PHP Freaks Gurus

[GingerRobot]

Besides, the true spirit of a community is to contribute to the greater good -- if you need kudos, 26 stars or an arbitrary title to motivate you, that's not really in the spirit of community either.  There's nothing wrong with being rewarded, but it's not a reward if you're expecting it.

 

Very well said fenway, couldn't agree more.

[phpSensei]

It doesn't take great effort to create a thread for a competition, just push in some rules and instructions then have a poll where the members can judge who the winner is (those who didn't enter the comp). Its not only the mods/admins that know how to judge, we can too

[ober]

The main reason we haven't done competitons is the lack of judging effort and the lack of prizes.  I'm not going to throw another competition up until I have dedicated judges and a decent prize to award.

 

And if we need to continue to discuss ranks (and I think we're beating a dead horse), we can move it to another thread... m'kay?

[Barand]

What really happens is

 

User wants a site developing but isn't prepared to pay for someone to develop it for him so he invents a competition.

 

Of course, it's going to be for reputation/fun because the guy isn't prepared to spend anything on the development, so hardly likely to stump up for the cost of a prize.

 

And all he gas to do is register.

[phpSensei]

A competition is only "fun" if it's run properly and there are some objective criteria based upon which a winner is selected... in the past, these judges were the mods/admins.  It would be difficult to have random members judging, unless there was a pre-selected panel (maybe Gurus/PFRs).  Either way, the point is that it takes time & effort.  And for those of us with real-life responsiblities, it's simply not always feasible to take on too many extras hours of forum work above that which we already have.

 

The Admins & Mods should really stop doing whats in their best interest and start taking decisions that the community should take a say in.

I doubt that many others would echo this sentiment.

 

The purpose of this thread was to announce the new Guru status, not to have it up for debate.  As always, members are welcome to give their opinions & suggestions, but the decision to remove post-based ranks and replace it with a designation has been made, and is not up for debate at this point.  The new designations were simply designed to make it easier to rely on someone's experience and expertise, nothing more.  This was not taking a shot at the other members, who contribute in a positive fashion every hour of every day.

 

Besides, the true spirit of a community is to contribute to the greater good -- if you need kudos, 26 stars or an arbitrary title to motivate you, that's not really in the spirit of community either.  There's nothing wrong with being rewarded, but it's not a reward if you're expecting it.  Just my $0.02 -- and FWIW, I speak for myself, not the entire mod team (unless they happen to agree).

 

So the rest of us that do think about ideas for the future of PHPfreaks, or even use the internet have no life, or responsibilities?

 

Most of the suggestions in the "suggestion" section are ignored, and never taken up for debate (Okay, maybe they are,but no one ever wins). The only way is to propose an idea and let the members of the community vote upon, not just do it within your mod/admin huttle. The true spirit of a community is to work as a community, and take decisions based on a consensus (or majority vote).

 

Plus, I won't lie! I do care about the GURU titles, or I used to when I was more active on this site. I think someone with a high post count shouldn't be titled as "none helpful user", but more like Loyal Member, or Good Contributor, or Honourable...etc

 

Things of that matter, not just GURU or MOD.

 

And when I say "none helpful member" was because of what one mod said << I  can think of atleast 2 people who have a ton of posts, but sometimes they post answers and I almost laugh out loud>>.

 

[GingerRobot]

Personally i think quoting someone and adding bold tags to show emphasis which wasn't there is a touch unfair. But anyway...

 

I dont think it would be possible to select many judges who weren't from the staff. There are certain things you would have to guarantee about the judges, which would otherwise be difficult to do so. For example, you would have to know that the judges will be around regularly to do the judging.

 

Also, given that quality of code was (and should remain) a factor in the scoring, a judge would have to have sufficient expertise to be able to to judge quality of code. Now im not saying that the only people who are skilled enough to do this are staff, but it would be difficult to guarantee this from other members.

 

Lastly, there's no chance that these competitions could be totally user-run. They involve prizes and decisions. As you yourself alluded to, without someone/a panel to have the final say, a decision as to the nature of the competition wouldn't even be reached. Complete democracy is an idealistic impossibility im afraid.

[448191]

Plus, I won't lie! I do care about the GURU titles, or I used to when I was more active on this site. I think someone with a high post count shouldn't be titled as "none helpful user", but more like Loyal Member, or Good Contributor, or Honourable...etc

 

Things of that matter, not just GURU or MOD.

 

We can't do that. As has been said before, postcount doesn't indicate anything but postcount. You can have a million posts and be very dishonorable, just not enough to get banned.

 

As Daniel already implied, your energy is better focused on getting a title that actually says something (like the new Guru titles), than, forgive my rudeness, bitching about the dropping of the postcount based titles. We are actively selecting new members to join the ranks, but being a nag about it is not one of required qualifications.

 

Most of the suggestions in the "suggestion" section are ignored, and never taken up for debate (Okay, maybe they are,but no one ever wins). The only way is to propose an idea and let the members of the community vote upon, not just do it within your mod/admin huttle. The true spirit of a community is to work as a community, and take decisions based on a consensus (or majority vote).

 

I disagree that the staff does not listen to members' ideas. It is however up to the staff, ultimately the admins, to decide whether an idea that has the outspoken support of only a handful of people, should affect the thousands of other members. Applying full democracy to a forum of this size is not realistic, period.

