What are forums for do you think? A place to exchange information, and discussion, stories, etc. Not flames, and not pettiness, though these are, of course, always found in forums nonetheless. I see this pettiness being used with the Karma System.
It would seem to me, that since we are in essence our own moderators, we should not be moderating in a petty manner. A good topic might get a rate up. Within this topic, there will always be opinions. Are real opinions right or wrong? No, real opinions are neither right or wrong, it is simply a matter of thinking. And of course, people will disagree. Does this mean you should vote someone down because you disagree with their opinion? No, it does not. The best advice I could give you, is simply do not rate the opinionated post at all. If you disagree with their opinion, but thought they made a good point, perhaps you would go so far as to give it a small rate up.
Karma system is not to be used for war against each other, similiarly to flaming. Its to make these forums better by getting rid of the needless flames, spam, and other such unwanted "junk" opposite of the things outlined above.
The moderators, seem to have left us alone on this much. I have looked through the FAQ and it does not list guidelines for the correct way to using the Karma system. There does not seem to be any rules. But I think I know what its intent is, and it doesn't look to me like its being used for this intent.
To quote the admin from the stick FAQ here:
Quote:
One thing I want to emphasize is the Karma system. If people start to use it, it should solve many of the complaints I see about anon posting. If you have received Scholar status of higher, you in effect become a limited forum admin. Please take advantage of this.
As you read through a thread, rate the best posts up and the worst posts down. Then when you get to the end, hit the rate posts button to enter your ratings. It only takes a couple people rating through a thread like that to move the dumb posts below the default viewing threshold and move the better posts up, which will eventually make those making the good posts able to rate as well.
As you read through a thread, rate the best posts up and the worst posts down. Then when you get to the end, hit the rate posts button to enter your ratings. It only takes a couple people rating through a thread like that to move the dumb posts below the default viewing threshold and move the better posts up, which will eventually make those making the good posts able to rate as well.
What makes a post a "worst post" ? It would seem to me, something that detracts or adds nothing to the topic at hand. This would include, but not be limited to, the following: Flaming, Trolling, Derailing, Offensive material, Violation of Rules, Spam.
What constitutes a "best post" ? That, most likely is something best left up to you to decide. Perhaps you thought the poster wrote something particularly well, or explained something in an interesting manner, or brought up a valid/good point that should be considered. Perhaps the poster was able to verify something as true/false, or gave some good information that people may find helpful.
What about the posts that don't fall into these categories? Leave 'em alone.
According to a "Guru" of the forums (not sure whether this person is a moderator or not, or just has high karma) he says:
Quote:
Another thing, personal attack threads and karma camping are not cool. Disagree with someone? fine. Rate them down in that thread. Do not follow them around rating all their posts down, and do not post a "lets all gang up on..." thread. That is sooo 2nd grade. For starters, the Moderators can see who has rated people what, and if rate campng becomes a problem, they will generally take action to assure that it does not continue to be a problem. Second, there is always a bigger fish. By posting a personal attack thread, you may in fact annoy someone that you did not intend to annoy, who may take exception to that type of thread and react accordingly.
He seems to think that disagreeing with an opinion makes it ok to "hurt" the person's credibility by rating them down. I can't say I agree with this course of action, not that it matters what I think, but the head admin (first quote above) seems to think otherwise and I would go with what he says in this situation.
Many times I will read a post by someone, noticing that is only them stating their opinion, and then I will see they got a bad rating for that post, and I wonder why in the world they deserve such a thing.
As far as examples of this go, here are two threads I will point you to.
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html?fjob=12&mid=1073868681364721450&num=45
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html?fjob=12&mid=106739219192762&num=96
Yes, the first one is written by me, but that has nothing to do with it. Its only an example.
Both of these posts resulted in alot of discussion and feedback. One of them was arguing a negative side, and the other was asking a question.
Oddly enough, my post (the first one) was rated down to 2.40? I can't really see why. But it has to come to my attention that there are apparently a clan of protectorates that patrol the ninja forum, rating down so called "ninja bashers" with a vengeance. Its fine if you disagree with my opinion, but who are you to say that it is a wrong opinion? It is only an opinion.
The other post, recieved a score of 3.00 which is what any registered user is at.
Of course, these are just examples I used to illustrate a point. Many examples exist as it is now, in many of the current posts now, even on the front page.
Anyway, what do you think?
It would be nice to get a set outline of rules for using the Karma system, so people can follow them. Obviously "use your best judgement" does not work in this case.
