"What is this....High school?"

For some people... I think... yes.

I say get rid of the system. Writing should be about the creative process. Not some goddamned popularity contest. What is this....High school?

Got to agree with you there.

BTW, you should post more!

You know what my reward is? Having Baker, Guy, Miler, and Mod put me in their gunsights.

It's the interaction and debate that i enjoy.

JU points aren't like credit card points. You can't spend them. You can't cash them in for a free ticket to Hawaii. There's no cashback reward. It's just a digit in the top corner of the screen.

The payment (to me at least) is absorbing all the opinions from all the talented bloggers that call JoeUser home. We may not agree all the time, but i think that even the most hardened blogger can grow to respect the efforts of the person on the other side of the debate.

I mean, look at me and Dr. Guy for example. When we first started out we both spent vast amounts of time blowing shotgun holes in each others arguements. We still do, but now i have a respect for his opinions that i didn't have a year ago. I don't think we will ever agree on politics. (if we ever did i think both of us would have an aneurism) but after all the skirmishes, i look foreward to reading his stuff. Not for the fight, but because i have realized how good of a writer he is. (sorry for the love fest Guy, but i'm making a point here)

To me, this is what blogging should be about. Not how many points i have, who has more, and how can i get more.

Writing on JU = blogging. Nuff said. My bad for not clarifying that.

As far as what blogging should be about? I can only speak for myself.

I mean, look at me and Dr. Guy for example. When we first started out we both spent vast amounts of time blowing shotgun holes in each others arguements. We still do, but now i have a respect for his opinions that i didn't have a year ago. I don't we will ever agree on politics. (if we ever did i think both of us would have an aneurism) but after all the skirmishes, i look foreward to reading his stuff. Not for the fight, but because i have realized how good of a writer he is. (sorry for the love fest Guy, but i'm making a point here) To me, this is what blogging should be about. Not how many points i have, who has more, and how can i get more.

I have to give you one of my 2 insightfuls of the day for that one.  You hit on all cylinders. And no, we will never agree on our core politics, but we do manage to find some minor areas of agreement.

I have to give you one of my 2 insightfuls of the day for that one. You hit on all cylinders. And no, we will never agree on our core politics, but we do manage to find some minor areas of agreement.

I would like to think that your political disagreements with thatoneguyinslc are the minor areas. And the areas where you agree (respect for each others' different opinions) are the important ones.

That's how I feel, anyway.

Points, fair points, I say, for those to whom points matter.

For the rest of us, it's... pointless.

Wait a minute: Can points be... pointless?



Jokes aside, I agree with LW - as long as a point system exists, it should be reasonable and not subject to (easy) manipulation.

Cheers,
Daiwa

I would like to think that your political disagreements with thatoneguyinslc are the minor areas. And the areas where you agree (respect for each others' different opinions) are the important ones.

I think that was understood.

I think that was understood

Yeah, but I like to hammer obvious points in a sentimental fashion... especially when I try to hijack threads. HAHA!

Yeah, but I like to hammer obvious points in a sentimental fashion... especially when I try to hijack threads. HAHA!

Ok, Hijack eh? We'll see who is laughing after my Mets over take 3rd this week!

I was wondering when this post would pop up. One day I was in the negative. The next day I was up over one hundred points from where my last standing was.

Have many of u backed their articles up yet? Gideon MacLeish has, and his access level is ELITE (3) on JU. He has 1100 articles created. I like what I know by him. But I wonder, even the good guys around here (or gals), HAVE U REALIZED JU CAN BE OFF AGAIN FOR MAINTAINENCE because of ur requests now coming true (rating sys improvements) IN ABOUT 10 DAYS, FOR A WHILE, AND SOME OF UR SITES MIGHT NOT EXIST WHEN ITS UP AGAIN?

Even if some stuffs rechanneled or made private, PRINT and BACKUP ELSEWHERE so u know where it USED to be channeled!

Hmm, all the stuff I have is public...no private articles for me, I've thought about it, but I'm just too lazy to try and pull crap like that. Though I must confess I have a couple point whore articles floating around out there, but then again...so do quite a few others.

~Zoo

Have many of u backed their articles up yet? Gideon MacLeish has, and his access level is ELITE (3) on JU. He has 1100 articles created. I like what I know by him.

Damn! I thought I was good at a 2! You really know how to hurt a guy Toby!

JK. I am going to do just that this week. JIC.

