30 replies to this topic

[Saint_Michael]

Although its been a long time since it was first announced that a version 3 of the credit system was announced to various people. This topic gave me a great idea and a reason for this topic. That is what would you like to see in the version 3 of the credit system, let it be updates to current features or new ideas post them here and give details as to why you want this change or to make an update to the credit system.

Not to take from saitunes topic about this, but sending an email or a pm that persom is about to hit 0 credits is a great idea and I would say that when a person hits 5 credits they get a reminder that they need to post to get more credits. Then when they hit 0 credits they are sent a email or pm that their account is suspended and that they need to start posting again or after 30 days their account will be terminated

Which leads into my next suggestion, I know there are a lot of accounts with more then -30 credits and so what I suggest bring that limit back and terminate their accounts, because trying to make up -50+ credits is a huge task that will take awhile for someone to get their hosting account back and this also frees up systems resources as well.

By now everyone is familiar with the manage page and so I leave this open end question and that is what can be done to improve that page as well. So think about can be done to improve the system to make it run faster and more efficient and of course no crazy ideas like earning credits in the shoutbox, we asked, it won't happen .


EDIT:

Another idea that just came to me from the boss himself and I know this one was talked about for a long time and that is earning credits based on topic views and topic replies. Of course to add to OpaQue idea and I know it won't fly is set it up to do a recount of the forum and then add the credits according to all the topics that have been made, imagine the huge spike of credits everyone will have because of that .

Like I said though I doubt that suggestion will fly because a lot of those credits would be wasted to members who are no longer here and of course the fact everyone would have ton of credits and odds are stop posting. However, on the other spectrum of this idea I think a rate of .05 credit per 5 or 10 replies would seem reasonable to that. Of course, the interesting part of this would be to how not to count the original posters replies in that equation since that person could just spam their own topic to get those credits.

Notice from truefusion:

Moved from Alerts and Notices

Edited by truefusion, 25 August 2008 - 07:52 AM.

[Bluebear]

May I ask a question? Probably not, but I will do it anyway. Why is that that the more credits we have the less we get per post? I have never understood that part.

If a person manages to create a topic that gets a lot of replies and starts a discussion that it good. Good idea. But the amount of credits should also be based on how good the replies are? Many topics have hundreds of posts. For example "What is your favourite colour" would probably get a lot of short replies, and the answers would not probably be very good.

And no, I have no new ideas.

[Saint_Michael]

You can ask questions bluebear and as for your question the number of credits you receive is based on your post count and of course what member group you are in. So maybe that is another idea and that we get rid of the post count rules and make everyone on a equal playing field while still keeping the member group credit rule intact.

[electriic ink]

Bluebear, on Aug 20 2008, 05:11 PM, said:

May I ask a question?

No.

Bluebear, on Aug 20 2008, 05:11 PM, said:

Probably not, but I will do it anyway. Why is that that the more credits we have the less we get per post? I have never understood that part.

So you don't make 2,000 credits and then not come back for 2,000 days. Obviously, it's better if you keep coming back every few days so you stay up-to-date with all the latest developments etc...

Bluebear, on Aug 20 2008, 05:11 PM, said:

If a person manages to create a topic that gets a lot of replies and starts a discussion that it good. Good idea. But the amount of credits should also be based on how good the replies are? Many topics have hundreds of posts. For example "What is your favourite colour" would probably get a lot of short replies, and the answers would not probably be very good.

And no, I have no new ideas.

So you get x% of the credits gained in total by the repliers. That sounds pretty complicated to me, not to mention the fact it will encourage people to link-drop their own topics (ie spam).

The key to a good system, in my mind, is to keep it simple so I have no new ideas.

On a side note, how did you manage to start a new topic in this forum? Even I can't do that

[jlhaslip]

Quote

On a side note, how did you manage to start a new topic in this forum? Even I can't do that sad.gif

They likely pressed the "New Topic" button at the top of the page. Works for me...

[Saint_Michael]

The miracles of science electriic ink , but anyway that was the main concerns when OpaQue mention about awards credits for replies and stuff and of course thats why I mention about how not to award credits to that persons reply while still earning credits for his or her post.

