Forum ranks must go

[Sigmund Leominster]

No no, I'm pretty sure tugging of forelocks is OK provided the forelocks are unscripted. Tugging of scripted things is probably proscribed by the Lab but prescribed by the Hedonists :smileyhappy:

[Quinn Morani]

Actually you don't even have to be a Member to post Youtube videos,  even though that's what the help page says. It's my understand that Lexie has now enabled Residents to post Youtube videos too. See, I can do it:

[Kelinda]

Couldn't we give the rank of "Troll" to anyone caught behaving badly?

[Wilhiam Hydraconis]

 

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Kelinda wrote:

Couldn't we give the rank of "Troll" to everyone ?

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FIFY !

 

 

[Venus Petrov]

 

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Quinn Morani wrote:

Actually you don't even have to be a Member to post Youtube videos,  even though that's what the help page says. It's my understand that Lexie has now enabled Residents to post Youtube videos too. See, I can do it:

 

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Lexi is listening!

 

[Phil Deakins]

There's no reason to get rid of ranks, imo. The difference between New Resident and Resident prevents some bad stuff being posted, so that rank change is beneficial. Imo, the rest of it doesn't matter. If they don't want me to add my knowledge to the KB, it's fine with me - they can do without it

[rotpaulette Carter]

Would that help you if i ask why i am a cloud?   in this forum.  :robotvery-happy:

[Ossian1488303077]

 

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Ian Undercroft wrote:

Yes - it could be displayed but based on what inworld criteria? People contribute inworld in so many varied ways. And to what end? Benefits or powers of some kind? SL is full egos (many overly inflated) and the acquisition of rank (whether deservedly or fortuitously) does not bear thinking about. 

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It's a dystopian dream... that we will be forced to behave better inworld by being offered prizes and by being denied access to things based on "levels".

 

[Ian Undercroft]

It sounds like a nonsensical form of communism described in that way. Save for seeing a case for restricting access to functions in a person's first week or so in SL (a sort of probationary period), I see no case for anyone being restricted in any way thereafter. Most certainly given the amount of real money I pass across the palms of LL each month I'd be annoyed if I didn't have access to all functions available in SL.

[Ishtara Rothschild]

I don't mind the ranks that much, but I'll try my best to remain unranked. I don't want people to look at my forum badge and think "whaddayaknow, grumpy old Ishtara went and tried to be helpful for once, only to gain special privileges".

And I actually used to answer questions and post short tutorials every once in a while. But now I'll stay out of the kudos-enabled subforums. So at least in my case, the rank system does the exact opposite of what LL were probably trying to achieve. *shrugs*

[Ishtara Rothschild]

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Kelinda wrote:

Couldn't we give the rank of "Troll" to anyone caught behaving badly?

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Now that's a rank that I wouldn't mind earning Reverse psychology at work.

[Ishtara Rothschild]

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Qie Niangao wrote:

These ranks are very strange things anyway.  They "unlock" some privileges that, at the higher levels, seem almost completely unrelated to the activities that elevate those ranks.

I guess I can imagine that posting YouTube videos might be something to gateway based on such automatic metrics as number of posts, login time, etc.  But being able to edit Knowledge Base articles?  I find it very difficult to believe that such permissions are granted automatically anyway; they certainly shouldn't be.

As an incentive to contributions, I don't think the visible role titles serve much purpose.  Indeed, it seems to me that they motivate exactly the sort of folks one wouldn't really want to have elevated permissions.

Some sort of "honorifics" ( "awards", "badges", ...) have proven useful for promoting positive contributions in crowd-sourced content sites such as Foursquare or even Stack Overflow.  And there need to be permission gateways here.  The current role structure, however, combine those two objectives in a way that seems unlikely to satisfy either of them.

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I assume that the ranks were meant to drive the former GD and Commerce crowd into other forum areas in order to gain abilities that are ever popular in the social forums, such as posting music videos. Swords into ploughshares, or in this case critics and trolls into CS volunteers.

(CS = customer service, not cybersex or counterstrike).

[Mags Indigo]

 

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Ishtara Rothschild wrote:

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Kelinda wrote:

Couldn't we give the rank of "Troll" to anyone caught behaving badly?

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Now that's a rank that I wouldn't mind earning

Reverse psychology at work.

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You're just one of those 'anarchists' - and a pink one too...

Ohhh and it's pixie not elf - sorry for all the offence in prior posts when I referred to you as a pink elf thingy. From now on I shall strive to be accurate - so it's 'pink pixie thingy' I guess.

*Smiles innocently :smileyhappy:

[Ishtara Rothschild]

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Mags Indigo wrote:

 

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Ishtara Rothschild wrote:

Now that's a rank that I wouldn't mind earning

Reverse psychology at work.

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You're just one of those 'anarchists' - and a pink one too...

Ohhh and it's pixie not elf - sorry for all the offence in prior posts when I referred to you as a pink elf thingy. From now on I shall strive to be accurate - so it's 'pink pixie thingy' I guess.

