I'm not a guru.

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Martin Wynne
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I'm not a guru.

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

I wish to complain.

Under my name when I post to these forums appears
the words Guru User.

I make no such claim, in fact I object to being described
as such without reference to me. It implies that others
reading my posts should give them more weight than they
would to other posts. This is most definitely not the case -
I'm stumbling along in the dark just like everyone else.

Will whoever put those words there please remove them.

Martin.
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Martin,

This was the user ranking feature of the phpBB board software. In a playful moment over a year ago I set it up to trigger at certain numbers of posts and then I never turned it off again. Novice User was 0-10 posts, Active User 11-50, Guru User between 51 and 100 and Super User everything above that. It was amusing at the time but you're right that it's a bit silly and doesn't really fit with the style of the forum. I've now turned them off completely. :)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Martin Wynne
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Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Tim Green wrote:Hi Martin,
I've now turned them off completely. :)
Thanks Tim. But I was asking only for myself. There may
be others who would be delighted to be called a guru after
asking 51 daft questions. :)

Martin.
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Martin Wynne wrote:Thanks Tim. But I was asking only for myself. There may be others who would be delighted to be called a guru after
asking 51 daft questions. :)
That's OK, I had actually been meaning to update it and make it a bit more meaningful. The thing is, there are only two possibilities, either you define a specific status or rank on a per-user basis or you have the ranks appear automatically on the basis of the number of posts. Maybe just something like Active User after 50 posts (and nothing below that) and something a little more elevated for 100 or more posts.

Even so, I'm not quite sure whether a ranking system like this fits in the style of a professional users' group. Somehow I feel that it's OK for MP3 and gaming but doesn't really feel right here. On the other hand it's just a bit of fun. Any feelings?
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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waldemar.hersacher
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Unread post by waldemar.hersacher »

I think a sort of ranking will make sense to every forum. The sort of ranking which was active isn't very useful since the number of posts is displayed. Making categories only on the number of posts isn't much useful.

I'm active in another forum and they have a ranking giving a person the state of a enthusiast. This is done by triggering some moderator after a certain level of posts. The moderator is then checking the duration of the activity and the quality of the answers. After that the person will be invited to become an enthusiast. If you accept this the discussion thread will have an icon displayed that an enthusiast is involved in that discussion. Normally their on staff will not get the enthusiast state. They opened a new level named expert to indicate that this is a staff person which have a deeper insight into the product.

For this forum Alexander and Tim will get the expert level and some of the others will get the enthusiast level. And the rest will only be users.
Waldemar
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Waldemar,

Thanks for the suggestion. This is possible and I've actually already thought about it, but I'm a little hesitant to introduce a ranking based on my opinion. On the other hand, you're right that a ranking based only on the number of posts is not so good, although on the whole the users here who make a lot of contributions are generally all competent, constructive and helpful.

I'll think about it and see what I can come up with... :)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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C.Trautmann
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Unread post by C.Trautmann »

waldemars proposition is quite nice...the problem is that Tim have to control it^^
(I cant imagine how Tim is writing these long and good posts, also in the german forum, in highspeed....handle with H&M problems and also check the post-quality of the users)

...enough love-declarations :oops:

my point of view for this forum is that it would be totally wrong to have some ranking, with every new version there are new questions which can more often than not only solved by Tim and Co.
The people here dont write for honor and reputation, but to solve the actual problems...that counts...nothing else!

Best regards, C.Trautmann
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Dean Whitlock
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Unread post by Dean Whitlock »

I agree with C. Trautman. Though I have made many posts, most have been questions rather than answers (sometimes even daft questions). I am definitely an enthusiast, but that doesn't make my questions or my answers any more expert. I just happen to take the time each day to see if there's something here I can learn, and while I'm at it, I answer whatever questions I can.

Dean
Jonathan S
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Unread post by Jonathan S »

It's interesting to see a two year old thread brought back to life.

I'm with Dean, in that I come and try and learn something new, and answer questions where I can. Sometimes it's just a matter of pointing the questioner to an answer already given.

On another note, Martin, how do you feel about the term 'guru' now? It's been more than two years, and your knowledge of H&M is certainly substantial. If you don't like it, we won't call you a guru to your face, but I guarantee people are using the term when you're not looking. :wink:

Jonathan
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Martin Wynne
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Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Hi Jonathan,
Jonathan S wrote:On another note, Martin, how do you feel about the term 'guru' now?
I really don't like any label at all. At present it says "MVP" and I've forgotten what that means! The most useful information is the length of time a contributor has been using H&M, which is usually the same as the length of time on these forums.
It's been more than two years, and your knowledge of H&M is certainly substantial.
Not as substantial as you might think. For example I seldom create PDFs and when I do I use the standard template. I've barely ever used the Manual Designer and you won't find much from me on that subject. The inner workings of the MS CHM viewer are also mostly unknown to me, and I don't do much with context IDs and popups. Mostly I use H&M to import web pages and create new ones for Browser help, also sometimes eBooks. Most of my H&M projects are never published in total to end users -- they form my own database of Help material from which I extract stuff as required.

Also those two years have seen the migration from H&M3 to H&M4, not without a few regrets on my part, and a lot of new ideas to assimilate. But as a developer I do have my own copy of the RVF editor and I can look at the code, so I can see perhaps better than most why H&M does things the way it does.

Certainly I've never found any other tool which allows me to collect and sort odd bits of web page, screenshots, diagrams, notes, etc., the way H&M does. I'd be lost without it. (TexNotes Pro comes close as a database, and also uses the RVF editor, but it doesn't have H&M's superb range of output formats and customization.)
If you don't like it, we won't call you a guru to your face, but I guarantee people are using the term when you're not looking. :wink:
Occasionally I enjoy being a bit outspoken, just to liven things up a little, so I'm sure that's not the only thing I'm called! :)

regards,

Martin.
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