Raise the awards!

Whilst i want to encourage everyone to post as much as possible in order that these forums and all who sail in them are nourished with a wide variety of stimuli, posting only for the purpose of getting little multi coloured letters next to your name is kinda silly don't you think?

Having said that, if they had black as a colour when you reached like 500 posts, comments and poems and 5.0 for your rating would be cool....as black contains all known colours.

i don't think anyone has all that on this site ... because that would require a perfect human being ... such a being does not exist (if it does, let me know!) but i like the idea ... i started a new account cos my old one got all the awards so i thought id be fun to start again, and it is ...

peace x

I think it's neat idea, but sometimes the awards for comments aren't all that well deserved. For example, I've come across with a lot of comments in which all they say is :

Great Work! Very good!

and then... The End.

If they do that on every poem they "read" .. then.. would the comments awards really be well deserved? You can't even tell that they actually read the poem.. hmm.. sorry, getting off topic here.. well.. just something to think about.

haha... yes. amilo is right! i've thought about that a hundred times. still, that's inevitable. but i also have to say that i liked friends' idea. :)

how about a mega award, like 1000 poems, 10,000 discussion posts, 10,000 comments, or something ridiculous like that. That way someone who is an enormous contributor to the site (if one ever exists) gets a little black mark saying that they spend a lot of time here. (the numbers were a bit exaggerated) but I do think that if there is to be one more level of awards, like a black one, it would have to be much larger than the first three- exponentially, not linearly.

i was going to say 1000 poems .. a bit much!

but yes ... i think it's a good idea .. however i don't think black is a good 'colour' for something giving praise, having a black mark is associated to negative behaviour etc ...

wouldn't a multi coloured award look nice?! okay, now it's my bedtime ... :P

I agree that it might be interesting to see how many people have you on their favourites list, but aside from that, the main benifit of posting in the forums and commenting on peoples poems is the sharing of knowledge and opinions, surely that is the prime factor?

I get concerned when so many people are intently chasing coloured squares with letters in them.

ok, this may be crazy... but what if the forum awards reset every so often... In my perfect fantasy land, (yes, I mentioned it in another thread) threads that have not been posted on for a month or more would be deleted (and so our number of posts would naturally drop). People never take time to look through the category to see if their topic have already been discussed anyway..so why not just keep it to fresh/active threads. Then the awards would be for posts per month....

I was wondering about this weeks 3 contestant winners. The one with all the fine gold letters now has 50 comments, and Shaneez, whose poem is of a very high quality, had only received a few comments.

Obviously the other poet has been here longer and is better known etc...but i can't help feeling that those little letters unfairly influence people into commenting as they infer a fake importance or poetic skill that i find slightly insulting.

We all know who some of the good poets in here are, we all know who contributes regularly to the forums and gives decent comments...and most of us know we are on at least someones favourites...or at least i always tell people when i add them.

So why have little childlike rewards as if we need to be psychologically conditioned through a gold star scheme in order to contribute?

Sorry if i sound harsh, i mean i'm not arguing for myself as I, without wanting them have some quaint letters, but many new and better writers than i do not, and perhaps they have not the time or material to earn this prestige and the attention that without a doubt goes with it.

I'd be a happy chap if the awards and ratings system were abolished.

Does anyone think i'm out of line here?....

Why we have to bother about those letters/awards? The golden lettered poets didn’t start with golden letters. Their talent was not recognized in a day. Like the newcomers, once they were also new comers. Their talent was not recognized by their first poem. If their efforts were rewarded with golden letters, what is wrong in that? If a person with golden letters beside their name writes a poem and if it doesn’t appeal you, is it their fault? Others like it. That’s why they became gold! 8) I agree that many times talented newcomer’s poems go unnoticed. But is it any other’s fault if they quit before they are recognized?

Some times stolen poems find place in the winning category. Of course, that makes me laugh.

