If they manage to get into the bus, they may able to get back home safely. It could be more expensive in next days. Depend on mood and situations. I'm agree with you. Joking while discussing the topic is good idea too.
Ah finally...the topic at hand. It's all negotiable, besides @digitalpoint & @darkshadow no one can get them. So bribery is the only option no? @Arick, yes we can have fun while discussing the topic. But if we turn it into General Chat it will get locked, so it's best to do both as you did with your last post.....well done!
Give better answers? Honestly, not sure why anyone cares at ALL how many best answers anyone has... it's not some sort of currency. The only use for it is for someone reading a thread to be able to click it and jump right away to the solution to something. No one cares WHO gave the best answer. Same with likes... There is absolutely no difference here between 3 likes and 5,000 likes. Really boggles my mind that people are so bored, they have taken to collecting likes and best answers.
Fair enough if that's how you feel. Then if they as worthless as you think they are, why bother to even give them out at all? Why did we make the big switch on Jan.19? My take on it is on post #12.
Exactly what browntown said... I suppose you could make an argument that a better metric would be post:like RATIO (like yours would be 0.10). But even then... bottom line is that anything above 3 likes changes nothing on your account. If people gave it a rest about likes and didn't get so excited about collecting them, I'd certain give a lot more. But right now I'm fairly stingy with them... not because I don't like something or feel like I should be stingy, I just don't feel like feeding people's ego about collecting them. Maybe I'll just hide how many people have and make it 1, 2 or 3+, rather than the actual number.
Why do you feel it's "feeding peoples ego's"?, that seems like a bit of an ignorant attitude to me, I like to think I use it for what it is intended and so should everyone else including you, otherwise what's the point? If I see a post I like then I click the like button...no agendas or worrying about feeding anyones ego, the main problem I find is actually finding posts worth liking, I think I actually report more posts than I actually *like* these days.
For example how about I give out gems like you have? "no".... You actually received a *Best Answer* for that. "no you can't"...got one for that too. "yes you can"...yep one for that too. All this just on the front page here on S&F this week alone. The rest of us don't have any brown nosing sycophants feeding our egos, so getting Best Answers is a wee bit tougher. And yes we do enjoy getting them, but not to feed our egos as you might surmise. This giving of likes etc. is about building a sense of community and making friendships. Guess that's lost on you huh? Honestly no disrespect intended, but I think you may be a bit too controlling here. Yes it's your site but c'mon, let us be what we want to be as long as we follow the rules o.k.? Allow the new DP to morph into whatever it will, without you placing a big STOP sign in the way. Funny thing is you are the one who built this whole new like system, yet you also have been it's biggest critic. You make it appear like we are all a bunch of losers on here because unlike you we place value on the points that we receive. You have even made light of trophy points in the past indicating that they are worthless, yet you give them out as a reward...I can't figure you out. It's like you are cutting off your nose to spite your face. I realize that the cluster failure changed your mood a bit, and also there is lack of sleep. But as site owner, you ought to be supporting us instead of mocking us.
