Important: Please Read! Changes Are Coming!

[Mistwell]

I find the in-line comments kinda annoying.

I would very much like a way for individual users to ignore that section of posts.

In the alternative, I think the drop-down option to view comments would work.

I also think focusing more on XP and rep comments is a bad idea. We are a competitive lot, and it adds a competitive element that I think harms the communal nature of the board. I know it was always there, but not in such a visible manner. Now, it's face front, and you already have people talking about it in threads like this one.

It also might have a tendency to alienate newbies. I know when my wife joined CM, the whole rep comment thing was a bit alienating and felt cliquish to her. I'm betting others feel the same, and making it more visible makes that aspect worse.

And the cliquish thing will probably happen. When edition wars break out, you'll see the same groups of people XP'ing cheers to the side they agree with, causing the other side to XP comments to their side, thus fanning the flames of the edition war through the comments.

Overall, I just think the visible in-line comments is a bad idea. Give us a way to hide them at least. It's far worse than the "me too" comments and "this", which I agree are annoying.

 

[catsclaw227]

"Me Too" posts may be silly, especially if they are simply "QFT" or "Ditto" with nothing else, but having them grant XP or rep doesn't make sense.

Does this mean that if I agree with a post I'll have to rep or give XP? That's gonna artificially inflate some XP levels and I agee that like-minded individuals could exploit this to to show allegience, back and forth, like a veiled edition war.

 

[Morrus]

Does this mean that if I agree with a post I'll have to rep or give XP?

You don't have to do anything. You can choose to do either, both or none.

 

[jmucchiello]

First, I'm not a supported (for shame) and so I really shouldn't say anything about this. But, as a reader, I'm glad to see there is development going on. There was time when there were no backups, no maintenance, etc and those were dark times indeed.

If I were to be a supporter, I'd be unhappy about the gamers seeking gamers thing. It has been tried several times before. There was the forum and then there was the map thing (did it go away) now there's another initiative. The flaw with a gsg section is that people don't seek out fellow gamers very often. It is extremely low volume, low use. Once you are in a group, the gsg section of any website is just a waste of bits. And if the section fails you after a month, it's going to continue failing you until someone magically appears with a game for you. I suspect what will happen here is they will release it. It will be "popular' for a month or two and then few will remember it is there.

Is this the best way to spend money on ENWorld? Time will tell.

 

[catsclaw227]

Does this mean that if I agree with a post I'll have to rep or give XP?

You don't have to do anything. You can choose to do either, both or none.

My Bad, I should have worded this differently. What I wanted to say:

Does this mean that if I agree with a post I should give XP instead of just a "me too"?

I wonder if there will be etiquette changes (unofficial, of course) in the way rep and "me too" posts work.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

If I were to be a supporter, I'd be unhappy about the gamers seeking gamers thing. It has been tried several times before. There was the forum and then there was the map thing (did it go away) now there's another initiative. The flaw with a gsg section is that people don't seek out fellow gamers very often. It is extremely low volume, low use. Once you are in a group, the gsg section of any website is just a waste of bits. And if the section fails you after a month, it's going to continue failing you until someone magically appears with a game for you. I suspect what will happen here is they will release it. It will be "popular' for a month or two and then few will remember it is there.

Is this the best way to spend money on ENWorld? Time will tell.

The map went away - it was a third party site that recently changed to require payment to maintain the map.

The forum didn't work because it was cumbersome to deal with. I found it wasn't good at narrowing down a region well enough, it was not kept current, and threads would drop off the first page if they were not regularly bumped. As a supporter, I don't mind resources being spent on developing a better way, as long as the core functionality of this site is maintained.

 

[Morrus]

My Bad, I should have worded this differently. What I wanted to say:

Does this mean that if I agree with a post I should give XP instead of just a "me too"?

I wonder if there will be etiquette changes (unofficial, of course) in the way rep and "me too" posts work.

That remains to be seen. Like many things, we won't know until we try it!

I'm of the opinion that it will increase use of the rep system. And that posrep is one of those little things that really makes your day (in a minor way). So the more of that, the better; getting posrep makes people happy. Happy people are nice people.

 

[Raven Crowking]

You don't have to do anything. You can choose to do either, both or none.

I think that the point is: If you want EN World to feel more like Circvs Maximvs, this is the way to go.

When the kudos were largely in the shadows -- and only kudos, not negrep as well -- then you felt good, and were happy about receiving those kudos. Because it was just about your posts, not about someone else's, unless you were the giver. Sort of like Christmas presents.

But, like Christmas presents, when you start comparing with the Joneses, things get wonky. Add the ability to take away Christmas presents, and the sure knowledge that someone else is getting XP for a post that puts someone on your personal "naughty" list, and I'm not seeing a whole lot of happy.

People will, perhaps, buy memberships to help fuel a repwar. In that way, I can see it helping your bottom line in the short term only. But changing the nature of the board overall might well mean changing the level of traffic, and the level of participation, for the worse. And that could harm your bottom line in the long term.

Something, perhaps, to think about.

But it's your back yard, and you call the shots. And I fully support your right to do so.


RC

 

[Morrus]

I think that the point is: If you want EN World to feel more like Circvs Maximvs, this is the way to go.

I respectfully completely disagree with this assertion.

 

[Mark]

Hey everybody! Look who thought each different board was a separate universe, with some implicit presidential pardon for crimes committed elsewhere!

Crimes? Man, you sure live up to your name sometimes.

Don't respond, report it. Thanks. PS