Suggestion Increasing the quality of posts on the temp

[mashers]

Following on from @Vulpes Abnocto's state of the temp thread, I've had a few ideas about how to increase the quality of postings here. These are just suggestions so anybody is of course free to disagree.

1. Replace post count with 'like ratio'. This would divide the number of likes by the number of posts to give a score for the user. This would encourage users to make quality posts which garner likes in order to increase their like ratio rather than shitposting to increase their post count
2. Prevent users with fewer than 100 posts from posting in the tutorials forums. I for one get fed up seeing people post questions there
3. Remove the 'ask' feature. The postings here seem to be repetitive and of low quality. I'm not sure why this is, but I wonder if it's because some users see the 'ask' button and click it straight away without looking at the forums.
4. Moderate the EOF. I realise that th EOF is designed to be open for any discussion, but I think it encourages shitposting which inevitably spills over to the main forums. It's a bit like a rowdy bar where people fall out into the street and keep being rowdy even though they're not in the bar any more...

 

[zoogie]

All you have to do is cull the worst offenders. Most people are tolerable.

 

[SomeGamer]

Replace post count with 'like ratio'. This would divide the number of likes by the number of posts to give a score for the user. This would encourage users to make quality posts which garner likes in order to increase their like ratio rather than shitposting to increase their post count

Posts do not count in the EoF while likes do, so...

 

[Minox]

1. Like ratio probably wouldn't do much if anything at all. Likes count no matter which subforum they come from and most older members would have incredibly low like ratios in comparison to their post counts simply due to them making their accounts before likes were implemented.
2. Sounds like a reasonable restriction
3. I personally have nothing against the Ask-feature, but I also can't say I care much for it. Indifferent is probably the correct word for what I'm feeling.

 

[Bndnrd]

I know I haven't been here long, but I see a lot of new threads popping up with questions that have been asked to death. I think there should be some sort of penalty for that. Like the first time a warning and on and on from there. Just gets annoying having to filter through 10 pages of bs to get to what you are looking for.

 

[raystriker]

On some certain subforums, make new members with a certain no of posts read a particular 'all knowledge thread' and then force them to give a small quiz so that when they earn a certain score, then only does the subforum open for them

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

I agree with the general principle here - Like ratio, however, is not the metric to do it. Likes aren't always awarded based on the quality of post content, and in many cases are awarded for making a silly joke, or in some cases people will hit like simply because of who has posted. Instead why not do away with visible post counts and badges completely? If there's no goal to aim towards, I feel like it might stop people posting for the sake of it.

Moderating the EOF would defeat its purpose, and I feel like it does have a purpose. It's already hidden from recent activity monitors, and post count, given that members need to know it's there to see it - why go further?

 

[Urbanshadow]

I think it would be good to add the min post restriction in more forums than just the Tutorials one. It would revamp the ask section and encourage reading over solution begging.

 

[Vulpes Abnocto]

The main goal of that thread was to get people thinking and perhaps talking about how we can improve our community.
Glad to see the idea took hold in some people.

 

[Bndnrd]

But the problem with a post restriction is it will lead to people shit posting tto get to that post count.

 

[zoogie]

I know I haven't been here long, but I see a lot of new threads popping up with questions that have been asked to death. I think there should be some sort of penalty for that. Like the first time a warning and on and on from there. Just gets annoying having to filter through 10 pages of bs to get to what you are looking for.

Everyone has to start somewhere and 3ds hacking is no different. We all want better quality members but abusing newbs isn't the answer.

If new members tick veterans off so much, maybe we can add a 100 minimum post auto-ignore option. lol

 

[EmanueleBGN]

I suggest to make simplest to find the threads, in this way the noobies will not create new threads for nothing. Maybe, make a bigger menu or place it on the top of the home-page and use different icons in it

 

[espen]

Everyone has to start somewhere and 3ds hacking is no different. We all want better quality members but abusing newbs isn't the answer.

If new members tick veterans off so much, maybe we can add a 100 minimum post auto-ignore option. lol

Can't just ignore people based of on their post count. Not all old members have high post counts, not all new members are bad, and not all veterans are good.

Would be better if the first 10 or so threads a member makes has to be moderated, and moved to a Q&A section if deemed necessary.

As for bad posts in the threads... That's a bit trickier...
If we could add the possibility of separating threads into sections, one strictly for development talk, one for general discussion, one for q&a ect. Then we could simply move the posts around if needed. This would keep the threads cleaner and more on-topic.
(one example of a forum with such a feature would be XDA-developers)

 

[Minox]

Would be better if the first 10 or so threads a member makes has to be moderated, and moved to a Q&A section if deemed necessary.

