Recently I am seeing a lot of useless posts in the forums. I define useless posts as forum posts that serve no use to the topic. Here are some examples.

NO SUPPORT

add [me] to [supporters v]

As per above.

As per above.

^^^

You get the idea. Obviously, what I am talking about here are posts that don't contribute ideas. This includes posts that just press the “quote” button and then the “submit” button, not even clicking the text area.

As you can see, to me these posts are a type of spam. They clutter up the forums. They limit innovation, they prevent good ideas from growth.

This situation is analogous to the “AE Studios” conflict. Some people think they're a type of spam. Nonetheless, people have a right to express themselves in their own way, regardless of some people's opinions. I do think that something should be done to limit these types of posts. The course of action the ST took on AE studios can suit itself well here.

Although I'm not exactly sure how.

This suggestion is more of a discussion. I want your guys' opinions on what should be done. All opinions are welcome. Even those who say we should do nothing at all!

I will be awaiting your opinions.
ChocolatePi

People make this kind of post because they want to let the OP and the ST know that they are a supporter or non-supporter. They want to cast their vote basically. The only solution I see is to add polls to suggestion topics. Then instead of OP having to meticulously count all the people on each side (or use my image generator, which is sometimes inaccurate because of the wide variety of support / no support messages people make), the results could be nicely displayed.

ChocolatePi wrote:

They limit innovation, they prevent good ideas from growth.

How?

ChocolatePi wrote:

As you can see, to me these posts are a type of spam.

^^^

lol

Anyway, I think that just quoting someone and pointing to them is okay because it represents a popular opinion. It shows that people agree with that user's opinion, as oppose to no one posting anything because one guy said all that there is to be said, and it then looking like no one agrees with that guy. And saying “Support” without giving reason is also okay, as it is basically quoting the OP and pointing to it- your reason for support is the same as the OP's reason for suggesting it. Saying “No support” without a reason is not okay, however, because you need to provide a reason why you no support in order to contribute to the topic, even if it's just quoting someone else. I do believe that something needs to be done about users abusing their post count by saying support or no support without reason, or pointing to other people's quotes, not because they actually care about the suggestion, but because they want to boost their post count. This is something that I frown upon, and while I do say support without reason, and have been known to point to other people's quotes, but I do it strictly in the interest of showing popular opinion (and because I get lazy sometimes), and not to boost my post count. (I honestly don't care too much about my post count.) I think that something should be done about this.

My suggestion (which has probably been suggested before) is allowing users to “upvote” posts (no downvote ability, for obvious reasons). Each upvote is added to the upvoted user's karma. Useful posts would get upvoted, while unuseful posts (like the “spam” posts you mentioned) would get few or no upvotes. This would encourage thoughtful posting and discourage posts made simply to boost post count. Lots of other forums do this, so I think we could do it here too.

MegaApuTurkUltra wrote:

People make this kind of post because they want to let the OP and the ST know that they are a supporter or non-supporter. They want to cast their vote basically. The only solution I see is to add polls to suggestion topics. Then instead of OP having to meticulously count all the people on each side (or use my image generator, which is sometimes inaccurate because of the wide variety of support / no support messages people make), the results could be nicely displayed.

One of the ideas I had was upvote and downvote buttons.

If you decided to downvote a topic, however, you would have to put comments about it in a textarea. That would clear up in the discussion part for people who, you know, want to have a discussion :package:

Iditaroid wrote:

ChocolatePi wrote:

They limit innovation, they prevent good ideas from growth.

How?

Because if people just keep “support”ing a topic over and over and over, then they start to not do anything else. Lots of people here have potential for discussion but they waste it on just quoting other people.

I definitely agree. The purpose of the forums is for discussion and communication. Simply quoting posts or using word substitutions defeats the purpose of discussion and doesn't really add any value to the discussion.

DaSpudLord wrote:

ChocolatePi wrote:

As you can see, to me these posts are a type of spam.