 

And when I say "none helpful member" was because of what one mod said << I  can think of atleast 2 people who have a ton of posts, but sometimes they post answers and I almost laugh out loud>>.

 

Well, there are. Probably quite a few more even. Yet, nobody is being labeled "none helpful" or worse. Some are labeled "more helpful", which is a positive solution to a problem that could be handled a lot less gracefully, yet you make it a negative thing. Does it say "none helpful" beneath your username? No. It just says 'Member', which is the only label we can give everyone. We're not going to do postcount based titles. Live with it.

 

It's actually a bit sad that this thread, which is intended to announce the new Gurus, has been hijacked for your personal grievance with the loss of your postcount based title.

 

Probably best if you just let it go. It's just virtual titles, nice to have but they don't buy you anything in real life, not even the staff titles.

[.josh]

phpSensei I like you.  You remind me of myself. 

 

Here's the thing about the competitions:

 

I started them for exactly the same reasons you mentioned.  It's something cool and fun and challenging.  It brings people in, keeps them here.  It encourages learning and expanding one's horizons.  It encourages teamwork.  It helps the community grow.

 

They have been put on hold for exactly the same reasons everybody else has mentioned.  There was not enough commitment from the judges and the contestants.  People would sign up and then disappear.  Or they would turn around and dice out.  You have no idea how aggravating that is, or maybe you do.  It's very aggravating, like nails on a chalkboard.  Okay well, nails on a chalkboard isn't as horrible as people make it out to be, so it's something worse, like when you've had no sleep and your baby just won't stop crying and it's like they know that perfect frequency that somehow penetrates straight to the core of your brain like some crazy xmen sonic superpower and you just wanna grab that damn baby and throw her against the wall and run over and suplex her and SMASH SMASH SMASH.  Well, except you don't really.  Plus, there aren't really any babies to throw around here.  But it's like that.  THAT.  /tosshandsinair GAH.

 

Also the judges were being lazy, and I can say that, because I was one of those lazy judges.  I had real life stuff to do, other people had real life stuff to do.  I can say more than anybody else that I wanted to the competitions to succeed, because I was the one who got it running in the first place.  I got into fistfights over it and even busted out my evil eye /evileye defending it like a fat man huddling over the last chicken wing /moreevileye.  But the cold hard reality is that it takes more dedication to it than most people around here have, to keep it going.  It takes more dedication to it than most people around here have, to even compete.  Things always look good on paper or in your head.  It's a very big humbling experience to find out that just because it looks good on paper, doesn't mean it will actually work. 

 

And I agree with you 100%, there were many awesome competition suggestions that were posted by many people.  But they were not overlooked or disregarded.  You could possibly make that claim if you continued to see competitions being posted, but that isn't the case, now is it?

 

Does that mean that competitions are not a possibility?  No!  It just means that I or we or somebody has to look at the past experiences and make adjustments accordingly.  But regardless, our main priority right now is getting the main site back up and running, so (very conveniently), the competitions have been put on the back burner. 

 

And we are not trying to do what's solely in our best interests on this (or anything else for that matter), but our interests do play a part in it, just the same.  We don't get paid to do what we do.  We're here because we want to help and make things fun.  We want to be the teachers.  We want to be the janitors.  We want to be the hosts of the party.  We are here to serve, on our own time, because that's what makes us happy.  We create a community that makes us happy, and if you come to our party, talk to a few hotties, have a few drinks, and would like to stay, then kick off your shoes, grab a chair, and let's party.  But if you don't like it..well, you know where the door is.  Or if you've gotten too drunk off our cheap booze to find your way out, we'll be more than happy to show you that, as well.

 

And I agree with you 100% in that there are plenty of recommended members who are smarter than the mods and admin.  I'm so horrible that I come with my own disclaimer (see my sig).  I'm glad you (or was it someone else?) pointed out that "google can make you look smarter than you really are."  I fully admit that I have turned to google or php.net or some other article countless times, trying to help people out.  But I'm not here to try and make myself look smart in front of a bunch of other people who are here helping out for free, themselves.  I'm here to help fix problems, and I don't know about you, but when I have a problem that needs to be fixed, I don't give two sh!ts whether someone knew it off the top of their head or if they looked it up for me.  That's not the point, and you know it, so trying to spin that off as an accusation just makes you look like an arse.  My apologies if it was not you who said that.  But I nonetheless wag my finger at whoever did. 

[tomfmason]

It's actually a bit sad that this thread, which is intended to announce the new Gurus, has been hijacked for your personal grievance with the loss of your postcount based title.

 

Probably best if you just let it go. It's just virtual titles, nice to have but they don't buy you anything in real life, not even the staff titles.

 

I agree with John 100% and this post is  now completely off subject. The competitions have nothing at all to do with original reason for this post. I suggest that any discussion regarding anything other than the new guru titles be taken else where. One more off subject post and I will lock this topic.

[phpSensei]

Crayon Violent, You knocked me down hard and I end the argument... I guess. I just saw disappointed members (including me), and wanted to say something regarding the decision making around here. Our main focus should be the main site right now, and maybe we can discuss bringing back competitions later in the future. For now, I rest my case...