marking of threads with CA posts - good or bad idea ?

[Blodrast]

ok, if you take a look in the Colosseum, you'll probably notice there are at least 3 threads on the main page concerning the same aspect: less-than-friendly posts by people towards the CA devs, discussions about whether it is reasonable or not for people to vent their frustration (and/or disappointments about the game, wherever applicable) by making ... "stronger" statements about CA devs, whether this is in part motivated by the fact that CA devs don't care about us and don't show up on the forums, etc.

You probably get the picture, or know what I'm talking about; if not, go have a look in the Colosseum.

Since apparently one of the significant aspects of this is the questionability of the level of involvement that CA developers have with these forums, and since people have pointed out (rightfully, in my opinion) that even when (please note: when, not if) the devs do post their post(s) just get lost among the multitude of threads and posts (let's face it, the Colosseum at least is pretty crowded these days), I thought that perhaps it would be a good idea to somehow give a distinctive mark to threads that contain CA posts in them.

This way, people would be able to appreciate the level of involvement that CA have with the boards, and find and read their posts a lot easier.


I'm sure there are pros and cons for this, and this is why I'm posting my question here: to hear your opinions, and maybe together figure out if it's worthwhile.

First of all: is it possible ? This would probably imply a bit of extra work (from Tosa, I presume), and in that case he's the only one who can decide if he has the time and patience to do this.

Now, for the conceptual pros and cons:

Pros:
- easily find dev posts; why is this important ?
1. they usually contain very useful information (perhaps not 100% of them, but most of them do), usually "inside" info. Most people on the boards would like to read that, I am certain.
2. why not use a search for posts made by Captain Fishpants or Southwater Panda ?
Well, one could do that; BUT, not if one were a Junior member.
Moreover, I find the following scenario a bit unrealistic: every day I come on the forums, do a search for all posts by each of the 4-5 CA devs that post here, and browse through the results to see if there's anything new. Would you do that ? I wouldn't (then again, I _know_ I'm a lazy sob).

Cons (or opinions I could think of):
- pointless, has no value, or at least not enough to bother
- use search; don't have it ? wait till you get it ;P
- not enough dev posts to be worthwhile
- I'm not interested in dev posts that much, give me a break


Please feel free to chip in with what you personally feel about this. Obviously it's not worth doing unless enough people feel that they would benefit from it.

PS. What I was thinking of when I said "marking the threads" was something like setting their icon to a shield like the one CA devs have as their icon.
Or, alternatively, the respective boards' moderator(s) might mark those threads themselves (if they are willing to commit themselves to that extra work, of course) and change the thread icon manually (it might be easier to allow them rights for this than for Tosa to code a filter for dev posts...).

[frogbeastegg]

I remember visiting a forum where any topic with a post by the devs automatically gained a little icon to mark it out. Hmm, it was Bioware's forums, link. If you look on that page you will see several topics have 'B' next to them; this means a dev has posted in them. You can see at a glance that the devs are currently quite active in this particular subforum.

That forum uses custom software, but perhaps something similar can be enabled on this one?

[econ21]

Yes, I've requested this feature before (no joy - I was told to search using the CA folk's names). I would have thought it could be implemented - some threads (e.g. in the Multiplayer section) seem to have a CA symbol already which I had hoped would signify CA posts. It would be really useful now when we are all learning a new game and CA have more of an interest in talking to us.

[CBR]

I have used it for a thread in MP section for collecting and discussing the issues the community wanted. Maybe that was a bad idea?


CBR

[Blodrast]

I don't see how it can be a bad thing, if it makes the searching process and looking for stuff easier...I think that's a good thing

[econ21]

I have used it for a thread in MP section for collecting and discussing the issues the community wanted. Maybe that was a bad idea?
CBR

Um, I had been thinking in terms of some kind of automated marking of threads which I can understand might be technically impossible. However, if mods can simply do it manually, then the idea looks very feasible.

Ultimately, it would depend on the mods who would have to do the work. What do you think about it, CBR? Can you raise it as a proposal with the community of mods? (Maybe that's what we are doing now) I'm guessing they do read most of the threads anyway and have a personal interest in any nuggest of wisdom CA cast our way.

It's no big deal, but it would be a nice little feature.

[TosaInu]

Hello,

There's a CA posticon for several months now, it's not the default icon though. Idea is to use it on topics to draw some extra attention to certain topics.

