Just a note on the lack of points

I'll second that, the new point system doesn't seem to work as intended anyway. There are at least a few boards, this included, where the Top User list never seems to change, even when the members hardly or never post. These boards (some at least) are not too dynamic. (I know, the iPhone boards for example, were hard to keep a post on the front page, but those are the exceptions.)

One of the boards I frequent has one Top User who has not posted to it this year, and only 300 all of last year.

New blood is a good thing.

Joe

I'd love to see the points system thrown out altogether along with the Top Users boards. If they needed to keep the Level system in place it could run wholly from post count. Marking questions as solved and awarding helpful and solved stars to particular posts is still very much a valid device, but theres no reason to associate points with that. And why only 2 helpful posts? there are regularly many more helpful posts than that, not to mention the number of erroneously awarded solved stars to problems which are later identified as not solved at all. if such a system needs to exist then why not allow solved/helpful stars to be removed ( or moved ) ... probably the reason why not is it would play havoc with the all important point system :/

I'd love to see the points system thrown out altogether

What is the evidence that it hasn't been?

that would be that every user still has a points count

Hmmm, but a static points count.

a pointless points count is my point Klaus

+There are at least a few boards, this included, where the Top User list never seems to change, even when the members hardly or never post+.

LOL! Babe Ruth hasn't hit a home run in 70-80 years, but he's still third on that list. Shwe kick him off for new blood? Maybe stick A-Rod at the top 'cause he's going to be there one day, anyway?

(Insert smiley here.)

I see your point!

If they needed to keep the Level system in place it could run wholly from post count.

When the number of posts automatically gained points, the result was a lot of people posting a lot of nonsense or "me too" posts just to gain points.

but Rachel, you're suddenly attributing "points" to the post count ... its just a post count. forget the points. post coint signifies nothing much more than how much you hang out on the board, that you're a regular, or not.

ideally they could scrap the levels too ... it would surely p. off some tho which is why i was postulating that they could keep it and attribute it solely to post count.

Before you joined (according to your Profile), there was a period of nearly two years where each post earned its poster one point.

What Rachel is saying is that in those days, many, many people threw up a bunch of cr4p to earn points and gain levels without actually contributing anything to the knowledge base.

Many of those people are still with us today, residing at levels they'd arrived at more quickly than they might have if points had always been a product of the quality of one's help.

Try as I might, I haven't come up with a way to level the playing field (as it were). And there really isn't a way of penalizing people who at one or another point in the past have attempted to game the system.

At this point (and earlier on, as well), the only real way to attempt to gauge the worth of one participant in these forums or another is to compile points-to-posts ratios for each member. There are problems with that, though, because there have been many occasions when the mass of the membership has had either or both their post counts and point totals radically adjusted for the sake of tweaks to the system(s).

My suggestion is that you keep doing what you do. Your points to posts ratio is very decent and if you keep it up like that (and Level 4 status is what you're actually after here, because there's very little chance that they'll scrap the 'reputation' system anytime soon) you'll get your next 2100 points even more quickly than your last 2100.

Good luck!

Tuttle covered it nicely. 🙂

Whether you call them "points" or not, if post count determines level, many people will post indiscriminately to reach higher levels. And as Tuttle says, this is not a guess. It's based on experience. (And rather unpleasant experience, at that.)

Mee, too.
I agree with Tuttle and Rachel. 😉

+"One of the boards I frequent has one Top User who has not posted to it this year"+

It very well may have taken years for that person to reach his/her place on that 'Top Users' list. If he/she has stopped posting in that forum, it may take a new member just as long to bump him/her down the list & take his/her place... Seems fair to me.

Cheers!
-Bryan

the only real way to attempt to gauge the worth of one participant in these forums or another is to compile points-to-posts ratios for each member.

That's all well and good, but why about the myriad of OPs who have their problem solved, write hearty "thank you" to whomever solved it, and never give out points because they're unfamiliar with the system? This has happened to me more times than I can count.