That would create an incredible amount of work with questionable gains.

 

[Xenon Hacks]

2 Sounds like a good idea or at least put a quiz barrier with 3 questions to unlock that sub forum feature.

 

[espen]

That would create an incredible amount of work with questionable gains.

A better idea then, would be to restrict access. Make it so new members can't make new threads in the main sections (again, adding a section purely for the purpose of asking questions) + adding the feature I mentioned where threads have sub-threads for different talk.
Perhaps if the OP could moderate their own threads to a certain extent, that would reduce the amount of work the forum mods would have to do.

 

[mashers]

All you have to do is cull the worst offenders. Most people are tolerable.

I do agree that this could help.

1. Like ratio probably wouldn't do much if anything at all. Likes count no matter which subforum they come from and most older members would have incredibly low like ratios in comparison to their post counts simply due to them making their accounts before likes were implemented.

I didn't realise that likes counted in EOF and that older members' accounts may have existed before the implementation of likes. Possibly an unpopular move, but maybe post and like counts need to be zeroed and start again, or just hide the post count as others have suggested.

3. I personally have nothing against the Ask-feature, but I also can't say I care much for it. Indifferent is probably the correct word for what I'm feeling.

Well as I said, it just seems that there is a general lack of quality in the posts there.

I know I haven't been here long, but I see a lot of new threads popping up with questions that have been asked to death. I think there should be some sort of penalty for that. Like the first time a warning and on and on from there. Just gets annoying having to filter through 10 pages of bs to get to what you are looking for.

I refer to my post here:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/state-of-the-temp-summer-2016.427938/page-7#post-6383574

in which I said:

I feel the solution to this may include simplifying the landing page of the forum. The default home page is only really user-friendly if you already know how to use a forum. For the younger members, I feel there may be too much information and they don't know where to start. If you don't really know what you're looking for, it's hard to sift through all that information to find what you're looking for. I propose a simplified home page with a very crude FAQ which leads to more specific topics, ultimately drilling down to a tutorial, forum thread or article providing the specific information needed. A bit like those contact pages on web site which ask you what you need help with, then get more specific before ultimately providing an FAQ page. This can be helpful for guiding users towards the information they need quickly and without them having to wade into a forum full of threads with a confusing amount of information.

I actually started work coding a simple page to act as a guide for users to click through to the correct tutorial before being dropped into the forums if nothing applies. I might have to have another look if the mods here feel it would be useful.

 

[mashers]

@Minox @Vulpes Abnocto
I've just knocked this up in PHP/Javascript. It's my idea for a landing page for GBAtemp. It allows users to drill down to what they want to do on which device and which firmware version to ultimately be redirected to a specific tutorial. The list of devices and firmware versions is not exhaustive, and it doesn't redirect anywhere yet. My idea is that this appears the first time anyone navigates to the index page of GBAtemp, possibly in a popup window rather than filling the whole screen. Storing a flag in the user's account could prevent it from being displayed every time, and a link on the home page could bring it back at will.

http://itrainapp.com/temp/

If the admin team here feels that this could be useful and could possibly be integrated into the site, please let me know and we can discuss taking it further.

 

[BurningDesire]

1. Replace post count with 'like ratio'. This would divide the number of likes by the number of posts to give a score for the user. This would encourage users to make quality posts which garner likes in order to increase their like ratio rather than shitposting to increase their post count

yes

 

[Pleng]

1. Prevent users with fewer than 100 posts from posting in the tutorials forums. I for one get fed up seeing people post questions there

Or... just remove "& FAQ" from the section headings...

Remove the 'ask' feature. The postings here seem to be repetitive and of low quality. I'm not sure why this is, but I wonder if it's because some users see the 'ask' button and click it straight away without looking at the forums.

I kinda thought that was the point... give people a place to ask repetitive questions which can be viewed by people who don't mind asking them. Keeps them out of the main forums .

Replace post count with 'like ratio'. This would divide the number of likes by the number of posts to give a score for the user. This would encourage users to make quality posts which garner likes in order to increase their like ratio rather than shitposting to increase their post count

Makes sense. I've never understood why people care about post count, on this forum or any other, anyway. But I gather people do. For those who complain about it, saying that likes were introduced later on in the site's life time, you could always generate the stat from the time that likes were introduced.