What's up with the points system? [SOLVED]

I think it's cute and fun, but I don't understand how it works. Do you get points for posting a lot? Or like? Thread views? Just confusing, since there aren't any up-votes like on MTS.

itchystitchies wrote:I think it's cute and fun, but I don't understand how it works. Do you get points for posting a lot? Or like? Thread views? Just confusing, since there aren't any up-votes like on MTS.

Hello again,

Maybe this screenshot here can shed some light on what is up with these points:




You get points for posting, opening new topics, but your points number is also determined by the number of your Forum friends and for how long you have been a member on the Forum.

Upon closer inspection it seems you can turn off these points altogether, you can give the "points" a different name, and you can even donate points to other users. For our type of Forum it may not be really needed, and especially since most users only come on to post a problem or two here, but we don't really see any harm in it.

About the upvotes and downvotes, we have removed those because it was more and more abused lately. Maybe we will re-instate it in the future, but the Forum software here is atrocious; this Forum was inherited from another person who started it nearly a decade ago, and even back then that Forum software was outdated. Possibilities and features are very limited in the Forum software. Plus the host of this platform does not allow any migration of the database. Either way, maybe we'll try implementing a friendlier voting system, one that only takes into account positive votes.

As for everything else, we are of the opinion that if someone (dis)likes something, they should at least try and make an effort in explaining in their own words what exactly is right or wrong with a previous comment, instead of merely resorting to cute and colorful icons. Our platform is mainly going to be informative, and removing votes is one way to achieve that goal in our opinion.

But it also serves a secondary purpose: it keeps most "problem users" away to begin with. The people who excessively make use of especially negative votes aren't likely going to add much value to the platform, in our experience. And those who would like to use positive votes...well, they are usually friendly anyhow, and will instead just post something like "thanks, it helped/it worked/it was nice/you're cool people/et cetera".

Then again, we will see if we can come up with an overhauled voting system later on.

The_gh0stm4n wrote: Maybe this screenshot here can shed some light on what is up with these points:

The_gh0stm4n wrote:You get points for posting, opening new topics, but your points number is also determined by the number of your Forum friends and for how long you have been a member on the Forum.

Ohhh! That does make sense, thank you!

The_gh0stm4n wrote: Upon closer inspection it seems you can turn off these points altogether, you can give the "points" a different name, and you can even donate points to other users. For our type of Forum it may not be really needed, and especially since most users only come on to post a problem or two here, but we don't really see any harm in it.

I can't see those options on my end. I suspect that's more of a forum admin thing. I like the idea of being able to gift points.

The_gh0stm4n wrote:About the upvotes and downvotes, we have removed those because it was more and more abused lately. Either way, maybe we'll try implementing a friendlier voting system, one that only takes into account positive votes.

As for everything else, we are of the opinion that if someone (dis)likes something, they should at least try and make an effort in explaining in their own words what exactly is right or wrong with a previous comment, instead of merely resorting to cute and colorful icons. Our platform is mainly going to be informative, and removing votes is one way to achieve that goal in our opinion.

But it also serves a secondary purpose: it keeps most "problem users" away to begin with. The people who excessively make use of especially negative votes aren't likely going to add much value to the platform, in our experience. And those who would like to use positive votes...well, they are usually friendly anyhow, and will instead just post something like "thanks, it helped/it worked/it was nice/you're cool people/et cetera".

Then again, we will see if we can come up with an overhauled voting system later on.

Yeah, I'm not too concerned about up/down-voting. I was more just curious about how one acquires points, as comment voting is the more obvious way to accrue them. I like the idea of positive votes, as it could be used as a means of acknowledging helpful problem-solving by a lurker. No pressure though, dealing with old code is a pain and I imagine this forum is a lot to manage already.

Thanks for the insight!

itchystitchies wrote:Yeah, I'm not too concerned about up/down-voting.

I might as well relate an anecdote here, because it is fitting.

So there was this user one time, I think some 20-year-old kid, and he kept downvoting someone else all the time for...I actually don't recall anymore for what exactly. But it was something harmless. So eventually I did a few things, and I quickly found who was handing out excessive downvotes. While at the time (and still now) not illegal as per the Forum Rules, I did remind him that it wasn't cool to do that. Well, I used a rougher tone, but you get the gist of it.

Either way, his mortified reaction afterwards...was priceless. He stopped doing this, after our little chat.  

How I can find out who voted in what way? I'll classify that as a trade secret.  I'll give away so much here in public. Most people just know me by my activities regarding The Sims games and the occasional Indie-repack on here. But I also do quite a lot of things in the background, unbeknownst to the rest of the G4TW team, including ~Ann~ on some occasions. If you want to call it that way, I'm basically like the "Deep State" of G4TW here.

People tend to view these activities with suspicion, and that is their right I suppose. Regardless of personal opinions and predispositions, I will keep doing "my thing" though.

The_gh0stm4n wrote:

itchystitchies wrote:Yeah, I'm not too concerned about up/down-voting.

I might as well relate an anecdote here, because it is fitting.

So there was this user one time, I think some 20-year-old kid, and he kept downvoting someone else all the time for...I actually don't recall anymore for what exactly. But it was something harmless. So eventually I did a few things, and I quickly found who was handing out excessive downvotes. While at the time (and still now) not illegal as per the Forum Rules, I did remind him that it wasn't cool to do that. Well, I used a rougher tone, but you get the gist of it.

Either way, his mortified reaction afterwards...was priceless. He stopped doing this, after our little chat.  

How I can find out who voted in what way? I'll classify that as a trade secret.  I'll give away so much here in public. Most people just know me by my activities regarding The Sims games and the occasional Indie-repack on here. But I also do quite a lot of things in the background, unbeknownst to the rest of the G4TW team, including ~Ann~ on some occasions. If you want to call it that way, I'm basically like the "Deep State" of G4TW here.

People tend to view these activities with suspicion, and that is their right I suppose. Regardless of personal opinions and predispositions, I will keep doing "my thing" though.

LOL. I've done a little bit of unrelated coding. Java and a few other things. Anyway, it's not that hard to find out who's doing what on any particular site, especially if you have access to the backend.