[csp4.0]

Here's an option...

An ability to "pause" your account, i.e. Your hosting account basically gets suspended but isn't terminated... After a set time the account becomes "unsuspended" During suspension, you don't lose any credits and to make it so that people won't abuse this feature don't or slowly get credits (i.e. only 60% of what you'd get for a 100 words or so).

Also another idea... To increase Trap17's popularity maybe install the "Army System" modification for IPB and let the members play and maybe the highest-ranking person is exempt to the credit deduction rule or something.

But the thing is... I would much rather a "account suspension" since I don't really need my website right now and I'm very busy trying to keep my account still active. The only problem with terminating my account is that I still sometimes use my account to test things out on a live server so I can't termainte it...

[Saint_Michael]

Well I can tell you on that Army system, that created havoc with trap17 4 years ago because of how many people were playing and the glitches that were coming from it and sucking up resources as well with all the data that is saved as well. That is why IPBgaming.com was formed, although, it was long since dead and the people that were expecting join from trap17 to this site for the army system was because of how many people stopped leaving altogether.

As for the pause feature it seems to make sense, although the first feature of not being able to earn credits would make the most sense. Although there would be one problem them, if you have good site that is getting a lot hits and is well index you be losing visitors and getting your website booted out. Either way there are some interesting idea's being brought but still looking for thought so keep them coming.

Edited by Saint_Michael, 21 August 2008 - 10:23 AM.

[bittr]

Bluebear, on Aug 20 2008, 06:11 PM, said:

If a person manages to create a topic that gets a lot of replies and starts a discussion that it good. Good idea. But the amount of credits should also be based on how good the replies are? Many topics have hundreds of posts. For example "What is your favourite colour" would probably get a lot of short replies, and the answers would not probably be very good.

And no, I have no new ideas.

I think that wouldn't be a problem, what kind of replies you get to your topic, if the system for replies would be based on the normal system for posting.

How I would imagine it to be, you would get, say 1% from the values of the replies in your topic, and not something based on how many they are. So, if a reply is good and gets more credits, you get more credits.

And that might be even easier to implement now than another counting idea. When somebody submits a post, he gets, for example 2 credit points, and in the same time 0.02 credits (1%) goes to the starter of the topic he posted in.

And the initiator spamming in his topic... That wouldn't also be a problem........ He would get only a bit extra credit, and if he would manage to keep the discussion in the topic alive, that would be a good thing for trap17, as it would bring more and more content. That's the idea after all.


But anyway I think this 'credits-for-replies' would be overall a good thing for trap.

[sidenote: so, Saint-Michael, you started this topic because the system is already applied? ]

[velma]

Interesting topic....

But we need to understand that the credit system is OpaQue's brain child and can be coded, configured and handled only by him. Credit system 3 too will be coded by OpaQue and no one so we might have to wait for a bit before it comes online..

Now coming to the ideas :-

Quote

Not to take from saitunes topic about this, but sending an email or a pm that persom is about to hit 0 credits is a great idea and I would say that when a person hits 5 credits they get a reminder that they need to post to get more credits. Then when they hit 0 credits they are sent a email or pm that their account is suspended and that they need to start posting again or after 30 days their account will be terminated

This is a good idea and am sure will be possible as a similar feature is used for Feedbacker (Iguest) where a guest is send an email with the link to the topic.

Quote

If a person manages to create a topic that gets a lot of replies and starts a discussion that it good. Good idea. But the amount of credits should also be based on how good the replies are? Many topics have hundreds of posts. For example "What is your favourite colour" would probably get a lot of short replies, and the answers would not probably be very good.

Like electriic and SM said, we do not want any spammers coming here posting one liners and then teleporting to another dimension. The main reason that OpaQue had tweaked the Credit system in this way is because he firmly believes in nothing but quality. Quality posts = Quality hosting. Spammers do not get hosting.. well except for one spammer I guess

There is no point of a forum if there is nobody to participate in it, It would merely turn into a bank where you deposit/withdraw your money and then never visit it.. Trap17 was designed to provide knowledge and encourage friendship through quality

Quote

An ability to "pause" your account, i.e. Your hosting account basically gets suspended but isn't terminated... After a set time the account becomes "unsuspended" During suspension, you don't lose any credits and to make it so that people won't abuse this feature don't or slowly get credits (i.e. only 60% of what you'd get for a 100 words or so).

