Contributors

Introduction:

"I contribute, too!" is quite possibly the strongest personal statement any non-ranked person can make on these forums. Sythe has always had a strong following of community members, and this has always been its greatest appeal to returning members. Past, current, and future staff members are most likely to be involved in community discussions, and donators seem to come in larger numbers from those who partake in the community aspect of Sythe.

However, a lot of these members are going unrecognized for their activity. There's lots of ways to get involved, and some of them do the best that they can to do so, but so many go unappreciated. In this suggestion, I will attempt to show you why giving recognition to the best of our members is important, regardless of whether or not they are involved in different community activities or can afford to donate. This suggestion is for all of the members who make premium quality posts, but are lost amongst the fold of pages.


The suggestion, simplified:

I suggest the adding of a new rank titled 'Contributor'. Contributors provide the best posts in whatever section they're chosen from. Any member can become a Contributor, but they must be recommended by another member for consideration. The available slots is not limited to any specific number, but rather by quality of posts and respectability of character. Members with this rank would be ones you consider to be highly valuable to Sythe's community aspect. I also suggest that we add a private forum for Contributors to discuss recommendations and such for new Contributors, this would follow the same moderation ques as the donator forum.


The suggestion, long form:

Ok, I'll get rather quickly to the point as I'm sure a long suggestion would merely bore you and not retain your interest. We have a fair number of members that are always on, always helping, always posting great threads, always maintaining debates in SFA, always answering your questions with detailed information, always providing great content relevant to your interest or the interest of a thread... Simply put, they're always there doing the best.

If we could choose what Google indexed for new members to see when browsing, we would choose these members posts. They're highly respectable, demonstrate good character, and are great to have around. These members need recognition, they need something that shows them we are paying attention to them, and appreciate everything that they do for Sythe. While we don't have much to offer, a rank isn't much to add and it will remain valuable if given only to members that are truly fit for the position.

There would be no requirement for Contributors to remain Contributors. However, they must retain the good character and quality posts they had when they received the rank. They would not be required to write guides, start threads, or anything like that. The rank, itself, is comparable to that of 'donator' ranks, as these members donate their time to providing quality content to Sythe and help keep our great community alive. Recognition for them is only reasonable.

In addition to them receiving a rank to display their contributions, they would receive access to a private forum to speak with other Contributors, and converse over recommendations for new Contributors. It would be no question that these members would hold enough weight with the community that their combined opinion would be highly respectable and noteworthy. A private forum would easily be full of amazing content, and new contributors would be held to a very strict standard by the current Contributors.

All of this combined, I believe the greatest suggestion in this whole is that the rank of Contributor is one worth whoring for. The attempts with User Education failed to push users into bettering themselves, as was its intention in the beginning. Changes have been made to that system, but I fear that it alone will not be enough to help further sythe. Having a rank members can earn by conducting themselves with professional character and by providing premium content, we will see a fantastic increase in members attempting to become better. However, the rank must remain respectable, so responsible distribution must be cautioned.

To bring the long form to a close; Contributors are already amongst us. They are doing a fantastic job of dedicating their time to bettering this community. We, the community, are the ones who have failed to acknowledge them for their above and beyond level of activity. There are many websites around the web that recognize significant contributions from members, and I believe Sythe would greatly benefit from doing the same.


Pro/Con List:

Pros -

• Contributors Recognized!
• Users will attempt to post better content and show a higher level of intelligence to try for the rank. (Which will accomplish what posting guides alone does not.) While rank whoring for this may seem wrong to some, there is nothing wrong with trying to seek positive recognition, and there will be no harm done by members shooting for this.
• Members will be involved in this system, it will not be closed to anyone regardless of whether they are staff or not.
• A private forum will be constructed, and contributors will be able to engage in lengthy rich discussions.
• The complete lack of an application system, or constant maintenance will make this an easy integration with little to no necessary upkeep. (New contributors added once a month, or so, which is quite an easy task).

Cons -

• A new rank and a new private forum. This has always been something people are iffy about doing, except in necessary circumstances. (Which this most certainly should be.)
• An appropriate system for finding great Contributors is hard to establish. The only way it will work is if it is based on user recommendations, and then discussed in the private forum until new Contributors are added. At which point, it would be at the discretion of the Admin adding the new members. It would be fully appropriate for said Admin to post reasons for accepting and denying new Contributors when doing so, as well. (Assigning a specific Admin to this task would be simple, and setting a static date would remove all confusion as to whether a person is getting added that round or not.)
• The rank could easily lose value, if the Contributors don't respect the ideals of what being a Contributor means to the community.

Conclusion:

I hope you've enjoyed my suggestion, and I hope you can provide quality feedback . While changes to the setup I've written down are acceptable, I feel that many changes will potentially compromise the integrity of the system. And so with that, I leave you with a final note:

http://sythe.org/showthread.php?t=898490



EDIT:

I decided that adding a list of members I would suggest for Contributor to simply show what kind of members would be involved would be helpful:

Gohan - For his constant personal support help and friendliness with nearly all members. He's very personal, and always contributes positively.
(If Not Banned) Darren/Tyro - These two were fantastic in Something for All, and always maintained civil, intelligent discussions in debates.
-All I could think of at the time-

 

Doesn't the "Community Assistant" rank pretty much cover this. I mean to get that rank they have to have active helpful posts on the forums.

I appreciate that you put a lot of effort into your post but I think we are starting to go a little overboard with ranks

 

Community Assistant is User Educator renamed with the requirements changed a little bit. There's an application system for that, and everything, and you're required to do different things and such. The ranks themselves speak obvious differences.

