Or a 'sub-genius'?

This guy will make a good lobbyist. Trying to manipulate things. Politics should be his field not Linux.

I wonder how many bother to thank a post when they don't even reply whether their problems got solved or not and close the thread.

Have you seen movie by name 'Slumdog Millionaire'? The hero wins a million by answering all the questions. When the police question him as to how a slumkid know so much he says he just knew answers for the questions asked. Thats all. Similarly, by chance, I may know answer to 10 posts, may reply and get thanked too. 10/10. Am I a genius?

And whats the point in making it difficult to be called a 'Guru'? 36th chamber of Shaolin or what?

I've been the recipient of great advice on forums like this. It played a significant role in my success in exploring Linux more (specifically the desktop). Eventually, after contemplating the completion of some personal goals regarding Linux, I realized that I needed to give back to the community and actively participate in helping answer other's questions like had been done for me.

One of the main reasons I made LQ my "home" was its Thanks system. What benefit does any one of us "helpers" get from checking back in after our own questions get answered except for little online reputation? Unfortunately, for some reason, I've noticed that the Thanks system almost goes un-noticed by n00bs and have resorted to begging for thanks as can be seen by my signature line. Even that doesnt work sometimes as threads I've resolved end in "Thanks, Admiral!" but no stats to show for it.

I'm moderately pleased with my experience at LQ, but I feel, to promote the use of LQ and the Linux community at large, every opportunity should be explored to find incentive for the "helpers" to encourage them to keep coming back to helping answer questions.

Some possible features to consider:
1) Promote the Thanks system to new users more. Perhaps via emails generated after a period of inactivity in the thread: "Hey, I see this thread has died.. has anyone helped answer your question? Perhaps you should <a href="thank"> them.
2) Allow a moderator to assign thanks when a noob just doesn't get it
3) Implement some sort of "Best answer" system in conjuntion with the Thanks system. (Thanks is not implied, but expressed).

Yeah, I'll settle for "sub-genius swami".

Me neither. I'm a "somewhat medior skilled user". In fact I'm so medior it's a crime ;-p


What I hoped to convey is that, would you actually have been an LQ member for some years, you would have seen that any system based on whatever easily-quantifiable metric has been discussed times and times again and has been turned down always and for obvious reasons. There are members here who post seldomly and who I consider way more knowledgable than me regardless of metrics.

I don't know how long you've been lurking but you've only been an active member since March of this year. That itself doesn't mean shucks if you have convincing, original ideas that do justice to all to enhance the system. In other cases trying to champion the issue will probably only be worth something in the sense it's mildly entertaining. Please read post #33 again and try to understand what it means where Jeremy spoke of rank and "titles not being indicative of anyone's knowledge".

If you read carefully Admiral Beotch's post, you will understand why we believe my system can at least 'REWARD' those that try to give accurate and informing answers and discourages spamming.

I acknowledge that my system, especially at this stage, is considerably in acurate, but as you mentioned, whilist its mildly entertaining, it also quickly rewards those that were not around since 2001, but who are humbly, honestly and effortfully offering well thought, carefully planned and priceess solutions and advice. One such user is Admiral Beotch who honestly metioned how some sort of reward gives the only incentive for experts to continue giving very good answers. I am sure he is NOT the only one who share those sentiments.Check his posts you will surely see how best he tries. His effort is second to none.

Thanks for the nice words Rob. For my personal motivations, I dont think messing with the current title system is what I'm looking for. I do, however, agree with your point that the title only indicates one's "fortitude for the cause" shall we say.

I went back and re-read your OP and realized something you said that made me look at the issue a little differently... Subject matter experts. If someone is consistently increasing their post counts in the Networking forums, they are more likely to be subject matter experts in that field.

I think a system that displays as many different aspects of a user's qualities might help incentivize continued participation in LQ:
A high over all post count shows dedication.
Post levels within a subforum expresses subject matter expertise. Perhaps sub-titles like "networking guru" are now more appropriate.
Number of Thanks is a helper incentive that stands on it's own merit... it just needs to be promoted more.

The only point in this thread that has been worthwhile is that the title 'newbie' or a variant thereof, is perjorative and in some cases absurdly so.

I would suggest two things:

• replacing the introductory title with 'new member' or 'recent convert' or something, which only suggests that the person (or bot) is a recent addition to our lists
• close this thread which has turned into a long exposition of 'I don't agree with you' which doesn't do any good (I think most people have now worked out who they agree with and who they don't and little further meeting of minds is occuring)

I'm considering killing this identity in order to get rid of my high post count, given that this might give people the idea that I know what I'm talking about.

If a post I make makes the case well enough, then fine. In the 'otherwise' case I'll be thinking 'why were they too stupid to see that' when 'why didn't I know how to get them to see the point' would have been more appropriate.

Back on topic, some suggestions originally posted in LQ Addict wannabe!: How about "Adept", "Buff", "Champion", "Master", "Sage" or "Whiz"? Especially for colucix, though: "Enlightened".

Back off topic: the whole metrics thing reminds me of contractor resourcing agents who always wanted to know "How many years of <skill X>?" It was a daft question because I knew C coders who'd been doing it for 10 years and were never going to be "greats"; I also knew seriously smart kids who just "got it" and were cutting great C code after 3 months. {Shrugs} No system is perfect! Hey -- you even have to have a computing related degree to get a job as a programmer now!

I dont think this method works very well....

I thought the thanked part was how many times you thanked another person???

Not how many times they thanked you for help..

Anyways by your stats I'm a guru... No way maybe a Advanced User/Expert ,but not even close to a guru..

maybe it should be #posts/(thanks)/years using linux

Which puts me at expert, this may also be hard if the individual just uses ubuntu for the whole time... He probably doesn't know rc.conf, xorg, menu.lst, package types (.deb, .yum, .pac, .rpm, tar.gz) , cli, bootchart loader and how to compile packages...

, mostly for ethical standards, imo.

Black hat's may ignore it, they passed the test at least once to get the degree, less excuses, less claims of "Oh, I didn't know you can't do that" (ignorance).

Glenn

Agreed- especially with #2.