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6502 and 6502a User Titles

Doctor Q

Doctor Q

Administrator
Original poster
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
40,386
9,172
Los Angeles
We have made a change in the assignment of user titles, which appear under your name to the left of your posts.

Previously: Members went from user title macrumors regular to user title macrumors 6502 at 500 posts.

Starting today: Member will go from user title macrumors regular to user title macrumors 6502 at 250 posts and then to user title macrumors 6502a at 500 posts.

There have been no changes to the avatar requirements. As before, you need 500 posts (in forums that count posts) to have an avatar. This is now user title macrumors 6502a. The 6502A chip was used in the Apple III computer, but you may find it handy to think of the "a" in 6502a as being short for avatar.

For a full list of user titles, see How do user titles work? in our FAQ.

The new user title was added in preparation for upcoming changes to our Marketplace forum. For full details and discussion of the Marketplace changes, see this thread:
If you have comments about the Marketplace changes, please post in that thread.

If you have comments about the user title change or about user titles in general, please post in this thread.
 
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bartelby said:
What about Demi / Contributors?
Click to expand...
No changes are being made to user titles for members who choose to support the site by buying a paid membership.

Paid members have their choice of four user titles:
macrumors Demi-God
macrumors Demi-Goddess
Contributor
their default "numeric" user title​

In all four cases, forum privileges still depend on the 100, 250, or 500 post thresholds.
 
Doctor Q said:
No changes are being made to user titles for members who choose to support the site by buying a paid membership.
Click to expand...

I understand that. I may not have been clear.

I don't understand what the point of the 'a' is for. If it's to have some indicator of 250 posts or 500 posts then that's not shown if the user is a paying member and doesn't use the processor mnemonics. The only indicator is the 'tar.

Or am I too tired and missed something really obvious
Which is probably the case... :eek:
 
How about an * for contributors that have or don't have 250, either way. So Demi-God*. Ok after thinking again, any contributor under 250 posts has * after their status. Thoughts?
 
bartelby said:
I understand that. I may not have been clear.

I don't understand what the point of the 'a' is for. If it's to have some indicator of 250 posts or 500 posts then that's not shown if the user is a paying member and doesn't use the processor mnemonics. The only indicator is the 'tar.

Or am I too tired and missed something really obvious
Which is probably the case... :eek:
Click to expand...
Before, there was no indicator between 100 and 500 posts, but with the new marketplace regulations, a differentiator became important, thus 6502 was split into two titles: 6502 and 6502a. If 6502a wasn't used, then there would no longer be a difference between 250 and 500 posts, and then we'd be back where we started.

...Somehow, I doubt that clarified anything. :eek:
 
EricNau said:
Before, there was no indicator between 100 and 500 posts, but with the new marketplace regulations, a differentiator became important, thus 6502 was split into two titles: 6502 and 6502a. If 6502a wasn't used, then there would no longer be a difference between 250 and 500 posts, and then we'd be back where we started.

...Somehow, I doubt that clarified anything. :eek:
Click to expand...

So imagine a recently signed up Demi-God. Where's the difference indicator?

Their title will just say "Demi-God" or "Contributor" regardless of post counts.
 
bartelby said:
So imagine a recently signed up Demi-God. Where's the difference indicator?

Their title will just say "Demi-God" or "Contributor" regardless of post counts.
Click to expand...

Which is exactly the way it works now. Why is it important that there be a difference indicator? If they're posting in the Marketplace, they clearly have the required posts and length of membership. If they haven't met the requirements, they can always glance at their profile page to see how close they are. The fact that they don't yet have those requirements isn't really of interest to anyone else.
 
bartelby said:
Why do none paying members?
Click to expand...
They don't. Although, I suppose there might be software limitations as to why it's necessary. (I'm not sure if vBulletin needs different titles to limit access to different forums, or if a post count is sufficient.) Either way, I'm assuming the moderators thought it just made sense to add a different title where such a boundary now existed.

After all, titles serve little other purpose besides entertainment.
 
WildCowboy said:
Which is exactly the way it works now. Why is it important that there be a difference indicator? If they're posting in the Marketplace, they clearly have the required posts and length of membership. If they haven't met the requirements, they can always glance at their profile page to see how close they are. The fact that they don't yet have those requirements isn't really of interest to anyone else.
Click to expand...
So why the need for a 6502a, If the idea is to distinguish when a person can post in the market place. Would it make sense to show a demi that has not met the requirements?
 
Only some member with 500 posts have had their user titles change so far. It's a big database operation to change so many user titles, so we're doing them at a slow pace that will take hours more to complete.

This change came about because we wanted a new user title to distinguish 250 posts from 500 posts, since 250 will become a threshold for access to the new Marketplace forum (as explained in the announcement).

Because we had not previously used Apple's 6502A processor, that was a good choice for a new user title, but it made more sense to have it follow 6502. So we changed the 500-post title from 6502 to 6502a and set the 250-post title to 6502. By happy coincidence, the avatar threshold has an "a" on the end, as if it means "6502 with avatar."

It will still be the case that you can't tell at a glance how many posts a paid member has if they are using a "macrumors demi" or "Contributor" title, unless you click to see their user profile. But if they have an avatar, you'll know it's at least 500.

It's not critically important for Member A to know if Member B has Marketplace access, since they can always check a profile, and vBulletin doesn't require new titles for new thresholds, but it's much easier to explain cutoffs for forum privileges if they correspond to a change in user title.
 
MacNut said:
So why the need for a 6502a, If the idea is to distinguish when a person can post in the market place. Would it make sense to show a demi that has not met the requirements?
Click to expand...

That's what I meant.

If they're posting in the market place then everyone knows they meet the requirements. So what's the point of the 'a' if "The fact that they don't yet have those requirements isn't really of interest to anyone else."?
 
EricNau said:
Not to nitpick, but why is a lowercase "a" used for user titles while the processor name used an uppercase "A"?
Click to expand...
A conscious decision to match the lowercase style of macrumors regular. Plus it lets us pretend it stands for avatar.
 
bartelby said:
That's what I meant.

If they're posting in the market place then everyone knows they meet the requirements. So what's the point of the 'a' if "The fact that they don't yet have those requirements isn't really of interest to anyone else."?
Click to expand...

Documentation?

Contributors and Demis have never had any sort of title/post count tie together. But for other users it's a quick way to check what access rights you have available.

Newbie/members don't have access to a lot of the more contentious forums.
Regular gains access to the PRSI
6502 gains Marketplace
6502a gains Avatar.
G5 or higher means you're mad_jew (although I suspect he was made a mod so they didn't have to keep making new titles)

You get to choose your title, if you want one for contributing so you get to consciously decide not to have post count incrementing titles. For the rest of us it's a quick method to see if we have access to a particular area rather than having to go find our post counts.
 
D4F said:
I'm and 'a' now and still no access to avatar and not sure which are those 'qualified' forums.
Kinda confusing
Click to expand...

You just got there to 500, so it takes the server a little while to catch up. You can also try logging out and logging back in. You should be able to access the avatar controls soon.

The forums are probably the Marketplace and the PRSI

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
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