Thanks for the reply. BTW, how do I mention this to VP?

Hey there :)  Just by bringing it up in this thread, you've mentioned it to VP :)  Meredith is reading and I'm sure the rest of the team is browsing the board as well for ideas.  Thanks!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that -- after careful consideration -- I think it is a great idea that we all have to start over from scratch at the beginning of each new year to earn V.I.P. status all over again for the new year.  This levels the playing field and provides a sort of "handicap" for new people coming in who might never have had a chance to narrow the gap between themselves and us old-timers if we all didn't have a chance to start over each year.

Besides I think sometimes that starting over from scratch is sort of exciting and an incentive in itself. 

I totally agree.  i personally had gotten bored once I hit PC.  Now I have reason to try to move up in the world again :)

AnnaBanana said…

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that -- after careful consideration -- I think it is a great idea that we all have to start over from scratch at the beginning of each new year to earn V.I.P. status all over again for the new year.  This levels the playing field and provides a sort of "handicap" for new people coming in who might never have had a chance to narrow the gap between themselves and us old-timers if we all didn't have a chance to start over each year.

Besides I think sometimes that starting over from scratch is sort of exciting and an incentive in itself. 

---

I love the idea of starting over every year. I was getting complacent since I had been a PC member since joining (I was one of the first people on the site!) and I love to reach for things. This gives everyone a chance to reach for a status and, every year, we're all back to even again and anyone, newbie or veteran, can achieve their goals if they try.

Gives me lots of incentive and I hope it gives newer members incentive as well. They can come here and be at the top for the year if they put their minds to it and their hearts into it.

PattyTherre said…

I love the idea of starting over every year. I was getting complacent since I had been a PC member since joining (I was one of the first people on the site!) and I love to reach for things. This gives everyone a chance to reach for a status and, every year, we're all back to even again and anyone, newbie or veteran, can achieve their goals if they try.

Gives me lots of incentive and I hope it gives newer members incentive as well. They can come here and be at the top for the year if they put their minds to it and their hearts into it.

---

I see both sides of this but probably won't know exactly how I feel about it until next year at this time. It will be interesting to see how it plays out and what little things will be discovered along the way.

--Bob

I'm not sure I'm sold on the starting over every year thing, especially since the number of points needed to reach VIP is so prohibitive.  I have a day job I can't just quit, so accumulating that many points in a year would pretty much require me to ignore my family and spend all my time on here.  But, what are ya gonna do?  Most seem to like it, so I'll just go with the flow.

This sounds like a great idea!

Cool. I'm excited about this!

Love this something new and diffrent.i just need to move up more.

I love the mouse overs on people's photos.  I really like this new badge idea - gives people something to work toward!!  Thanks for always improving the site!

MikeMaroon said…

I'm not sure I'm sold on the starting over every year thing, especially since the number of points needed to reach VIP is so prohibitive.  I have a day job I can't just quit, so accumulating that many points in a year would pretty much require me to ignore my family and spend all my time on here.  But, what are ya gonna do?  Most seem to like it, so I'll just go with the flow.

---

Just keep on doing what you're doing. No matter what your badge may say, you ARE a VIP here!

Starting over every year seems fair. How fast you will accumulate points really depends on what the review is for, not necessarily on how many you write total. If it's popular and in a key category, you could rack up the points, who knows? I clicked on someone with a Contributor badge and they had seven reviews written total. Tens of thousands of points seems like a lot, but it might not be so unattainable!  :)

If someone removes you from their friend list, do you lose points? If they re-friend you do you get them back? Is it once per screen name as far as "points per friend" is concerned?

I finally had a chance to take the time and total my points and my points are several thousand behind what I "think" they should be.  Most were pretty easy to total.  I didn't even include the 10 pts for every "Posting a Forum Topic" because I didn't know how many topics I generated and didn't want to scroll thru that list to identify mine.  I can email someone the list that I comprised as of this post and you can tell me if I calculated something wrong.  My one error may have been assuming that ALL of my reviews were at least 900 characters and giving myself 100 points for all 299 reviews.  I think it's very rare that I write a short review but it is possible that some fell below 900 characters but not enough to account for several thousand missing points.

I know many others were also posting this concern so thanks for listening to me too ;+)

My understanding is that any review gets you 50 points.  A 900 charater review receives an additional 100 point bonus for a total of 150.  And if that review is in a key category it receives an additional 100 point bonus for a total of 250.

900 characters is about seven or eight sentences, so it's not too hard to get to that level.

