sig request for Sig bar points instead of Posts.

[+dd. jeffsigs]

Have you guys thought about doing sig requests based off of Sig bar points instead of # of posts, since we are seeing alot of non quality posts. I think you get more points for the quantity of text in the different areas of the forum or so it seems, but would that be easier than posts. Maybe make 100 points and then they can pay the designer for his or her sig 100 or 50 points instead of Noobie. Just a thought I had., Take it for what its worth. I dont know how long or how many posts it would take to get 100 points or anyhting but you get my point.

[Blayde]

Considering the average is less than 5 points per post even for me, i'd say it'd take a lot of long posts, which may be useless themselves to get to that level.

[niewbe]

I do see the need for something like this though. There have been alot of people spamming the forums recently to get a sig.

[noobie]

I think something like this needs to be done, as its just getting beyond a joke recently with all the spamming, ive even had to ban one person for it. I think maybe 100 points is a bit much though.
Maybe 50. But they keep the points and i still continue to donate, otherwise, if more than 1 person makes a sig for them, and they dont have enough points, well you get what i mean lol.
Lets see what other members think, and myself, trade and the rest of the staff could have a chat about it, and see if we can come to some sort of conclusion.

edit:: me making this post gave me almost 6 points, so im guessing about 50 points would be a little too much, id probably say about 30 is the equivalent to 10 decent posts.

[bigun]

yeh, i think this is a great idea, i think that 100 points might scare all newcomers off though, lol, it takes a while to get points when you are new to the site, so like noobie suggested, maybe something like 30 points. But it makes me think that people wil spam even more to get their points up, i dunno, lol. just a thought. :)

maybe the peron requesting the sig, can donate the points either beteen the members that have fullfilled the request, or maybe just to the one they think is best, and also get the points from noobie, if yous get what i mean. Soi the points from the requestor would be like a bonus for good work.

But then, what if they dont pay up, people will start having to put watermarks on their work, and then take it off when they payed up, lol. So it definately needs a good discusion bout it before its put in place.

[diesel]

i was thinking the same thing bigun, wat if they dont pay up? maybe who cares if they dont pay, just as long as they got the right number showing they been there long enough and havnt hopefully spammed to get it...

[noobie]

i think at the end of the day, wether it be points or postcount they need, people are always going to spam. suppose its just a case of weighing up the pros and cons and see which is best at the end of the day.

[lokifeyson]

I think I might have mentioned something like this b4, when we first thought about the post count rule :?

I don't know how I feel about it though, I like it, but yea, we would have to have a way of making them pay up :?

[Raditz]

I think the spamming arises because the people who request signatures might probably be around 13-10.And because they are young they don't understand what "quality posts" might mean.So maybe if there was a guide on getting 10 quality posts? :roll:
The points idea won't work in my opinion because getting 10 posts sounds easier then getting 30 points.So if the requests were done by sigbar points,i don't think many people would be interested in requesting here.
Because i suggested this site to a few friends.Then after a few days i asked how come they didn't request anything?and they said they didn't want to do it because of the 10 posts rule.
Basically what i'm saying is,humans are lazy.And just registering on the forum is a big thing for them.
This is just my opinion anyway...

Edit:this many words got my 9 points :)

[Harakiri]

I'm for this.

This can also eliminate spamming, because if the person makes 3 word posts, it would take ages to get to 30, 50, or whatever it is. It just wouldn't be logical. If they make good quality posts, they'll be there in no time.

Big yes to this.

[-bH.munky]

Yeah harakiri's just said it. If you make a proper decent long post you'll only have to make a few to get the points.

[Raditz]

Yeah harakiri's just said it. If you make a proper decent long post you'll only have to make a few to get the points.

yes,but exactly how many people would be willing to do it?
This is a great idea,but it won't work :x

[+dd. jeffsigs]

I am glad I struck a chord lol, Its good to have everyones thoughts on this issue. And I said 100 points as a reference and I know it would take a while to get it, just a number, but you get my drift. 30 sounds reasonable to me, as for the request'r paying the points I dont think it will work anyways due to the fact some people only come here when they need a sig, so they come get it and leave and never come back until they need another sig, you know what I mean.

[+dd. jeffsigs]

So upon further research Kabet that got banned earlier http://signaturebar.com/forums/search.php?search_author=kabet had 22 posts of mostly 3 to 4 words with some longer "qaultiy Provoking" posts and he ended up with 36 points so yeah Maybe 30 points would be a sound number.

[Harakiri]

Indeed. If i were admin, I'd say yes, and Raditz, if they aren't willing to get those, it means all they want from us is our signatures, and time. If they are, it most liely mean they are planning to become an active member.

I don't think you could say anything that would make me go against this.

[-bH.munky]

It's just a great idea, if the people actually make decent posts it won't take them long. It will work, and it will most likely stop them spamming.

[tradedemon]

Jeff, thanks for rasining this suggestions, as Loki said we have had this idea before and when we ran it through our discussions we came to the conclusion that:

a) Doing the points thing is much more confusing and harder to manage from a staff perspective. Post count is much more simple so at the time it was a clear cut winner.

b) Ultimately its the same thing whether you rank by posts or points their both 100% related so to some extent the user can and will spam. Infact because the points within the good forums are higher they'll probably end up spamming the decent threads even more. (Some users just dont have any shame, these users are just part and parcel of the internet)

c) We went for the 10 post rule due to its simplicity but we did say we might reconsider the points if the 10 post rule didnt work or had its problems. Hence as noobie suggested we will probably end up having a discussion on this soon.

Again great to see some active brainstorming..

[+dd. jeffsigs]

Cool man thanks for your Feedback on this issue and I can see your point of view on this.

