VIP/SVIP

[jf1093]

Just a suggestion: you should make a VIP and Special VIP group, VIP for... doing something special/special(SVIP) for donating something($$)

They could have access to extra places... I don't know, but itsa cool idea

[Chris]

The Elite group was/is kinda for that purpose. But the Elite forum is rarely used. Hence the unofficial abandonment of it :/

[Nate10]

The Elite group was/is kinda for that purpose. But the Elite forum is rarely used. Hence the unofficial abandonment of it :/

Speaking of the elite group: do you know if there's going to be any updates concerning the elites or if there'll be any new additions( member wise ) to it?

[Gerard]

With regards to money, it's not fair for people to gain access to things just for paying. This site is about its users, and those that contribute the most should gain rewards, not just those who have rich parents or their own credit card.

Not to mention a large number of our visitors are young (as in not adults) so are not physically able to pay, never mind legally able to enter a contract! And I'm not sure how the site benefits if noobs simply pay Chris to have access to stuff we currently reserve for the best members?

The current Elite group (which was expanded from the Veterans group) mostly contains those who have made valuable contributions to the site over time, and as such contains a lot of inactive users. The active Elites are all in gangs, so they do all their social activity in the private gang areas rather than in the Elite section. As such the Elite area is just dead, and always has been.

Sometimes you need a few noobs to spice things up, and obviously the lack of that means people have nothing to moan about. And we don't want to restrict topics in the rest of the forum (to convince Elites to post them in there).

So perhaps we should expand the Elite group to be all the decent active users - rather than a tiny number of the best? I'm sure we could work out a balance that encompassed exclusivity with activity.

Are there any other features we should add for Elites, or any that we should restrict from non-elites?

[Connor]

Maybe for the Elites, you could have the privilages that you'd like to let the decent members have, but can't because of the risks of new and untrusted members abusing it.

I haven't really seen many Elites nowadays, around 70% of them seem inactive, occaisionally a few posting every now and again though.

[Nate10]

With regards to money, it's not fair for people to gain access to things just for paying. This site is about its users, and those that contribute the most should gain rewards, not just those who have rich parents or their own credit card.

Not to mention a large number of our visitors are young (as in not adults) so are not physically able to pay, never mind legally able to enter a contract! And I'm not sure how the site benefits if noobs simply pay Chris to have access to stuff we currently reserve for the best members?

The current Elite group (which was expanded from the Veterans group) mostly contains those who have made valuable contributions to the site over time, and as such contains a lot of inactive users. The active Elites are all in gangs, so they do all their social activity in the private gang areas rather than in the Elite section. As such the Elite area is just dead, and always has been.

Sometimes you need a few noobs to spice things up, and obviously the lack of that means people have nothing to moan about. And we don't want to restrict topics in the rest of the forum (to convince Elites to post them in there).

So perhaps we should expand the Elite group to be all the decent active users - rather than a tiny number of the best? I'm sure we could work out a balance that encompassed exclusivity with activity.

Are there any other features we should add for Elites, or any that we should restrict from non-elites?

Yeah, I'm totally against the idea of paying for exclusive areas. It's not like we're a porno site or something.

Regarding who becomes elite, I still think it should be the best of members who will be picked to be elite because if we were to choose just decent active users, then it would defeat the purpose of elite's "vip" status because it wouldn't be fair to pick just some of the decent active users instead of all of them.

[Connor]

Maybe there could be a poll on who gets in, that way it's the whole forums opinion, which would make it fair and there would be no one getting all hurt about any decisions.

Edited April 16, 2009 by Connor

[Nate10]

Maybe there could be a poll on who gets in, that way it's the whole forums opinion, which would make it fair and there would be no one getting all hurt about any decisions.

I sortah like that idea, but couldn't that lead into a popularity contest? :/ I'm not saying that it's impossible for staff to favor someone at times but I trust the staff's judgement a lot more.

[Connor]

I still think it would lead to a lot less hurt and trouble if we had a vote, that way no one could go bothering the staff to make them Elites.

