Give respected forum posters a greater presence?

tekno said:

It gets quite tiring sifting through the utter rubbish that an awful lot of people (me included) say on these forums, but there are a few people that genuinely understand Apple, computers, the industry etc. and give very insightful comments.

Would it be possible/desired to have forum members that get a lot of "up votes" to have all their comments stand out more than those who don't have many 'up votes'?

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Just block the people u don't want to see. Simple

"Respected" or "educated/insightful" is pretty relative and "likes" of a person's posts aren't really an accurate representation of respect, in my opinion.

tekno said:

It's not about blocking people, it's about posts from the more educated/insightful members standing out.

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Add them to your contacts then.

The Contributors-only forum has what the OP suggests. See this very similar thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16286028

Those highly appreciated contributors/members might wouldn't need (or like) the additional exposure.

I think the avatars serving as a good "marking" of those members. I often look after the 'tar in long threads to pick up solid information. I remember the few 'tar's ...

And more often I wonder how they can be so patient explaining the same stuff again and again. Role models.

One man's trash is another man's treasure, so to speak

What one person values as insightful and astute observations, another will perceive as trolling and insulting
There is no possible way that everyone on MR would agree on who the most respected and insightful posters are

Probably the best way to do this is to add the posters you prefer to your contacts and watch for them on the Forum Spy as suggested above

MacDawg said:

Probably the best way to do this is to add the posters you prefer to your contacts and watch for them on the Forum Spy as suggested above

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There must be an echo on these boars.

jessica. said:

Add them to your contacts then.

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MacDawg said:

Probably the best way to do this is to add the posters you prefer to your contacts and watch for them on the Forum Spy as suggested above

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This is what I do and it works well (for me, at least).

It's all about patience IMO. Although many post's may seem basic, even puerile to some, it's worth remembering that when you are new to a technology and don't know how to do the basic stuff, then very simple information in plain English is just what new adopters need.

It might be the (ex) teacher in me, but I have answered basic questions many times for many different people, some who haven't yet learned their way around the forums and who need basic setup help and advice.

We were all new users once.

The rep system on vbulletin is terrible. It was implemented on a different forum(MTBR) I frequent and it is a polarizing feature. Particularly the anonymous negative rep. Trolls love this. Regular users find it frustrating. Be careful what you wish for.

arn said:

It would be nice. The problem is we don't really have a real reputation system here. There is the voting system, but it's not really meant for that.

vB has a reputation system but I'm not sure how accurately it reflects anything when implemented.

arn

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Let's find out... (Without negative reputation of course, just like no down votes)

Just open the thread without opening the forum itself and you'll see the most up-voted posts if that's all you really want to see. That's what I do, when I don't feel like reading 10+ pages of worthless banter. I only read the most popular posts and that gives me a good idea of what most people are thinking/saying of the topic.

No big problem here.

If you're looking for rational, well reasoned, intelligent, and informative posts (did I mention intelligent?), just look for my avatar.

+1 on OP idea

Maybe allow the users with a lot of likes (over a certain limit) to become super-members if they so choose to

I agree it would be very helpful

Also, to add to the discussion, "likes" are mainly a matter of opportunity and timing. The first comments in a news story often get dozens of likes even though they have no valuable content:

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/16534111/
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/16524202/
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/16518277/
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/16518396/
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/16515845/

Here are just a few examples, you can usually find similar posts in every major news post.

On the other hand, posts that are actually helpful may only get a couple of likes or none at all because the post is only seen by a handful of people. You usually get more "likes" by posting something funny than actually posting something meaningful.

I just add people I like to my Contact list and Forum Spy takes care of the rest.

jessica. said:

There must be an echo on these boars.

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Echo boars? This is interesting... and somewhat disconcerting too.

tekno said:

Would it be possible/desired to have forum members that get a lot of "up votes" to have all their comments stand out more than those who don't have many 'up votes'?

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Unfortunately, there will be people gaming this. Essentially the first page of comments on a popular news story gets a lot of upvotes so how would you deal with this factor? Weighted upvoting? I don't think it's necessary. Besides, it would introduce complexity in how tapatalk works with the forums which may compromise functionality. With experience (and the avatar system and/or contacts) you get a similar effect.

As long as there's some way to turn it off.

If posters/comments are highlighted based on voting, then based on the comments votes I've seen thus far the most highlighted posts will be - IMO - juvenile posts slamming anything Samsung does, or ridiculing anyone who has a complaint about the iPhone.

No thanks.