Re^2: How about coloured names based on xp's?

I am strongly opposed to having any indicator of the poster’s level on nodes....

In a somewhat different direction...

When confronted with a username I don't recognize, who's posted something I'm tempted to be critical of (for numerous reasons, including poorly asked questions, intolerance, misplaced angst, etc.), I find myself checking the user's rank, number of writeups, and "first here" date. If it's a relatively new and inexperienced user, I lean towards patience and helpful comments. If it's one of the upper echelon, I tend to be more direct. [I hope civility always wins out.]

I think posts will inevitably be colored by the reputation of the poster. If TheDamian says he's found a fundamental connection between cosmic strings and pack/unpack, a wild and interesting discussion would ensue. [Maybe he already has?] If I_Like_Thoup said that, s/he would probably be ridiculed into submission. There are inherent problems with both scenarios. We shouldn't take anything as gospel just because of the source (even if it is proven out), nor should we deny anything out of hand.

Coming back to the thread, color-coded user names would only save the rare click-through to check out the new (to me) name. Hopefully checking out the user's home page will better instruct the response. Making the leap based on some color scheme would brand many of us a "colorist".

Besides, the default color scheme is bound to annoy everyone in some way.

"I don't want to be pink!"
"Fuscia is so last week!"
"What's the hex value for 'mesh'?"
"I'm colorblind -- make a tooltip info box instead."

-QM
--
Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of

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Re^3: How about coloured names based on xp's? by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Nov 03, 2005 at 18:39 UTC
When I find myself wanting to get a better idea about what to think about a user, I use the Perl Monks User Search to read a bunch of his or her nodes; a couple of recent as well as some of his/her highest- and lowest-rep nodes. That’s a much better indicator of anything substantial than how much they have posted, their XP, or how long they’ve been around. (An exception might be trolls, which tend to have an unusually low XP:writeups ratio, but that’s as much as it’s directly useful for.) I’m not saying the reputation of the user is unimportant. I don’t believe in judging every node purely on its own merit – people have patterns of behaviour, and that is an important framework which any judgement of something they did must consider. But the only way to get to know these patterns is to get to know the person; or as far as an online forum is concerned, follow their posts for a while. Indeed, by staying around and participating for a while, you eventually come to recognise names – people who always write excellent nodes, those who are somewhat annoying, the funny people, the thoughtful ones, the friendly and the frank. And none of this has anything to do with their XP or level. Doing anything to encourage people to judge by XP or level can only be detrimental to the quality of the community. You cannot judge personalities without getting to know them. Makeshifts last the longest.	[reply]

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Re^3: How about coloured names based on xp's?
by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Nov 03, 2005 at 18:39 UTC

When I find myself wanting to get a better idea about what to think about a user, I use the Perl Monks User Search to read a bunch of his or her nodes; a couple of recent as well as some of his/her highest- and lowest-rep nodes. That’s a much better indicator of anything substantial than how much they have posted, their XP, or how long they’ve been around. (An exception might be trolls, which tend to have an unusually low XP:writeups ratio, but that’s as much as it’s directly useful for.)

I’m not saying the reputation of the user is unimportant. I don’t believe in judging every node purely on its own merit – people have patterns of behaviour, and that is an important framework which any judgement of something they did must consider. But the only way to get to know these patterns is to get to know the person; or as far as an online forum is concerned, follow their posts for a while. Indeed, by staying around and participating for a while, you eventually come to recognise names – people who always write excellent nodes, those who are somewhat annoying, the funny people, the thoughtful ones, the friendly and the frank.

And none of this has anything to do with their XP or level. Doing anything to encourage people to judge by XP or level can only be detrimental to the quality of the community. You cannot judge personalities without getting to know them.

Makeshifts last the longest.

[reply]