Originally posted here by HTRegz
There are many seniors here who help out a lot and have said several times a good chunk of the reason they come is for the APs.... Get rid of them and we stand to lose some useful people..
Originally posted here by HTRegz
... they like that green dot that tells them they helped someone... hell some people like the red dot that tells them they're a pain in the ass)...
Because they helped someone? Those dots serve a more selfish ego-related purpose. I'm not sure it's healthy when people share knowledge and participate in communities because of their valued "social" status and forum moderation power given to them by a modified vBulletin hack. If most of the members who contribute to the collective knowledge base do so because of APs, AO will degenerate even further no matter what is or isn't done.

Originally posted here by HTRegz
APs are not the problem with AO.... it's the lack of security oriented discussion.... I've commented on this several times.. and everytime I do hordes of people rush forward to say this is a community and to defend the non-sec forums..
I think one of the reasons we're having so little security-oriented discussions is the AP system. People are posting for the wrong reasons. The only reason why this site, with it's current AP system, is still active as it is today is because of its off-topic and "general" forums. If you leave the AP system as it is, AND remove the off-topic forums, the site will die.

Originally posted here by HTRegz
Now JP comes along and posts it and everyone is too afraid to oppose him.... as if he's some sort of God..
Assuming your little generalization includes me, I take that as a personal insult. Where in any of my posts did you get the feeling I'm to "afraid" to oppose him? How the **** did you get the idea that JP is as a "god" to me? Do you know what the word "god" means? Besides that, only Tiger Shark completely agrees with JP. Everybody else is discussing something else or doesn't agree with one or more points in his post.

Originally posted here by HTRegz
Another problem is posts related to APs.. including this one.. JP had his whole write-up about not wanting bitching and rants... but don't we all know that if you don't want something to come up the easiest way to make it come up is to mention it... Maybe that's what JP was intending... to get a bunch of people in here bitching about APs.... no one can say for sure.. His posts tend to cause a lot of controversy..
Although I agree with you that JP's recent posts seem to have something behind them, I do not wish to generalize and be prejudiced on everything he has to say. In THIS post, he also says that he hopes the discussion will be moderated heavily, thereby promoting a serious discussion instead of simply ranting and rambling.

Originally posted here by HTRegz
What we need is Tiger Shark's invite only forum.... Give it to him... I think most of us trust him to invite the right people in..... Let him moderate it... If he needs help, I'm sure he'd ask.... it can't hurt to try it out... Those who cry it's elitist... APs are elitist, so are post counts (in a way)... so are titles... so is everything on this site... I think that's the easiest solution to our current problems....
Yeah, although it's also nothing more then a temporary solution.

Originally posted here by HTRegz
Anyways... This is another example of a thread that needs to be closed.... It's AP bitching in another way....
Your way of thinking would ban any future discussion about the system, no matter what it's issues are, or no matter what it does to the site, and its content, as a whole.

I think it's time for me to take a step back and watch AO from a distance for another year. I don't want to contribute knowledge to something that's degenerating and dying anyway. I'd be better off sharing knowledge with certain AOers on an individual basis.

I'm very curious how the community handles, or even discusses this. Later all.