Frogboy Frogboy

We need to give people more accolades

We need to give people more accolades

One of our top priorities when we created the site was to have a way of really giving users who are contributing to the site some accoldates.

That's why we track the top skin authors per category and top skins and such. But we shouldn't stop there I think.

One of the things we've been throwing around is the idea of having a points system for users. So that people who are contributing to the site in other ways can get more recognition.

Basically the idea works something like this:

When you make a post, you get 1 point for every 10 responses it gets.

When you submit news that gets accepted, you get a point.

For every 10 responses you make you get a point.

For every 5 responses on news items you get a point.

For every 100 downloads your skin gets you get a point.

For every article we publish of yours you get 1 point.

For every 100 people who view your article you get a point.

For every 5 comments you make on a skin you get a point.

Now, to keep people from writing "junk" responses, they would lose a point for every response/comment of theirs we had to delete (so if the person responded "Yea!" as their post, we could delete it and the user would lose 1 point -- we would just discretion, only if it was apparent the person was making the weak response for points would we do that).

This sort of point system would then let us have a hall of fame for top contributors to the site.

32,071 views 88 replies
Reply #26 Top
Isn't this just another version of the title/honorific thing that most people shot down when this site first opened? Not everybody wants or needs to show their status to the community. Everybody here already knows who the "real" contributors are.

This is the kind of stuff that bums me out about this site. Frogboy is so hung up on status ratings that when one vision doesn't pan out the way he wants, he invents a new one. I don't see any top skinners here asking for more recognition.

How I long for the old days when people skinned for fun instead of accolades and praise. Listen to Doreen up there.

Oh well, back to lurking.
Reply #27 Top
Hehe, I agree with Paxx, we couldn't get into deleting posts so I think such a system would be doomed.

Doreen, yes, the site has had to expand a lot since it first started.

Stardock provides a block grant to the site for its expenses. That grant is enough to pay for a "skinz.org" level site in terms of traffic. But in June when Deskmod went down, the site's bandwidth use skyrocketed so the site had to get more bandwidht. Remember how the site was unbelievably slow for a week or two in June? That's because we had maxed out the bandwidth.

So we bought a ton more bandwidth. Right now, Stardock's paying the extra (i.e. temporarily increasing its grant) but eventually the site is going to have to pay for that difference.

So as I said, we'll have to either find a way to pay for that bandwidth or find a way to decrease the amount used or something in between. More high bandwidth sites will help but the reliability issue is a big concern (many skin authors, myself included, are wary of spending the hours necessary to upload all their stuff to a new site until it's proven it's not going to disappear in a few months).

I doubt anyone reading this post have downloaded 200+ megabytes of stuff. And that's the problem. There's plenty of stuff we can do, when someone downloads more than X megabytes pop up banner ads start showing up or nag screens or whatever that will either get them to contribute to the site in some meaningful way or they'll go elsewhere.

But surely we can all agree that someone like Treetog or TheCat or Doreen or Paxx or Cygnus should never be in the position of feeling like they HAVE to buy something because they contribute to the site in meaningful ways all the time.

But if such contributions matter, it would be nice for those people to get more recognition, but if the people who would be recognized don't want that recognition, then there's not much point in doing it.
Reply #28 Top
I have to agree with Jafo and Dor on this one.

I've been reading the progress of this thread and thought that maybe I shouldn't write anything, as I would hate to lose a point simply for writing a useless post

But...as so many others have put it, I too think that having a point system for ppl that contribute..well, pointless! We all know who the BIG contributes to the site are, we all know which ppl comment on skins on a regular basis, so why would we need to know that say treetog is a GREAT skiner, or someone else hangs out on the messageboard lots? (no names there )

I know which ppl around here contribute lots to this site, and I sure the rest of you do too!

...just my 2 cents on the subject
Reply #29 Top
There seems to be a consensus on that. If the people who such a system would benefit don't want it, no point in having it.

