Kaitou1412
Moderator
Since additional trophies are in the works, I believe it's time to voice this as its own topic.
There's one inherent flaw in the Notable Writers list. If my observations are correct, then names organized on this list based on the total number of trophies acquired, then by who reached that number first (the latter I am uncertain about, but it's definitely chronologically in some way). Done like this, the list is inherently going to stagnate. Consider the following hypothetical:
Suppose for a moment every writer currently listed as a Notable Writer achieves every possible trophy available (a feat currently achieved only by three of them). The result of which would be seven users with 13 trophies and three with 12. At that point, seven slots are permanently taken until more trophies are implemented. Additionally, it's quite possible, depending on the trophy's nature, that these seven users already qualify for that trophy the moment it implements.
Now dig a little deeper. There are well more than three Veteran accounts that are active writers but are not Notable, though I won't be naming names. Suppose for a moment we take three active Veterans and bump them up to 13 trophies. Until more trophies are implemented, the list is completely locked. Even if we rewrite the code to represent the newest 13 trophy bearer at the top, the list could only be challenged by another Veteran. Even once we add the new Trophies, the Veterans hold an advantage that can lock out other users quickly.
The list barely changes. It changes so little I barely check it. This is a problem that new trophies aren't going to solve. The most new trophies will accomplish is creating a berth for other users to sneak in for a brief time, and the least they will accomplish is nothing because the Notables were already qualified before the new Trophies were even a thought.
However, this is somewhat easily resolved, though (with my limited understanding of programming) it will require a vastly more sophisticated code. It's actually right here on the forums. Scrolling to the top of the page and following the "Members" link reveals that the forum categorizes users based on Number of Posts, Number of Likes, Number of Trophy Points, and Staff (which is empty for some reason). Besides breaking up the categories into different metrics, it bases the order off of something perpetually changing. We can even turn to the main page to see the latter in a different capacity: ranking stories and threads based on numbers that also change.
Apply this to the Notable Writers. We categorize based on Most Likes, Most Favorites, Most Threads, Most Comments, etc. We could keep Most Trophies with the seniority tie-breaker as a metric for how quickly certain users developed into Notable Writers and add a Staff tab to that as well in case someone wishes to quickly PM a moderator for rule violations. I'll leave which Metrics should be employed for a debate, as well as the sorts of protocols we'd need to implement to minimize gaming of the system, but overall I believe this should be a consideration.
It's bad enough Top Stories and Top Threads don't change too often, but they have the positive of being based on values that can be challenged by anyone at any point with little need to attach a time parameter. This, at the very least, should be applied to Notable Writers as well, and basing them off of Trophies simply doesn't permit that sort of freedom.
There's one inherent flaw in the Notable Writers list. If my observations are correct, then names organized on this list based on the total number of trophies acquired, then by who reached that number first (the latter I am uncertain about, but it's definitely chronologically in some way). Done like this, the list is inherently going to stagnate. Consider the following hypothetical:
Suppose for a moment every writer currently listed as a Notable Writer achieves every possible trophy available (a feat currently achieved only by three of them). The result of which would be seven users with 13 trophies and three with 12. At that point, seven slots are permanently taken until more trophies are implemented. Additionally, it's quite possible, depending on the trophy's nature, that these seven users already qualify for that trophy the moment it implements.
Now dig a little deeper. There are well more than three Veteran accounts that are active writers but are not Notable, though I won't be naming names. Suppose for a moment we take three active Veterans and bump them up to 13 trophies. Until more trophies are implemented, the list is completely locked. Even if we rewrite the code to represent the newest 13 trophy bearer at the top, the list could only be challenged by another Veteran. Even once we add the new Trophies, the Veterans hold an advantage that can lock out other users quickly.
The list barely changes. It changes so little I barely check it. This is a problem that new trophies aren't going to solve. The most new trophies will accomplish is creating a berth for other users to sneak in for a brief time, and the least they will accomplish is nothing because the Notables were already qualified before the new Trophies were even a thought.
However, this is somewhat easily resolved, though (with my limited understanding of programming) it will require a vastly more sophisticated code. It's actually right here on the forums. Scrolling to the top of the page and following the "Members" link reveals that the forum categorizes users based on Number of Posts, Number of Likes, Number of Trophy Points, and Staff (which is empty for some reason). Besides breaking up the categories into different metrics, it bases the order off of something perpetually changing. We can even turn to the main page to see the latter in a different capacity: ranking stories and threads based on numbers that also change.
Apply this to the Notable Writers. We categorize based on Most Likes, Most Favorites, Most Threads, Most Comments, etc. We could keep Most Trophies with the seniority tie-breaker as a metric for how quickly certain users developed into Notable Writers and add a Staff tab to that as well in case someone wishes to quickly PM a moderator for rule violations. I'll leave which Metrics should be employed for a debate, as well as the sorts of protocols we'd need to implement to minimize gaming of the system, but overall I believe this should be a consideration.
It's bad enough Top Stories and Top Threads don't change too often, but they have the positive of being based on values that can be challenged by anyone at any point with little need to attach a time parameter. This, at the very least, should be applied to Notable Writers as well, and basing them off of Trophies simply doesn't permit that sort of freedom.
