Continue to Site

Welcome to EDAboard.com

Welcome to our site! EDAboard.com is an international Electronics Discussion Forum focused on EDA software, circuits, schematics, books, theory, papers, asic, pld, 8051, DSP, Network, RF, Analog Design, PCB, Service Manuals... and a whole lot more! To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

Member definitions by points system

Status
Not open for further replies.

d123

Advanced Member level 5
Joined
Jun 7, 2015
Messages
2,505
Helped
494
Reputation
992
Reaction score
525
Trophy points
1,393
Location
Spain
Activity points
27,148
Hi,

I've been keeping this to myself for a while but feel the need to mention it and make a suggestion.

According to edaboard, I am an 'advanced member level 5' - so is e.g. c_mitra. He is a knowledgeable engineer, I am a not very knowledgeable hobbyist with big gaps in my learning who makes beginner mistakes in my circuits.

I often feel like a bit of a guilty fraud with that 'advanced member level 5' definition. A new member may think I know a lot, and a newbie engineer feel frustrated being defined as 'newbie'. If I give my 'advanced' advice to a hardened industrial power engineer who I think is a 'newbie', well, it's almost insulting for some people, perhaps.

A new member can deliberately or inadvertently game the system with constant posts that are persistently non-sensical rubbish, yet quickly become an 'advanced member (e.g. that person here who always researches nothing and draws wiggly incomprehensible backwards, upside-down spaghetti schematics).

Why not change the points-based definition for a drop-down menu with a decent range of choices on joining where each new member can define themself as, e.g.:

Student
Beginner
Tinkerer
Hobbyist
Engineer/power engineer/RF engineer/etc.
Senior engineer
Test and measurement specialist
Lazybones who wants other people to do all the work and research for them
etc.
?

A points system for contributing threads and replies of worth/value is good. However, maybe that would be fairer and we could all understand each member's threads and replies in a more defined context.

Just an idea.
 
A points system for contributing threads and replies of worth/value is good. However, maybe that would be fairer and we could all understand each member's threads and replies in a more defined context.
The Helped score is a metric that shows how helpful a member has been in the past. It is a decent if not perfect way of showing the worth/value of a member.

A new member can deliberately or inadvertently game the system with constant posts that are persistently non-sensical rubbish, yet quickly become an 'advanced member (e.g. that person here who always researches nothing and draws wiggly incomprehensible backwards, upside-down spaghetti schematics).
We've already had members that have done such things, they all end up being banned within a short period of time, sometimes multiple times until they either get bored or find another forum. If moderators recognize their post style they may get banned after a few attempts at posting.

I feel that adding fields that can be directly viewed on each post is likely to be abused by individuals intent on self promotion on the forum. In the past we have had numerous incidents of such abuse occurring with Avatars, signatures, and Helped Me points abuse as a means to "game" the system to their advantage. One individual even was affronted that they couldn't promote themselves and their business on the forum with each and every post they made. Their whole intention of joining wasn't to help the community but to market themselves to both forum members and to increase their presence on the internet.

If you really want to let others know where you consider yourself in your career then both your job title and an About you fields can be added under "Your Account" from your Profile page.
 
Hi,

Thanks for the explanation and suggestions, makes sense, and that's why 'helped mes' have a daily limit, I'd wondered about that, too. It must be very complicated in reality.
 

It comes down to the best intended judgement of the moderators. Most days we reject 10+ new members before they get to publish their first post because they are obviously providing false credentials. Some slip through, we are not perfect and possibly we reject a perfectly legitimate person by mistake occasionally but after a while you 'get a feeling' about who is genuine and who (what) is a robot.

No rating system is perfect either and we have had instances of reversing the points awarded to someone for being helpful when there are signs they are promoting themselves or getting friends to do it for them. This is one of the reasons we do our best to prevent one person using multiple identities, so they can't use the other identity to boot their ratings. It still happens though and even now there is an individual being closely watched.

The moderators are around the globe and in several time zones so we can keep a close eye on activity 24/7. We do keep in contact with each other and share observations although to the best of my knowledge none of use have ever met face to face. We are all volunteers too, none of us receive payment whether money or 'in kind' so there are no loyalties to any brand or company.

Brian.
 

Hi Brian,

It comes down to the best intended judgement of the moderators. Most days we reject 10+ new members before they get to publish their first post because they are obviously providing false credentials. Some slip through, we are not perfect and possibly we reject a perfectly legitimate person by mistake occasionally but after a while you 'get a feeling' about who is genuine and who (what) is a robot.

That's why higher up I said it must be rather complicated to select a points system and expecially to moderate. On the whole, people seem nice (respectful, helpful and fair) here and behave like human beings, some forums (not electronics-related) are just horrible troll-fests where a handful of older members basically gang up on newbies, spoils it for the decent members and newcomers - some people are very strange...

No rating system is perfect either and we have had instances of reversing the points awarded to someone for being helpful when there are signs they are promoting themselves or getting friends to do it for them. This is one of the reasons we do our best to prevent one person using multiple identities, so they can't use the other identity to boot their ratings. It still happens though and even now there is an individual being closely watched.

...Some people are funny strange, not so much funny ha-ha...

The moderators are around the globe and in several time zones so we can keep a close eye on activity 24/7. We do keep in contact with each other and share observations although to the best of my knowledge none of use have ever met face to face. We are all volunteers too, none of us receive payment whether money or 'in kind' so there are no loyalties to any brand or company.

Interesting to get a tiny glimpse as to the inner workings of the forum. I'd wondered if the moderators are all volunteers, very noble given the time and patience needed.

Thanks.
 

According to edaboard, I am an 'advanced member level 5' - so is e.g. c_mitra. He is a knowledgeable engineer...

Thank you, thank you and thank you!

I am not a knowledgeable engineer. I am just a retired professor. I am here as an entertainment; I am both learning and teaching. I enjoy contributing to general knowledge.

But the fact remains that we still do not know so much...
 
Hi,

I am both learning and teaching. I enjoy contributing to general knowledge.

But the fact remains that we still do not know so much...
Almost the same applies to me. I came here for learning.
Now I´m here for learning, moderating and teaching (hopefully).
Still learning a lot. Mainly about HF, IC design, ASICs, modern methods, modern ICs...

Klaus
 

Hi,

thank you for giving an insight of the work done by the moderators. I could not imagine that there is so much work involved. Thank you for your work!

some forums (not electronics-related) are just horrible troll-fests where a handful of older members basically gang up on newbies, spoils it for the decent members and newcomers - some people are very strange...

Unfortunately that also happens in electronics-related forums, this is the reason why I ended-up here in an english forum although it was hard for me in the beginning as my english wasn't that good (and still needs improvement) :D.

BR
 
Hi,

thank you for giving an insight of the work done by the moderators. I could not imagine that there is so much work involved. Thank you for your work!

Unfortunately that also happens in electronics-related forums, this is the reason why I ended-up here in an english forum although it was hard for me in the beginning as my english wasn't that good (and still needs improvement) :D.

BR
It's pretty easy to see how much the moderators do, considering there really isn't another forum general electronics related forum that I've found that isn't inundated with trolls, blind leading the blind, advertisements between every few post. After a few years most of these are either no longer running or only have a few new posts a month (like the one I recently visited to find an answer to a Verilog problem I was experiencing).

Other than Vendors forums (which are moderated) by their employees and stackexchange, this is probably one of the most heavily trafficked electronics forums there is. I could be wrong (I don't have an account), but given the way stackechange works I suspect that moderating is less work as there are likely more people with enough "points" that can perform those duties.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Part and Inventory Search

Welcome to EDABoard.com

Sponsor

Back
Top