little_tippler

Hello everyone,

first, I apologise for the delay in sorting out the next round of our TFP Awards.

The staff has been talking over the Awards because the response from users has diminished since the first edition of the awards. We feel that this has happened for some of these reasons:

• some users are not interested in participating in them, which is fair enough. To those of you who aren’t convinced by the awards, we want you to know that the goal is not to create an elitist group within the community. Far from it. What we want is for you to show appreciation for those users whose contributions you greatly appreciate. The award is simply a token of that. As far as I’ve seen, none of those users who have received awards have been big-headed about it, and we believe it will help better integration of users, because they’ll realize that they are valued here. If you do not get an award does not mean you are not all special, unique snow-flakes
  
• some users forget to vote or don’t vote, possibly because the voting system doesn’t facilitate the process (having to look through the boards specifically searching for candidates and then writing up PM’s)
  
• some users aren’t sure who to vote for, due to the high frequency of the awards

So what we have decided to try this time is the following:

The Awards will now become quarterly. That means that we will be having the nex round around early January (not the 1st for obvious reasons), April 1st, July 1st and October 1st. This will give users 2 to 3 months to consider the options and really observe the interactions on the boards.

We also wish to change the voting system. In November, a thread will be created where we ask you to nominate candidates for each Award that is up for the next round. We have also decided that to help the process along, the staff will also make suggestions for these, that can be discussed in the thread.

In December, we will post polls up with 4 candidates (maximum, minimum 2) for each Award. Then all you will have to do is vote in the poll. I am looking into making them so that you cannot see the results until the very end.

The current awards will still be valid for the 3 months we indicated initially, meaning that come October 1st, the first group of award winners will no longer have the award icon next to their avatar, and so on successively for each group.

We feel that these changes address all the difficulties that have occurred in the past editions of the Awards, and we hope that this will help all of you participate more actively in this process.

Thank you everyone for being patient and for joining in! See you soon

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

LoganSnake

I ask once again. What is the point of taking away an award from a member who has earned it?

__________________
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

dlish

can we make willravel a mod so that he doesnt keep winning all the awards.

__________________
An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy

little_tippler

LoganSnake: I didn't realise you had asked this question before, but I see your point.

The awards are given based on the poster's contributions in the prior month(s). That is why, when the next time the same award comes around, it is given to the next user who has earned it.

In this case, since we are postponing the next round to be awarded in January, it makes sense to keep the duration of the award at 3 months, keeping everything even.

But, I don't see any harm in the users keeping the icon next to their avatar; if you place your mouse over it it refers the date to which it is related to. We will see what the best option is. Thank you for pointing that out.

We could also consider referencing the previous winners in a chosen place on the board.

Keep in mind that this is a new process for the staff also and that we are still testing this out. We appreciate your input on how you feel the awards should proceed. I hope this answers your question.

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

The Faba

Yes.

I approve wholeheartedly.

LoganSnake

I see it as taking away a medal from an Olympic winner to give it to the new one who's earned it later in the same event. I don't see any harm in letting users keep the icons next to their names especially if , as you said, it shows the date for which it was earned.

But yeah, just pointing it out.

__________________
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

jorgelito

How about user reputation? I've seen that on other boards and it seems to work out well. It would have a dual effect of community involvement as well as another tool for modding.

__________________
"The race is not always to the swift, nor battle to the strong, but
to the one that endures to the end."

"Demand more from yourself, more than anyone else could ever ask!"

- My recruiter

Jozrael

I didn't realize the awards disappeared. I think it'd be great if the icons stayed next to the user's name and you could accumulate them. I think multiple ones of the same type, however, should just be listed under the icon. I.e. if willravel earns the politico one again, the new icon replaces the old one, but it lists two dates under the mouseover.

LoganSnake

User reputation works in some cases, but considering that the population of this forum is phobic of anything that might hint at popularity, it wouldn't fly.

__________________
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

jorgelito

The funniest and best part of this is that I am that "population" here that is phobic of popularity and cliques etc. Ah, the irony...

Stoopid jorgelito...

__________________
"The race is not always to the swift, nor battle to the strong, but
to the one that endures to the end."

"Demand more from yourself, more than anyone else could ever ask!"

- My recruiter

thespian86

I think it's only elitist from the outside in; that's true of anything.

Hey, I'm not Will.

__________________
EX: Whats new?
ME: I officially love coffee more then you now.
EX: uh...
ME: So, not much.

Cynthetiq

actually user rep has many inherent problems to showing what the member contributes. something more like vbexperience is a better mod that shows what the individual is really contributing, and then, again, isn't that still subjective since numbers are just numbers?

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

LoganSnake

User rep works on my other forum just fine. People were also against it at first but when it was implemented everybody went "oh, this is pretty nice". Even though it's a gaming forum, nobody has abused it yet. I think TFP holds itself to a higher standard.

Even though its just number, they are niiiiice. As long as the user isn't obsessed with just raising that number, any number system can work be it a post count, RPG bars or user rep. It shows activity and it a way it shows status much like Date Joined does. Unless conformity is the name of the game here, some kind of number mod would be a good idea.

__________________
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

ratbastid

Way back in the way back machine, TFP showed post-counts under the member name by each post. There were "Celebrate your 500th post" and "1000th post" threads. I don't really remember the rationale Hal gave for turning that off. I imagine there were people running their count up with garbage posts to get into the members area. Or there was a perception that the old timers were worth more than the noobs. (Which is completely TRUE, by the way, says the second-longest-term member so far posting on this thread... )

LoganSnake

What's wrong with celebrating your post milestone? This is an internet forum. This is what people do on an internet forum. Since everybody here is a mature adult, we shouldn't have people doing silly forums things here in the first place.

__________________
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

genuinegirly

Have you not spent time in nonsense? Now there's some good, happy, appreciated silliness.


I'd like to see the awards continue. I think they're a great way to say "Thanks for being a part of things".

__________________
"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

Cynthetiq

That was one, and the other was to even the playing field for new posters who felt that their opinion was didn't "weigh" as much as old timers. It made for a divide where old timers were dismissive to new posters because they didn't have enough community investment...

at least that is what I remember... maybe I was drinking at that point.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Willravel

I don't know any children as silly as I am.

JStrider

I think this will definitely help boost participation in the awards...

as far as the keeping of awards, maybe once the term that it was awarded for, the award disappears from next to the users posts, and is displayed in an award frame in the user profile.

That way it is clear who the current award holders are, but you still get a record of what awards a person has had.

__________________
-=JStrider=-

~Clatto Verata Nicto

Frosstbyte

Those were the rationales I remember being given for that change as well. The post counts are all still tallied and such on individual profiles, though, so it'd be pretty easy to still have 500, 1000, whatever posts in nonsense if people wanted to. I don't think it'd be any harm there.

Most (though certainly not all) of the easy ways to tell novices from "old timers" have gone away at this point. I think a lot of people ran up their post counts early on to get to avatars and custom titles which they'd previously earned, especially at the beginning of this last "integral anomaly" which I think is also about when the displayed post count went away.

I guess I don't see any point to the awards, nor do I see how they contribute to the health of the board. People should participate and post because they want to, and good posts will receive attention because people will respond to them. I'm yet to see anyone with an award that I hadn't already passively flagged them for in my own mind. It's just now formalized with a cute little icon, which I guess is cool for them.

It seems like feel-good board masturbation to me. I don't see the point, and regardless of how easy it is to vote, I won't be. Though, clearly, I'm in the minority on that one.

Poppinjay

The awards generally make me aware of a personality trait. So, I like them.

Having them quarterly however means my feeble one-horse brain will forget about them as soon as I vote.

__________________
I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet