wouldn't it be nice...

[formfarbeminze]

in another message board i am participating in, we have a system to give us 'karma-points' for each posting we find valuable. the system works along the following rules:
- you give karma for each post you find very valuable by clicking on a link in the message's box you find so valueable.
- you can give up to 5 times 'karma' per 24h
- you must have to give karma to 9 other people on the board until you are allowed to give 'karma' to the same person again.
- the amount of 'karma' you give is measured by the amount of karma you already have.

the system works quite well to reduce noise and encourages valuable posts. to take a look at it head your browser to http://www.apfeltalk.de/

wouldn't it be nice to have a similar system on this boards, too?

[ggambett]

Sounds good and all, but how does it help actually reducing noise? In other words, what good does posting "valuable" articles do to me, to encourage me to post "valuable" articles?

[formfarbeminze]

- i forgot to mention that you can give negative karma as well, sorry.

- you get good feelings when you realize how many people actually liked what you wrote without necessarily reposting to it. this makes you thinking more about what you are writing.

- higher ranking in the board members list motivates some people as well.

- i can't speak for others but i myself tend to write more often when i get a good idea.

- some people don't bother to post things just because they are 'funny' because they don't want to loose 'reputation'

[Dan MacDonald]

The vbulliten system has a built in "reputation" feature. It's not turned on currently. If we start having a problem with inappropriate posts we might consider turning it on. So far everything has goon pretty smoothly *fingers crossed*

[oNyx]

I administrate a somewhat big board (20k+ registered users) and we tried rating systems several times. They never turned out very well.

If it's all about opinions (like this board), a rating system would be somewhat counter productive. Synchronizing options is often a bad thing. There is no need for a discussion if everyone agrees with each other.

It boils down to things like how are you going to rate an opinion? That doesn't really work. Rate/rewarding systems do work if it's about helping others eg a programing board. Well, it's only about 5-10% "help" here. The rest is gathering opinions, discussion, sharing ideas and so on.

[ggambett]

@formfarbeminze : I assumed that, but I still can't see what makes people be "more careful" about what they post. For example, in Slashdot, which uses a Karma-based moderation system, you can set filters so you just won't see posts with low moderation. I'm not saying that's a good thing for this forum, but that's the kind of "consequence" I'm asking about.

@Dan : I don't mean to be a goon, and everything has gone OK, except for the spelling, which is somewhat loose! That's one problem this forum could gladly lose :)

[Bluecat]

Wot! An promblym wit spelin. Thats umposible!

[Gary the Llama]

Well, instead of a rating system... Hopefully this board will be as nice, productive, and friendly as Dexterity was.

Oh and if we get a bunch of people who are just spouting off noise and crap discussions (not adding anything) then ban them.

Please don't ban me. :)

[Dan MacDonald]

Creative Spelling adds Character...dontcha think? ;) actually I'll cop to being the worst speller in the world. I generally run everything through word before posting. I still miss stuff like getting the right "they’re" or "loose" as opposed to "lose" and that type of thing.

It was pretty hectic tiring to get everything set up, so a few little "character" spellings slipped though...

[Nemesis]

You run your posts through Word? Oh my.. no wonder you haven't finished Katsu's Journey yet! ;)

Have you tried spellchecker browser plugins? they might speed up your posting sessions (and perhaps let you finish Katsu before we release our own game! ;))

[Karukef]

Karma points is an excellent way to turn the forum into a popularity contest and also to drive away anyone with different opinions.

I thought humans had a built-in reputation system in their head? :)

[princec]

We do.

I noticed I pissed off a lot of people on the Dex boards. Bad news! I'm here too!

Cas :)

[stan]

I think people who don't set meaningful topics for their threads should be banned.

Just kidding... ;)

[Mark Fassett]

I hate the idea of Karma points or rating systems. It's just a way to play favorites. I don't come here to rate posts or people - I come here to read what everyone has to say.

