33 replies to this topic

[nemesis91]

Hello everyone. I wanted your opinion on an idea I have. Do you think neoplayers should earn NP for posting on the discussion boards? This will promote discussion and reward friendly/helpful members. It something a lot of us already do but I think it would be a nice interesting way to earn more NP.

So what do you guys think on a social way of earning NP?

[Waser Lave]

It sounds like it would just encourage people to spam.

[Boggart]

the neoboards are full of bullshit already. That sounds ridiculous to think if people actually got rewarded for it.

[Elindoril]

They have that filthy idea on Gaiaonline, and it's not even worth it.

[nemesis91]

Yeah it would cause for more moderation on their part. What if this was a controlled 3rd party community like neocodex or another forum created for this?

I really want more ways to earn np then games/random stocks/ and shops with everything floored low...

[Waser Lave]

Yeah it would cause for more moderation on their part. What if this was a controlled 3rd party community like neocodex or another forum created for this?

I really want more ways to earn np then games/random stocks/ and shops with everything floored low...

It's just not going to happen methinks.

[Sweeney]

This is a weird topic.

[nemesis91]

seems to fit your signature

[Hydrogen]

It all depends on if the community even cares about posts. Neocodex doesn't really and I'd imagine that Neopets is the same. More posts doesn't usually help a company make money so they wouldn't spend money (moderation costs) on it willingly .

[Scot]

Ok but you lose np for making bad posts

[nemesis91]

It's just not going to happen methinks.

What if we make it happen? Start a forum with a point system and give 100 np per posts with volunteer moderators and members can use trade post to get np. Anyone want to help create something new and unique like this?

[Waser Lave]

What if we make it happen? Start a forum with a point system and give 100 np per posts with volunteer moderators and members can use trade post to get np. Anyone want to help create something new and unique like this?

Are you going to pay those NP out to everybody yourself? Then there's also the issue of you linking all of those accounts by distributing the NP so you increase the chances of all of the accounts of your users being frozen.

[KaibaSama]

To put more neopoints into the system would cause inflation. Could be massive depending on how many neopoints are being put in. I don't just mean things like PB's and MP's going for higher prices, the little items would also rise in price because neopoints wouldn't really be worth that much anymore. The more NP in the system, the more NP everyone has, and when everyone has massive amounts of neopoints, they become worth less than they were before.

It sounds like it would just encourage people to spam.

I concur.

What if we make it happen? Start a forum with a point system and give 100 np per posts with volunteer moderators and members can use trade post to get np. Anyone want to help create something new and unique like this?

Even if it's just 100 neopoints, a small amount, with no limit on the number of posts someone could make to get those neopoints, it would cause that small amount to turn into a massive amount pretty quickly. To moderate to make sure no posts were spam, would mean moderating every post that's made and approving it, which would take a lot of time and energy to do.

Are you going to pay those NP out to everybody yourself? Then there's also the issue of you linking all of those accounts by distributing the NP so you increase the chances of all of the accounts of your users being frozen.

That would also be an issue.

Edited by Satsuki, 27 November 2012 - 11:55 AM.

[Boggart]

The biggest problem like Waser stated would be giving out the NP. People associated with us are frozen for cheating. Can't even use the word Neocodex on neopets. Rewarding people with NP for anything is not allowed on-site, let alone off-site. It'd be ridiculous and just not worth it.

[nemesis91]

well you guys have really shot this down, but thanks for being honest and pointing out the issues. I still think its an interesting idea, and I personnaly would prefer to earn NP by having these types of discussions with people rather than playing the same flash games every day...

And you guys have great points and its good that you bring them up because maybe they can be addressed.

1. Are you going to pay those NP out to everybody yourself?
A. Well I wouldn't mind getting it started im not super rich but a few mil would be a start, but if it gets big enough then we would need more help/donators/staff

2. Then there's also the issue of you linking all of those accounts by distributing the NP so you increase the chances of all of the accounts of your users being frozen.
A. Not sure if that is an issue. I've heard of people doing this to send money to friends or secondary accounts. But lets assume it is.
With more staff we can have many different traders. Also if we don't use total junk items it can just seem like a bad trade. Also don't do absured trades. members can do few thousand at a time and it won't be logged.

