Future New Underground Membership Criteria

Recently I did what I was hesitant to do for years, I purged all forum Underground (UG) members who had not been active within a certain period.

We need to change the UG membership criteria (from mod voting) and create a new criteria for UG membership which is not based on "voting" because mods are often busy and not inclined to vote on every member unless asked to vote. This is not really fair to member or moderators. So, I have a new TODO to make entry into the forum Underground based automatic based on a combination of various metrics, TBD.

I have not created the metrics yet, but it will be a combination of things like:

• Number of Posts
• Number of Thanks from Other Users
• Number of Thanks Given to Other Users
• Time a Member
• Recent Activity
• Infractions
• Bug Hunter Team Badge

Basically, when a member has a certain number of posts, thanks and time as a member, no active mod infractions, and have reported a verified bug in the forums at least once, they will be automatically promoted to UG member with extra permissions, edit privileges, and other benefits, TBD.

When a UG member is inactive for a certain number of months, they will be automatically demoted back to the "Registered Users" group.

If anyone (including Ravinder, hint hint) would like to suggest the criteria for this automatic promotion to the UG, please reply with your suggested criteria.

Status: TODO

Hello Neo,

Would like to add 2 more criteria here.

1- Number of ideas given by member(Or any useful ideas which are having nice impact for forums).
2- Making F.As volunteer basis also, if we could nominate people for F.A.

Thanks,
R. Singh

Good idea Ravinder:

• Number of Posts
• Number of Thanks from Other Users
• Number of Thanks Given to Other Users
• Time a Member
• Recent Activity
• Infractions
• Bug Hunter Team Badge
• Formulator Badge [Recognized for Providing Idea(s) - This badge exists as you know.]

Yes, anyone can nominate anyone else for a "human given" badge, including Forum Advisor (UG) ; but that does not mean it will necessarily be issued immediately.

People have already nominated members for a number of badges, including the coveted "Order of the Wizard's Hat Badge", and we have issued a few "Wizard's Hat Badge" since the badging system was created; but there is currently backlog of "Wizard" badges to issue. Thanks for your patience, Wizards!

PS: Ravinder was the first person to receive the special "Formulator's Badge" based on his many forward-thinking ideas here; including the idea that I should develop a badging system. Well Deserved, Mr. Formulator!

Cheers and Thanks for the Good Idea.

Until we refine this UG criteria, I just ran this MySQL query:

mysql>  select username  from user where posts > 100 AND lastactivity > (UNIX_TIMESTAMP() - (3600*24*60)) and usergroupid = '2' and post_thanks_thanked_times > 25;
+----------------+
| username       |
+----------------+
| derekludwig    |
| drysdalk       |
| stomp          |
| gandolf989     |
| migurus        |
| apmcd47        |
| krishmaths     |
| disedorgue     |
| amitranjansahu |
| figaro         |
| hergp          |
| Skrynesaver    |
| Just Ice       |
| CarloM         |
| rdrtx1         |
| wisecracker    |
| Aia            |
| Akshay Hegde   |
| balajesuri     |
| ctsgnb         |
| Franklin52     |
+----------------+
21 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> update  user set usergroupid =13, usertitle='Forum Advisor', customtitle=1  where posts > 100 AND lastactivity > (UNIX_TIMESTAMP() - (3600*24*60)) and usergroupid = '2' and post_thanks_thanked_times > 25;
Rows matched: 21  Changed: 21  Warnings: 0

We can refine this over time.... It's a good start I think.

My main goal is to insure Forum Advisors (FAs) in the Underground (UG) are at least active within 60 days; have at least 100 posts, at least 25 thanks (to them) and are currently in the "Registered User" group before we promote them. I will run this for VIP members as well.

Maybe we will create another group badge for those who also have the "Formulate" + "Bug Hunter" badges, or something along those lines.

If anyone has any "badge logic" to suggest for the UG or other potential user groups, please reply!

Cheers.

OK... until we get some better ideas, the system will run this cron once a day:

<?php
$promote_ug = "update  user set usergroupid =13, usertitle='Forum Advisor', customtitle=1  where posts > 100 AND lastactivity > (UNIX_TIMESTAMP() - (3600*24*60)) and usergroupid = 2 and post_thanks_thanked_times > 25";

$status_up = $vbulletin->db->query_write($promote_ug); 

$demote_ug = "update user set usergroupid = 2, usertitle='Registered User', customtitle=1 WHERE lastactivity <  (UNIX_TIMESTAMP() - (3600*24*60)) and usergroupid = 13"; 

$status_down = $vbulletin->db->query_write($demote_ug); 

Looking forward to some great ideas on changing this criteria or adding new badges / user groups.

