How can the Dell forums improve guys? - Page 2

I think the NBF owners should be more concerned with their inability to keep NBF up and running in it's current configuration, rather than planning upgrades.

Considering it is a one man operation I think we do pretty good

I'd bet against anyone here who thinks they can do what Shaun does and keep their sanity.

Maybe Shaun needs some help then. That might be a worthwhile upgrade.

One-man operation, eh? So, where is your advertisement income going? Anyway, yeah, you are doing good for a one-man operation. On the other hand, considering that right before that post of yours you lost 12 hours worth of posts, it is worth emphasizing that this "pretty good" is a relative term... And, yeah, I am pissed that one of those lost posts was an essay of mine with some thoughts on improving the forums. I really don't feel like re-writing all of this, but the gist of it was that fixing the hopelessly broken reputation point system might be worthwhile, although not easy. P.S.: I notice that you seem to continue losing posts; right now, if I look at the Dell 17" forum, I just saw a gap from 5:34am this morning to 6:14pm this evening. Anybody know what is going on?

See, this is one of the major problems I have with this: Who decided that this forum needs more "policing"? What evidence is there that your job description above addresses any real problems? In short, who says that what you feel your job should be is of any value at all to this forum (noting in parentheses that I have no idea what your reference to "street sweepers" may mean)?

For what it's worth, at least in the parts of NBF that I visit I see precious few incidents that may warrant any sort of interference, and none at all that could not be handled through channels that already exist (specifically the option of a forum member, any forum member, mind you, to report objectionable posts/threads to a mod).

With threads like this, I see no reason for a "reputation points" system. If it don't work, either fix it or get rid of it totally.

Yep...those kind of threads we really can do without...what on earth is the point of a reputation points system, if people start threads like that giving each other rep for no reason at all??

Either ban these type of threads or no rep system at all (which I would not like to see happen).

/end rant...

Prepared to chip in then? Running a site this big, with so many members and so much traffic is not a cheap undertaking. Yes, there are some ads but they are really nothing too bothersome and a small price to pay to help mitigate some of the costs and keep the site free for everyone... re: policing. Good that you haven't seen too much that warrents attention, that means we are doing our job! Seriously, the amount of stuff that we have to delete and edit is quite extensive... and once that is done it is behind the scenes, regular members cannot see it. We are forced to ban, on average, at least one member per day for any number of reasons. And, as mentioned, we cannot catch it all and sometimes we don't catch things as quickly as we would like (we get many reported posts every day). Thus, TM's are now there to help us out with this. re: the rep system. Largely agree with you, but really it is just a fun feature and whilst it exists, so will the 'rep threads'. Banning such threads is not in the spirit of how we want the site to run. Yes, people come here for information but we also want them to stay and have some fun while they are at it. In any case, the NBF rep system has already changed significantly to combat the effect of those threads; but at the moment it is causing little harm and there are bigger fish to fry, so to speak. Stu

I am not complaining about the ads. What I was getting at is that these ads do bring in a non-negligible amount of money. If indeed this is a one-man operation, and all of the rest of you work for free, then I wonder where that money goes, that's all. None of my business, really, but maybe yours...


O.k., I can buy that. So, alright, the forum does need some policing, then.


You are missing my point entirely, although I did not make it very clear in my last post, admittedly. It was quite clear in the post that got deleted, though...

The point is that rep points could be a very valuable feature, allowing people to gauge the value of individual posts and and how much trust they can put into individual posters. However, the way things are right now, they are an entirely useless gimmick. Yes, they don't do any harm, but they're not doing any good either.

I am not very useful in helping people, usually look in the dell forums to see if anyone has already answered my question. Sometimes it's a chore to look though the various subforums. I have an i8600, and the info I'm looking for might be in the General forum, the pentium forum, the peer to peer forum, and any search tool seems to either provide too many or too few hits. I have no recommendation on how to better organize threads into the various subforums though. Really just a minor annoyance.

