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The Reefuge

Administrator
Jul 9, 2011
4,152
1,929
Though ONLY in a test stage, and not officially open.

1 credit - Being "liked"
2 credits - Per Post
3 credits - Per Thread

Also, a nice name would go well.
 

Synodontis

Member
Aug 1, 2011
1,979
968
Melton, Victoria
Evening guys,

Now I'm not the smartest apple on the tree. Only been reefing for about 10 months or so. I for one doubt I would be able to submit a well written contribution to the forum. There would be others that could, that I would be more then willing to donate a credit to for the information or help they offered. If as in God's example, it takes me 50 posts to gain a credit, I only have that credit to donate. I've seen some great posts in here and trying to decide which post gets my credit would be limiting. Then I also really like that heater in the "credit Items" thread and that is 5 credits. The author is doing really well in the credit stakes but the people like myself may never get enough credits to "buy" something. I'm sure many would like to contribute to the forum but are unsure of how it will be received.
 

The Reefuge

Administrator
Jul 9, 2011
4,152
1,929
I hope this way will be a bit more fair to the average posted. It can give them a shot. They may not get donations from other members, but they can post a lot on the forums.

Hopefully this system will work.
 

MagicJ

Moderator
Jul 11, 2011
9,650
3,761
Hobart, Tasmania
I assume that within the rules, mods will have the opportunity, or responsibility, to cancel credits where the system has been abused? What about a right to object to points being cancelled?

Not trying to make things harder than they need to be but I can honestly see this being abused - not necessarily from existing members but from others who might want to cause trouble.

I think it is harder to get a 'Like' than to post - I would swap around the first 2.
 

The Reefuge

Administrator
Jul 9, 2011
4,152
1,929
I may take the "like" credit away. At least you can tell if a post is spam or not. I think this may be one idea where we just need to try it and see what happens. Play it by ear and tweak it along the way.
 

DavidS

The Resident Loony
Jul 17, 2011
3,337
1,033
Ballarat, Victoria
I think likes a good to have, but not sure that they need to necessarily carry any weight beyond being exactly what they are - a quick acknowledgement of liking the post.
 

jashay

Member
Jul 15, 2011
649
84
Wide Bay
gday crew :D

interesting about the likes situation. On another forum there is a karma system (someone brought this up). and basically its got no meaning apart from the fact that someone either gives a positive karma or a negative karma. it raises or falls depending on what the poster has done, said, been a help, caused trouble etc.
one thing that restricts the people from banging on a heap of positive or negative karma points is that you can only give one karma point per person per day (possibly even one karma point per day, where you can only give one, and if you wanted to put more points on them or someone else you cant).

as for the fact there is beginners on site that may not be able to contribute to advice, discussions or even a well written article, I dont beleive that you cant add to the site. from what I have noticed on forums in general, a lot of the time the same questions can come up. as we all started somewhere, when I first got into bonsai, I was constantly asking questions and the more advanced were answering these questions. eventually there was new people to the forum and sometimes the same questions would come up and I found myself answering these questions that I asked not that long ago and this helped out the more advanced from having to deal with similar beginner questions.
I dont think being a beginner is a problem as you can always come into a discussion to learn something and contribute, in doing so you would be adding to this which in turn would also mean you would receive points. eventually the beginners become the ones to answer those return questions and it makes it so the more advanced arent continually answering the same questions, which can get rather tedious. honestly if I had a dollar for every beginner that started bonsai that asked the same questions that have come up, gawd I would be rich! ;)

I honestly think this will be a system that will work well aslong as everyone gets behind it. like I said there will be some set backs but we can work around these without to much issue.
I also beleive that it could spur a lot more movement in the site.

as for another idea, what about having a poster of the week or month were they can recieve bonus points for trying to get involved and get in on discussions etc. ? on the bonsai forums a while ago we had a virtual competition held once a month, this involved one of the nursery owners would put up a picture of a stock tree or a tree that had grown out of shape, and then the idea was that members of the forum would use a picture editor and virtualise what they think could be done to the tree. and the nursery owner who was running this comp had a small "prize cupboard" which had some bonsai related things (pots, tools, books etc) which the winner of the virtual comp got to choose from after the entries were judged by a small panel.
I dont know what sort of comp could be done here, or if even a LFS would consider donating the prizes (by the way the prizes although nice werent worth a fortune, had a limit of around $10-$20 prizes).

sorry for the epic! I get going and cant stop sometimes :D
 

DavidS

The Resident Loony
Jul 17, 2011
3,337
1,033
Ballarat, Victoria
I think newbies don't necessarily need to get left behind until they're ready to contribute - I can't see why newbies whose posts indicate that they've done some research on their problem and tried to understand it can't get them some love as well. Obviously there is enough conflicting information out there that when they post here, there is plenty of room for discussion about what they've read, and how everyone with more experience here does things.
That's a type of newbie who's likely to become a pretty helpful, well informed member who'll soon be helping other people out.
 

The Reefuge

Administrator
Jul 9, 2011
4,152
1,929
The direction I am trying to head this in it completely different to what a standard forum would do. The easiest way to explain this would be thinking of The Reefuge as a country. The members of the site are its people. The credits are it's currency. People need to work to make money, so by posting, they build up a bank account.

Now, I do not want this country to be ran as nations are. I want the people to help eachother. By putting these fake credits in place, it gives this site a fake economy. By doing this, tasks such as posting, creating new threads, etc give the user a small (fake) financial gain. The user can then use this to purchase items from other users, or donate credits to users they think are doing a great job. When we run competitions, or when a partner does, credits can be used to up your chances of winning, etc.

The karma system is similar, but I want to take this to a whole new level. I believe The Reefuge already has a unique community, and it is leaps ahead of other reefing sites. However, I believe it would be amazing to see it be completely unique and original, with a userbase who goes out of their way to help fellow members.

Thoughts?
 

jashay

Member
Jul 15, 2011
649
84
Wide Bay
great explanation of it mate!

I like the way you have put it and think it will definately make for an original, unique forum setting. I think the members of the site are going to respond to this and I also beleive it will help the site grow.

great thinking!
 
Would equal "value" be given to posts that link to some interesting information they found elsewhere, as opposed to re-writing said information and posting it up in full?

The value to the community is the same - the information is disseminated to all users.

I agree that if someone puts effort into writing something informative and useful then they could be rewarded with credit, but you then have to be careful that what the user is posting is actually theirs, and not a copy and paste just to get credits.

It is a worthy endeavour to be sure, and hope you manage to get it into a workable state.

Cheers

J
 

The Reefuge

Administrator
Jul 9, 2011
4,152
1,929
Posting on the site and creating threads will give you credit. It will be up to the users if they wish to donate credit to you out of their own account if they find that you helped them.
 

MTG

Moderator
Jul 10, 2011
10,664
2,149
Gold Coast
i understand. so credits wont be automaticaly added, people will have to give them a credit if they find it helpfull etc.
 

The Reefuge

Administrator
Jul 9, 2011
4,152
1,929
Yes. Although they will be automatic for posting / starting threads.
 
So to answer my question, if you started a new thread about....oh I dont know, some LED test or something, and then entered a link to the site where the test details were, you would get the same amount of credit as you would if you copy+pasted the test details into your thread?
 

The Reefuge

Administrator
Jul 9, 2011
4,152
1,929
However, please remember, that anything that is cut / paste always has a link to it.