User Rank

[Bart]

I am of the same opinion as DaveMcW, possibly also using the robot one or other Factorio entities:

I would just remove it and renumber everything else.

0 - 4: Manual Inserter
5 - 19: Burner Inserter
20 - 79: Inserter
80 - 299: Long Handed Inserter
300 - 999: Fast Inserter
1000+: Smart Inserter

Colored username, rank text and post count: absolutely essential (also maybe adding different colored username for Factorio staff)
Rank image: not absolutely required, but I still would very much like it
Joined date and location: very useful for moderating spambots, also easy to see what language(s) a user might speak
Avatar: I don't care much about that, but other users probably do (maybe resizing?)

Why is a rank text absolutely essential? If you have a special function on the forum a tag would be a good idea (administrator/developer/moderator), but how's a rank (smart inserter/filter inserter) essential?

[Bart]

Look at this for example:



This in the largest forum in the Netherlands (fok.nl), not to brag but to give you an idea: started in 1999, since then 450.000+ registered users and 150.000.000+ posts. I'm a moderator there for several years now .

No ranks, no rank pictures, no postcount you can see. You can see a postcount if you open a user profile. However, we do have a special moderator function that displays a red flag in posts from users less than three days old, to spot spammers and clones from banned users easily.

Moderators and other people that have an official function do have a tag that explains what they do (admin/developer/designer/news redaction/public relations/moderator/et cetera). They also have different colors (admin red, moderator blue, public relations dark blue et cetera). Everybody can see the information he or she needs .

I'm happy to discuss or share information/experience if you like .

[ssilk]

Hm. That opinion doesn't convince me, cause that forum has a completely different kind of users, than this. I see that rank as something, which bring an important game element into the forum. And as a running gag.
And as said: It can be turned off https://forums.factorio.com/forum/ucp ... &mode=view

I'm thinking to make a poll about this, but there is no need to hurry about this.

[Bart]

Hm. That opinion doesn't convince me, cause that forum has a completely different kind of users, than this. I see that rank as something, which bring an important game element into the forum. And as a running gag.
And as said: It can be turned off https://forums.factorio.com/forum/ucp ... &mode=view

I'm thinking to make a poll about this, but there is no need to hurry about this.

Which setting on that page disables the rank titles and pictures?

The public on fok.nl is wider in interest, but the public in the games section is comparable. I get that it might be fun to have ranks, but it also might be interpreted as 'I have more posts so I am better/more important/...'. It enables people to discriminate. To me we're all equal, and postcount doesn't matter at all, so it shouldn't be ranked. At least not that obvious. On fok.nl there's a top 500 page, http://forum.fok.nl/user/list_usertotals, there people can see the top posters. But that's a large list. It is not very visible.

Interesting discussion though .

[daniel34]

Colored username, rank text and post count: absolutely essential (also maybe adding different colored username for Factorio staff)

Why is a rank text absolutely essential? If you have a special function on the forum a tag would be a good idea (administrator/developer/moderator), but how's a rank (smart inserter/filter inserter) essential?

I get that it might be fun to have ranks, but it also might be interpreted as 'I have more posts so I am better/more important/...'. It enables people to discriminate. To me we're all equal, and postcount doesn't matter at all, so it shouldn't be ranked. At least not that obvious.

I should have been more specific. With rank text I actually did mean special ranks like mod or staff. Although I don't think we've ever had a case where a user was discriminated for his post count or rank (... inserter), so I don't think it's an issue here. When I was a standard user I didn't care about these ranks and most other users won't either.
Also this:

You can argue that colored name is enough for that however color blind people would beg to differ.

[Kayanor]

Well let's bump this.

250 - 999: Filter Inserter
1000+: Smart Inserter

With the new 0.13 update the stack inserter took over the smart inserter's look. The rank would only need a rename to "Stack Inserter" to fit again.
A bit more complicated would be the implementation of the new stack filter inserter. A new rank called "Stack Filter Inserter" needs to be added with the image I attached to the paragraph's beginning, and a higher post count than Stack Inserter, maybe 2500. We should discuss this first.

On the other hand we no longer need to discuss how to give up the Filter Inserter rank because the filter inserter got back in the game!

[steinio]

On the other hand we no longer need to discuss how to give up the Filter Inserter rank because the filter inserter got back in the game!

That's probably the main reason for its return.

[bigyihsuan]

Well let's bump this.

250 - 999: Filter Inserter
1000+: Smart Inserter

With the new 0.13 update the stack inserter took over the smart inserter's look. The rank would only need a rename to "Stack Inserter" to fit again.
A bit more complicated would be the implementation of the new stack filter inserter. A new rank called "Stack Filter Inserter" needs to be added with the image I attached to the paragraph's beginning, and a higher post count than Stack Inserter, maybe 2500. We should discuss this first.

On the other hand we no longer need to discuss how to give up the Filter Inserter rank because the filter inserter got back in the game!

Yup. I wonder who has 2500+ posts on the forum.

[Phillip_Lynx]

... I wonder who has 2500+ posts on the forum.

Quick search in the Memberlist :

ssilk : 7672
kovarex : 5398
bobingabout : 2674

[bigyihsuan]

... I wonder who has 2500+ posts on the forum.

Quick search in the Memberlist :

ssilk : 7672
kovarex : 5398
bobingabout : 2674

Out of those three, only one is able to it.

Interesting.

[Kayanor]

... I wonder who has 2500+ posts on the forum.

Quick search in the Memberlist :

ssilk : 7672
kovarex : 5398
bobingabout : 2674

Out of those three, only one is able to it.

Interesting.

Long-term goal.

[DaveMcW]

I ran a calculation on the distribution of posts among the ranks.

Manual Inserter 8.4%
Burner Inserter 13.3%
Inserter 10.4%
Long Handed Inserter 9.5%
Fast Inserter 13.4%
Filter Inserter 20.9%
Smart Inserter 8.1%
Moderator 8.2%
Factorio Staff 7.8%

Filter inserter is heavily over-represented. A post is roughly twice as likely to be made by someone with Filter Inserter rank than any other rank.

If we add another inserter rank and exclude Staff, Moderators, and Newbies, we get the following optimal distribution:

Burner Inserter 5-15
Inserter 16-42
Long Handed Inserter 43-105
Fast Inserter 106-206
Filter Inserter 207-427
Stack Inserter 428-799
Stack Filter Inserter 800+

Dataset used in the analysis:

Forum Members 2016-07-07.csv

(763.28 KiB) Downloaded 156 times

[ghostdude00]

well smart inserters no longer exist so....

[ssilk]

Huh... bobingabout 's catching up ... need ... more ... posts ...

[Fatpony]

TY for the information. Was very helpful!

[kinnom]

any news about the new ranks?