META: Threshold to start an OP

Submitted by MGoGrendel on

We saw another knucklehead start an OP this morning, only to have his post quickly negged so his points are well below 0.  This happens all too often, IMHO. 

I’ve seen a new user get to 100 points after 24 hours and then start a stupid or inflammatory OP.  This is typically a troll who quickly creates another new “creative” username, gets to 100 points by the next day, and starts another worthless OP.  When new users and their “this is my first post, be gentle” ask some feelingsball question, it’s just nails on this chalkboard.

It’s too easy for trolls and inexperienced users to start an OP.  We have a great culture here and it takes a bit to understand the banter, adjust to the rhythm, and follow the insides jokes. As such, I would like to request that the Mods raise the level to start an OP.  I suggest the following thresholds:

  • Users must be registered for 6 months 90 days (?) 
  • Users must have 500 points

Justification: After this much time and comment participation, we can weed out the trolls and integrate the newbies.  Newbies can always “Thread jack, someone please post this (topic)”.  Trolls will be trolls, but we can at least hide their comments on the web.

So, let’s use this as a petition.  In the comments below, let the Mods know how your thoughts about this request.

 

edit: updated the time as 6 months appears harsh and could be bad for business.

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LSAClassOf2000

January 3rd, 2017 at 9:53 AM ^

One small clarifier that I've brought up before when people have asked this question - the mods themselves can't raise the threshhold. As tempting as it is sometimes, we don't have that level of access to the site. It is a Brian / Seth decision, if it indeed happens. 

I think the original intent of the 100 points was to avoid discouraging new content, but I'll let those above me give a more detailed answer on that one if they should choose to do so. 

 

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 130669

mgobaran

January 3rd, 2017 at 9:54 AM ^

My first OP was an incredible flop. Rambling on and on about how I had to watch the Michigan-MSU game (this one:)

on my TV through an antenna while I was hooking up my cable. How neat it was to have to rely on my ears more than my eyes and that the broadcast team did a great job and wow, how did anyone watch sports before HDTV!

And no look at me. Still spouting off garbage. What's wrong with this board?

Joined: 09/12/2012

MGoPoints: 22811

Maizerage11

January 3rd, 2017 at 9:54 AM ^

There are a lot of people, like myself, that read MGoBlog everyday, but do not post very often.  From my perspective the lenght of time you have been registred is a good indication of your dedication the site. 

Joined: 09/14/2015

MGoPoints: 1228

JBDaddy

January 3rd, 2017 at 9:54 AM ^

I'm just a lurker - I don't have enough points to create a thread, and I don't mind - but I do think 6 months is over-long.  I don't think 500 points is a huge hurdle though, and I say this as a guy without 500 points (bang me!).

I wish there was a way for a low-point, new user to create a thread that remained invisible (or in a non-default forum section?) until Mods/high-points users upvoted it enough.

The case I imagine is a former/family member/player who wanted to share a career, health or history update with the site.  That guy with actually valuable information shouldn't get overlooked, while idiotic recruit-tweeters should die in anonymity.  I wouldn't want this to create a burden of posts to review for anyone, so a hypothetical "separate" section not shown on the site by default and only visited by experienced users voluntarily seems to fit the bill.

But that would probably take a site update, which... yeah.

 

Joined: 12/12/2010

MGoPoints: 1118

EastCoast Esq.

January 3rd, 2017 at 9:54 AM ^

I was on-board with the higher threshold when I first read the OP, but I'm less enthusiastic after thinking about it for a bit.

If the mods are OK with cleaning up bad topics, why put in place additional hurdles for newbies? If the problem is trolls creating new accounts, then we should figure out a way to deal with those guys more effectively.

Joined: 07/16/2012

MGoPoints: 22979

uncle leo

January 3rd, 2017 at 9:56 AM ^

Don't like it. I've seen users with thousands of points start threads that were bounced into bolivia. I've seen users with 20-30 points start awesome threads. 

Just leave it up to the mods to determine whether or not to delete something. 

Joined: 07/29/2012

MGoPoints: 34636

FlexUM

January 3rd, 2017 at 9:57 AM ^

On most of the bodybuilding forums I go to they reign it in by using amount of time as a member and post count. Forget points that doesn't do anything. And I can tell you on the bbing forums if you don't keep it semi civil the shit gets out of control (violent, gay 4 pay, drug dealing, etc.) far beyond people being offended by a username lol.

You can create a new thread with:

100 Total posts

must be a member for 6 months

 

That completely eliminates trolls starting new threads and while the trolls could just post like crazy they would either get banned for stupd repetitive posts or not want to wait around for 6 months to make a thread.

This is overwhelming successful on many boards.

Joined: 11/05/2011

MGoPoints: 13574

wolvorback

January 3rd, 2017 at 10:00 AM ^

How do we also prevent the overused and played out :

-Oakland is still in play

-Counterstrike

-It's Diggs

-Stop drinking and go to bed

-Is this RDT?

-As well as many other one-liners that get used way to often to even be remotely funny.  

I'm still under 200 points after 8+ years.  I could give a crap about points.  

