appraisal forum modification

[RJ]

0 NP$ for posts in appraisal forum

The move to suspend NP$ accumulation in the appraisal forum is effective immediately, and will be pending review by forum staff and member representatives.

We will be re-evaluating and discussing the need for and benefits of incentivizing this part of our community. Does adding this bonus encourage unhelpful posts or does the increased activity outweigh the downsides? If you have an opinion on the matter please share it here.

The appraisal area is essential to our community and I encourage you to have your names appraised and continue to help your fellow members with development ideas and price values by appraising names in the appraisal forum.

As always, you can still list single names for appraisal using our request system at
http://www.namepros.com/appraise.php

Sincerely,
-RJ-

 

[OxDomains]

I have already voiced my opinion on this... the suspension should remain until further review by staff and member representatives.

http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21969

 

[armstrong]

Yes, that thread started by DB discussed the issue of forum spamming (specifically appraisals) quite thoroughly.

Until we can implement measures to truly control appraisals spamming, then I support this moratorium on NP$ for appraisals.

However, my guess is that this will have the effect of spammers moving on to other parts of the forum where NP$ can still be earned. So expect more mindless posts of "I agree", "I disagree", and the like.

What will happen then? Stopping the NP$ system altogether is not an option, as it is one of the most attractive features of the board, and makes possible small-denomination transactions with no transaction fees. We also don't want to spend all our time hunting and expelling spammers, who *will* find ways to return.

Therefore, I reiterate my suggestion (slightly modified to encompass the entire forum):

Create a facility for the thread starter (and only that person!) to 'rate' people who post on his/her thread. The rating should be a simple choice of 'spam or not'. Members with at least 50 posts, and who maintain an overall positive mark continue to earn NP$ for their efforts. Members who have an overall negative spam rating don't start earning anything until they get their rating back up.

I realize that this will probably take a bit of programming on your part, RJ, but I am convinced that this is the best long-term solution for our problem.

 

[Grrilla]

I can see why you are doing this now, and I agree. I had 2 recent appraisal requests, both w/ 3 names and got an $xx reply. When I questioned this and asked for more info (ie what name was the appraisal for?) I got no response from initial "appraiser", and my post was followed up w/ two more equally worthless $xx-style appraisals (for multiple names). My second multi- name request recieved the same $xx appraisal from the same member I had questioned earlier. I looked up this members other posts, which were mostly at appraisal board. and found an interesting pattern. His appraisals ran in groups w/ same value amt.- ie 5 in a row were $xx, than 4 were $xxx than 5 more at $xx and so on.

[sarcasm]Some coincidence that name appraisal requests posted by different people at different times would have the same values, and happen to line up in consecutive order just for his appraisals. Hmmm...[/sarcasm]

I need to give more thought to possible solutions, but would say that Apollos suggestion is looking good , at 1st glance.

 

[Coastalguy]

Not totally convinced that Apollo's "Spam or Not Spam" rating idea would fix the problem. Instead of having to read $xx appraisals we may now be subjected to verbal diarrhea, where members go on and on without saying too much in order to avoid being "Spam Rated".

I don't Know what would be worse.

If people would just post without thinking about how many NP$ they were earning there would be no need for this thread IMO.

ST

 

[OxDomains]

Easiest solution would be to have a character minimum on replies/appraisals

 

[RJ]

Originally posted by armstrong
Therefore, I reiterate my suggestion (slightly modified to encompass the entire forum):

I realize that this will probably take a bit of programming on your part, RJ, but I am convinced that this is the best long-term solution for our problem.

We had a similar situation when we first opened the forum early last year. My idea to help things was very similar to yours and I implemented little thumbs up/thumbs down icons at the bottom of posts. Thumbs up would give the poster NP$, thumbs down would take one NP$ away. The concept was that spammers would find out that posting junk would cause them to lose more than they gained.

Clicking either icon would rate the post instantly without any additional pageloads. I was quite proud of how it worked, but in practice the feature was underused and some of those that were using it were abusing it.

If I can find the old code, I wouldn't mind turning it on again to show you and solicit further suggestions.

 

[Professer]

Tough decision here to rate the spam factor without opening the process to further abuse, however, I think this idea might help to eliminate some of the useless "appraisal" posts. RJ, I'd like to see the code in action to see how it works.

 

[xclusive]

it is a problem when people dig up month old threads just to get $np maybe there could be a way to limit the $np to recent posts. Also if there is somebody that is just cut and pasting without thinking about the appraisal give them a warning then delete them if they continue.

 

[RJ]

Rate post thumbs up and thumbs down feature temporarily enabled, for the sake of discussion.

As for certain qualifiers such as post length and/or limiting NP$ to recent posts -- that's definately possible, as is anything that can be done with scripting. So thanks and keep those suggestions coming.

 

[OxDomains]

Originally posted by DomainBlasters
Easiest solution would be to have a character minimum on replies/appraisals

I take it that this in not a viable solution?

 

[RJ]

Originally posted by DomainBlasters
I take it that this in not a viable solution?

I definately feel it's viable as one part of an overall solution. One drawback of that concept on its own is that it is easy circumvented by clicking the QuickQuote button when making a post. Quoting the original post counts towards your own post characters.

 

[killaklown]

isnt there a mod that will disable characters in the quote from counting to the characters in the post?

 

[armstrong]

Consider also that cut-and-paste spammers can just as easily insert a wordy appraisal like "I like this name, and think that it might be worth $XX to a reseller, and $XXX to an end-user" over and over again with the same amount of ease.

I have another suggestion - how about limiting the NP$ that can be earned in a day? Something like NP$10 or NP$20 per day sounds reasonable, and would provide enough liquidity to the NP$ system while at the same time discouraging spammers, who would then have to resort to using multiple usernames to generate lots of NP$, and so risk getting caught. And if you put in a second rule that only those with more than 50 posts get any NP$, then that should discourage further attempts to register multiple usernames.

 

[Anthony]

I disagree with eliminating NP$ from the appraisal forum completely. I've found some of the best and most useful conversation at NamePros within that forum and I have already noticed that it has slowed or ceased already.

The little incentive of a few NP$ shouldn't be just turned off completely because some people spam that forum or just substandard appraisals. I think people who do that should be dealt with separately by the staff.

The appraisals forum has been one of my favorite sections of this site and I think this is eliminating a big portion of the community here. I made some appraisals anyway today, but already NPers are complaining that no one is appraising their domains... which is a problem.