Possible solution to garbage post craze

[Gomer]

It seems that for the most part, much of this crazy posting is done by people trying to raise their post count. The topic of member status has been covered here before. Is it detrimental, neccessary, overrated, etc. The # of posts and member status is supposed to represent something isn't it? Otherwise why would it be on the board? I for one, feel that it should represent something.
New members see that you can obtain some sort of "status" by posting like crazy. So that is what they do. The forum that sees the most abuse is the general forum. So this is my idea, an alternative to doing away with post counts and member status. Why don't we just have posts posted in the general forum count as nothing? A lot of time thats what they are. I am not saying that is bad, I rather enjoy them. There is some discussion regarding technical issues and debate, but how many one word or =) replies have you seen in the general forum? This doesn't contribute to status does it? I would not be upset if my "general" posts counted for nothing. And when I finally made that next step towards a level of status I would feel like I had achieved something worthwhile. Lemme know how everyone feels about this.

[LordLocksley]

I agree...

[hd581]

That'll just move the problem to the other forums. Trust me, you'll start to see one word answers in Tech Support and OS, too.

If you want to curb this problem, make everyone an Ultimate Member permanently. No one will have a reason to up their count, and the current Ultimate Members don't lose their "status".

[bhess]

I agree with gomer. ( but wait until I get to senior http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif ) It might help some. I do enjoy the general discussion group though. I also don't mind to many off topic post either.

[Warthog]

The problem is really that great enough to warrant taking away the "ranks". Merely because a few people have recently posted some OTs, doesn't mean that extreme measures should be taken. If it starts to occur on a daily basis for many weeks, I'll go with a solution of discontinuing the "ranks".

Usually, the frequent OTer will get mad and eventually stop annoying Sysopt (won't mention any names...).

Warthog

[catcow]

Does it really matter what kind of members we all are anyway?
I came to SysOpt a couple of months ago now and I'm just happy to help others out whenever I can and also to be able to get advice on any problems i'm having myself.
http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[brandon184]

If they do have "member statuses" I do not think they should be based on post count...

[chipbgt]

In my right-wing conservative view, the problem is not solved by changing something in the system (sysopt), the "problem" is solved by making the posters more informed on how to act and hoping that we mature, that way we dont have to worry about how many posts someone has. Its like dumbing down schools so the slower kids get better grades while the gifted ones suffer. No. Help the slower ones more but do not punish those who can handle the situation. But it is a new idea and I am glad that is is being discussed in a civil manner.

Also, maybe it has nothing to do with post count. Maybe some poeple are just plain immature.

[This message has been edited by chipbgt (edited 05-25-2000).]

[mgordon99]

I don't know if this is possible, but a feature like "Ignore posts from this user" would be neat.

Don't know if you could get it to work on forums, it does work with chat programs though.

[hd581]

the "problem" is solved by making the posters more informed on how to act and hoping that we mature,Uhh chip, that could take a REALLY long time. Takes years for some people to grow up. Some never do. Also, maybe it has nothing to do with post count.Good point. I don't know why people automatically assumed it was post count causing the problem in the 1st place.

[chipbgt]

nothing worth doing ever came quick.

[This message has been edited by chipbgt (edited 05-25-2000).]

[FrozenLiquidity]

I am in agreement with hd581, but I don't think that everyone should be an "Ultinate member"

I like the rank system, this system is the thing that keeps me helping people and posting problems and questions of my own.

Mabye a minimum amount of characters needs to be set for each post?

Thats my opinion

FrozenLiquidity

[jadison]

Gomer I'm sorry but I just don't agree at all.

If anything SYSOPT should have a little disclaimer or message before you complete your registration that states that useless posts do not contribute to this BBS and that you should not post just to obtain member status. It should say some other things, but I think that might clear some misunderstanding with this popular subject that gets brought up every once in a while!

just my thoughts

-jd-

[x35Agent]

Has anyone thought about a time frame to go along with the number of posts. Like one month to become a member and four or five more to become a Senior member.

[Gene C.]

I still stick by my first posting about all of this.
----------------copy of post-----------------

so, really what you need to do is. think about what you are going to post. and ask yourself.

