No Thanks Questioning Premium Membership

I'm sorry, I was simply expressing my opinion. I'd rather you come out and let everyone know about problems/issues like this, rather than keep it to yourself. Maybe there are users out there who feel the same way. Only the majority tend to disagree. I didn't want to offend you, just explain a different view on the matter.

Also, when one of your posts are quoted, it'll automatically send you an alert. It's actually a handy feature.

Spoiler: Amaury

As per the likes thing, I tend to disagree. It's not that hard to view a members post history (let's say for someone you like) and go through boosting their like count. It's a definite no from me on this one, unless . . .

This^ were able to be done. I might actually look into this and see if it would be capable, which I see no reason why it wouldn't be. Still, we might hit a situation where users begin randomly giving likes to give one user another like, so on and so forth. It would definitely have to be a situation heavily monitored by the staff team, otherwise this would still be a no from me.

 

This is how we had reputation set up, which used to be a requirement for premium membership. Unfortunately that got really out of hand, we could not monitor what qualified as a justified rep or an unjustified one. People created repwhoring convos on MSN & worked out how they could all rep each other without hitting the limit. It was just a disaster.

 

Well you could always offer incentives for reporting an unwaranted like, even if it's to you. Or you could bring back Forum Helpers.

That's my only fear about this method, if it were to be enacted. About the only system you can't cheat is posting, because posts can be moderated fairly easy. I give out likes here and there if someone makes me laugh, or says something really interesting/great.

That raises a question, what about likes in the Spamzone? I know rep still counted back in the day, even in the Spamzone. So would likes earned in the Spamzone still be counted, given the possibility of "like whoring?"

 

Just wanted to say that I find this a bit contradicting. A like/reputation system (as much as I loved all of the rep that I had<3) is more of a popularity contest than a vote-in system, in my opinion. I'm a bit torn on the vote-in system; for one, I like it and think it'd be easier than a like/reputation system because you can actually have people that can vocally oppose approving someone purely on popularity (as opposed to the rep/like system). On the other hand, it can really cause bad relationships ("YOU DIDN'T VOTE ME FOR PREM BECAUSE OF THIS DRAMA, YOU *******"), though I personally don't believe it'd actually get to that level in most cases. Personally, I'm definitely for a system based more on quality than quantity. Maybe an appeal system such as someone with less than 1000 posts, but known for very HQ posts and has spent a long time active on the site can appeal for premiumship despite not meeting 1000 posts. Maybe then there should be a vote-in system?

 

However, rep & likes could be given out by all members; the vote-in system would be closed to staff and Premium members. They're both popularity contests, but one has a severely limited 'council,' of sorts. Just throwing that in.

 

It's a shame Sforz left the thread, because he really did have some good ideas. Honestly, I've got my issues with both the current and proposed systems. In regards to the current bar for hitting prem, I agree that it's a bit, er, hollow in some cases. Now don't get me wrong, I did postwhore for a few months to hit prem, and that was not the best way to go about it. Still, I was motivated and, at the time, I believe the rep requirement was still in effect. I made my fair share of posts that counted, but I at least made sure they had substance. Though both the rep and like systems might be flawed, I trust most people who are regulars on the site not to abuse it.

Now with the proposed system, the only problem I really see is not that it's a "popularity contest," but that it almost seems like you'd have to audition for a custom usertitle and twice a month name changes. The process is almost more trouble than the perks are worth, and with the loss of avatar size, BBCode limit in sigs and other such old perks from vB, it's even less bang for your buck now. A vote isn't necessarily a bad idea per se, but it'd have to be fleshed out a bit more before I'd be 100% on board.