User Education: A Fresh Start

I've never seen you before, recently come back?

UE does help, brings extra attention to the site, brings extra posts. Maybe make it to where there's no rank? They have now power according to this thread, except having their own forum.

 

The rank is a necessary part of UE & CDT since these people are giving up lots of their time to benefit the community. Who wants to not only volunteer their time but then must meet stringent guidelines determining their activity in return for nothing?

 

The same thing should happen as I suggested for the CDT rank, staff can watch over those in the group and those who actually pull their weight and contribute and do what they're supposed to do get a rank, those who don't get kicked out and so forth with the cycle. Also if you decide once you get your rank to be lazy, again staff can decide and you'll lose your rank so there is no way for you to be lazy in a group or just "going for the rank."

 

@Purpose

High Quality Guides

Tons of those on the internet. You will just be referencing it.

and answer people's questions

The site already has sythe support and the questions get answered really fast.

Encourage forum activity

How? This site is primarily a market site. These other forums around it is to support the site itself. I don't think guides and answering other people's questions (that is already done) will bring more users than they are now.

It's going to be a huge spam fest. "Thanks for this good guide", "This guide is really helpful" Yada Yada

I'll put it like this.

No one would even attempt this if there was no prize/rank for it. Facts

 

1. Please read it all, people search for guides, Sythe would pop up with some of them. This would draw more attention to Sythe. Also, increase activity.

2. I'm not sure what you're even talking about. If I had trouble on the site, I'd have to figure it out myself.

3. This site isn't primarily a market. I've made 5~ trades at Sythe, that was when I first started. I don't use the markets, and I have every market section not showing. I use this site for the community. - Refer to #1.

4.

Refer to:

 

Oh boy, so ignorant.

1. You're brought to the site, you're looking at guides. Oh wait, it's a market too? You get interested and join.

Sure, people will see the guide and use it, leave. But not everyone. Any bit of interest will help Sythe.

2. I know there's a section, but all questions don't get answered as quick as you say. People can wait hours and hours with no reply. No need to act like a smart-ass here.

3. True, but there are many user who don't use the market at all. Plenty of users who use the community and market. This site would lose many of members without the community.

4. So what, they want a rank and want to stand out a bit. Cool, they can lose the rank if they don't meet the quota. You're using the perk of being a donor.. You're saying you should only donate to help the site, not get the perks. Take off your perks then, don't use them, hypocrite.

 

I have more knowledge than you on what attracts people to certain sites. You however are not taking in different variables needed to come to this conclusion.

>Runescape is dead.
>Runescape made this site popular.
>Runescape (the dead game) is prioritized over any other game.

It's clear. You won't get new members from a dead game.

 

UE has failed twice before mainly because people abused it for the rank. This is going to continue to happen over and over again, no matter how hard you try.

I've not read the pros/cons of having the team return, I'm simply posting my two cents on the subject.

 

Runescape is dead.
Runescape may have made this site popular.
Runescape is currently prioritized.

It's still clear you're ignorant.

It's not like this site is forced to stay on Runescape. LoL is growing on this site as a market. This site may have been based off Runescape, but it has a market for any game.

You've been here longer, are you proud? I could care less. You obviously have no experience with making a website grow. I've been a large part of many communities, I know anything can help.

~ Yes I know what ignorant means, I can grab a definition if you'd like to learn.

Are you saying if someone wants to learn something about pets, stumbles upon this site, they wouldn't be interested in anything else? All they have in interest is pets? No, they could play Runescape, WoW, LoL, or be looking to chat around, and have fun.

I've been to the forum, you obviously have no clue what you're talking about.

This statement makes no sense..
"Plenty of users? I've been here longer than you, that's a fact."
What the hell is your point? You've been here longer, do you think I care? Please don't point out things that have absolutely no meaning. Sure people are using the market, the forum IS based over it. The community is a large portion, too. Without the community, this would just be another site. It wouldn't be a forum, it'd be like smokinshop. Just like you said, it is market based, but being based around something doesn't mean it's everything. You seemed to have lost your thought process right here.

