Is the rep & points thing fair?

:cnfs:Looked for info on my rep in User CP as was suggested for someone else, but couldn't find any reference to it. Where should I look, please? Looking at the Richest members, it seems that it's mainly the moderators / administrators. How about the mods & other senior gardeners / head gardeners having a quota of apprentice gardeners to mentor, in order to encourage them? Otherwise it's always going to be the clique of long-standing members who get all the points ( and the $GC!).

 

Why woory, its a nonsense, revert back to the vertical setup and ignore it.

Most of the knowledgable contributors arent remotley bothered by this feature and post out of an enjoyment of gardening not an intrest in gaining nonsense points.

 

I must say, Paul, I do tend to agree with you. It does all seem a bit unnecessary. Part of the current trend in which everything has to be "FUN" !!
How do I "revert back to the vertical setup" , please ?? I still don't understand the difference between vertical and horizontal.
PS Just found the answer (I hope) in your reply to another post. Thanks.

 

I don't see why I need to know what reading-format you are using ("Postbit: Vertical") and how many times you've been thanked (Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts) or how many times you've thanked other people (Thanks: 3) on EVERY SINGLE post EVERYONE makes. Another waste of vertical space which means there are fewer posts/page and more whitespace ...

... signal-to-noise ratio here has fallen off markedly over the last 3 or 4 months, or so it seems to me.

 

The points are in accordance with the number of posts made. Most of the staff have been here almost from the beginning so are bound to have more points.

And I have no idea what you mean by 'signal-to-noise ratio'. As it happens, the feedback we've had indicates that there are far more members who appreciate the new bells ad whistles than not. And nobody is forcing you to a) use them or b) even pay attention to them. And the items to which you refer just come with the vBulletin version we recently upgraded to. Thus you would do better expressing your discontent to them as they dictate what's included more than we do.

 

"I have no idea what you mean by 'signal-to-noise ratio'"

Sorry. The ratio of interesting gardening posts to other posts.

"the feedback we've had indicates that there are far more members who appreciate the new bells ad whistles than not"

I would venture that the regulars here are those I would regard as the local community. Casual visitors are not likely to enter this thread / debate. They will arrive on the recommendation of a friend, or via Google whatever. if they like what they see / find what they want they may register and some will become regulars. Many of the regulars are participating in long running "chat" threads, I haven't read them but I can imagine that the new features will be of benefit to that community.

Its up to the owners what they do, and what they want the site to be like, but speaking for myself I would prefer a dedicated gardening site without gadgets and gizmos, as you will have gathered.

"nobody is forcing you to a) use them"

No of course they aren't, but thanks for pointing that out!

" or b) even pay attention to them"

As I have said I think is a pity that the amount of content / page has reduced significantly because of the space taken up by the additional User Info stuff, the "So and so thanked you for this post" (not the concept, the space taken up) and so on.

"the items to which you refer just come with the vBulletin version we recently upgraded to"

Indeed. vBulletin is widely used, and well respected; its still up to the site owners to chose which of their new features they what to use, or not.

 

Kristen, I agree 100% with you.

 

Woo,

You know I do respect you and your advice at all times. Can I ask then that there is a comprehensive thread that will help people clearly ( for me-dumbed down advice please). When I have read some of the replies to help requests, I have often been left in worse shape than before.

Between you and I, those games had better be good when they eventually turn up.

 

And Freedom Of Speech:thmb::D

 

100% agree with Kandyfloss on this one.

I also know a number of members who don`t like the bells and whistles and are not prepared to say so publicly because they feel they will then be insulted for it.

Help us to see the benefits, don`t label us.

 

ah - okay, thank you

And what, in my comment, made you suppose that the feedback we've had has NOT been from the local community?

Another thought you might like to mull over:
This forum is in two sections:

Gardening Discussion
which includes, as you might suppose, all the usual gardening topics.

General Discussion
which includes general discussion, photo competitions, discussion and gallery, hobbies, blogs, recipes, computer discussion, pets, wildlife and games arena, not to mention the sometimes infamous Muppets Show!

In a recent bit of analysis of activity in the forum, it became obvious that postings are about equal between to two areas and that posting in non-gardening areas also about equal those in the specifically gardening areas. So I would suggest that this forum has, over time, become a general interest forum with a gardening bias rather than the soley gardening forum it once was. There are many regular members who seem not to engage themselves in the garening fora overmuch but they are still regular members.

My point was that the upgrade has only just taken place. Given that Nathan, Rich and I all have lives outside of this forum, nothing is going to happen overnight in regard to this. We need to get the upgrade completed before we start pruning things off. Even so, people do seem to be using these features which would indicate that they approve of their presence.

I already said I would be working on a comprehensive "How-To" with screen shots, just as I have with the photo uploads and other stuff in the "How-To" forum. But you will have to be patient while I get stuff together and even then I have other things to do. My "To Do" list is pretty full at the moment but I do know how much it is needed and will get around to it just as soon as I can.

OK?

 

The thing is daisees, many of 'the local comunity' whilst granted not redgistering discontent openly will simply just not post as often full stop. To me this is a pity.

Your efforts in producing a how too guide to using and disabling, will hopefully however placate some of the above issues.

 

Daisees, Like you I am a busy girl and seem to have missed that post you are referring to-sorry. I will look for it now in the How-to section as you say.



Many Thanks