3. It sounds like it would just encourage people to spam.
A. of course everything has SPAM but its nothing moderators can't handle. If you don't play nice you don't get to be apart of our NP earning community.

Neopets would never be able to manage this for above reasons, spam, not profitable for them... But I think a fan community can. I appreciate the input from all of you on this topic.

[Boggart]

Well as a moderator, it would be extremely annoying to moderate people who earn NP by posting when we don't get paid. It's an appointed but voluntary position so making us do extra work would just straight-up be really annoying. Selfish? Yes. But with people making an income we'd basically have to be full-time to get rid of all the spam.

And it's one thing one person sending an item/np to a person once. But if one account, or multiple accounts regularly sends NP to a hundred accounts, that gets very suspicious. If this were implemented on neopets it's one thing, but to have a third party site tracking all of the posts and then finding their neopets accounts and everything... it's just really messy.

[darktank]

And it's one thing one person sending an item/np to a person once. But if one account, or multiple accounts regularly sends NP to a hundred accounts, that gets very suspicious. If this were implemented on neopets it's one thing, but to have a third party site tracking all of the posts and then finding their neopets accounts and everything... it's just really messy.

Ya, I think that's the big problem. It'd be too impractical for a third-party site to do a system like this without getting into trouble. But I mean, to be honest, it does sound kind of cool. If Neopets did eventually implement it, with some spamblock system, I think it might be kind of enjoyable.

But I just don't think it would work because it's all based on donations. Any rational person would want to earn NP; no one wants to dedicate their time to give their NP away. I'm sure you have good intentions about donating to it at first, but if it were put in place, most people would come in with the expectation of earning NP from their posts, not giving it away. I don't think it would sustain itself.

Edited by darktank, 27 November 2012 - 01:15 PM.

[Mishelle]

The boards are full of spam and trolls already. I don't think anyone deserves getting paid np for the useless shit they post. Maybe on the Quest Help boards or something. Other than that I don't see it happening.

[Beasy]

Yeah I don't see how it would create more meaningful discussion. Sure it would be nice to get np for something you do already but other than...

[Pavement]

They could totally fix the neoboards by allowing users to post anonymously and upload whatever images they want.

[juliaailuj]

Interesting idea, but I would much rather have an adults-only board developed. Regardless of the fact that it's a kids site, It would be nice if there was a separate place where political discussion, mild language and arguments wouldn't be freezable offences. Given that there are so many adult players (and I'm assuming that's where most profit is generated from) it would make sense for TNT to develop some sort of sub-section of the site where adults could discuss things a little more colourfully.

[Zemx]

I think the problems everyone is pointing out could be fixed by a simple voting system. Every time someone upvotes your post, you get X amount of neopoints, whereas you lose X amount every time someone downvotes. Rather than having the responsibility solely rest on the moderators, the community will basically police the spammers.

[KaibaSama]

I think the problems everyone is pointing out could be fixed by a simple voting system. Every time someone upvotes your post, you get X amount of neopoints, whereas you lose X amount every time someone downvotes. Rather than having the responsibility solely rest on the moderators, the community will basically police the spammers.

What's to prevent people from abusing that system? We used to have down voting here, but it was removed (if I remember correctly, it was because the down vote system was being abused). People could either up vote people because they liked them, or down vote someone (thus causing that person to lose NP) just because they didn't like them. (and they might create multiple accounts to up vote themselves, thus earning them more NP very quickly)

Groups of people could also get together to up vote the other members of their group (thus earning their members more NP) and down vote other people (thus causing more people to lose NP, or cause one single person they targeted to lose a lot of NP)

If you can lose NP with your idea, how exactly does that work?

Edited by Satsuki, 28 November 2012 - 01:53 PM.