*Smiles innocently :smileyhappy:

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No worries, elf or pixie doesn't really make a difference to me I respond to both, and I don't really role play either one. The elf ears are just a fashion statement for me, and an attempt to look somewhat unique in combination with the pink skin and blue hair (the gender-related symbolism of those colors is just a nice coincidence btw. I tried a golden-orange look first, but in the end I liked this better).

[Mags Indigo]

 

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Ishtara Rothschild wrote:

No worries, elf or pixie doesn't really make a difference to me

I respond to both, and I don't really role play either one. The elf ears are just a fashion statement for me, and an attempt to look somewhat unique in combination with the pink skin and blue hair (the gender-related symbolism of those colors is just a nice coincidence btw. I tried a golden-orange look first, but in the end I liked this better).

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*Looks vaguely disappointed that my pathetic attempt at provocation proved to be just that - pathetic. :smileysad:

I think you look great actually - for a pink pixie thingy that is. :smileyindifferent:

[Ishtara Rothschild]

Thanks ^.^

[Ima Rang]

 

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Ishtara Rothschild wrote:

I don't mind the ranks that much, but I'll try my best to remain unranked. I don't want people to look at my forum badge and think "whaddayaknow, grumpy old Ishtara went and tried to be helpful for once, only to gain special privileges".

And I actually used to answer questions and post short tutorials every once in a while. But now I'll stay out of the kudos-enabled subforums. So at least in my case, the rank system does the exact opposite of what LL were probably trying to achieve. *shrugs*

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So I guess now would not be a good time to ask you how I can animate a mannequin?

 

[Porky Gorky]

I've looked at some other Lithium based forums on the net and it would seem that we are not the only ones that are apposed to being ranked and rewarded like children. I have to wonder how much research LL actually did before adopting this system as the ranking of users has historically been apposed by other Lithium forum participants.

[Void Singer]

I think people are focusing too much on the name, and not enough on the effect.....

"ranks" as it were allow board managers to keep often abused tools like image posting, videos, etc out of the hands of accounts that just signed up, which makes it harder for the spammers to do their thing...

... it also serves to point out the people that are well known for being helpful (and have probably been around the longest and are the most well versed at what they do) to all those newbs that pop up, as well as letting the board operators know that those are people whose suggestions for improvements are likely to be well thought out and not spurious thanks to experience with the available tools.

 

the icons are stupid, the naming scheme is inane, but the usefulness to the community is almost as good as this

 

[Ishtara Rothschild]

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Ima Rang wrote:

 

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Ishtara Rothschild wrote:

I don't mind the ranks that much, but I'll try my best to remain unranked. I don't want people to look at my forum badge and think "whaddayaknow, grumpy old Ishtara went and tried to be helpful for once, only to gain special privileges".

And I actually used to answer questions and post short tutorials every once in a while. But now I'll stay out of the kudos-enabled subforums. So at least in my case, the rank system does the exact opposite of what LL were probably trying to achieve. *shrugs*

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So I guess now would not be a good time to ask you how I can animate a mannequin?

 

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Oh, I still answer questions Just not in the grinding areas of the new forums. I'm guessing you mean a prim mannequin? I wrote my own prim animation scripts back in the day, but nowadays I'd just use Prim Puppeteer: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Prim-Puppeteer-Prim-Animation-Kit-Vendor-Edition/176833

If you don't need the resulting scripts to be copy- and transferable, you can also go with the free version: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Prim-Puppeteer-Prim-Animation-Kit-Vendor-Edition/176833

 

In case you meant an avatar mannequin, that can be done with a modified poseball script that plays a number of animations on a timer. Such as this one:

 

// ignore all this initial stuff until you see another comment line like this onekey avatar;string animation;integer counter;default{    state_entry()    {        llSitTarget(<0,0,0.5>,<0,0,0,1>);        llSetSitText("Pose");        llSetText("Pose",<1,1,1>,1); //you can change the hovering text in the quotes    }        changed(integer change)    {        if(change & CHANGED_LINK)         {            avatar = llAvatarOnSitTarget();            if( avatar != NULL_KEY )            {                llRequestPermissions(avatar, PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION);                            }            else            {                llStopAnimation("stand");                llSetTimerEvent(0);                llSetAlpha(1,ALL_SIDES);            }        }    }    run_time_permissions(integer perm)    {        if(perm)        {            llStopAnimation("sit");            llSetAlpha(0,ALL_SIDES);            counter=0;// this is where it gets interesting. First change the time in the line below:            llSetTimerEvent(10);  //time between the animations in seconds         }    }    timer()    {        llStopAnimation(animation);        counter++;// then enter the names of your animation files like this:        if (counter == 1) animation = "name of the first animation goes here";        else if (counter == 2) animation = "name of the 2nd animation";        else if (counter == 3) animation = "name of the 3rd, and so on";        else if (counter == 4) animation = "keep adding this line, and...";        else if (counter == 5) animation = "don't forget to change the counter number";// add additional 'else if' lines here as required. No further changes necessary        else counter=0;        llStartAnimation(animation);  // forgot this line earlier    }    }

 

Drop this script into a prim together with your animations, and change the script according to the instructions in the lines that begin with a double slash //. That's all

 

Edited to add a line to the script. I forgot to actually play the animation. Sorry if anybody already tried it

[Ishtara Rothschild]

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Void Singer wrote:

I think people are focusing too much on the name, and not enough on the effect.....

