User titles

TorontoJoe

TorontoJoe

Administrator
Hey gang… I just wanted to give you a heads up that I’ve been playing around with user titles. There was previously one noted as “junior member“. My intention was just to eliminate this because I appreciate that some junior members are quite experienced and I didn’t think it was right to identify them as “junior“

 That said… I don’t want this change to end up bringing down anyone’s user title. If you experienced this, please let me know so I can correct it

Thanks!
 
@"TorontoJoe"#1. Have been given a few different user titles, LOL first I was a blank, then I was a blankety blank. Then I was promoted to blank once again. Still Joe we're a brand new platform, and I never took offense because as you know I just don't care about promotional titles. On the other hand I do believe we need a title for guest dignitaries who might wish to visit. Like having @"ross raddi"#132 , @"NYCfigs"#27 figs or @"ZomVee"#10 , They certainly should not be addressed as Junior member. Maybe not even as member. I personally thought ((Prince from another Land)) would be a good user title for the day that Millennial Gardener comes to visit. They bless us with their presence, they should be accorded a dignified title.
 
I've been known to say things based on how I see them, so I'll do just that.

Titles should be consistent and have some objective merit upon which they must be earned in this community.

What the heck is "Member / Dude Extraordinaire?"  What makes one member Extraordinaire and others not? Is that something you are born as, or can others earn that title or forever be vanilla members?

Dignitaries? Seriously? So, someone with a Youtube channel about figs or gardening that includes some videos on figs automatically becomes a dignitary? :D :D :D
 
The nicknames are a nice touch. Member status doesn’t matter to me so I’m fine with whatever you choose. 

We should be able to recognize a member based on their user name and content. To be honest, I never really paid attention to any member’s status other than management. If I was really that interested I could look at a user’s profile to see their join date and contribution count. 

I wouldn’t worry about fixing anything as it would probably have to be manually done.
 
@"Oak Fig"#32 LOL perhaps dignitaries was an ill chosen word, and for that I do apologize. I hope you will let me politely, and respectfully disagree on this subject. Perhaps promotional titles have some place in figfanatic.com, and therefore need to be awarded somewhat egalitarianly. Still I need to point out something very important, that the number of posts can be so misleading.

First off @"Oak Fig"#32 you are my teacher in Ficus Carica knowledge, and cultivation. It's basically a master teacher, and student relationship. One that I personally value very highly. When in the old house (OF) I managed to post enough to achieve the same veterans status as you, Mattk, and Lewi. I became troubled that I might mislead new members into thinking I have some knowledge, or status I clearly did not. I went to @"TorontoJoe"#1 and I asked for his help. He agreed I was far too new, and inexperienced to have promotional titles.... He kindly decided that I should remain a simple member. BTW I have only 9 months experience in learning, growing and propagating figs. Perhaps instead of posts we should give status/title for posting original threaded content, which is what figfanatic.com desperately needs more of. LOL I will stay a (member). Especially because all the other frequent posters have far more knowledge than me.
 
What you're all posting here is exactly the thing.... I made a few tweaks just to remove the "junior" title and a member was forthright enough to PM me and give me their opinion on the whole thing. 

Things like user titles or stars are pretty much default on any forum platform and I've always just accepted that as normal. 

I do believe that there should be some recognition as far as time here and service to the community however, I want to do it in a way that respects everyone. 

As for custom handles... @"Oak Fig"#32 ... It's something that I've done for a long time.... just for fun, and I was always willing to change anyones title if they asked because I didn't consider it important... But I can see now how it may have left some feeling under-appreciated. There are no dignitaries here, so this needs to be corrected. I apologize to anyone who's user title I changed. It will need to go back to reflect their membership like everyone else. 

Currently the user title and star system works as follows. It's based on number of posts. Icompletely appreciate that quantity does not necessarily indicate quality but there are some limitations as to what criteria I can use. And again... I do want to recognize dedicated members I'm open to suggestions on how we do this.

user-titles.jpg

Without the frank, respectful discussion on this sort of thing, as you have presented above.... we often just wouldn't know there's an issue. So thank you for that.
 
I don’t think “dignitaries” should receive special titles.

Your status should be based on your contributions to this platform. Contributions aren’t solely the number of posts, but rather the impact they have. It’s good to see that some recognize post count is not a true measure of knowledgeable contributions.

As someone who posts only when I have something to say, my post count is usually lower than those who feel compelled to answer every question regardless of their expertise. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been mansplained by someone with less real world experience than me.  A solution that doesn’t reward users who post excessive but unthoughtful responses would be my choice.
 
I think I've eliminated all the custom user titles. If anyone spots one I missed, please let me know... 

I don't know if there's a way to attribute user title or stars to anything other than number of posts...... But I'm open to what those numbers should be.
 
My vote is for consistency above all. That will be fair to everyone. 

Next, I think tying stars and titles to the number of likes received for a member's posts, for example, would be the best way to go. You earn your title and stars in return for your contribution by other members. Tying those to a number of posts can sometimes be very misleading. Five thousand 'everyoneloveyouknowwho'-type posts don't make someone 'senior' or 'expert'.

If that's not possible, is there a way to tie that to time as a member? A veteran sounds like someone who has been a part of the community for while. 

If all we can do is go by the number of posts, the numbers you @"TorontoJoe"#1 posted above seem reasonable to me.


@"ZomVee"#10 I may have accidentally removed your comment to my post above while posting a response to you. I had no idea I could do that. Or did I? I can't see it. Still trying to figure out how this forum software works. Anyway, done by accident, I have nothing against you or your comment, honest  :D
 
Here’s how another forum recognizes member contributions with badges. (This is a snapshot of a random member’s accomplishments so there may be more.)
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Click for original
IMG-1699.jpg


These badges are displayed on demand—the member can choose 2 to feature, but the rest display only if another member is viewing their profile.

The FigFanatic forum software is tracking time on site, number of posts, number of liked received, number of likes given, etc. Perhaps we could create simple badges for these metrics for a more complete snapshot of engagement.
 
I really like the time of being a member idea. But the only problem I see with that. Is what if the member is not really active? How do we combine the two? Time as a member and time spent on the forum.
 
What about allowing users to choose what they wish their role to be via self assessment if they so desire…. Member, Learner, Mentor, Hobbiest, Figfarmer, Seller, Expert or whatever.  Yes people will over assess themselves (or under) but I’d think it’s probably better. As for posts…. Just say what it is …. >10 posts, >100 posts, >1000 posts, and for my historical contributions… Lurker. lol.
 
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