- CrazzySnipe55
- |
- Fabled Legendary Member
Edit: the amount of people who read the thread topic and the first section and didn't read the actual idea itself is depressing to say the least.
Like systems have been a subject of much debate here in the Community Forum these past few months (specifically since Bungie went dark) as people have been speculating about the specifics of the next large-scale site update, and the new features it will bring with it. I happen to be in favor of this system as I believe it cuts down on meaningless "this"-, "QFT"-, and quote-posts and gives people a much easier way to express simple agreement.
Now, let's assume this system is guaranteed to be in place. DeeJ has come into the Community Forum, and made an announcement about the specs of the New Hawtness. You open up the thread, and right there next to a free demo of Destiny to all people with two Z's in their username, is "A like/+1?/upvote system". Now, one of the defining characteristics of the Bungie.net forums is that they're all custom-made. They're not cookie-cutter forums or boring-looking. Therefore, if they got a +1, like, or up-vote system, they would have to be just as custom-made as the rest of the site. If it wasn't custom-made, and was just a another "like" button or "+1" button, two things would happen (in my opinion).
The first is that it would even more turn away those who are against the "like" system, as it will even more remind them of other places where they've seen the system, and decided it won't work here like it did there (or, rather, that it didn't work there at all). The second is that it will look like a lazy or last-minute implementation of the feature, which is not something that looks good on the overall site. It'd be as glaring and out of place as, say, the search feature not working when we have all these other awesome features that DO work.
So, with that out of the way, you might be asking, "Well, Mr. Crazzy, what is this new Like System gonna look like?" Well, while I'm obviously not sure, I've got a pretty good idea in my head. And, by that, I mean I'm going to make this up as I go and try to stay below 4000 characters with my rambling.
So, you know the Destiny logo, right? Of course you do. In case you have been living under a rock, located under a boulder, located a mile underground, located on Mars, and this is your first thread-related site experience since your return, first "Welcome back", and second, this is the Destiny Logo. No, as you can see, apart from the gritty lines of gritty-grittiness on the logo, it's white. Making it a blank slate. Something that can be drawn on and customized.
If you can see where I'm going with this, +1 to you. I mean, er, *upvote*. Or, uh, *like*. Oh, you get the point.
So, let's get down to it, shall we?
Part 1: A Blank Canvas
This logo (being blank) gives Bungie the chance to give us 2 features in one. The first of which, would be that each person get's to customize their own Destiny Logo. Each forumgoer would get one of these, one of these, and, most importantly of all, one of these. On your profile, there would be a new tab. I don't know what Bungie could call it without officially announcing Destiny, and I'm not very good with Photoshop, so you're going to have to settle for this visual representation. In this tab, you would have something like this, where you could customize your own Destiny Logo. I've made the brushes (I think) wide enough so that things like genitalia couldn't be drawn on them, but people found a way with Halo 3 emblems and they'll find a way with this.
Part 2: Reimagining an Overused Feature
The second of those aforementioned features would be the ability to share this icon in a constructive way. Every time you "Approve" of a post, your "stamp of approval" as it were appears along the bottom of the post. Say, in the same line as the time stamp. And it literally would be your stamp of approval. You wouldn't be signing your name to a list of people who agree with a point, you would be literally stamping a post with your own personal mark of approval.
As I hinted at before, the button (obviously the same light grey border/text with a dark grey filling as all the other buttons there) would read "Approve" or "Approve!". A box would appear asking you to confirm your approval (much like with reporting a post), and once you accept (if you accept) your stamp would be there on the page for all to see. Then, once somebody hovers over that stamp, it would say in the description pop up white box thing that you get when you hover over stuff (I don't know what it's called), "This post has been approved by _______."
Also, just to prevent people from approving a mountain of posts just to get their stamp out there and be super popular on the internet, you would only be allowed 5-10 "stamps" per day (haven't decided the right number). This way you would have to really think which posts are worth receiving your stamps of approval.
One final idea I had that doesn't really fit anywhere would be the idea of double+ stamping a post. This meaning that you would use more than one of your daily stamps on a post to show extra levels of agreement. This might take away the significance of a single stamp, but it's just an idea (as is everything else I've said in this post).
As always, tell me what you think and try to be constructive. Sorry, but there's really no way for me to make a TL;DR of this post, as you have to really get what I'm saying to be able to respond to it. I understand if you're not up to the 6000+ character read this has turned in to.
*insert obligatory "Discuss" here*
[Edited on 07.15.2012 8:14 PM PDT]