As for topic titles, some people just aren't all that good at them, and I just attribute it to their lack of creativity. No reason to get all upset about them.

[Chris Evans]

http://www.iespell.com/

I don't leave home without it.

[formfarbeminze]

Karma points is an excellent way to turn the forum into a popularity contest

the quoting stands here as a symbol for several postings stating similar opinions.

my intention was to kickstart a discussion about ways to optimize the overall quality of the discussions going on on this board. i think it is important to be aware of this topic.

however, i should have made myself clearer. a 'karma' rating system does not seem a good tool to meet this goal. what else could be done? should anything be done at this point?

[princec]

I would rather like to see Game Development & Technical axed and replaced with Legal issues. Or just axed.

I would like to see heavier moderation to keep threads on topic but it is almost impossible with the naff browser based interface to virtual conferencing that we have to endure.

<edit> And while we're at it, News & Feedback needs to go as well. We're all our own worst audience. The amount of useless requests for feedback on minutiae and trivia is only bested by the quantity of useless replies. I swear if someone else tells me the controls in my games are too hard I'm going to pay a l33t Russian hacker to DDoS your site off the face of the internet ;)

A far, far better topic to replace it would be "Advertising & Services" with some extremely strict moderatorial policy. One post per member. Game dev related services only & indie web sites. No replies to posts. A sticky index at the top maintained by the mod. Want a musician or an artist or just to check out some of the other games people are writing? Here's the place to look. Got a nifty Blitz3D utility tool? Advertise it here along with your other products.

If Dev/Tech and News/Feedback were axed 90% of the posts remaining would be useful to many other people. I specifically turn a blind eye to Indie Life as it is an invaluable networking forum.

Cas :)

[Jason Colman]

Cas, I like your idea for "Advertising and Services". It's obvious now you've thought of it - it would be tremendously useful to have lists of available artists, musicians, voice actors, etc all in one place. Nice one.

[Nemesis]

@Cas:

It's granted that there are plenty of places all over the net for technical knowledge / fora / issues and so on. On the other hand, the business and indie life posts are a treasure trove as it is very hard to find anything of the sort (quality-wise) in other places. Still, I fail to see the point of removing the tech category completely. I'm sure plenty of members have found tech posts useful and a good number of them cover topics not usually covered anywhere else. Some cases in point: how to link to order pages on the net through the game vs. how can I make a k3wl FPS game. The fact that are a lot more posts in Indie Business and Indie Life / General Chat rather than Tech posts also shows a certain level of maturity in the sense that a wannabe indie's focus will shift from technical proficiency to a more business/marketing-oriented mindset as he / she grows.

Hang on a minute... I see what you're up to.. you're sneakily trying to cut down on the "Java is for sissies" posts! ;)

[Chris Evans]

@Cas
I think it's pretty silly to not allow replies. This is a message board after all. The point is to have discussion.

I currently don't see anything wrong with the tech and news forums. Maybe all the feedback you got was useless, but I certainly have gotten some valuable feedback from the News forum. I also like reading announcements on new Indie games.

I think what these forums need the most is a FAQ. What Gilzu did on old board was perfect. Each forum should have a FAQ stickied to the top. That will help cut down on some of the redundant topics and posts.

But I really think we shouldn't mess with the overall formula that's made this place into a great community.

[princec]

Not at all silly not to allow replies - the point of the ads for services forum is ads, not wiffle and waffle that may or may not be related to them. It's got to be fast and easy to find what you want in there or it's a waste of time.

Cas :)

[Mithril Studios]

And what if you've used someone's services, and you want to post your experience with them? Like they did a super job? Or they stunk?

Anthony

[Nemesis]

There are always the other forum categories if you want to praise or criticise a service. I see what's Cas' point is all about.. something like a yellow pages of Indie Game Development Services. One post per member, editable so it can be updated - if possible, images could be allowed in there to for some fancy eye-catching ads. It would also make sense to have one thread with many posts so that the ads can be browsed one page at a time rather than havign to access 1 thread / ad.