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A Believer Longevity Award?

Started by LARA, December 22, 2010, 09:59:44 PM

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LARA

Just a thought.  Since there are so many briefly lived believers in this forum, I thought perhaps to give an example to those who might really want to join and learn here we give some encouragement in the form of a Believer Longevity Award.  Better to give an good example than, say, do things like a troll cage.

Maybe open up a thread for believers to enter their names in for the award and the one with the most posts gets the award.  I think a nice little trophy cup icon they can use in their sig could be created.  Or maybe a flaming snowball, but that might not be deemed appropriate because too many people would take the simile too literally?
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
                                                                                                                    -Winston Smith, protagonist of 1984 by George Orwell

AnimatedDirt

Heh...this is funny, but what about angels instead of stars...lol.

Tank

Quote from: "AnimatedDirt"Heh...this is funny, but what about angels instead of stars...:D
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Tank

Well joeactor would get the longest tenure.
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Whitney

I like the idea of making more theists want to participate productively here.

Quote from: "AnimatedDirt"Heh...this is funny, but what about angels instead of stars...lol, that would be great..unfortunately I know next to nothing about php and wouldn't know how to edit the mod to where I could tell it that someone was a theist and to give them angels on their year anniversary instead of stars.

I can, however, easily give custom ranks to theists who stick around for a while (yes, joactor would obviously qualify)


So, what would the qualifications be for a special rank?  I see two obvious options

1.  Member nominated (can nominate self) and it is put to a vote.

2.  It's based on being around a certain amount of time with a certain amount of posts.  Set high enough so that anyone still left after that time/post count would have already been given a permanent boot for trolling.

Or perhaps some combination of the two...like member vote but not qualified till after certain time/post count.

Thoughts?

AnimatedDirt


Tank

Quote from: "Whitney"I like the idea of making more theists want to participate productively here.

Quote from: "AnimatedDirt"Heh...this is funny, but what about angels instead of stars...lol, that would be great..unfortunately I know next to nothing about php and wouldn't know how to edit the mod to where I could tell it that someone was a theist and to give them angels on their year anniversary instead of stars.

I can, however, easily give custom ranks to theists who stick around for a while (yes, joactor would obviously qualify)


So, what would the qualifications be for a special rank?  I see two obvious options

1.  Member nominated (can nominate self) and it is put to a vote.

2.  It's based on being around a certain amount of time with a certain amount of posts.  Set high enough so that anyone still left after that time/post count would have already been given a permanent boot for trolling.

Or perhaps some combination of the two...like member vote but not qualified till after certain time/post count.

Thoughts?

I have experienced the 'post count = benefit' cycle elsewhere, specifically at Richard Dawkins Forum. When a member got to 2,000 posts they got access to the 'Veterans Forum'. This was one of those 'seemed like a good idea at the time' situations. It was a disaster of epic proportions and may well have sowed the seeds of destruction of the forum. In my experience people do what they perceive gives them benefit/reward. If you attribute value to simple post count you'll find a word association thread started in a matter of hours and post count will cease to be a meaningful judgement of a member's community value.

I have experienced voting for your favourite post as well. This was at PhotoSIG. It created cliques that pretty much went to war with each other and ruined the atmosphere of the place.

In my opinion this place works because one gains personal benefit directly in proportion to the intellectual effort one puts in. And basically it works the way it is. One reason I suspect this place works is that we attempt, not always successfully, to put aside our theological views. Creating an overt differentiation that highlights those differences could in my opinion be counter-productive.

It's very tempting to fiddle about on a forum for the fun of fiddling about. The trouble is that, as we all know, interaction on forums is fraught with the dangers of misinterpretation, misrepresentation and emotional involvement with world views, in my view anything that potentially exacerbates these inherent problems should be avoided.

I sound like a moaning-mini who is poo-pooing any change or development but all I am urging is caution as this place has something most forums never achieve; longevity. So it must be doing things less-wrong than others. Until we can categorically find out what it is doing right I wouldn't consider 'changing it for the better' simply because we really don't know what 'better' is.
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

McQ

Although I don't have a strong opinion on this one way or the other, I want to add my agreement with Tank's post, urging caution. A lot of things seem like great ideas at the time, which turn out much later, and with only careful examination, to be the building blocks of ruin. Tank already put it well, so I have nothing else to add.
Elvis didn't do no drugs!
--Penn Jillette

AnimatedDirt

Quote from: "McQ"Although I don't have a strong opinion on this one way or the other, I want to add my agreement with Tank's post, urging caution. A lot of things seem like great ideas at the time, which turn out much later, and with only careful examination, to be the building blocks of ruin. Tank already put it well, so I have nothing else to add.
I can agree.  It is in no manner an allusion of mine to be ranked here in this forum as an acceptable Christian due to posts, or votes.  If I'm seen as delusional for my beliefs, I don't mind at all.  If I'm seen as a rational person, I would like that, but it's not necessary.  All I ask of the forum, is to allow me to partake of your insightful thoughts, ideas and knowledge, while, since there is a Religion section, giving me a voice of opinion and/or clarification on thoughts and ideas as it relates to religion and/or God being one of many "other side" views.  I endeavor to be one found to discuss and not argue, but rank really doesn't come into play for me.  I simply thought it would be comical, due to this forum's perspective, an angel rank.