Is there a difference between the 10 points awarded for starting a forum topic and 10 points for a forum post? I just figured that anything you do in the forums is worth 10 points per item. Or do you get 10 points for starting a topic, then another 10 points for the first post for that topic? Therefore, if you start a forum topic you acutally get 20 points? Can someone clarify that?

--Bob

AnnaBanana said…

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that -- after careful consideration -- I think it is a great idea that we all have to start over from scratch at the beginning of each new year to earn V.I.P. status all over again for the new year.  This levels the playing field and provides a sort of "handicap" for new people coming in who might never have had a chance to narrow the gap between themselves and us old-timers if we all didn't have a chance to start over each year.

Besides I think sometimes that starting over from scratch is sort of exciting and an incentive in itself. 

 

---

Anna,

I agree.  At first I was a little put off by it, but then my thinking came around to one similar to yours.  It gives newbies a fair chance to achieve "stature" on the site and not relegated to a lower status simply because they are new.

Good question bob.

Also, the point about losing/gaining friends is a good question.  Like if I lost all my fans, would that mean my previous badges would be recalculated?

I'm not so sure that my points are calculating properly either. Just glancing at my lifetime points it appears that it is the same as yesterday. I'm sure that I must have had some reads that would have upped it and I did some helpful votes.

Maybe there are still some kinks in the system to be ironed out.  

The lifetime points is something they mentioned in another thread that they are looking into.  They haven't been updating properly.

Oh, geez. That's gonna be tough. Maybe I can get to advisor....

bkovacs said…

vivasuzi said…

Good question bob.

Also, the point about losing/gaining friends is a good question.  Like if I lost all my fans, would that mean my previous badges would be recalculated?

---

A good question, but if it it makes you feel better, I'm one fan you won't easily lose, Viva!

bkovacs said…

Is there a difference between the 10 points awarded for starting a forum topic and 10 points for a forum post? I just figured that anything you do in the forums is worth 10 points per item.

--Bob

---

Hey Bob!

No, there is no difference. You are right- You do not receive 10 points for starting a topic and then another 10 for first post. 

Hey Vivasuzi!

Points would be deducted and recalculated if you lost all your friends but you would need to do something very, very, very mean for that to happen! :) Good question and yes you are right- losing a friend would result in a deduction of points.

MikeMaroon said…

I'm not sure I'm sold on the starting over every year thing, especially since the number of points needed to reach VIP is so prohibitive.  I have a day job I can't just quit, so accumulating that many points in a year would pretty much require me to ignore my family and spend all my time on here.  But, what are ya gonna do?  Most seem to like it, so I'll just go with the flow.

---

Hey, Mike -- even though I don't have a full time job and a family to take care of, I'm more sympathetic than you think about this.  Like many of us here, I have branched out to other writing projects which gobble up a certain amount of time and effort and next year I might have to go back to a job (hopefully part-time) to really be able to live the way I want to in this economy.  (Paltry health care insurance has been the culprit here but I digress ... ) 

My point here though is that I'm hoping I am right that we can keep our VIP badges which we have earned for past years.  In other words, I'm not quite up to VIP for 2009 but they let me have the VIP which what I did last year earned.  If we could keep the badges we earn for posterity then we would still get credit for everything.

Is that right, Meredith?  We get to keep all our badges as the years go by?

Take care everyone!

AnnaBanana said

My point here though is that I'm hoping I am right that we can keep our VIP badges which we have earned for past years.  In other words, I'm not quite up to VIP for 2009 but they let me have the VIP which what I did last year earned.  If we could keep the badges we earn for posterity then we would still get credit for everything.

Is that right, Meredith?  We get to keep all our badges as the years go by?

Take care everyone!

 

---

Hi Anne!

We will carry over your previous year badge so that our members don't have empty status at the begining of the year so you won't look "naked" as Fardreamer and PattyTherre so eloquently put it :) Appropriate attire is required here. Hehehe.

You're funny, Meredith.

I like the changes so far. I have no problem with 'starting over' each year either, even if I can't maintain my previous level of points.

AnnaBanana said…

We get to keep all our badges as the years go by?

 

---

My understanding is that we do get to keep all of our badges as the years go by. My question is, where are they all going to fit!

They could make a badge and put the years on it like VIP 07,08, 09 all on the one badge with the numbers showing up to indicate year. They could also compile the Simple Thanks and other badges and just add the years onto one badge rather than giving out one every time. I like all my pretty badges but you are right, it could take a lot of room for people who have multiple badges.