Question Active Member (Clarification)

[wizentrop]

Continuing from Widow lover's inquiry, I think more clarification is needed about how to achieve and maintain an "active member" status.
I understand the rule, 20 informational posts in 30 days will get you the status and its privileges, but what happens afterwards? Is this requirement is only a threshold and once passed the status will remain with the user indefinitely, or are users required to keep a balance of at least 20 informational posts per month in order to keep their status? In other words, if at some point I suddenly post less can this status be revoked?
I can see where this rule is coming from and that's fine, but I think that in the latter case this might be a bad move (just my opinion, this will probably direct some heat towards me ). Not all of the users have the time to log in and post and sometimes they don't have anything of importance to add to the discussion.

 

[MrDeranged]

Continuing from Widow lover's inquiry, I think more clarification is needed about how to achieve and maintain an "active member" status.
I understand the rule, 20 informational posts in 30 days will get you the status and its privileges, but what happens afterwards? Is this requirement is only a threshold and once passed the status will remain with the user indefinitely, or are users required to keep a balance of at least 20 informational posts per month in order to keep their status? In other words, if at some point I suddenly post less can this status be revoked?
I can see where this rule is coming from and that's fine, but I think that in the latter case this might be a bad move (just my opinion, this will probably direct some heat towards me ). Not all of the users have the time to log in and post and sometimes they don't have anything of importance to add to the discussion.

Hey Gil,
The way the promotion currently works is that users have to keep a balance. If the user goes under that "balance", the status will be revoked. Posting 20 times in a 30 day period 6 years ago isn't really the definition of an "Active Member" . However, we are still fine tuning this and there will most likely be changes if we don't feel that enough "Active Members" are getting the "Active Member" status. In other words, the "20 in 30" is just our starting point. It was impossible to get data to fine tune with the forums down, but we had to start somewhere.

You are entirely entitled to your opinion and you won't receive any heat from us on the subject. Let me ask you this, what do you feel would be a fair balance of number of postings over amount of time to be considered "Active"?

Thanks for your constructive input, it's always appreciated.

Regards,
Scott

 

[wizentrop]

Hi Scott,
Thank you so much for your detailed reply and for clarifying this.
Just to be in the clear, I was not talking about my own status. As you can see I have been around on AB for a long time, but spent most of the time under the radar. When I do post something I try to be as informative as possible. Getting a stamp saying "Active" is not really important for me, and I will continue to visit these lovely forums in any case. However, I did feel that keeping the "Active member" status needed some explanation for everyone. I hope I managed to get this point across.

I apologize if I am shifting the topic of this thread. It might be beneficial to open a new thread about this while the subject is still under tweaking. Other veteran members (not necessarily active ones) might have useful comments about this as well, and it would be interesting if they could join the discussion.

Since you asked, I share your opinion that some sort of activity balance should be maintained in order for a user to be considered an active member, however I am not sure if forcing a user to post 20 times in a month's period to avoid losing their status is the way to go. I can only give an example from my own experience - as a scientist, I sometimes go on excursions overseas which can last up to several months. Potentially, this means that if I do not find the time and the place to log into AB during my work I will lose my "Active member" status, and when I return from work I will have to "race" back to get the status' privileges. It is a weird example, I know, but I think that once someone loses their status it will really create a period in which they post anything just about anywhere in order to get the status back. I am just not sure that is a good thing. Things happen in life and sometimes people have to spend time away from their computers (too much work, getting into financial problems, accidents and the like, you get the idea).

What is a better solution then? I do not know right off the bat, but I hope more people will post their opinions and maybe we can reach the right answer together.

 

[The Snark]

Visualizing the AB admins going through lists;
Naughty or nice?
Was that 20? I lost count.
I've got 17 informational, a couple that are sort of but maybe not, and one I can't understand at all.
Does that schematic of a nebulizer count?
This guy -thinks- it is a H Flatonitsbackus. Should I think this is informational?

Anyways, how about shifting the criteria to a longer standard, giving the admins more flexibility? Say, a 3 month average and a ~20% tolerance factor?
IE, 3 months, 72 informative. Close enough. Another month of no show and off the active list. Or, 130 informatives but nothing for the past month. Roll it over for another month or two. Might be in Upper Slobovia where net connects are soggy cotton strings.

