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This is a subject that was discussed at length a few months ago, but I don't think there was a great deal of interest at the time.
Those who've been watching the Speed Eight Chevrolet thread will know that it was started by a newcomer to PH who has done an extremely interesting engine conversion and was describing what he did and why, to various people.
The response has been almost universally positive with some very interesting and informed discussions.
But a couple of people have responded by suggesting that he has gone about it all wrong, chosen the wrong engine, shouldn't have changed the engine at all, and so on. I'm not going to name names, but anyone reading the thread will see that a couple of the responses have been particlarly belligerent, this seems to be a common theme with posts from these particular individuals. This has soured the thread to the extent that this newcomer has run out of patience and is on the point of walking away from the forum, which would be a huge loss to us all.
The current rating system lets me give a 'thumb up' or 'thumb down' rating to the thread as a whole. I'd like to give the thread a huge 'thumb up'. But at the same time I want to point out that the nay-sayers are spoiling the thread and I wish they'd just shut up. There's really no way to do that other than respond to their posts in the thread, which would just compound the problem.
What I want to do is be able to rate individual posts (or perhaps, posters) so that the moderators can see where people are generally getting fed up with undesirable contributions and thread spoilers. If there's a trend with individuals generally getting negative feedback from their posts, perhaps the mods could take them aside for some attitude adjustment or give them some time on the naughty step to think about what they've done.
I don't suppose this would be particularly easy to do, but it's the only way I can see to address the trend of sniping and childish bickering which so many threads seem to descend into these days.
Edited to add:
I see this as something that would only be used very exceptionally and needn't be prominent. On the upside, perhaps if it allowed positive as well as negative ratings then it could be used as the basis for some sort of reward system, for example in past years there have been 'pistonhead of the year' awards.
>> Edited by GreenV8S on Friday 24th March 18:34
Those who've been watching the Speed Eight Chevrolet thread will know that it was started by a newcomer to PH who has done an extremely interesting engine conversion and was describing what he did and why, to various people.
The response has been almost universally positive with some very interesting and informed discussions.
But a couple of people have responded by suggesting that he has gone about it all wrong, chosen the wrong engine, shouldn't have changed the engine at all, and so on. I'm not going to name names, but anyone reading the thread will see that a couple of the responses have been particlarly belligerent, this seems to be a common theme with posts from these particular individuals. This has soured the thread to the extent that this newcomer has run out of patience and is on the point of walking away from the forum, which would be a huge loss to us all.
The current rating system lets me give a 'thumb up' or 'thumb down' rating to the thread as a whole. I'd like to give the thread a huge 'thumb up'. But at the same time I want to point out that the nay-sayers are spoiling the thread and I wish they'd just shut up. There's really no way to do that other than respond to their posts in the thread, which would just compound the problem.
What I want to do is be able to rate individual posts (or perhaps, posters) so that the moderators can see where people are generally getting fed up with undesirable contributions and thread spoilers. If there's a trend with individuals generally getting negative feedback from their posts, perhaps the mods could take them aside for some attitude adjustment or give them some time on the naughty step to think about what they've done.
I don't suppose this would be particularly easy to do, but it's the only way I can see to address the trend of sniping and childish bickering which so many threads seem to descend into these days.
Edited to add:
I see this as something that would only be used very exceptionally and needn't be prominent. On the upside, perhaps if it allowed positive as well as negative ratings then it could be used as the basis for some sort of reward system, for example in past years there have been 'pistonhead of the year' awards.
>> Edited by GreenV8S on Friday 24th March 18:34
Absolutely agree. Although I didn't contribute to the thread in question, I found it fascinating, reading every page, only for it to be completely ruined by a couple of contributors with their own agenda. I rarely enter into discussions here for fear of excessive over reaction, which seems to be a too common occurence. Instead I generally limit my contributions to specific technical subjects where I have relevant knowledge.
7.
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One board I use has just implemented a system like that, underneath the user name is a small rating percentage with five warning lights, so people can see who are trouble makers, I think only moderators can give a warning though. The rating system is a bit like the ebay feedback system, so if someones got poor feedback then you know they aren't worth listening to, or at least someone to be wary of.
A different forum uses a points system where by you get a couple of points per post, I think it goes by length of post as well so you can't get lots of points by just making one line replies. You also get 3 or 4 'awards' per month which you can give out to other users who you feel have made a really good contribution to the board, this gives the user 1000 points or so. Again only moderators can give a warning, which then takes away a fair chunk of your points.
But this method, rather than allowing people to 'neg' other people who they dont like or disagree with, which could be open to unfair abuse, only allows people to rate positively so you can see who are the respected people by the length of time they have been around, the number of posts they have and the number of points they have accumulated. Another advantage of gaining lots of points and being well behaved is that you get a discount in the online shop in exchange for points.
One aviation site I visit regularly has a similar system except it rates by 'rank' (bascially shows how long you have been there) and 'confirmed kills' (how many posts you have made) just to keep with the theme of the site, you could probably do something similar with PH but with a racing theme like yellow and black flags for warnings and so on, maybe a green or chequered flag for a good contribution. Maybe use race wins or litres of fuel consumed instead of number of posts, maybe even something cheeky like amount of CO2 released (works on the automotive level and the 'talking excessively' level
). It is the gassing station after all.
Something to think about at least.
A different forum uses a points system where by you get a couple of points per post, I think it goes by length of post as well so you can't get lots of points by just making one line replies. You also get 3 or 4 'awards' per month which you can give out to other users who you feel have made a really good contribution to the board, this gives the user 1000 points or so. Again only moderators can give a warning, which then takes away a fair chunk of your points.
But this method, rather than allowing people to 'neg' other people who they dont like or disagree with, which could be open to unfair abuse, only allows people to rate positively so you can see who are the respected people by the length of time they have been around, the number of posts they have and the number of points they have accumulated. Another advantage of gaining lots of points and being well behaved is that you get a discount in the online shop in exchange for points.
One aviation site I visit regularly has a similar system except it rates by 'rank' (bascially shows how long you have been there) and 'confirmed kills' (how many posts you have made) just to keep with the theme of the site, you could probably do something similar with PH but with a racing theme like yellow and black flags for warnings and so on, maybe a green or chequered flag for a good contribution. Maybe use race wins or litres of fuel consumed instead of number of posts, maybe even something cheeky like amount of CO2 released (works on the automotive level and the 'talking excessively' level
). It is the gassing station after all. Something to think about at least.
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