Resurrecting Shop Hack
 

Seriously, this is a good idea and its so lame to close a fruitful thread on it because Death handed you your figurative ass, Alcar. Suck it up man. The idea of buying ranks through posts is genius. I disagree that it would take the Oddworld from the forums because people would probably pick OW based titles. Hell, it might even put more OW into these forums!

Aha! So Death wasn't the only one who wanted shop hack. Why didn't you speak up earlier Staikk? You let Death take all the heat.

-oddguy

I dunno, I guess it'd be nice...but I don't really care wether we have it or not. I wouldn't buy any new titles or anything.

Shop Hack sounds fun I suppose, but I really don't need it. I'd rather invest time in a better forum scheme than a shop hack.

-oddguy

The shop hack gives you money for posts. Each post is worth $1, but users can vote for the post either negative or positive. A positive vote adds $1 to the value of the post, making it worth $2, but a negative vote subtracts $1 of the value, making it worth $0, or -$1. A user may also donate money from his "wallet" to another users "wallet". The money in your wallet can be used to by colored custom title writing, a custom title, a custom avatar, a custom rank star color, and so on.

There are several inherant flaws with this. Users can get other users to donate money to them. Users can favour other users. Users can bribe other users to vote all of their posts positively.

For instance "If you vote all of my posts positive, I'll vote all of your posts positive". And so on.

Ask yourself, would you be happy to post in this sort of environment? Do all the pros of shophack outweight the cons?

That actually sounds pretty cool...it reminds me of our plans for Oddlympics 2.0 for some reason.

Anyways, I'm down...homeboy.

Well, I suppose there would be no harm in giving it a little trial run, see how things go. If it starts to go belly up, Alcar could always remove it.

I wouldn't mind a trial run. Just to see how it works.

Hmm. Maybe we should look into that then.

Did anyone think of the REALLY BIG chance this will start a LOT of spam?! Maybe not from current members but I wanna bet my "wallet" that new members will.

I wouldn't be so sure, though it certainly is a valid fear. But remember, I have my whole spam guide in Off Topic, which, if followed should certainly eleminate any problem. Though I find it a bit painful some people don't bother to read something that may as well be universally important on message boards.

A person has, what, 144 different 10 minute periods in their day? I think one of them could be spared to do something that'll help a good deal in the long run. The same goes for my posting tips topic (Though that may take a tad longer) and the forum rules.

It's a possibility, but you don't really know until you've tried. Which is essentially the reason why we're proposing a trial. Just to see if it really does cause the spam you preach of.

And by the way Havoc that signiture really is too large.

From the Moderators that have replied to this thread, the general consensus is that such a feature is not a dire need. The Moderators have been around longer than most members, and frequent the forums more than most members. Their opinions are moulded by using their experience to best judge what the outcomes could be. In this case they can't see a real need.

Statikk HDM, firstly, I can't understand why you would be protesting for this. You turn up every four months, post like mad for a week, leave, and return in four months again to repeat the cycle. Secondly, when you said "people would probably pick OW based titles", that is so wrong, it's not funny. The members will choose everything but Oddworld based titles.

However, I once again pledge the idea of voting for custom titles. If the members are too lazy to vote for who gets a custom title, then why should I be bothered to make custom titles available? The voting system both eliminates too many custom titles being given out, thus maintaining some Oddworldness in the rank system. The voting means that someone worthy is given the custom title.

You have to remember, this is the Oddworld Forums, and even without a legal tie to Oddworld Inhabitants, they still expect us to keep the forums as close to Oddworld as we can. Both Abe Babe and myself know this, and we try our hardest.

Alcar...

I think I mentioned it sometime back, but only kept it in my thoughts since then. This may as well be the main forum regarding Oddworld discussion. All others = dead. We're somewhat representative. If we go around fussing all the time, pissing on new members, and acting like dickheads, does that really display any sense of officiality or maturity?

Or people could just register one user with every e-mail they have, make each false user vote possitivly with every post their main user has and get really rich really fast!

I can see a benifit to this, but if you allow the transfer of "cash" and the general public to vote earning the poster "cash", this is a BAD IDEA!

DDRUK has a much simple version.
*You get 1 point for every day you post, regardless of the number of posts.
*ADMIN's can add points for really good ideas/contributions/recomendations/behaviour
*ADMIN's can remove points for spam/flamming/being annoying

*Points mean Av's (which is also your title)


It's a lot more organised and there's less chance of a SPAM outburst

There are alot of assumptions going around here.

The fact is that none of us know what will really happen unless we try it out. Just a short trial for say a week or so. If it really goes tits up then we can just revert back to how things were before.

I don't see how it would be such a problem. It's worth a try at least, and hey, you never know, it might just turn out to be fun! ;)

Oo, I like Adder's idea very much.

Personally, I think the user promotions would work better.

Actually, the idea Adder suggested is a built in system that vBulletin already has, known as User Reputation. We just have it turned off. As for User Promotions, the two seperate systems can actually be intergrated into eachother very simply.

I'll ponder on whether we should trial it.

Alcar...

Yes. Go on Peter. Trial user rep. Or face that stick I pointed out earlier.

