Reputation system and the new layout

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

One of the things that seems to have been lost with the redesign is the previous reputation system, forum ranking is now based on post count. I see we now have a "thanking" system but it seems a shame that the previous thumbs up/thumbs down ranks are lost and it has been reset to zero.

Stalin would have had us believe that "quantity has a quality all its own" but is there some way that the previous numbers be added to the current system? There's been some sterling work done by some members recently disproportionate to post count and it's quite unfair that all those thumbs up have disappeared.

I remember in a previous forum iteration we had "spudbucks" that were also lost but they were calculated on post count too so not such a big deal, but to lose individual appreciation from members is rather different.

[PCGUY]

Excellent item to bring up! I received a PM about this too. One of the biggest pitfalls (in the past) with big upgrades to SpudFiles is that oftentimes the fun "spudbux" to "reputation" points vanish. These features are not native to the forum software, they were manually added in by me (and friendly Internet strangers) in years past.

I agree, I would love to keep old spudbux (from long ago) and reputation points. However... back when those features were a part of SpudFiles - it was from effectively hacked together code from other developers that had "mods" to the forum software in development. While posts/forums/post counts/etc all stay (as they are native to the forum software at it's very core), migrating such custom work is not easily achieved. In fact since so many years have passed with SpudFiles running, there simply are no exact paths for me to go from what we previously had (reputation) to the current "thanks" system. While yes anything is technically possible, if we are going to make SpudFiles better going forward - I had to make hard choices. The choices now are more long term/what is sustainable AND stable for me to more frequently upgrade and use. This means I must take far more care to not hack away at SpudFiles too much for fear that I'll do something that becomes unsustainable in just a few years. Similiar with how URLs to posts had to change... years ago I was stupid and installed some mods to give us "friendly" URLs. Now that code doesn't work with new forums and similiar "mods" to do those friendly URLs would actually change them again. If I leave them default, they will NEVER change again!

For those that visited during the website upgrade, it took a bit of time of being offline. You know why? Because the core forum software considers things like "reputation" junk and "custom URLs" junk in the database that must be properly cleaned up and fixed to move posts/users/etc over.

The hard choices leave us with a modern forum and these "mods" like the Thanks system are no longer hacked together scripting added into the forum. Instead they are maintained "modules" that I can turn off/off/configure without hacking away at the core code for SpudFiles. This means going forward, I should be able to avoid the most painful thing of doing SpudFiles upgrades - the custom stuff that has no easy path forward to modernize. Instead these newer style modules, like the Thanks system can be more easily upgraded and worked with going forward. So we must lose old reputation just as we lost SpudBux to modernize SpudFIles, but with the shining light that this should be the last time we need to lose such things. It sucks I know, but we can't leave SpudFiles outdated forever. I care more about the content and longevity & usability of SpudFiles that making the tough choice to drop some old things must occur.

NOW regarding titles/ranks/etc. The ranks were never based upon the actual "reputation" points, they were entirely separate. In fact the basic military style ranks have NEVER changed since SpudFiles became a forum, until now. Sure maybe the look at them did change in the past, but the core post requirements and titles had never changed.

What's the problem with never changing? Well... the old ranking system was designed when SpudFiles was WAY smaller. JSR having over 25k posts was never a concept. Most of the ranks stopped progressing after 5000 posts on the old SpudFiles, which numerous members are over. That was set up 14 years ago! So again, hard choice time - and it is time to scale SpudFiles to what it has become. As such "Rank" has been adjusted. JSR, you are at the top of the ladder and the cutoff for "59 - 5 Star General" is 25k posts. There are basically now 59 ranks to move through whereas there were about 10 in the past. Many members ranks have now changed... and if your title isn't as cool as it used to be, I am sorry. HOWEVER the titles will change faster now, as there are more of them appropriately scaled between 0 posts and 25k posts.

So if you don't like your current rank, post more! Rank will change faster than it did before. Same with the Thanks, give it a bit of time and they will be built back up. Anyone is welcome to go through older posts and give Thanks to good topics/posts - but it will not change rank (as it never has).

Now we have 2 concepts, title/rank and "Flair". You can see minimum flair options in your User Control Panel. In the past if you were a donating member, this superseded any rank you had. "Donating member" is the first flair item we have, and this allows us to have both ranks and "flair" like a donation status. In the future I"ll be adding more things for Flair - some of which have to be set by an admin, some of which you'll be able to set yourself. Again, these systems will sustain us better going forward and allow me to do more frequent updates/additions to SpudFiles.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Thank you for the detailed riposte!

What's the problem with never changing? Well... the old ranking system was designed when SpudFiles was WAY smaller. JSR having over 25k posts was never a concept. Most of the ranks stopped progressing after 5000 posts on the old SpudFiles, which numerous members are over. That was set up 14 years ago! So again, hard choice time - and it is time to scale SpudFiles to what it has become. As such "Rank" has been adjusted. JSR, you are at the top of the ladder and the cutoff for "59 - 5 Star General" is 25k posts. There are basically now 59 ranks to move through whereas there were about 10 in the past. Many members ranks have now changed... and if your title isn't as cool as it used to be, I am sorry. HOWEVER the titles will change faster now, as there are more of them appropriately scaled between 0 posts and 25k posts.

So if you don't like your current rank, post more! Rank will change faster than it did before. Same with the Thanks, give it a bit of time and they will be built back up. Anyone is welcome to go through older posts and give Thanks to good topics/posts - but it will not change rank (as it never has).

I feel responsible now

I'm happy with my own ranking, I was speaking more for other members but now that you explained it, makes a lot more sense.

Thanks again for all the work you do behind the scenes!