Am I reading the above code correctly to believe that if someone has paid 400000 bits to get a custom title, this code will automatically discard that custom title if that user is promoted to or demoted to the underground? Shouldn't custom titles that have been paid for remain with that user (getting only color changes in the title to indicate changes in level) unless that user asked to have the custom title removed?

One of the (private) notes that is about to be or recently was deleted said that a user wasn't going to be asked to become a moderator because it could put him in an awkward position at his job (due to a possible conflict of interest). If that was a valid concern then, should there ever be a promotion without asking the user if (s)he wants that honor first?

Don,

No one is going to be embarrassed to be promoted automatically.

We never asked anyone before when we promoted members to the UG by voting and in the long history of the site no UG member has ever asked to not be promoted to the UG.

In additon to my knowledge no member has ever used Bits to get a custom title!

Also "customtitle=1" means "admin sets title" this is for SQL purposes.

There is nothing in this simple, esay UG logic than is a problem based on my understanding and if some rare exception ever happens I will add a line of logic to deal with the exception!

Thanks!

PS: The great majority of peole here do not even use their real names or profile in the forum. If members want to be "secretive" they just use some forum name like "superduper" and "go for it".

Every one has a choice when they register what username to pick. The VAST majority do not use their actual names.

Hi Tim,
OK. I believe you. I just assumed that a title something like Bug hunter extraordinaire that I used to see frequently had been purchased.

But now I can't even find a post that contains that title. Am I imagining things?

Mods have always had permissions to chnage and use any user title they want.

The reason that some mod titles have been changed to "Moderator" is due to a glitch I created and so mods can change their titles (back) as they wish I think.

Lets discuss Mod-related issues in the Mod forums!

Thanks!

Regarding FA titles, if any FA wants a custom title they are free to ask!

Actually, I do not think anyone has an issue with it. If they do, they know how to post or contact us for sure

We are not hiding from anyone!

Also,

I forgot to add that moving forward, as I have been doing, inactive members lose status.

The forum already reclaims Bits for all members inactive for a certain time period (six months as I recall, but I need to check).

Six months is a long time to not visit a forum for anyone who wants to keep their electronic status.

For example zaxxon requested a new title since he is not actively and so I changed it for him.

If he does not log into the forums for two months as status "Forum Advisor" that change will revert back automatically under the code.

Two months seems like a long time to me to be inactive and to be called a "Forum Advisor".

Its is best to honor the active members in my view versus having a group with 100s of inactive members!

This is me - it was always my title from the beginning and in the meantime i keep it out of sheer reminiscence.

Back in the old days the only way to get a custom user title was to pester one of the admins or become a team member, so the first thing i did when i became a moderator was to exert my newfound powers. Perderabo, for that matter, always had "UNIX daemon" before he would quit as admin and become "Administrator Emeritus".

bakunin

Yes. Please do!

One of the things I plan for the future is a new usergroup which a much high post count and thanks received threshold as the UG and that usergroup will also have the priv to change title, see user notes, and more. I'm thinking to use the reserved "Rook" badge for that group.

OK.

I'm happy with how automatic membership into the Forum Advisor group is working so far and will keep the current criteria until further notice:

• Total posts greater than 100
• Last forum activity within 60 days
• Currently a Registered User in good status
• Post thanked by other members greater than 25
• All moderators, VIP members and admins are automatically Forum Advisors by default.

Members will be automatically moved out of the "Forum Advisor" group and back into the "Registered User" group when:

• Last forum activity was less than 60 days ago.

The primary reason for the change was that we need all "Forum Advisors" to be active members and a two month criteria to be considered active is very reasonable I think.

Later this year I will create one or more new user groups which require more posts and thanks and activity, each with additional benefits.

Thank You.

Hey Wolf,

I am not sure that Perderabo actually quit. He was having serious health problems back in the old days before he became "Administrator Emeritus" and he was rarely on the site until about three years ago; when he was active for a short time. Perderabo and I spoke a number of times years ago, and he was really worried about his health and was really sick.

Recently, I send him and email (again) to check on him, and did not get a reply. I worry that the worst may have happened to him. I surely hope not and will try to contact him again soon.