Though that will still leave us with the problem of how to measure non-finanical contribution to the site when/if it proves necessary to try to discourage people from downloading a quarter gig of stuff without doing anything constructive in return.
Reply #30 Top
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but LOS is running some similar "stats points" right now and I never saw any kind of complains there.

Maybe because they didn't ask nobody's opinion and just introduce their idea. I really don't see any problem with that.

I don't think that Brad is trying to control nobody here, just trying control the size of the bill that he is going to pay.

In time: In what I think, he is not wrong either.
Reply #31 Top
Renato, yes the LOS points don't seem to be a problem...and in the case of WinCusto, all that we need is not to allocate any points for downloading, so those who just grabe the gigs will be conspicuous in their dearth of points...
Reply #32 Top
Hehe, of course, if we listed the top 20 downloaders here, you wouldn't recognize any of the names because they've never posted or anything.

Reply #33 Top
Me don't care either way. But it sure does suck seeing how so many people just use this site as just a file download site without even commenting on skins or posting or anything. You go over to los or da and there's lots of posting there with far fewer downloads. There's a lot of mindless banter there too but I could live with some banter if it meant getting more people to try communicating for a change.
Reply #34 Top
I was never sure how to spell camaraderie, thanks Jafo...
I am also still keeping my mouth shut, and tipping a nod, to the direction this thread is taking. Seems interesting.
Reply #35 Top
No problem, Cyg...glad to help...
Reply #36 Top
Its posts like these that make it worth spending a late saturday night reading here. Such good intellects here.
Reply #37 Top
Brad, a lot of your logic is a bit faulty.

You know how a point system that "discourages" mass downloaders helps bandwidth? By making them tell you to piss off, and then badmouthing this site to their friends. Making people mad isn't a good way to help your bill. Also, for every one of them, there's probably ten that don't even have an account so never see this stuff, and therefore make your problem stay firmly in place.

On this point system business, who the hell is it for? "The poor downtrodden users"? Pshaw. Every major skin site... WC, DA, LoS, etc... is oriented towards users (sure you can nickel and dime on "for the skinners" stuff, but in the end it's like saying download.com and HotFiles are for programmers). The only consolation for us (as in people that make skins) is the ability to build a reputation and following with our work (yeah, believe it or not, I'm more well known as "that icon guy" than the guy stirring up the forums). Even then, that wasn't excluvely our territory (and we understood this, and had no problem with such). Witness Jsenn, Doreen, Jafo, and myself while on forums. Jsenn especially, who's rep was built on her comments on works. Now... now we have kids that feel all these sites aren't enough, and are whining that we're big elitists and they should have reps too. Boohoo. Tell them to shut up and EARN a reputation, just like we did (we certainly weren't handed our places and "name" status via some cooked up status system).

You still haven't made it perfectly strict on what a "contributor" is, and it becomes doubly important when you implement a pay system. How do you classify nebulous users? Some people like Doreen, and feel she contributes, others think she's some goofball that goes "hehehe" a lot. Some think I'm intelligent and entertaining, others think I'm a big dumb jerk. Then there's people like Plastic who's primary contributions are on a different site. How do you judge our "contributions"? If it's on a person to person basis, you're going to catch a LOT of flak.


Here's what I think your best course of action is, given circumstances: first, kiss any chance of a self sustaining site goodbye (but you likely knew that). I tell you this, cos the second thing is instating a pay system (not immediately, but after SD's "temporary grant increase" is no longer feasable), and it's going to make your current userbase count nosedive. Third, while keeping WC's independence, blur the line between it and SD a little. Include a WC membership with each OD sub, put a comment system on the SD side of the skin database (this will increase chances of comments), give discounts for subs (just having skins won't cut it, they have DA and LoS... getting a few bucks off OD and access to some other goodies will appropriately sweeten the deal), stuff like that. Fourth, tell the people crying "I want a reputation too!" to earn one, like the rest of us have. Finally, figure out who gets a free pass, and decide exactly how it works.

