[Suggestion] Most Valuable Poster

[Davey Gaga]

Happnin chaps? Been surfing a few other forums, particularly one for my Starcraft game. The site has over a few million members already within 1 week and they know what they're talking about. They're re-instigating an old programme called the "Most Valuable Poster".

tl;dr version - different username colours/profiles/usergroup for best site contributors

Full version:

The time has come, StarCraft II enthusiasts and all-around social butterflies, to launch our community MVP program! We’re looking for a few good men and women who not only have a fond place in their hearts for StarCraft, but who also enjoy discussing gameplay and story with the rest of the community. The ideal candidates should be well-versed in the art of constructively approaching forum posts and blog comments, sharing insight and information whenever possible. We’re looking to fill the MVP slots with a broad spectrum of personalities and people with varying degrees of play experience and gameplay focus.

MVPs are not employees of Blizzard Entertainment. Instead, they're recognized members of the community with strong social skills and understanding of gameplay. Think you have what it takes? No applications are necessary. Simply take to the forums if you’re interested and show us that you're a dedicated StarCraft II player with the drive to help make this community the best it can be.

To learn more about the program, peruse the legendary MVP FAQ below.

Your life might just depend on it.

MVP Program Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Why was the MVP program created?

A. In many cases, the answers to questions posed on the forums have already been provided by Blizzard Entertainment employees, or are common knowledge for many in the community. However, answers by fellow players often go unnoticed while the original poster seeks a more official response.

In order to address this, we have instituted a program that has shown great success on other Blizzard forums: the MVP (Most Valuable Poster) program. Unique profile portraits and a distinctive posting text color is given to identified MVPs who answer other players' questions consistently and accurately. It lends a note of credibility to what they post; it allows players seeking answers to take what they say at face value, and frees up Blizzard representatives so that they can focus on their primary responsibilities.

Q. What does an MVP do?

A. MVPs promote constructive posting wherever they can. They contribute to the community and encourage polite discussion throughout the forums. When you see an MVP post, listen to what they have to say -- they were also chosen for their knowledge of the game.

Q. Why didn't you select _____, someone who always gives great constructive feedback on X subject?

A. Please understand that MVPs are not zerg, terran, protoss, league, or community representatives in that sense; they are not chosen for their ability to criticize game mechanics and give feedback. They certainly can do this (and many do). The members of the Community Team are still your vehicles through which you should submit feedback by posting on the forums and in blog comments. We do not have a race or ladder representative system in place at this time and would prefer to hear all players' feedback instead of a select few.

Q. Why aren't the MVPs in the Diamond league?

A. You do not have to be a competitive multiplayer expert to answer the majority of questions on the forums clearly and accurately. You do not need a specific number of Achievement points to be able to direct players to the appropriate page on the website for their question, or to link to an answer already given by Blizzard. MVPs are chosen primarily for their demonstrated communication skills and helpfulness toward the community, and while some of them may also be top-ranked players in one or more aspects of the game, it's not a requirement.

Q. How can I become an MVP?

A. Keep posting constructively, answering questions about the game, and encouraging discussion throughout the forums -- we'll take notice. Be sure to follow the Code of Conduct as well!

I like it - think we should do it here? Only to avoid favouritism I think we should PM all members, explain the programme and ask them to watch out for members they'd like to nominate in, e.g., 3 weeks time, then we nominate people, shortlist the most nominated, then take a public vote.

 

[Bambi]

I'm pretty sure it'd still just end up being a popularity thing

 

[CassinoChips]

For a forum of that size, that seems like a great idea. The question I would have for this site is...

Q. What does an MVP do?

A. MVPs promote constructive posting wherever they can. They contribute to the community and encourage polite discussion throughout the forums. When you see an MVP post, listen to what they have to say -- they were also chosen for their knowledge of the game.

Isn't that what Moderators do here?

 

[Harlequin]

Kelly would get my vote right there.

