Poster Rank ?

[Moritz]

What is this Poster Rank stuff?
Did I miss it in general announcements or something?

Moritz #3

[Ed Zachary]

Heh... lowly #3.

Know thy rank and yield to your superiors!

[Farcaster]

Its a new little statistic I added for fun. Everyone is ranked according to the number of posts they've made on the forum (and in the case of a tie, their join date). Just a little recognition for our top posters ;)

Oh, and #1 here baby, so you all better recognize. :p

[grimwell]

Do I get to start counting the days until someone starts spamming nonsense to gain rank? :)

[Farcaster]

Why, is that your plan, Grim? :D

[The Wandering Bard]

Oh man, looks like I might have to take that advise as well I'm stucj back here in 16th place :( haha.

[Moritz]

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam!!!!
I really wanna knock Ed out of that #2 spot. :)

-Ed, I'm comin for ya. :)

But I'm realizing that I'll never catch up with Ed as he's running a game on this thing, he probably does 8x my posts just in that game thread alone.

[starfalconkd]

Ermmm...

[Ed Zachary]

But I'm realizing that I'll never catch up with Ed as he's running a game on this thing, he probably does 8x my posts just in that game thread alone.

Then run your own game! You'll attract more people to the site, and it should prove to be good entertainment even for those not participating. I hope that those reading my play by post game are enjoying the story.

[Moritz]

Yeah, I thought about doing that, but it's far to slow for me. I can barely play on a MUX due to the minutes that will pass between poses - hours would cause my head to explode.

[Ed Zachary]

Yeah, I thought about doing that, but it's far to slow for me. I can barely play on a MUX due to the minutes that will pass between poses - hours would cause my head to explode.

I've never played a MUX or whatever else on line open to anyone. For me knowing and liking the players is critical. Before I started the game I had the first five encounters and the course of the overall mission planned out. After five weeks of looking for players and starting out, we're at the fifth encounter. After that the next two are already set. Yeah I'd like to have a sit down session and run through them, but it does move slowly.

But I have a weekly game that moves quickly, and this play by post moves slowly. But it does give people a chance to think about their actions and words, and make a post or two on most days.

So here it is, another shameless plug... visit the Sacrilege in Calimshan play by post game today!

[grimwell]

Why, is that your plan, Grim? :D
Oh heck no! I babble way too much already!

On the last message board I've inherited, there was a 'private/elite' hidden board that you only gained access too for postcount. I wasn't sure about the idea, and it was buried at the bottom of (literally) 100+ other forums, so most people didn't even know it was there. As a test I moved it to the top so people would see it right when they logged in, and sure enough they did.

Two days later, people started spamming to get access to the uber board. They couldn't see it, but word got out. Any time there is a prize, or ranking, some people are driven to 'win' even if it's just bragging rights. :eek:

[The Wandering Bard]

I would just like to take this chance to say HAHAHA I am know rank 12, my evil devious plan is working (fingers tapping together), soon yes soon I will be #1 (No i didn't mean it like that) than you shall know your true master ;)

[PhishStyx]

Spam?

I would . . .

Never. . .

do anything. . .

like that!

[Ed Zachary]

Farcaster should delete all spam posts, so they don't count toward total posts.

Including this one once he reads it. Thank you.

[Moritz]

ROFLMAO - PhishStix, shame on you.

I've seen on other forums a SPAM Folder where people would place non topic posts such as 'Ban the person before you', humor, 'longest thread ever', 'three word story', and so on.

In this case, it would give those who wanted to raise their rank the opportunity to spam away along with adding random threads of non relating content.

[Farcaster]

Posting rank is just a cool little statistic to recognize the folks who help build this board the most with their participation. We're all adults here, so I don't think I really need to say much more than, please don't spam useless messages. If anyone does, I'll just reset their post count to zero or exclude them from the ranking system altogether.

[PhishStyx]

ROFLMAO - PhishStix, shame on you.

Thank you, I'll be here until Thursday, try the veal!


I've seen on other forums a SPAM Folder where people would place non topic posts such as 'Ban the person before you', humor, 'longest thread ever', 'three word story', and so on.

Yeah, rpg.net and the Palladium boards both seem to have a lot of that kind of thing.

Truthfully, that and age and those sorts of things don't matter to me nearly as much as one's ability to act maturely, and neither one ensures the latter.

[Skunkape]

Plus, as admin, Farcaster can alter stats on each member of the forums, say like number of posts and such and since the poster rank is determined by number of posts...

Do I really need to say more?

[TheYeti1775]

One idea on that poster rank thing, is another board used the old 1E names for each class. Based off posts, I'll check and see if I can log on there from work.
Be right back.

