Everyone says "I like the rankings, bring them back", but besides just "liking" them, can anyone give any sort of a reason that the rankings are genuinely useful and serve an important function that outweighs their drawbacks?

Well for one it would shut all of us up , and for 2 by not having them its taking away from our valuable chat about our machine that we have kinda put aside over the bbs change the last few days.

Without them it seems kinda dull, and we managed to get this far with them over the years how is taking them away going to make anything better? Its just like in the real world, some people are higher up than others, and its just something you gotta deal with and if your around long enough you get promoted to a higher ranking just like a job, Without them it seems like we are all drones, and personally it kinda make the board feel communism like. I dunno its jsut weird to have something then all of a sudden get it taken away from you.

Tony, did you take a look at my suggestions in my last post, I think they're pretty good myself...

If it weren't for avatars, it would be boring as hell.

/Bing!

Animated GIF avatar template with dynamic, self-reported post count. Think Superman or something with "1831" flashing on his chest!

(edit: all that follows)

Ah, teach me to read all the way down to realize somebody already had the same Uber-avator idea....but how long would they take to load??

And: I agree with you, Jim. I think it's great how much time they put into the board, but it was a tad unsettling that they made a big change like that.

I guess. I appreciate that a big change is a matter of individual valuation. I think mostly what I was focusing on was that "Wham!" BBS near-instantly relocated and it is very close to what it was before the move.

I don't see this as a "battle", but I do view in terms of a "pick your battle" frame of reference. The change just isn't one I could get excited about one way or another, but that's just me.

Side note: I see on another BBS (www.rallyforum.com) that they do have little animated national flags. One some level, I almost feel like that wouldn't really be a good fit here -- it's more interesting to have figured out over time where people are coming from both literally and figuratively, but that other BBS, whatever it's other faults, really seems like one where the little flags fit in as people take up their partisan debates over whether Driver X will kitt butt or what on the Finns!

Oh, heck another stray thought: There had been posts lately about longest thread/s, but has there ever been a discussion of the *highest-velocity* threads?

(double edit: I guess I meant the highest *acceleration* threads.)

Im with rob on this one i thought it was just a bit of fun.

My girlfriend thinks they are a measure of sadness and was amazed to discover there was 23 people sadder than me

There is even some division among the reds and greens. Rob likes the rankings.

Yes, I saw. See, that's *another* reason I'm leaning toward a major cop-out:

"You red and green folks fight it over and let us know how it turns out!"

ya it gives us nobodys something to feel good about, you red and greeners are abusing your power, by taking something away from the people.

you red and greeners are abusing your power, by taking something away from the people

You mean "taking something away from the *little* people". Where is Homer Stokes when the BBS needs him??

Well, let them eat cake.

Well, let them eat cake.

Somebody mentioned "communism" earlier because of trying to equalize everyone and I was thinking the same thing. . . of course that's probably only because I'm 3/4 of the way through "Atlas Shrugged" and everything looks like communism after reading about 30 of Rand's sermons on the subject.

Seriously, I personally don't care one way or the other about titles, I'm just glad to be a member of this BBS.

Reminds me of a fantastic moment in last week's Car Talk.

One of the callers was having trouble with the blower motor relay in his car. He couldn't get the A/C to work unless he opened the hood and thwacked the blower motor relay. Despite having replaced the relay three times.

Tom and Ray suggested that it might not have been the relay at all, and that he might have had a bad fan switch in his dashboard. They suggested, instead of opening the hood, taking off his shoe and thwacking the dashboard.

At that point they were already joking about the mystical aspects of his problem (maybe just opening the hood and looking at it would be enough), so he asked them if there were any magical chants he should say while thwacking the dashboard with his shoe.

Barely able to speak through is laughter, Ray told him that he should say "we will bury you!"

Ooo, two obscure historical references in the same thread. It's the Seventh Sign!

Damn, that's three.

One post if by land, two if by sea.

-Z

Hell, if it's just post-and-delete that's bugging the two of you, then simply add a line to the code to decrement the postcount on each deletion. Very simple. Duh!!

It's not the post-count-deletion bug specifically. It's the principle of the thing. If the rankings are causing this kind of competitive behavior in our BBS clientele, then they have ceased to be amusing and are now the source of a competitive attitude. The last thing we want is competitive attitudes here.

