Community Site Ranks - and how to get one!

[#1]

Quote from: channel

Just replying in order to discover whether I am still a bright spark, as per the old PN forum days.

Did you do as requested?
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php?topic=394.msg3238#msg3238

[#2]

What I've noticed is some of these "Bright Sparks" will often answer a post after one of the PlusNet team have given an answer to a question. There also seems to be some sort of competition to see who can make the most post

Quote from: Walrus

I'd beg to differ, I cringe at some of the advice given by so called 'Bright Sparks', though granted you did say 'generally'.

[#3]

Eureka!! I have got the answer.
Seeing as there seem to be more Bright Sparks than members, do away with the member title and make everyone a Bright Spark.
That way it keeps the existing Bright Sparks happy they still have their feeling of self importance, the wannabe's happy as they get their title, the majority of members that support the title are happy as they now become one, and minority who's opinions are a load of old tosh don't matter anyway.
Problem solved.

[#4]

Hobo
I dont agree with you at all about the bright sparks... but I did have to laugh, that was very funny.
Peace be with you Hobo

[#5]

Well as bright sparks appear to be popping out of the woodwork everywhere, I just thought the more the merrier.

[#6]

Coming as I did from the lesser known side of the company called Force 9 (said with tongue firmly in cheek) I must say I was somewhat confused when I first came across this ‘Bright Spark’ thing.
We never had such things on our forum and for a long time never even had working moderators or staff members. In fact at one time it got so bad with the numbers of upset customers posting on the threads I did actually make a request on the Usergroup for staff members to please frequent the forum to answer some of the more aggressive requests and posts.
I do however agree with some of the points raised in this thread about is it necessary to have ‘titles’. I have in the past contributed to the F9 forum and helped a number of users as I have on a number of other forums on a wide range of subjects. What I have found in my ‘travels’ is that a ‘title’ other than that of ‘Staff member’ or ‘Moderator’ is mostly unnecessary as the number of posts under a name gives a useful idea as to the ‘prowess’ of the persons answers and a quick scan of the threads gives the quality of the replies.
I have also found users can be intimidated by titles and are reluctant to post an often correct and sometimes comprehensive reply to a question due to an unspoken belief that the ‘titled’ user is always correct or will always reply anyway. I have increasingly found a ‘titled’ user will often post a negative or surplus reply to a question purely to increase their ‘Posting Numbers’ and so increase their ‘rank’ in a forum. There is this irrational belief among some users (including myself when I first started posting), that you should have some ‘magic’ number of posts (and therefore a ‘title’) before anyone would take notice of your post and respond to what you had to say.
Like others on the forum I do actually spend quite some time reading but not always replying to a thread. This is often due to the fact in formulating a reply I have (due to a huge lack of grammar and spelling ability), to produce the text in word and then copy and paste the text into the ‘Post Reply’ box. By then the thread will have a reply posted by a faster typist (and yes more than likely one of the titled posters) so my post becomes a waste of time. Therefore many of us would make a contribution and could become these allusive ‘Bright Sparks’ but never will because those with faster fingers will always win out in the end. This can cause resentment among posters as although they have the knowledge that knowledge is not always forthcoming.
Sorry for the long post but in amongst the ramblings note my vote is for no titles other than staff and moderator, regards, P.

[#7]

No, but if their titles disappeared it would be a less confusing place. The forums functioned perfectly well for years before all these titles mushroomed last year.
Forum administrator or Plusnet Staff is perfectly adequate.

[#8]

If people feel this way, why has it taken the move from portal to community forums for people to express their views?

[#9]

Plus the fact it was the community that actually asked for such things many moons ago.
I don't recall there being any adverse negativity when it was discussed and implemented originally.

[#10]

Quote from: jelv

why has it taken the move from portal to community forums for people to express their views?

I've been wondering this myself, and also why there is so much discussion of something which really isn't worth debating, in my own opinion.
Back over on the old Portal forums, the Bright Spark ranks did help to highlight those people who helped out the most - then again, you get used to the usernames as well, so they weren't that important once you got used to them. Now we've moved over, it's not so clear cut. Some users have kept the same names and are easy to spot, others took advantage of the ability to have a different name. Some of the avatars remained the same so you can pick out the old Bright Sparks, other times you just have to look out for the rank.
Either way, I can't see that the whole thing requires several pages of discussion in several threads, surely it's not that much of an issue really?
Perhaps we should rely on the 'Silent majority' which often surrounds issues such as this. You get a few vocal supporters, you get a few vocal protesters, but on the whole, the remainder of the forum readers probably don't care one way or the other...
Personally, if you want to take the ranks away - fine, it doesn't take long to associate a username/avatar with a helpful community poster.
On the other hand, if you want to keep the ranks - fine, what difference does it make?
This is yet another one of those threads which seem to be popping up more and more frequently which just cannot be resolved or agreed upon - you just aren't going to please everybody.

[#11]

I think it's a shame that the brightsparks have come under fire a lot lately. I think it's safe to say the brightspark rank was my brain child, I hate to see people misunderstanding and resenting the people who've dedicated enough time to the forums to get a rank like this.
Someone said recently that it was an unusual thing that they hadn't seen on forums before. Don't people see this as a good thing? People should get behind the hardworking people who are putting time into keeping these forums going.

[#12]

Rankings on forums based on nomination by other users are very unusual while rankings based on number of posts are not uncommon. However I can think of posters in several places who are fond of one liners and clever comments who make scores of posts and contribute absolutely nothing (and no I'm not thinking of anyone here - but I can think of one poster who was banned on the old portal forum for this type of posting).
Perhaps we should have a poll for users to decide on whether the Bright Spark rank should be retained.

[#13]

What is the rank of "standard" about

[#14]

I think that's just because Chris was originally a mod so had mod permissions here and subsequently removed when he stepped down. Corrected now though.

[#15]

Standard sounds unique and unusual in these parts, can I stick with that?