20 replies to this topic

[Kevin]

Well, I'm sure I'm about to arise several conflicts between members about why or why not this or something similar should be implemented, but I will share my thoughts on the topic anyway.

 

I believe, as well as many others, that a recent "wave" so to speak of new members have joined Formiculture.com, and somewhat degraded the content of the forums, in most cases breaking rule numbers 6, 7, and 8.

 

6. No posting any deliberately false or misleading information. This particular rule pertains to the chat room as well.

7. Post in legible, coherent English, without excessive use of emoticons, slang, chat acronyms, or I'm shorthand.

8. Buying, selling, or trading queen ants is not illegal in most places, including the US, however, what is illegal a lot of times, is shipping or transporting them. Here in the US it is illegal to ship or transport queen ants across state borders. The scientific community also strongly discourages this because of the harm that can be done to the local ecosystem. Because of this, making arrangements to buy, sell, or trade nonnative queen ants is not allowed anywhere on Formiculture.com.

 

This is bothering a few members, well including myself, and I believe something should be implemented to counteract the issue. As of right now, you can rate profiles and threads 1-5 stars, and the average rating is shown at the top of the thread or on the profile. We could improve this system by adding a few simple functions to keep some members aware of who is to follow as a role model.

 

Here is a simple GIF of the rating system I'm talking about:

 

https://gyazo.com/0a...a4a1413e5945a17

 

Some key points to what can be improved:

 

• I suggest a more complex system for profiles, such as a popup that says "Quick Rate" and "Detailed". If you click "Quick Rate", simply chose a star-rating that floats your boat. "Detailed" would require members to type something in a long response field describing their rating, which would be a little more reassuring for any members that need to check the "quality" of a post.
• The threads system would stay the same, no detailed option needed.
• In order to reduce clutter, have a button "[Details]" beside the rating for members to select and view who and what they rated the member or thread, also including their detailed response if applicable.

 

I think a system similar or alike to this would really be a good start to removing the low-quality posts from the forum, and hopefully bring it back to a professional state.

 

 

Thank you, and please rate this thread on what you think of this idea.

Edited by Kevin, January 10 2017 - 4:48 PM.

[T.C.]

Well, there is no doubt the quality of content has went down in the past few months. I don't think the idea would work though, I already suggested maybe bringing the dislike button back, but like others said. The one's that are posting the poor content  won't really care about their reputation. I believe this same rule applies to their profile rating. They don't care if they are 1 star or 5 stars. Any ideas where you are trying to make their reputation, or rating look bad just isn't going to work. I believe the best thing we can do is get more moderators. All the moderators we have are good one's, however only a few are active. I noticed that the forum is working on it. I seen batspiderfish was made a moderator which was a good choice.  May i recommend another person that would make a good moderator is (gscnelling.)

Edited by T.C., January 10 2017 - 11:05 AM.

[Batspiderfish]

Does anybody take reputation points seriously? They seem pretty superficial, and relate more to the length of time somebody's spent here.

[T.C.]

Does anybody take reputation points seriously? They seem pretty superficial, and relate more to the length of time somebody's spent here.

They mean a lot to me and I know to alot of others they do as well. However the people going around here causing the issues probably don't care either way.

[Kevin]

I think they matter a lot, it just the community would have to take them seriously. Nobody would buy or sell to someone with a really bad reputation, such as for scamming in the past multiple times.

[Serafine]

Does anybody take reputation points seriously? They seem pretty superficial, and relate more to the length of time somebody's spent here.

You could make them a relation of likes received/posts written.

[Nathant2131]

Having this implemented honestly wouldn't change anything, maybe just make the situation worse with all that official negative air surrounding certain members. I believe all we need is for moderators to be more active, less lenient and start to take action without hesitation. (Warnings, bans) Simply saying "This member is bad" in the form of star ratings and reputation points will not do anything other than notifying profile viewers that the member is not reliable, yet also would not change the poorly rated member's actions. Just my opinion on this whole problem.

[Kevin]

I do agree that this by itself will not help at all not help a lot, but Drew has already started correcting the moderation issue. Once it's all filtered through, I think this would act as a barrier to prevent further disruption.

Edited by Kevin, January 10 2017 - 1:50 PM.

