A Modest Proposal

[Eli]

So I spent quite a while writing a long thoughtful post in some thread in the OT. I liked how that post helped me to clarify my own thoughts on the subject and I liked the I received from Arrian. And it got me thinking - We, in the OT, have an incentive to post as many posts as possible, the post count. No matter how mature one is, "who has the biggest?" contests still evoke some interest. But what we don't have is an incentive to post interesting, polite and insightful posts.

So:

Post of the Week

(naturally, whatever specifics I offer are only a basis for discussion and may be changed)

Every week, a group of moderators and/or trusted posters will choose a certain number, say 5, of posts in the OT Forum which they believe to be of high quality. Their choice may or may not depend on opinions of other posters as expressed on the forums or using PMs.

At the end of every week, a poll will be posted in which Apolytoners will choose which post is the Post of the Week. To avoid hassle, a simple plurality will suffice.

All people who won at least one Post of the Week award will have a Post of the Week counter below their avatar, displaying the number of awards they won.

Runner ups may also receive some award.

Criteria for receiving a nomination may include insight, clarity, eloquence, length, civility, wit etc.

A certain percent, say 10%, of the votes may be given to the best post as chosen by the moderators.

Since there are only 52 weeks in a year, there won't be an inflation of awards. Even after a few years, only a handful of people will reach double digits.

If this catches on, it would be possible to use the same mechanism to create a Funny post of the Week award, or a Post of Week in the On Topic award.

[Japher]

I second the motion...

and the post you are talking about (the one in the 'the world is better' thread was a good one).

[Mercator]

That sounds quite nice and interesting, but I think it would cost too much extra time for the moderators and wouldn't be feasible in the long-term because of that.

Another way to do it would be to add some sort of post-rating system. The highest-rated posts would be voted on at the end of each week. That would lighten the burden on the moderators for this task if everyone can vote. Some people can even get a higher influence than others. Say, the moderator and admin votes count heaviest, and those who've won "post of the week" also get a slight advantage over the rest. That would all get a little bit like the Slashdot or Kuro5hin "distributed moderation" systems.

Of course, that system would need to be implemented, so it might take the burden off the mods, but adds lots of burden on the admins in the beginning.

[LordShiva]

Great idea

But particularly incisive one-liners should be considered too

[Zopperoni]

Actually, I'd like to see something similar to what Digg has. Everyone can just choose for hirself what s/he thinks is appropriate.

[LordShiva]

Apparently, Poly has a post rating system. Perhaps it can be put to use.

[Asmodean]

How about having a topped thread called post of the week. When you see something particularly insightful, you post in that thread a nomination for that post to become post of the week, with a link to the post.

Then at the end of the week, there will be a vote, and the poster who has posted the winning post will receive the poster of the week award.

Subsequently, the "Post of the week for week X" thread will be untopped and a new "Post of the week for week Y" thread will be made and topped.

That way, having this award (which I think is a good idea) will involve only a minimum of effort from the mods (making topped threads, and perhaps making the vote thread).

Asmodean

[Eli]

The problem with Digg's system and any system that simply rates posts is that it's not visible enough. So there will be a 5 stars post buried in a thread 10 pages long, forgotten as soon as the thread drops a page. Not encouragement enough to post quality material.

Asmodean:

The problem with this system is that all the selection process will be done by posters alone. We'll get people nominating posts of their friends, people asking others to nominate their posts, etc. A lot of good posts will go unnominated.

I think that if a group that we already know to be more mature and less biased towards posters selects the nominees, they're overall quality will be higher.

[DrSpike]

I see where this is coming from but I think it would turn into a popularity contest. Can we trust people to vote for a quality well argued post from a poster they dislike, or on a subjective topic where they hold a different view? I would suspect not.

And as this is a gaming site some might argue we should have a on topic post of the week first.

[Eli]

Originally posted by DrSpike
I see where this is coming from but I think it would turn into a popularity contest. Can we trust people to vote for a quality well argued post from a poster they dislike, or on a subjective topic where they hold a different view? I would suspect not.

Can we trust people not to vote for a not so quality post of a poster they do like? No. So it all sort of balances out in the end.

Anyway, what I'm suggesting is to give this a try for couple months or so and see how the community takes this. If it doesn't work, we kill it. If it works, it can be expanded to the On Topic.

The reason we should start with the Off Topic is that it's the most active subforum on Apolyton, thus being the best testing ground we have.

[Nubclear]

We wouldn't need to involve the mods and such if Apolyton elected its own parliament and moderators...this task could be delegated to someone else without involving the owners at all

[Mercator]

Originally posted by DrSpike
And as this is a gaming site some might argue we should have a on topic post of the week first.

I'm not familiar with the state of the Civ4 forums, but I wouldn't think that was necessary. Good on-topic posts are those that contain useful and new material. Detailed posts about strategies or game mechanics, for example. For Civ2 those kinds of posts find their way into the Great Library.

[DrSpike]

Well whether or not the posts are remembered via such a device, the point of this scheme seems to be to reward in some way helpful and considered contributions. So I don't think having such a scheme for on topic posts and having, say, a Great Library, is mutually exclusive.

[Asmodean]

Well, I still approve of this as a method to do away with one-liners

Edit: Added an edit to make sure that this post was not a one-liner

Asmodean

[MarkG]

vbulletin has a thread-rating feature but noone was using it and it has been hidden...

the best way to do this would be a 4-5 people team (non-mods) selecting threads and making a sort-of "Apolyton OT Digest"