Mods having fun again ..

[Kale]

exactly! well many were afaik, they just changed ranking system wich is ok. however i just think a power user rank is needed too.

Ranks in such a forum will never really work, as a lot of human factors kick in (sympathy one of them), as well as programming is by far a too wide field to be covered with a simple rank. Expert in this doesn't mean expert in that.

IIRC Berikco, disconnected the rank from post count in order so people didn't get too hung up about them and try to increase post counts to get higher rank. I guess at the end of the day ranks don't really matter that much but i guess people like a little recognition for helping others.

p.s. i'm ranked expert!

[GedB]

p.s. i'm ranked expert!

Your a has-been drip under pressure, and proud of it?

[Dare2]

Your a has-been drip under pressure, and proud of it?

lol. (Had to think about that a mo). Better not analyse the addict ranking, methinks!

Ahem .. To whom it may concern .. I'm still waiting for my official "SpamArtist" ranking!

Edit: This is officially my 1500th post!

[Max.]

FSW: Is there a firefox plugin that does that, blocking of certain images? If so, what's the name? I sure can use something like that.

Look for adblock.

[Max.]

IIRC Berikco, disconnected the rank from post count in order so people didn't get too hung up about them and try to increase post counts to get higher rank. I guess at the end of the day ranks don't really matter that much but i guess people like a little recognition for helping others.

Look at Enthusiast->Addict gap in forum postings. Maybe it isn't as hardcoded as limit as it was before, but you will see.

Beside? Enthusiast? Addict? Sorry, but who came up with this? Sounds like Kindergarten.

Trouble is, I'd need to back up with some comparisons of quality of postings from "non-Experts" with "Experts"; there are 2 extreme examples on both sides - 1 definitly amongst the 2 best coders in the forum (no, he is not ranked expert), the other somewhere at advanced beginner level (haven't seen much contribution either, more simple questions. Yep, ranked "Expert"). But to go into detail would not help the community though.

Beside these extremes, there is a lot in between.

But anyway, if the ranks are there, they do matter. Though they shouldn't. And I don't find them encouraging to contribute, as I find any intransparent system discouraging.

i guess people like a little recognition for helping others.

I can assume the reverse then? Either the contribution was not valueable or not appreciated? Ah, ok... I don't spend much time asking here. Why spend time answering then?

[PB]

> FSW: Is there a firefox plugin that does that, blocking of certain
>images? If so, what's the name? I sure can use something like that.

Yep, it's AdBlock (as Max said). And it blocks ANYTHING you want, not
just pictures... you can block Shockwave animations, links, frames; just
about anything. Makes surfer so much faster too due to not loading any
of the blocked items.

Also, someone here once asked how to block users in these forums, well
I found a Firefox extension called "phpBB User Hide" (Google it) which
does it... it puts a little X next to each person's name on a phpBB board,
just click it to "plonk" them and never see their posts again. You then
click the X again to "unplonk" them.

[Dare2]

Also, someone here once asked how to block users in these forums, well
I found a Firefox extension called "phpBB User Hide" (Google it) which
does it... it puts a little X next to each person's name on a phpBB board,
just click it to "plonk" them and never see their posts again. You then
click the X again to "unplonk" them.

lol!

That would lead to some interesting threads. People looking like they're talking to themselves ...

Still, pretty tempting - there is one poster who I could really do without - but wait - can you still post if you plonk yourself?

[Beach]

but wait - can you still post if you plonk yourself?

Yes, but you could go blind or grow hair on your palms...

[jack]

but wait - can you still post if you plonk yourself?

Yes, but you could go blind or grow hair on your palms...

[GedB]

Tech-pro StopAds is a neat little program written in Visual Dialogscript (by VDS creator Julian Moss).

http://www.tech-pro.net/stopads.html

It sits in your task bar and acts as a proxy server. It maintains a stop list of servers which it won't except any files from.

[Dare2]

lol, Beach.

[Joakim Christiansen]

it must be! My computer cannot find the domain http://www.shannarafamily.com ...! so, its probably the host for the image thats down

Damn, he got a picutre of naked childs there...

[thefool]

wow yes he does

[Kale]

IIRC Berikco, disconnected the rank from post count in order so people didn't get too hung up about them and try to increase post counts to get higher rank. I guess at the end of the day ranks don't really matter that much but i guess people like a little recognition for helping others.

Look at Enthusiast->Addict gap in forum postings. Maybe it isn't as hardcoded as limit as it was before, but you will see.

Beside? Enthusiast? Addict? Sorry, but who came up with this? Sounds like Kindergarten.

Trouble is, I'd need to back up with some comparisons of quality of postings from "non-Experts" with "Experts"; there are 2 extreme examples on both sides - 1 definitly amongst the 2 best coders in the forum (no, he is not ranked expert), the other somewhere at advanced beginner level (haven't seen much contribution either, more simple questions. Yep, ranked "Expert"). But to go into detail would not help the community though.

Beside these extremes, there is a lot in between.

But anyway, if the ranks are there, they do matter. Though they shouldn't. And I don't find them encouraging to contribute, as I find any intransparent system discouraging.

i guess people like a little recognition for helping others.

I can assume the reverse then? Either the contribution was not valueable or not appreciated? Ah, ok... I don't spend much time asking here. Why spend time answering then?

This is exactly why the ranks were changed and disconnected from the post counts, people make too much of them! It really doesn't matter what it says next to your name, if you are a valuable member of this community then everybody knows that.

Also saying that some users have an 'expert' rank but are not that great or helping much is a bit silly. The rank was given to people who have used PB and helped for the good of PB overall, sometimes helping in other places other than this forum. IMHO everybody with 'expert' rank thoroughly deserves it.

One thing i will say again as i've mentioned it before, just because someone doesn't post much or help out very much with more than anything other than beginner questions is not necessarily a noob. Some people here are amazing coders.

TBH i think all post counts and ranks should be taken away from regular users but mods and admin keep theirs, then this rubbish will go away.

[Max.]

This is exactly why the ranks were changed and disconnected from the post counts, people make too much of them!

Again, they are not as much disconnected as you believe.

It really doesn't matter what it says next to your name, if you are a valuable member of this community then everybody knows that.

So what is the point of the ranks at all? We got a couple of versions now that contradict each other:

- it doesn't matter
- it is a little recognition for helping others

This is a forum for programmers. I think it is allowed to apply some strict logic

Also saying that some users have an 'expert' rank but are not that great or helping much is a bit silly. The rank was given to people who have used PB and helped for the good of PB overall, sometimes helping in other places other than this forum. IMHO everybody with 'expert' rank thoroughly deserves it.

Then the name of the rank is chosen wrongly. I expect very high knowledge of programming generally, but even more proficient knowledge of PB and it's internas from someone called "Expert". That is my IMHO. Ah, scratch the H.

A simple example is a new user who asks. 2 guys - 1 expert, 1 other - answer him, one with the perfect code sample, the expert with some clumsy attempt that works too. Who looks more credible to someone who does not know programming/PB well enough?

TBH i think all post counts and ranks should be taken away from regular users but mods and admin keep theirs, then this rubbish will go away.

Or get a system which is independent of sympathy, emotions and quantity. A transparent system. That should be standard for anything dealing with business and knowledge.

Anything else is bound to split the community. While it is now me who voices it most loudly, it was not me who first came up with thinking about the ranks here. So indeed, what you call rubbish seems to be an issue.