Member titles

[berry120]

Here's a minor suggestion that I was wondering about - what about having the member titles (member, senior member, guru etc.) based on reputation instead of post count? Personally I never really pay attention to said titles anyway, but for those that do it seems a bit misleading that someone that could just have a thousand (or however many it takes) odd useless posts in the social lounge somehow earns the title of guru!

Thoughts?

[Ð88]

But at the same time most rep is gained in the social lounge too! lol

[berry120]

In that case I'd say perhaps there should be a blanket ban on rep in the social lounge? Though if that's where most of it is gained I might have a bit of resistance with that statement!

[JogaBonito1502]

I think these titles should be based on date joined. The guru title should be a special title that you can only achieve through the recognition of your peers. Every month or two, you could elect new ones. It would be like the CF Privileged, but on a much more frequent scale.

[berry120]

I think these titles should be based on date joined.

But this way, someone who hasn't a clue what their on about could just sign up, wait a few years without doing a thing and then jump right in offering bad advice under the highest rank!

[JogaBonito1502]

Originally Posted by berry120

But this way, someone who hasn't a clue what their on about could just sign up, wait a few years without doing a thing and then jump right in offering bad advice under the highest rank!

Did you not read my complete statement? The guru status would be removed from this "scale". It would only do for Newbie, Junior Member, Member, Senior Member. You can then "elect" people who deserve the Guru status.

[berry120]

Did you not read my complete statement? The guru status would be removed from this "scale". It would only do for Newbie, Junior Member, Member, Senior Member. You can then "elect" people who deserve the Guru status.

I did, and thus in the context I was referring to the highest rank would be "senior member." It just seems a bit odd that someone with potentially no (or no informative) posts should be given that title!

[JogaBonito1502]

I don't associate the title of "senior member" with knowledge. It simply tells me, "Hey! This guy's been here for a while. He is probably very influential." If you are in doubt of the credibility of his posts, just look at the post count and rep. Although they won't give you a very accurate estimation of the guy's knowledge, it should be better than what you had before. Also, let me ask you this: Do you not think there are members here with a ton of rep and high post count who could know nothing about computers?

[berry120]

Do you not think there are members here with a ton of rep and high post count who could know nothing about computers?

Oh yes. But if the ability to give rep in the social lounge was removed, that'd probably go a fair way to solving that issue.

I should re-iterate what I said in my first post - I don't look at member titles, rep, post count or whatever and assume "ah he must be knowledgeable." Whilst I'll be a bit suspicious of people with negative rep or a very high post count and very little rep, it doesn't go much further than that as far as I'm concerned, I'll judge each post individually on whether it's a helpful bit of advice or a load of misleading nonsense.

But I know there are people out there that do look at it this way, and for their benefit more than anyone else's I don't think the current system is as good as it could be in this regard.

I do agree with you about the Guru status though - if I'm honest this was really the thing that made me post. Senior member as a title doesn't necessarily imply knowledge, at least not that strongly. Guru however does - and the fact that someone can gain such a status through just posting lots in the social lounge, or posting lots of unhelpful advice elsewhere seems a bit misleading!

[JogaBonito1502]

I'm partial to the cause of removing rep from the Social Lounge. There are a ton of very good discussions there! Within those, there are many insightful comments that--whether it involves computers or not--deserve rep.