I was thinking about merits and such and my mind crossed the idea of a merit for a merit. Now let me explain since this sounds quite confusing. Whenever someone writes a good review of a game or something and someone votes them up they (usually) receive a merit. Now shouldn't the person who voted them up get some kind of award for helping? I've weighed up the pro's and cons Pro's - Encourages people to vote up people who deserve merits (which is good since people probably wouldn't vote people up in hope of beating them in AP score) - Stops people asking for merits - People who deserve merits get them - Stops those people making new threads asking for more ways to get AP - Encourages more people to make worthy comments about games since there is more chance they will be recognized. Con's - People would go around voting up everyone's comments (in which case they should be banned) - If multiple people vote up someone do they all get merits? (more a question than a con). So I'd like to hear what others think.
@Generalhero: Remember to state why you think an idea is bad. Otherwise you're pretty much spamming.
What do you mean it could only work if everyone was honest? What would they need to be honest about? And how would it be extra work? The way I see the idea, it would add an extra counter - a little function in the site that registers when a comment you voted up receives a merit. Slowing up the site, well maybe... But let's discuss the idea without worrying about that, because it can't really slow it up anymore than the existing ways of gaining AP:
You know, it doesn't take much to recognize a merit post, but then I wouldn't bother upvoting since I don't believe most comments should be merits. Rarely is any comment exemplary and everyone uses the same asterisked template you might as well have a comment form and not a comment box. I'm pretty sure some of my comments probably shouldn't be merited since I write on the fly without going into the mechanics of the game. People only rarely say /why/ they like anything. I like the gameplay. /gameplay I like the graphics. /graphics I like the music. /music /merit format
Heck, I have higher standards, but then I'm older than the majority of the users here. /assumption
Even earning a point for recognizing a potential merit is too much. It's not hard to find the consistent merit writers and stalk them on the game comments. ooh look, Gantic posted! *upvote* InTheZone posted, too! double score! *upvote* /example I am aware of enough to get as many points as there are new games posted on the site. People'd get aware of those, too, and it'd just be point inflation. Plus, it doesn't take me all of 10 seconds/page to recognize the "long" comments that are merited, and as far as I am aware, if a mod was going through the comments, they'd already go through every single comment for the game anyway. So what'd we be doing?
Even earning a point for recognizing a potential merit is too much. It's not hard to find the consistent merit writers and stalk them on the game comments. ooh look, Gantic posted! *upvote* InTheZone posted, too! double score! *upvote* /example I am aware of enough to get as many points as there are new games posted on the site. People'd get aware of those, too, and it'd just be point inflation. Plus, it doesn't take me all of 10 seconds/page to recognize the "long" comments that are merited, and as far as I am aware, if a mod was going through the comments, they'd already go through every single comment for the game anyway. So what'd we be doing?
Exactly! He pretty much got it spot on, this is all that would happen if we implemented this system. People would recognize the normal merit reviewers, and would just vote them up for points. It does not take a whole lot of effort to go through and vote up comments quickly. This is why we go through them all individually, to make sure that they are all merit worthy and not just getting voted up because that are long or something.
I think this idea is a good one, but a whole MERRIT for a voter? I like what Estel said about just the voters for the merrit worthy, but my idea is for them just to get a FEW bonus AP's, because to have your profile say that you earned a merrit, I think that you should actually have to earn one for something big, not just bumping somebody up.
I don't see a point for the voter to get a reward. Because all you should get is the gratification that you helped a member get his/her comment a merit.
Lesser points might make it work, but I highly doubt you should earn a merit for voting up comments that get a merit. If that happened, people would up vote every single comment they see.
I don't think they should get any AP, maybe just a little tally on their profile. More of a bragging rights reward than an AP award, it would be much to easy to get AP with this.
what if you got 1 AP for voting a comment up? and you only could vote up one comment each day? and if the comment you voted up got a merit you would be rewarded with 2/3 extra AP?
