Tech issues solved added in tech forums

[+Raze Subscriber²]

I don't understand how you go from valuing helpfulness with filtering out users. Those who never cared about it can just keep on not caring.

 

Being helpful is great, but is it necessary to reward those who post an answer to a question?   It is really not any different than having any indicator of someone's activity or what kind of activity they are involved in.  Being a member of the Neowin community for me doesn't require that I have any reward other than the enjoyment of reading and posting.  If I have a question and it is answered good, that is one of the reasons I return to the site.  If I am enjoying the various threads because of the variety of the content, good, another reason to return.  I reward my pet for doing the right thing during training.  I will tell someone thank you for their help by telling them "thank-you".  Not by some lame point system.  I think the tags MVC, etc are unnecessary, have member and subscriber, that's it.  You noted yourself a dislike of signatures or the info below our avatar.  Then why bother with the best answer count?  A meaningless indicator, IMO.

[Alladaskill17]

Post count is very standard for forums. I see the direction you guys want to make, and it should strive users to make better quality post.. However.. I feel like having the post count visible is more important. If they want to know how many best answers someone has, then that should be the info to get when they hover.. If you don't want to clutter people's profile info, then remove the phone type or os version.. 

This, I didn't have a high post count but I did enjoy seeing it. Best answer certainly could replace the OS and other hardware choice you chose to leave up..

[fusi0n]

When I think of Stardock, I think of them as the publisher for a game I enjoy playing (Sins of a Solar Empire).

If that isn't an ad.. I don't know what is ;)

 

 

It just seems you are accommodating getting new users while the current members get hung out to dry..  

[LimeMaster]

Removing it defeats the purpose of giving credit where it's due. We want other members to see that X member is helpful. A low best answer count doesn't look bad to me. Mine is 0 just like most people. It's a new change and eventually, people's best answer count will go up. Even if someone has 1 or 2, they deserve recognition.

It's limited to tech sections, so some members like me wouldn't get very much. :/ Also, it would make sense to have an option to remove it as some members are not likely to post in those sections very often anyways, making it's visibility completely pointless.

 

[Rigby]

I think there is much more to being a good member who contributes to the site than just answering questions. I'm sure many of the members here just come for the discussions, maybe they aren't quite technically knowledgeable enough to answer questions or just aren't interested in being tech support. Should they have to have "0 Best Answers" under their names because of that? It just looks bad, I don't think this is a good change at all. I don't care about post counts either really but I just don't understand the point of this. I don't think it will improve Neowin in any way to be honest.

[Ice_Blue]

How about this compromise:

 

- Leave Best Answers as is.

- Leave Stars as is.

- Put Post Count where phone, OS etc. is.

 

People who wish to show their phone, OS etc can do so in their sig, as many do already (sometimes in sickening detail).

[trag3dy]

I don't care for the change. Lots of reasons why it seems like a pointless change and not very many reasons why it's a good change.

[fusi0n]

It's sad we don't have a voice anymore. 

[LimeMaster]

If they did the solution that I posted on the previous page I would be happy.

 

Also, if the staff are sticking with the feature they should at least fix the typo: :/

 

1 Best Answers

[Zidane]

I have to continue to agree with the rebuttals.

 

Please Neowin staff, explain why (as a "new user") I want to see someone's...join date. How does that help me? ...Or how about their OS...how does that help me besides giving me a false impression that @fusi0n cannot help me with Windows because he uses OSX (which may be true or not...idk, your info on the side is misleading).

 

What would help ME is seeing how many times he has given best answers and how ACTIVE he is. At first glance, the stars look like rep  to me. I'm sure they do to other new users as well. Stop deluding yourselves and realize that it doesn't hurt at all to show a post count...

[Andre S. Veteran]

Being helpful is great, but is it necessary to reward those who post an answer to a question?   It is really not any different than having any indicator of someone's activity or what kind of activity they are involved in.  Being a member of the Neowin community for me doesn't require that I have any reward other than the enjoyment of reading and posting.  If I have a question and it is answered good, that is one of the reasons I return to the site.  If I am enjoying the various threads because of the variety of the content, good, another reason to return.  I reward my pet for doing the right thing during training.  I will tell someone thank you for their help by telling them "thank-you".  Not by some lame point system.  I think the tags MVC, etc are unnecessary, have member and subscriber, that's it.  You noted yourself a dislike of signatures or the info below our avatar.  Then why bother with the best answer count?  A meaningless indicator, IMO.

"We are after all first and foremost a tech community that relies on peer support." - OP, Steven Parker. Features like MVC or "Best Answers" are designed to value and reward those who provide good tech support because that's the site's focus, and this kind of reward mechanism works. I think we have an identity crisis if members don't understand that Neowin is more than a place to hang out and have informal discussions, although it'll always also allow that. We're not moving to a StackExchange format anytime soon, but we're also borrowing good ideas there where it makes sense. At least that's how I see things.

