Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

And who will be reviewing all those thank you messages?
Not to mention it's technically more taxing to implement something with questionable payoff. imho.

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

But you see, it's not me (the theoretical poster) that needs to put the effort in. It's the person doing the thanking. More often than not, they won't put in that effort. Otherwise, why would they be asking the same question that's been answered 50 times previously in the past two years? :)

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

I think there's a lot of merit in this proposal... posts can be "Thanked" for so many reasons, some frivolous, whereas a "Useful" vote count would (hopefully) suggest the recipient has added something useful, and more importantly on topic, for the community at large (although this can't be guaranteed of course).

Perhaps "Thanks" should stay as it is - ie. easy to apply to each post with a single click - with a low-ish Karma weighting for the recipient, and a "Useful" (aka Reputation) count introduced with a more sizeable Karma weighting. There should be a limit of one "Useful" vote per thread from each member to prevent abuse, and perhaps a mandatory comment too which could be seen by the recipient.

I'm sure there are several "reputation" hacks available for vBulletin.

I also agree that a "No Thanks" system may be seen as negative, and unnecessary for this community.

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

:D

Aye, there's the rub, and of course the reason for making the effort count.

Could be like: click on 'thanks loads', and get a clickable list of 'why' (e.g., 'because it answered my question directly' or 'because i learned something new' or 'because this person thanked me last time' (with the option to add your own)) - so, 2 clicks instead of one.

:eek:

Just brainstorming. It's almost certainly an idea that would never fly because I'm lazy too :o

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

The thanks system does have a political party feeling about it at times. If you want to make thanks even worse in that direction, add no thanks.

I thought the real point of the Thanks system was to cut down on posts that said "I agree!" or "Great point!" and still let the thanker express approval.

The natural tendency of needlessly abandoning the ITT site was to drive away clueless newbies and keep people closely associated with developers and hobbyists. That has succeeded, and there are really a lot fewer objectionable posts than there used to be, so there is less of a problem. Group unity has been reinforced, but influence over the clueless, who are the primary people one wants to sell the N900 to (because there are so many of them), is less.

So the changes have worked, and those who wanted them should be happy. There is no big reason for tightening things up further.

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

Why are you still trying to steal my pocket lint?!

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

I think the system works fine the way it is... some may game it but to say that the thanks received by those in the past is somehow "fluffy" or "frivolous" kind of hurts my <sniff> feelings </sniff>

I have seen 25 or 30 "thanks" piled on one line posts in a matter of hours and whether it is a joke that lifts the spirit of the forums at the time, a line of code that cleans up a community project, or the location of a file in the system that allows an application to be used in a new way. The poster earned the thanks.

I have also seen posts that were made months ago slowly gain thanks as new users find the information helpful...
It all seems to even out.

What the "thanks" system has done is allowed enthusiasts an opportunity to earn karma...
Prior to that, karma was only earned in the other maemo.org components I believe, and not from contributions in this forum.

In any event, I'm not sure, but I doubt there are many that are eligible for discounts based solely on karma received from this forum. If there are, I know from my own experience it wasn't from frivolous and fluffy posts and it certainly wasn't instantaneous. :)

I am a believer in the value of forums in the development of ideas and thoughts that benefit a community. I am glad maemo.org and Nokia recognizes this as well.

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

I'm not suggesting that all "Thanked" posts are frivolous, far from it, but would it be fair (for example) for someone who posts a "Joke of the Day" thread and who receives a ton of "Thanks" for making people laugh to then be considered for a discounted developer device? Yes, they probably deserve something for helping to brighten up the place (a T-shirt perhaps?) but maybe not a device that could go to someone more focused on code or fixing problems...

Having a system that differentiates between simple "Thanks" and a "Reputation"/"Useful" score might prove more beneficial in the longer term - comparing the two scores may also elicit useful information regarding the nature of the members involvement within the community/forum.

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

So what you are actually saying is that a No thanks would not work for you, instead you would like to see something like a "! delete this thread" button am i right?

the "no thanks" should'nt be interpreted as if you were given a cookie and so you could say no thanks. I believe the initial idea was to make an opposite of thanks.

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

Well that is where moderation comes in Mil...

A Joke of the Day thread should be moved to a forum where "thanks" is not earned.
Neither should or would off topic joke posts be tolerated in productive threads for very long.