Contributor is a person who contributes value to the forum.
Community Assistant is a person who answers questions, writes guides, applys for the position, etc.

Having requirements for the rank of Contributor would defeat the purpose of recognizing these members for their activity. Asking them to apply for something would also defeat the purpose, as they are already applying themselves and it should be our responsibility to recognize them.

As I said in the suggestion, Contributor would be the same as a Donator, only with adding value with content. It shouldn't be something so restricted and demanding.

 

Who would decide who is and isn't a contributor?
You say they would need to be recommended, friends will recommend friends and this has potential for abuse. Also who would be the initial recommenders?

I have mixed opinions about this suggestion, I like the idea itself, however I'm not sure how it could be implemented in a successful way.

 

Anybody could recommend anybody. A sticky in Community General, relayed to the private forum for discussion amongst Contributors, and the ultimate decision left up to the Administrator who approves/denies them based on whether or not they really represent Sythe positively.

Yes, friends will recommend friends, but if the recommended person doesn't seem to have enough character and contributions to be appropriate, then it won't happen. Given that the discretion is left to an Admin, the potential for abuse is nearly negated as their decisions will usually be made from the discussions of current Contributors (whose standards would be based on their own actions collectively).

 

You say that members "donate" their time to make quality posts. There are way too many people who post all the time on these forums that could fall under that category.

Also the requirements for Community Assistant is only to write 1 guide, their helpfulness around the forum is the main thing that is taken into consideration

 

Of course a standard will be issued, and maintained. The idea is to take the best posters and give them a rank for their helping better Sythe. If you've ever scrolled through a members posts, and see nothing but tl;dr's and all of them are thoroughly on-topic and helpful to the thread... that would be a Contributor.

That's still too much. A guide is a useless waste of time compounded with an application. (At least from the aspect of a real Contributor). I'm not trying to dispute the utility of CA's, but... well, I'll just c+p what I said in the IRC:

[09:06] <+deacon> why do they get a rank for giving money to sythe, and the people who keep the site actually running with premium content get a pat on the back and a new thread?
[09:07] <+deacon> I guess my point here being that Donators shouldn't be receiving so many benefits when there are members who contribute far more that should receive equal if not more than them.

 

I personally think this would be somewhat time consuming, and it borders very close to the Community Assistant rank.

Personally I think it's not a bad idea but it'll take some work implementing it.

 

In comparison to the Community Assistant rank, this would take around 30 minutes of integration, and finding worthy candidates would be an ongoing process that would consume the time of members more than the time of Staff. (Who would simply have to read a thread to determine who gets and who doesn't get a rank, and who should be removed, etc).

Once again, not attacking Community Assistant, even though the only changes made has been that it's easier for Users to get a cheap rank. This rank would not be handed out freely, nor would any user be able to apply for it. Their application would be how well they handle themselves on the forums and how great their contributions to Sythe are.

Its relevance to Community Assistant is actually very different. Contributors are to Community Assistant as Donators are to Community Assistant.

 

Would it be like the OMM rank that never leaves unless your scammed or do you have to be constantly active to keep it?

 

Bubba, I think you would always have it if, unless, you show that you are not suitable for it anymore.

I support, something like this is needed, great idea.

 

Sounds like the same thing to me.. other than the apply part.

 

Regulations for retaining it are TBD, but I would think anyone who has it would keep it unless they show themselves unworthy.

Thank you . I appreciate the first person to show solid support.

Again, to compare the idea of Contributors to Community Assistant is the same thing as comparing Donators to Community Assistant. That 'apply' part is a really big deal, as is the requirements of activity, guides, etc.

 

I like it.

I agree when you say that the driving force behind the success of the site is not how much we pull in donations each month, but rather the users who contribute the most to conversation. Although, the idea of adding more boards to the forum seems daunting, it wouldn't have a huge impact because it's private.

Support.

 

I think I understand the general idea. It's like a little reward for those who help out every day, and incentive for those who could help out a little more.

It could be a nice perk to the forums, but I also foresee people exploiting the title to gain trust and eventually taking advantage of it. It would be something to watch out for I guess

 

I do agree that exploitation is feasible, but that's the case with any rank. If the value of the rank is obvious, like Donators are, then ones judgement may be less clouded when dealing with those members, and hopefully reduce any potential use for exploitation.

 

True that, it's ultimately down to the better judgement of the users as to who they wish to do business with.

Support for the idea, by the way

 

I really don't like this idea. I'll restate my mantra: Besides for what we already have in place, it's not the job of us (as staff) at Sythe to decide who is trustworthy, who is knowledgeable, who is helpful, etc.

Basically, I'll always prefer letting people decide for themselves who is knowledgeable (/trusted/smart/etc) rather than having the staff arbitrarily assign some ranks to people. The people who browse Sythe aren't stupid; they can make judgments themselves. Furthermore, it'll increase the ridiculous posts I always sift through where people are more than obviously trying to get noticed favorably and be nominated for mod.

No support for this suggestion.

 

i Idnd't really read the whole thing, but if you report threads that are against the rules mabye that could go to being a contributor

Pros:
- People reporting threads asap that break the Rules

Cons:
- People will abuse it
- There will be many reports.

Solution:
If people mis use the report thread function they can receive a infraction.

 

Not Needed.

Just another useless rank. Why should people be encouraged to post more maturely / use their intelligence - should be common sense, unless you aim to be an idiot; and if that is the case, a Temp Ban is an easy solution.

No Support!