Is the site going to be near as big as it is now? No, at least not for a long while. Will everyone be happy? Not in a million years. Will you have something that at least has a shot at sticking around? You bet, so long as you don't want to make it self sufficient.
Reply #38 Top
Sounds like LOS.com
And all I have to say is what everyone else said...don't do it.
Haven't you given us enough titles as is?
I mean hell why not make a special win custo site for the people with most downloads and best skins/walls and leave the rest of us here.
I mean that is where this seems to be going right?
Sorry if I misread it but why can't we just have admins and everyone else.
Even devart has accolades to some degree but at least it is there for reason not by how much you contribute. I contribute i comment when I can I try to help people when I get almost ZERO help back and I'll still come if it happens but why can't it be about art...why such a status quo?
I dunno I mean stardock is big but settle down there boys and remember some of us are here for the art
Reply #39 Top
/me sticks around to see the response to MR. Ess...
Reply #40 Top
Some of us reticent folks who comment with nervous fingers might be even more of a wreck if we think our comments are being graded. I often don't comment for fear of not being very familar with art techniques, and thus, not providing constructive criticism.

My only two comments so far have really just been nods of approval, which I love to receive myself. I don't care if they earn me a point or not. It's the people that matter, and I want them to know they're appreciated.

My critique:encouragement ratio will probably always lean heavily towards encouragement. As such, am I just going to be wasting bandwidth under a system like the one proposed? Or not?
Reply #42 Top
/me cuts of jark's tongue

What I am missing here is "crae is the kingpin of this scene", all the other stuff doesn't matter to me. I think I should do something about my pr...
Reply #43 Top
Hahaha,

Okay.....This is rather entertaining.

If any of you remember, the romance thread and quite a few are so long because I happen to be messing and posting a bunch of off topic/waste comments on it just for the heck of it. Of course, many of you joined in.

Brad, that's one form of fun on this board, and yes, they all go under not needed comments. However, our purpose was to be silly and entertain each other, and hopefully some of the population of the site.

So once this gets implemented, and if it does...the that means Elffie can't post all those comments anymore =P

/me looks pleadingly at Brad not to take that away from her.
Reply #44 Top
/me confiscates Jark's tongue from Craeonics....

Clean your basement window with something else!
"Bad Crae,Bad"
Reply #45 Top
*holds lips with petrified look on face while looking furiously for tongue*
Reply #46 Top
*hofs fips wif pefrifie fook oh fafe whie foofih furioufy for funh*

Spell-checked for the challenged-of-tongue.....Spell checker
Reply #47 Top
Did you actually repeat that to yourself without using your tongue to get that?

You have way too much time on your hands.
Reply #48 Top
Okay, here's my two cents...

While ESS may have said things a little too bluntly and I believe he is wrong in several respects, he does have some valid points. You will NEVER, EVER please everyone. AND, as I've said before, if you want to run banner ads or such, keeping the user count high is a priority.

HOWEVER, giving points for commenting skins has it's pitfalls. I can see some people who add no other value to a site running around leaving dozens of "Kewl dude" comments just to build up a point value. Unless you have someone validating each comment... wow, what a chore that would be!

Giving points for posting in the forum... same idea. We see how some of these threads get way out of control and O/T therefore adding no real value to the site. Again, have someone validate forum posts? Yikes!

If there is to be a "point-system" I can only see that working via the following:

Uploads: Do a skin? Great, here's your doggy bone. Got it into the top 10? Wow, impressive, here's a Beggin Strip for ya too! Over 10,000 downloads? Sheesh... take the T-Bone too!

Contributions:
MONETARY. YEP, someone donating bux is helping to keep the site alive. They deserve just as much as us skinners do.

OTHER. Do something good for the site? Get yer reward and keep up the good work!

I know damn well that I am going to catch some heat for some of this but hey, I'm a big boy now mom and I can say what I feel.
Reply #49 Top
Oh and Crae, weren't you warned once about this tongue fetish?

BoXXi? Be nice and give poor jark back his tongue before Jafo makes him out to be some kind of blithering eccentric intellectual.