[Chris]

I personally don't like the idea of a poll-based decision, which Nate kinda hit on there. If someone has made enemies here but is actually a fairly decent member it's going to ruin their chances of getting in. Likewise, if someone is a bit of a dick but has a lot of friends they could get in easily. Could make a mockery of the group's status. Ultimately staff could have the final say so it's one way of doing it. I still think having staff solely be the ones choosing elites is good enough at the moment.

I'm all for making the Elite group bigger but I've no idea on how to encourage more use of the private forum.

Also, what privileges would you like if you were elite?

[Connor]

If I was an Elite, I'd like the posting restrictions to be more relaxed. There's lots of other things members have suggested, but because of the security risks from new and untrustworthy members, it wouldn't be an option for them to be allowed on the members group.

As for the selection process, I don't see a fair way of doing it, I suppose the fairest way would be the best though. When you say about members having enemies and friends, that's reinforcing the idea that they're a good member, but it's a bit of a complicated thing to do right.

I guess to narrow it down and eliminate any complete dickheads from being elected to be an Elite, a list of members could be chosen by the staff before any voting takes place.

Edited April 16, 2009 by Connor

[Noru]

I don't really like the idea of people voting. In my opinion it should be up to the staff to pick for now... Anyways I guess I'll ask this since its somewhat related, what ever happened to the idea of the gangs getting their own group?

[Nate10]

If I was an Elite, I'd like the posting restrictions to be more relaxed. There's lots of other things members have suggested, but because of the security risks from new and untrustworthy members, it wouldn't be an option for them to be allowed on the members group.

As for the selection process, I don't see a fair way of doing it, I suppose the fairest way would be the best though. When you say about members having enemies and friends, that's reinforcing the idea that they're a good member, but it's a bit of a complicated thing to do right.

I guess to narrow it down and eliminate any complete dickheads from being elected to be an Elite, a list of members could be chosen by the staff before any voting takes place.

Bold: Not neccessarily. There could be some noob that has a bunch of noobish friends, which will result in the noob getting a lot of votes.

Well, in case people reading don't know the current Elite privileges, here they are:

-Increased PM Storage

-Increased post attachment storage

-Ability to delete their own topics/posts

-Ability to remove the 'Edited by' line when editing a post

-Ability to avoid flood control on searching and posting

-Can change display name twice per month instead of just once

-Access to the Elite Members forum

I personally really like those, and currently can't think of anything the Elite should be offered. :/ Maybe a larger % of interest each week? I have no idea. I'll probably be thinking about it until I find something cool the Elite can be offered lol.

[Connor]

Not neccessarily. There could be some noob that has a bunch of noobish friends, which will result in the noob getting a lot of votes.

I could understand that happening, but twinned with the staff making a list of members first, that wouldn't be a problem.

Edited April 16, 2009 by Connor

[Nate10]

Not neccessarily. There could be some noob that has a bunch of noobish friends, which will result in the noob getting a lot of votes.

I could understand that happening, but twinned with the staff getting a list of members first, that wouldn't be a problem.

Very true, but wouldn't that ruin the purpose of a poll? ;O A poll is used so people can vote on something. Whatever gets the most votes, wins. So doesn't it sound like an unneccasary amount of time to pick who becomes Elite if we're going to have a poll, and even some of the people that win might not actually win because of a veto from the staff?

Edited April 16, 2009 by Nate10

[Noru]

I still think those privileges are good, not sure what else could be added but the larger % interest would be kinda useless to have now a days.

[Connor]

Not neccessarily. There could be some noob that has a bunch of noobish friends, which will result in the noob getting a lot of votes.

I could understand that happening, but twinned with the staff getting a list of members first, that wouldn't be a problem.

Very true, but wouldn't that ruin the purpose of a poll? ;O

Not at all, it would just narrow down the members to a list of people who the staff see fit for the group, but probably still too many to make them all Elites, so then all the members would vote on the few members who should get it.

That list of members could be drawn from a topic of members saying they'd like to participate, narrowing it down even further, with only active members participating. The staff could then pick out any members they don't see fit to be voted on, then the rest get voted on.

