. When they are letting people know why a topic was locked or answering questions about the site, etc., they can enable their colored text and stand out easily.
Thoughts on this?
Posted by: dazarobbo
IMO, scrap titles and put the trust rating toward something functional, like privileges. People are more likely to behave if they fear losing useful, shiny things like that.
Posted by: SonicJohn
On my site, we're about to start experimenting with an on-site profile marketplace of sorts, where you spend your points (received through posts, thread-making, medals from our Flash games, etc) on things like avatars, preset custom titles, postbox-themes, website CSS themes, unlockable content in the Flash games, amongst other things.
It's basically lke cR in Reach, but on a website. I think it'll make our members feel a lot more invested in the site, shaping it to be their own experience. It can be done in a way that doesn't go to the scary lengths that Coup can go to, and that's down to the very simple fact that we can choose what goes up there to be purchased with their points.
It'll be some time before we get that up and running though, since CAVX has decided to go all srs and get married and have a job and stuff.
But, Bungie should totally invest in something like that. If that were to replace the current setup, it'd be fantastic.
Posted by: Yax
Posted by: dazarobbo
IMO, scrap titles and put the trust rating toward something functional, like privileges. People are more likely to behave if they fear losing useful, shiny things like that.You should list off some example privleges. All I can think of is a religious/political discussion forum.
Posted by: sharpace77
While I like SonicJohn's idea, I think the idea of spending points would take away from the trust system too much. If a feature like this were to be implemented, I think unlocks would need to be set in stone and not unlocked through points. In addition, users should start with a base-rating of 0 where they can still report and use basic functionality, but once they got in the negatives, features started disappearing. This would give a lot more credibility to warnings.
[Edited on 11.23.2011 9:18 AM PST]