Ok ,Minions, All bow to house Gideon!

Hmm, all the stuff I have is public...no private articles for me, I've thought about it, but I'm just too lazy to try and pull crap like that. Though I must confess I have a couple point whore articles floating around out there, but then again...so do quite a few others.

You? You are pure! Snow is your name!

But write more, I like your style.

I haven't backed up mine. I was waiting for the premium account that they mentioned would have an automated way to back them up. I really dread cutting and pasting what little I have here.

Regardless, I assume the Stardock folks would be kind enough to do a backup before they did anything that would lose us information, over and above the backups they already no doubt have.

You? You are pure! Snow is your name!But write more, I like your style.

Pure?...whatever you say, you're the Dr.

I'll try and write more....but I run out of ideas every once in awhile....I've been in a rut as of late, maybe when school starts up again I'll have some more to write about.

~Zoo

I'll try and write more....but I run out of ideas every once in awhile....I've been in a rut as of late, maybe when school starts up again I'll have some more to write about.

Let me rephrase.

Write more when you are ready!

The system will be flagging users whose calculated new scores are FAR less than what they had on here. At that point, we'll likely look at exactly how that happened and put in major penalities for those users. Anyone who emails me on the subject saying what they did and how they did it will be granted amnesty.

I was happy with the points system when I was regularily up at number 2.  Since then I have been blogging for fun.

Maybe points are important once one is in the top-ten, but become less important the further one slips down the scale.

I wrote an article about that some time ago.  The title was something like "The curse of a top-ten blog."

***********************

By the way, what's up with the Fark cliches? Leave them out of here.

He left a message about it earlier. I think it is a test for the whole revamp thing. I would have sworn the first time I looked in the post name was T-Man. If so, he's IT there.

But many others have taken other routes that we're aware of to get their points up. That's going to come to an end soon as all scores will be recalculated based on what is actually present on JU.

Sweet. Spot #170 is as good as mine.

Wait a minute: Can points be... pointless?

Some believe they are vibrating one dimensional strings and not points at all.

Kidding aside, I wish the points would just go away, but I fear that some of our better writers might not be motivated without the ego sauce, and so we'd lose out on good material without the competitive edge. Damn shame. On the other hand, I haven't read a single original thought in quite some time, and I haven't had one either. I've read some very CLEAR WELL WRITTEN thoughts...don't get me wrong...but original? Not even close. Maybe something to just shake this whole place silly would be good for us all.

And whats up with an article by 'justjohn' that magically genereated 1126+ comments in a single day? (all his own, btw)Seems like someone created the bot I said would be so easy to make.

Check your test blog I gave you a good enough explanation of what I did, but I used no bots. I also proved the concept that any motivated person with 25 minutes could exploit the current point system. I hope Brad has received my email requesting the bogus points be removed in his scan and throwing myself at his mercy by telling him exactly how it was done. I also have a suggestion how to protect the same exploit from being done by two users or a single user with two identities.

My goal was to prove LW's theory fully. I was trying to not get caught and I was moderately successful. Two people spotted me and called me out ... of sorts ... but left me to do my bidding.

The reason for the articles explosion is that I made it private to start to be covert. Once I had requested amnesty I took it off of private and it instantly rose to the top. I also jumped to #4 in the blog sites because I added 15k+ points to my blog site in under 24 hours. Sound like anything else that has happened recently?

I hope every one (mostly Brad) knows that my intent was not malicious. It was to prove a concept. I'm sorry and I hang my head in shame for my actions. I wanted to prove that the problem with the points is easily exploitable without using hacks, cracks, malicious code or anything that is not already on the site.

Again, I say I am sorry for my actions.

I will be happy to email you directly Brad with all the details if I was wrong in my guess of your email address.

I feel a rating should make u first say why u rate good or bad in a short explanation. Then admins see WHOM u thought u were rating and WHAT. Makes it harder on automated repeat ratings after deleting cookies. Even if u junk up the explanation box artificicially, that is transparent then. They could sort of rate or premonitor that rating at least in random checks. This also shows em fast who could best help em do some ratings for them, which they could also check up on randomly, punishment for misuse selfunderstood

And whats up with an article by 'justjohn' that magically genereated 1126+ comments in a single day? (all his own, btw)

No one was mine.  And if you read the comments, it was a tease at you as the 317th one asked if you were going to be the first to catch him.