Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

Unnecessary thanks would never go away with the current system unless those members mature and actually value the important steps and ideas presented by fellow members.
And the current system of thanks is the best one IMHO. LIke everybody said no thanks and other sorts will just create a big mess and would take forever to clean up.

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

The thanks system is a repeated failure wherever it's tried.

It may start out as a mechanism for rewarding 'useful' posts, but it always devolves into an 'attaboy' mechanism...rendering the 'thanks count' pretty darned useless.

Much like the way that 'report this' mechanisms are inevitably used by wusses.

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

Maybe it's been brought up but...how about a 'Not relevant''flag?

Sometimes threads goes for a long time, multiple pages.
As they progress a number of things can happen:
- jokes takes off adding up numerous posts,
- posts that are now irrelevant as they refer to a bug that is fixed, etc

The thread can still be valuable...but things like the above 'Clutters it'.

If we could 'vote' on posts to be 'not relevant' and as soon as they get say five votes - they don't show in the thread anymore - NOT affecting Karma in any way - maybe that would be something useful.

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

I can see the possible value of the 'not relevent' but I do wonder if there's not a risk people will use it to prevent someone else's opinion from being seen.

Personally, I don't see the off topic posts as too much of a problem: they tend to happen in the more lighthearted threads, or ones where the main topic has already been dealt with. A skim through the Applications, say, or Fremantle fora shows that while some of the posts in 'n900' are less serious when necessary, posters can keep to topic and remain focussed.

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

You forget the latent ******ishness of humans, and the mob/herd mentality they often exhibit.

Within a week or two, your 'voting' system would become the blunt tool of retribution for any and all manner of mindless squabbles.

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

Good thing its all over in 3 years then :)

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

No.

You are making the common mistake of confusing loud, obvious exceptions with the quiet majority.

I recommend coursework in statistics. May be eye-opening for you.

I also recommend you tone it down a bit.

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

FWIW, I once implemented a 'patronage' system, of sorts.....where a select few (eg. the original site admins) are able to up-vote or down-vote posts. They can also award voting privileges to those they consider worthy, but such an award must be agreed by simple majoritarian democracy among the current vote-privileged members.

Worked pretty well....interesting posts did tend to bubble to the surface. Regular users could filter threads by signal:noise ratio, so there were less "I hate wading through crap" complaints.

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

You are making the noobish mistake of trying to sound l337 when you have no idea who you're talking to.

Quit trying to play daddy, it's lame.

Re: A No Thanks, of sorts
 

Today's nominee for best unintentional irony. :rolleyes: