Idea for Tech Forums

[Spud1200]

Hello, Hope eveyones Keeping well..

Was recently looking threw the Forums and thought, Competitions are a good way to bring in new Members but what about mabie some sort of Monthly Project. For Example Tech Forums could start a Topic and users submit their Results, bring in New Members of mabie a Beginer Level or Intermediate.

Was thinking if Techforums was to Start something like this, not so much as a Compitition but Different levels of Experteese required for say, an Application as to download it from the Tech Forums Site, submit Results and help Beginers Gain on knowelege and understanding..

You have some Excelent people here Moderateing the Site that know what they are talking about, a cupple of Hours developing an App for say Unix or Windows Based PC, helping to educate and Learn newbies like me..

Oviously broaden your Horizions and mabie do a Culmination of Tasks or "Projects."

Was just an Idea..

 

[KSoD]

The major flaw in your idea, this would mean that someone on staff would have to know how to code an application. So it would be far more than just a couple of hours of work since we would have to first learn the basics on how to code for *NIX and Windows, then develop the application itself.

As you said, we are great at running the site. But running a web forum is far different than coding an application.

We have thought about competitions, but the truth of the matter is this. If we do any kind of competition it would have to be open to everyone. Now the problem with that is depending on the "Prize" we could have people who sign up just for the competition to try and win it and never return. This is not the end goal of anything we do nor is it far to our outstanding members who have stood by the site for years.

We have plans in progress to try and reward those faithful to the site. We have other plans in progress to benefit all. But being that it is coming upon holiday time here in the states where most of the core staff resides, we have work obligations that we have to fulfill which is eating up a lot of our time for the site. Working 12 hours a day 5 days a week and 8 hours on the other 2 days eats up a huge chunk of time. Not to mention finding family time and personal time to blow off steam.

So we just ask that you have patience. We have ideas and plans in progress. But the likely chance they will be done before XMas are slim to none. After the new year when things slow down for many of us we will have more time to dedicate to the site and such projects.

 

[office politics]

how about an annual awards program? user with most posts, user with highest star rating, user with most member tutorials, etc

is the site still completing graphics contests?


also, spud, if there's a project or task you're looking to start or need help with, feel free to post it and im sure the community will try to collaborate.

 

[MindoverMaster]

how about an annual awards program? user with most posts, user with highest star rating, user with most member tutorials, etc

I'm working on that, Office. Yeah, I'm soon to be in the top 10 as far as posts. But literally, posts mean nothing. Your reputation means more.

 

[iFargle]

I'd like a graphic design contest

 

[Spud1200]

Thats the thing office, I have a lot of Free Time on my Hands, and allways wanting to learn something new with Computer and or Tech. Now talking to sheepykins again in the Last post in another Heading for Techforums, im gonna take time out to Learn, from what I understand, "l33t" Language.. Now understood it must be fairly old and its out their in the Mainstream but its handy to know and Learn.. Like a seid I have a Lot of free time on my Hands here in the UK..

Not too Clued up with Computers as much as some of the Lads and Lases are on here.. But basically haveing free Time and alot of it, the other Night for Example i Read and Read on TOR and Proxy servers, Jumping from Wiki to Geek Guides to Domain List and back to Wiki. Spent about 5 Hours in Total..

Another Post was on how to set up a Home network, as such networks Facinate is..

If anyones got any Ideas to start up a New topic, mabie for Soul use with is haveing alot of Free Time I would be Gratefull.

 

[office politics]

I'm working on that, Office. Yeah, I'm soon to be in the top 10 as far as posts. But literally, posts mean nothing. Your reputation means more.

if i had a rep point for everytime someone said thank you and didn't rep .... i'd have more rep points.

i'm just saying.

the system is flawed.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Same here. Some of us have "click * if I helped you" in our sig and still, they don't do it. We should have a "like" thing on here...

 

[office politics]

well, i guess that's why we need a blend of different metrics, right? number of reply posts, number of original posted, original posts w stars, number of page views on started threads, rep points, and possibly more

i'd like to see a like feature implemented. thereby we could pull up the most useful content to the top. digg does this, i think slashdot might too.


@Spud - i've actually been trying to get to researching tor more. it seems some of the general population of computer users would want to "hide" their activities. It could be useful to learn so setups can be done on the fly.

video conversions have come in handy for me.
VideoHelp.com - Forum, Guides, Tools and hardware lists

also, in my earlier days i would dabble with programming and web design. html5 is becoming the new hotness so it would be benefical to learn how to do old tricks in the new language.

CodeProject - Your Development Resource

 

[KSoD]

if i had a rep point for everytime someone said thank you and didn't rep .... i'd have more rep points.

i'm just saying.

the system is flawed.

No the system is not flawed. The users can bother to take the time to learn how to use the system properly. There is a difference. Case in point, we had to remove the use of the Rep system from the OT area cause people were giving rep to the stupid crap that goes in there constantly instead of valid posts on the forum. The Users are what makes a system great, since the users are not doing what they should it is the users fault for what the system stands for. The Rep system is completely driven by the members of this site. Just as it is on other sites. So having a Thank You Mod installed is no different than having the Rep System active. It still requires the members to take the proper action.

well, i guess that's why we need a blend of different metrics, right? number of reply posts, number of original posted, original posts w stars, number of page views on started threads, rep points, and possibly more

i'd like to see a like feature implemented. thereby we could pull up the most useful content to the top. digg does this, i think slashdot might too.

This will do nothing that the Rep System doesnt already do. What difference does it make if I have 30,000 topics responded to and only 3,000 asked? How can you say that my effort is not there cause I dont generate more content than someone else. I answer more topics instead of create more. If I create a topic it is for the Review or Tutorial Section or something like the Index threads or other important topics. I dont have many questions to ask. So how can you accurately assess what my "rating" would be? There is no way you could. The Rep system would be far more accurate for this type of thing than a metric based off of useless numbers that dont mean jack crap. The post count means nothing. I will take myself back down to 1 post. I dont care what my count says. I can raise it to infinity. Does either number matter? Heck no. So no metric that is based off of such a useless item on the site will mean anything.

Useful content is a matter of opinion. What you may find useful, I may find useless. So who is to say what is useful or what is useless? The members that come here. They do this with the current system that is already in place. Digg is junk and thing fade off of there so fast that it doesnt matter. We are not a passing trend site, we are a support site. So what matters to person A is not going to matter to person B and vice versa. So there is no metric that can be used that will pull usefull information for both members that is relevant to the topic that they are here for. If person A is here for a OS X issue and person B is here for a Ubuntu Problem, what good is having a metric based on popularity of the topic when the Off Topic Section will win every time. So it wont be important to them. This is the very reason why the crap that Digg does is not important here and cant be used here. It serves no purpose to those that are here for a reason and are looking to get help. No system could ever be created to do what is needed for every member.

It didnt take me more than 5 seconds to see such flaws in those responses. Sorry to pop that bubble, but heck no. I have already pointed out how many flaws with such thinking and that was with no time to actually think about bad things. Stop thinking of fads, stop thinking of Facebook, G+ and Twitter style things. We are not an instant access site. We are a forum. Things operate different for us. We cant do what hot crap cause it doesnt work!