Correct, as of now there is no UE team. But if there was, why should they not get something for donating. They get their perks and rank too. (A rank and their own forum) just as donors do.
_________________________________________

Don't say you have more knowledge when you aren't even thinking. You don't know the slightest bit about me, so why pretend you do? If you have no USEFUL points to use, don't post again.

 

You still don't seem to understand the points I'm making. You're backtracking and I don't have time to keep doing this with you. You're Not presenting anything viable that would make this idea seem plausible.

The main objective is the reason why this idea is a bust. If it failed multiple times, what makes the idea so great other than members wanting ranks?

I don't think UE will have any type of significant impact whatsoever. If this somehow gets implemented due to many supporters, we will see that I was right. Not trying to be cocky but it's just a bad idea.

 

Think as you want. You've proposed nothing that makes it not viable. If it failed before, then it wasn't ran correctly, all you can do is change that.

 

It's not a decision persay, but I personally won't have it another way. I'm sure others on staff will agree with me in that the OGV system gradually transformed members into a rather inefficient, unreliable, and wholly unnecessary team that served no real purpose. I don't want to see it back.

Apart from that, it seems as though the advocates for the revival of the UE want the new user educator system to be completely separate from staff: traditionally guide verification has been something reserved for staff members (hence the "can a mod verify this for me")/highly trusted members, many of the tasks involved with the management of a team that verifies guides require moderator permissions, etc etc - this is inherently contradictory to what the advocates are asking for.


As for the rest of the thread, I haven't read it all, but it seems that many anti-revival users are saying that people will only abuse it for the rank. From what I understand, SuF is actually acknowledging that and is saying that the benefits of a UE team would outweigh that one and only con (people abusing it for the rank); that said, we can also leverage the system so as to depress the number of people abusing it for the rank...

 

I actually think it's been three times. The first time was just basically the staff plus Deacon and folks being stupid, though.

Jesus I made it bullets for christs sake!

I actually like Brendan's idea to not immediately give new members the rank. Perhaps like a three month proof that you will actually do work before you could qualify. Put this together with the guide writing requirement, voting requirements, posting requirements, and discussion requirements and I think we could ferret out the lazy slobs.

We could also give UEs that resign, instead of being removed, a chance to get back in without reapplying while those who get removed must reapply (and write at least two new guides). That would encourage people who are inactive are busy to simply leave for a few months instead of trying to stay in and getting demoted and then not being able to get back in easily.

Part of the reason I strongly believe that the team would have to be very independant from staff is mainly because the staff sucks at getting anything done. Sometimes it's not so bad but then take something like the damn bump rule or getting forum changes (but that is getting so much better!). The team has failed in the past so we need to be able to shift and change rapidly and try a lot of different, and perhaps radical, things that may be hindered if the staff tries to have any control. That's really why I want the guides section layout to be completely controlled by the UE (as much as possible). If shits hard to change or get done, people eventually stop trying... even me. It just gets too annoying. We need to keep it easy.

And I'm not all that concerned about people abusing the rank. The only bad thing that could come from it is the trust issue but we can't do much regardless. I mean people scam. Pen came back and scammed. Not much we can do other than try to EDUCATE people on how to avoid them.

 

When you two have the time, I'd love it if you could present your concerns.

You're not coming across as an asshole, because too an extent, you're correct. There will always be members that only consider the User Education at all in a bid to show themselves off or feel as if they have some sort of power, however I disagree that it's what Everyone is trying to achieve. There are members who generally care about the site and its members, and provide assistance everywhere that they can. Creating Guides, answering Help & Requests, etc. Sure, you don't need to be a part of a team to assist within a community in the said way, however the User Education team acted as a system that added a little bit of concrete foundation. It encourages members to continue helping, as well as be a part of a team where they are with others who feel the same.

In regards to "I don't recall one positive thing coming from the section." See below where I've created a list of positives.

Entirely understandable. Thanks for explaining.