^^^

lol

Anyway, I think that just quoting someone and pointing to them is okay because it represents a popular opinion. It shows that people agree with that user's opinion, as oppose to no one posting anything because one guy said all that there is to be said, and it then looking like no one agrees with that guy. And saying “Support” without giving reason is also okay, as it is basically quoting the OP and pointing to it- your reason for support is the same as the OP's reason for suggesting it. Saying “No support” without a reason is not okay, however, because you need to provide a reason why you no support in order to contribute to the topic, even if it's just quoting someone else. I do believe that something needs to be done about users abusing their post count by saying support or no support without reason, or pointing to other people's quotes, not because they actually care about the suggestion, but because they want to boost their post count. This is something that I frown upon, and while I do say support without reason, and have been known to point to other people's quotes, but I do it strictly in the interest of showing popular opinion (and because I get lazy sometimes), and not to boost my post count. (I honestly don't care too much about my post count.) I think that something should be done about this.

My suggestion (which has probably been suggested before) is allowing users to “upvote” posts (no downvote ability, for obvious reasons). Each upvote is added to the upvoted user's karma. Useful posts would get upvoted, while unuseful posts (like the “spam” posts you mentioned) would get few or no upvotes. This would encourage thoughtful posting and discourage posts made simply to boost post count. Lots of other forums do this, so I think we could do it here too.

^^^
No Support because as per DaSpudLord.
Support for upvotes though.

Penguin9090_new wrote:

DaSpudLord wrote:

ChocolatePi wrote:

As you can see, to me these posts are a type of spam.

^^^

lol

Anyway, I think that just quoting someone and pointing to them is okay because it represents a popular opinion. It shows that people agree with that user's opinion, as oppose to no one posting anything because one guy said all that there is to be said, and it then looking like no one agrees with that guy. And saying “Support” without giving reason is also okay, as it is basically quoting the OP and pointing to it- your reason for support is the same as the OP's reason for suggesting it. Saying “No support” without a reason is not okay, however, because you need to provide a reason why you no support in order to contribute to the topic, even if it's just quoting someone else. I do believe that something needs to be done about users abusing their post count by saying support or no support without reason, or pointing to other people's quotes, not because they actually care about the suggestion, but because they want to boost their post count. This is something that I frown upon, and while I do say support without reason, and have been known to point to other people's quotes, but I do it strictly in the interest of showing popular opinion (and because I get lazy sometimes), and not to boost my post count. (I honestly don't care too much about my post count.) I think that something should be done about this.

My suggestion (which has probably been suggested before) is allowing users to “upvote” posts (no downvote ability, for obvious reasons). Each upvote is added to the upvoted user's karma. Useful posts would get upvoted, while unuseful posts (like the “spam” posts you mentioned) would get few or no upvotes. This would encourage thoughtful posting and discourage posts made simply to boost post count. Lots of other forums do this, so I think we could do it here too.

^^^
No Support because as per DaSpudLord.
Support for upvotes though.

DaSpudLord didn't “no support” anything. There's no suggestion, this is a discussion thread trying to think up a suggestion

Living proof, ladies and gentlemen, living proof.

ChocolatePi wrote:

Iditaroid wrote:

ChocolatePi wrote:

They limit innovation, they prevent good ideas from growth.

How?

Because if people just keep “support”ing a topic over and over and over, then they start to not do anything else. Lots of people here have potential for discussion but they waste it on just quoting other people.

I dunno. If the only thing a user thinks is “I agree,” as signified by their little ^^^arrows^^^ then I'd guess their potential for discussion is limited!

Scratch Community Guidelines wrote:

Be constructive. When commenting on others' projects, say something you like about it and offer suggestions.

I assume this applies to the forums as well.

However, doing something like this:

Another Supporter wrote:

A Supporter wrote:

Support, if optional.

^^^

is showing that a opinion is popular. So, it depends.

Communicating using Scratch blocks would probably be considered as spam, so you can report that.

You're probably thinking of this, but I think that making your posts useful should be encouraged, not forced. Because no matter what we try, I don't think anything's going to work.

TheAwesomeMaster wrote:

Scratch Community Guidelines wrote:

Be constructive. When commenting on others' projects, say something you like about it and offer suggestions.