[Zemx]

Yeah those are things I considered as well. The following restrictions would be necessary:

-Having a voting limit per day, maybe being able to hand out 20 upvotes and 20 downvotes
-Not allowing new members to vote
-Not allowing people in the same guild and neofriends to vote on each other's posts
-Maybe even hiding the actual vote numbers of the post? By not being able to see them, people are less likely to vote the same as everyone else without actually giving their own input
-I was hoping the idea of losing neopoints for spamming would deter people from doing that but due to potential abuse, maybe instead have it so that downvotes just cancel out upvotes. The neopoints acquired would need some sort of daily collection system like interest so that people's neopoints aren't just constantly fluctuating. And have it so you can just cash out on posts older than 48 hours.

I understand the problems, but I still think that this system, with enough measures to prevent abuse, would significantly cut down on spam, result in more meaningful posts, and reward the players that deserve it.

[KaibaSama]

Yeah those are things I considered as well. The following restrictions would be necessary:

-Having a voting limit per day, maybe being able to hand out 20 upvotes and 20 downvotes
-Not allowing new members to vote
-Not allowing people in the same guild and neofriends to vote on each other's posts
-Maybe even hiding the actual vote numbers of the post? By not being able to see them, people are less likely to vote the same as everyone else without actually giving their own input
-I was hoping the idea of losing neopoints for spamming would deter people from doing that but due to potential abuse, maybe instead have it so that downvotes just cancel out upvotes. The neopoints acquired would need some sort of daily collection system like interest so that people's neopoints aren't just constantly fluctuating. And have it so you can just cash out on posts older than 48 hours.

I understand the problems, but I still think that this system, with enough measures to prevent abuse, would significantly cut down on spam, result in more meaningful posts, and reward the players that deserve it.

First bold:
You're going to have a ton of angry users, with that. Plus, what about people who's old accounts have been purged/frozen so they've made a new account. That's not exactly fair to those people or fair to the actual newbies. As it prevents them from earning neopoints like everyone else would be able to.
Games aren't restricted (except for gambling), restocking isn't (yes there's a limit on how rare of items you can see, as new accounts can't see rare items but it's not actually preventing anyone from doing it) , key quest isn't. On most of the neopets site, it doesn't matter weather you have an old or new account. What matters is the age you put in when you sign up (as COPPA law prevents websites from gathering info, like emails, from users who are under 13 years old. Those users can't access neomail/boards. Which is unfair to those under 13)

2nd bold: It'll take a large amount of work on the system to keep people from up voting users who are in their guild or neofriends. As you'd have to store data for each user, so the system would know their neofriends and guild they're in. Plus, you can always just leave a guild, not neofriend the members, but talk to them through neomail, so you'd still be able to get a group of people up voting each other.

3rd bold: To automatically keep track of every users posts, up votes, and down votes (which includes the fluctuating total of NP for a user) would require a very heavy stain on the server its self. (and would also require hours upon hours of work to implement/code/fix bugs)

4th bold: The NP would fluctuate.
Example: 1 up vote earns 500 NP
I have 2 up votes for a total of 1,000NP
then I get a down vote
Which cancels one of my up votes (so it'd cancel out 500 NP)
meaning that the total NP earned drops to 500

With people up voting and down voting posts, the NP total does fluctuate. If you don't want it to fluctuate, the down votes would be useless.
EX:
2 up votes (1,000 NP)
1 down vote (as you don't want the total NP to fluctuate this down vote can't cancel an up vote, as a cancellation requires one of the up votes to basically disappear. (meaning that when an up vote goes away, 500NP goes away to because the down and the up canceled, so you wouldn't have one of your up votes anymore.) It will continue to do so as more up/down votes are accumulated.) So for the NP total not to fluctuate, a down vote would do absolute nothing, making it useless.


5th bold: Again, server strain. To keep exact records of when every post was posted to know when they hit that 48 hour mark, and then have it make the voting system useless for those posts, requires data to be stored. (with the amount of posts and boards, that's a lot of stored data)

Edited by Satsuki, 28 November 2012 - 04:36 PM.