Patronage & Membership

[Azrael]

Hey Guys,

Noticed that different people have different status messages beneath their names by their posts.

I'm specifically interested in the difference between Patrons and Members.

Besides the semantic obvious, what are the differences. How does one get from one to another?

Thanks for your help.

Azrael

[Catiline]

The major difference is in flood control I think. we only have a couple of senior members, people like Kraellin who have been around for ever and done massive amounts for the community (and who gold wouldn't buy). Junior patron is what you are when you first registered, senior when you get promoted and can post outside the entrance hall. Most of the junior members are the accounts that were transferred between the old board and the new one. there's not realy much siginificant difference between them and senior patrons I think, though I could be wrong in that, Tosa can no doubt fill you in.

[Azrael]

Thanks Cataline,

Just what's the difference between Patronage and Membership?

I suspect it may have to do with contributions to the site, but if I don't ask, I won't know for sure.

Azrael

[solypsist]

I think members are just the carryovers from the old forum and patrons is for people wo have signed up here. though there's probably some detail i'm missing

[Catiline]

In that case we're missing the same detail.

[TosaInu]

Konnichiwa,

What are the differences? Not much, really.

Why is it there? Various reasons. Allow me to say that it's not meant to be a status thing, I'm fully aware that it's felt that way by some. I'm also fully aware that it has bad sides, for all of us. Do the pros outweigh the cons? I don't know.

I have seen many bad things happen at this forum during the 3 years I visit it. The totalwar.org forums did not have password protected accounts. It went well until someone thought it funny to make members say vulgar things. Or not vulgar, but confusing.

A new forum was 'made' where nicks were password protected. Surely not applauded by everyone.

Another thing was people signing up only to disrupt the forums and spoil the fun to all. Open 200 new topics, so that none of the patrons can keep track of discussions.

Sign up and invade every topic with politic and ethic talk, not that such talks are not welcome here, but every topic?

We have forumrules, pretty clear, and there's not asked for too much. This is a forum used by people from all over the world, aged 13-65. Yet some thought it necessary to post the most vulgar porn.

Those are not just 5 min incidents, but tend to rage through the forum for weeks. This forum is founded by Dan Goldstein, a free forum open to all. The most important rule is that it is a no fire zone. That certainly doesn't mean that you have to pay extra respect to members with 1,000 posts, you don't have to agree with everything other patrons, staff or CA say or do. But it should be done with some respect for the other human being.

Being Junior Patron when signing up is there to help you (two very patient and helpful people do moderate the Entrance Hall, and other staff members and patrons visit this forum too), the existing patrons (you'll become one yourself soon enough) and the org forums.

There's also a technical reason, this is a fairly large community and we hope it will grow even larger. Our cgi-bin was locked last May by the host since these forums generated far too much traffic.

A Senior Patron has all the options every member at the old UBB forum had, and a bit more.

A Junior Member doesn't have floodcontrol and can start polls. Polls are a nice thing, but not when the poll replaces the discussion.

Senior Members can start topics in the WatchTower, that forum is there to discuss org problems. Only the forumadministrator could start them in UBB. Senior Members can also use PM. A thing that would certainly generate a lot of stress on the server if used by all.

How do you travel through the 'levels'?

You become Junior Patron when signing up. Posting in the Entrance Hall helps to get 'used' to the forums and Gregoshi and KukriKhan will help you to the next 'level' as soon as possible. I have no say in who promotes and who not. Showing good conduct certainly helps.

You become Senior Patron after 'promotion'. This is the 'safe' setting used in UBB.

Participation in discussions can result in promotion to Junior Member, that's the level without flood control. 90 seconds are fair to stop the most blatant spamming, it's also annoying for those that take part in constructive discussions. It's not relevant what you think, feel, know, who you agree to but it should show respect to the other.

The staff can nominate people to become Junior Members.
Idem for Senior Members. Being around for 2 years doesn't give any right by itself.

This is the way up. The opposite can happen too, a spammer who's Junior Member or a poll abuser can be set back to Senior Patron instead of just being banned.

This system can be seen as a 'traffic control' and a motivation to behave. The goal is to keep this forum alive and enjoyable for all.

The nouns Patron and Member were choosen since they have approximately the same meaning, as opposed to something like n00b and Master.

Ranks.
UBB had a rank system, it was something simple like make 10 posts and you're a ronin, make 200 more and you're samurai hero. I personally feel that such a thing is bad, a ranksystem was much wanted though, and one was implemented in this board. In UBB you had to make 1,000 posts, which could result in a custom avatar. You only have to make 500 here, after which you can choose one from a list. There are 271 avatars to choose from right now, more can be added.

No one is more or less on this board, but those that showed they can handle the responsibility to be part of a community are given more options.

Enjoy your stay.

(Gregoshi edit: changed Junior Patron to Junior Member in third paragraph of how to travel through the levels section.)

[Azrael]

Hey Guys,

I think what TosaInu has put here is excellent.

The Moderators really ought to pin it to a spot where all new members can see it.

It answers loads of the questions that people will want to ask in one clear concise post.

Thank you for your post TosaInu.

Very helpfull.

Azrael

[Kraellin]

hmmm, shhhh dont listen to cat on this,
Quote[/b] ], people like Kraellin who have been around for ever and done massive amounts for the community (and who gold wouldn't buy). ...gold will go a long ways in buying me ;)(but thanks, cat :)

also, to all moderators and other senior members, feel free to private message me if i'm logged in non-anonymously.

and just to add an observation here about the overall effect and tone that the new board and changes have effected, i find it a LOT more enjoyable here now with folks being a bit more civil. the flame wars and virtual chopping up of others has diminished greatly. nobody is asking anyone to be all sweetness and light (i think that would be worse than the flame wars), but i do wish to have a place where actual communication is taking place and others feel free to communicate in relative safety, including the devs.

i find it particularly annoying that some have intentionally or unintentionally worked to drive the guys at CA off at times, or simply just made it inhospitable enough or 'critical' enough to have them just stop showing up. for a fan site there is no greater validation than to have the developers show up on your site and be willing to listen to feedback and even offer some of their own. that doesnt mean you have to like everything about the game or that one cant say, hey, i dont like this or that about it, but that's a far cry from 'hey, i paid you money and you owe me, you freakin b*st*rds. give me what i want or i'll sue you, you lamer f*cks'. to me, you can dump folks like that in the landfill and cover them over and i'll lose no sleep over it. tactics of baiting and badgering, overt or covert and others like attempting to overwhelm someone with mob rule and mob 'opinion' are other things i find little use for. they generally dont work anyways. they tend to only drive folks away and not get done what they might have been intended for.

it's really mostly just a matter of being civil. you dont have to contribute the latest and greatest mod or anything else. your communication is contribution enough, so, is your communication constructive or destructive. that's the real dividing line here, as far as i see it.

i welcome the new system and i welcome the new members :)

K.