🎇𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧🎇

[OfficialTechSpace]

I'm not gonna name names or point fingers, but I think some people on this forum should be muted from certain topics.

 

There should be a survey of questions or something you have to answer to verify your knowledge/experience on any given topic on the forum before being allowed to reply to a thread.

 

EDIT: Maybe implement a user-given ratings system, displaying the effectiveness and accuracy of a members posts.

 

We have new builders coming here for advice on their PC's, and inexperienced enthusiasts coming and confusing the answers. They don't know who to trust, everyone acts like they know what's best.

 

The amount of arguments we get into with eachother is insane, it'd be nice if we could all be on the same page (*or at least know who to trust). 

[tkitch]

I mean, in theory it could happen, but never will. 

[AMD A10-9600P]

I was thinking of a similar suggestion the other day, like a disagree button, or some sort of question mark you could put on another answer to sort of say, "hey, actually, that doesn't sound right". Something polite though, as often inexperienced users like to get into a debate about things they know very little about.

 

I doubt we'll get anything like that though, to keep the forum clean I guess.

[OfficialTechSpace]

1 minute ago, AMD A10-9600P said:

I was thinking of a similar suggestion the other day, like a disagree button, or some sort of question mark you could put on another answer to sort of say, "hey, actually, that doesn't sound right". Something polite though, as often inexperienced users like to get into a debate about things they know very little about.

That would also work, I agree with that entirely.

[IkeaGnome]

I'm curious what this quiz would look like. Say someone knows a lot more about Intel than AMD. Does that get them locked out? That doesn't make them less knowledgeable, just they're knowledge is in different areas. 

How often does the quiz get updated for new hardware? Who handles making and updating quizzes?

[WaggishOhio383]

And this would accomplish what exactly? If it's basic questions to test for general knowledge, it would likely be very easy to google the answers. But if you make the questions really complicated so they couldn't easily be googled, that cuts out a large number of people who may have general knowledge to be able to help out in a specific area, even though they might not be an absolute expert on the subject. And if you cut out those people, it puts a much larger burden on the fewer more knowledgeable forum members to answer all the threads that pop up.

 

Not to mention people who may have more experience with certain brands as @IkeaGnome mentioned. Or even people who know a lot about older hardware, but lack experience with newer hardware and vice versa.

[OfficialTechSpace]

1 minute ago, IkeaGnome said:

Say someone knows a lot more about Intel than AMD. Does that get them locked out? That doesn't make them less knowledgeable, just they're knowledge is in different areas.

Well assuming something like this actually gets added to the forum, the quiz could be tailored to each user. Starting by asking them what they think they know most about, and then quizzing them on that aspect specifically.

2 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

How often does the quiz get updated for new hardware? Who handles making and updating quizzes?

Probably something like a test thread. Like one operated by a bot, asking for hardware suggestions after a new launch. It could verify a users given knowledge of recent hardware.

[IkeaGnome]

3 minutes ago, OfficialTechSpace said:

Well assuming something like this actually gets added to the forum, the quiz could be tailored to each user. Starting by asking them what they think they know most about, and then quizzing them on that aspect specifically.

So who is coding this? Sounds like it accomplishes nothing for the work that would have to be put into it. Instead of "unverified" users, now you have people with a badge going back and forth about parts.

3 minutes ago, OfficialTechSpace said:

Probably something like a test thread. Like one operated by a bot, asking for hardware suggestions after a new launch. It could verify a users given knowledge of recent hardware.

Okay, and as @WaggishOhio383what does this do to verify people know about older hardware?

I'm not saying I'm a hard no(not that my opinion counts for anything). I just think return on effort it solves nothing and gives more work and headache.

[OfficialTechSpace]

2 minutes ago, WaggishOhio383 said:

If it's basic questions to test for general knowledge, it would likely be very easy to google the answers. But if you make the questions really complicated so they couldn't easily be googled, that cuts out a large number of people who may have general knowledge to be able to help out in a specific area, even though they might not be an absolute expert on the subject. And if you cut out those people, it puts a much larger burden on the fewer more knowledgeable forum members to answer all the threads that pop up.

How about a verified sticker/banner of sorts? Just something in terms of tiers one could have on their profile rating their given expertise (separate from community reputation).

[OfficialTechSpace]

Just now, IkeaGnome said:

Okay, and as @WaggishOhio383what does this do to verify people know about older hardware?

I'm not saying I'm a hard no(not that my opinion counts for everything). I just think return on effort it solves nothing and gives more work and headache.

The 'new hardware' quiz wouldn't lock users out of all topics, it'd just maybe add a banner to their name stating that they might not be the most knowledgeable when it comes to new hardware. They'd still have access to all of the other topics.