An excellent and very useful idea but the most difficult to implement as it would involve a LOT of coding to make sure that credits are not deducted, to automatically suspend upon the click of a button and so on..

Instead of that I can always recommend that you deposit all of your credits in your bank(manage page) and then send a support request mentioning the period of inactivity and your login details. We will make an arrangement so that your site is not terminated but simply suspended..

[csp4.0]

I just had an idea...

What if there was something that allowed you to 'refresh' your hosting account?

i.e. Get new subdomain, etc without terminating your hosting and everything on it...

I mean it'd be a good idea and save the trouble for people to backup everything on their hosting account, terminate their account and get 10 or 30 credits again and re-apply for hosting. This idea relies on the fact that all it does is 'rename' the hosting folder for the user...

And another idea... Trap17 probably already is the world's best free web host but why not make it better by making more hosting packages and allowing the user to switch between them (i.e. If a user has a very good website running, they should be able to choose a hosting package that with maybe around 20GB bandwidth, 300MB HDD, etc and takes 2 credits average every 24 hours), and other plans to more suit what the users need (i.e. 0.5 credits average every 24 hours but only 100MB Bandwidth + 20MB HDD) etc And having the fact that users should be able to switch plans with a selection of a radio button, a check of a checkbox and a click of a 'submit' button...

It would seriously increase Trap17's popularity because if Opaque decides to make the different inter-changeable hosting plans then Trap17 will not only be the best free web host around in the world but probably also be the most customizable host in the world!

[Saint_Michael]

Another Idea that has come to mind is fixing the loss of credits when a person gets accepted for a free hosting account. that has always plagued trap17 because everyone was caught off guard when they lost a whole bunch of credits and so what I recommend is that instead of just losing all the credits they lost the exact amount of credit i.e. if they had 50 credits and get a 30 credit hosting package that person will have exactly 20 credits left.

Also csp4.0 as far as I know that is near impossible to change your domain like that.

[csp4.0]

Saint_Michael, on Aug 23 2008, 11:38 PM, said:

<br />Another Idea that has come to mind is fixing the loss of credits when a person gets accepted for a free hosting account. that has always plagued trap17 because everyone was caught off guard when they lost a whole bunch of credits and so what I recommend is that instead of just losing all the credits they lost the exact amount of credit i.e. if they had 50 credits and get a 30 credit hosting package that person will have exactly 20 credits left.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

That idea is flawed in itself because then so many users will abuse it. Because non-hosted members don't lose credits each day, they could just build up alot of credits (i.e. 500 or so) very easily, apply for hosting + domain and BAM! They don't have to post for 320 days and all that hosting space is wasted...

[Forbez]

I have a few suggestions for the new system, I didn't read everyone's replies so I apologize if I've stolen yours in advanced.

- Email notification when your credits drop to 3 days
- Email notification when your credits drop to 1 day.
- Some code to display your Credit post externally, so people can have them on their forums to let their forumers know how long the forum is up for.
- Donation system, whereby someone else can pay for X amount of credits and it is sent to you as soon as possible. (This might of been done already, not 100% sure)
- Toolbar to be added to your web browser,with your amount of credits you currently have, which increases and decreases in real time.
- Extra credits from Mods and Admins rating, if someone posts an interesting article written by them, Mods and Admins can rate it and the higher, the more credits award.
- More competition where credits are award, like picture of the day. Where you currently see your credits an advertising box, advertising these latest events.
- Forum ranks for Hosted members, after each promotion they get X amount of credits.
- Some way that people get more credits for posting each day rather then posting 1 day, then leaving it for a week then posting again the next.

Thats all I have at the moment, when I get more I'll post again.

[rvalkass]

Forbez, on Aug 25 2008, 01:49 PM, said:

- Email notification when your credits drop to 3 days
- Email notification when your credits drop to 1 day.

Email notifications are quite a popular idea, but it would encourage people to leave and only return when they got the email, rather than keep checking back every couple of days. You could pretty much kill the community overnight.

