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3/17/04
Presently I am working on this. The main idea is to make the site operate better. Point values will be used to encourage weak areas and discourage areas which are too strong. This should help to balance the site better.
The essential idea is that points will operate somewhat like money. You get points for some things and give them for others.
There will be two major new features added. One is that any member may hold a contest and award a prize to the winner. The prize will be points.
Another feature will be to feature an article or poem. That means the featured work will occupy a space on nearly all pages.
As I am developing this system, I am learning and thinking of new things. For that reason the points are not set in concrete, if fact, in order to continue to encourage areas while discouraging others, the points will not likely ever be fixed in concrete. We will likely adjust the values from time to time.
Membership: Joining or renewing will make you eligible to get a monthly allotment and a daily allotment of FREE points. 30-day free trial members will get the normal monthly and daily allotments. If you let your membership lapse for 30 days, you will lose all points you have.
Rating: Classically any rating system has been a failure. One main reason is it costs nothing to give a "10" This will change. Giving ratings will cost. So why rate? If you don't you will likely get very little respect (reads) from others. We will keep this cost reasonable. We have in mind a 1-5 points system. You will be able to award "praise" in increments from 1-5. The more "praise" the more it will cost. Since we wish to encourage wriring, Moon Notes and Recipes are neither given points nor can be praised.
Comments: These will be a part of the rating box. So, when you rate, you will also comment. While rating will cost, comments can earn points. A 100 character comment (useful) will earn maybe 5 points. The numbers may well vary to encourage reads in low traffic areas. For example, everyone reads poetry; some read stories but few read books. Comments in stories and books will earn you more points.
A balance will likely be struck between comments and ratings. What about cheating? Like saying, "good, good, good, good" etc until you get 100 characters? Comments will get zero until they are approved (or disapproved) by our human readers. A cheat on a comment would not likely get an approval.
Contests: This will be a new feature. You will be able to award whatever points you like within some possible limits. The winner will get those points. To discourage "shotgunning" of every contest, there will be an entry fee in points, likely about 20 for each contest you enter. You may also enter only one of your works in any given contest.
Submissions: These will usually cost points. We want to encourage quality at PnP. By charging points for a submission we can be more assured that people are not likely to post poor quality.
But some submissions will earn you points. There are few book reviews on the site. To encourage more, we may give points for those. Ditto for help articles.
Deletes: We have always frowned on deletion of material and for very good reasons. In nearly every case, deleting harms the site as well as its members. It messes up search engine placement and kills comments made by members, some of which are very helpful to others. So if an author wants to delete, we will allow it again. However... Neither PnP nor its members SHOULD, by any rights, BEAR this cost, nor will they. Hence, the author will bear the cost of the harm in points he pays. Deleting will cost 200 points for each delete. Certain articles won't be able to be deleted at any cost. Help articles and reviews are two.
Featuring: It will cost points to feature a work and it will be displayed on all main pages. We wish to keep this manageable, not a huge listing so works will be featured for 3 days th3en dropped from the listing.
Free Points: There will be a daily free allotment of maybe 15 points. You will be required to visit the site to get those. If you don't visit on a day, you get no points for that day. We may also give free points in whatever manner and number we feel is fair to help adjust to this new system
Purchasing points: Should you run out of points before your membership is due for renewal, you will be able to purchase more points. Some people have demanding jobs and cannot comment enough to earn points. This will help them.
Gifting Points: You will also be able to gift points to another member if you wish.
I believe that covers most of the new system. This is not an original idea but is in use at another site. However theirs is quite complex. We are trying to do a similar thing but simplified and more easily understandable. We are also trying to make our version far easier to navigate.
Change-over and timetable: I expect to have this operational quite soon.. within a week maybe?
bob
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