Planet 9

**K-Man S** · #1 03-13-2009, 08:05 AM

In doing an analysis of the website there are some items that have come to my attention. One of them involves the Awards system that was added to this site a couple of years ago. Awards like the exhaust award, PCA award, oustanding member award, etc.

It turns out that the software used for these is causing some performance problems for the site AND it is no longer supported by the author who developed it. There was briefly a newer/changed version from another author but that version is no longer being supported either and contains some of the same performance problems.

Do I have an alternative solution that has all of the awards? No.

Do I have a partial solution that will cover 95%+ of the awards that have been given out? Yes.

My proposition is to remove the current awards system to improve site performance and "fix" the issues it causes, in addition I would take the graphics from some of the awards (Namely the PCA award) and assign that graphic to display whenever someone belongs to that group. For example if you belong to the Insiders Group you automatically get the custom Insiders Graphic. I could put the PCA graphic with the PCA group and then if someone joins the PCA group the graphic will show up automatically. However, for the sake of group management I do not want to replicate/duplicate every single award we have now into separate groups as that is too much management overhead. My thought would be to create/use the following group and have custom icons/awards for each group

1) PCA - group exists just add graphic
2) PCGB - make group, add existing graphic
3) Garage Members - make group, add new graphic, this would be for the old Registry award that people have and has transitioned to the garage.

Are there others you think we really need?

Thanks in advance for your feedback on the direction of the site.

Daytona · #2 03-13-2009, 08:55 AM

Din my opinion, doing away with the awards will not change or dilute the essence of the site. I’m cool with it.

**blueone** · #3 03-13-2009, 08:57 AM

I wouldn't miss the awards one bit.

**MoWilson329** · #4 03-13-2009, 08:58 AM

Ken,

+1 on Daytona's remark.

kareldeeley · #5 03-13-2009, 09:06 AM

Originally Posted by Daytona

Din my opinion, doing away with the awards will not change or dilute the essence of the site. I’m cool with it.

You Don't Have ANY Awards...............?

defconjos · #6 03-13-2009, 09:50 AM

Neither do I. I'm also cool with it!

**K-Man S** · #7 03-13-2009, 09:59 AM

I almost forgot, site donors are a usergroup so they would also have a graphic for their group.

Any other award or group you think we need to have a graphic for?

**Krokodil** · #8 03-13-2009, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by K-Man S

Any other award or group you think we need to have a graphic for?

Porsche Owners Club

**JCay** · #9 03-13-2009, 10:29 AM

Originally Posted by Krokodil

Porsche Owners Club

Yeah - good call! +1

**STLPCA** · #10 03-13-2009, 01:00 PM

From their inception I thought the "awards" were lame, bordering on infantile. So, not only won't I miss them, I'll welcome their demise.
PS I feel the same about the "xxxx post club" signifying quantity w/o regard to quality.

**K-Man S** · #11 03-13-2009, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by STLPCA

From their inception I thought the "awards" were lame, bordering on infantile. So, not only won't I miss them, I'll welcome their demise.
PS I feel the same about the "xxxx post club" signifying quantity w/o regard to quality.

While certainly quantity does not always equal quality, if you were new to the site and two people responded to a question you posed and one of them had 3 posts to their credit and another 2,000, you might at least assume that the person with 2000 posts has been around for awhile and perhaps has helped others before with their 2000 prior posts. Sure it is no guarantee of quality from the person with 2,000, but if you remember about a year ago I tried implementing the system whereby members could rate each other, giving them a plus or minus and almost universally people came back that they didn't like that system so we stopped using it.

The goal of the awards system at least initially was to recognize members who had gone above and beyond in a certain area, for example exhaust systems, so that if someone was looking for help on exhaust systems they could go look up who had that award and reach out to those invidiuals with some feeling that they were likely to connect to someone with some recognized experience in that area. How often they were used that way I do not know. While it might be easy to criticize something in hindsight, please recognize that these were implemented with the best of intentions. Could they be better? Sure. Do I have a better option available to me at the moment other than what I've outlined above? No, not really.

In some ways the Garage feature will off-load some of this as you can go into the garage and search on mods, etc. and find the people with them and ask them about what they've done. The end goal, of course being the same, that it is an attempt to help others which is what the site is supposed to be all about.

philipwitak · #12 03-13-2009, 01:26 PM

"...we don't need no stinkin' badges..."

**Santa Fe** · #13 03-13-2009, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by K-Man S

The end goal, of course being the same, that it is an attempt to help others which is what the site is supposed to be all about.

There may be a few that think it is supposed to be about "entertainment".

**jnscolo** · #14 03-13-2009, 02:41 PM

I wouldn't miss any that got dropped. I'd say whatever is easiest for you to administer would be just fine.

**Tess Tickle** · #15 03-13-2009, 04:17 PM

Do what you need to do, to get the site flowing

**JCay** · #16 03-13-2009, 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by STLPCA

PS I feel the same about the "xxxx post club" signifying quantity w/o regard to quality.

Shhh... I'm just about to hit 500!!!

***Stephen_the_Red*** · #17 03-13-2009, 04:43 PM

Ken, maybe it's due to 2 weeks mucking around in guts of a database, but my mind is confused about your proposed new graphics. Would they be "cumulative"?

For example, I'm a site donor, and Insider, and soon PCA. Would all three graphics appear - or would I need select one to go alongside my avatar?

Wouldn't miss all the awards for posts, articles, photos, files. I know I will not be contributing much in that sense to the forums. But for those of you who do go far above and beyond to make this a fantastic resource (and friendly, to boot), I could understand a desire to keep them.

And do whatever you need to keep performance up, or heck, improve it.

**4by4** · #18 03-13-2009, 05:14 PM

Dump em, there corny anyway.

**someday** · #19 03-13-2009, 06:40 PM

No problem with eliminating them.

**Nick_USA** · #20 03-13-2009, 06:53 PM

Muttley would....