 

[Daenerys]

I have to agree with Kelly, while it's a nice idea in theory, and I can see the merit behind it, it would just become a popularity contest, really. It sounds like we would just end up in a situation where veteran members get voted to have a coloured username.

 

[Ewan]

I think Kelly's right. A lot of things on the forum become popularity contests and whoever has the most friends, wins. I think this would be the same. IMO obviously.

 

[Gaige]

Yeah. Newbies and some others will feel excluded. As well as that we only have around 50 active members, really.

Not that I'd win, huh Ewan?

 

[Rasputin]

For a forum of that size, that seems like a great idea. The question I would have for this site is...



Isn't that what Moderators do here?

No, they've never done anything resembling that, they mainly police bad discussion when it occurs. That being said, what is the bloody point of this? Who can't encourage people to be more polite already? This isn't the battle.net forums, we're not dealing with waves of bad gaming advice coming from newbs who have no idea how to play Starcraft. Most of the members here are pretty dang knowledgeable when it comes to FF games (if last night's trivia session was any indication), and we already have a reputation system to identify members that have gotten a lot of positive feedback in their posts. Like Bambi said this is just going to be a popularity contest. And even if it was merely a popularity contest, different people like different parts of the forum- it isn't fair to just give one person "best poster" status simply because they post in one or two boards all the time.

 

[Jack's Smirking Revenge]

The rep system and yearly awards already prove that anything like that is a popularity contest. The forum isn't big enough to need it.

 

[Davey Gaga]

Isn't that what Moderators do here?

In the sense that most moderators are chosen on the basis of popularity, yes. In the sense that they are thus automatically the best contributors, no.

To avoid the popularity contest issue, I did suggest taking a forum-wide vote, informing members by personal e-mail (I know it's possible to mass-mail the forum from the admin control panel quite easily). The people involved in that kind of 'contest' are in fact a minority of the forum so would be outnumbered.

That said, some (not all) are popular because of their massive contributions to the site, and those members would deserve as much of a chance as anyone. So, a long time to vote would be necessary, possibly with weekly reminders via e-mail (or even PM), you could vote as many times as you like.

Also, Adamant, I see your point. Battle.net is ridden with n00bs who know nothing about Starcraft game mechanics, so there are a lot more uninformed posters than here. However, I still like the principles.

 

[The Illusive Man]

In the sense that most moderators are chosen on the basis of popularity, yes. .

Moderators arent chosen on the basis of popularity at all from what ive seen, but more because they are dedicated and good at what they do.

As for the MVP thing, I dont see it being a good idea here because it would become too much of a "bragging rights" thing and some people may abuse it.

 

[CassinoChips]

In the sense that most moderators are chosen on the basis of popularity, yes.

Lol. While I don't disagree that that plays a part, I think it's more along the lines of being able to get along with the current staff so you'll be able to work together.

In the sense that they are thus automatically the best contributors, no.

That's not what I'm saying, although generally contribution is looked at, as you know.

What I'm saying is: Moderators promote constructive posting by discouraging/removing non-constructive posting; moderators contribute to the site; moderators encourage polite conversation by discouraging the opposite; moderators were chosen for their knowledge/ability to handle whichever section they were given.

Those were all the things a MVP was described as doing. For a forum of millions of members, I could see the need for that go-between. For us, it seems a bit redundant.

 

[Amizon]

No.

This idea wouldn't work because, as people have already pointed out, this would become a popularity contest. If anything, something like this would probably be included in the yearly FFF Awards.

 

[CassinoChips]

To be fair, I don't think just because something might be assumed to be a popularity contest, regardless of whether it actually is, is a valid reason to shoot down an idea. By that logic, S/AotW, the Birthweek Awards, the Rep System, and countless other things shouldn't be on this site, as they've all been accused of being a popularity contest, fairly or not. (Most cases not.)

 

[Rasputin]

To be fair, I don't think just because something may or may not be a popularity contest is a valid reason to shoot down an idea. By that logic, S/AotW, the Birthweek Awards, the Rep System, and countless other things shouldn't be on this site.

