Stardock Forum Update - 4/29/08
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 by Zoomba | Discussion: Internet
As you've probably already noticed, we put out an update to the central Stardock Forum system today that comes packed with fixes, plus a handful of very useful new features. Instead of letting you guess randomly at what's new and how it works, I thought I'd give everyone a quick run-down of the new features.
- Forum Announcements
- Return of the Report Button
- Go to Top of Thread Button
- The New Karma System
Forum Announcements
In the past, we've been unable to let everyone know when there's a major bit of system maintenance coming up. If it was important enough, we'd run around to all the sites and make a front page news posting about it and hoped that people would see it.
Now, we can set a broadcast message that appears at the top of ALL forum pages. We can set these on a site-by-site basis.
Clicking on the Read More link will open a message with further details (if available).
Beyond the announcements, you'll notice a bunch of new buttons on forum comments...
Return to Top Button
Every comment has this little arrow now. Clicking it will return you to the top of the page.
Report Post
The report post feature returns. It is limited to logged in users only, and you must provide a detailed reason for the report. We'll know if you're spamming it, and we will hurt you if you do!
Give Karma
This is a completely new feature for the forums. In the past, we had the "Insightful" and "Informative" buttons, but in actuality, they didn't do anything (rather, they had once long ago, but not in the last 2+ years). So with the new forums we decided to add a real karma system. Now, you can give comments a rating if you found them particularly good or helpful.
Karma Points are shown under your user picture on the left of your posts along with your user number and online status.
See that little number? You can click on it to see a report on when you received karma, on which posts, and why people gave you the rating.
As you receive more points, the list will grow. You'll see your overall stats at the top with score and number of ratings received.
It's important to note that there is no way to rate someone DOWN. You can only give kudos to folks so it's a 100% positive system.
Here are the limitations on giving karma:
- The number of points you can assign is limited by your access level. Citizens can give +1, Apprentices +2 etc.
- You can rate the same person no faster than once every 10 minutes. Want to give Jafo a +1? See another post of his you want to give a +1? You have to wait 10min between ratings.
- You must provide a reason for your rating. It will be recorded on the reporting page. We also keep track on the back-end who gives what comments so we will find you if you're mean.
The points themselves don't DO anything yet, but there are ideas being kicked around on what we can do with these points. For now, it's a nice way to recognize people for their contributions on the forums.
So those are the major updates for the forums for April. If you have any questions, let us know!
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Reply #22 Tuesday, April 29, 2008 9:13 PM
oooh didn't know that was there!!!!
thanQ thanQ thanQ!!!!!!
Reply #24 Tuesday, April 29, 2008 11:02 PM
I'm a royal jerk wherever I go so I'm told. 
Reply #25 Tuesday, April 29, 2008 11:24 PM
Maybe set it to 2 hours or so? Long enough that even people with no life would get bored with trying to boost karma.
Reply #27 Tuesday, April 29, 2008 11:51 PM
Says the guy with no Karma!
Reply #29 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 3:02 AM
Yeah. Well. Maybe I will earn some someday, but I'm not in a hurry, because I'm been around for a long time.
Reply #30 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 9:09 AM
Is the fact that karma points aren't shared between different boards (GC2, JoeUser, Sins...) intentional?
Reply #31 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 9:29 AM
Reply #32 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 9:32 AM
I wont say that it was the BEST business decision Brad ever made to hire Zoomba, but it is up there!
Reply #33 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 4:40 PM
Reply #34 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 4:51 PM
kwyjibo I didn't get that when I read the Karma description above in the post. What did I miss or not understand?
Reply #35 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 4:52 PM
Reply #36 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 5:01 PM
I think you missed part of my description of the Karma System.
There's no rating people down. There is no way to be negative with the system, or to use it to punish anyone. It is purely, 100% a positive thing. If you never receive Karma, it's not because you're being singled out or attacked, since anyone can give you karma for any reason, and no one can take it away.
Or are you talking about reporting? It's used to report TOS violations, spammers, trolls etc. Reporting a post doesn't automatically kill it. A mod/admin still has to look at it and make a decision. All it does is draw our attention to problems we'd likely find anyway on a regular patrol of the forums. It's just more effecient.
There's nothing in the update which discourages discussion or participation. If anything, they encourage more and better participation since quality posts will get Karma points, and violation posts will be cleared off in a more effecient manner.
Reply #37 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 5:04 PM
(Would you believe a free MC Theme?) Hey, I resemble that remark!
Reply #38 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 5:13 PM
Oh and for people concerned over abuse of the system... Since Karma points do not provide any real advantage aside from maybe bragging rights, who cares if someone rates a friend up every 10min for days on end?
At a maximum, this means someone could get 720 points in a 24hr period. That would assume a master-level user sat down and every 10 minutes gave the maximum +5 rating they could give (I can give a +9 for example as a top-level admin)
But chances are, people who would abuse the system like that would be citizens, so you're looking at a maximum of 144 points in a day from one user with no life.
Or more accurately, someone may do this every few days for like 30 minutes. Unless someone was truely dedicated to boosting the numbers, and had a relatively high access level, you're talking maybe a dozen or so "artificial" points before folks get bored and move on.
Reply #39 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 5:41 PM
Reply #40 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 5:46 PM
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Reply #21 Tuesday, April 29, 2008 8:54 PM