Top Users in Forum Apple Support Communities Reputation

Why stop there? Require everybody provide proof of ownership of an Apple product (must take all iPods, iPads, and computers to the nearest Apple Store or police station along with picture ID to register for an Apple ID) before they can ask questions here? Of course only people with formal Apple certification can post replies. I am sure all the people who spend all day working with computers will be flocking here at midnight to answer people's questions about how to eject a CD from their computer (but only after they can prove they own the computer) or get artwork to appear in iTunes. Oh dear me, somebody might expect to be paid for doing all that. 🙂

\ sigh

Apple itself isn't directly involved on the forums. The moderators are the advocates & they don't always appear in the forums--they mainly work behind the scenes keeping the system running smoothly.

I don't think there's any need for adding measures to create respect on the forums--I don't see any issues here. The majority of the users on the forums do not look at a user's level and instantly decide that a user is deserving of more (or less) respect.

~Lyssa

+after investing alot of time and money being trained and certified for any Apple Pro software when I advise or help another community member here and *receive recognition and reward in the "Top Users in Forum"* what correctly discriminates between relevant registered communities members and unregistered mac clone or hackintosh users that I assist? *otherwise, what is the point of "Top Users in Forum" and receiving any accurate recognition and reward* from working with an unregistered user on a mac clone or hackintosh for free?+

It is quite evident that you are only interested in receiving "recognition and reward" - frankly, I would be ashamed to ask the question. If you do not feel anyone who does not measure up is worthy to receive advice from you, get a job with tech support. We are all volunteers here and enjoy helping others. My "reward" is a post by someone saying "thank you, that worked".

+managing these "restricted" accounts and denying/allowing them access would actually create confidence, accountability and respect between registered users, Apple Computer, and Apple Support Communities moderators.+

Nonsense. You are, in fact, trying to advocate/establish a tightly controlled and policed forum which will only allow "worthy" subjects to seek advice. I seem to remember this type of thing in a couple of European countries before the start of WW II.

Read the Help & Terms of Use on the right of every page. It very clearly spells out any involvement by Apple.

And, it would help to actually quote any other person's post so we don't have to guess if this is supposed to be a quote from someone else or your own words.

Not that I can fathom what he is concerned about or proposing, but he has quoted the people responding to his threads, he just uses quote marks instead of the quote process at the top of the compose window. I can't gripe, I do the same.

This is one of his posts above:

Also, managing these "restricted" accounts and denying/allowing them access would add even more work to the hosts here--and they have enough to do.

managing these "restricted" accounts and denying/allowing them access would actually create confidence, accountability and respect between registered users, Apple Computer, and Apple Support Communities moderators.

---------------------------

I did not do anything so as to show it as it appears above.

The first paragraph is a quote from Lyssa's post. The second paragraph is his reply. There are no quote marks, no italics, or anything else.

In his responses to Miriam, Dave, Limnos, Eric W., and his first response to Limnos he quoted them in his replies.

In the one you mention he failed to include the quote marks. He apparently made a mistake and one time forgot them. And you call him out on his one mistake he made and I pointed out that he had been using quote marks except for that one.

So for the most part he has quoted correctly, and it would have been more proper to point out he did not do so on that one post, although it was fairly easy for me to figure out which part was Lyssa's and which was his.

So please point out to me where he failed to do so in the other posts which led to confusion in determining which were his words and which were the other posters. Even people who are asking for some not quite recognizable or well articulated change in Apple Discussions are allowed to make one mistake, aren't they?

After reading the posts in this topic, I feel the OP would be better served if he/she started their own repair business and website restricted to the customers he describes as "professional".

Regarding the "Pro" apps, I believe that the "Pro" should be considered as short for "Prosumer" rather than "Professional". While I personally don't use them, there are a lot of consumers who do for either their own personal satisfaction or as an aide in their business.

Last, I agree with those who say they wish posters would use proper sentence structure, but I also realize that there are a lot of non-native English users here, so I just try to "translate". From the posts, I suspect that the OP falls into this category as shown by the lack of correct English punctuation and spelling it the posts.

+I feel the OP would be better served if he/she started their own repair business and website restricted to the customers he describes as "professional".+

I absolutely agree (or, as I said, a job in tech support) - especially after having read the OP's postings in the other threads.

