Senior Membership Criteria

[Big Red50]

I am still a regular member, and think that the current senior members should vote, in some manner on new senior members of the fraternity. Let your posts speak for them selves, If you don't want to contribute intel, just lurk, you can still post, just not immediately. There is nothing I post that can’t wait 6-24 hours.

I will stand on my reports

Newbie forever

Big Red

[Benchseats Rock]

I know that this thread is pretty much dead but perhaps Jackson stumbles upon my question.

Let's say that I am a Senior Member on the USA Forum and I am interested in going to Brazil, which I really am. I want to view the photos and post from that great country.

Since you now have to pay to view photos, my question or request is that I should be able to view such photos, shouldn't I?

I feel that I have earned my right, but according to the new regulations that have been set in place, I can't. I know that you have many things pending Jackson but was wondering if you could provide me with a terse but effective remark that embodies it all.

-007

Were you a Senior before the split? If you were, you were probably grandfathered in and you should try logging in.

BSR

[Double Nickle]

If a member doesn't get it in 25 instances of having his posts edited by Jackson I don't think we should up it to 100 posts and quadruple Jackson's work. Maybe we should declare the perpetual newbie fair game and let the Philadelphia Fight Club and others nuke him to charred embers.

Double Nickle

[Traveler23]

I would post more if my post were not delayed. My work requires me to travel all over the US. When posting is delayed I am already in another area and the information is too old.

What can be done about the frequent traveler?

Hi Traveler,

I moderate all reports twice per day, every 12 hours, which means that the average wait is 6 hours. Personally, I think it's a small price to pay to have such a SPAM-free forum. Believe me, I've tried running an uncontrolled forum and it was a disaster with dozens of SPAM reports being posted every day.

I'm curious: Please tell me what kind of information is it that you would want to contribute that can not wait for an average of 6 hours to be visible?

Thanks,

Jackson

[Zepplin]

I agree with Daddy Lows and Stoner in that having some type of a peer review would be more effective than an automated selection process.

You could select or have a process to select some members to periodically accomplish the reviews. The downside of course is it would be somewhat more labor intensive.

Your web sites are great and really expanding fast. I hope you will to continue enjoy the fruits of your labor. If that means an automated process will work best, I vote for the 6/25.

Z

[Best Tx Monger]

I know that this thread is pretty much dead but perhaps Jackson stumbles upon my question.

Let's say that I am a Senior Member on the USA Forum and I am interested in going to Brazil, which I really am. I want to view the photos and post from that great country.

Since you now have to pay to view photos, my question or request is that I should be able to view such photos, shouldn't I?

I feel that I have earned my right, but according to the new regulations that have been set in place, I can't. I know that you have many things pending Jackson but was wondering if you could provide me with a terse but effective remark that embodies it all.

-007

[Daddy Lows]

IMHO, Jackson, if you really value the opinions of senior members, would there be any way to do a referral(sp?) system. For example, let's say I was a regular member with 250 posts (like I was) and I applied for senior status. It would behoove you to rely on local senior members as to the overall quality of said posts. Perhaps, if one could also get 5 senior members (in addition to the 6 months/25 posts minimum requirements) to vouch for them, you could avail yourself of some respected well-earned knowledge. In reality, I've PMed dozens of posters here in Southern California with info, requests, and general comments. I've only met one poster (Sapman) and exchanged my personal phone number with a few (Sapman, Geneious, Marlowe, Joe Monger to name a few). It's really, really difficult to earn trust on the boards as it is a public board. A referral system would really cement the high standards (besides the grammar ) that one would think a senior member should embody. Hah hah. But seriously, 5 senior vouchers isn't too demanding, and it would be difficult for some acerbic moron who posts garbage to attain senior status. It's a win-win. RIght???? Heh heh heh. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Peace

[Gem Finder]

The number of reports is not nearly as important as the quality of reports. Any fool can post 25 or 50 or 100 times with any version of: "Hey, tell me where the ho's are." Or, "I drove around the zone last night and saw nothing." There are already too many on this board who post just to see their post count go up, without actually providing anything useful. If gaining senior status is based on post count, it will only incourage more useless posts.

10 or 15 detailed, informative, descriptive reports should be enough.

[Queen City Guy]

I think you have to ask what is the purpose of Senior Membership in the first place.

I would say the main idea is to seperate the serious contributor from the board monger. Then again you don't want to set the post number too high thus encouraging mindless post for the sake of racking up numbers.

The other criteria would be persistance. A reasonable length of active posting would met this.
In other words the guy who never does any mongering or posting but makes a once a year trip to Airmpit, New Mexico for a convention doesn't need to be pming senior memebers for phone numbers.

[Love To Gawk]

I would like to suggest that members joining in or starting these BS flame wars which waste everybodys time suffer a reduction in status. Senior members should be above this but are not. I am not referring to constructive debates, we all know the difference.

