:( Who else is unhappy that XP comments are now showing up in the post?

[Nifft]

Meh. It wouldn't help as much as one might hope. Negative attention is still attention.

You may be right, but I do think it would stop at least some people -- the "economically rational beggars", if you will.

Do you think it would hurt? As in, do you think mods negrepping begging would lead to more begging, or to other, more anti-social behavior?

Cheers, -- N

 

[Nikosandros]

Bad things encouraged by the new system:

It is also a sleazy way of attacking a post or just being annoying without exposing oneself to the risk of a post with possible moderator repercussions.

 

[Nifft]

It is also a sleazy way of attacking a post or just being annoying without exposing oneself to the risk of a post with possible moderator repercussions.

Oooo, this is a good point! Mods should make sure that people who are thread-banned can't use the rep-comment system in that thread either.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Nonei]

Also after looking at it for another day, and reading everyone's reactions, I think I do like it overall for some of the reasons stated a couple posts above, and I also understand why people might not like it - especially the point about detracting from in-character comments in a PbP thread, and also some comments are just meant to be to that person.

I still like the idea of greying out the rectangle and/or hiding the comments in an expandable box as suggested in the other thread by somebody (sorry I couldn't find the original post to credit the person) so those that don't care to see the comments can skip over them easily.
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I like giving the option of 'hiding' the comment so it is viewable only by the receiver.

I also have had the urge to give xp to a few posts I didn't necessarily feel were xp-worthy, just because I wanted to comment on them in-line... perhaps the ability to give a 'neutral' comment on a post would be nice. Of course, that might make more work for the moderators (since some comments might be ban-worthy).

Edit: I also liked the suggestion of anonymous thumbs up/thumbs down on the helpfulness of a post, especially if you could sort/filter by helpful posts.

Hmm.. I can edit my post to respond to comments left and really confuse people! LOL. Nifft - I do realize that XP isn't Serious Business (although I have to remind myself that I have a tendency to be Way Too Serious about things sometimes) but it would be nice if it generally remained a reflection of how helpful someone is, rather than how many of their posts have been commented on. Although... that may not be too different of a thing!

 

[Morrus]

Oooo, this is a good point! Mods should make sure that people who are thread-banned can't use the rep-comment system in that thread either.

Yeah. We'll simply up it to a real ban.

 

[Deset Gled]

With apologies in advance to Nifft...

After seeing them in use for another day, I've come to dislike seeing XP comments in threads.

Bad things encouraged by the new system:
- XP used to mess with people. XP is supposed to reward people for adding to the community, not ridicule people or to actively encourage bad behavior.
- XP used for "me, too". This is bad because it encourages XP for no other purpose than to say "me, too". It also encourages "me, too" comments, which are unnecessary in whatever form they pop up in.
- It's part of the conversation. This is bad because comments can be made out of synch with the conversation. It's like a post/thread edit without a record of when it happened.
- XP used to try to be cute and funny. See this post: http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/274685-suicidal-players.html#post5144727 or the one vagabundo showed above. Both of these commend were added for teh lulz, not to reward the post or to add anything to the conversation.

The bottom line: XP is now being given for the purpose of making a comment, rather than to reward a post. This undermines the purpose of XP altogether.

And really, do we need another way to make comments on a message board that already consists of people making comments?

 

[Deset Gled]

Also,

@Nifft regarding this comment to an earlier post: "Nothing wrong with using XP to comment. XP is NOT serious business."

I disagree. XP should not be used to comment. The purpose of the message board is to comment. That's literally the purpose of the entire rest of the system. XP comments, OTOH, cannot be replied to, cannot be reported (directly), cannot be closed the way a thread can, and generally don't fit in with the way the rest of the system is designed to have a conversation.

I do agree that XP is not that serious of a business, but I think it was less silly before comments were viewable.

Edit: As a question to the mods: do you have the ability to modify or remove a comment the same way that you can change a post?

 

[Nifft]

I do agree that XP is not that serious of a business, but I think it was less silly before comments were viewable.

I don't disagree, but IMHO "silly" is not a bad thing, and it's better than XP being treated as something of value. Down that road lies needless drama.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Morrus]

cannot be reported (directly)

Sure they can. Simply report the post.

Don't worry; anyone who thinks XP is a way of breaking the rules will find out very quickly that it is not.

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

I'm going to toss my hat into the "Yeah, this is not so great" camp. From what I've seen so far, it tends to just interrupt an actual conversation with walls of "Good post!" or "Yep, poster X sure is dumb, good telling him." I'd much sooner read the conversation without having that kind of cheerleading sprinkled in between everything.

I'd be in favor of either making them hideable based on a profile setting, or collapsed-but-expandable based on a page setting.