 

[MrDeranged]

Update:

We weren't happy with the number of "Active Members" so we changed the criteria. It is now 15 posts within the previous 45 days.

We're also still looking for feedback on the number of posts / time frame.

Thanks

 

[The Snark]

One every six years containing content worthy of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dostoyevsky, Tagore, Gibran, Confucius or Lao Tzu. Daruma gets you 10 years.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

One every six years containing content worthy of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dostoyevsky, Tagore, Gibran, Confucius or Lao Tzu. Daruma gets you 10 years.

A Daruma with one eye only? Or both?

 

[The Snark]

Three

 

[The Snark]

@MrDeranged, seriously, we don't know your criteria or how you go about selecting qualifying posts. We're shooting in the dark making suggestions.

As an alternative I'd suggest a multi-tier system.

The top tier is reserved for people who nearly always make informative significant contributions. As example, @Widowman10, @Hobo or @pitbulllady . The number of posts is irrelevant. They may check in only once every couple of months and are always worth a read and ponder.

The middle tier are the ones that make lots of posts with significant contributions included. Informative with socializing all mixed together. These get the monitoring you presently do and get acceptable until proven otherwise.

The lowest tier are the noise makers. These are the reverse of the middle tier. Not active until proven otherwise. Effort in legit forums required. Criteria not met.


The advantage to this is you don't have to watchdog every single member taking into account each members unique time period. Less work on the admins part. The criteria being met or not met can be presumed if you give or take a few days cutting the admins some slack. It also helps to place the onus on the individual member. Significant contributors may feel more secure. If you drop a tier it's by frivolous postings and non continuous effort and may have a time delay getting back up a level.

 

[Arachnopets]

@MrDeranged, seriously, we don't know your criteria or how you go about selecting qualifying posts. We're shooting in the dark making suggestions.

As an alternative I'd suggest a multi-tier system.

The top tier is reserved for people who nearly always make informative significant contributions. As example, @Widowman10, @Hobo or @pitbulllady . The number of posts is irrelevant. They may check in only once every couple of months and are always worth a read and ponder.

The middle tier are the ones that make lots of posts with significant contributions included. Informative with socializing all mixed together. These get the monitoring you presently do and get acceptable until proven otherwise.

The lowest tier are the noise makers. These are the reverse of the middle tier. Not active until proven otherwise. Effort in legit forums required. Criteria not met.


The advantage to this is you don't have to watchdog every single member taking into account each members unique time period. Less work on the admins part. The criteria being met or not met can be presumed if you give or take a few days cutting the admins some slack. It also helps to place the onus on the individual member. Significant contributors may feel more secure. If you drop a tier it's by frivolous postings and non continuous effort and may have a time delay getting back up a level.

We have actually considered some of these. So while I see what you are suggesting and while great in theory, there are some flaws within.

First off, for the "top tier" it is impossible to determine without offending some. Who gets to decide informative vs. not so informative. Define informative. Maybe some feel they are being informative, while we feel otherwise.

The middle and lowest tier is WAY too time consuming. This means we would have to watch and read every single members posts and threads just to make this determination. Define contributions. What we feel and others feel most likely will clash, therefore rendering this impossible.

I will have to agree to disagree with your opinion that this means we would not have to "watchdog every single member". Quite the contrary. There is no other real way to make this determination. We do not have the time to sit and read every single post by every single member. With the amount of members on this site and the amount of threads/posts, it is an impossible feat.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

Debby

 

[The Snark]

Debby! Sheesh! You live in the US! You know the drill the gov lays down. If you can't win them over with brilliance, baffle them with bull<poop>! Mushroom farm. Keep em in the dark and feed them the B<edit>! How is the poor up/down graded schmuck going to know how you are handling or not handling it?

As for the middle tier, you made my point. Way too time consuming. But it appears to us that is what you are doing with the entire student body. How can we contribute to the war effort armed with an assortment of hedgehogs?

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

The lowest tier are the noise makers.

But let us not forget the scriptures of Arachnoboards, particularly the Book of Benzedrine, in which it is written "Blessed are the noise makers, for they shall be called The Children of The Watering Hole."

 

[ratluvr76]

do you get statistics as moderators that tell how many times someone has logged onto AB? If so, could the "active/non active" status's be tied to how many log ins a particular user has over a period of say, 3 months?

