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Give respected forum posters a greater presence?

T

tekno

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 15, 2011
840
4
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'?
 
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'?
Click to expand...

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 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'?
Click to expand...

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

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

I don't think it's the same thing. The OP is interested in the posts of people who "genuinely understand Apple, computers, the industry etc. and give very insightful comments". Those aren't qualifications for presence in the contributors forum, where a simple financial contribution is the way in.

I'm not saying that you won't find this type of member among the contributors, just that it's not a sub-forum that consists only of that type of member. It's just as varied as any other group.
 
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
Click to expand...

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.

:p ;) :D
 
+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.
 
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'?
Click to expand...

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.
 
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