More in detail, if I read a post from Dr. Fred Mbogo claiming something that seems to be utterly stupid or that in any way would make me feel like bashing him, chances are that I’m actually right. If a similar controversial issue is brought up by, say, merlyn, then I would be very careful

That’s circular reasoning. You already know merlyn’s status. Given openly displayed user levels, if you were a complete newcomer, and saw TimToady posting a hairy-seeming assertion about Perl, and someone with a higher level on this site claimed he was wrong, who would you be inclined to believe? If you were a complete newcomer but certain of something you said, and Abigail-III had just registered and proceeded to flame you, how would you react?

The truth is, you have to stay around for a while to get to know the people personally. Looking at user levels is worthless for all but one questions: whether you’re dealing with a troll.

the rationale is that since users already have the possibility of accessing ranking info about other users’ ranking in a not too difficult way, it would do no harm to make it even easier

That’s what most people think, and I used to be of that school too. But I saw what happens when a forum turns on open display of user levels/ranks and saw what happens once they’re turned off again, on multiple different forums, which showed me that I was wrong. I know know for a fact that your reasoning, my old reasoning, is wrong.

If the data is only available on some sort of user profile page, only those looking for it will actually see it. If it is displayed openly, it affects everyone’s behaviour.

Makeshifts last the longest.

In reply to Re^2: How about coloured names based on xp's? by Aristotle
in thread How about coloured names based on xp's? by kiat

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