Good morning, everyone!

As you all know, this forum relies upon the contributions of all of you in order to keep going.  We admins are always striving to use those contributions to make improvements to the forum based upon your feedback.  It is with that in mind that we are pleased to announce a massive improvement to the forum experience! 

Starting this week we will be implementing the GANG OF FIVE SOCIAL CREDIT SCORE!
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Now I know that all of you probably have questions about what this means for the forum, so we have provided a helpful list of new features that this change will implement:
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A voting system for posts (up/down) through which users can gain/lose points

Members have asked time and time again for a like/dislike system for posts.  We've looked into several different forums to see their approach, and also checked out the impact of these systems on social media.  We indeed think this would be a great addition to our forum.  It removes the need for short messages such as "Thank you", as you can simply click the thumbs up button instead.  You can also easily express your dislike of the yellowbellies by disliking every post in which they are mentioned.  It is a clean and easy to use system.

All of the votes will be tracked and counted, which leads to a total score for each member.  This score will be used for several features, which you can read up on down below.  We are currently in the process of running an AI algorithm on all posts made on the forum to date, so that we can give everyone a fair score to start out on.  The AI will analyze your posts and the reactions (or lack thereof) they have gotten.  This process will take roughly 24 hours to complete, after which we intend to implement the system properly.

Here is an example of a post getting a thumbs up, and consequently the user score increasing:
   
(click to enlarge)

When voting on the starting post in a topic, that will rate the topic overall.  Here we take a look at some recent posts by another member and the topic ratings:



Replacing the current rank system based on post count

Back when the forum was first brought online, it was the custom in message boards to base one's forum rank on role (admin/mod) or merit (number of posts).  But since those early days Internet culture has greatly advanced and has grown beyond outdated concepts like merit and contributions, but instead has embraced the more logically sound principle of judging content based upon how loudly one says an assertion or how offended someone is.  It is long past time that this forum embrace this mentality and for this reason your new forum Social Credit Score will now base your forum rank entirely on your number of up votes or down votes.   As this system of philosophical nihilism has led to perfectly reasonable results elsewhere in popular culture, we are sure it will lead to great results here! 


An improved reward system

With such a radical rethinking of how our members are ranked, it only made sense to extend this amazing system into the realm of rewards and punishments on the forum as well!  This will not only lead to a reduction in the workloads on administrative staff, but it will also lead to a system that no one can argue with.  After all, what is more fair than majority rule on the Internet?  Here are some examples of the rewards that members can earn going forward for positive Social Credit Scores:


New emotes




Fancy formatting options




More themes




Access to special board for loved members where their opinion is more valuable

Instead of hand picking members that we care about, we'll let the credit score take care of this!




Become a mod/admin

Yes, we are serious.  With a high enough credit score, you will automatically be added to the management team.




Get out of Twitter Jail

Say something offensive about the Royal Family? Get caught trolling a nun?  Make the mistake of saying your opinion about US politics anywhere?  No, I am not talking about Taunt, I am talking about what can be erased from your moderation history if you get this lovely perk!

**Valid only once - does not apply to Nazi crap**




And for those who violate our terms of service....


Lose lbt emotes




Lose posting ability in certain places



Note: After Midnight is a special case as we will only permit posting there if a member has a negative social credit score.  This policy is in place to ensure that we continue to have the usual quality of posts there.


Not allowed to have sig/avatar




Bans




Drone strikes


 


We admins can't wait until the algorithm is complete and we can finally take a well deserved vacation.  We hope you are looking forward to this big upgrade as much as we are!

Well, this will be quite a change indeed. Might take a bit of getting used to.

It was nice one.

We had quite a bit of fun with this one! 

Update: I just now realized I posted that in the wrong account.  Oh well, in any case it fits. 

I thought it was real  from first paragraphs lol. XD

This post was 10/10. You've outdone yourself hahah bravo. I liked all the references to eye-rollers like Reddit's up/downvote system or the state of wokeism. What happens to the person with the highest social credit score ? What unfathomable power do they receive :O

Interesting.

I can understand not seeing attachments, since there might be private stuff in there. It seems that the image in your signature is also a forum attachment, which is why it isn't showing up (other images and the rest of signatures work fine).

We can look into making attachments available to non-members.