The Origami Forum

This topic is so that the members of the forum can post feedback on how the website is, maybe some additions, and many more. So feel free to give the moderators some feedback on the website!

That should be in the 'How To' section or the 'Your Own' section.

No, the Kitchen Sink is just right.

Well, I have a suggestion. On many forums, post in the off-topic area, or 'Kitchen Sink' as we call it, don't count towards your post count. I think we should do this aswell, so that your post count isnt just made up of one-worders from the word association game. It also focuses on the origami side of the forum, rather than your life. I have also noticed that the kitchen sink has become much more active lately aswell, thanks to some new members *cough*you know who you are...*cough*

thats right.
I would even completely get rid of the posting count, because its a useless feature (even without the kitchen sink). a counter in your private profile is good enough I think if you really need to know how many posts you did.

Heres my opinion:
There are two things about this forum that really make it much better and more appealing than others I've seen. First, I like the more formal approach to the posts. For example: limiting avatar and signature size. Some places, the signatures especially, take up about half the page and have 20 some animated things in it . Not having that makes the topics much more enjoyable to read.

Second, the people! While on other forums, the attitude is "flame the noob, make fun of the people youre better than", the people here treat everyone as equals, and go out of their way to help someone. I know that doesnt have to do with moderator rules too much, but it seemed like a good place to present that point.

As for post count, Its nice to know who the regulars are here, but other than that it is kinda pointless.

Zoraz wrote: Second, the people! While on other forums, the attitude is "flame the noob, make fun of the people youre better than", the people here treat everyone as equals, and go out of their way to help someone.

That is very true, which is what i like most about this forum. People really do go out of their way to take pictures and explain to help others, and the people actually appreciate the help (well i really do).

Post counts dont mean anything, and im sure its easy to tell who the regulars are just by looking through the threads. Instead i think a "thanks" or "reputation" feature should be added: where you can "rate" if a post was useful or not. That way you can tell who is actually a contributing member. Maybe base rankings on that, as opposed to post count. Thats just my two cents

I like the idea of that- there's a lot of members here who have helped me a lot and I think a 'rep' system, where you could thank them would be more meaningful than a 'posts' system.

Also while I agree that, on some other sites, the signatures are distracting and take up a lot of room, would it be possible to allow slightly larger file sizes for avatars?

The only forums that regularly have posts are the Diagrams, General, and The Kitchen Sink sections, yet there are 7 total. The How To...?, Model Database, Clubs/Societies, and Personal sections very rarely get new posts. It seems somewhat pointless to have so many sections if the majority of them get almost no use.

The Personal page is essentially duplicated by the General section, where people post in their personal galleries. The How To...? section is a nice place to ask about mechanics of the forum and say hi, but it seems that most new members, again, use the General section. The Model Database is referred to when people are searching for diagrams, but I have not seen more than a couple posts in that section since I joined the forum. The Clubs/Societies page seems like sometimes it gets a good amount of posts, but most of the time it gets little or no activity.

The only sections right now that really get any traffic are the General, Diagrams, and Kitchen Sink sections, and I think they do a good job of handling it. The other sections seem oddly specific. Diagrams covers, well, diagrams, and General covers everything else origami-related, so why do we need a separate forum for the Model Database alone? The How To...? section seems to have a good purpose, but I think the General section could easily handle the little traffic that it gets. If the forum was condensed into just the Diagrams, General, and Kitchen Sink sections, it would get rid of a lot of unnecessary clutter and make it easier to navigate the site. It seems like those are the only sections that get visited with any sort of frequency, so why not get rid of the rest? I think the forum is small enough to be able to handle things with only 3 main sections. One problem would be managing the many threads that are already posted in these sections-I don't know how much work it would take to move them into the new appropriate sections.

If we are going to keep the post count system, I think that you should only be able to have a certain number of posts count towards your post count. For example, If you post 20 posts in one day...*cough**cough* you should only have, say 5 or 6 added to your count. This would stop people trying to raise their post count, because it would only be raised by a certain amount each day. Combined with my previous idea, I think this would really sort out the posting system.
I also really like the idea of a rating system. I think we should keep the system I suggested, but maybe we could add on a rating system. This would show how experienced AND how helpful a member is. I think it could really give this forum a boost, and helpful members can really stand out from the crowd, instead of being drowned by utterly useless posts.

Thanks

For example, If you post 20 posts in one day...*cough**cough* you should only have, say 5 or 6 added to your count.

well, in this case 20 complete photo instructions will be worth the same like 20 "I don't know".

so where is the reason for a "helped a lot" rank? I mean somebody that needs help with the ancient dragon would rate somebody that was "only" helpfull with the joisel rat pretty useless. with this I mean that helpfull is VERY relative and somebody that is helpfull to the one person might be useless for the other.

why rating? where's the need for this constant c#ck comparison? just get rid of the idea, there's really no need to rank anybody within anything. this is an origami board for god's sake.

so where is the reason for a "helped a lot" rank? I mean somebody that needs help with the ancient dragon would rate somebody that was "only" helpfull with the joisel rat pretty useless. with this I mean that helpfull is VERY relative and somebody that is helpfull to the one person might be useless for the other.

Being helpful isnt "relative": either you helped or didnt help. Yes theres helping at different levels, maybe you help someone collapse a difficult CP, or you help explain how to make an open sink, either way you were still helpful, sincerely tried to be helpful, or wasn't to someone. So you can rate someone on this.

The feature isnt needed by any means, its just another way to rank other than posting alot. If you think its useless then stick with the post count...

Being helpful isnt "relative": either you helped or didnt help

nope, if I'm in search for anybody to fix my electric installation there's no need to ask somebody that is very helpfull in sanitary installations. somebody that is an expert in drawing diagrams may have the rank "helper of god" and still could be completely useless in CPs. and as long as it has no practical function (like asking a CP professional for a specific problem) there is no need to click ranking stars because you don't know what in particular the person is good in (or was helpfull with). to get an practical advantage, you need to give ranking stars in specific regions (like CPs, diagrams, internet, knowledge of models, the forum,...). a general "helpfull" ranking system is completely useless.

f you think its useless then stick with the post count...

as I wrote before I think that the posting count is also very useless.

I'm absolutely against a ranking system for members. I mean we are here to talk about Origami not to give and get grades.
Excluding the Kitchen Sink from the post count sounds like a good idea, but yet again the post count doesn't mean anything.

Yes, I realize I'm new, but having a rating system I believe is stupid, because then other's will wonder if their help was worth the time and effort. The posting counts are a cool thing because you get to see what levels there are throughout the posts, like mine says' Newbie' Well maybe the titles of the post counts can have something to do with Origami, maybe those who are at a higher number could be named Kusudama or something of the sort.