Good idea on the thumbs up thumbs down. Like it a lot!!

Why not use both points and credits. Maybe for every so many points = 1 credit, like in pinball after a credit it goes up for the next credit. Like the karma points make different things earn different points, donations or such maybe bonus points.

Also the help fight abuse on the thumbs up/down limit the number per day allowed is a good idea. (so choose wisely)

This is a good idea. It sounds like a variation of the Playstation Trophy system. In that system, you gain bronze, silver, gold, and platinum trophies and then based on how many of those you get you are rewarded with levels.

This probably could be simplified for Pinside, but I could see Levels being replaced by Credits here. Different things on the site (reviews, thumbs up, etc.) could have values associated with them. As you gain enough of them your level would increase.

Of course this could be gamed by people, but pretty much any system can. Hopefully people aren't that lame and instead just have fun with it, but that might be overly optimistic of me to think that.

That makes a whole lot of sense, but we will need some kind of ration to start with or no one will have any to give out.

What if everyone who joins pinside from here on gets a flat number of credits/levels. And those with experience and time here get that amount plus some additional amount that reflects their time here or number of thumbs up so far or something like that. Is there a way to compile a list of thumbs up that have been given so far for individual users?

simple solution.. limit how many you can give out in a time period. Then everyone is on equal footing.

Instead of Karma points or titles (Pinhead, Pinball guru, Pinball Master, etc) Why not just post the amount of months or years an individual has been involved with Pinside? This would identify the experience and show others who has continued to support Pinside with their time on the site.

Yes, I do realize you can find that if you click on their name/profile but if it took the place of Karma points it would be easily identifiable.

Maybe start new accounts with a small number or no thumbs to give until they get awarded
thumb-ups themselves. That would be another way to reward good posts and limit abuse.
Or would that be unwelcoming? Just thinking out loud.

For what it's worth, it's kind of interesting when looking at the top posters over the past seven days, the number of thumbs up, and the ratio between the two. Some frequent posters have a far higher "Thumbs Up:Post" ratio than others, which presumably is one indication of quality of posts.

Depends on what you think is quality.

For instance many of my tech help posts rarely get a thumbs up. Once the game is going people usually disappear until the next problem.

And I'm probably around 4 tech posts out of every 5 posts I make.

LTG : )

I'll put another vote in for doing away with karma points.

My meager karma points don't reflect my 25 years of pinball experience.

Karma points also don't reflect the posters with 100K who offer nothing but witty comments, .gifs and no technical help.

Lloyd is the only poster with 100K karma points that is an exception to that rule.

And that is enough for some people. Some of us just like to play pinball, have fun speaking and are not the technical wizard you are.

My point is that karma points mean nothing either way in regards to integrity.

Once you take away the karma points, it no longer becomes a popularity contest.

Not because your not appreciated, you are! I'm one who, when trying to fix a problem get really involved in it and when I receive helpful info I get right back to it, sometimes forgetting to click on the all important thumbs up. Keep up the good work Lloyd. Your knowledge is indispensable.

kill karma asap

Another thing I would like is an unread count on Ask LLoyd. Just like on the regular forum posts.
I feel that I often forget to go to his section because I don't see that he's answered another letter.
Keep up the good work LLoyd! (And Robin )

Don't know if anyone mentioned this, but I'd love to see some additional profile information. Twitter link, Facebook link, Linkedin link, etc...

Regarding "abuse" of thumbs: it basically doesn't happen for thumbs up, given my experience on other fora. It's very hard to "abuse" such a thing, anyhow.

It's also a really good idea to encourage people to use them rather than post useless "yep" posts, and gets less talkative people (like me) to feel more invested, because they can participate without having to post. I'd also like to see the interface more streamlined, the giant box that pops up when you thumb something is super annoying.

Thumbs down, or similar, are often a terrible thing, as you get vicious cycles of people down-thumbing each other, as pointed out above. A more-liberal definition for the tilt warning is probably the way to go, and then have the mods keep an eye out to make sure people aren't tilting at windmills.

As an example of a site that uses a system similar to this one, check out boardgamegeek.com: clean, simple interface, with thumbs and 'hide this post' options. (You can hide a post just for you, or flag it to be hidden by everyone.) Yes, some people 'whore' thumbs, so keep them on the profile for people to feel good about themselves, not on each post to make things into a contest.

(BGG's a much, much busier forum than pinside, and their front page is cluttered because of it. Click through to any random topic to see the interface I'm talking about.)

I wouldn't change things TOO much. You don't want to lose the cool stuff that got everyone here because of the opinions of a few.