Forbez, on Aug 25 2008, 01:49 PM, said:

- Some code to display your Credit post externally, so people can have them on their forums to let their forumers know how long the forum is up for.

I can't see many people using that on their sites. Personally, I think it would worry my visitors if they saw a notice on my site saying it would only be there for X days

Forbez, on Aug 25 2008, 01:49 PM, said:

- Donation system, whereby someone else can pay for X amount of credits and it is sent to you as soon as possible. (This might of been done already, not 100% sure)

You can already buy credits if you really need to:
http://www.trap17.co...ase_credits.htm

Forbez, on Aug 25 2008, 01:49 PM, said:

- Toolbar to be added to your web browser,with your amount of credits you currently have, which increases and decreases in real time.

Problems with compatibility, and people to maintain them. It would take a lot of work to make toolbars for Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari, Konqueror, etc. that worked on Linux, Mac and Windows, and would require a lot of people to look after them. It would also discourage people from visiting to check their credits, and cause a massive increase in bandwidth as the system kept checking.

Forbez, on Aug 25 2008, 01:49 PM, said:

- Extra credits from Mods and Admins rating, if someone posts an interesting article written by them, Mods and Admins can rate it and the higher, the more credits award.

Could be seen as biased or opinionated. There would have to be some form of definition of "interesting" or whatever, and that would be very difficult to write and follow.

Forbez, on Aug 25 2008, 01:49 PM, said:

- More competition where credits are award, like picture of the day. Where you currently see your credits an advertising box, advertising these latest events.

A good idea. I know many members already run their own competitions for credits every so often, but some form of forum-wide, forum-run competition for credits on a regular basis could be good. It would certainly encourage people to participate and return to the forums.

Forbez, on Aug 25 2008, 01:49 PM, said:

- Forum ranks for Hosted members, after each promotion they get X amount of credits.

The only problem I can see is spam. People could spam post until they get past the border and into the next rank, to earn the extra credits. If it could be coded so that credits were deducted if you dropped a rank too, then it would work, and really encourage people to post more.

Forbez, on Aug 25 2008, 01:49 PM, said:

- Some way that people get more credits for posting each day rather then posting 1 day, then leaving it for a week then posting again the next.

Could be difficult to code, and would encourage lots of spam by people on the same day, to earn more credits for each post.

[Saint_Michael]

csp4.0, on Aug 25 2008, 03:20 AM, said:

<br /><br /><br />

That idea is flawed in itself because then so many users will abuse it. Because non-hosted members don't lose credits each day, they could just build up a lot of credits (i.e. 500 or so) very easily, apply for hosting + domain and BAM! They don't have to post for 320 days and all that hosting space is wasted...

csp4.0 your post is illogical because when it comes to free hosting people don't want to wait and since I been hear not to many build up months and months of credits. Some post enough for like a 2 weeks and then come back and do it again. Using your example of 500, someone would have to post 167 posts that are worth 3 credits apiece. Of course some posts get less some get more, but I know most people who have come here to get free hosting want it now. Besides that has always been something everyone wanted changed.

Forbez, yes most of them have been mention , but I take an idea from you and t hat has to do with the rating system we have on this forum right now. Each rating is worth a certain amount of credits and of course if you got a spam rating your lose a certain amount of credits. I know people won't like that idea because it takes away from your credits, but it is better then them getting removed and losing 1.5x the credit amount.

Speaking of Loss of credits, we all know about the 1.5x credit loss if a post gets deleted, I say change it to the amount of credits lost in that post instead of losing a lot more. Sure most of the veteran posters here wouldn't be spamming in the first place, but it always good to make the credit system equal for everyone.

Lets another idea would be to do birthday credits when it is someone's birthday.

[jlhaslip]

Quote

Lets another idea would be to do birthday credits when it is someone's birthday

.

One credit for every year of age? Mich and I would like that one.

and who would monitor whether a Member changed their birthdate on a weekly basis to receive extra credits once a week?

[Nabb]

10 credits for your first birthday, 10 credits for your second, and -51 for your third

To anyone who falls for the trap - LOL!