Well, I remember sometimes it is really hard to understand what my professor said about a something, Especially about some theories. I have hard time understanding some theories. I was thinking maybe he was trying to explain it to me but my limited knowledge unable to understand it. Each people has their own opinion. I agree with some members in this site but I do remember my professor always say: "Other may have different opinion. They may have better answers and solutions than us. Respect them and hopefully you'll learn from it". 'Likes' and Best Answer' may not important for some peoples. I understand about it. Some peoples may say it was 'eye candy' while the rest say it just like a 'test'. I remember an old memories while I was a child. It happened when I was in Elementary School in four grades. My Uncle was at 8th grade (Junior High School). I remember he has a dictionary. All student in Junior High School must learn English. I love watching movie and some movie was presented in foreign language. I was a kid but I really curious to learn the language. I took the dictionary and brought it all the times with me. I read it in school and at any places. I brought it with me for two years. Ah, I forget to say, English wasn't being taught at Elementary School. I remember crying so bad when my teacher took the dictionary from me (I was reading it while he explained about mathematics). Most students laugh at me. I didn't blame them. Even my big family laugh at me too. Few years later, In Junior and senior High School, My habit saved me. I even got so many offers because of my skills in understanding the language. Couple of years later, It saved me again. Most of my friends unable to speak and write in English. Many job offers require fluent in English and able to fully operate the computer as the criteria. I'm lucky to learn both skill while in Elementary school and Senior High School. I do understand my limitation. I'm not native speaker and often do lots of mistakes. Most of my sentences may unreadable. It happen all the times when I write sentences really fast. What I'm trying to say is "A dictionary is really important for me". However, Other may have different opinion. I respect them. A dictionary could be useful if we read it and less useful if we use it as ornament. It depend on how we use and think about it. I do think 'likes' and 'Best Answer is important'. It is up to everyone to think abut it. As owner, I believe Shawn already give appropriate direction. 'Think it good if you like it or think it as nothing if you don't need it'. It wouldn't change the fact if only three likes needed to use this forum. More likes give no exclusivity. I agree with him on this fact. What I'm trying to understand if his words about satisfying the ego. I'm not native speaker so I have to be really careful in understanding the sentence. I was thinking maybe he didn't like people whom thinking only about 'likes' and 'best answer'. maybe he want us to see the fact if only three likes is necessary. Sometimes I was thinking maybe he want to remain us on why we are here and what we really want from this forum. It is like he was trying to say: "If you want to do some business, do it" and "If you want to help people, do it fast, no need to think about useless 'likes' and 'best answer'". It is a fact if 'likes' more than three are useless. I know this and everyone know about it. However, it would not change my mind if 'likes' and 'best answer' are important. Not for collection but to measure my skills in helping others. I see there is nothing wrong with it. A nice stuff that I wanna see twenty years later. I wish my son could beat my achievement. Don't you want to do that? Maybe Shawn didn't like it because he thinks only spammer take 'likes' and 'Best Answer' as important stuff to be collected. Please understand I'm not accusing anyone as spammer. If thinking 'likes' and 'Best answer' turn people as spammer, than I would be the first in the list. Kindly tell me if there is a something wrong with this comment. For Shawn: I'm not old member in this forum and didn't know you better as old notable member. If my comment was wrong, you can edit or delete is as your wish. For all: maybe I talk too much. I'm thinking to sit in the corner and talk nothing. Maybe I think too much at this time. Arick.
I do give likes for things I (personally) like... For example people making suggestions or reporting bugs. Maybe for you, but giving/getting likes was never intended as a tool for you to make friends. I suppose you can use it that way, but it still strikes me as bizarre regardless. As far as yes/no answers able to be the "best answer", why couldn't it be? If someone asks a yes or no question, it's quite possible that the best answer is yes or no. The best answer system is just that... The best answer, not necessarily the most complicated or longest answer. It's sole purpose is so if someone runs across the thread with the same problem/question, they can quickly get their answer. Literally that's all it's for. If people end up abusing it (have not seen much abuse of it as if yet), we'll simply remove the "Best Answer" counter so no one knows how many best answers someone gave. For now it's fine because it *is* being used as intended.
Why is there trophy points then?? Spammers can buy three likes or on some other way catch three likes but only valuable members can get 5,000 likes.. So it seems that you don't see difference between spammers and valuable members...
Has it not occurred to you that part of what the new DP represents is a social site? It used to be primarily a business site. DP is changing, why not let it?
Trophy points are nothing I came up with... They are built into XenForo. I *do* use them as an engagement tool though that helps people find some of the good parts of the site that they might not know about (for example the Keyword Tracker). Of course a spammer can get 3 likes if they want them bad enough. But since they are spammers, they are going to be banned after they spam. At which point is it really worth their effort to go through the process again with a new account? Or is it less effort/net gain on their part to just go spam a different site that is easier to spam? The 3 like system never was intended as a catch-all system to keep bad users out, rather a deterrent system with a bar just high enough that creating a new account after they lose their first one just isn't worth the effort. People use it for all sorts of things that it wasn't intended for (for example buying/selling things). As far as turning it solely into a social site, pretty sure that will never happen. Facebook already does that well, so there's no point since you aren't solving a problem that anyone has (needing a social site).
Many is a relative term... Yes there still are way too many, but it's also 10x less than it was before.
I didn't use the word "solely" why would I? DP can be many things (and is) to many people. It is unique that way. I for one embrace this uniqueness, as opposed to seeking to quell or suppress it.