Suggestion - Added Rank

[lancalot]

The current rankings were difficult enough to implement, as implied elitism just to be able to identify the staff, from the newbies, from the more frequent members.

I'd be was once considering having people's first join date (month/year) listed somewhere in their post header-bar, but couldn't figure out how to do it.

it actually up there already .... on top of the person post on the right hand side ...
Join Date:
Location:
Posts:

[GoktimusPrime]

No, that's only the date when someone joined this current incarnation of the board, not when they joined OzFormers. My join date is 27th December 2007, but I joined OTCA in 1997. We didn't have an online forum then, but griffin did issue out membership cards. I think I was member #48 IIRC.

I don't see the harm in having a special rank for longer time members. It's not exactly elitist if those ranks don't even have any additional board privileges/entitlements (so it's nothing more than an ornamental title). Why can't we have a sort of superficial "reward" system for people who've stuck with the club for longer than some of the younger members have been alive? Surely reward point systems like frequent flyer points and loyalty cards are more 'elitist' because they give members privileges (e.g. discounts) over those who don't have them. I personally don't care if it happens or not. I don't need titles/ranks to tell me who the long time members are; if anything it'd be more relevant for newer members, but it wouldn't really affect long time members.

[lancalot]

oohhh i see...me still noobie

[Seraphim Prime]

No, that's only the date when someone joined this current incarnation of the board, not when they joined OzFormers. My join date is 27th December 2007, but I joined OTCA in 1997. We didn't have an online forum then, but griffin did issue out membership cards. I think I was member #48 IIRC.

I don't see the harm in having a special rank for longer time members. It's not exactly elitist if those ranks don't even have any additional board privileges/entitlements (so it's nothing more than an ornamental title). Why can't we have a sort of superficial "reward" system for people who've stuck with the club for longer than some of the younger members have been alive? Surely reward point systems like frequent flyer points and loyalty cards are more 'elitist' because they give members privileges (e.g. discounts) over those who don't have them. I personally don't care if it happens or not. I don't need titles/ranks to tell me who the long time members are; if anything it'd be more relevant for newer members, but it wouldn't really affect long time members.

Rewards systems like Flybuys aren't elitist as they're open to anybody who wants to take part.

Providing a special badge or something similar for people who were here at the start only causes segregation because it's not something that is open to all, which I think has always been the strength of this forum as a place for fans to gather - it's open and equitable to all, no matter whether they're a long term fan or a relatively new one.

People get recognised for their name and history among those for whom the history is important. I think as most people still go by original board names, or have made it clear one way or another what their former names were, such that it's fairly easy to tell who's been around a while without a need for a special badge or member rank.

[griffin]

We have post counts there to highlight who are more frequent members here, but it can be inaccurate and unfair to those who are newer to those who are older. The best method to use, which I often look at when updating ranks, is the "per day" count on the profile page... which ignores how long you have been here, just how much you interact here.

I do have records of when members first joined Ozformers for most of the members before we moved here, so I'd like to have the "original" join date next to the "current board's" join date... but as I noted above, this doesn't appear obviously easy to do (for me).

[ITZTRU]

The best method to use, which I often look at when updating ranks, is the "per day" count on the profile page... which ignores how long you have been here, just how much you interact here.

But that is an issue itself. Just because I do not post and interact every day, doesn't mean I don't frequent and visit the board 3 or 4 times a day (which I actually do...)

[Cat]

I worry this would reignite the arguments that were taking place these week in the "don't care anymore" thread.

I wasn't aware of any recent arguments. It seems I have impeccable timing. :S

I just thought of it as another neat little notation, somewhere on the Profile, that ultimately means nothing.

Using myself as an example here: I may have been an early club member, but I'm a late and infrequent board member. I'm not therefore more trustworthy than someone who joined in 2010, but posts daily and has a thousand positive trades and sales.

In other words, I don't see it as something that would influence reputation, BUT on reflection, I can see how others could perceive otherwise.

Maybe (and I'm talking strictly theoretically as I actually think it'd be difficult to do) it'd be a neat little widget only viewable on someone's actual profile page.

It's not really to celebrate specific individuals at all, but more about showing the longetivity of the overall club, if that makes sense.

Not to attempt to influence some kind of superiority or self-importance. Just as something that is viewable that could also be argued as 'elitist', like 'join date' or 'post count'.