As far as the reputation point system goes, my opinion is that it is interesting, can be fun, but nobody should ever really expect to use it to determine another member's technical proficiency. To me the only value of the rep system is that when someone posts information I value, I try to give them a +1, kind of a way of saying thanks without having to bump the thread. If someone gives me a +1 it makes me glad I was able to help someone. I see rep under peoples avatars but really pay it no attention. If you pay attention to the forums, it is easy to see who the valued members are, they post well, and their inputs get confirmed, don't need no stinkin colored dots to tell me whther to trust someone or not. Also biased against the new genius who hasn't posted, might be the world's top expert on a topic but doesn't post enough to get rep points, os just looks like a noob compared to a post whore who has a lot of friends on the forum. So play with the rep points, but never expect them to be a useful rating tool.

I like the thread layout as is, prefer it to the tree view forums.



And after spending too much time in the OT forum, I have to say that I am not really sure how to answer the thread title of "How can the Dell forums improve guys?" Before coming with an answer to that question, I'd need to know if the guys to be improved are NBF members, or guys in general. Also, who is the judge of the improvement? Seems like the ladies would probably offer tips like "The Dell forums should teach men to be more observant, attentive and in touch with their sensitive side" Some guys might say the dell forums should include information about muscle building, or beer, stuff like that. THe question about how to improve guys is too broad to really expect useful replies.

I see many similar opinions and just wanted to give my 2 cents.


I joined NBF back around Christmas 2004 doing research for notebooks. I was very active in the Alienware and Dell threads until I finally made my purchase decision (which is in my sig). After my decision the reason I started frequenting this form diminished greatly. I eventually found the dell rep thread and the OT and the people who I consider friends here are what keep me coming back almost everyday.

If NBF took the stance to eliminate rep threads or positive rep "abuse" of the system, it would be a nightmare to manage and would upset people as legit rep would get caught up in the cross fire. Other vBulliten sites have tried.

When the Dell 17+ rep thread was started, there was a real problem between Dell and Alienware fans. But the rep threads evolved into more of a blog for people's daily lives and sub communities of people in the various sections. They give some people a reason to stay, its more than for rep or at least, they used to be. You’ll notice there are rep threads in almost every section. This is because NBF is big and people like to give and hang out with their friends. Rep threads are sort an Off Topic thread in each section.

Also not everyone is an engineering genius who can give uber advice. So the rep threads are a place where people can go and feel like they are part of the nbf community. Kinda like engineers do their work, and the other kids who what to hang out with the cool engineers grab a box of crayons and color in their dots over in the corner. Some engineers like colored dots too. So there is all levels in between. But, it does need to be “tuned.”

So basically, I see rep threads as part of "there's something for everyone" at nbf.

Not to mention people getting into an arguement and losing, and in being a sore loser they negative rep peoples posts that have nothing to do with the arguement because they cant take a loss.

Id have to agree with Pirx, while the rep system could be good, people abuse it and it basically means nothing.

I would say take the specific users ratings with a grain of sand. For the most part you can tell by the general way they communicate there message how intelligent they are, and if its a more important issue such as buying or selling you can easily check out there previous posts to see if theyve got any underlying issues with other members and how well they get along with others.

I'll second that.

One of the reasons I disabled my rep was due to some of those persons posting negative rep on posts I had done when I brought to attention things that would show them as dishonest.

One poster bragging that he had bought a machine from a vendor with a 180 return window with the express purpose of never keeping it, returning it right before the 6 months was up, getting all his money back.

He got all his money back, but by him doing that he in effect was stealing from all of the rest of us. In the post to him I only asked him if he was having problems with it as the reason for the return... and the next thing I know my rep is in the basement.

If the mods want to police, keep this forum moving in a postive direction when people brag about that kind of stuff they should be banned. (guy had it in his sig)

That kind of stuff costs us all money, and causes vendors to further restrict return polices, give you grief on getting service....
I'm sorry Mr Smith, but we will need 3 credit cards to be able to process your warranty repair..


Reputation threads in which people rep each other back an forth, over and over again should be shut down. Another idea would be once you've given your buddy rep points, that's it.... or you have to wait a longgg time to rep the same person..