The awards are never accurate. But many of them think its accurate and they write poems to get awards! :D. For some, winning awards fetch confidence. For some, it makes no difference. For some, the awards are annoying. If you don't like the rating and awards...just ignore it. Simple.

I don't think it is that simple Trincy, and like i said, i'm not debating this issue for myself.

More importantly i'm also not trying to link fault or blame to anyone, i'm not sure how you came by that idea. I'm merely suggesting that it might just be a grand thing if everyone on here was of equal standing and regard in terms of how eager random readers are to peruse their work over anothers, reputations aside that is.

Those little letters negate that hope, cute as they are.

Kevin Murray...

The poet you speak of, Shaneez, whose poem you say is of very high quality, is being accused of plagiarizing.

Your points, however... are very logical and I agree with you.

Oh Kevin, I didn’t mean that you were blaming it on anyone. I have read you complaining about the same issue before also. In short, I meant that some people enjoy it while some people don’t. So why don’t you try to bypass it?

Did you know that Shaneez’s poem was not her own?
(But I understand that was not your point)

Even I don’t like the voting system. I like getting comments. In the start, the little letters used to excite me. Some true comments and some fake comments did inspire me to write more frequently. It took me a while to realize that these letters had nothing to do with my poetry. Even though it makes no sense, isn’t it a bit of FUN to have those letters? At least we can FOOL others and ourselves to believe that we are great poets. jk...!:D

May be Janis can restrict those awards to stay only in our profile not with each and every poem of ours! Ha! Is that okay?

I was having good time talking to Kevin. I sound a bit sarcastic because of my bad mood. I don’t have problem with adding up the awards. It might be fun. We all might look like butterflies in the end! As somebody else suggested black is not a good color for awards. the multicolor symbol sounds good!
I think we should have those awards for very high numbers…like 200 favourites, 5000 comments, 5000 discussions and 500 poems.

I vote for the idea. But I do agree with Kevin also. So why not keep it only in the profile? Or do you want to carry it with your poems?

i myself write only for the enjoyment i get from it, at least that was all when i started, but now i see others enjoy my writing, i write for them also ... and so the awards and voting let me know i am still loved ... my last account got all the golds, so i started a new account, and when this one gets the golds (if it does) i shall start again ... in my boring life it gives me something to do lol ... i think it's a nice addition to the site ... and i like to read poems by new members, in fact my favourates list has a number of new members who sadly never came back for more ... but that's not our fault ... it takes a long time to build up the recognition ... and it's fun to do so, and when you get their it's anice accomplishment. i think having even higher awards might be nice ... but saying to get rid of them altogether is something i find incredibly strange ... though i see your point, you should see that it does offer so much.

peace x

It would be great to see how many people have you on your favs and how many comments you have made and posts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

noooooo!!! that would take up too much space!!! ahh!!! *runs away from the space monsters!!!*

hehe-j/p...i like the ideas!!

Certain poets on this forum are very well known, almost to the point that it is "clique-ee" (I think I just made up a word...), anyway there really isn’t anything any of us can do about that and it’s not a big deal, just an observation.

Do I think that the metals contribute to that? Not really. For instance I have 3 metals, including the gold favorites, and I know that I’m not really one of the big "well knowns" with a huge fan base.

For this reason I think that it would be good to make another award after the gold. I think that having a black award that changes from person to person is great. Say that you only have 15 black awards at a time that goes to the 15 people with the most comments, the 15 people who are on the most favorites lists, etc. Every month it can change. This shows who the "big" talent is and who the buzz is about, currently. It’s an accomplishment that you have to work to keep.

I agree with what was said earlier... it’s important to consider that the people with the awards didn’t start out with awards. Everyone on this forum has the opportunity to make themselves known.

Also it would be fun to know the actual statistics.... like knowing exactly how many people have you on their list or exactly how many comments you have made.

Another idea which people will either love or hate is that you can have a section that numbers all the poets according to popularity, you have them by rating and by age, etc. So why not list them in order of favorites?