 

Joined: 11/01/2008

MGoPoints: 4592

taistreetsmyhero

January 3rd, 2017 at 10:04 AM ^

mods do a good job of keeping the board clean. there are 15 spots on the mgoboard website, and the mobile app lets you scroll to older ones easily so content getting bumped isn't a huge issue.

Joined: 08/08/2012

MGoPoints: 39396

Stevedez

January 3rd, 2017 at 10:05 AM ^

What about if someone has less than 500 points, their post needs to be approved before it goes to the board?  Not sure what the logistics would be on that though...

Joined: 08/24/2011

MGoPoints: 1603

The Legion

January 3rd, 2017 at 10:06 AM ^

I do not post a lot, but have been reading this blog for 5 years and a member for almost two. I feel like I have a decent grasp on how this blog works because I have been reading it for 5 years. I enjoy the content (the game recaps, recruting posts by Ace and Brian, player profiles, etc). I also enjoy reading the forum posts by the users. I do get a lot world event info from this site as well. I enjoy all aspects of this site and do not care if "useless content" gets posted everyonce and a while. I do not understand why some users feel it is their mission to neg away at low point users, or "put users in their place" when they post something they disagre with, or post content like this asking the mods to up the limit of points before being allowed to create a new topic. Yes, there will be trolls, but there are always going to be trolls on any website. The mods do a good job of weeding them out and removing them. 

Joined: 01/15/2015

MGoPoints: 517

BlueByTheAlamo

January 3rd, 2017 at 10:10 AM ^

I've been a member for five and a half years, and an unregistered lurker for probably another solid two before then. I'm not active on the boards as a poster, as evidenced by my lowly 160ish points, but I check the site at least ten times a day to see if there is any new front page content and read the latest board posts. I don't ever anticipate starting a new topic because, frankly, I don't see myself as having anything post worthy and been here more than long enough to know the common sense threshold. However, if I were to suddenly have a flash of insight that I felt was worth sharing, I certainly feel my almost 7.5 years around this place make me a far better judge of whether to actually post or not than someone who just joined and engaged in POSBang threads to rack up 500 points in a few weeks. So if there are changes, I recommend they be an "or" set of rules: 500 posts or a year on the board. That gives someone who wants to engage immediately a chance to learn by experience, hopefully earning a measure of post-worthy decision making on the path to 500. Alternatively, a poster who has been lurking on the boards for a year witnessing common decorum and learning the written/unwritten rules of post making through observation should have enough sense that if he or she suddenly deems a thought thread worthy the benefit of the doubt should be granted.

Joined: 05/26/2011

MGoPoints: 188

moserd

January 3rd, 2017 at 10:16 AM ^

Agree with this, 7.5 year lurker here as well and a few years prior to that unregistered. Add some time to a users account before allowing them to post new content if to many new threads are an issue. Start with 6 month, go to a year if not enough.

Joined: 07/13/2009

MGoPoints: 119

will

January 3rd, 2017 at 11:42 AM ^

Additionally, the MGoBlog Android app allows me to lurk while on the toilet, in a car, etc. 

Unfortunately using the app on a Samsung leaves you with no viable solution to have a post that does not appear as a single paragraph, so I rarely comment. On the rare occaision when I believe a comment might be warranted, I usually am downvoted for lack of punctutation or sentence structure.

 

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 2549

jbrandimore

January 3rd, 2017 at 10:13 AM ^

If the complaint is people with less than 500 points (including me) creating dumb threads, you forget the real problem.

How do newbies get points in the first place? 

Perhaps if we aren't quite so generous with upvotes (and downvotes) this problem will clear itself up to your satisfaction.

I don't think trolls would spend the time to make multiple accounts to upvote themselves. They can't reach 100 points (or 500) without a lot of help.

Joined: 01/06/2015

MGoPoints: 13708

cGOBLUEm

January 3rd, 2017 at 10:31 AM ^

There's the Friday posbang and upvotes for posting substantive comments in other threads. There are more ways to get points other than posting ~11 times per day.

Hell, post the gif of harbaugh punting Brutus' head randomly in any thread on the board and you'll get 20 points in upvotes.



Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

Joined: 02/11/2014

MGoPoints: 25540

M-Dog

January 3rd, 2017 at 10:40 AM ^

Protip:  This is a college football site, i.e. a site made up of predominately horny young men.

Just post any .gif of Kate Upton / Jessica Alba / Allison Brie a few times and you'll get enough points to post.

Here, you can borrow this one:

You're welcome.

 

Joined: 07/06/2008

MGoPoints: 257569

freelion

January 3rd, 2017 at 10:19 AM ^

but honestly I don't get the outrage about forum posts on this board. Maybe I am used to other forums where anyone can post a topic but my attitude is if you don't want to read it, move on to the next topic.

Joined: 10/03/2013

MGoPoints: 9049

bluecrush

January 3rd, 2017 at 10:32 AM ^

 on inappropriate posts is still one of the best ways for the community to get the point across.  Suggestion: On inappropriate content or in the latest case, user name, sig., and avatar some of the veteran users should give a short explanation of the offence then allow others to neg the OP and up vote the response.  This would quickly get the point across.  While it is incumbent upon the "newbie" to integrate into the community.  It is up to the community to let them know what is acceptable.

[edit]

Joined: 08/07/2013

MGoPoints: 381