Scratch

doing this just makes spammers want to spam even more.   To get the best possible ranking is what they yearn for, so getting the highest possible ranking here, won't stop them one bit.

No, they know that it's pointless to spurt for a few days because over time your average will go back. Also, since the average will be rounded off, a few posts won't make much of a difference over time. 

Last edited by Hardmath123 (2012-03-23 08:18:31)

joletole wrote:

Lucario621 wrote:

Paddle2See wrote:

We've been talking this over for a few months - how to reward experienced and helpful Scratchers.  We currently have the Community Moderator positions, which give expanded powers and trust to a selected few members.   I think what you are proposing here, is something intermediate between a regular Scratcher and a Community Moderator. 

I can see where the Community might enjoy such a position...and it might motivate people to be more helpful in the community.  I can also see where it might get to be a bit of a tangled mess trying to decide who is worthy of the honor, selecting candidates and explaining to people why they did or didn't make it.  It's not an easy thing.  There's a lot to think over 

Yep. They would definitely have to be hand selected, not automatic or anything.

Also, what would make them special? Would it just be a status? (that would be perfectly fine with me) Or would they have some similar abilities as moderators? I'm not really sure. Also, how many people would get the rank? And how do you make sure it's not a rank exclusively given to people on the forums, for example?

Many questions left unanswered.

I think I can answer some of those questions.

Yes the first couple of Experienced Scratchers would be picked by the Scratch Team, but then they go off and see who can get the position to. So the Scratch Team wouldn't have to do all that.

Well the Experienced Scratchers would probably spend 75% of there time on "Questions About Scratch" Forum. Also they would get the privilege of moving stuff around. But they are not allowed to close any topics.

I think there should be more people getting the rank then the Community Mods. There should probably be around 20 of them. And right around when the election for community mods is going on, they have an election for the experienced Scratchers. The way the election would go is, one of the experienced Scratchers would go out and find about 30 people that seem right for the job, then only the Experienced Scratchers would vote for there favorite one.

And the way they would get the rank is if they answer a lot of questions on that questions forum.

I like this idea.

Hardmath123 wrote:

I'm personally fine with just a rank. It's nice to know whether you're speaking with a total newbie or an experienced Scratcher regardless of post counts, because I often see Scratchers who are really active on the main site complain because they don't have the Scratcher forum rank so can't be a curator, etc. A hand-picked rank sounds like enough to counter the post count problem. Or my "average" idea (see above).

Ah, just so you know, that should be fixed.
If someone has been Scratching for a while on the main site, their first post in the forums ever might say New Scratcher. But in 24 hours or so, it should change to Scratcher.

Yessss! I'm finally at the 1000+ rank! :DDDDDDDDDD

Just got 500 

Splodgey wrote:

funelephant wrote:

Just got 500 

Did you have to write a whole post about that?

It's not like you need to make a big deal. I'm just happy.

Lightnin wrote:

Hardmath123 wrote:

I guess it's a problem with the oh-so-secret formula? 

What did you think of the averages? I think it may work for the better because, you know, after 100 days getting from 2 to 3 will take forever, it's not worth it to get there by spamming.

Hehe, it's not very secret, as you know. If we wanted to keep a lot of secrets, we probably wouldn't publicly release our source code. Still, at least this way the spammers have to dig for it. 

The reason it doesn't take effect immediately has to do with the fact that our forums are kind of frankensteined onto the main site, and not really integrated with it. Prior to visiting the forums for the first time, a Scratcher won't even have an account there. So we have to wait till they get one before the nightly cron-job that updates them to Scratcher can do its job. This makes things a pain in a lot of ways - and is something that we plan to do better in Scratch 2.0.

The averages is an interesting idea. Thing is, I'm not sure everyone would like it, since if you took a break for a while, when you came back, you'd be basically starting somewhere near 0?  And new accounts who've only been active for one day would easily be able to get their average to like 100 or so, while more experienced Scratchers would have a lower average, since their participation would be spread out over a longer period of time.

How about a formula?

(PostCount * #OfDaysAPostWasMade) / #AccountAgeInDays

I don't agree with the whole average thing. At least currently people won't spam to appear better, but if you showed the averages, they would.

Hardmath123 wrote:

Yeah, +1 to Greenatic, except the formula should be:
total_posts/#_of_days_where_a_post_was_made

EDIT: But Lightnin did have a good point. Maybe New Scratchers' post average shouldn't be shown? Then again, that seems like doing too much for a little reward... This isn't an easy problem, it it? 

That's an average.  The problem with an average is that very new Scratchers could look more experienced than older ones...which is what I tried to fix with my formula.  I guess it would be better to multiply in the age then, though...hmm...   

Yeah, we do need time factored into the average... How about posts per day for the past month? For people returning after a break, their registration time shows that.

Last edited by scimonster (2012-04-01 14:26:01)

James07 wrote:

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...

Spam?