Welcome to Simpleplanes Explained, where I will explain something about the Simpleplanes website or something related to Simpleplanes, such as flight. If you want me to cover any topics or answer a question relating to the SP website, ask me in the comment section of any of my forums. Anyways, on to the forum!

---

Prologue

So you want to become a Platinum user. But, you don't have much time to spare? Well worry not! I have gathered a list explaining what you will need to do to reap those upvotes in.

---

Simpleplanes Explained

How to become Platinum quick

One of the greatest honors to gain on the website is the Platinum rank. The black badge stands as a symbol of authority, superiority, and knowledge. A testament to the effort and dedication to those who wear it. It's easy to see why we lowly gold would crave it and us silvers and bronzes dream of achieving it.

So how do we achieve such an honor? We must start our journey toward the 25,000 points required to become Platinum.

It is important to note this journey is not for the faint of heart. It will require dedication, patience, hard work, and more. This is also not a 100% never failing cheat sheet follow these three easy steps. Instead, this is a forum explaining the inner workings of the system so users can better understand what they are working with or against. It should not be used as a rule book or guideline you would follow.

---

Upvotes

So, to get our obscure number of points, we must first look at the point system. Our point system for SP is quite simple. Depending on what someone is upvoting, you get a certain number of points.

-Mods: 25 points per upvote
-Builds: 15 points per upvote
-Videos: 15 points per upvote
-Forum: 2 points per upvote

From this little list, mods seem like our fastest path to platinum.

-Mods: 1000 upvotes to get platinum
-Builds: 1667 upvotes to get platinum
-Videos: 1667 upvotes to get platinum
-Forum: 12500 upvotes to get platinum

However, that is false. We must look at more than just how many points we get per upvote.

---

Lying Averages

In a previous post of mine, I stated the amount of posts you would need to make before getting platinum. I was able to do this by finding the average amount of upvotes a post gets and doing some simple math.

-26 mods with an average of 39 upvotes each
-556 builds with an average of 3 upvotes each
-105 videos with an average of 16 upvotes each
-1,786 forums with an average of 7 upvotes each

However, that forum post is false due to a major weakness.

In a real world scenario, the average will be impossible to calculate due to the many variables and factors that go into builds.

To put in simpler terms, it's just not accurate enough. When calculating averages, the numbers come from a set of data. The data within that set are taken from a pool of subjects, data, or etc. An example would be if I was finding the average weight of adult human males. To find the average weight, I would pull my data from adult males ages 18-40. These people are within the data limits I have placed. By doing this, I assure accuracy in my results. I would not pull the weight of a crow or rabbit and add it with my other data as it would make my results inaccurate.

To find averages, you must have constants in the pool where you pull your data out. This is not the case for simple planes. Factors such as skill, reputation, location, type of build, etc all contribute to the amount of upvotes they receive. These factors are not constant between each other. And by taking the averages from our data, we are given inaccurate results.

---

Factors and why you should consider

Factors are powerful forces that should not be overlooked. They can make your build flourish or be washed away in the sea of white user builds posted in newest. We are forever dependent on them. Lets list a few common factors in Simpleplanes:

-Time of upload
-Type of build
-Rank of user
-Reputation of user
-Quality of build
-Complexity of build
-Part count of build
-Community drama
-Custom screenshots vs normal
-Friends
-Teasers
-Day of upload
-Month of upload

There are a lot more factors that play in the upvotes of a build, ranging from big things such as it being something anime or Ace Combat to the simple color combination between the build and background. Factors also effect what you build too. An example is complexity. If something is too complex people won't build it.

By taking factors into account, you can optimize the amount of upvotes you gain for each upload. Example being time of posting. Posting at a time when users are more active on the website means more people will see your upload than if you post it when majority of people are asleep. While I wish I could tell you the magic formula, I can't. Its up to you to optimize your uploads to receive the most amount of upvotes. However, I can give you some tips on how to optimize some parts of the process.

---

Finding your niche

The first thing you should do before starting this adventure is figure out you building niche. After all, there is no point in trying to get platinum if your means of doing so is doing something you don't enjoy. By finding your niche, you will enjoy doing something you love and will be more motivated to put time in effort in it.

Through trial and error, you will also be able to improve your builds. Lets say your niche was building generation four aircraft. Over time, you would begin to discover new ways to improve your builds, like better fuselage building techniques and decals/liveries.

By finding what you love doing, you assure the quality of your builds, which is something the community greatly values.

