Do you think we should do away with user titles?

[Chris Blount]

Well, it looks like the user title issue is back on the table. It seems that some people like them and some people don't. For those who don't know, I'm talking about the rankings under everyones name according to their post count (member, mentor, allstar, etc.).

Should we get rid of the user titles?

[Geronimo]

Yes. I think honorary titles like TNGTony's are fine if not overdone but the rest seems to be counterproductive.

[jrjcd]

i abstain, since regardless how i would vote, it would become fodder for more ridicule...

but if you do titles, then do it across the board...and if you decide not to, then include everyone in the ban....

or as a third option-forget about counts, forget about getting to 1500, and let individuals just choose their own title...

[Nick]

"... let individuals just choose their own title..."

Uh, that idea is fraught with potential problems and abuses. That's what the signatures are for.

How about some new poster titles:

- Compulsive Poster
- Paranoid Poster
- Where am I?
- Martha Stewart Fan Club
- Inside Trader Team
- Closet Thong Wearer
- Please Be Gentle (for newbies)
- Frequent PMer
- In My Humble Opinion
- Barry Bond's "Not a Clue" Platoon
- Off-Topic Expert
- Posting Probationer
- Final Warning, Good bye!
- Cya (with apologies to TNGTony)

[Jacob S]

If someone wants an additional title let them do it within the avatar or something, that in itself is like a title.

I agree that it should be all or none, either all has or all dont have a title, wouldnt be fair and right to have some that could and some that couldn't.

Is this really that big of a deal and is there that much of a problem due to the user title?

[James_F]

I agree with Geronimo, some people have earned their titles and should be able to keep them. Other than that, just have whether they are a supporter or not. That would work for me.

[James_F]

Originally posted by Nick
Barry Bond's "Not a Clue" Platoon
I resemble that remark... :eek:

[timf]

At the TiVo forums (where I'm a moderator), we let users customize their titles after 30 posts. I think this system works very well, and I don't think the user titles detract at all from the site. Like avatars, it gives a way to creatively identify users, in a way different than signatures.

[TimL]

I think User Titles can be a fun thing if they are not overdone. I was just happy to get beyond 10 posts to become a "member" I generally never post unless I have an honest question or something to add to the conversation. I might get to 1000 posts in say..2005?..

Tim Lones
Canton, Ohio

[BearsFan]

Some of us don't have the option of changing titles...

I already checked...and I don't have access to the option.

--BearsFan

[Jacob S]

That is because you have not reached 1000 posts yet. Here is what I think, that anybody should be able to change their title name, like a subtitle, but still have a regular title that would be common to everyone.

I also think that the number of posts DOES indicate those that are more in this hobby than others. Just look at who post and their involvement in this site or with the satellite business.

[jrjcd]

that's 1500 posts jacob...lol

[cnsf]

To be honest, I think they're fun and they attract new users to post more often.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by cnsf
To be honest, I think they're fun and they attract new users to post more often.


Yeah but that's the problem!

[JBKing]

I think the post count and titles are useless. Like someone said, there already is the sig line if someone wants to claim a 'title'. There are some awe-inspiring members who deserve that, by golly! But post count proves nothing as far as knowledge, no offense to anyone. There's some VERY knowledgeable people who just don't have the time to post. Then there's those with (too much) quite a bit of time on their hands, and many in between.

Then there are the Barney Fife's among us, but that's a different story! :p

IMO, there is no need to see how many posts an individual member has. If you stick around a few days, you'll soon learn who is contributing worthwhile info to the mix, whether it be dbs related or in the potpourri forum. But it defeats the entire purpose of being here, when people are posting 'potpourri' in a dbs forum, just to see their count go up. Remember--signal to noise ratio.

[James_F]

While I think the titles are worthless, it seems that most forums have them. Maybe there should just be less. 3 of them... one for "Lurker", one for "Member" and one for "Supporter"...

[STXJim]

Originally posted by JBKing

Then there are the Barney Fife's among us



-----------------------------------------------------------

Damnit Otis,
I was asleep..........;)

-----------------------------------------------------------

Personally I think they are stoopid.
Those titles mean nothing as to rank or number of posts or anything. It's just a 'made up' list. My last title was Legend. Now I'm a Godfather. To me Legend sounds like I might have accomplished something. Godfather sounds like I might have to provide and take care of Mark someday.:eek2:
If this forum keeps the titles I would like to be demoted to the title of Legend and remain that for the rest of my DBSTalk tenure.:)

[Geronimo]

Gee a man willing to be demoted to legend. How humble.

lol

[Chris Blount]

The way the voting is going it looks like they may stay. If they do, PM me after the poll if you are serious about leaving your status at "Legend".

