Wonder how many noticed the mistake in the title? XD
Okay, so this a kind of serious but not so serious generic rant about points that has probably been done 100+ times before me... About half of which are probably by me... But there we go.
First off, as Joey Sellers pointed out not so long ago, upvotes are imaginary internet points. You probably shouldn't take that too literally though because they aren't really imaginary because we can see them... Or at least I hope we can, if not I suggest we all go and see our local GP or doctor. But, that's all they are. Points.
They aren't exactly a one way ticket to winning the lottery. Nor are they going to end world poverty. They literally stand as a reference point for what the COMMUNITY in general likes. It acts as a personal notifier as to roughly what features people like on a plane, which gives you the chance to further develop and evolve said features, kind of like someone giving you a general nudge in the right direction.
Is it nice to get upvotes? Of course it is, it's great to see people liking your stuff and like I mentioned before it helps improve your builds.
Is it disheartening when someone makes a build that's worse than yours and it somehow gets more upvotes? Yes, it is. But that's not the builders fault, they're just doing what their followers want and the followers presumably upvote it because they like it, so it's not really their fault either. And I know it can be even harder to take it in if they appear on the hottest page more time than they should, but is it their fault people are upvoting their stuff? Is it the fault of those upvoting that they want to upvote? The answer to both of those is of course "no".
Sure, you can argue that they got upvotes off an unwritten "I upvote you and you upvote me" system, but if it's not typed out, what can we do? What can the devs do? There's no evidence to get anything enforced because there's nothing to suggest they've done anything wrong.
It's a harsh reality, but that's because upvotes are not a perfect system and it would be extremely complicated and complex to enforce a system that was fair on everyone and even then it still wouldn't please all users. To elaborate a bit further, I don't believe it's possible to make a system that everyone agrees with.
Now, back to emphasis on "community" that I made earlier. You guys, are in charge of what appears on the hottest page, you are the ones upvoting stuff, you have the power to change this. Collectively. As a community. As a single moderator (or a group of moderators for that matter) we can't do anything to influence the hottest feed to the point that people would like to see.
However, if you see a good plane on the newest feed EVEN IF IT ALREADY HAS 1+ UPVOTES, give it an upvote and more importantly LEAVE A COMMENT. That way you can have a hottest feed that suits the overall community.
But, YOU need to make the effort, YOU need to give something to the community in order to get something back.
Further Reading
Now that was the main article over, for those of you that made it this far... Congratulations, have a free virtual high five.
Seriously... I imagine most people have fallen asleep at this point, so I do mean it!
Anyway, what I suggested earlier may or may not work to the extent most people would like it to and the irony is, those reading this far in most likely aren't the ones that are in dire need of reading this in the first place. But, I think most people forget that this is a community website influenced by the community.
I should probably add that forum posts regarding upvotes tend to get deleted by me. I want to assure you that it's nothing personal, but history has shown that that nature of post always end in drama and more often than not more posts about how someone isn't getting enough upvotes. So as a moderator (I don't want to speak for all moderators, but my guess is most will agree with me on this) drama in such forms is not beneficial, but rather, quite toxic for the community.
Now, I'm aware some drama has been stirred up regarding a certain important person. I'll not mention names or reveal identity and at this point I'm not fully aware of what went on, but I'd like to put emphasis on the fact I don't want to know what went on, moreover, I will delete and warn (maybe take matters further depending on the nature) individuals that spread the drama.
But, to be clear, we're human, we make mistakes, we can occasionally be biased when we don't mean to. So I want to take this opportunity to ask for forgiveness on all fronts and accept we're not all perfect.
- Squirrel
sooo long @Squirrel
Sean?@Mod
@Tully2001 Funnily enough I nearly referenced youtube as a similar system with flaws.
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@Eckosong I think that's probably an introvert thing. I have a similar attitude when I'm reading the news, playing a intellectual game, etc. Although, I have a habit of blocking out noises if I manage to fully immerse myself in such things, which has it's pros and cons, the cons being you block out the people that are actually talking to you, I've got into trouble with my girlfriend numerous times by accidentally blocking her out while reading the news or SP forums!
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@Mod (I got the reference) The good thing about being a mod is that your points are hidden unless your viewing my profile from my account... So only really I can see them XD But you can get a good idea by looking at the users page to see roughly how many we have.
@Squirrel 5 minutes to read this, cool I like walls of text
@Razr dude wait XML takes time and I'm working on other stuff
Are you still working on my project (sorry for bugging you) @MechWARRIOR57
Or people like shino who are super rude to others and they don't get banned but others get scolded for saying poop why arnt the mods doing anything?
I saw one person slap 4 wings on a plane and get 60+ and I'm like WTF?! This sucks I just want something and I get nothing and they get 60+! Ugh sometimes I just want to quit
Well the thing I hate is when plats or golds make crap planes and yet get 60+ and us low users spend 30+ hours and almost never get 10 three of my planes have more than 10 upvotes
@Squirrel @MrSilverWolf I read the whole thing
@SHCow I don't think quality is really the core issue. Some people prefer the low quality stuff because of the lack of parts meaning they're more compatible for their Devices. Also checking every single plane, even with mods is a tough challenge, especially when you take into account time zones, etc. Personally, I think the best way forward is to carry on doing what we're doing. If you see a plane that breaks the rules, report it. It comes up on our mod queue for us to deal with and it doesn't go away unless we either approve or remove the post. Right now, it's currently empty (we've been hard at work!).
@Delphinus Thank you. It's nice to hear that I'm not alone in having these thoughts and that people agree with the points I raised. High fives XD
@Shmexysmpilot completely agree. It can be tough to accept at times and it may seem unfair, but you just have to bite the bullet and get on with it. You know what they say, when life give you lemons, you throw them off its face and collect the lemon juice. XD
@SHCow Again, it's good see people do that. Like I mentioned in my post though, I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of users reading this aren't the ones that need to change their attitude towards planes in the newest section, but it's good to at least get the message out there and sway the minds of a few individuals.
@Squirrel yeah, and i feel you did a really good job of making it not seem accusatory or anything. And yeah the system is a little flawed, but people have been trying to find perfect ways to run communities ever for hundreds of years and to no avail. The flaws should just be accepted and moved on from
@kikasshes high five
high five
@Shmexysmpilot People have done similar things like this, but they usually have a habit of either being bias or breaking one of the rules, so posts create drama and usually as a result end up being removed.
I've tried to write this without pointing fingers and to be honest, more importantly I'm trying to say its nobody's fault that things are the way they are. I've simply explained a flaw in the system and told people how they can overcome it.
@Squirrel I agree. I've wanted to make a post like this but I know coming from a regular user would just create a pit of drama that I didn't want anyone to deal with. I'm glad this message is getting out there though
@Squirrel yep lol
@MrSilverWolf Much to your disappointment, it was another one of my many rants about upvotes XD
@Squirrel lol, I read the whole thing, I assumed that since this was from a mod that it must be important, so I read the whole thing lol
@MrSilverWolf I don't know. I pretty sure at least 90% of people reading this feel fast asleep after the first few sentences!
@Sunnyskies It's nice to see people do that for the new people, but don't forget to give the high score builders a bit of credit every now and then!
Am I the only one who read the whole thing? Lol
@RMark1 Thank you. I'm glad you like my stuff! Some of your recent builds look pretty good mind!
I like to camp the newest section and give upvotes to up-and-comers who deserve them for quality builds that don't get attention because they have very few followers.