I originally posted this in the Wish List of the Questions and Problems area, but there hasn't been any response to it so far. I would like to get some discussion on this going.

Here is the link:
http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=6899

EDIT: here is the entire original post:

I have noticed in the recent weeks there has been certain individuals who have been inappropriately posting to certain forums. The first step the BOINC admins took was to offer the option to rate individual posts. I think this was a good idea, but I feel that more can still be done to help rectify this situation.

My suggestion is that each user carries with him / her some sort of "rating" for use in the forums. Each user then must maintain a rating equal to or greater than some predetermined level to post.

Or, to complicate things a little more, the number of times per day (or week) one could post could be based upon a sliding scale proportional to ones "rating".

As an example, if a person has a rating of >= 10 then this person has the ability to post unrestricted. If, on the other hand, this person has a rating between zero and 10, then the number of posts this person can make is restricted by some proportional amount. If, however, the person's rating is less than 0, then this person's ability to post is removed, perhaps for a predermined amount of time, or perhaps until the admins decide to manually reset posting privleges. (NOTE: the numbers used in this example were for demonstration purposes only. The actual values will have to be set once the system is designed and implimented.)

With this system, however, I feel that a person deserves a chance to "redeem" himself and thus raise his "rating". This should give a person an incentive to post appropriate material to the appropriate forums, thus keep his rating at a higher level. If, for example, a person posts inappropriate material to a forum and his rating is dropped, then this person could stop such practices and start posting proper comments to the proper forums and thereby raise his ratings again.

This system should be able to be incorporated into the existing "per post" rating.

Does anyone have any suggestions or discussions on this issue?

Thank you,

Jim


ID: 49318

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I am both for and against it because I am having a few concerns about
the fairness of this social selection.

For because it would help removing the spammers.

Against because I suspect that some users found a way to rate more then
once...Some users get - systematicaly even if their post is OK, and some
others gets a + systematicaly even when their post is wrong.

Could it be ?

Regards
Marc

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<img src="http://boinc.mundayweb.com/one/stats.php?userID=2384&amp;trans=off"><img src="http://img98.exs.cx/img98/1999/hamradio.gif"><img src="http://img54.exs.cx/img54/3872/cqkey.gif">

Jim,

It's seems more complicated to try to do your suggestion.
I believe that to moderate the forums would be better idea, but then
you get into free speech issues. Also who would be picked to moderate?
Zippy, King of little Faith or Master of too much Faith.

I think we the forum as a whole could designate, choose, elect a moderator
to the task. Then we would have to abide by their rules. I doubt anything will become of this.

Respectfully,

Timmy

BTW

I hope Antichrist was kidding. I noticed his Avatar and Name has disappeared from his post.

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Unfortunately the person we hope this would affect the most has several accounts and could just artificially raise his ratings. He's done it before.