[Forbez]

Thank your rvalkass and Saint_Michael for reading and reply to my suggestions.

Quote

Lets another idea would be to do birthday credits when it is someone's birthday.

I totally agree with this one. A little present for the person from the Trap17 family.

Quote

and who would monitor whether a Member changed their birthdate on a weekly basis to receive extra credits once a week?

Well make sure members can't change their birthdays. No real need to change your birthday from registration, only reason would be that they put in the wrong date to start of with.

[innosia]

in fact this credit system is quite burden me.. If a day is deduct 1 credit point, that means that our hard earn credit will be gone easily. For not letting that happen we need to online a lot to ensure our credit is enough, thats a bit too pushing. How about not taken any credit point daily? Or maybe 3 days a credit instead?

I have an idea, what about lottery for 10 most active user, a weekly lottery that gives them extra credit points? hohohoho

Edited by innosia, 02 September 2008 - 12:58 PM.

[DeM0nFiRe]

velma, on Aug 21 2008, 05:51 PM, said:

Interesting topic....

But we need to understand that the credit system is OpaQue's brain child and can be coded, configured and handled only by him. Credit system 3 too will be coded by OpaQue and no one so we might have to wait for a bit before it comes online..

Now coming to the ideas :-

This is a good idea and am sure will be possible as a similar feature is used for Feedbacker (Iguest) where a guest is send an email with the link to the topic.
Like electriic and SM said, we do not want any spammers coming here posting one liners and then teleporting to another dimension. The main reason that OpaQue had tweaked the Credit system in this way is because he firmly believes in nothing but quality. Quality posts = Quality hosting. Spammers do not get hosting.. well except for one spammer I guess

There is no point of a forum if there is nobody to participate in it, It would merely turn into a bank where you deposit/withdraw your money and then never visit it.. Trap17 was designed to provide knowledge and encourage friendship through quality
An excellent and very useful idea but the most difficult to implement as it would involve a LOT of coding to make sure that credits are not deducted, to automatically suspend upon the click of a button and so on..

Instead of that I can always recommend that you deposit all of your credits in your bank(manage page) and then send a support request mentioning the period of inactivity and your login details. We will make an arrangement so that your site is not terminated but simply suspended..

How would this be difficult to code? Add a simple bool value to the profile "Paused: True/False" If Paused, suspend account and do not deduct credits, Else site is open and credits will be deducted. I mean, maybe the credit system is coded to akwardly right now to be able to make this change, and in that case it should be recoded anyway! It should never be difficult to add a feature as simple as that, if it's too difficult someone didn't do their job right in the first place.

hey, here's an idea for the new crdit system, how about we get back the 10 credits we all spent to reset our passwords when the server messed up? We were told to wait until the problems were fixed and the problems have never been fixed. Wool over our eyes or what?
[/rant]

A good idea for the credit system would be to add another way to get credits. Play games or answer trivia or something. It'd be pretty fun.

[rayzoredge]

Here's a quick and dirty suggestion:

Add a credit multiplier for the little award/notation things that people get. You know those little symbols next to some of our names? People score their symbols thanks to being around regularly, being recognized, and consequently, being active. I think it would be a great way to make people more active and in a good way on Trap17. Let me explain this a little better...

We all have the option of clicking on a symbol for someone's post to show everyone else that the poster is agreed with, helpful, confusing, funny, or even a frequent spammer. Those of us that are on Trap17 frequently become recognized for the kinds of posts that we make. We are agreed with, thanked, disagreed with, etc. If you bring more attention to this feature, regulars as well as newer posters will be encouraged to "rate" other posters as it is a very quick way to do so. Just click and make up a common opinion about someone!

It won't be a bad thing because people may have an off-experience and rate someone as unfriendly or whatnot, but if that person is normally nice and just rubbed someone else off the wrong way, the 10 Thanks, 3 Agrees, and 2 Informatives vs. the 1 Unfriendly rating will explain that off-experience. It would be a good thing because it will encourage people to get rid of that dreaded trash can icon next to their names... and this following suggestion will be why.