1. am I just doing a post, to get noticed.
2. is there a need for this info. to be posted
3. can I or someone else gain knowledge from it.
4. and sometimes I think it is kinda nice to get away from the regular system stuff awhile.
5. and the most important thing about it is. always remember, what you post. is what you will be remembered for. so choose your topics wisely

to me I could care less about the member count ect. after all this is the section to discuss things ect. and what may seem worthless to some is important to others ect.

for you never know the reason for the other persons posting. they might be doing it to ask a real question. but, want to hide behind another meaning for there own reasons.

and I myself to the same also. and since I think t.v. is more useless than some of these post ect. I use the net to get all my info, news,health,finances, ect. and some times I try to pass it on to others.

if you will see I have done a lot of topics about this kinda of stuff. than I one day read all the comments ect. about them. and I saw others people's point and outlook on them more clearly than. for if you will look at the ones that are doing all the conplaining they have been here a short time.

not, the ones that have been here for ever it seems. and you also have to remember this is a board run by members."why do I say members" for if all letf to go to others boards. there would be no sysopt. noone would be here to post or complain.

so, think it over. isn't the complaining post almost as bad as the trash or garabage. I mean they are all related.

like ice cream. there are many flavors. but, it is still ice cream. and don't the complaining post count the same as the others ones do.

and so since I'm the big ahole that I am. and I truly don't care what others think of me ect. I say this. just look at it this way.
don't read what you don't want to read ect. and don't stay on a board where you are not happy ect.

for some say this is a help fourm "only". than is all these type of post and topics ect. helping the ones with systems problems ect.

I mean I sometimes spend hours trying to do a search to find someones problem fixes. and than get a no responce back to if it worked or not. that is why I spend alot of my time in this one ect. that seems like a more of a problem than these do ect.

I mean this board is the size of a small city or almost the size of my island ect. and there are always going to be people or things you don't like ect. and so you either have to move or ignor the ones around you. and I would rather see them here than in the other fourms.

and to end this all for now and in the future. I have only one comment ect.

"the only real way" to stop all of this is for either side to go and get them a free site or what ever. and name it the

"useless posting and answers board of the web"

your happy, there happy, and you all can be ultimate members ect.

if I have hurt anyones soft feelings ect. on either side of all this from this post. please don't respond. for it would be useless posting wouldn't it??????

[hd581]

Frozen: How about this then? If anyone is posting to up their count, just max them out to 9999 posts, Ultimate member. They'll have no motivation for posting anymore and we'll all know it's just a deterrent.

jadison: Remember that we're dealing w/ immature people here. Telling people not to do something in no way means they won't do it.

Gene: don't read what you don't want to read ect. and don't stay on a board where you are not happy ect.We have to draw the line somewhere. We can't just start posting warez and porn and say "just avoid it if you don't like it". BTW, stop misspelling 'etc'! http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/biggrin.gif please don't respond. for it would be useless posting wouldn't it??????
Wish away.

[This message has been edited by hd581 (edited 05-26-2000).]

[shadow]

The status really doesnt mean much to me and I really dont pay attention to what other's status is. I've seen some of the best replies by junior members and some lame ones by long term members, we all have our good and bad days. I enjoy all the vairied replies here, it's good reading mixed with some fun. That makes for an interesting forum.

[CMonster]

I posted a few "garbage" threads when I got up around 970 - I wanted the Ultimate status because I was jealous of those who I thought earned it simply by being more "mouthy" than others.. I also thought that the title might sway new members to consider my input to be "as valid as" these "Ultimate" members - pretty sad yeah?

I would gladly forfiet title in order to make Sysopt a better BBS. I think that our little online community here already knows who's who. Frankly, I wonder if some would loose interest in the board if there were no ranking system?

How about this:

*member = 30 posts

*senior member = 500 Posts + any valid Certification such as A+, MCSE, etc.

*Ultimate member = 1000 Posts + any valid IT degree and some form of certification

Too difficult?? - I can hear the whining already - hehe http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif



[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 05-26-2000).]

[Warthog]

Be kinda hard for me to get the MCSE certification - I'm only 16. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Warthog

[bhess]

How about something like this:
after x amount of posts say (500 for senior) everyone votes for the next status.
then the same at 1000.
By the time they hit 500 we should know what type of person they are.
I don't know how we would vote though....

[Warthog]

That has been suggested before. Many people hit 500 each week. Voting for a members status would get very tiring. How would it be possible? In a little more than 100, I'll have Senior status. Whoopee. Can any of you tell what I've contributed to this board? Do I "deserve" that status? How would any member know what to look for? What's the criteria?

Now I think, the system should stay the same. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Warthog

[CMonster]

But Warthog you could get "A+" certified -with a little study.

I don't see what is preventing you from studying for MCSE either.

[akaBruno]

Have you guys seen my HAMPSTER?

[Warthog]

The problem is I don't know NEARLY as much info as what was covered in the "crammit" notes or whatever they are called. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

But I suppose I could read a lot and study like you said - just wouldn't be taking the actual exam for some time.

Warthog

[This message has been edited by Warthog (edited 05-26-2000).]

[hd581]

LOL akaBruno, that always seems to come up. Where is this Hamster thread anyway....?

[akaBruno]

My nephew Ricky offered to bury it, so I'm not sure. But, ya never know for sure...
Lovely weather we've been having lately, don't ya think???

