What determines the role of members, specifically solar experts

mcgivor · July 2018

There are registered users and solar experts within the forum, what determines the designation as some apparent experts offer bum advice, whilst on the other hand other experts ask basic questions. Not to discredit the real experts who provide valuable information, it would appear it's based on how long the member has been registered, kind of like seniority in a union environment, am I correct in this assumption....just curious
The rational behind the question is, some may assume the title of expert would imply extensive knowledge, providing information which is accurate, which may not nesesarally be the case.

littleharbor2 · July 2018

Yet you're a "Registered User" with 1876 posts. Strange.

BB. · July 2018

There does not appear to be any functional difference between Registered and Solar Expert in permissions.

I believe that this is a combination of a function from the old VBB days and the current Vanilla forum softwares.

In the old days, there was an automatic progression from newbie to solar expert based on the number of posts into ~5 rankings (something like 5-100-200 posts or so)...

Today, this field has been tied with the old "VBB Ranking" and Vanilla "Roles"... Basically people whom have "Registered" (everyone is registered to post, no registration needed to read) and permissions (i.e., Moderators and Admins).

You can blame me for the lack of active ranking of members. When the forum was being configured for our use--I aked to not have people "rank/repulations" voted on. I prefered people to take posts at face value for information content and not base "qualifying" a post on how active a member was, and if there was a disagreement with suggestions/comments/etc., that they be discussed "in thread".

I went through the software and looked at the setup for Roles... And it appears that I can rename one or both groups (Registered User and Solar Experts) to something else (solar member, solar flunkie, solar penguin, etc...---Although, I think they have to have different names like Solar Member and SoIar Member "letter L vs Letter i" in "Solar/SoIar"). I can change the title from Registered to Expert on a per person basis (for McGivor, I changed his "label").

The only difference that I know of in the software is that people with less than five posts are a bit more likely to be put in the "Moderation Queue" for me (moderators) to review (for "too many links", "too many attachments", a stricter spam filter). After 5 posts, every member has the same permissions and is generally immune from autospam filtering.

We did put the number of posts each member has in the heading, and there is the "Star" ranking which is based on the number of posts (and, it turns out, points--Now I have to see what a "point" is):

NAME	LABEL	CRITERIA	ABILITIES
Level 1 Level: 1	✭
Level 2 Level: 2	✭✭	5 posts	Add: Verified
Level 3 Level: 3	✭✭✭	50 points	Add: Verified
Level 4 Level: 4	✭✭✭✭	100 points	Add: Verified
Level 5 Level: 5	✭✭✭✭✭	500 points	Add: Verified
Level 6 Level: 6	✭✭✭✭✭✭	1000 points	Add: Verified

Hmmm... I don't know what the point system is... I have 647 points at the moment (and no stars--Points are visible in your profile, I think).

Points, in major part, appear to be from "positive" reactions(?) (posts marked by members by Agree, Like, LOL). Possible some of the "badges" may have points too (I don't really look at my "badges"--Social media "hooks"?).

https://vanillaforums.com/en/industry/gaming/

Points
A reputation system woven into the community.

Anyways....

Anyone have an opinion on "what next". We can do more (voting/ranking, possibly something else)--But that means I have to ask for some $$$ for Vanilla to tweak some stuff in the background (another field displayed, enable voting, etc.).

My vote is everyone is a "solar member" or similar....

-Bill

Estragon · July 2018

I'm good with being a user/member or whatever... I'm certainly no kind of expert on much of anything.

softdown · July 2018

Interesting debate. Sometimes it takes an expert to really screw things up. Some of the largest construction failures have been designed by award winning architects and engineers. We all look at our personal experiences as a heavy contributor to our priorities. Those whose livelihood and reputation are based on their installations will have different priorities than the guy who wanted to live in the sticks then found no jobs that paid over $10/hour.

Solar just isn't exciting enough for the normal user to spend many hours/week boning up on the latest theory and technology. Sadly, I have seen many stalwart posters of yesteryear fade into oblivion. I'd estimate that maybe 75% of posting is done by pros and maybe 10% is newbies trying to solve a problem. We all like to help the newbie but I'll be darned if 95% don't disappear after a couple posts. That is everywhere, not just here.

We all have our pet priorities as well. Pros may favor safety for burned homes are certainly to be avoided. My current priority is cool batteries. It is hard to overestimate the value of cool batteries.

Am I a solar expert? I might have a good chance if I remembered everything. Plus I like to keep my toes dipped in a dozen pools at all times. What do you guys think of 4WD chromoly axle shafts versus trusses on axle housing?

What would make acetone heavy enough to sink to the bottom of a carburetor where the jets are? Seriously?

littleharbor2 · July 2018

As to Chromoly axle shafts , Great if you have a fire breathing monster under the hood and don't like snapping axles in high traction situations. Axle trusses only should be required on weak axle housings that are prone to flexing and bending. Chromoly axles won't help you there.

softdown · July 2018

littleharbor2 said:

As to Chromoly axle shafts , Great if you have a fire breathing monster under the hood and don't like snapping axles in high traction situations. Axle trusses only should be required on weak axle housings that are prone to flexing and bending. Chromoly axles won't help you there.

Lets try not to further derail the thread. Traction, tire size, and gearing are the equation they use for axle upgrades. My little 1.4 liter buggy has a trussed up 1 ton truck axle in the front. Driver technique is very important though anyone can have a moment of weakness.

Photowhit · July 2018

If you can arbitrarily change ones classification at some point, perhaps those with a 1000 replies could suggest their own classification? Such as;

Sun Burnt
Out in the sun to long
Solarized (Photowhit, Solarized...get it)
Tired and Old
Old and in the Way (I used that somewhere)

mike95490 · July 2018

I like sun burnt

NANOcontrol · July 2018

I have a hard time thinking of technology as a popularity contest. Number of posts has nothing to do with being right. But, evidently I am wrong. "Open box" videos on youtube get 17,000 views and anything technical gets only a dozen. I'd like to see the post counts eliminated. That will get rid of those just out for glory and we can focus on content.

Estragon · July 2018

Cat videos get lots of views/likes. All that means is people like cats.

If a technical post gets a dozen of the right views, mission accomplished.

jonr · July 2018

I haven't seen it here, but elsewhere I've seen usually wrong people who will argue endlessly. Some way of marking these users is useful (so new users know not to listen to them). Ie, if multiple, experienced users mark someone as "lunatic", that means something.

softdown · July 2018

jonr said:

I haven't seen it here, but elsewhere I've seen usually wrong people who will argue endlessly. Some way of marking these users is useful (so new users know not to listen to them). Ie, if multiple, experienced users mark someone as "lunatic", that means something.

Ah yes, some "fringe lunatics" from the past:
da Vinci
Einstein
Newton
Galileo Galilei
Archimedes
Tesla
Mozart
Michelangelo
Pythagoras
Kepler
Copernicus
Jesus
Well...you get the point

Mankind does love their cozy little cliques of mediocrity.

It is confusing enough for the newbie without having to decipher various comedic angles. Though it is certainly possible that "solar expert" may be earned a bit prematurely at times.

stmar · August 2018

Lol, I laughed when I saw my "Solar Expert" designation. Far from it. I was comfortable with my system but not even close to expert status, look at some of the questions I ask or ask a member I PM. Then my inverter blows and I have to get a new one and the technology has changed to the point that I feel like I am starting over. Mine can be changed to "Trying Alternative" because believe me it is very "trying" at times.

What determines the role of members, specifically solar experts

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