---

Playing your cards

I like to think about Simpleplanes like a game of cards or chess. You must make calculated decisions and moves using what you are given to win against other experienced players. You could also think as SP as a market too where we all are fighting for the upvote of the consumer (Person scrolling through the website). So I will list a few strategies you can use with your next uploads to maximize your upvotes.

---

Quick explanation

The number one way to get upvotes is to get people to click on or see your upload. This is achieved through targeting the predictability of the brain and eyes to maximize our chances of grabbing the users attention. I explain the importance of attention in this post.

---

Screenshots

With the ability to post with screenshots now being available to everyone, there is no reason to not do it. Posts with custom screenshots are known to preform better upvote wise than posts with normal designer shots. While they may be a bit tricky to pull off right and may take more time then the normal screenshots, they are well worth it in the long and short run.

Key things to consider:

-People's brains tend to prefer images with 33% solid and 67% empty space. This means the brain likes it when the image is 2/3
empty (Empty being void and background).

-Our eyes are drawn to contrast, so match colors with colors they will contrast with. Also, our eyes are attracted to brighter colors such as yellow and cyan. Colors like blue, red, and darker shades of green are typically overlooked. Purple is an exception due to the lack or purple in nature, which makes it an exotic color.

-Darkness is actually shunned by the eye. Our eyes have evolved to search for information such as movement in lit areas. This means our eyes will gloss over screenshots with darker colors.

-Consistent coloration is also important as our eyes will look harder to find more detail in the image that could provide more information about what it is to the brain. Once again, this is why Maywar is so great as it has bright colors and the coloration is consistent.

-Keep the build in the center of the screenshot as it will be the center of focus. Be sure to keep the screenshot minimalistic (explained in first point).

Great forum page explaining how to take better screenshots

---

Teasers

Teasers are a great way to get those early upvotes and spotlights as you are literally bringing people to your build. While the actual forum may at most get you an upvote or two, it helps spread the word out to other users of the community. When accompanied and followed by a good build and some great screenshots, a teaser can generate tons of hype and support for a build, which leads to it being spread out further.

The spotlights and early upvotes allow your build to enter the hottest page and the jet streams of the followers of those who spotlight you. This increases the chances of people seeing your build and clicking on it.

---

The Build

The look of the build follows the same set of rules as the screenshot.

Key things to consider:

-People's brains tend to prefer images with 33% solid and 67% empty space. This means the brain likes it when the image is 2/3
empty (Empty being void and background). The empty space of your build is the solid colors of the skin of the aircraft while the solid portion is things like lines, accents, and details.

-Our eyes are drawn to contrast, so match colors with colors they will contrast with.

-Darkness is shunned by the eye. Our eyes have evolved to search for information such as movement in lit areas. This means our eyes will gloss over sections with darker colors. However, when combined with a lighter background, it becomes a center of importance to the eye through contrast.

-Consistent coloration is also important as our eyes will look harder to find more detail in the image that could provide more information about what it is to the brain.

-Our minds enjoy shapes and patterns (We prefer retangles the most). Make sure to keep this in mind. We also like complex shapes and smooth transitions/surfaces.

---

Other things

Not everything is about visual either. One of the greatest things about us as a species is our ability to relate and feel. This is why we enjoy looking a such detailed and complex builds just as the 20200 part Yamato. We can relate to the effort and time they spent building it and designing the ship.

And since SP allows us to use our creations, functionality is important too. The build must be some what complex but not so complex it takes away from the build. Simple things like custom control surfaces, landing gear and bays, lights, and cockpits add functionality and meaning to the build.

---

Conclusion

The path to Platinum will not be easy. It will require you expand your abilities and skills, learn patience, and so much more. So, to answer the question, how do you become platinum fast?

Answer: By optimizing your ability to collect upvotes and abusing the game mechanics of the human brain (After all isn't this all a simulation?)

---

One possible way to take it up a notch

So, have you ever heard of the successor system? No? Well, let me explain. Lets say someone makes an improved variant of your build and uploads it. Through the successor system, you will recieve half of the total points gained by the successor. This also is true with the successor of the successor, in which you will gain half the points from the successor, which would gain half from the successor to the successor. In other words, you get 25% of the successor successor.

Why am I telling you this? Well, lets say you posted your newest build as the successor to the previous on. Well now your build is receiving points and the previous post is getting half of that. If you continue to do this for more builds, each build will always be receiving points from the successor system.

This is more of a thought than something you should use. Im also fairly confident it's grounds for abusing the point system, but I think it's pretty cool.