Well, if they're dealt out by mods, that's a good thing; they'll be given to people that deserve them, not spammers or credit whores. And it wouldn't be so much a Gamerscore system, in my view. There wouldn't be preset requirements.

Buying titles? Who's idea was that, Tony Blair's?! hehehe. But I don't really mind. I think a kudos system of people giving eachother it would be better.

In the end, all I really care about is not being "Gone Gonzo" anymore. I always hated that long-nosed blue muppet.

It seems that people's main cheese with this system is Credit Whores and imitation of the Xbox Live 'Gamerscore' and 'Achievement' mechanisms.

I can say that, with the inclusion of said 'Epic' (Work In Progress) button, credit whores will be actually needing to earn them (and the only way to do that is to actually achieve something, as I have already stated, or deemed deserving by the Mods/Staff Members distributing) and that that this system will not be automated, making this nothing like XBL.
Sure, there will be dicks around that flash their credits as if they somehow elongate their penis, but at least these people will deserve it. How are any of us allowed to decide how people should act (again; within reason)?

Of course, this idea is still not complete, so please keep the ideas coming.

so, badges aren't enough for you, join date and post count aren't enough for you, you ACTUALLY want to give people a system to measure their worth that means something?! this is the problem. NO. we have enough elitists and people who think we are snobs now

I just broke the deadlock! now it's 23 to 22. in favour!
(am I the only one that has reported "7steven" so far?)

As Khell_Sennet said add more ranks.

Badges already act as a sort of currency system but with less needless competition and pointless posts to gain awards.

Nah, I'm against it. Adding another 'worth' attachment to ourselves is just going lead to resentment against whoever gives out the currency.

I don't like that idea. It could lead to the escapist becoming elitist and unwelcoming to newcomers.

I sorta forgot about this project; I think we should put it to rest. I mean, that's where it was before Spambot # 27.

I can think of a few ways to improve the Escapist forums:

1) Award threads officially sponsored by the Escapist. On each board, folks could flag a post for "post/thread of the month", and mods (or, if Wil and Nil are too busy, elevate someone from the community on each forum---Nuke, RAK, or some other luminary on User Reviews, for example) could go over the frequently nominated posts/threads and produce a monthly poll to dish out the awards. Prize would be a spiffy new badge for the winner. Win enough badges and you could get a custom title "Master Reviewer" or "Off-Topic Maven" or something along those lines.

2) Instant perma-bans for anyone who posts /b/ trash or tries to first-post a Yahtzee thread in less time than it'd take 'em to watch the video. Granted, unless the Escapist became a pay service (like Something Awful or the Straight Dope Message Board), bans would be more of a speed bump than a genuine hurt, but I for one would love to see a proactive approach taken with the violence of a white blood cell encountering a virus.

Richard Groovy Pants:
What I want at the moment? More titles after Gonzo.

The thing is all the ranks are journalistic in origin, what could you have higher than 'gone gonzo'?

Richard Groovy Pants:

What I want at the moment? More titles after Gonzo.

Crazy talk! Whats could possibly be beyond gonzo?!

Is there really a need for something beyond what we already have? I do not intend to step beyond my station considering I've only been registered for less than a day but surely, being able to interact among like-minded people is sufficient enough? HP/MP systems, post count privileges and the like are fluff.

Yeah... This forum needs a credit system like I need to have my toes cut with some wire cutters...

We have badges, that's more than enough. We don't need to "promote good" as we already punish the bad. Good should be a reward by itself...

Richard Groovy Pants:
No, I'm sorry but these kinds of systems generally only create tensions where there's no need for any. This is exactly like a "karma" system, or a "thanks" system, it only creates what I like to call "the cool kids group".

Basically, change is baaaaaad.

What I want at the moment? More titles after Gonzo.

Also, you know what's Virgil's favourite word?

No.

I say Yes. Not yes to the credit system, but yes to this post.

These credit or karma systems do nothing good for forums. All they do is institute a "mob rule" mentality where people who tend to buck the trend and say things which are not agreed with tend to stop posting and leave. The make all the cliques and rather creepy little ego surfers that forums tend to have far worse than they already are.

They are never given out on the basis of a posts quality, but rather on whether or not the person agrees or disagrees with what the poster has said, and so does absolutely nothing to improve the actual forum decorum and everything to reduce it.

jim_doki:
so, badges aren't enough for you, join date and post count aren't enough for you, you ACTUALLY want to give people a system to measure their worth that means something?! this is the problem. NO. we have enough elitists and people who think we are snobs now

As usual Doki speaks the truth. There's already enough arrogant and entitled members running around this site thinking their superior based off of an arbitrary number that, at the end of the day, has no meaning. Adding in another layer of user-based "judgment of worth" will amount to nothing short of throwing a can of gasoline onto an already burning fire.

You want to be judged by your own worth? Say things that matter. Get along with people, tell a few interesting stories. Teach people something. It doesn't really matter as long as whatever you say actually has meaning behind it. There already people in the current system that have horrendously high post counts but are some of the most arrogant and infuriating people I've ever met (Khell, you know exactly who I'm referring to here). On the opposite end of the spectrum I'm met people that have said something downright deep and earth-shattering on their first day here.

We simply don't need to add to a reward system that results in some people trying to buy other people's respect by raising a number. Gain admiration and respect the old fashion way, by proving you deserve it. That's the only way your going to be getting mine.

~Van

I dislike this idea - these sorts of things create a kind of superiority complex in some forumites.

However, the 'epic' button is a brilliant idea. Say 10 people need to press it, and if the admin agrees it is a good post the person will get a statistic on their profile. Badges could be introduced for 5, 10 etc epic posts.

Whenever something like this comes along you have to start trying to get those points. I come to the escapist to chill, not competetiveness.

In my short time at this forum I have already heard some members make disparaging comments about new sub 10 post members. Which while valid to a certain extent is hardly welcoming and some form of credit or karma system would only deepen this divide. So that's a no to the credit system. What if when you got 1000 posts beyond Gone Gonzo, you looped back to Anonymous Source, only with a prefix, i.e. galactic Anonymous Source, this is mostly because of that futrama episode with the space paperboys.

Richard Groovy Pants:

What I want at the moment? More titles after Gonzo.

How do you know there aren't any more?

I don't want a community-based hierarchy.
They split the people.

However, I wouldn't mind more fun opportunities for titles and badges, especially some sort of automated system that wouldn't put too much stress on the staff.

Isaac Dodgson:
We're not XBL, we're not Gaia Online, and I don't see why we should try to be either...

Bam.

Staredit.net had this, it was terrible.

Several other forums (someone mentioned FPSbanana) had this, and it's terrible...

etc.

All of a sudden, people will spam you, bother staff members, and overall clutter the forums with useless threads just to try and get more points

Absolutely NO. Escapist is a discussion forum, not a information sharing (p2p) forum. It would be silly to introduce a credit system that puts off new users and rewards credit whores.

Nimbus:
A good idea, in theory, but I think I would prefer a more traditional "karma" system.

Karma systems are terrible. The make the common view the only real one that is posted and mean that people who have the tendancy to buck the trend and say something different are more reluctant to post.

Karma = forum mob rule. Rather similiar to youtubes thumbs up/down thing in fact, and you can see just how badly it has impacted that.