From NOOB to Groupie

[SamusNeo]

Hey, far be it from me to complain about this awesome free forum which houses so many friendly and extremely talented people, but does anyone else feel like they are in some way part of a caste system? I went from NOOB to Intermediate NOOB to Concept art groupie....geez, I'd rather be new than a groupie! I really do like the stuff that some of the professionals post, but I am not jocking thier work like some fanboy and I don't want to follow them or anything. Ah well, I guess one must pay thier dues, and it isn't much considering all the great things about this board. Still though...groupie? Damn. Wonder how many posts until I've "been around the block."

[Pontemonti]

LOL

Those titles shouldn't be taken too seriously. They're only showing how much you've posted...
Something that would be cool to do is to make several different "user groups" - each with own titles...then you could choose which one you want (maybe there could even be a group without any titles at all). Hopefully someone has already written something like that and I can just implement it in an easy way. There are some other things I need to do first, though. Upgrade the forum system for example. Another day, perhaps :)

[SamusNeo]

Thanks for responding. I know they shouldn't be taken too seriously. Just something on my mind last night...but really I just posted to get a step closer to upgrading my status. Soon I will be "supreme art deity who sees through souls"!!!!HAHAHAHAHA Either that or "Expert NOOB", one of the two.

[usagi yojimbo]

what i dont like about the titles is that they arent based on anything other than the number of posts you make, not what know/learn.

then again it would be a full time job for someone to rate each member(is that the right word?) and keep track of their progression and take into consideratioon their age, previous experience etc all that stuff

still i think i remember seeing jon foster(sorry if i spelt your name wrong) as intermediate noob or was somethign. maybe some people could have specialized titles?

heh maybe they already do and i just havent noticed

[Pontemonti]

Yeah, some people do have special titles...like keyth who has "bee bop Rock Steady".
I agree that it's a problem that the titles only are based on how many posts you've got - it encourages "spamming" (posting lots of meaningless posts just to boost your post count) and doesn't really tell you anything useful about the person. However, it's hard for the forum system to give titles in a better way. You could of course say that a person must have been registered for x days and posted y posts to get a certain title, but it's still almost the same thing...
Giving special titles to everyone would in one way be cool - it would feel more personal, BUT...some people may not like their titles, and that may make them angry - we don't want to make them angry...
The last "solution" is to let everyone set their own title. Which is kinda cool. The "only" problem is that I don't believe it's a feature in the forum system, which means that we will have to write it first (not the hardest thing in the world, but it takes some time to do it).

[haiku]

For all i know, in vbulletion boards, they DO allow people to set their own special title. (Could be set in adminstrator option.)

[cmortier2002]

Yeah, at cgtalk, after 50 posts you can set you own title. They use vBulletin 2.2.8. It's called custom user text. Perhaps a customisation of vBulletin.

[Pontemonti]

Oh, maybe it is possible then. I really don't know. Too many features to remember ;)

[in4pain]

:jump1: hey i wana be a groupie. :D

[coriat]

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/images/smilies/bouncing3.gif hey i wana be a expert n00b! since it quite well describes what i am :D

and about that spamming-problem... the only one i see spamming here is me :( so, it's not that much of a problem i think :p

oh yeah, and that one guy, oblio or something, he's posting things everywhere, double posting, making sticky threads with cool information and events everywhere...i mean, like, who does he think he is, a moderator, a friend of art-gods...nu-uhuh!

/me overhears the guys mumbling behind his shoulder...

ow, he IS all that;) sorry then, nothing said, move along, nothing to see here.

just kidding:chug:

[haiku]

Well, to be honest... If people wish to spam, they WILL spam no matter what. It's like a phase. 'it will pass' - I know. :)