Do you really want to bring some kind of class system to a hobby robot forum ??? eyeroll

No its about helping the community and freeing up DJ time. However perhaps needs a bit more discussion on best way forward

@ winstn60: Thank you. I was only responding to your idea when I made the post. I was hoping it would spark some conversation on the topic. I guess we'll have to watch and wait for member response. If there is no interest it will die out on its own. Seems participation in the community forum has waned. I sincerely hope this is a short lived trend.

Perhaps a 'Robot of the Month' photo competion might work. Have one thread for submissions from users for the month. Then another with a poll for voting, for that month. Perhaps have the winning photo on the forum front page ? The only problem is, I don't think there might be enough submissions or robots in a finished state.....but we could give it a go.

@Robotz012248 I think what we saw in board participation was that DJ ran out of stock just when Makezine and a bunch of internet sites started talking about EZ-B, and then there was a huge bump in traffic when everyone who had ordered got their new boards. Traffic is likely to ebb and flow a bit, and those who are doing significant projects will participate more than those who try it out and move onto other things.

I don't really think a rating system is needed. The "wheat rising from the chaff" is pretty evident just from reading the posts, although being able to see post counts and allowing posts to be "liked" or "Thanked" and seeing those counts might help new members better judge if the answers they are getting are likely to be accurate or just guess work.

I would rather have DJ put his time into ARC features than forum features though.

Alan

At my work (tmobile) we use a system that counts both participation in log ins and posts , as well as responding to posts. For posts that have a question attatched members can click yes or no , if that reply or post was helpful , this with the highest score received a ranked title indicating their willingness to contribute and how active they are in the forum.

@lloyd - I believe these kind of building projects are seasonal , I see the most activity in the fall and winter months because builders are inside more often.

@Josh: I never thought about robot building being seasonal, but I can easily see how that would be a factor. Excellent point! tmobiles ranking system seems quite viable. Hoping this thread will continue to draw responses. Whatever we can do to lighten the load on DJ will beneifit us all in the end.

@jstarne1 I like the ranking idea you describe I've seen similar on other forums. Rather have an automated system that doesn't require much carbon based lifeform intervention!

Neil