Contributors

That's like saying the UE shouldn't decide who can be in their group. I don't think UE is a good idea, but I respect the process. It is the job of the staff to guide the users in the right direction, to receive the right information. As for the point about people posting specifically for the purpose of trying to become a mod, this suggestion would have nothing but a positive effect on the situation. You don't get mod powers from this rank, you only get access to a private forum. After all, there's a process that the user needs to go through, if they are only interested in getting the rank just 'to have it', then they should be denied anyway.

I think many would agree that giving the mature users a place to talk is a better solution then banning the users who can't participate in said discussion. This is a free market and people can discuss what they please (to an extent). But I don't see a downside to providing a group of users a place to discuss different topics amongst themselves. After all, they've earned it by contributing activity and maturely to the forum.

Also, the rank isn't useless. In Australia and I'm sure other parts of the world adopt a similar process, when we study and reference we are required to us peer reviewed journal articles, as oppsed to just some website we found on the Google machine for the obvious reason of 'Just because someone said it, doesn't mean it's fact.'. In this case, information published by a 'contributor' would have more weight placed on it than information posted by a standard user. We're not saying what that user has to say is wrong, we're letting members know that these particular members are knowledgeable and have proven to provide accurate information in a variety of topics.

 

I think you missed a few points I made. One of the big ones being that it's not a 'trustworthy' rank, nor is it up to the staff to decide who gets it. The admin may approve or deny at his/her discretion, but ultimately it's the users who find people to be highly contributing members.

Ridiculous posts will be there regardless, and while there will always be people who are trying to seek positive approval, this won't increase that. You're basically saying there that you don't want people to attempt to make better posts merely because you believe them to be seeking approval? Honestly, for whatever reason they do it... you should be satisfied that they are at least making an effort to further themselves and to support the forum.

In this case, Contributors will not be selected lightly, nor will it be a rank that is handed out to show trust. It is merely a way of recognizing members for their utility to the forums. If you really wish to classify it, label it as a fun rank. More importantly, lets question the Mudkip rank, the Crabby rank, the Nick rank, the Cracker Head rank... any of those... they're fun ranks given to people for no really good reason.

Contributor would be a different sort of rank that would coincide with Donator. People who post helpful content that is worth mentioning SHOULD be recognized JUST as Donators, because even though they didn't donate money, they are putting forth indepth effort into the website with no reward. Donators are doing the same thing, except their 'Contributions' are less time consuming.

I don't dislike the idea of those being used as reasons for a person's recommendation, but it would not be the deciding factor. It's good to reward people for doing good.

Clearly you haven't been on Sythe very long if you think common sense determines 1/4 of these posts. Randomly banning members because their posts aren't sophisticated and useful would be counter productive. Instead, encouraging them to perform better on the forums by offering a shiny 'badge' and access to talk with others who have Sythe in the best of their interests in a private section away from less than desirable posts is the best way to promote positive activity.

Exactly. A wide range of websites use the title of Contributor as a content version of Patron. Yahoo's question base or whatever it's called has Contributors, and it is a very successful endeavor as it promotes posting positive and valid content, rather than gibberish that no one will find useful.

You will always have people who don't care to go for the rank, but if just one person revamps their entire posting style... then it's worth it. We want to breed members to represent Sythe, we want them to HELP the website, we want to keep this site alive. Giving an incentive, however small, a form of recognition that lasts is well enough to cover all bases.

While this member of the month scenario may seem to be enough, there's only one #1 for that month. People want to be recognized constantly if they're making amazing contributions... and they should be.