First, I would like to say a hearty THANK YOU OPEN SOURCE! This forum is the best-organized Linux forum that I have seen -- certainly far cleaner than Ubuntu -- they should take a clue from your Forum!
OK, now to the suggestions. This comes from the "To Learn, Compare" school of improvement. The only new/additional features that I have found that should be seriously considered are found on Mepislovers forum here:
http://www.mepislovers.org/forums/index.php
That is one ugly forum, visually -- at least I think so -- I don't recommend their "look and feel". However, there are two gems buried in there:
1. They have implemented a method of "Thanking" a poster who provides truly useful information that helps someone. The user name of the "thanker" shows up under the post that was thanked.
2. They use the number of thanks, in proportion to the total number of posts, to calculate a "reputation" value that shows in the user's profile, along with their total posts and total thanks. I don't have the exact formula, but I'll bet one could get it by politely asking. So a poster's reputation number actually reflects forum community feedback on the value of the that person's posts.
I personally find that this technique does two useful/effective things:
1. It reinforces "helping behavior".
2. It discourages non-helpful posts, but not in a vicious way. Making a useless post simply waters down the reputation number, so you need to think twice about it, if you care.
Those are my suggestions. As always, I am happy to accept the community's collective preference regarding the Forum and its features.
dibl
OK, now to the suggestions. This comes from the "To Learn, Compare" school of improvement. The only new/additional features that I have found that should be seriously considered are found on Mepislovers forum here:
http://www.mepislovers.org/forums/index.php
That is one ugly forum, visually -- at least I think so -- I don't recommend their "look and feel". However, there are two gems buried in there:
1. They have implemented a method of "Thanking" a poster who provides truly useful information that helps someone. The user name of the "thanker" shows up under the post that was thanked.
2. They use the number of thanks, in proportion to the total number of posts, to calculate a "reputation" value that shows in the user's profile, along with their total posts and total thanks. I don't have the exact formula, but I'll bet one could get it by politely asking. So a poster's reputation number actually reflects forum community feedback on the value of the that person's posts.
I personally find that this technique does two useful/effective things:
1. It reinforces "helping behavior".
2. It discourages non-helpful posts, but not in a vicious way. Making a useless post simply waters down the reputation number, so you need to think twice about it, if you care.
Those are my suggestions. As always, I am happy to accept the community's collective preference regarding the Forum and its features.
dibl
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