[ballisticn8]

I'm new to the site but i will still offer up an argument for both sides...

For the most part it looks like there are many people that come just for the sigs/userbars and leave, then come back again when they want/need something else. Probably the main reason for your traffic is due to people wanting some of the artwork that you are able to produce! If you create the point system though i think you will scare people away, even those that have honest intentions. I am scared to post in some areas because i dont want to be seen as a spammer or just using this site to get something so i can leave again. I have seen a couple of people banned since i registered and i can completely agree with the reasoning behind it, but in all actuality i would bet that the majority of people that post on here do it because they want some artwork from you. Thats what your sigs are, they are amazing works of digital art, and this explains why you all feel so passionately this disdain you have for people who are spamming the site just to get a sig.

Just my $.02, sorry if i step on any toes by leaving this, not my intent to step on toes or make anyone mad... :shock:

[Raditz]

bravo bravo! well said :D

[+dd. jeffsigs]

nope I have all of my toes still in tack, lol But you are right about how people come for the sigs. Also Dont be discouraged about posting, the bannings came from real spammers that said the same thing over and over again in 20 posts lol so You are fine.

[+ill. pcktlnt]

I'm very new to your forums but I would say the points required for a request may drive away some potential graphic artist (lack of better term) from the site. Some people are inspired by others and that's pretty much how I became interested in signature creations.

People were requesting signatures on the Playstation Forums, some of the members would create some, then I was like...I should try that, it looks fun. Maybe the person requesting will become inspired by the person providing the request, they will attempt to learn how to make their own and for others. (Ideal idea). Sorry, I lose my train of thought sometimes.

In short, the points is a bad idea that may drive away potential artists. Increase the thread posts or something, but don't do the points idea. :(

[+dd. jeffsigs]

If you are a graphic artist then you Dont need a sig and then you dont need to request one lol, So it would not drive away an artist, maybe a potential artist, but The people who spam only come for one thing and when they get it the never come back until they want another one. The people who are actually interested in a Sig and possibly want to learn and do more stay and actually post quality posts becuase they want to be here.

[ballisticn8]

If you are a graphic artist then you Dont need a sig and then you dont need to request one lol, So it would not drive away an artist, maybe a potential artist, but The people who spam only come for one thing and when they get it the never come back until they want another one. The people who are actually interested in a Sig and possibly want to learn and do more stay and actually post quality posts becuase they want to be here.

touche, well put, maybe then instead of post requirements or point requirements set up a paypal (or something similar) donation box and they can donate to the site for sigs? i'm sure the overhead on this site isnt free (correct if wrong but also really none of my business). that way you dont have to deal with spammers, the site gets help by $$$ fundage, and in turn the users here arent feeling absolutely used by people that have no intentions of doing anything here on the site.

[+ill. pcktlnt]

That does make sense about artist are going to stay anyway versus people who just request.

Question about the money, how would kids/teens or people without credit cards going to be able to donate? Will this affect them, i.e. they would not be able to request at all? Or is it only going to be applied to those that are new to the site?

[ballisticn8]

yeah, it was a bad idea and shouldnt have posted it, not too well thought out, fingers tend to move faster than my brain right now... its friday and with my boss out for the last two weeks everyone is coming to me for different database builds and queries that need written, my brain is worn out, lol...

[tradedemon]

I think the above discussion is great because it just shows how the site is slowly evolving.

Lets face it we're a signature site, we're free and we're a nice place to hang out (Won't get too many immature flame wars here)

Those things are integral to our success, and changing our model drastically either way will give us severe problems. Our audience is young but capable and although I would love to say that we attract experienced artists as such I don't thinkwe do, most of us do this for fun or as a hobby.

As our members grow and develop their skills do they move on, or do we cater for their advancing needs ? Well those are all things that we as the sigbar team need to discuss and plan.

Certainly it would be cool if some of you guys got so good that you got paid work through sigbar, that would truly be awesome. We discussed a market place at one point and maybe that can be included down the line. who knows.

Lastly I think our site is more about getting involved. We really want people to get started no matter what their standard, no shame in having a go. Thats where most of our crowd got interested and Im hoping we will continue to draw in those same crowds.

Finally signaturebar is just over a year old and its come along way in a short time. Im hoping it will continue to grow and above all the members will remain loyal to the site. We're always gonna get those that put nothing into the site and keep coming back, but I have also seen those that do that for a while and then finally do start to post..

All in all, I hope we people continue to give feedback to us and help us grow into something bigger and better! Anyway a massive rant here lol.. so better kill it.

[blamdave]

I am really new to this site but I had some thoughts on this topic. I think that you need to consider that there are many different types of people who join these forums. There are and always will be people that just spam so that they can get a sig. There are also people who come to learn and are interested in making their own sigs. Both these groups will request but the spammers will get them and leave. The “other” people will take what they are given and learn from it and actually appreciate the work put into it. They might even give back by creating sigs for other members (this is an optimistic view).

I think that the 30 point method is an alright standard but it is simpler to use posts. I think that it might be smart to just change the post requirement to 15 (it’s only a little more but it wont scare anyone away). I don’t like the idea of paying with cash as this would make it hard for many requesters (those of use without credit cards). As for paying with points it seems like it would work but there would have to be some kind of transaction system to trade the points for the sig.

My idea:
- 15 post requirement
- At lease 25 points

(Hopefully I didn’t get too off topic.)

[+ill. pcktlnt]

Actually, I have had a change of mind. I rather points be taken into consideration instead of posts. At the beginning, I assumed that obtaining points were difficult, but after spending more time here. It appears that obtaining points is actually quite easy. So if people want to request they should send points. Except, it may prove a hindrance if a request receives two or more submissions.

Summary:
20 posts or 25 points minimum to start off.