Orchishorchids, well done for raising this thread. On a forum like this we are all equals but the danger is that newcomers might think there is some sort of authority/correctness in postings when they see the so called accreditations against the contributor. Even this thread has assumed that you have a gripe with someone rather than just highlighting what is, in fact, a completely meaningless agrandisement of some individuals.

Do you have a suggestion of how to do it differently richardb? I'm listening, as you've been a member for quite some time. The "completely meaningless agrandisement of some individuals" I don't quite understand.

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It would be nice if those saying there is a problem would speak plainly for those of us too dense to know what y'all are talking about. I'm clueless (some might say in more ways than one).

-Keith

come on y'all , am running low on popcorn.....

I'm neutral on this - and know what you mean. One benign approach for cases like this is to send a message to a moderator - such as Camille - explaining the situation clearly - providing a name (or names), and get some comments from the moderator first.

But then there are always other approaches, such as in this thread, where there's still uncertainty about whether or not there is some issue that needs to be addressed.

The 'flowers' are really redundant, since there is also a numerical post counter, which tells the same story.

The post counter has little relevance, since each 'pretty photo' counts as much as a treatise on how to grow some obscure species.

I do not see any practical way to improve on these visuals. We have some members, who like to post a lot, and others who tend to hold back. However, there is no meaningfull way to give more weight to individual postings.

Perhaps there should be a brief mention of this in the screen where new members sign up?

Aww, come on. Haven't you ever heard of audience participation.

As for popcorn, I have an extra, help yourself to one of these.
https://external-content.duckduckgo....6pid%3DApi&f=1

True. These 'award/badge' systems are/were all generic features in forums. The level of significance will just be different from individual to individual. It has its own fun things I guess ------ like points collecting or card collecting. I didn't even notice how many flowers for my own account. In fact, I didn't even remember I had those flowers haha.

It was only from this thread that I decided to increase my flower count.

I'm actually a bit surprised to see that it appears that quite a few people want titles/flowers/whatever to reflect on actual member expertise. Even 'back in the day' when forums were a big thing, I don't think that way ever fully the intention. Here are a few points that come to mind:

• As a note, the forum owner/ chief admin is the one who determines what the titles are, how many there are and the post count steps between them.
• Titles can have a motivational purpose: it can incentivise new members to continue participating in the forum. Same thing applies for the flowers.
• Titles can have more practical purposes : each tier can be allotted certain privileges. For instance, you need XYZ number of posts to be able to edit your post, post photos, post links... This was one way of limiting spamon the forums.
• If we really wanted titles to indicate expertise, then the forum owner could have chosen to use vbulletin's reputation system, where members can gain and lose reputation based on how their posts are scored by other users. Members who have the ability to affect reputation (also determined by the owner/admin), will either give or take aways points by approving or disapproving with a post's content. However this can potentially be a very divisive 'tool', and it's implementation in a forum should be well thought out beforehand.

I may be wrong, but as a long time moderator/admin on this forum, I get the impression from this thread that there are a lot of folks who are unhappy or not satisfied with the forum

I'm happy with the running of this forum. It is quite a nice forum here. And it is way better than orchidtalk forum ----- which is another one, and that one doesn't allow 'regular' members to mention names of other forums, plus other constraints - which others might tolerate - but not me.

This orchidboard forum is among the best ones in my opinion.

Another nice orchid forum is 'slippertalk'.