"The last thing we want is competitive attitudes here. "

. . . As Ayn Rand rolls over in her grave . . .

Sorry, I couldn't resist!

Damn Randroids....

Randroids

Oooo, I like that one. I'm gonna have to remember that.

'Specially considering I'm a Rush fan...

I realized a little too late that I should probably have held my tongue considering your musical proclivities and the ``philosophical'' proclivities of a certain drum-beating lyricist (not Phil Collins).

Au contraire, the thing we all least want are autocratic sysadmins removing/disabling things on a whim that the majority would prefer to keep.

Just because you have grown tired of post counts/titles, doesn't mean the rest of us have.

-ml

Don't get me wrong. First of all, he denies he's a Randroid at every opportunity. He just happens to quote and reference Rand occasionaly in his lyrics and some of his political views align with hers. But he also references many other authors in his lyrics, including Hemingway, so that's nothing special. Second of all, I don't always agree with what Neil says just because it was him saying it.

I've personally never read any Rand. Okay, I take that back, I tried reading "Anthem" when I was in high school, but just didn't enjoy it enough to finish it.

And do keep in mind, that "competitive attitudes" have been VERY GOOD for the community. They're the reason we have Hijack and JEmplode, and perhaps part of the reason for the player software folks working hard to keep up with us on some new features.

Competition is not evil. Arbitrary heavy-handed suppression of a harmless "reward" system is evil.

Here, I'll spell it out for you: Hijack would not have existed were it not for "post counts/titles". Initially, I dreamt it up as an excuse to post frequently enough to get into the mid-tiers of titles. That was a good thing, I believe. And it (was) one of the things that kept me coming back here regularly.

Cheers

I know, but I've known a preponderance of Rush fans who were also Randroids, and I usually make the assumption that they equate in some way. Probably just my experience.

BTW, I saw the word ``autocratic'' in Mark's post above and thought he was responding about Rand. Hah. (I don't like her. Can you tell?)

Well I am enjoying Atlas Shrugged even though I disagree with her a great deal. It exercises my mind (and my patients as I wade through the "sermons") and actually is an intriguing, if overlong, story.

I also disagree with Peart a lot, though I repect his ability to frame his beliefs into songs. I haven’t read Anthem, but after Atlas Shrugged I'm pretty sure I won't need to read anymore of her stuff, its pretty clear what she's about.

Sigh. Turn the damn things back on. I don't think anyone has a strong feeling that they should be kept off (except Tony F.), but there seem to be a large number that want them on. Personally, I couldn't care less, but I want this thread to end.

Barely able to speak through is laughter, Ray told him that he should say "we will bury you!"

Damn, I missed it! Where was I???? (uh, working dammit)

Y'know, as funny as I probably would have found that, I almost feel it's funnier reading it. The Tom and Ray lead-in and all. Great work.

simply add a line to the code to decrement the postcount on each deletion

No, no, that's no good. It doesn't give negative reinforcement. The correct way to do it is to decrement the post count by 2 on each deletion.

pca

And do keep in mind, that "competitive attitudes" have been VERY GOOD for the community. They're the reason we have Hijack and JEmplode, and perhaps part of the reason for the player software folks working hard to keep up with us on some new features.

Well, dang! I thought you were into it for the adoration of this fine community (since many or most of us wouldn't stand a chance in a mano-a-mano kernel duel! I wouldn't have imagined that competition was at the root of HiJack).

Or maybe your're competing with a select subset and the adoration is superfluous??

Well, everybody -- all normals -- stop with the adoration! It's time for a major rethink on the 2002 BBS Motivation Master Plan!! Let's discuss this on the weekly BMMP conference call!

/me pulling K&R off the shelf...getting depressed

agree with mark "competitive attitudes" is why and how things get done, its to impress the people on the board, if it wasnt for that i wouldnt care so much and work so fast to make the other members happy by either making logos for them, or if i was a programmer like mark making hijack updates, its to impress people, its human nature. Besides majorty rules here, and im readt to go on strike.

Strike Strike Strike!!!


Damn... we really have nothing better to do... do we. I'm going to punch myself in the face for even posting in this thread again.