[metallithrax]

I remove a lot of things that I won't use, like the like button, the popup member info.

I might just make Neowin look like this for me:

 

 

No post count, no best answer, and for a couple of you (not chosen on purpose just to illustrate) - no stars :laugh: Could even get rid of the badges, but that makes the screen very boring.

 

Personally I don't care either way.  I don't participate to be rewarded or liked or anything like that.  I come here to read tech(and other) news, and browse a few other sub forums/threads.  I don't care for the chicken photo's though (I can't remember how many times i've put LWC on ignore to rid the pictures thread of them) :D

[Andre S. Veteran]

I have to continue to agree with the rebuttals.

 

Please Neowin staff, explain why (as a "new user") I want to see someone's...join date. How does that help me? ...Or how about their OS...how does that help me besides giving me a false impression that @fusi0n cannot help me with Windows because he uses OSX (which may be true or not...idk, your info on the side is misleading).

 

What would help ME is seeing how many times he has given best answers and how ACTIVE he is. At first glance, the stars look like rep  to me. I'm sure they do to other new users as well. Stop deluding yourselves and realize that it doesn't hurt at all to show a post count...

So you're suggesting getting rid of the OS, join date and other such unimportant details, and replacing the star rating with post count? I'd actually not be opposed to the idea. It's not clear by itself what the star rating represents after all, but IDK if that's actually a cause of confusion among new users.

[Island Dog]

Yes, options. Much like Stardock offers..

 

Miss the start screen? Stardock brings it back! Miss the post count being visible on a members post? Stardock, please bring it back. 

 

You seem to be under some impression these changes are being forced upon by Stardock.  That would be completely false.

 

But we are here to help and support our Neowin friends.

[Rappy Veteran]

I remove a lot of things that I won't use, like the like button, the popup member info.

I might just make Neowin look like this for me:

 

Untitled.jpg

 

No post count, no best answer, and for a couple of you (not chosen on purpose just to illustrate) - no stars :laugh: Could even get rid of the badges, but that makes the screen very boring.

Userscript? :p

[fusi0n]

You seem to be under some impression these changes are being forced upon by Stardock.  That would be completely false.

 

But we are here to help and support our Neowin friends.

Force upon? No.. Influenced, yes. 

 

Then weigh in on some of these changes for us.. There are obviously a lot of members that do not like these changes..  Neowin is coming off like they could care less. 

[Barney T. Administrators]

You seem to be under some impression these changes are being forced upon by Stardock.  That would be completely false.

 

But we are here to help and support our Neowin friends.

 

Correct. Stardock has nothing to do with our changes. But we do greatly appreciate the help and support , if need be! (Y)

[Island Dog]

Force upon? No.. Influenced, yes. 

 

Then weigh in on some of these changes for us.. There are obvious a lot of members that do not like these changes..  Neowin is coming off like they could care less. 

 

Forced, influenced.  Both false.

[metallithrax]

Userscript? :p

ABP - easy create filter.  You just have to be careful or you lose more than you want.  But it is easy to delete the filters if you go wrong.

[trag3dy]

I will say that the best answer thing isn't going to encourage me to post in the tech support areas any more than I do now (which isn't a lot). 

 

Unlike the the stars which we all know are arbitrary and don't mean much other than you post a lot the best answer thing kind of reminds me of a high school popularity contest. Especially when people can mark their own posts as best answer.

[fusi0n]

Forced, influenced.  Both false.

Ok. Awesome. It still does not change the way I feel about it. And it comes off, the other 40% could also care less about members and subscribers. Just shrug it off. 

[LimeMaster]

Come on! Let us have an option to remove it please!

 

[fusi0n]

Come on! Let us have an option to remove it please!

 

PLEASE

[astropheed Veteran]

I'm not a fan.

 

It's not because it really bothers me, but more so because I just see everywhere now. Wouldn't using the amount of Likes a person has received be a better indicator of a Member's perceived 'worth'? Also, this might push people to go 'help' who are in no position at all to do so, thus littering the technical and support forms with idiots trying to get higher numbers.

[fusi0n]

I'm not a fan.

 

It's not because it really bothers me, but more so because I just see everywhere now. Wouldn't using the amount of Likes a person has received be a better indicator of a Member's perceived 'worth'? Also, this might push people to go 'help' who are in no position at all to do so, thus littering the technical and support forms with idiots trying to get higher numbers.

Yeah, I don't think Neowin nor it's Partner Stardock really cares how we feel..