S/AotW is anonymous, and actually based on merits rather than sucking up to a specific segment of the site. Birthweek Awards are just a means of forum appreciation and don't imply any sort of privilege. Rep is nothing but a means of user feedback, and has no connection to post quality. None of these systems "stack the deck" against other posters, where as a MVP system most certainly would. For example, I don't want to enter a debate thread and have nobody respond to any of my posts because another member who's been chosen by a secret committee to have MVP status gets glittery bold font and a giant "IGNORE EVERYONE BUT ME" icon over their username.

Like I said earlier, Starcraft information is a whole different world than Final Fantasy information... whereas game details and effective strategies in FF games is pretty much set in stone, build orders and counters in Starcraft can be prone to an incredible amount of misinformation and differences of opinion that mainly stem from a lack of experience and communication skills. Whereas battle.net probably would benefit from separating the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, we really could spend our time better simplifying the posting system and making it easier for new members to actually participate.

 

[The Illusive Man]

To be fair, I don't think just because something may or may not be a popularity contest is a valid reason to shoot down an idea. By that logic, S/AotW, the Birthweek Awards, the Rep System, and countless other things shouldn't be on this site.

Ok then, a more logical reason then

The Reason the MVP system is being implemented on the official starcraft site is because the community reps are all paid staff and have multiple other duties to fufil other than moderating the site, thus there posting and forum time is usually exceptionally minimal, say possibly an hour a day at the most.

On sites with Voluntary mods, they are able to dedicate more time as they choose to do so and are thus usually able and willing to dedicate that time to the site, something that simply cannot be done by paid community reps belonging to a gaming company.

Blizzard are doing the MVP system to try and make there work easier, and thus making the community flow smoothy, something that is just simply not neccessary here.

sorry for the tl:dr there, but I think that should be a solid point.

 

[CassinoChips]

S/AotW is anonymous, and actually based on merits rather than sucking up to a specific segment of the site.

I agree. Hasn't stopped it from being accused of being a popularity contest.

Moreover, I was simply pointing out examples why the popularity contest argument isn't a very strong one.

 

[Ewan]

S/AotW is anonymous, and actually based on merits rather than sucking up to a specific segment of the site.

You may not be able to see who made which signature at the start, there aren't that many different people who enter. You can easily identify who made what based on their style. Biased voting happens in SOTW all the time.

 

[Amizon]

I've just realised that there's already a category for this sort of thing in the FFF Awards, so excuse my last post. In this case, I don't think this is entirely needed. MVP should really be based on a few months or a year, not weekly or monthly.

 

[Six]

The rep system and yearly awards already prove that anything like that is a popularity contest. The forum isn't big enough to need it.

I'm pretty sure it'd still just end up being a popularity thing

Agreed with those two. I rather see people put effort in to what they do, and enjoy the forums. The idea kinda gives me the feeling people will start out-doing each other for a coloured name, and then by the end of so long, loads of people will have coloured names, and if so, wouldn't that be a little confusing?

To be fair, I don't think just because something might be assumed to be a popularity contest, regardless of whether it actually is, is a valid reason to shoot down an idea. By that logic, S/AotW, the Birthweek Awards, the Rep System, and countless other things shouldn't be on this site, as they've all been accused of being a popularity contest, fairly or not. (Most cases not.)

I agree with CC on the first part of this, "just because" isn't a good enough reason, but as I've said, I think after a while, it'd just get confusing, and then there's those people that decide a name change every 5 hours, so... Then we'd have like a skittled site with name change colours?

Don't agree with the last part however, but it's an opinion as you can never know for sure. But I definitely think most cases are a popularity contest, which is rather annoying to see a lot.

tl;dr. I don't really care for it. It wouldn't change things for me.

Edit:

S/AotW is anonymous, and actually based on merits rather than sucking up to a specific segment of the site.

No, it's not. If you don't vote and you view how many votes one has, it clearly states who voted for what signature. Which is GOOD I think, because if not, it would be even easier to "pick the one that person made". /derail but wanted to put that out there.