You know what this forum needs? Some way to get back to the index page once you are at the bottom of a thread. I've looked and I do not see any link for this. I hate having to scroll all the way back to the top to click the "Forum" link, or hitting the back button 'x' amount of times depending on how many pages deep you are into a thread.

Just my $.02

A little grey banner should follow you as you scroll down on the banner it gives you pages you can choose to go to. Simply click on the Forum tab and it will take you back to the main forum page.

Sure it does - its pretty much why all vbulletin sites gave up on reputation and don't use it. What happens in the wild is.. you get cliques that just all positive rep each other as much as they can. This inflates the group's numbers.. 1) making them look 'higher up' and 2) inflating their numbers so any negative rep basically has little to no effect. Any system that relies on 'balancing' gets screwed when people band together to game the system.. either intentionally or out of taste/habit.

Most up/down systems are designed with the idea 'if your positives outweigh your negatives, you're ok. But if you get more negatives then positives.. do something'. As soon as people game it one way or the other.. the whole balance theory goes right out the window.

And this is how a 'like' system differs - there is no balancing. Simply people + a post and the post stands on its own... rather than looking at the cummulative of the poster. So POSTS get scored.. not really POSTERS. Subtle.. but remarkably effective difference.

Agree with most of the rest of what you said. Streamlining the thumbsup here would be helpful.

I had thought I had said exactly this, but apparently didn't do so very effectively. Thank you.

I don't know if it's been mentioned before....but it would be great if there could be an Ignore Thread Button. The Threads would go to your Ignore Threads File.
When I open the Thread page and see 100 Threads, I wish I could get rid of the "I just bought my first woodrail" or "Let me tell you why I hate Stern" Threads. This way I could prune the pages and just follow what I like. (maybe this feature exists already and I'm a mo-mo)

spfxted , When the Karma Pt's Dissappear ,, I can hear you Right- Now !!!!!!!! laughing.gif

er, what does Rt mean?
...and don't care about Points or Thumbs...just rudeness...

So true

Ted you would not ignore a thread if you were a honeybear and the thread title was HONEY . 576 posts in one week?

Hah!...but not true! As you can see, I'm posting less and less. As I meet more people and they are becoming friends, I take the conversation off the Main Thread Stuff and go personal or the Scared Stiff Thread. I have no interest in assholes or rude people and cannot waste my time.
...er, WHERE exactly is that Honey Thread??

Yah, your making ME look bad.

Nooooo, you're one of the Good Guys! Love the Avatar! Help meeee..help meee!

Bug_man.gif

Pleeeeze!

Gotta love it!

fly_grp_1a.jpg

Ya know, David Hedison was also in one of the BEST tv shows ever! This is the pin I'd like to sea.

th-4.jpeg
voyage_bottom_sea_breach.jpg

Yes! Love The Fly AND Voyage......AND David is a friend of mine!

david_hedison_ted.jpg

Now I'm jealous!

Off topic or what!

No. Off topic would be commenting on Ted's shirt.

Ha ha ha ha ah ha ha booo yaaaa!

But, it does take Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea to a new depth.

But, it does take Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea to a new depth.

Whoa!...that's what David said!
...ok...last rare shot of David!...and, yes, that's him! Gotta get some sleep. VERY important trip tomorrow. You'll be hearing about it, I'm sure...

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No, we're NOT off topic. The Thread is [about-growing-pains-moderation-site-bans-karma-points-etcetera].....this is the etcetera...
Nighty nite!

Nice! Us Americans r outa control, eh Robin? Thanks.

I like the idea. A related suggestion would be to flag the threads that deal with pins you are interested in. One could tick a list of pins you would like to hear about. Each thread in which this pin has been linked to the topic would appear in a different colour as well. This is obvious given the title of some threads, but not always...

Hey how about a guys name at the left side of the forum page will turn a different color if he picks up a ban vote so everyone can see? orange =1, red=2 might help some

I think the original thought was that it could cause people to target those members to get them to snap and get another vote and coax them into a ban. It would also make people wonder why they got banned and another person did not.

On the other hand, it might show people how many votes are actually sent. Nobody knows but the offender right now. I think it would work both ways.

Yeah that could be......
kind of like showing up at work late with a black eye everyone thinks the worse ,
however might also prove the site is being monitored - ppl may post more knowing that adjustments are being made

the small avatar hurts it.. but would you believe that image originates from a screen grab from VHS all the way back in 1996? I should grab new ones now in the 21st century

The cropped image unscaled..

troncycle.jpg

hrm.. now that I look at it.. that's one of my other stills. damn.. now to find the other tron captures