Hey guys, just wanted to give my feedback about the point system. Its a wonderful idea. People that really help the community like @GoNorthWest, @MacApple, @Ianjamespiano, @MGoBlue and many others, deserve to have their work recognized and should be appreciated by Buzztouch with free stuff or whatever you guys think they should receive. What concerns me is that the way the system is working right now encourages people to make non-sense/plain-silly posts that aren't helpful at all. I'm not criticizing the idea, what I'm saying is that to maintain order and preserve the usability and quality of the posts the point system should be different. I've seen people that started 15 topics and replied more than 50 in the last 24hrs, and most of them where just silly. I understand the beauty of a free community like BT, but there are people, like the ones I mentioned at the beginning, that take this seriously (even though they still have fun). I believe in that old ancient saying: If you don't have anything useful to say... shut your mouth! (or something like that!) :P I'm not saying that we should only post when we have an answer for a question or for serious matters. Sometimes @Raveyd and @MacApple posts some jokes or some non-sense stuff that are pretty funny, but most of the time they are very helpful as well. My suggestion: Look at the system used by stackoverflow. I know they are too strict and that doesn't suits BT style. But we could learn something from their recommendation system. If the post or the answer is useful, users should give points to the writer of the post/answer. Giving points just for opening a topic or answering one doesn't seem like a good strategy to me. People should be rewarded for helping the community not for flooding the forum. What you guys (BT Gang and BT users) think about this? PS: Sorry the long post, I need to work on my synthesizing skills.

Starting or replying to a post is just part of how you earn points. By 'liking' o r 'following' and a few other ways you can earn points. Plus the moderator can adjust your points. I think they're ahead of us on this issue. Fred

Yeah, I wouldn't be too worried. The point system I'm sure will be fine tuned and users screened before any "free stuff" is handed out.

Funnily enough I'd run a phpBB forum in the past with over 600+ users and now I plan to crate a new forum based on a points system in order to reward members that do post and who do helps others. Those points can then be used for thins like access to higher forums for people with more points or digital downloads. I think i's a great idea.

Hey tonycelestino, you echo my thoughts exactly. There are some who seem to post responses just to increase their quantity of posts rather than quality, while others are genuinely out to help - thank you very much to all these people. Given the points idea, I suggest that a respondee to a post should be rated - like the 5 star type of rating - simple click on the stars to rate how useful the response was - it would also be great feedback & recognition for the respondee from people who may just read and not respond to the post. I have some other thoughts on how the community could be far more effective to get newbies up and running and in the end create a bigger and more effective community, but that probably is discussion for another time or with the owners of buzztouch.

McAppy, how to make a bigger community is of great interest to one and all. Start a new thread. But remember ultimately this is Buzztouch's Forum, andn their priorities are not necessarily open to us. But I'm sure they'll love hearing what we all have to say. Fred

I am loving the new site. It is looking pretty amazing. There were a few glitches at the beginning but most of them seem like they're fixed now. What an amazing team. I love all the amazing tutorials that are available also. I don't think there will be that big of a problem with people making up nonsense on the forums to get points. It seems like the forum is pretty heavily monitored in order to answer peoples questions. I have read the forums a lot but have never posted till now. Somehow the site just seems so much more...interactive. lol. Well... Back to studying my programming books.

Hey guys, To be quite honest, I don't think the points system was created to hand out free stuff to the people who contribute to this site but more or less to allow the end users to check out and follow the highly ranked users. The availability to see top ranked users points and have the capability to follow them and see what they are saying as a learning tool, is free stuff and a reward in itself. Just my thoughts and I totally understand your concerns of BS posts to earn points. Doc.

Cool discussions here and I've loved listening for a few days. You're all right. For sure the 'cheapy' points for quick posts were not the intention. But, the modest amount of points earned for posting doesn't seem to have added to the chit-chatty nature of the comments. This is good, we for sure don't mind folks participating, even if it's not a literal how-to comment or a detailed explanation. Heck, I've said "Hey, what's up" plenty of times. Future: For sure there are already ways to earn points that we've built in that you haven't seen yet. I'm sure this will evolve into even more ways. I like the idea of rewarding folks for helping the users that need it most. In other words, maybe helping someone with nearly ZERO points earns the commenter more..dunno, fun to think about. Free Stuff: We absolutely plan to give away free stuff. Actual stuff, like get it in the mail stuff. Of course we'll need to work out details with this and of course our modest budget will need to support it but we love the idea of rewards. Apps / Developers / Points: You call have the ability to list some simple developer info in your profiles. The idea is that we'll begin to help users that want to HIRE help find good help. The points system may or may not help the visitor but for sure it could. And, because BTU isn't available yet you haven't seen the "stars" that will show under your avatars indicating your level of understating, dedication, etc. For folks looking to hire this is a big deal. Think oDesk or eLance, ratings and credibility are super important. We dont' have plans to charge developers or the site visitors looking to connect. We dont' want to be in the match-making business. Tons of sites already do this well. But, we should be able t help some folks find some work and help some folks find some help. Points and Starts and Apps will be a big part of this when it's time to "show off" developers to visitors. Want on the list, get some points. Apps: Published apps in your profile are also a great way to start increasing your downloads. When the list gets built up (haven't even looked yet) we'll begin to start helping app owners get some publicity. Again, app owners with points / stars will likely get more publicity :-) Back to the icon > memory > resize but that got me struggling. Thought I had it fixed yesterday (it always works for certain icons) but it's still hosed. Sigh. If points were doled out by the word, this post would be worth a pile of them!