[jrjcd]

i dare say with 800+ members and only 30 votes cast, that kinda indicates whick of the three choices is ACTUALLY ahead...lol

[TNGTony]

I made my comment in the Admin forum. I voted to get rid of them, but only because of the problems they can cause when the only barometer for the title is the raw number of posts. Since there really is not other objective way to have universal titles, I like the idea of Newbie (New Member--newbie has a negative conotation) and Member. Allow supporters people who pay) to pick their own and have special titles as mods see fit (as they did me...I was diefied without my knowledge but I love it! :-)).

See ya
Tony

[STXJim]

Originally posted by TNGTony


I like the idea of Newbie (New Member--newbie has a negative conotation) and Member. Allow supporters people who pay) to pick their own and have special titles as mods see fit


Tony,
This is an excellent suggestion!
This would probably entice people to donate more money too.
And some kind of scale could be set up to dertermine what could be used for your title.
Example:
Donate
$1 - $5 you get a generic title. (Like; Supporter)
$5 - $10 you can post.....?.....for your title.
And so on.

[Mike]

Who cares about titles! Who cares about # of posts! I just look at them and move on. It's nice to know who is a supporter though. I have a AVATAR, but that's something I just think is funny as I enjoy those from James and whoever has the Brittany one around here. I just read the titles and # of posts and just post. Who cares? Why? What's the point? You get rid of the sports forum then we have a problem... :) I vote to keep them as I don't see any logical reason not to have titles. Who cares if you have 1000 posts? That just means you spend more time on here or been here longer then most. Well.....back to the NFL pre-season games. This is childish! Who cares?!!!!!! There's got to be other things to complain or worry about then titles and posts. Isn't there???

[jrjcd]

...i think you need something for that rash...lol...

[James_F]

Gee Mike, I thought you liked me because of my insightful and provocative posts... :D

[Steve Mehs]

From an admin POV it's nice to see the # of posts and user title, to welcome new members to the board. Personally I dont care who has the most posts, I'm second to Scott, good enough for me :) I have 2 user titles, one stating rank the other a personal one, I like that! Some people feel that posts counts determin how importat you are to the board, which is certianly not the case. I feel unless there is something major going on, it is really unnecessary to have over 50 posts in one day. Yeah, today I have a lot since Ive been gone the entire week but I doubt I'll have over 50. I like to have post counts and user titles displayed for the resaon I mentioned above. And the nice thing about VB is that if you post absolute garbage or a million test posts to get your post count up, once a staff member deletes the BS the post count will be reduced.

[jrjcd]

y'know..-i'm sitting around here waiting for one organization to tell me if i got a job with them. I'm also sitting around here trying to figure out how i'm going to pay for tuition by the 23rd of this month(i'm starting back to college in the fall-hopefully-so i can finish after 20 yrs and get a teaching degree, plus my third oldest is starting college this fall also )-i'm also sitting here trying to figure out how to come up with the cash to do some needed repairs to my home before winter and knowing that i'll have to borrow the money for all this against the house. In the past two weeks I have had to find new schools for my other kids as the charter school they went to last year imploded(in the rhetorical sense) and they didn't let anyone know until the last week of july.

Now-this is just stuff that in the real world you just have to deal with-no big whoop-everything but the job thing is working out positively...but in the midst of all that nonsense(and trust me-THAT list is JUST the tip of the iceberg), the nonsense of reaching 1000 posts was a nice and welcome distraction...

i didn't place any undue significance to it, but yeah-in the midst of all this other crap, it got my mind off things for a few minutes, provided a minimal ego-boo for a moment in time, and allowed me to blow off some steam until i realized that even having some fun with it put a burr under some folks saddle....i could care less if there are titles or not -it's kinda a fun thing and yes-it's dumb, but it's dumb in a fun way...

but actually, y'all-if this becomes the worse "issue" you have to deal with around here, you should knock on wood and thank your collective lucky stars...lol

[Nick]

"Personally I think they are stoopid." :lol: :rolling: :lol:

I miss the post counts. I liked seeing new posters with 1-10 or so posts. Who cares if Mark is priming the pump. He is a treasure. Give me the rest of Mark's sentence and let him back in.

[Jacob S]

I used to not hardly post at all but just read but when I became a member of this site I decided to start posting more because I wanted to be more a part of the forum and find out more information about things. I have learned so much from being on here, this is where I have received most of my knowledge and all in one or two places (message boards) where you can exchange ideas and so forth.

[Adam Richey]

I actually get a kick out of user titles. I think they are harmless, so why should you get rid of them?

[Jacob S]

I dont think they are really doing any harm, they promote users to post more and get more involved in this site, nothing works perfect and as planned completely, there are flaws with anything.