 

[Hisserdude]

For people like me who are on here for the subforums, there may not be a ton of opportunities to leave helpful posts. I mainly keep roaches and beetles, so I mainly post in the Insects, other Invertebrates and Arthropods forum. Sometimes there are times of inactivity on those forums, and when there is a new topic it could be about something I have never kept and could never leave a helpful comment on. So it's possible that I could lose my "Active Member" status just because there is nothing for me to post about?

Those are my concerns about the matter, I hope I haven't offended anyone.

 

[MrDeranged]

For people like me who are on here for the subforums, there may not be a ton of opportunities to leave helpful posts. I mainly keep roaches and beetles, so I mainly post in the Insects, other Invertebrates and Arthropods forum. Sometimes there are times of inactivity on those forums, and when there is a new topic it could be about something I have never kept and could never leave a helpful comment on. So it's possible that I could lose my "Active Member" status just because there is nothing for me to post about?

Those are my concerns about the matter, I hope I haven't offended anyone.

No offense at all. Yes, it is possible that you can lose your active status, anyone can. But, I will say that you only have to make 15 posts in the previous 45 days. Even with "inactive times" you yourself have 75 posts in the past 45 days (5 times what you need to have). It's not necessarily just answering posts, it creating threads as well. If a forum that you like posting in is inactive, why not post a question you might have about something, start discussions, try a different section of the site. (there's lots of things you can do to keep active)

 

[Hisserdude]

No offense at all. Yes, it is possible that you can lose your active status, anyone can. But, I will say that you only have to make 15 posts in the previous 45 days. Even with "inactive times" you yourself have 75 posts in the past 45 days (5 times what you need to have). It's not necessarily just answering posts, it creating threads as well. If a forum that you like posting in is inactive, why notpost a question you might have about something, start discussions, try a different section of the site. (there's lots of things you can do to keep active)

Wow, did not realize how much I post on this forum! Thanks for clearing that up for me. And yes, those are all great ideas, thank you very much for bringing them to my attention!

 

[wizentrop]

Interesting to read what others have to say about this. And in the end, it is nice to see the admins listening and tweaking the rules as suggested.
I must say, my original concern was not the number of posts required for achieving an "active member" status, but more the time frame. 20 or 15 posts, both are very reasonable numbers. Still, I know people sometimes have long periods of inactivity on the forums (myself included), from all sorts of reasons. I want to thank the admins for considering and eventually changing this detail of the "active member" status.

Anyway, I now see that a new member status came to be: "old timer". This sure makes me feel like a grandparent , but it is a nice appreciation to those of us who have been here for some time, even if we do not always have something to say. Thank you.

 

[MrDeranged]

We figured if you put up with us for 10 years, you deserve some recognition....

 

[BFE Pets]

You're creating more work for yourselves. Pointless rule IMO. Informational post. So in the 45 days I have to make 15 post. Not reply to post. Idk is that how it works or does my opinion on someone else's post count as one of the 15? Now to add to the headache I work a 14 day on/off rotation where I have 0 internet access when I'm working so in order to meet that requirement I will have to get 15 informative post made in 14 days. Now when the rotation changes I'll have 28 days to make that requirement but yeah I'm really gonna remember that. Smh why bother? I for one believe it's a utter waste of time and resources. Does this count as 1 of 15 or is it fluff? Wait I didn't create this post so does it count. Ummmm well here's 30 seconds of time an admin wasted that they won't get back.

 

[The Snark]

You're creating more work for yourselves. Pointless rule IMO. Informational post. So in the 45 days I have to make 15 post. Not reply to post. Idk is that how it works or does my opinion on someone else's post count as one of the 15? Now to add to the headache I work a 14 day on/off rotation where I have 0 internet access when I'm working so in order to meet that requirement I will have to get 15 informative post made in 14 days. Now when the rotation changes I'll have 28 days to make that requirement but yeah I'm really gonna remember that. Smh why bother? I for one believe it's a utter waste of time and resources. Does this count as 1 of 15 or is it fluff? Wait I didn't create this post so does it count. Ummmm well here's 30 seconds of time an admin wasted that they won't get back.

...excuse me but being snarky is my job. I'm willing to take on an apprentice but I expect the person to log on every other day for 6 1/2 minutes except Thursdays and of course weekends are triple the square of the sum of the available time you usually spend having sex with camels.