Again, to use myself as an example, and going slightly off what my idea was, but to address how some are viewing it: joined the club early on, may have done things in hobby that may have once counted as something (even I'd dispute that) but have done little on here, and would say that my opinion matters less than those who have showed actual commitment to the club and/or board.

[BigTransformerTrev]

No, that's only the date when someone joined this current incarnation of the board, not when they joined OzFormers. My join date is 27th December 2007, but I joined OTCA in 1997. We didn't have an online forum then, but griffin did issue out membership cards. I think I was member #48 IIRC.

Out of interest, when did the club actually start? And then when did it subsequently turn into an online forum? My interest is piqued

Oh, and on the subject of added rank, consider me Switzerland - I'm totally neutral on the issue.

[GoktimusPrime]

Club started in 1996. I first set up a forum that was used by members in 1999, but the first "official" forum set up by griffin was around 2005 IIRC. We also used to use a channel on IRC; #transformers on austnet; although we didn't set that up. In 2000 I came across it and it was already established by some other people who weren't even TF fans and when I tried to talk about Transformers with them, they initially got freaked out, even mad. Then started kicking me off the channel. I messaged one of the ops and eventually he agreed that a channel called #transformers should be better off in the hands of people who want to talk about Transformers (duh), so he deregistered the channel and it was either myself or dirge who re-registered it.

[griffin]

Out of interest, when did the club actually start? And then when did it subsequently turn into an online forum? My interest is piqued

A brief timeline of Ozformers...

1995 (mid) - I first got online and found the only TFs fan community at that time (ATT newsgroup), and my first fellow online Australian fans.
1996 (mid) - Knew at least a dozen Australian fans by now, and decided to track down as many as I could, to create an email mailing list. Had about 20 on the mailing list.
1996 (Sept) - I offered to start up a printed monthly newsletter as a fun novelty thing for us fans away from the main fandom "action". 16 people were willing to pay a couple dollars per issue.
1996 (Oct) - Issue 1 went out, as a fan newsletter.
1996 (Dec) - Issue 3 was when the newsletter started calling us a fanclub, with our original name of "Austrans".
Somewhere at this point, I got written/email permission from Hasbro Australia to be allowed to call ourselves a Transformers fanclub.
1997 (Mar) - Issue 6 had our first NZ member joining. Members in the next few years would come from nearby Asian countries as well, as they felt just as isolated from the main American fandom.
1997 (May) - Released the first of 14 "Junior" issues, for our younger members at that time.
1997 (Oct) - Issue 12 of the main newsletter was when I was able to email the newsletter out to those who couldn't afford it.
1998 (Oct) - Issue 24 was our second birthday, and we passed 50 members (had 55 at this time).
1998 (Dec) - Issue 26 was when the club's name changed to "Ozformers". (to prevent conflict with a transport company name, & trannies).
1999 (July) - Goktimus set up the first Australian Transfan Messageboard (Planet Sabertron).
2000 (Sep) - Issue 47 was the last issue to get printed. We had 65 members by this stage.
2000 (Oct) - Issue 48 was meant to be the last printed issue because I was getting too busy and too late with each issue. As such, this issue was never produced.
2000 (Nov) - Issue 49 was when each issue would just be a webpage and emailed out to members. (quicker for me now, not printing them out)
2000 (Dec) - Issue 51 would be the start of a fortnightly newsletter, as the amount of news each month was too much for a single issue.
2002 (Feb) - A second Australian Transfan messageboard starts up (Theyareamongus)
2002 (Apr 13) - Following the lead of the other two messageboards, I finally get to set up one for the Ozformers club. (at Xorbit)
2002 (Aug) - Issue 91 ended up being the last webpage issue, due to us having a Club messageboard now. Weekly or monthly news-summary emails would go out sporadically, if I had time.
2003 (Jan 17) - Ozformers V2 messageboard relaunched at Ezboard.
2004 - TFs fan convention in Sydney.
2005 (Jun 10) - Ozformers V3 messageboard relaunched at invisionzone
2006 - TFs fan convention in Sydney.
2007 (May 24) - Ozformers V4 messageboard (Vbulletin) created on my own (otca) server, finally opened for business Dec 27th. (the current location)
2013 (mid) - Ozformers V4 messageboard to be eventually relocated to the Ozformers.com domain.

Hope that sheds some light on the history of Ozformers.