I think he meant trialling the user promotions... but whatever! I'm feature happy so, whatever it is just go for it!

*notices people are taking his ideas seriously*
YAY! ^.^

As for promotions, I'm not really interested in who runs what. I'm not good at haveing extra responsibility, so I prefer to be a good user, not a good ruler.

I think you misunderstand user promotions. A promoted user can change his custom title, store more PMs in his inbox, have a bigger avatar, and so on.

Personally I don't like the idea of having to earn points just to get the avatar you want. I like my avatar just how it is. I think we should stick with the user promotions idea.

Here is my suggestion:

Have a few users who are interested in it, say me, ferill, hobo, mac, oddguy, get promoted to test the features, then demoted to test without. We could then sum up whether being a promoted user was really any better than being a standard user.

If it is better, then the promoted user rank would be considered something to work for, if not, the trial would end and the system would not be implemented permenantly.

You're right, I was wrong about promotions.

I also agree that it is a little annoying to earn an av from a set list. Maybe the points could earn av sizes (or sig sizes) instead of Av's and Sig's.

Interesting choice...

Just the first people that came to mind, and I seem to remember those people saying they liked the idea of the promotions. You would be more than welcome to test it too of course, not like I would be choosing at the end of the day.

If we were to trial it with a few select members, I gravely feel we are depriving ourselves of a proper trial. With more acustomed members, I doubt they will go overboard. However, the new members are more likely to abuse it.

Alcar...

I'm confused (Being a Bear of very little brain and all... :) )

This trial new thingy... is it similar to like a "karma" rating... where if people agree to you views they "kiss" you if the disagree they "kick" you and the kisses are transferred into cyber-dosh or am I way off track!?

And Alcar I think you should cut "Newbies" a little more slack... don't tar us all with the same brush... you know... don't be so judgemental... and I know judgemental I'm an expert in the field... innit? :)

Ah... inspiration... 'tis a beautiful thing.
How about you don't actualy spend the money that's given to you, but... um... it's complicated. There's only one way I can think to explain it.
Say you get a patch of dirt, surronded by stone. That dirt would be the limits of your money.You post some things, and you get a small hole in this dirt. You could then pour some water into this hole, representing, say, a custom title. You dig little deeper and you can put some oil on top of this water, representing custom star colour. You would eventualy get all the dirt out, and wouldn't be able to dig any further because of the rock (The limits of the "money"). But you could still pour various liquids in, but not every last liquid. You might leave out the oil or the water in order to fit in some other substance. Do you see what I'm getting at?

Edit: Oh, and Death, where did you get that stalking face?

We had a rating system in place on another Message Board, and people very rarely rated each other's posts. Of course, by achieving a better rating, it didn't allow you to do anything different (other than the usual standard user features) so perhaps this was why.

SeargentBig, odd use of metaphore. I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to say.

Do you mean that you don't spend money, but just trade for water, i mean Titles, etc. ?
So... it wouldn't matter what you use the money earned on, you could always switch it for something else?

so, your post count goes down as you buy things?

I just think it would be a bad idea as it would ruin the Oddness of the forums.

Well, you KNOW me alcar, probably better than most of the forumers here, and if there is one thing I won't do, it's abuse priviledges. I'd apply the same to all the people I suggested in my list. I selected them because I think they are sensible members, and I suggested me because I was the one who came up with the idea to trial it in the first place.

It's up to you at the end of the day Alcar, I'm not going to argue or shout or kick and scream if you decide not to do it or something. Personally I would really like to get a first hand experience of this promoted user thing, see if it's really worth working for. I'm sure everyone else I suggested on my list are as eager as I am.

was I in your list?

Actually, yeah you were. :)

SCORE! erm.....whats the list for?

It's a list of people to trial the user promotion. We would all get promoted, try it out for a week, then we would all get demoted, and try that out for a week.

After the two weeks, we would write up a report, and basically sum up whether being a promoted user was worth working for or not.

I still like the "Voteforcustomtitleamazingidea" idea.

The internet. (suprised?)

Could we keep the chit chat to a minimum, or leave it for private messaging? It's cluttering threads.

Once again, my biggest gripe is custom titles. I just know that it will be abused, and the majority of members will opt for a non Oddworld themed custom title. Thus eliminating the Oddworldness of the rank system. One of the reasons I was all for the voting method, was that it cut down significantly the number of members who could get a custom title. Thus, the ranks where not all lost.

How I would trial the idea, if I were to, is tricky. It'd have to span at least two weeks, and what exactly I'd include (custom title, private message quota, etc) would have to be determined. As well as which systems we use, either in conjunction, or on their own (User Promotions, User Reputation).

Alcar...

OK, set a rule down straight away, no non oddworld oriented custom titles. And also disallow users giving themselves purposeful titles (IE GD moderator).

Two weeks is actually exactly how long I suggested. :) And I am suggesting trialling the User promotions. This would be a full promotion, custom title, PMQ, Av size... everything. We'd evaluate how much cooler it was being a promoted user than it was being a standard user, and sum up whether it would be worth implementing as something to "work for" in being a good, productive member.

As I said earlier, (and I do wish people wouldn't skim read my posts), there is no harm in just testing it.