"ranks" as it were allow board managers to keep often abused tools like image posting, videos, etc out of the hands of accounts that just signed up, which makes it harder for the spammers to do their thing...

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Only that everyone can post images and videos. Besides, spammers rarely use anything other than text.

 

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Void Singer wrote:

... it also serves to point out the people that are well known for being helpful (and have probably been around the longest and are the most well versed at what they do) to all those newbs that pop up...

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So if someone with a Helper badge posts an answer, and I answer the same question with my orange Ms Nobody badge, I can be sure that my answer will be ignored. Why would I even bother posting?

 

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Void Singer wrote:

...as well as letting the board operators know that those are people whose suggestions for improvements are likely to be well thought out and not spurious thanks to experience with the available tools.

 

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No.

Nothing against you, but just look at the higher ranked folks here. The prokodile and MP, just to name two of them. I for one am glad that the Lindens were listening to us orange nobodies, instead of those who were already a little more equal than us, when they decided to add this Off Topic forum and allow all of us to post youTube videos. I hope it stays this way.

[Mickey Vandeverre]

We don't need no stinkin' badges or stinkin' ranks.

Great way to tell new contributors or rare contributors that their brilliant thoughts and ideas aren't worth jack squat.

Don't care how confident someone is in their thoughts and busting them out, it's still a PITA to enter a forum and have to go through some nursery school protocol to be heard and engage. 

Someone gets a blankee, someone gets a mat, someone gets to sit in teacher's lap, and someone is sent to corner to suck thumb.

Very disappointed.

They're going to end up with exactly what they ended up with in the last forum.  But worse.

[Suspiria Finucane]

 

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Mickey Vandeverre wrote:

We don't need no stinkin' badges or stinkin' ranks.

Great way to tell new contributors or rare contributors that their brilliant thoughts and ideas aren't worth jack squat.

Don't care how confident someone is in their thoughts and busting them out, it's still a PITA to enter a forum and have to go through some nursery school protocol to be heard and engage. 

Someone gets a blankee, someone gets a mat, someone gets to sit in teacher's lap, and someone is sent to corner to suck thumb.

Very disappointed.

They're going to end up with exactly what they ended up with in the last forum.  But worse.

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/me tackle hugz Mickey! Woohoo

 

[Lexie Linden]

@Cato: "Hand on heart" the moderators on these forums are not secret residents.  They are experienced moderators. ~ Lexie

[Void Singer]

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Ishtara Rothschild wrote:

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Void Singer wrote:

I think people are focusing too much on the name, and not enough on the effect.....

"ranks" as it were allow board managers to keep often abused tools like image posting, videos, etc out of the hands of accounts that just signed up, which makes it harder for the spammers to do their thing...

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Only that everyone can post images and videos. Besides, spammers rarely use anything other than text.

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the statement was generalized, for all ranking structures... many forums do something similar in that they don't let newbie post live links (something spammers and exploiters rely on)

 

 

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Ishtara Rothschild wrote:

So if someone with a Helper badge posts an answer, and I answer the same question with my orange Ms Nobody badge, I can be sure that my answer will be ignored. Why would I even bother posting?

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well, for starters, because those people started out the same way, and if you are getting to the answer before the person with the helper badge, why whould THEY bother?.... more likely with the amount of assitance they provide, they'd merely confirm that your answer is the right one.... one would hope you would post because you felt like being helpful, and screw em if they can't realize you got it right and first (heavens knows you see it often enough)

 

 

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Ishtara Rothschild wrote:

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Void Singer wrote:

...as well as letting the board operators know that those are people whose suggestions for improvements are likely to be well thought out and not spurious thanks to experience with the available tools.

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No.

Nothing against you, but just look at the higher ranked folks here. The prokodile and MP, just to name two of them. I for one am glad that the Lindens were listening to us orange nobodies, instead of those who were already a little more equal than us, when they decided to add this Off Topic forum and allow all of us to post youTube videos. I hope it stays this way.

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actually I'm looking at this thread and seeing the two highest ranked people here (Irene, who is also the higest ranked resident I've seen, and Suella) also happen to recognized by pretty much every regular as being some of the most helpful people ever...... Prok rates a mere member (and is sometimes quite helpful despite the crazy conspiracy theories), and I'm not sure who MP is, but I also note that Cerise Sorbet, another well known and highly active person helping others has risen quickly too.

 

me I've been backing off the forums recently, and only barely made "member".... not that I care, but it does identify me as someone that helps quite a bit in the content creation forums... mostly scripting, so that newbies have someone to look for..... but it would be nice if those top people in certain areas had the ability to do things like sticky important threads, or suggest changes to the official references when they notice they're incomplete or out of date (and they're the people that usually know first)

 

will some people get caught up in a game of one-upmanship? it's inevitable.... but at least their energies will be directed towards helping, which IMO isn't all that bad of a social hack....

 

will some people try to game the system? oh you betcha! but they'll also be easy to spot and easy to ignore or smack down by LL, so I doubt that'd be an issue