Misc Suggestions -Sinking Threads- -Assign towards even- -GoldDots-

Just a few items that sort of slipped through the cracks or haven't been shot down yet...

1. New administrative command, to "Sink" a thread.
   The thread can still be replied to, but any bumps are ignored, and any replies do NOT cause the thread to move up the list. This allows a sort of mid-way option between locking and doing nothing. It allows the subject to sink into obscurity without cutting off any ongoing discussion.
   
2. Gold Dots and Trancendental levels.
   After a certain antipoint amount, users can no longer recieve antipoints, and have a gold dot which will pop up something along the lines of: 'USER no longer recieves antipoints." The way I see it, it removes possible motive for abuse (scratch-your-back-you-scratch-mine) of antipoints at high levels. Furthermore, it keeps the AP system from becoming an ongoing contest. As for users turning into jackasses once they are antipoint-immune, I feel that most of the problem people would be weeded out long before then, and anyone who does turn around and become a jerk will be prominent enough to earn administrative scrutiny. :)
   
3. (Minor) Assign-towards-even option for assigning antipoints
   If you find a post which you think wasn't really good or bad, but you suspect the user was given positive or negative antipoints unfairly, an assign-towards-even option would allow older members to fix the situation without accidentally pushing the balance of antipoints in the other direction. Assign-towards-even would essentially allow a user to give a fractional amount (instead of the whole shebang) of an antipoint assignment, so that they could bring a post back into 'nuetral' status.

some nice ideas terr :)

I'm with them all. Well thought out. Here, let me scratch your back...

hehe the gold one is alright i guess

but id still like to be able to get more antipoints

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(Minor) Assign-towards-even option for assigning antipoints
If you find a post which you think wasn't really good or bad, but you suspect the user was given positive or negative antipoints unfairly, an assign-towards-even option would allow older members to fix the situation without accidentally pushing the balance of antipoints in the other direction. Assign-towards-even would essentially allow a user to give a fractional amount (instead of the whole shebang) of an antipoint assignment, so that they could bring a post back into 'nuetral' status.

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I think this one is a really good idea, as numerous times, I've seen posts of 'nice one' or similar having lots of +AP's assigned to it... Now, I don't see how, in any way, that could be really regarded as a good post...

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Originally posted here by Terr
Just a few items that sort of slipped through the cracks or haven't been shot down yet...

1. New administrative command, to "Sink" a thread.
   The thread can still be replied to, but any bumps are ignored, and any replies do NOT cause the thread to move up the list. This allows a sort of mid-way option between locking and doing nothing. It allows the subject to sink into obscurity without cutting off any ongoing discussion.

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I like this one the best. It's a good idea on how to take care of bad posts that people keep posting to.

One question though: Would you be able to subscribe to a post that a moderator sank?

I like the sinking thread option, it'd be a good alternative to the bump up! option, although I'd prefer it if the option was available to all users and after say 10 'sinks', the thread would go down as you described. Otherwise, it's still down to the moderators to find and sink threads.

The gold AP would be a good idea, although it would mean than members with such an ability could make contraversial posts without fear of retribution (which can be seen as a good or bad thing) every so often. Not that it'd make much difference to me, I think I'm waaay off getting a gold dot! ;)

I think that a limit should be placed on the number of antipoints each user can give out, e.g. everyone with positive antipoints (0+) would be able to give out one AP at a time, this would increase with every 100 APs you gained (200 AP = 3 APs/assignment), up to a maximum of 12 APs.

Even better, the option to choose how many APs to assign from 1 up to your maximum amount, so a really good post might warrant 4 APs and a mildy amusing post just 1 AP.

Yes all good ideas..

it is good to see the Sink.. there are a few threads that just don't want to die..

Cheers

My few cent's to the ongoing discussion.

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Originally posted by Terr [*]New administrative command, to "Sink" a thread.

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I like the idea :).

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Originally posted by Terr [*]Gold Dots and Trancendental levels.
After a certain antipoint amount, users can no longer recieve antipoints.

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IMHO the "super" user with a high level of greenies (gold dot) should be able to recieve the comment's but not the points. Even a user with high level of AP's will be able to see if their post's and threads are good. And ofcourse they should still be able to recieve neg AP's and if they abuse the system loose their little gold dot :).

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Originally posted by Terr [*](Minor) Assign-towards-even option for assigning antipoints

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This would be a great feature and I would also like to see a bit slight change in the system what a user can give out in AP's some users with a high level of AP's can give out a tremendous high level of AP's.

For example:

1 point for every green dot and after 10 green dots recieve a gold dot with a value of 15 points. And when the "gold dot" user given away a full blast of AP's it shows up as a gold dot instead of a green dot in the comment of the "AP center".

1> We have discussed this a few times in the Addicts thread. Like pwaring said, it would be nice if more then just admins could sink threads. Either allow everyone the ability to partially sink a thread and require 10 to 15 votes, or the Senior members with 5 to 10 votes, or even just the "gold dots" and only require a few of them.

