Experience points

[Nifft]

I take it you got XP for the first and not the second?

Right. I meant to say that.

4 xp for being useless-but-witty, 0 xp for being helpful.

The nature of "wide appeal": the audience interested in a thread's chosen topic is smaller than the audience amused by an amusing disruption. Thus, humor at the expense of any topic will be more popular than the topic. XP is a popularity metric.

Just because you expressed something witty, doesn't make it threadcrapping.

Expressing something witty and useless is borderline. He was looking for something creepy, not something funny. The reason I say "borderline" and not just flat-out "threadcrapping" is that indeed it could be useful for someone running a more lighthearted game... at least, that's my self-justification for having posted such useless wit.

(BTW, the point of the "same time of day" stuff was to point out that "time of day" is controlled for in this "experiment". As in: it has been expressly made into a non-factor.)

Cheers, -- N

 

[Oni]

I personally like the XP system. It's encouraging to know that people care enough about what you posted it make note of it. The comments I've received have ranged from "lol" and "agreed" to "I don't agree with all of that, but it was actually nuanced, which is a quality much rarer in fact than in attribution." and the occasional compliment about my PbP characters.

Anyway I've appreciated them all and don't see the feature as doing any harm to the community.

Also I like that I can shoot someone a little easy recognition for saying something I thought was particularly intelligent.

 

[Nifft]

"I don't agree with all of that, but it was actually nuanced, which is a quality much rarer in fact than in attribution."

If I'd seen more like that, I would think better of the XP system.

Thanks, -- N

 

[darjr]

Uh, just for the record, Nift, I found it creepy.

And just the thing for some types of games.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Y'see?

Snark & sarcasm is hard to pull off sometimes when your medium is words on a screen. Someone may just take you seriously!

 

[wedgeski]

I'm a fan of the XP system. I've received points for several different types of post, but yes, more for the quip or drive-by-joke than for posts which actually expand the discussion. I'm okay with this. It's not for me to decide what people find interesting in what I post... and maybe what *I* think is interesting or useful is a view not shared by the readership.

Personally I rarely give XP for a quip or joke (although I have done); more often I reserve them for posts which basically say the same thing I want to, but in better language, or for posts which are particularly arresting and thought-provoking.

Nifft, although the second post you cite was certainly helpful in the context of the thread, the only person who would ever really have given you XP for such a thing, IMO, would have been the OP, and there are various reasons why he/she might never have done so. To the rest of us, it was a list of magic items, nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Bullgrit]

I've received points for several different types of post, but yes, more for the quip or drive-by-joke than for posts which actually expand the discussion.

Maybe this is a good function for the xp feature? Instead of adding another useless post to the thread just to say "LOL!", the reader can click the xp button.

Bullgrit

 

[Nifft]

Nifft, although the second post you cite was certainly helpful in the context of the thread, the only person who would ever really have given you XP for such a thing, IMO, would have been the OP, and there are various reasons why he/she might never have done so. To the rest of us, it was a list of magic items, nothing more, nothing less.

Well, that's kind of my point. Being on-topic is relevant to a minority, while borderline threadcrapping is appealing to the majority.

Now, I've been hilarious since long before EN World's XP system came along. It's not something developed in reaction to XP. But as a DM, I know the way to get more behavior of any given type is to reward that behavior, and that's what I see the XP system doing: rewarding a behavior which, while fine in moderation, doesn't really need to be encouraged.

This is certainly just my opinion. It's based on the XP I've gotten, which may be more or less than other folks.

- - -

IMHO would be more interesting to see per-post XP (i.e. XP tags on individual posts rather than on a poster as a whole). That way you could reward good posts without assigning any lasting merit to the poster.

Cheers, -- N

 

[LightPhoenix]

Maybe this is a good function for the xp feature? Instead of adding another useless post to the thread just to say "LOL!", the reader can click the xp button.

"Me-too" posts are always going to be a problem on any message board. The only way to convert the XP button to prevent that is to adopt a Digg/Reddit style system where XP actually has an effect on how the posts are read. That is (IMO) completely contrary to how a message board, and specifically this community, works.

IMHO would be more interesting to see per-post XP (i.e. XP tags on individual posts rather than on a poster as a whole). That way you could reward good posts without assigning any lasting merit to the poster.

I think part of the problem with that may be a technical issue. That's additional data (possibly a sheet, not sure as to vB's system) you have to attach to every post, versus attaching it to every user. The latter is much less load on the system than the former.

Aside from that though, I'm not certain I see a point to adopting a per-post XP system. That doesn't really solve the problem you've stated regarding on-topic versus off-topic posts getting XP. Presumably, there would be a way of monitoring high-XP posts in a per-post system. It would be impossible to separate the post from the poster, and such an index of high-XP posts would include poster information, even tangentially (say, by clicking the link to read the post).

Of course, all high-XP posts could be monitored completely anonymously; that is, an index of high-XP posts has the user information (poster, thread links, etc) stripped from it. I would argue that defeats the purpose of any XP system, which is to reward good posting behavior. It still does nothing to change XP-granting behavior (on- vs. off-topic) while removing any positive benefits of the XP system. In which case, why even bother using it?

 

[Nifft]

"Me-too" posts are always going to be a problem on any message board.

I think his point was that the XP system reduces the number of "Me-too" posts, since users will either post a "me too" or click to add XP.

IMHO, this is a good point, and a good thing to have happening.

I think part of the problem with that may be a technical issue. That's additional data (possibly a sheet, not sure as to vB's system) you have to attach to every post, versus attaching it to every user. The latter is much less load on the system than the former.

I know that every XP is permanently associated with a specific post already, but I don't know how the data is stored or indexed. So you may be right in assuming technical impracticality.

Aside from that though, I'm not certain I see a point to adopting a per-post XP system. That doesn't really solve the problem you've stated regarding on-topic versus off-topic posts getting XP. Presumably, there would be a way of monitoring high-XP posts in a per-post system. It would be impossible to separate the post from the poster, and such an index of high-XP posts would include poster information, even tangentially (say, by clicking the link to read the post).

The point of per-post XP would be:
1/ Act as a disincentive to cliques; and
2/ Remove focus on "good poster", put focus on "good post".

This last bit reduces the potential for rep-drama greatly, since people are way less touchy about "stuff I did" vs. "stuff I am".

that defeats the purpose of any XP system, which is to reward good posting behavior.

I think we do agree about this. My original point was that, of all my behavior on this forum, the stuff I'm rewarded for most is not the stuff I consider my best posting behavior.

Cheers, -- N