Have positive credit multipliers for good ratings, and negative credit multipliers for bad ones. Here's my idea with numbers:

Useful - x 1.25
Zing - ?
Thanks - x 1.25
Informative - x 1.30
Gold Star - x 1.10
Disagree - x 1.10
Agree - x 1.10
Artistic - x 1.25
WTF? - x 0.95
Spam - x 0.75
Good Idea - x 1.25
Unfriendly - x 0.85
Bad Spelling - x 0.95
Funny - x 1.10

Basically, what I'm trying to say is to encourage ratings, and with those ratings, people will add the corresponding multiplier in factoring how many credits they receive from making a post at the time of that current rating. Say that I'm a frequent spammer and I've earned that pretty trash can next to my name because a dozen other Trap17 members think I have nothing good to contribute. Now for every future post that I make since my inception of that trash can, I will only earn 75% of what I would normally earn as a regular, normal poster. Now who would want that?

On the same token, if I'm on a lot and contribute a lot of good ideas to Trap17 to make it a better place, or offer informative posts, I can earn those symbols and consequently earn more credits for my extra efforts and insight on matters that I participate in. Once I earn that i symbol, I'll be earning 30% more credits than a normal poster would.

This would remove the requirement for a favorites system, discourage spam and one-liner posts, and encourage moreso of an active, engaging online community.

What if people don't rate others?

Why wouldn't you? It's one click, you don't have to do anything else, and it helps everyone else out.

What if someone is unpopular?

That's why I put Disagree as a positive multiplier. Someone may be disagreed with a lot, but that person is bringing another argument to the table, which incites different sides to a story instead of having a ton of posts that basically say the same thing and only displaying one side of an issue.

I think that this would be a positive change. We might lose some members because of the whole popularity race, but would they have been worth keeping if all they wanted to do was post a bunch of jargon just to earn credits?

Also, I know that English is not the primary language of some if not most of the members on Trap17. That's why I didn't put too much of a stress on the negative multiplier... not to mention that there could be something where you can notate that English is not your primary language, in which case the Bad Spelling symbol can be waived as a multiplier.

Edit: Also, I want to include a sort of expiration for the ratings... because someone could be stuck with a dozen Spam ratings from a few years ago, but only some people just recently gave that member some Informative ratings and his or her dozen Spam ratings will reflect that he or she is still a spammer. On the same token, someone could have a bunch of Agree ratings and just sit on that rating, earning the multiplier forever until people actually realize that he or she is a spammer and actually rate him or her as such. Something like ratings fading away after a month, regardless of what the rating was or the member's activity. This will maintain the need for ratings to be a regular occurrence, but like I said before, why NOT take the extra half-second to click once to let others know that someone is a spammer or informative member?

There are ways to possibly abuse this, but I won't outline them (for obvious reasons). If this idea is a serious consideration, someone can PM me or the moderators and Opaque can talk amongst themselves to work out the kinks.

Thoughts?

Edited by rayzoredge, 02 September 2008 - 03:38 PM.

[-Sky-]

Good idea Razor. Rated. Yeah, I think this should be in production too. And maybe, some other suggestions for the site too. Like an Arcade (As I have said before), IBStore, and a testimonials page about Trap17 services.

[Saint_Michael]

I would have to agree but I say make it simpler and you might have explained this but it is pretty late for me , but I would add the multiplier to the post itself, meaning when a person ears the default number of credits and then when they get rated they earn some more based on that rating.

Example begin someone earns 10 credits on a tutorial and then divide the multiplier like so (informative) 1.30 divided by 10 = .13 credits.

I know it doesn't seem a lot, but if you multiplied it people be getting 13 credits a rating, but with the division it keeps it small enough then the credits will build over time. Over time as the ratings increase people will start nulling the 1 credit loss, but of course trap17 would have to enforce the one IP per login to keep people from rating their own topics and posts and what not.

[DeM0nFiRe]

I think you misunderstand the concept SM. The multiplier would mean that instead of getting 10 x 1 credits for a regular post, you would get 10 x 1.3. This would mean you get 3 extra credits for being helpful, not 13 plus the other ten.

Plus, if you do it your way, you get more credits for smaller posts. if you get helpful for a one word post (ok it's unlikely) you'd end up getting like 1.3/.01 which would be 130 credits.