Ideas for improvement/change.

[FUD]

Administrators & Moderators:

(1) This site has three or four thousand members. Some post a lot while some post a little. When you first register, you're given the title of "Member" and after a given number of posts, you are upgraded to "Senior Member". I was thinking (and being a computer programmer, I know that this is something that could be eaily modified) of having three membership levels:<OL TYPE=1>
<LI> Junior Member - Someone who is in the bottom 25% with regard to the number of posts.
<LI> Member - Someone who is in the between 25% - 75% with regard to the number of posts.
<LI> Senior Member - Someone who is in the top 25% with regard to the number of posts.</OL>
I like this approach because it uses the registered membership to set the level and not some artificial number where a person become a senior member after so many posts. Besides, I think that most members should be "Members" and not "Senior Members".

(2) Incorporate the following icons (or something similar) ...

http://www.thefiringline.com/NonCGI/yellockfolder.gif - A Closed Trend
http://www.weaponforums.com/closed.gif - An Open Trend
http://www.weaponforums.com/hotclosed.gif - A Trend that has been updated since a member's last visit so that it can easily be spotted (again, with computer software and cookies, this can easily be programmed).

These are just my thoughts and ideas for you to think about. Additionally, it would be nice if you enabled the "image" tag so that it could be used in the signature block. Thanks for listening.

Share what you know, learn what you don't -- FUD. http://users.net-lynx.com/~fudal/edfudal.jpg

[This message has been edited by FUD (edited March 08, 2000).]

[Rich Lucibella]

We don't own the software. Those who do own the software change it about once a month....Murphy's Law says last month's "custom hacks" will become next month's crash and burn. So, even though hacks are "quite easy" to create, they're not nearly as easy to maintain. By the way, your suggested hack would probably crash the Server as, with each new post, it would require a recompilation of everyone's resultant "status" (At the very least, this total reindex would be required each time any post sent a Member's "status" past the current threashold for a given category)...crash, crunch, grind. ;)

Additionally, we are simply not so Class Conscious as to need more than two Member categories (Admin and Moderator titles are required by the ssyetm to allow us privileges to certain Administrative functions).

As for open, locked or new threads they're denoted by a bullet hole or target, a folder with padlock and a bullseye target, respectively. Are these unclear?
Rich Lucibella

[This message has been edited by Rich Lucibella (edited March 08, 2000).]

[FUD]

Okay, I under why you wouldn't want to start changing things around with the Member/class stuff but what's this that I hear about target with a bullet hole, a bulleye's, etc.? The only two that I've ever seen are the folder and the folder with a lock on it. When / where are the other ones used?

[Rich Lucibella]

The Forum Summary Page at http://www.thefiringline.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi uses a red crosshair target or black bullet hole to denote new posts vs no new posts since your last visit.

In the individual Forums the red folder vs yellow folder vs locked folder denotes, "new", "no new" or locked.
Rich

[FUD]

Rich:

Maybe I'm a little bit slow and may be there's a problem with my browser but I just tried this with both Netscape and Explorer and I don't see any crosshair target or bullet hole anywhere on the page that you sent me to. Additionally, I don't see any red folders any where on this board. All I've ever seen is the yellow folder and the locked folder. A red folder indicating a new topic would be nice if I could see it.

I have my cookies turned on. Is there anything else that I need to set/unset?

FUD

[Rich Lucibella]

Try going to Preferences or Profile tab. There's an option in one of those to blow out your cookies for TFL.

Close your Browser.
Reboot.
Enter thru the front door: http://www.thefiringline.com
Rich

[FUD]

Rich:

This is really cool :) I like this. I'm able to see the bullet hole and the target as well as the red folder which tells me if something new has been added since my last visit. I really like these features -- it's sort of what I was recommending in my original post. It's going to make viewing your site a whole lot easier. Thanks,

FUD

[Gunslinger]

Rich, while we're on the subject of member ranking I wouldn't mind being elevated to Grand Humpapa status any time now.

Thanking you in advance,
Gunslinger :D :D :D

[Bud Helms]

.

[This message has been edited by sensop (edited March 08, 2000).]

[Bud Helms]

Actually, I think I should remain a junior member until I find my medication.

Junior member status should also remove any responsibility for odd behavior. I want it now.

[fastforty]

http://www.weaponforums.com/hotclosed.gif Looks like "Flame War Here" to me ;)

[FUD]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by fastforty:
http://www.weaponforums.com/hotclosed.gif Looks like "Flame War Here" to me ;)[/quote]

That's a good one, I like it! http://www.weaponforums.com/hotclosedb.gif

[Jessica Wellman]

This is too funny...I didn't know of the changes or that I could delete cookies! I must have missed the announcement. Nice job and much better!
Now if I can figure out why I have to enter my password each time! I have set my options to remember my password for the next year, but it isn't working. I'll try to reset it again now that my cookies are new.



------------------
Shooter's Enrichment Program/Forum (http://www.freeyellow.com/members8/shootersenrichment/)

[Jessica Wellman]

Yes! It worked! I hate typing in my password each time.

Thanks for the help guys.

[This message has been edited by LadydeeJ (edited March 10, 2000).]