+I believe that the "Pro" should be considered as short for "Prosumer" rather than "Professional"+

I also agree with that; actually, that is what I understood them to be when I first checked into them (halfway between consumer and professional). I have both Aperture 3 and Final Cut Express (the "dummy" version of Final Cut?).

Last, I agree with those who say they wish posters would use proper sentence structure, but I also realize that there are a lot of non-native English users here, so I just try to "translate". From the posts, I suspect that the OP falls into this category as shown by the lack of correct English punctuation and spelling it the posts.

The vocabulary used and spelling is decidedly as good as many native speakers of English who do post here, barring the occasional error which all of us a liable to make. Unfortunately the lack of upper case letters at the start of sentences, and dearth of punctuation, means the posts appear as indigestible blocks of text:

this is a false sense of security for pro users who participate here and does not address the issue of the indifference that Apple portrays here specifically with Apple Professional applications to do with Professional users with their discerning credentials or qualification that must change.

I have to admit, when I see a post structured like this on a forum I often just go to the next one. I have seen many non-native speakers post questions (and I have had a lot of contact with non-native speakers as well as been in a similar situation in my past so I have an understanding of the challenges), but at least they make an attempt at producing a readable post. From my experience it has been the native speakers of English who usually produce the most difficult to read posts here, perhaps because composition these days in taught in the framework of a cellular telephone. 🙂

I'm afraid that your post is completely incoherent, I have no idea what you are saying.

There are no "restricted" accounts here. If I want to go to the Final Cut Forum and post then I can do so. I don't use it so I don't go there, but I can if I want. If I do buy Final Cut, or Logic Pro, or whatever, there is nothing stopping me from posting in that Forum, or answering questions there, etc. I can weigh the advice I am given and try it to see if it works or not.

If you are suggesting that Apple set up a closed area of the Apple Communities, where you would have to prove ownership of the software you purchased, or join separately than from here, and everyone who participated would have to show certifications to join, then that is what you should suggest.

But you've made it extremely difficult to determine what it is you are suggesting. For the open, public, Apple, Inc. operated Apple Communities you just need to get an Apple ID and password to join and participate. This does NOT have any impact on security, confidence, accountability, etc. in any fashion at all.

And this in no way shows a complete indifference. Perhaps what you need to do is start your own website and set the rules you want. You could post what the rules would be for joining, and how you would prove that, here for discussion.

Humm,

An interesting debate.

Some thoughts.

Maybe to make all people safe on the Internet we ought to make them take a test like we do with driving ?

Then we could tax them as well.

On a more serious note though, it could be suggested that there should be (read could) Beginners/Upgraders, intermediate and "Serious User" sub forums.
Seeing how many forums there are already and how new people to the Discussions have difficulty in finding what they want, that would probably fall in to the impractical pile, in my book.

As has been pointed out many of the Top Users in any Forum are there by the fact they have been rewarded by those people who award Stars (Points) and of those many do not actually work in the areas they post in a professional sense. What they have done is worked at their knowledge whether recognised by a piece of paper or not.

Apple Employees that post (Small White/grey Apple under their name) have had to ask permission/inform their management they are posting before doing so. When they do post it is in their Own Time (? Less Professional).

I certainly know from the iChat and the iSight forums the only "Experts" there are are the top users in those forums who worked at finding things out. Personally I have had Geniuses contact me when I am on line to test with a customer.
However if I post a question in another area I make it quite clear that I want to be treated as a Newbie in those areas as I know nothing.

That said I have been here long enough to know that the forums are set up for all takers, from new to computers, new to a different App, Switchers and presumably some people who won a lottery and bought their Dream set up.

The "word" of the Mac is spreading. It seems the OS and other software is in demand and wanted even if the hardware can't be bought where a person lives or they can't afford it. It's not my job to stop them. I am not sure it is anyone's but Apple's. As the iPhone and other devices seems to have created Switchers I can't see Apple being that bothered about stopping the very small percentage of people that chose or are limited to this route.

Sometimes it is nice to know that the person has a qualification of some sort when responding to a question.
On the other hand I find that people who find out what I do (and did before that) and test iChat with me seem to gain comfort that if I learned how to do it then they should be able to.

If they are willing to learn - then teach them is my motto on this.



9:28 PM Friday; February 11, 2011

It might help to read through this thread - at least it gave me some insight:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=13072506#13072506