[James_F]

But you come back to the "Posting for the sake of posting" argument. Either way, we've spend way too much time on the subject. Lets all move on. :shrug:

[STXJim]

Originally posted by James_F
But you come back to the "Posting for the sake of posting" argument.


So how many posts are required to become a JOCK STRAP?:D
Please; please let me know.
I will quit posting one post short.
I don't carry nobody's nuts but my own and I certainly don't want to be known as...
...a 'dick head'. :blush: :lol: :rolling: :grin:

(Never saw that one coming; did ya?;))

[James_F]

I was going to delete my title, but my head was in the gutter... :D

[Geronimo]

To those who are asking "Why do we want to get rid of them"or "What harm have they done?" here is an answer.

Well for awhile there this site was full of polls, about shanpoo, revelations about what people were wearing, and threads about invasions from outer space coming to take our women.


It is believed by some that the individuals involved enjoyed seeing their post counts rise and achieving milestones in user titles. Of then instead of simply modifying an original post to amplify on a point they would answer their own posts as many as 4 times before anyone else did.

So that is the harm, or the alleged harm. Some (e.g. Nick) have said it helps us to pick out newbies to assist. Perhaps it does and that side of things need to be considered as well.

I vote that the harm was greater than the good. There are lots of folks out there that get excited about this aspect of things. But that si my viewpoint. Talk amongst yourselves.



And great avatar Jim. Lookin' sharp as they say. A man never looks better than he does in a good ole salt and pepper.

[Jacob S]

The mods could just delete the stupid posts but then there would be arguments on what was considered stupid or not stupid, but maybe some new guidelines for posts would solve the problem as well. Maybe posts with less than so many words would get deleted or some that were off topic would get deleted as well.

I am not sure if this would be a good idea though because this may be time consuming for the mods, but maybe if they actually would run upon a post they could just choose to delete it, and then that would be taken right back off of their post count, and maybe even have something that would indicate the amount of posts that were deleted. So not only would it do good to show the post count to show how many posts someone posts, but show how many get deleted which would show an indication of whether the member posts good info or just junk to get the post number up. This may help deter posting to get the posting number up.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok I have been quiet on this up untill now.

Here is the way I would like to see the user titles work

0 - 30 Posts "NEW MEMBER"
30 Post "Member"
40 Posts "User custom title"

People who donate (thanks!) will have the option of having Contributer listed in their title.

This way no more race. :) Leads for a nicer climate too.

Thats my thought on things. :)

[Nick]

Makes way too much sense, except IMO with a range of 10, the "Member" category is way too narrow and should run from 30-99 :eek: and kick in custom titles at 100 posts.

[James_F]

Agreed, 100 is a better cut off. Simple is better for slower people like myself. :D

[STXJim]

0 - 25 and
At least 100.:)
IMO

[Chris Blount]

I don't know if we will go with user custom titles. They would probably be a nightmare for the admins and mods to regulate. I think abuse would show up very quickly. Even now I'm thinking about dropping them altogether just to avoid the hassle.

[Jacob S]

What is the difference in supporter and contributor?

I would not really care if the titles were dropped but would prefer for them to stay.

I think 0-30 for new member and then 30-99 for member is a good idea.

One could also take an average of how long it takes for a member to get to 40/100 and the average number of posts to figure out what a fair number would be.

I believe increasing the number is good, but these are just titles, and has nothing to do with the information we receive on here, which is the most important part of this site.

[Chris Blount]

I'm going to close the poll. It's quite obvious that the majority want the user titles to stay or just don't care.

We will leave things as they are right now with no change in the titles. When stupid threads get started about post counts, we will deal with them on a case-by-case basis. This really isn't a big problem and I see no reason to take something away that most people like having.

[Steve Mehs]

What is the difference in supporter and contributor?

Nothing, James musta chose Contributer as his custom user title. I really like user titles and having multiple ones, but I liked the way it used to be at DBSForums. Nice and simple, noncontrovertial.

0-10 New Member
11+ Member

I like both ways, but their just user titles after all...

[Jacob S]

I say we should just keep it as it is, and let the moderators decide, as long as the majority on this site is happy. You cant make everyone happy. Either that or have the members vote, or if there are enough members say something about it then maybe consider something else, otherwise the way it is seems to be alright.

[Nick]

Well said, Jacob.

I like the way you zero in on a solution that covers all the bases. Have you considered going into politics?

[Jacob S]

Thanks for the compliment. No matter what there is, there is always going to be something wrong with it and a difference in opinion, but the world would be boring if things were not this way. If you cant please everyone, at least please the majority and then after pleasing the majority see what can be done to help ammend the rest. I have learned how hard it is to please people being a retailer for Dish. They tend to never be happy for the most part. They appreciate what you do at first then later act like you done them injustice for doing them a favor.

We should be happy that we even have such features on here.