Perhaps we also need to activate the rate topics feature and adjust it. Instead of stars we can add CA shields. Staff and CA folks themselves can just rate threads that have important information. It will be very easy to spot such topics then. Number of shields won't be a topic rating from bad to good then, just that it contains CA info: 1 some-5 a lot.

[TosaInu]

Changed 1 star rating to 1 CA shield to show the idea. There are probably a few topics with ratings now that don't contain CA info. I think we can remove that.

[Tamur]

I think this would be nice to show the number of threads they've contributed to. I know I'd like to see this myself.

The problem (from being on other boards who DO that) is that when people see a thread with the CA shield, they will often (not always) flock to it and start spamming it with anything and everything. This most often turns the thread into a mishmash of on- and off-topic posts, made in haste without thinking about wording or content, in the hope that a CA employee reads them.

Then again, with the user "filtering" that the org uses this may not be that big of a problem here...?

[Lemur]

It doesn't sound as though anyone has a problem with the idea. Personally, I'd quite like to be able to see at a glance where the CA staff is contributing.

[TosaInu]

Sticking it doesn't 'delete' the rating CA shield.

There's only 1 con to the proposal to give more shields when topics contain more info: even staff can't just change the number of shields just like that. We can only 'vote' once and not change our vote. That's only a detail though.

That's a valid concern Tamur, but I guess we can somewhat stay on topic.

[Blodrast]

Tosa: great job, and cool ideas ! I think your proposition is a really good solution, especially, if I understood correctly, the assignment of shields to a thread won't be available to everybody - otherwise we just might get all threads with shields on them...

and Tamur, good point. Haven't thought of that, but it is quite possible. If that happens, well, I guess it would be up to the mods of that forum again to try and keep the spam/useless posts down...
Keeping this in mind, it seems that the mods may turn out to have more stuff to do, so perhaps they should also have a say if they want this or not...

Edit: one question though: would the non-CA-shield "rating" also remain in place ? or would the CA-shield rating replace the other one (although, of course, with a different purpose) ?

[TosaInu]

Tosa:
Edit: one question though: would the non-CA-shield "rating" also remain in place ? or would the CA-shield rating replace the other one (although, of course, with a different purpose) ?

We had a discussion about normal topic rating lately, quite a few were not in favour of it. So, instead of coding yet another system (which should be possible but I don't have a clue how) we'll just use what we have for CA shields. CA-shield will replace normal rating.

The topic/post icon will stay too as well as the CA avatars.

[Blodrast]

cool, I noticed this is already being applied. But who is supposed to give the rating, because in the Colosseum there are 2 active (or relatively fresh, i.e. on the front page) threads, one with a rating and one without. Do the mods of that forum have to apply it manually, or ? ...

[TosaInu]

It's a manual thing yes. I was thinking to allow mods and CA people themselves to 'rate'.

[Gregoshi]

Okay, here is my third attempt at this post in the past 2 days (thanks to the board problems)...

I'll take credit for putting the CA shield on the "Captain & General" thread. Captain Fishpants provided an answer to how captains get adopted, so I flagged the thread. I would have marked more threads had I run across a good CA post. The feature was there as well as a CA post so I threw caution to the wind and gave it a "CA" rating. If we are not supposed to do so, just say the word.

[SpencerH]

I like it, it gives me a good target. Shouldnt it be possible to automatically tag the threads rather than have mods do it?

[rory_20_uk]

Extremely good idea.

[Monarch]

Extremely good idea.

Yes it is, despite the fact it's been a good idea for around two years now (*looks at when the thread was started).

[RZST]

the bioware forums are a great example of that =P
so i say yes (oh and new forum skins pls =P)

[Grey_Fox]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

This is almost as bad as when I opened that jar of pasta sauce and saw a giant bacteria colony...

[Kekvit Irae]

I think it's a good idea. Showing where the developers post and how they post will give the community the knowledge that they are actually listening and responding to our questions or concerns.

[AntiochusIII]

Err...wasn't this something of an accepted practice prior to when I even know of this place?

I mean, considering the thread's age, the discussion is kind of over if you ask me. If I absolutely have to answer then it's a positive. Always nice to here things from the developers and nicer to easily find them with that prestigious badge thingy.

[Kekvit Irae]

I wasnt the one who resurrected the thread

[AntiochusIII]

I wasnt the one who resurrected the thread

True, that.