Only members which offer consistently usable information or advice should be senior members. I will probably never qualify under my own criteria, since I do not contribute as much as others. Just my opinion, but whenever I see an area referred to alot, it goes away.

[Best Tx Monger]

Jackson,

I honestly think that there needs to be more variation on the kinds of membership. It is almost like being rich and poor, it is either one extreme or the other.

There are Regular Members and Senior Members. Instead of being that way I think that there should be like 4 or 5 Classifications. Regular - Freshman - Sophomore - Junior - Senior.

That way there is more respect among current members and it will effectively filter out non-participating members. This will also give variation to the field

Jst my .02 cents.

Regards,
-007

[Wallie]

1. Create a preferences field (area/specific forum) as to where a user would like to be mostly associated with. This field might also be available as a link.

2. Verify that the preferenced forum has at least 25-50% of the posts.

3. Once a specific number of posts/elapsed time occurs. Post to that forum specified in the preferences that "User x has reach senior membership creiteria. Anyone having an objection post in a forum designed for this purpose. Allow 1 month. This forum could even be invisable to regular members and only visable to you.

4. If no objections senior status occurs and member upgrade post deleted.

5. If objections: You weigh objections. If objections are warranted give new category like "I'm trying" and reset posts back to zero.

It's like checks and balances with peer review. Everything happens automatically unless there are objections.

Keep it simple, but make it something earned. I think 25 posts over six months is about right, with no more than 5 in one month counting toward the 25 or you will get a lot of BS posts with people just trying to get their number up!

I think we should have four categories of membership, Entry Level member(less than six months), Regular Member (6-12 months or higher with 6 "meaningful, informative reports), Bronze Member (13-24 months with 12 "meaningful reports), Silver Member (24-36 months with 24 meaningful reports) and finally, Gold Members (36months or more with 36 meaningful reports).

As I write this, I am a Regular Member. I'm OK with that. I have asked Jackson for an upgrade to Senior Member status once, at a time when Uncle LEO was actively performing stings in my area. I was concerned that the delay my warnings were getting for review might cause some of our brethern trouble. I also requested it shortly after I had met the old guidelines for upgrade. Jackson explained that this Automation process was in the works, and didn't upgrade me at the time. Again, I'm OK with that, it's his board, we're just taking up space on it; thus his rules apply.

I completely understand, and appreciate, the need for differences in membership status. I don't have a ton of posts, but, when I do post, I try to make sure the info is valid, and important. Generic posts such as: "I found a girl and we did this or that..." without any location info, time stamp, prices, or other relevant information are pretty much worthless. Hence, someone posting that type of information doesn't, IMHO, need to be carrying a Senior status.

That being said, I think the 6/25 ratio is probably about right; if some of the ideas in the quoted posts above, such as peer review, and/or multiple membership levels are too expensive/difficult to implement directly into the coding of the forum program. However, if they are able to implemented, I think they would add to the value of the board.

The concept of multiple levels would allow a board member who posts to be "rewarded" gradually as they post when they see their status upgraded to, say, Bronze level. They would feel appreciated in a way, and know that their prestige and reputation on the board is growing.

Peer review would probably be a pain in the ass to implement, but it would be the best way to ensure that a member who is posting in a locale is posting information that the other members on the board appreciate, and find useful.

Two things worry me about any strictly quantitative requirement for upgrade to Senior status. First, and others have brought this up as well, is that people will just speed load the board with junk just to achieve the coveted Senior status. Second, and just as important, is that the quality of the posts might suffer. The requirements as to spelling, punctuation, and non-chat style, might fade a bit, and the readability of the board will suffer as a result.

That being said, I think Jackson has a good idea on how to keep a hold of the board, the quality of it, and how to best manage his board.

Thanks for all you do Jackson, and whatever happens, I think most of us will support whatever decision you make. Keep up the good work.

Wallie

[Civ2000]

Jackson, Have you come to a decision yet on this? I only ask because it appears that a ton of members were just made senior members in the past few days, some with less than 25 posts. I'm just wondering if we're debating a dead topic. Thanks.

[Webcams]

Get rid of the folks who only copy and paste craigslist ads.
6 Months 25 posts sounds fair. But you should have a way to Report members who abuse the system, It can turn into a free for all with spam if not.

[PsyberZombie]

I have had some requested via IM for specific information (such as digits or reccomendations, on contact info) from Senior memebers (with relatively lower numbers of posts), who when I researched there posts seem to be always asking for info and never posting any information.

Its hard to tell if these are LE or just selfish, lazy SW lovers. This is a problem that I suspect will get worse under new system unless information posts can be separated from chit-chat and information requests.

Senior Member or not , it's always a good idea to scope out the past posting of any·one PM 'ing you asking for info

I've had almost universally BAD experiences giving out Digits , fer ex

Want some numbers from Yours Truly ??

Read My Policy first