[Gene C.]

akaBruno
I know in the last topic post. your hampster was seen by mntsnow" I believe it was" and myself. and than I think it was scott that had saw him run across the floor at his place.

well, after a lot of looking. I have found them for you. and all they would say is.

Attention Hamster Fans!
The Hamsters are on a little vacation until next week.
In the mean time, enjoy some of our other sites! =) http://www.hamsterdance.com/

with this info. I hope I can put your mind as ease. and I would give them a good talking to when they return home to you.

[akaBruno]

Thanks Gene:

That was fun.

How's the weather down there?

Bruno

[Warthog]

CMonster, now you have got me really interested after you said that I could do it. I automatically figured that college age and older took these kind of exams. I started looking at A+ study books at Amazon. Some very good books out there. According to the reader reviews, some of the books can be read by the "average" person with general computer knowledge who wishes to improve their know-how of computers.

Thanks for pointing me to the light! http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

hehehe http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Warthog

[Gomer]

I happen to like the idea of member status. Member status is based on post count. Since this is a technical/computing message board general discussion should have no bearing on member status. Technical/troubleshooting posts should. That is really what I am trying to get across. It just turned out that another benfit of not counting general discussion posts would be a decrease in posting to get the count up. I don't think this would be extreme or detrimental to the board.

What really brought this to my attention was looking at a member profile a few days ago and saw a 12 day old member with like 70 posts. That kind of led me to believe it was post count causing the problem. This member was under fire for garbage posting and rightfully so. I would hate to see the member status disabled to stop this trend. Because there truly are some members here who are "Ultimate" and I think it is fitting they are recognized as such.

Jadison--Who reads the fine print these days =)

X35--Good idea as well

[Ed_S]

Gomer, as someone said if you don't count posts in "general" then the other forums will become targets. Then legitimate questions would get pushed off or ignored. Or worst, they'd get nonsense answers!

The way it is is fine, we all pretty well know who's who, I think. And we know if a title is REALLY "earned" or not!

I personnally don't understand the motivation in a new member posting junk. What's to be gained, anyway?? That status title is TOTALLY meaningless without the respect of other members!

Ed

[Gene C.]

akaBruno
when I finished cleaning my last pool this afternoon it said 98 in the shade on a weather station temp guage. and started raining on my way home. liquide sunshine. like they say if you don't like the weather in florida. just wait 5 mins. and it will change. he he

also, I have found and sent these after your hampsters to send them back to you.
http://countrymusic.about.com/musicperform/countrymusic/library/bldboots.htm?once=true&

and until they return you can have these to play with ect.
http://members.aol.com/darlingal9/ritz.html

HE HE

[brandon184]

I have no idea why this forum has "ranks" anyway.. I am a part of, and moderate many other ubb forums, and they sure do not have ranks... They usually say something to the effect of "Registered" or "Member".

[RacerX]

I rarely jump in on these opinion topics, but lately I've noticed an increase in "filler" in these forums that we didn't use to have. The problem isn't to change the "status" of a member, but to deal with those who waste our time with nothing of substance.

Personally I could care less if my status was "brand new member" or "Ultimate member". I post to contribute, not to have a "Title". At the same time it's good to acknowledge those who have been around for a while, and have contributed to this board.

We should look at the quality of the posts, not the quantity and deal with those who are posting just to post.
So how do we do it? Maybe we could give them a friendly warning or reminder, and if that doesn't work, ignore them. When they see that no one will acknowledge them anymore, they will either go away, realize their mistake, or become obnoxious, at which point Sysopt can step in and remove them.
Socalgal does an excellent job of "policing" these forums, but with more members and posts, she can't do it all alone. We should all help each other to continue making this a great " fat free" message board. This isn't an overnight cure, but with a little vigilance, we can all do our part to turn things around.

[Missing the point]

I think it would be nice if there was a thing,. where when you graduate to senor member, or ultimate member, there would be a thing, where all the ultimate members voted, and if they all vote yes, then that person becomes the rank. That was, Ul;timate members have more power, but not everyone can get there. I like this idea http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[RobRich]

I really don't care what status a member has, as I try to treat everyone equally. I personaly usually don't post something unless I feel it to be benificial to the forums. I believe that ALL people should follow the SIMPLE rules and guidelines in place here. If one can not follow the rules, or wants to gripe/argue about them, FIND ANOTHER SITE!

The easiest way to discourage members that do seriously off topic posts is to NOT REPSOND to them. If the OT post appears in an already initiated thread, just IGNORE them. Instead, send a message to Socalgal to lodge a complaint against that member. Usually she will warn the member about their actions, and either the member conforms or gets banned.

