Fourms Management idea

I want to put an idea to the group. Moderators can chip in as well, because they will be the ones that will be doing more work than usual ;)

I want to start tightening up the forums and remove cross-posting, and I was thinking the best way to do this is to have a "General Discussion" area for everyone, for NZs and for the Aussie ppl. Every other forum will be marked "Question and Answer" unless stated otherwise. This hopefully wont STOP discussions from taking place, but rather help problems of people posting the first question, then a second, and then a third when someone has already posted the third question that person A has asked.

The way it works is, if you have a question, you ask it, and hopefully someone will reply in 7 days. If it answers your question, the person who answered it will gain a (or several) "reputation point(s)".

Reputation points will give you access to other forums (which are yet to be determined), cute things like having an avatar, or being able to make yourself a custom title.

Once the accepted answer has been found, a moderator will close the thread and award the accepted "answerer" the point(s). If a question which has been posted before is posted again, the poster will loose a reputation point for not searching for the answer first. A moderator will then have the say on whether or not to delete the post, or copy and paste the appropriate URL to the answer.

Users will also get a say in this and will have the ability to "vote" on whether or not the thread was useful to them or not. This way people will be able to weed out the good and bad threads.

Reputation Points will not apply in General discussion forums.

A person who asks a question, cannot gain a reputation point(s) by answering his/her own question, however if the issue is left unresolved for 2 months and he/she answers it 2 months from first posting it, then, and only then, will they be able to gain that/those point(s).

A "Hints and Tips" forum where a single post should also be made up where at the end of the week, the best tip is chosen by public acclamation, and moved into a read only forum and the poster of the tip earns his/her point(s).


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Anybody have any thoughts about the above mentioned? Questions? Queries? Comments?

Feel free to shoot this idea down too! The more feedback I get, the better because I will know what will work and what will not.

Cheers
-Edwin

i like the idea of reorganizing threads to cover specific topics and issues, ideally in a seperate forum called guides/howtos/tips, or whatever.

I however don't particularly feel very strongly towards any kind of ranking or point allocation system, karma points isn't necessarily a bad thing IMHO but I don't really see the point, having posts moderated is good enough for me. not the person themselves being moderated also...

I don't give answers or help to get points, and I don't feel we need to over inflate peoples ego's by priveledges and stuff. (although i do like being a moderator, ehehe)

just my 2c

I echo timmy's sentiments.

My motivation is to help others experience the joys of TiVo. No other rewards required.

My NZ2.19507c worth :) (and they're catching up - $A went below $NZ1.10 recently).

Cheers, Dave.

OK then, suggestions on how we can structure things more logically? I thought a scoring system would work, but maybe it won't. Should I use Q&A only forums? or moderate posts in a Q&A forum?

Suggestions people... come on! We're a bright bunch so lets see us shine!