Legend for the Rank Bars

[JackDunaway]

There has been quite a bit of chatter about the Rank Bars and rank titles lately. Although I have been decently active on the forums the past year, it's still nebulous to me what the three squares mean. A very general rule is "the darker the better".

Also, the new rank titles have been largely been a let-down to the long-time forum contributors. In most cases, the perception based on the verbiage chosen is that those users fell in rank.

Those two things being said - it might be a good idea to do away with the titles altogether next to the usernames. Instead, make the rank bars a click-able link, which goes to a legend describing all the different combinations (I envision a big list, not unlike Raven's list of the the new rank bars). On the legend, you could have the more descriptive titles (e.g., Proven Active Veteran) for those who prefer an actual title.

The root of the problem I see is this: the rank bars provide the hard data about a user's contributions, and the rank titles are just a very generalized, misleading, fuzzy interpretation of the hard data. I would rather see a very clear interpretation of this data in a legend.

[Cory_K]

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JackDunaway wrote: 

Instead, make the rank bars a click-able link, which goes to a legend describing all the different combinations (I envision a big list, not unlike ... Raven's list of the the new rank bars). On the legend, you could have the more descriptive titles (e.g., Proven Active Veteran) for those who prefer an actual title....

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Agreed. But instead of just giving a range that they fell in (for post count, kudoes, etc), just give a bunch of statistics for that particular user.

For most users right now, when you click on their name, all you see is post count, tags, and maybe kudos.

I would like to be able to see other things as well, such as the statistics viewable in your own profile.

[Laura F.]

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Cory K wrote:

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Agreed. But instead of just giving a range that they fell in (for post count, kudoes, etc), just give a bunch of statistics for that particular user.

For most users right now, when you click on their name, all you see is post count, tags, and maybe kudos.

I would like to be able to see other things as well, such as the statistics viewable in your own profile.

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I have previously requested the ability to display more statistics on the user profile pages because I agree that more information could be shared there.

Thanks,

Laura

[JÞB]

I often- pause to view a profile.  View all posts, view all kudos are helpful but could be improved.

As I approach 1000 posts and a few dozen Posts/week My discussion tracker is getting in need of a upgrade.  View all Posts by Date is my only option.  a few filters would help.  View solved? view by Board? View new replies on top?  Even the daily digest has become a bit bulky for follow-up tracking with an average of 30+/-5 replys in 7+/-3 threads for each weekday.  

And I'm merely a low order hitter prefering to grab a thread or two and pound a lengthy number of posts (yeah it hurts my Solution / post metric- So what.  I enjoy that kind of thread more than the quickies and the 1 post solutions are handled by others, quite often very well!)  I can't imagine how the 2K+/year vets keep up with all the threads they post to.  (I expect they either cheat by utilizing additional tools not in the forum or, have very boring jobs )

Getting back to the Point.  I do use the bars as a guide- but would love to see some profile view improvements to better judge the poster.  If the poster has several threads over the last few months I'll read 'em to asses skill and tailor my reply-  Or read to assess attitude and look for a different thread.

[JackDunaway]

I agree with the above comments that additional information could be added when viewing someone's profile.

Getting back to the original topic, there are over 150k registered members for the LabVIEW forums (!!!!). How many can tell you exactly what the three bars mean? A couple dozen? I have 600 posts (to see all 600, you have to do a search), which is a few more than the casual user, and I can't tell you exactly what the three bars mean.

Anyway, I think a legend would be a helpful tool for those wanting to get a quick metric for the experience of different users. And there needs to be a quick way to get to the legend URL via click-able rank bars next to every username.

[Laura F.]

There are good suggestions in this thread to think about.  I can't promise anything will happen soon, but I will look into ways to make the meaning of the bars more clear.  Does anyone view the Help page?  (Linked near your user name at the top)  I wonder if an explanation put in there would be read as a first step...

Thanks,

Laura

[JÞB]

Does anyone view the Help page?  (Linked near your user name at the top)  I wonder if an explanation put in there would be read as a first step...

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Would we be good LabVIEW programmers if we didn't? 

Good idea!

[JackDunaway]

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Laura F. wrote:

Does anyone view the Help page?  (Linked near your user name at the top) 

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Nope, never looked at it! There are some neat things in there, like "Kudos Weight" (we obviously don't have that enabled - this may be something to consider in itself!).

If you could click on the rank bars, and it would take you directly to the Help Page section that had a legend, this would be a great solution! It would point users like me who would have never even thought to look at the Help Page to interesting new informations about the different mechanisms on the forum.

The reason this solution is so good is that while searching for one piece of information about the forum ("What do these rank bars mean? Hmm... let's click on them") the user is exposed to much more helpful information that they would not have originally sought.

[Ben]

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Laura F. wrote:

... Does anyone view the Help page?  (Linked near your user name at the top)  I wonder if an explanation put in there would be read as a first step...

Thanks,

Laura

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I have not read the manual again for LV since about LV 5.1. Similarly I have not read the Help page since the last time I looked. SO now I looked and saw this;

"

 What is Kudos weight?
Your Kudos weight is the number of Kudos you give each time you click a Kudos! badge. If you're new in the community, you probably give Kudos one at a time (your Kudos weight is 1). More experienced community members might have a higher Kudos weight, so they could give two Kudos, ten Kudos, or more each time they click.

 "

So how come I am limited to a single Kodo ?

Hmmm...?

Ben

[muks]

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More experienced community members might have a higher Kudos weight, so they could give two Kudos, ten Kudos, or more each time they click.

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Ah Ben you beat me to it. That point certainly needs some explanation. But I feel giving out these many kudos will again bring back the disadvantage that stars had. "One kudoing" anyone?