2> I see how a lot of people could be afraid of abuse. I believe you should still be able to leave comments, but I don't know about assigning just negs. There would be abuse by those without gold dots assigning negative points...and we are seeing enough of that right now. Maybe a "report" button in the popup, so an abusive "gold dot" message is reported to JP/moderator to bring attention to certain posts. If enough posts get reported, the person looses their status and banned if needed.

3> I think this is an excellent idea. This would help with "back scratching" a lot. There have been a few times I would see this, but I couldn't justify giving the post negative points. It would be a stupid post not worthy of negative or postive points, but to "fix" it, I would end up overcorrecting it, which wouldn't be my intention. Although if someone is involved in "back scratching" maybe they deserve the extra negative points....

As for the 'sink' thing, I think it could possibley be community-usable, but it would need some differences. Threads would have at least two days of unsinkability by the public, and would need quite a lot of "dear god let this thread END" requests in order to sink it.

Subscribing should be the same as normal, I mean, if someone wants to participate QUITE that much... well, why not.

True, the issue of Gold-Dotters who decide to work without fear of retribution is a problem. What if after a certain AP level, you are allowed to become gold-dotted, but, and here's a big one... (this is just an idea to toss out there)... if you decide to go to Gold-dot status, your name is appended to antipoint assignments... (and in a way that people can't fake with a crafted comment, either)

So in a way you trade in anonymity of antipoint assignments for immunity from being assigned...

I dunno.

I'm all for it

If the sink thread thing will keep that sub7 thread form coming back every few weeks you have my unconditional support.

i liked it a year ago, i like it today. Its the posts and people here that make it.

I think that the gold AP is a better idea with Terr's suggestion that your name would be appended to all assignments you make. That way the most respected members get a benefit but can't abuse the power - it's all about balance, give too much to a small group and somebody will abuse it (I'm not saying that any of the senior members with high APs would do this, but the chances are that someone will - remember FocMaester?).

Sinking threads should be just like the bump up! feature, except they would require say 5 or more requests in order to sink, and could always be brought back up again by the moderators if anyone started abusing the system. Of course you'd still want to be able to subscribe to sinking threads if you enjoyed taking part in such discussions or just flaming anyone who posts there, so long as the rest of us don't have to listen I'm not bothered either way.

Yeah, I think I'm going to backtrack and state that I think that the trade off for gold-dot status should be lack of anonymity. It needs to have some downside, after all.

i really like the sinking thread idea, and assign a portion of antpoints idea as well .. wasnt really big on the gold dot idea but it sounds better with the losing anonymity.. while i am on my soapbox i just would like to throw out my idea to eliminate this whole " "balance your antipoint assigning" thing..or if we have to keep it implement the idea terr has suggested with not being forced to use all your points for negative posts...

I think JP started the Suicide option here over the weekend, as in watch a thread slowly die do a search here to find it. A couple of threads have already have hung, shot, run over them selves, and or other wise died :D

Palemoon> The suicide thread kills itself based on the number of negative antipoints. What terr was suggesting was a way to get something off the front page without having to basically get a user banned from all the negative antipoints he/she received for making a stupid post in the first place. Also, we could sink something like the w00t thread that pops up every once in a while. People can still post to the thread, but it just wouldn't show up on the front page any more.

The difference is, the sunken thread, unlike suicide threads, is not locked. People who are really into it can still participate (for flamewars, for instance) but the majority can be spared having to see it rise to the top of their recent threads list.

Terr> kinda like the *sneaks in* thread in the addicts forum???

<shiver><shiver><twitch><twich><shiver><shiver><twitch><twich><shiver><shiver><twitch><twich>

Yes... like... <shiver> that thread. <twitch>

That would be an exceedingly good example of where sinking would be useful :)

Terr I almost though you were a dutchman, you're a genius...

Well, seems to me this site is promoting hacking by unfair treatment, if more servers go down thats the webmasters fault for letting immature people control his website, Today I got a very, very stupid message saying, "you been asking inappropriate questions like "How Can I Hack HotMail"? Stop!", Yet I never even asked ONE question reguarding anything, the only thing I do on here is state my opinions, seems to me someone likes harrassing me about my point of view, if you don't like me, you can go suck a dick, or you can simply ignore me, you don't have to ****ing threaten me with your lame and immature lies saying i'm asking **** you came up with right out of ****ing nowhere, so i'm continuing to protest until this harrassment stops, or I get banned, if I do it won't be a big loss, because all i do on here is chat and state my opinions, and if you don't like it, you can take YOUR opinion and shove it up your ass...

And as a addition... What do you guys think about having 'suicide' threads go into SINK mode (if implemented) rather than LOCK mode?

I'd like that too. That, imho, is great. Also, I'd still like the gold dot idea. That's me though. Again, IMO, it would encourage people to try to do better posts and to earn positive antipoints. Just my 2 cents.

Well Terr I thinks thats better balanced than my old "bump down" button idea I had some months ago. It would be nice if the post could be bumped down(by respected members only)
Jp poo pooed that idea so maybe yours can make it.

I think JP's reply to my suggestion was "absolutly not..that is the worst idea I have ever heard" I even suggested we could play AO basketball and dribble those threads up and down like the LA Lakers..(just joking ;) )