I've highlighted the point that I'm trying to press. I know that there is a negative to this team, but I think what you're trying to say as that their are many positives that people have forgotten about regarding this team, however they keep being overlooked due to this one negative.

Again, I understand the concern, we'll always have people who are abusing the system for the rank, that's why I'd like parameters to be created regarding the rank. I.E. Only earn the rank after 2-3 months of completing the checklist, lose the rank if the checklist isn't completed, etc.

I'd also like to state that I don't believe the UE failed. However if you could explain you're opinion as to why, it may change my position.

I'll try and list the Pros that I can think of and that I recognised during my year long adventure in User Education.

• In order to apply/maintain a position in the team, quality guides would need to be created. These guides were generally either Sythe or Real World related (Not RuneScape/Other Games) and would assist Sythe by:
  • Being an active section that members of Sythe would be able to learn things from. Sure, if a member wanted too, they could probably search the internet for a similar guide, however members just browsing something might see something that grabs their attention and they could learn something from. Also, Sythe related guides would be unique to Sythe, and couldn't be found elsewhere.
  • These guides, like they did in the past, would allow for an increase of traffic regarding guests to the website. I remember when I was a User Educator back in 2010, I'd see that there is 40-50 members within the User Education section, (Mostly within Guides), and when checking, realise that over three quarters of them were guests. This traffic allows Sythe to gain money through advertisement revenues, however can also lead to bringing new members to join the website increasing overall activity.
• While anyone may answer questions in either Help & Requests, Sythe Support, Personal help and Assistance or questions in any other forums, the team took it as a responsibility, not just something they could do if they wanted too. This means that for those difficult to answer questions, they would make a genuine effort to answer the question to be able to complete parts of their checklist, allowing members to receive helpful and quality answers quickly.
• Recognition for members who already help the forums. We already have a load of helpful members out there, why not see if they'd like to join a team where they can work with other people in similar situations?
• There have been a variety of projects in the past that have caught on. For example, Magic Arrow created SytheMonthly, which was a monthly sort of newspaper that updated Sythe on situations and was enjoyable for community members to read. When User Education/Community Assistants crashed, other members took it up, however it was a User Education member who originally established the idea. Similarly, Hahanerd, a former User Educator created Member of the Month.
• It's a team, that if the Staff wish, they can ask for assistance in ways. For example, the staff create a new feature to the forums that takes work to handle. If the staff team wished, they could ask the User Education team to create a guide, that the Staff can approve of and use if they wish. While this never really happened in the past, it's a point I'd like to stress. I'm not trying to say that UE members should be considered higher due to this, but if needed, they're a group of helpful people who are willing to assist in anyway they can.
• Overall, all these features do lead to more activity within forums. Guides that people can talk about, activities that can be taken part with by other members, questions that can be answered, etc. It can also encourage members to stay as they feel helped. User Education can be considered a goal too, just like becoming an OMM is.

 

I'm in full support of this idea. I think it would be healthy for the community and the rank idea can easily be balanced out. Also, it is supposed to be an incentive and a reward. Of course most people are just in it for the rank. But they're still helping the community.

Also correct me if I'm wrong though, wasn't OGV deleted?

 

Yeah, there is no more ogv.

 

I thought we should let gaming guides in. I don't see a reason not to as long as they are not trivial and are good.

I also thought we should steer clear from doing things like Sythe Monthly unless a team member (or multiple) expressed interest and then they could run it (with the reduced guide writing requirement).

These are some of the things that the UE team would need to work out before it got going and accepting applications. We need to start on solid footing.

 

Understandably.

I was just mentioning some of the positives that the original User Education team provided and what the future team would be capable of doing.

 

Support, Just don't want it to be like it once was. Iv always hated the rank ****es. There shoukd also be a guide request thread, keep others envolved. Maybe do comps on guide writing? Have most intelligent critic etc...

 

Yeah bodybuilding.com has these "write a guide" competitions that seem to be pretty popular, not sure what the prizes offered are though