[IkeaGnome]

1 minute ago, OfficialTechSpace said:

The 'new hardware' quiz wouldn't lock users out of all topics, it'd just maybe add a banner to their name stating that they might not be the most knowledgeable when it comes to new hardware. They'd still have access to all of the other topics.

Who is coding all this?

Have you thought about how many quizzes there could be to be that specific? Just in pc cases, SFF, ITX, mATX, ATX, full tower, how would cases that prebuilts use fall into this? What happens if a new build starts out thinking ATX, but goes to mATX or ITX? Do the people that were helping get locked out from helping now? If so, how would that be handled?

[WaggishOhio383]

6 minutes ago, OfficialTechSpace said:

How about a verified sticker/banner of sorts? Just something in terms of tiers one could have on their profile rating their given expertise (separate from community reputation).

I think that could definitely work better than just blocking people from responding to posts altogether. It would still be tough to figure out the best way to evaluate said expertise. Maybe instead of doing a quiz, your expertise ranking could be tied to how helpful other forum members rank you? Similar to seller feedback on eBay. It would be something assigned to you from other members on the forum as they interact with you and read your posts, but separate from your normal reputation.

[OfficialTechSpace]

4 minutes ago, WaggishOhio383 said:

Maybe instead of doing a quiz, your expertise ranking could be tied to how helpful other forum members rank you? Similar to seller feedback on eBay. It would be something assigned to you from other members on the forum as they interact with you and read your posts, but separate from your normal reputation.

YES, that would be amazing!

[Lurick]

7 minutes ago, WaggishOhio383 said:

I think that could definitely work better than just blocking people from responding to posts altogether. It would still be tough to figure out the best way to evaluate said expertise. Maybe instead of doing a quiz, your expertise ranking could be tied to how helpful other forum members rank you? Similar to seller feedback on eBay. It would be something assigned to you from other members on the forum as they interact with you and read your posts, but separate from your normal reputation.

So something that causes people to rep farm and shitpost more? You'd really have to lock it down to a specific reaction that could only be given like once a week or something to prevent abuse and whatnot.

[WaggishOhio383]

5 minutes ago, Lurick said:

So something that causes people to rep farm and shitpost more?

The forum could perhaps place a limit on how many users you can rate per day, or how often you can rate a specific user. It could also be made to where you can only give a user a rating once, and if your thoughts change you can always go back and edit it.

 

I'm not saying it's some great feature that should definitely be added to the forum. I'm just saying that for its intended purposes, it would probably work better than a quiz that people could easily cheat on.

[OfficialTechSpace]

2 minutes ago, Lurick said:

So something that causes people to rep farm and shitpost more? You'd really have to lock it down to a specific reaction that could only be given like once a week or something to prevent abuse and whatnot.

True, of course every major update to the forum would have to come with additional regulations, safety nets, etc.

 

But it could still work, no?

[Lurick]

17 minutes ago, WaggishOhio383 said:

The forum could perhaps place a limit on how many users you can rate per day, or how often you can rate a specific user. It could also be made to where you can only give a user a rating once, and if your thoughts change you can always go back and edit it.

 

I'm not saying it's some great feature that should definitely be added to the forum. I'm just saying that for its intended purposes, it would probably work better than a quiz that people could easily cheat on.

Yah, I edited after I posted that to mention possibly adding a limit of some kind.

[CT854]

I feel like I have a potentially contentious counterpoint to this.

 

I'm not an expert, nor do I really claim to be one. I, however, try to help people based on my own experiences and what I've seen work for other people. Does that mean I should be shut out from helping people troubleshoot or give suggestions? What if I had the exact same issue as the other person, but I'm not really enough of an expert to post in that subforum? I know we've sorta moved past the whole quiz lockout concept, but this is still something to consider and something to keep in mind since I feel like a lot of people who post fall into this category. Hell, I've learned a lot from being wrong/a bit off when giving advice on this forum, even if the person who pointed it out to me was a bit more pointed or uncouth than I would've liked them to be. Maybe it's more of an attitude problem than an issue with people giving bad advice, but whether we want to prosecute that issue is probably best left to a different discussion.

 

Sure, flairing people who know their stuff could work, but I feel like if you want to regulate the quality of people who are flaired there has to be a gatekeeping system that's a bit more robust than just people voting or adding reacts. Maybe this could be a system devised by the moderation team of recognizing particularly good contributors in each forum that takes a few existing metrics into account, such as being consistently accurate/helpful, posts tagged as a solution by OP, and positive reactions to each post. I just feel like there has to be a more objective element to judging whether someone's posts are of high quality, instead of relying on some nebulous metric from people who are, themselves, probably more fallible than the moderation team. Just my two cents on the issue.

