What's the point of points?

Are community points important?

I have mixed feelings about the points system...I can't wait to get to bronze !! However it does encourage people to churn etc, although i do find it useful to find established members more easily if I have any questions....if they are a Bronze dot or above it doesn't neccesarily mean they are a good writer but it does mean they are experienced so if you have any questions they can normally help you !

At the beginning of the Ciao experience, maybe, although of course there is the race for the next dot. At my stage of the game, no use whatsoever to me nor the site really.

I have mixed feelings about them. They're of no use in the beginning, because they encourage churning. When people have got a high dot, then it's quite good because it means newbies can see who to turn to for advice.

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When people have got a high dot, then it's quite good because it means newbies can see who to turn to for advice

Does it though ? I have to admit that I have been on the site for a long time but it's only in the last year that I learned a lot of the things that I know from people wiser than me. Dot status doesn't tell you much except that you have been active on the site but your actions and advice may not be the best.

The gold and silver people are the best. Everyone should be white until they become silver.

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The gold and silver people are the best. Everyone should be white until they become silver

That made me smile. Don't agree at all. One of the wisest members I ever met was a green dot that actually asked members why they do things the way they do, and made one heck of a lot of sense in their intepretation of how they thought things should be done. They were right. Trouble is people get stale too when they have been on a site for a long time and need to shake themselves up sometimes. I have done in the last year and have found that taking on good advice from members at any level that spoke more sense than me was helpful to my use of the site as well as to the effectiveness of that site useage.

There are some good green dots but most are not as good as the silver and gold dots. The good green dots will be gold dots if they keep being good. How can a newbie know which green dot is the good one? Only the silver and gold dots can be trusted to be good for newbies.

I like my dots but would prefer to have a choice to choose the colour of my dot to suit my mood.....

I think we had this on another thread on the old forum. Yeh, that would be a pretty cool idea, maybe even having set choices at different levels of ciao activity. When you get there, a screen shows you the choice available and you can chose. Personally I like the colour I am better than all the others, and will probably stay there for ever.

I liked the dots up until I was red. Then I wanted to stay red. The orange was horrible but not as bad as the poo dot Now I wish there were no community points!

The poo dot is the worst and the wait to get rid of it excrutiating. Staying at silver seems the best option for me, and I think when people reach poo colour, they get a little wary of it all.

Let's look at the average "newbie" :

1. They haven't bothered reading any of the FAQs, therefore..

2. They haven't got a clue what community points mean and therefore don't understand that the different colour dots mean anything at all until...

3. They get to 1000 points, suddenly they're green and get lots of GB messages congratulating them.

So as far as a new member goes, the dots really mean nothing, and they certainly aren't going to realise that there are people (not me) that assume a silver dot is a better writer than a green dot.

It didn't take me long to realise that the points system means absolutely nothing. There are metallic colour dots that are fantastic writers but some are just mediocre (as with all the different writers). All a metallic dot really means is that the member is either :

a. Very active on the site (ie. rates/comments/posts a lot), or

b. A long term member (ie. been on the site for years)

I thoroughly agree with that.

Someone who has been at the site for years and has been very active is better than someone who has only just arrived and isn't very active.

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Someone who has been at the site for years and has been very active is better than someone who has only just arrived and isn't very active.

Only in that their site knowledge may be better. That does not make them a better writer, but does mean they can help newer members with finding their way around the site.

That is what I said. Gold dots are better at helping newbies than other dots.

DanielsMother wrote:

Someone who has been at the site for years and has been very active is better than someone who has only just arrived and isn't very active.

Why? What makes them better? I'd love to know your reasoning behind that. What makes you think that I'm better as a bronze dot than somebody that's only just joined the site?

Because I sure as heck know I'm not. Yes I've had time to form my own writing style, but I know there are white dots that write a lot better than I do.

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Gold dots are better at helping newbies than other dots

Agreed but only in a limited way. You have to bear in mind also that by the time a member reaches gold dot status, they may be thoroughly sick and tired of the site and have set ways which are not necessarily the best way to go with new members. As for review writing, I think it important that writers develope their own style, but do point members to the guidelines on writing reviews so that they can make their own decisions, as their writing abilities are not really the question. It is more a case of knowing what review writing is about, rather than inflicting ones style upon another member

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DanielsMother wrote:

That is what I said. Gold dots are better at helping newbies than other dots.

And how exactly would you know this? There are to my knowledge only 3-4 gold dots on the site, and of them only one is regularly on the site. So how are the newbies meant to even find them to ask for help. The only member that they really need to find is the new member guide (and she normally finds them), if anyone else wants to help them then fine, but please don't assume that anyone is better at anything than anyone else just because they have a shiney gif besides their name.

Then why not tell Ciao to get rid of the points if they don't mean anything? They do mean something. A newbie will be better off going to a gold or silver dot than guessing which green dot to go to.

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Then why not tell Ciao to get rid of the points if they don't mean anything? They do mean something. A newbie will be better off going to a gold or silver dot than guessing which green dot to go to.

I have many times, although Ciao say that they will pass my email on to the person concerned, although I have never had an email of acknowledgement from that person concerned as I don't think they are concerned enough.

DanielsMother wrote:

Then why not tell Ciao to get rid of the points if they don't mean anything? They do mean something. A newbie will be better off going to a gold or silver dot than guessing which green dot to go to.

Someone could theoretically get to gold or silver by rating EVERY review in the database and then commenting on them.

Can't remember who said it, but higher up to the dot scale members can easily be dissalusioned and stuck in there ways (in fact any member can - I think I might be!) so I just don't agree that they are better to go to than another member with a different dot.

Also, it doesnt always mean they have been on the site longer.

They won't get rid of them, because there are too many members that think they're the be-all and end-all of the site and that they actually mean anything more than the fact that someone's written a hell of a lot of comments.

drewboy wrote:

Also, it doesnt always mean they have been on the site longer.

Too right, I've seen new members (not sure if they're always "new" members rather than returning members) climb the ladder very quickly, simply because they know how to play the game.