Also respect the judgement of the Sysopt.com staff. They have the final say in whether to lock a thread, post warnings, or even ban a member. Socalgal, Scott, and Joel have done a great job in keeping the problematic members under control.

This site is public, but is ran by a private corporation. If you choose to become a member, you have also choosen to follow the rules.

Member status only indicates post numbers. It is not an rating, and should never be considered one. It just details who are the more active members, not those that might be more informed or helpful. I have consistently seen junior members offer tech support to even some of the hardcore ultimate members. I treat everyone with the same respect, and I hope they would offer me the same curtiosy.

These same issues have appeared at other sites recently. I will borrow a a few words from Tim Tibbets (site admin, 3dfiles.com), and hopefully this will explain some very basic rules of posting:

Our message board gets a lot of new visitors on a regular basis, so we like to repost the rules, even though you SHOULD have read them when you signed up. It also gives us a chance to explain our reason for the rules. A simple thing to keep in mind is that theinternet is full of places where people go and make fools of themselves, wearing, trading software, flaming, posting useless OT garbage, and so on. If you signed up here to be one of these idiots, you will be banned. Its not wanted here and there are plenty of places you can do it. Your message and possibly your account will be deleted as well as your ip and\or email banned.

No swearing:
The swearing is not allowed because parental block programs that lazy parents use could block access to this website. It is a computer site meaning there are all ages here, including children and we would like them to be able to view the website. As a parent myself, I also just feel it is the right thing to do. I also believe people
who use swearing to get their point across probably don't really have anything intelligent to say.

No porn:
Read above again.

No stolen software:
Take a look, your ip is logged and we have your email. Should anyone come to us and ask us to give over your personal information, we would. Note we would not give out your information any other way. Also, there
are plenty of ways to go about your stealing without wasting OUR bandwidth. It simply has no place here.

No flaming:
This is the toughest one to moderate. We read many messages, but can't always read them all. We also have to decide at what point we feel a thread has become a pointless flame war before we close it. Calling each other names back and forth has to be one of the easiest ways to show everyone how stupid you are. Sure, were all guilty of it at one time or another, but lets avoid it here. Were here to talk, learn, teach and have fun.

I am sure there is more, but use your head. This is not the newsgroups with
a bunch of people flaming back and forth like morons. We have a large user base
of regular readers here and like to think of this as a large group of friends hanging out and talking. If you do not like it, your welcome to leave.

Our moderators work hard. I am sure they occasionally make mistakes. If your post was deleted, it was for a purpose.

Use common sense before you post. If you see anyone violating this board's policies, send a complaint to Socalgal. Don't just gripe about about the offending poster. Do something about it, as that's why we have a moderator here.

Robert Richmond

[thxmanu]

I have noticed lots of post lately that actually repeat the post before them. It has happened to me several times to which I can just sit here and shake my head. I guess I will have to go with the "ignore them" crowd. If someone's self esteem is so bad that an inconsequential member rating is that important to them, well, they have bigger problems than OT posts! I would like to hope they will tire of it eventually.

[hd581]

That's our whole point, Wart: it's broke.

Sort of. It's just that w/ the recent OT posting, we've been brainstorming for a system that doesn't reward the troublemakers.

[A Ghoul]

use flood control

[Gene C.]

I don't know about you all. but, have you ever noticed how many reply posts a topic like this gets. while some help post are lucky to get 2/3 and some only 0/1. at least we know where the main members concer's are on this board.

it's nice to see and have such helpfull members as we have.

[chipbgt]

Gene, what are you trying to say, that we are all just trying to up our counts with this thread? =P Come on now. No need for the sarcasm. I am by no means an expert but I will jump in and help on any thread I feel I can. I am sorry if some threads go unanswered.....its not that we dont want to help people, we just dont know the answer! I wish I could answer every technical support question. That would be great!!!!!


and YES I (like all these people) have a genuine concern for the well being of one of the best siteson the web. Dont try to cheapen that by saying we dont care about people posting hardware or technical questions.

[akaBruno]

I think there are just too many people in this world that whine and ***** about nothing. It's no skin off your *****. So just leave it be. Drop IT.

But... I sure would like to find that **** hamster...

[chipbgt]

^^^see above three threads for examples of posts that do no good other than to clutter things.

[akaBruno]

Golly gee willakers there Jethro, you're startin' t' get the point.

Will wonders never cease???

[chipbgt]

I'm sorry Gene it seems your point has some merit to it now. Apparently I was wrong about people being concerned about worthless posts.

[alondra]

He is OK, I put him in a safe house. Here in Cal. he is on the endangered species list, with the Kit Fox and the Green Eyed Stink Bug.
and I locked the door. HINT

[This message has been edited by alondra (edited 05-27-2000).]

[akaBruno]

Thank you Alondra. You are a Dear. I feel much better now.