Rank for Helpers?

[beardie]

I have a question for Alex though, what is the downfall to this? You have said you didn't want it to become a popularity contest? Right? I am thinking what does it matter as long as that particular person is helping out, then wouldn't they already be considered "popular"? Like Amy said (who knows she may be referring to me LOL) the number of post and activity alone might not be determination enough for someone who is new to the boards.

The problem with it becoming a popularity contest is that it eventually doesn't mean what we want it to mean. It ends up not being a representation of who is best at giving solid information, but who has the most people cheering in their corner. These are not often the same. I think it just shifts focus away from just helping people to trying to "get votes".

Would it be too difficult to only allow one vote per thread per unique IP? This way people couldn't just vote up their friends or anything to that nature.

If I remember right I had brought something like this up a long time ago, more along the lines of spot lighting a thread that could be a major interest. :wink:

This is actually one of the bigger issues. There's no support for this in the existing forum software. Mods to the forum software become a maintenance nightmare when it comes time to apply updates/patches/fixes. To allow this would mean having to write/modify the software we use.

Spotlighting threads again becomes a popularity contest. I do not like permanent sticky threads on a forum, for the most part. If the information is solid enough and thought out enough, it should be formatted for an article. That's the method that I think is best for representing practices that are broadly considered best practices.

 

[Jess]

I know I'm a little late joining in on this thread, but...

I think that pretty much all members here would give "votes" to people who are actually helpful, instead of just voting for their friends. We are all very dedicated to helping people with their beardies, and that's why we are bringing it up... Not just to be popular!

If someone is helping as much as they can just to get votes, then they probably aren't giving the most accurate advice on everything. If their advice isn't the best, they won't get votes.

That's how I see it anyways! :wink:

Would we be able to thank people for a post? On the leopard gecko forum I'm on, there is a little spot that says "[member] thanks [poster] for this post." at the bottom of every post. If someone isn't thanked, it just says "No thanks yet". It doesn't add up for points or anything, it's just there so people can show that they liked this member's post.

 

[ChiefsDaddy]

What if you had to have a certain number of posts and/or time on the forum to hand out votes? And what if you can only vote for a person once a day and there was a maximum total number of votes per day?

What if we started a collection fund for new forum software? I'm sure there's more than a few of us willing to donate. :mrgreen:

 

[beardie]

What if we started a collection fund for new forum software? I'm sure there's more than a few of us willing to donate. :mrgreen:

There isn't a lot of software out there that does this, and honestly, it would be VERY painful to try and migrate 10+ years of forum posts, user accounts, the blogs feature, etc.