I'm up for the easy way too, just the staff deciding, but the voting on it's own, that would never do, I agree.

[Nate10]

This all just sounds like a unmandatory amount of time to decide on who becomes Elite. I do like your idea, and you've actually made quite a nice and organized way of doing it, but I think staff doing it would be overall better/better. Obviously I'm not the one who actually veto's your idea, just giving my two cents....

[Connor]

The staff decision, I'd prefer that one, faster and more convinient, but I think my idea would be more organized and fair for everyone.

Depends on how the staff want to go around it, if they want to make it just like a few people being put into the group, then the staff decision would be better, but if they're going to make a huge thing about it, it would be more appropriate doing the more organized and fair way.

Edited April 16, 2009 by Connor

[Nate10]

The staff decision, I'd prefer that one, faster and more convinient, but I think my idea would be more organized and fair for everyone.

Depends on how the staff want to go around it, if they want to make it just like a few people being put into the group, then the staff decision would be better, but if they're going to make a huge thing about it, it would be more appropriate doing the more organized and fair way.

By huge thing, do you mean have a lot more members in the group? Honestly, in my eyes, the Elite group is a sort of V.I.P.ish sort of thing so it shouldn't be a big group anyways. Well, maybe it should be a big group as the years go on but, you know what I mean. =P

[Connor]

I meant like, if they're going to make a big deal about it.

[Nate10]

I meant like, if they're going to make a big deal about it.

By big deal, you mean....? Because, it sort of is a big deal to become Elite already. ;D

[Connor]

I mean, they could either make a big deal about it or do it quietly.

[Gerard]

I think the suggestion of voting then vetoing is a bit long and complicated. I think a better version would be that members need (say) 10 nominations before the Staff consider them as being an Elite. That way the membership could put loads of people forward, and the staff would discuss them - rather than waiting for the staff to get round to it themselves (which could take a while). Obviously if someone got rejected, they'd have to not be nominated again for (say) 6 months.

Would we make a big deal out of it? Probably not. I mean it's cool having elite status, so every time we promoted a few members there would probably be an announcement or something. But not as big as the Awards, and not an announcement for every individual new elite (like we do with Staff). We could do it every month, and make it a regular thing?

Groups for gangs are being worked on at the moment. There are a few behind-the-scenes things happening with the gangs and the servers, and we're waiting for the big plan to be fully worked out before we start implementing it.

[Nate10]

I think the suggestion of voting then vetoing is a bit long and complicated. I think a better version would be that members need (say) 10 nominations before the Staff consider them as being an Elite. That way the membership could put loads of people forward, and the staff would discuss them - rather than waiting for the staff to get round to it themselves (which could take a while). Obviously if someone got rejected, they'd have to not be nominated again for (say) 6 months.

Would we make a big deal out of it? Probably not. I mean it's cool having elite status, so every time we promoted a few members there would probably be an announcement or something. But not as big as the Awards, and not an announcement for every individual new elite (like we do with Staff). We could do it every month, and make it a regular thing?

Groups for gangs are being worked on at the moment. There are a few behind-the-scenes things happening with the gangs and the servers, and we're waiting for the big plan to be fully worked out before we start implementing it.

If we do it like that, how many people would become Elite each month? Honestly, I like the voting idea and all, but the main thing that makes me not want to do it this way( and is a big reason why I like having the staff do it )is the fact that hey, maybe there isn't any people at the time being worthy of becoming Elite. Now would we just still do the voting and then welcome some noob to the Elite, or would we postpone the next voting? Either way, if there was an instance like this, it would be easier if it were just the staff voting like we already do.

And to keep the v.i.p.ish feeling of the Elite vital, wouldn't having people get picked each month be a little too much? Maybe we could lesson it to every 8 months( preferably longer ), and if you lose you still can be picked for the next one, because if we pick every 8 or so months, it'd seem silly to make someone who didn't win last time not get to be picked this time and have to wait 16 months to just get voted.

For the most part I like the idea, but I still prefer how we choose the Elite atm.

Edited April 16, 2009 by Nate10