[TheYeti1775]

They used the Druid ones there and then added a few when many started becoming 'Grand Druids'

Yeti

Novice
Aspirant
Ovate
Initiate of the 1st Circle
Initiate of the 2nd Circle
Initiate of the 3rd Circle
Initiate of the 4th Circle
Initiate of the 5th Circle
Initiate of the 6th Circle
Initiate of the 7th Circle
Initiate of the 8th Circle
Initiate of the 9th Circle
Druid
Archdruid
Great Druid
The Grand Druid
Hierophant Druid
Hierophant Initiate
Hierophant Adept
Hierophant Master
Numinous Hierophant
Mystic Hierophant
Arcane Hierophant
Hierophant of the Cabal
Proxy
Demi-Power
Lesser Power
Intermediate Power
Greater Power

[Farcaster]

I've thought about adding rank titles, but they'd need to be generic enough not to completely favor any specific genre. Alternatively, I've been thinking about making it so that depending on what section you post in, it uses that sections list of ranks, but that is more difficult to do and will some custom coding.

[Kelbin]

The poster Rank seems like a good idea though.

[Moritz]

Druid?!?!?!

Oh hell no, I don't wanna be one of those tree hugging, dolphin lovin, sandal wearing, indian giving hippie characters.

Give me a paladin rank like High Inquisitor. So I can go around and smite people.

[grimwell]

I still think rotating the rank names quarterly to fit different themes would be good! Good is good! We like good! Good! Gooooooood!

[rabkala]

Alternatively, I've been thinking about making it so that depending on what section you post in, it uses that sections list of ranks, but that is more difficult to do and will some custom coding.

That would be the coolest option. Everyone could have numerous ranks depending from where they are doing the majority of their posts. It would even be easy to then surpass a play by post monster like ... oh I don't know...Ed Zachary!

[Farcaster]

What is this Poster Rank stuff?
Did I miss it in general announcements or something?

Moritz #3

So as to not be biased towards the forum incumbents, I've changed up the rank number to be based only on posts made in the last 30 days. As you can see, even my rank has changed .. At present, I've gone from #1 to #6! I guess I need to get to posting. :D

[Moritz]

Oh my freaking god. I feel so violated, I went from having a chance of being number one, to dropping in status because of our play-by-posters.

Oh well, I won't be trying to compete with them, because then I'll really look like a spam bot. - I really don't have that much to say :)

Goodbye #2, it was nice knowing ya.

[Digital Arcanist]

Holy Crap!!!!!! I'm currently the number one poster!!!! Better check your code again Farcaster...I think you have a glitch!!!

I guess I'll need to scour the intraweb for free pipes in which to drive my trucks down in order to get new content to post here.......

I hope I have enough internets to finish the job....

[Farcaster]

Heh. Yeah, DA is in #1, PhishStyx is #2 (no double entendre intended). To make it even more volatile though, we could always reduce it to be the last week -- or heck even the last 24 hours!

[grimwell]

The more you cut the timeline down, the more you encourage spamminators spewing spam spasmatically bah I ran out of alliteratives... and can't spell it anyway. ;)

You get the point.

[Farcaster]

Hmmm.. Mayhaps. I suppose I was thinking that since it was less permanent, they wouldn't be as inclined. But, I guess it would be easier for someone to do a small burst of spamming to bring their name to the top, albeit briefly. Ah well, having a #1 or a high user title rank, while cool, just doesn't push that competitive button for me, so I have trouble understanding why people spam on account of it.

But! Hey, here's a thought I just had. What if the rank was based on the number of days on which you have posted, or something like that? So, posting once in a single day is weighted the same as posting five times that day. It's just a matter of you being active at all. In such a scenario, we could also have a minimum word count (on a single post) for the poster to get credit for that day.

Just thinking out loud...

[Skunkape]

Hmmm.. Mayhaps. I suppose I was thinking that since it was less permanent, they wouldn't be as inclined. But, I guess it would be easier for someone to do a small burst of spamming to bring their name to the top, albeit briefly. Ah well, having a #1 or a high user title rank, while cool, just doesn't push that competitive button for me, so I have trouble understanding why people spam on account of it.

But! Hey, here's a thought I just had. What if the rank was based on the number of days on which you have posted, or something like that? So, posting once in a single day is weighted the same as posting five times that day. It's just a matter of you being active at all. In such a scenario, we could also have a minimum word count (on a single post) for the poster to get credit for that day.

Just thinking out loud...

That would probably work better Farcaster, but you'll have people trying to break the rules no matter what you do as far as a top position ranking is concerned. Personally, I don't care that much about ranking on a board as I only post when I feel I have something to gain. It's just more fun, to me, to give grief to those people who obviously find ranking more important than I do!:D

[rabkala]

I don't much care myself. You probably will get people who are overly concerned with it no matter how it is set. It does make some sense to reward active posters versus people who have just been around a long time. It also would seem good to have some way to measure meaningful posts. That is quite a bit harder, but word count might be a step in the right direction. I guess we'll find a way to trudge onward no matter what is decided. ;)

[grimwell]

What I found that worked best for me professionally, was to tie user rankings to the age of their account. No account, no rank. Since you don't have paid accounts it could be as simple as having the ranks advance based on how long you have been here.

Level 0: Fresh registration up to a week.
Level 1: From a week to a month.
Level 2: Up to two months.

You get the point.

Those that registered first get the spoils? Sure. Cap it at 20 levels so everyone can get that far. Then leave the Posts stat visible so in three years a Level 20 poster with five posts is clearly identified as someone who registered a while back, but didn't participate.

That combination makes it easy to value someone's post based on how long they have been here, and how active. ;)