Discussion ender achievement is negative?

What if you provide such a good answer that ends the discussion? You are "punished" for that?

 

can someone explain to me what the little merit badges are under my user name? 1st anniversary and 10 day registration? uh...what?

 

Rob, I understand your busy tweaking the updates and such... but down the line If you have time and can check this out based on my gauge idea found this : No Flash! Ajax.. Bindows™ : FREE Gauges

 

Just say "No" to more javascript . . .

 

Guys, if you click on "Experience" on the bar across the top and then take a look at the different categories, it will explain a lot. You'll see where positive and negative points come from.

 

I don't know if there is just so much new information that I am overlooking it, but I have searched with no luck. I have read that you can give/get points for thanking someone? There is a "Thanks" button? How does this work? Is it right in front of my face somewhere?

Does one thank another for providing information? Or for a compliment? Are there guidelines here? If I wish to express appreciation, I realize I can simply just respond to a post and write "Thank you," but, with this new system, there is another way to thank someone that results in points being distributed, no?

 

I've looked under "Experience" and see where I gain and lose points...

But it does not directly describe why I lost points.. just tells me what time I lost points?

 

I don't think that every feature has yet been fully enabled. Keep in mind that this is brand new for everyone, including Robb and everyone else implementing it. But it's great that you and everyone else responding has such good suggestions, recommendations, observations, and questions to help us get everything on track and tweak what we can.

Points can be given away as a "thank you". For example if someone makes a great DIY that really helps you do a job or gives you a great answer to your question you might give them some points. To try it out, I gave you 25 points from the "points for number of days registered" category. Give it a little bit and then see if they show up or if you get some sort if message or anything.

 

I got an automated message. Thank you.

I'm just trying to figure it all out. It's pretty cool so far. The one thing I don't understand is how/why I lose points. When you look under "Activities" in your profile and it says "WPPJR30 has lost -5 Experience points." Aside from the fact of that being a double-negative (technically, if you lose -5 points, you should actually be gaining, no? But I digress...), I would like to know why I'm losing those points. I wish it would tell you. What exactly did I do to warrant a loss in points?

 

Here's My .02 on some of the issues that have been brought up Robb.

I think that Thread Necromancer can be a negative or positive. If someone gives a good answer to a long unanswered question or adds to an existing thread rather than starting a new one when it's not needed, it's a good thing. It's only bad when someone revives a dead thread with an unnecessary inane comment for good reason. Instead of making it automatic, could it possibly be left to staff discretion to issue the negative points where warranted and leave legitimate resurrections alone? We do have an option to bestow or deduct points on a discretionary basis.

It may help if perhaps activities that receive negative points were listed in red and showed a (-) by the number of points deducted.

Reputation, referrals, thread tagging, thanks button are not active. Will we activate them?

 

I think a thanks button or rating button are great ideas!

 

Mouse over them and it tells you what it is. Click on "Experience" then "Awards" to see what criteria us used to determine it and who currently hoods it.

They are earned for having the last post in a thread. They are lost when someone else posts in the thread after you do because your post isn't the last one anymore.

 

I have two problems with that. First, even though you’ve ended a discussion with an excellent comment, someone can trump it with a nonsense response just to be last and punish you.

Second, this sort of thing can lead to two or more posters trying to get in the last word, resulting in more post whoring.

 

People have been posting nonsense posts after a really excellent comment forever. They typically think it's funny or witty or whatever. They'll do it if they get points or not. If it ruffles your feathers and is out of line you can report it and it may get deleted. Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it.

Blatant post whoring can simply be deleted by the staff. There's also the option to issue negative points for abuse of the system. If something sticks in your craw, feel free to click the button and report it and someone will take a look at it.

This system is not perfect by far. It is what it is. I think that there will be some good suggestions that may be implemented to improve it. I think there will be some stupid ones that will be ignored and people will get their feelings hurt by it. My suggestion is to do what I'm learning to do in life in general: don't take it too seriously.

And yes, you just lost Discussion Ender points, and I took them from you.

 

My post was not motivated by achieving ender points as I really do not care about such nonsense. In a way you’ve made my point on how silly this sort of thing can be. So feel free to respond and get the last word. I promise to not reply.