Experience Bars

Rogue · #1 (**permalink**) 08-31-2008, 08:18 PM

By now most of you have noticed the new experience bars below each username in the thread list. For many boards the only way a new person can tell who to trust or not is by post count. As many of you understand that is not always the best way to determine how active or knowledgeable a user may be.

This is where the experience bars come in. A myriad of data points and algorithms are used to determine each users experience level and ranking. Data points may range from how many posts have been read and posted to how often someone uses the reputation system, blogs, or starts threads. User activity is based on the amount of time actually spent on the forum and things such as links to a forum or thread, attachments added, and yes even standings in the arcade all play a part in determining experience.

At some point experience may be able to be spent in a virtual store for various privileges or extra abilities on the forum (such as the ability blog without being a PPS, or the ability to play in the arcade). For now the rankings will just be another tool to let users understand the relative experience each user has on our forum.

Enjoy

nuclearxp · #2 (**permalink**) 08-31-2008, 08:51 PM

I've noticed the experience bars seem to size proportional to usernames. This may be a tad misleading as some users green "experience" section may appear larger than others - when in actuality relatively speaking it may be less.

Rogue · #3 (**permalink**) 08-31-2008, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nuclearxp

I've noticed the experience bars seem to size proportional to usernames. This may be a tad misleading as some users green "experience" section may appear larger than others - when in actuality relatively speaking it may be less.

Yes I've noticed this as well. I'm working on a tabbed verson of the information in the post heading. This will move things like experience, arcade awards, car information, bio, etc.. to tabs within each post header.

GAGTP · #4 (**permalink**) 08-31-2008, 09:56 PM

I just have to commend you Todd on all the changes and hard work that you've been putting into this site. What was already a great site for information has now turned into something much more! Arcades, the PPS lounge, blogs, vPic Gallery and now this. You have really been working hard. It's really nice to see someone who operates a forum spend so much time interacting with the user's as well as spending so much time improving it with awesome upgrades. Awesome job Todd! Keep up the good work and Thanks!

Rogue · #5 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GAGTP

I just have to commend you Todd on all the changes and hard work that you've been putting into this site. What was already a great site for information has now turned into something much more! Arcades, the PPS lounge, blogs, vPic Gallery and now this. You have really been working hard. It's really nice to see someone who operates a forum spend so much time interacting with the user's as well as spending so much time improving it with awesome upgrades. Awesome job Todd! Keep up the good work and Thanks!

I appreciate that Eric but it really takes all of you guys together to keep the information flowing and the user base strong

I've implemented the tabbed profile information in the post headers. I'll tweak it over the next few days but I think it should be pretty solid now.

mcgrath · #6 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008, 05:49 PM

I agree is nice to see you adding some nice features to the site Todd!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rogue

and yes even standings in the arcade all play a part in determining experience.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rogue

For many boards the only way a new person can tell who to trust or not is by post count. As many of you understand that is not always the best way to determine how active or knowledgable a user may be.

I'd like to add a little constructive criticism... I don't see how blogging or arcade scores should be figured into ones experience rating. Is this rating meant to rate a persons car experience/knowledge or just their overall usage of various features on 3800pro?

For this rating system to be helpful for noobs I think it should be more knowledge based from the car related information one provides in the forum.

Ed

SUPER_GTP · #7 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008, 06:31 PM

Well I must first ask... What is the community award?
I like the fact that people can be rated on knowledge and exp. The internet is full of BS so it's nice to see that there is some syetem in place (even if it's not perfict) to make you feel better about who you ask for advice.

Rogue · #8 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008, 07:48 PM

It is a measure of knowledge in the community, activity on the forum, and how helpful the individual is to the forum. You can click each posters user profile and go to the vbexperience block to see it broken down by section. The arcade for example is a very small (only 10 of 14,000 points in my case) portion of the meter.

Mr. INTENSE · #9 (**permalink**) 09-02-2008, 04:39 PM

Another impressive new feature Todd.