Tank

Quote from: "AnimatedDirt"
Quote from: "McQ"Although I don't have a strong opinion on this one way or the other, I want to add my agreement with Tank's post, urging caution. A lot of things seem like great ideas at the time, which turn out much later, and with only careful examination, to be the building blocks of ruin. Tank already put it well, so I have nothing else to add.
I can agree.  It is in no manner an allusion of mine to be ranked here in this forum as an acceptable Christian due to posts, or votes.  If I'm seen as delusional for my beliefs, I don't mind at all.  If I'm seen as a rational person, I would like that, but it's not necessary.  All I ask of the forum, is to allow me to partake of your insightful thoughts, ideas and knowledge, while, since there is a Religion section, giving me a voice of opinion and/or clarification on thoughts and ideas as it relates to religion and/or God being one of many "other side" views.  I endeavor to be one found to discuss and not argue, but rank really doesn't come into play for me.  I simply thought it would be comical, due to this forum's perspective, an angel rank.
There is no reason why we all couldn't have an angle instead of a star.
This is the image current image and location (found by right clicking on the image)

    http://www.happyatheistforum.com/styles/prosilver/imageset/icon_annual_star.gif[/list]

    All one would have to do is create a little angel image 15px square call it 'icon_annual_star.gif' and copy it into the directory shown in the URL above we have angles instead of stars!
    If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
    "Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
    'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
    Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

    Whitney

    What else could we do that wouldn't be a big change which could help to make the forum more appealing to the civil believers?  What could we do that would make the forum even less appealing to the crazy believers (ya that would be a miracle)?

    AnimatedDirt

    Quote from: "Whitney"What else could we do that wouldn't be a big change which could help to make the forum more appealing to the civil believers?  What could we do that would make the forum even less appealing to the crazy believers (ya that would be a miracle)?
    Change the name of the forum to HappyAtheistsWhoLoveCivilChristiansForum.com   (dismal attempt at humor)

    Aside from what you are doing already, allowing ALL membership and access to the forum, I'm not sure what else.  I'll give this some thought, though.

    Inevitable Droid

    Quote from: "Whitney"What else could we do that wouldn't be a big change which could help to make the forum more appealing to the civil believers?  What could we do that would make the forum even less appealing to the crazy believers (ya that would be a miracle)?

    My initial reaction is to make the forum less appealing to the adroit troll who skirts the edge of getting banned but never actually earns the four-legged fish.  Maybe the three strikes methodology currently being employed could have an accompanying set of replacement avatars.  When a troll earns strike one, there'd be a replacement avatar saying "strike one"; and when strike two is earned, a replacement avatar saying "strike two."
    Oppose Abraham.

    [Missing image]

    In the face of mystery, do science, not theology.

    Whitney

    Quote from: "Inevitable Droid"My initial reaction is to make the forum less appealing to the adroit troll who skirts the edge of getting banned but never actually earns the four-legged fish.  Maybe the three strikes methodology currently being employed could have an accompanying set of replacement avatars.  When a troll earns strike one, there'd be a replacement avatar saying "strike one"; and when strike two is earned, a replacement avatar saying "strike two."

    Yes, though they might wear the strikes as badges (trolls don't think like us, they have attention seeking problems)...currently only mods can see the strike count.  The only reason I made a banned icon was for the benefit of those who may otherwise try to respond to a permanently banned user.

    My concern in implementing a phased image change (other than having to teach all the mods how to do it since it would be done manually) would be what if I had to give a strike to a reg who was just out of line once?  It's already kinda subjective in that the mods decide when to start over on the strike count; for instance we wouldn't ban a reg who accumulated 3 strikes over a longer period of time (but haven't defined that amount of time).

    Inevitable Droid

    I just now, after all this time, became curious about the blue stars under some people's avatars, and by hovering over the stars with my cursor, discovered what they mean - years of participation.  So here's a thought for a minimalistic change that might fit what we're talking about here.  Create a six month star.  Make it pink.  Thus in six months a person gets a pink star; then in a year the pink is replaced by blue;  then in eighteen months a new pink one appears beside the blue; then in two years the pink is replaced by blue; and so on.  I have no idea if this is hard to program into the software.  But the idea is minimalistic, in that it represents merely an interation of something already in place, and it also treats everyone the same, instead of singling out the theists in some way.
    Oppose Abraham.

    [Missing image]

    In the face of mystery, do science, not theology.