[FSTP]

While some may not care what their reputation points are I do think that the reputation points do give some semblance as to what kind of member someone is. You get rep points based on how many "likes" you have not how long you've been here. So you're only going to get more rep points if more people like the content you're posting. If no one "likes" ones posts then one is going to continue to have lower rep points.

Edited by FSTP, January 10 2017 - 4:07 PM.

[dspdrew]

Does anybody take reputation points seriously? They seem pretty superficial, and relate more to the length of time somebody's spent here.

 

Reacker does.

[Nathant2131]

 

Does anybody take reputation points seriously? They seem pretty superficial, and relate more to the length of time somebody's spent here.

 

Reacker does.

 

Haha

[Kevin]

I thought of this the other day and just remembered, a VIP section for members that buy VIP to contribute to keeping up the forum, reward for Drew for keeping and maintain the forum. Maybe like $5 or something, I'd be down to buy it.

[Alabama Anter]

I thought of this the other day and just remembered, a VIP section for members that buy VIP to contribute to keeping up the forum, reward for Drew for keeping and maintain the forum. Maybe like $5 or something, I'd be down to buy it.

Good idea! I would totally be down with this!

[Serafine]

Just make reputation a value of likes received/post written (which can give out values between 0 and infinite) and make anything about 0.2+ average reputation, 0.3+ good reputation, and 0.5+ awesome reputation - below 0.1 would be rather bad reputation (values should be about right), with a minimum of 100 posts before any reputation is displayed at all.
This would also encourage people to actually write quality posts and not just spam [censored].


 

I thought of this the other day and just remembered, a VIP section for members that buy VIP to contribute to keeping up the forum[...]

Good idea! I would totally be down with this!

See, that wouldn't help you in any way, Kevin.

[Kevin]

Just make reputation a value of likes received/post written (which can give out values between 0 and infinite) and make anything about 0.2+ average reputation, 0.3+ good reputation, and 0.5+ awesome reputation - below 0.1 would be rather bad reputation (values should be about right), with a minimum of 100 posts before any reputation is displayed at all.
This would also encourage people to actually write quality posts and not just spam [censored].


 

I thought of this the other day and just remembered, a VIP section for members that buy VIP to contribute to keeping up the forum[...]

Good idea! I would totally be down with this!

See, that wouldn't help you in any way, Kevin.

 

I don't see why it would help me, it would help Drew maintain the forum and improve the forum.

[T.C.]

Let me just say something. No one should have to pay here. I would if that's what it meant to stay here, but a lot would not be down with this. Something like this may upset alot of people and could cause the death of this forum. If drew was one of the forum admins that needed members to help him support it, I would think by now he would have already put out a place to donate. However I don't think he is looking for money, but just for people to follow the rules and contribute (good) content to the forum.

[Nathant2131]

Let me just say something. No one should have to pay here. I would if that's what it meant to stay here, but a lot would not be down with this. Something like this may upset alot of people and could cause the death of this forum. If drew was one of the forum admins that needed members to help him support it, I would think by now he would have already put out a place to donate. However I don't think he is looking for money, but just for people to follow the rules and contribute (good) content to the forum.

   I agree.

[BMM]

I also agree that paying for VIP access is a bad idea. It excludes newer members from potentially helpful portions of the forum, thus hurting the community. Also, ant keeping isn't the cheapest hobby out there. Anyone that can afford to build or buy a formicarium can probably afford 5 or 10 bucks to get access.

[Batspiderfish]

 

Does anybody take reputation points seriously? They seem pretty superficial, and relate more to the length of time somebody's spent here.

 

Reacker does.

 

Reaker is so professional that they made the long integer overflow.

Edited by Batspiderfish, January 11 2017 - 4:03 PM.

[Reacker]

Does anybody take reputation points seriously? They seem pretty superficial, and relate more to the length of time somebody's spent here.

 
Reacker does.

Reaker is so professional that they made the long integer overflow.

I take them as seriously as they deserve to be taken.

The recent problem is not one that can be fixed by adding points systems or special forums. It's a culture problem. The relatively more "adult" focused culture of the previous few years is being diluted by new users who are some combination of too immature or disrespectful to care to conform to higher standards, if they are even capable of being aware of them at all.

What's needed is a.prolonnged period of nearly arbitrary intense moderation to remove the cancerous elements in defense of the previously existing culture.