[OfficialTechSpace]

Just now, CT854 said:

I'm not an expert, nor do I really claim to be one. I, however, try to help people based on my own experiences and what I've seen work for other people. Does that mean I should be shut out from helping people troubleshoot or give suggestions? What if I had the exact same issue as the other person, but I'm not really enough of an expert to post in that subforum?

We discussed this already, and come up with a potential solution, as seen here: 

45 minutes ago, WaggishOhio383 said:

Maybe instead of doing a quiz, your expertise ranking could be tied to how helpful other forum members rank you? Similar to seller feedback on eBay. It would be something assigned to you from other members on the forum as they interact with you and read your posts, but separate from your normal reputation.

 

[Levent]

This is plain stupid and is not feasible. What is next? Am I gonna need CCNA certification to answer a question in network subforum or Microsoft MVP to answer Microsoft related questions? Just because I dont have any certification that doesnt make me any less qualified to try to help out a stranger on the internet. Back in 2014-2015 they used to give out subforum specific badges to people but that obviously didnt work too.

1 hour ago, OfficialTechSpace said:

EDIT: Maybe implement a user-given ratings system, displaying the effectiveness and accuracy of a members posts.

Forum had a rating system 5-6 years ago and it was removed for obvious reasons.

1 hour ago, OfficialTechSpace said:

The amount of arguments we get into with eachother is insane, it'd be nice if we could all be on the same page. 

Why even bother, report and move on.

[PorkishPig]

1 hour ago, AMD A10-9600P said:

I was thinking of a similar suggestion the other day, like a disagree button, or some sort of question mark you could put on another answer to sort of say, "hey, actually, that doesn't sound right". Something polite though, as often inexperienced users like to get into a debate about things they know very little about.

 

I doubt we'll get anything like that though, to keep the forum clean I guess.

This has come up at least a dozen times. Disagreeing with a post via reaction adds nothing constructive to a thread.

1 hour ago, OfficialTechSpace said:

There should be a survey of questions or something you have to answer to verify your knowledge/experience on any given topic on the forum before being allowed to reply to a thread.

I see the LTT Forums as a safe haven for inexperienced users, especially compared to more strict communities like StackOverflow. You really don't want the forums to become StackOverflow.

1 hour ago, OfficialTechSpace said:

The 'new hardware' quiz wouldn't lock users out of all topics, it'd just maybe add a banner to their name stating that they might not be the most knowledgeable when it comes to new hardware. They'd still have access to all of the other topics.

This will undoubtedly add confusion/uncertainty for new users and guests.

[CT854]

1 minute ago, OfficialTechSpace said:

We discussed this already, and come up with a potential solution, as seen here: 

 

I know, but I also added this line to address the origin behind this line of thought because I feel like why that was fundamentally a bad idea hadn't really come across.

 

3 minutes ago, CT854 said:

know we've sorta moved past the whole quiz lockout concept, but this is still something to consider and something to keep in mind since I feel like a lot of people who post fall into this category.

 

[OfficialTechSpace]

5 minutes ago, Levent said:

This is plain stupid and is not feasible. What is next? Am I gonna need CCNA certification to answer a question in network subforum or Microsoft MVP to answer Microsoft related questions? Just because I dont have any certification that doesnt make me any less qualified to try to help out a stranger on the internet.

I see your point, I hadn't thought of it like that. You make a fair case. 

5 minutes ago, Levent said:

Back in 2014-2015 they used to give out subforum specific badges to people but that obviously didnt work too.

I did not know that, thank you for bringing that up! 

[CT854]

2 minutes ago, PorkishPig said:

I see the LTT Forums as a safe haven for inexperienced users, especially compared to more strict communities like StackOverflow. You really don't want the forums to become StackOverflow.

And I think this strikes at the heart of the issue. Ultimately, I see this as a place to democratize both tech knowledge and the ability to help someone with tech issues. That's what differentiates this forum (and frankly, any open forum like this) from a tech support channel. And, besides, as someone who's in graduate school and has teaching responsibilities beyond my research, I've come to appreciate and really believe in the idea that teaching, giving advice, or attempting to craft a solution in an area is the best way to learn more and appreciate an area more deeply than just consuming information. Even if you stumble, you'll learn something (if, of course, you have the right attitude towards it). I don't think really it's right for this forum to try and limit that experience.

[IkeaGnome]

2 minutes ago, CT854 said:

I've come to appreciate and really believe in the idea that teaching, giving advice, or attempting to craft a solution in an area is the best way to learn more and appreciate an area more deeply than just consuming information.

I came here for a question and have stayed for that exact reason. Between stuff that's already been asked here or in other places online you can usually find the information to help someone if you don't already know it. For some, that's a much better way to learn than you watch YT videos all day and try to separate out "relevant" facts.