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

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.

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

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Re^3: How about coloured names based on xp's? by blazar (Canon) on Nov 07, 2005 at 13:58 UTC
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. While I'm not yet fully convinced about the truth of your claim, especially because I have been on forums where the rank was publicly shown¹ and it didn't seem to me to have such a disruptive effect, I completely agree with your observation that "you have to stay around for a while to get to know the people personally". I learned to do so in newsgroups where it is even more important, and some orders of magnitude more important, to do so. ¹But not that many so I admit that my judgement may be biased.	[reply]
Re^4: How about coloured names based on xp's? by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Nov 07, 2005 at 14:52 UTC
I concede that my experiences may not be representative. And I know the overall maturity level at those forums was lower than it is at PM. But I’ve seen it happen three times – and in all three times, the ranking was not initially displayed openly, then was, then it was turned off again –, so all my experience so far suggests that such open display degrades the quality of interaction on a forum. PM might be better able to carry that weight, and maybe even a lot better – but I’m certain that it will lead to some amount of degradation, if only mild. The question I’d ask is: why should we do this? Is there anything to be gained from it? Are there any real benefits which need to be weighed against the expectable drawbacks? Makeshifts last the longest.	[reply]
Re^5: How about coloured names based on xp's? by kiat (Vicar) on Nov 08, 2005 at 01:57 UTC
The question I’d ask is: why should we do this? Is there anything to be gained from it? Are there any real benefits which need to be weighed against the expectable drawbacks? To answer those questions, it's important to first answer the question why ranks are there in the first place.	[reply]