Really sucks when you spend alot of time here trying to help people out, and some little you know what neg reps you.

Here's an idea on the neg reps, make it when you neg rep someone you have to PM the person you're planning on neg repping to see if something can be worked out.

I got a neg rep from some fool because on some info on the various GPU's on the market, the fool neg repping me because in the write up it was not stated that his GPU (7900GS) would overclock faster than a 7900GTX.... If he would have PM'd me I would have been more than happy to add the info even though the purpose of the thread was not about overclocking.

Whoever did it (and I have a good idea) must have been a poster in one of the Reputation threads as it knocked my reputation in the basement. Didn't sig his name to the neg rep either... that should be an automatic thing, posters ID giving neg rep is shown.
(current system may have fixed that?- haven't checked my "rep" since I've disabled it, so if any of these issues have been "fixed", disregard)

Reputation system needs to be like the real world, and if someone gives you neg rep you should be allowed to see who it came from.

Here's one more idea... Say you neg rep someone, ..if that neg rep turns out to be given for no good reason.... the person who gave the neg rep gets 10X or 100x the neg rep back onto them... Don't know how you would monitor or set that up though...


.

Yeah, I fully agree. One of the suggestions in my Lost Post was actually to get rid of negative rep. If people feel they need to play rep games then that's fine, I suppose, but I really cannot see what useful purpose negative reps could serve. Eliminating those, and only allowing people to give out positive rep would go along way towards eliminating some of the bad blood in some forums. As an aside, personally I stick to that maxime myself, and never give negative rep, no matter how I feel about somebody's post(s).

Yeah i am all for getting rid of negative reps. If someone says something someone disagrees with, then they can simply respond in the forum. If it turns into an all out flame way, then thats what the mods are for.

If the rep system were to be kept then the suggestions i have would be to limit 1 negative rep from one member to the other once per 24 hours.

One member posted that laptop OC-ing is scary, and there was not enough cooling for it. I asked where his R+D was to show that(i knew he had nothing), because obviously Intel and Dell feel the t7600g can be safely OC-ed with stock cooling, otherwise i dont think they would market an OC-able 700+ dollar chip knowing they would be replacing ones that burned out from OC. Anyway, whoever it was through theyd be cool and threaten me that i probably shouldnt mess with an OG member and negative repped a whole bunch of my posts(youre a real big man for that one...), even ones that had nothing to do with the topic, ie he negative repped posts in my FS thread. How much more childish could it get? I dont even know what an OG member is...

I also agree that rep points threads should also be shut down. Also, perhaps a negative rep point should have to be approved by someone first, such as by one of the TM's, with each being responsible for there own forum. I say that, but i really have no idea how many reps are given out a day, so that may not be a feasible idea.

The way i feel right now, as it stands with the ability to neg rep for nothing and pos rep for nothing in the rep points thread, rep point really dont mean squat.

all suggestions are of course welcome on the situation involving rep. however there is actually a reason for neg rep. it exists to allow users to show disapproval of posts and while it does at times seem unfair for those who get hit for large amounts of negative points there is often a good reason behind it. in areas such as for sale and such neg rep allows users to provide feedback on sellers and it does give a general sense of how good/bad a forum member is. it can be used in childish ways and unfortunately that is just a fact of life.

i can understand that you dislike the rep system because you have been stung by someone acting poorly in regards to it however you must realize that there are greater impacts to removing it than its effect on yourself. while a removal of rep may make your time more enjoyable many people actually do enjoy and congregate in the various rep threads and find them enjoyable would not share your opinion. although the idea of having people who are tm's such as myself approve rep being given out is in theory a good one it is sadly not something that would work. if you get just 10 people out of the 98,000 + members on this site handing out each their full 10 reps thats 100 that need to be checked, if you get 500 members who hand out their full 10 thats 5000 things to be checked on top of the other duties that the tm's/mods/admins perform, and on top of the fact that we do believe it or not have lives outside of this forum.

rep is a complicated issue and its one that everybody takes very seriously. it is impossible to please everybody one it and its a challenge that we are all working on solving. as i said every suggestion is one we take seriously and look at.