Community Seniority Statements?

Just as a side note, I am aware of the join dates, but I'm strictly talking of a number of years on the profile page. Very small change, just wanted to hear peoples feelings towards it.

@Youngupstart - count me in as one who would like the 'date joined' showing on a person's profile page...as it already does on the 'members' page.

@Youngupstart Interesting point. When I go on a new forum and am tagged a newbie by the system it often makes me feel slightly intimidated. I also notice that people tagged "senior" members behave in a way that the folks on Connosr don't seem to. I wonder if the lack of a pecking order makes Connosr more egalitarian in its mood. I'd hate to see that change.

@Pudge72 @Youngupstart I may have misread your posts - I thought you were suggesting adding date joined to discussion entries, where I feel it would be irrelevant. If it's to go on people's profile page you may well have a point.

Early registration doesn't really mean anything other than that you registered ages ago. What if you registered when the site opened, and then didn't participate for 6 months?

What might be interesting is to see how many "thumbs up"s a person has for their discussion posts, or maybe the number of posts they've made, or some sort of ratio of comments against thumbs up comments, perhaps?

I think I disagree with the idea of "seniority", because length of presence doesn't really add anything to the value of a person's opinion: there are many idiots online who are early-adopters, and there's no sense inflating their sense of self-importance ;)

@jasonbstanding I'm glad you brought it up - we've been trying to keep your ego in check ever since you joined ;-)

@Piero I do however support the long-awaited site upgrade which will put sparkly golden pictureframes around the avatar of anyone with a 14 letter username, and for the Rocky theme to be played on any page that their usernames appear.

Come on, hop to it lad.

@Piero, "...trying to keep your ego in check...." yep, you're the Connosr "bad cop"! :-)

@Victor don't you forget it!!

@Piero, From one warrior to another!

I like the idea of an age statement on our profile pages, and it could always be made interesting by linking the age with a whisky, for example being here 3 years you'd be associated with something like St Georges Chapter 6 or Birnie Moss, and so on as the years went up!

I agree with putting the date joined in one's profile. I don't think that that would have too do much with seniority because more or less the reviews, posts, and comments that the members make speak for them self. I don't think that there should be any seniority ranking, but adding the "date joined" in the profile would just give a little more information about the member.

@jasonbstanding you make a great point about the early joiners to the site who don't contribute anything. I think the profile page includes a lot of the info that you refer to (# of reviews, discussion posts, etc.) though, if Connosr is able to...maybe the information can be presented in a more graphically appealing manner so that the level of a person's contribution to the website can be more easily recognized (I am currently lacking in ideas on how to specifically do this...sorry).

I also like the idea of having something more representative than 'age' if you have anything at all. I joined up quite a while back but only pop-in from time to time, don't write reviews and do more reading than posting, so me being 'older' doesn't really say much about my contribution. Also, posting lots doesn't necessarily mean that you contribute much to the site (although on connosr that doesn't seem to be a problem).

Reviews, "thumbs up"s, numbers of posts tweeted, number of profile views (although that one can go both ways...I know I research people [on other sites, I hasten to add] who I think need a smack).

In the end I reckon having some stats on the profile page is all you really need - I don't think sticking a 'X posts, Rank: Black Bowmore' beside a person's name adds much.

Count me as a naysayer in this case. People already use heuristics like age statements to judge the merit of a whisky too much as it is. I'd hate to see the same thing happen on Connosr: the opinions of "older" members inherently outweighing those of "younger" members.

To the degree that more experienced members make, on average, better contributions—and who would doubt that?—it should be obvious by the contributions themselves. I would hate to see people judge the merit of a contribution by the "age statement" of the member rather than the contribution itself, much like I hate to see people judge the merit of a whisky by its age statement rather than the contents of the bottle.

@jasonbstanding A truly better idea would be a thumbs up statement. I think that showing a fair amount of people either agreeing or at least enjoying the statements you have made is a really intriguing idea. Well rated contributions shows a general consensus with the member, much more than an age statement could. And to make a comment on dates joined, having considered it more thoroughly, I don't think seniority should be viewed in a sagastic way in which older members should be upheld over new members as I can guarantee that people who have joined later than I have have obtained more knowledge on whisk(e)y in general, but more of which a way of showing your colours, to be proud of being part of the community for a while. That is my reconsidered two cents on this discussion.