I assume this applies to the forums as well.

However, doing something like this:

Another Supporter wrote:

A Supporter wrote:

Support, if optional.

^^^

is showing that a opinion is popular. So, it depends.

Communicating using Scratch blocks would probably be considered as spam, so you can report that.

You're probably thinking of this, but I think that making your posts useful should be encouraged, not forced. Because no matter what we try, I don't think anything's going to work.

Yes. That's what I meant by my AE studio comment. We can't force people to make intelligent discussion. We can only encourage it.

Removing or deemphasizing the post count would probably decrease unconstructive replies, because people may post the just to increment their post count. I would like post cont to replaced with a ranking system based on post quality, but I believe a topic already exists for these ideas.

Chibi-Matoran wrote:

Removing or deemphasizing the post count would probably decrease unconstructive replies, because people may post the just to increment their post count. I would like post cont to replaced with a ranking system based on post quality, but I believe a topic already exists for these ideas.

I think that the main reason that people do this stuff is to try to feel helpful, or to try to get the idea implemented, rather than just to increase their post count.

They just don't realize that providing constructive points means more to the ST than mass support

Here's my idea:

In every suggestions forum topic, there are two arrows next to the reply text box. Upvote and downvote arrows. Upon your first post on the topic, you can decide whether you want to vote the suggestion up or down. Alternatively, you can just upvote it and not say anything.

I think it would satisfy both the people who create large quote chains, as they can simply vote the suggestion up without saying anything. It would also satisfy those of us who have discussions in the discussion forum

ChocolatePi wrote:

Chibi-Matoran wrote:

Removing or deemphasizing the post count would probably decrease unconstructive replies, because people may post the just to increment their post count. I would like post cont to replaced with a ranking system based on post quality, but I believe a topic already exists for these ideas.

I think that the main reason that people do this stuff is to try to feel helpful, or to try to get the idea implemented, rather than just to increase their post count.

They just don't realize that providing constructive points means more to the ST than mass support

Here's my idea:

In every suggestions forum topic, there are two arrows next to the reply text box. Upvote and downvote arrows. Upon your first post on the topic, you can decide whether you want to vote the suggestion up or down. Alternatively, you can just upvote it and not say anything.

I think it would satisfy both the people who create large quote chains, as they can simply vote the suggestion up without saying anything. It would also satisfy those of us who have discussions in the discussion forum

Instead of the ST having to add large amounts of code to djangobb they could literally just enable the poll instead.
Simple solution; no effort required; fixes most of your problem.

To ensure post quality, we need to do things. The ST should do something that increases post quality. Meanwhile, we should think of more ideas for Scratch, such as making posts better. If you like this idea please quote and do carets for good luck.

when [you quote this post v] :: sensing
say [I support making posts more better quality with good ideas] for (lots of :: extension) secs :: control

Zro716 wrote:

To ensure post quality, we need to do things. The ST should do something that increases post quality. Meanwhile, we should think of more ideas for Scratch, such as making posts better. If you like this idea please quote and do carets for good luck.

when [you quote this post v] :: sensing
say [I support making posts more better quality with good ideas] for (lots of :: extension) secs :: control

^^^

Does it matter whether or not someone simply types “support” to say that they like the suggestion or write three giant paragraphs on why exactly this is a good idea even if pretty much all the points have been covered and thus they're just restating things other people have said? This is the Scratch forums, not some English assignment on writing “quality” things.

Prinseskat wrote:

Does it matter whether or not someone simply types “support” to say that they like the suggestion or write three giant paragraphs on why exactly this is a good idea even if pretty much all the points have been covered and thus they're just restating things other people have said? This is the Scratch forums, not some English assignment on writing “quality” things.

It clutters up the thread. If you were having a conversation, and someone said a really good point, would you want 30 people saying “I agree with him!”, or would you want people to say stuff that hasn't been introduced yet?

MegaApuTurkUltra wrote:

Instead of the ST having to add large amounts of code to djangobb they could literally just enable the poll instead.
Simple solution; no effort required; fixes most of your problem.

^^^