How Do All,
I am a member of many forums not all of them to do with Knotting, nearly all of the forums have a voting system in place, either to vote on posts, pictures or uploaded files.
the one thing I have noticed is that in every one of these forums there is not one single post, mention or winge about the voting system, maybe these people have more interesting things to discuss and don’t give the voting systems a thought, if they even noticed them there in the first place?
Derek, since you are a tough old bugger, and not affected by the many “Black spots” ? that you have received then you won’t be upset if the system stays.
I am not a coward and have given you a thumbs down ( read black spot if you like) for moaning about something not worth moaning about, :-X You may return the favour if you wish.
Take care,
Barry ;D
Yo Barry,
Thanks for bringing a smile to my face and some perspective to the issue as well as another well earned ‘Black Spot’ to my growing stack.
You are of course quite right that I will not personally be the slightest upset if the voting system stays, nor with the innevitability that I will continue to attract a growing stack of Pooh votes. As I commented earlier, my concern with this system is that is promotes abuse and could lead to putting off newer members who might take a stack of negative votes to heart. With a tiny membership base of 408 they are all precious and we need the mechanics of this board to nurture them without providing a system which promotes abuse.
It is a point of interest that contributors to this forum do indeed find this topic most interesting, driving this post into its third page - not a very common situation. It seems the move to this great new Forum software (Props to the Webmistress) has sparked interest in the service of the forum itself, which for a short time will pose more interest than the field of knotting itself. I don’t think that is a bad thing though. Equally of note, is the observation that very few of the posters have so far had anything good to say about this voting system and concerns have been expressed about its potential for abuse.
Still, If I continue to rack up a good old stack of ‘Black Spots’, then as others occasionally get smitten with them, they will not feel quite so upset, after all, Derek’s got a great stack of them and he’s not worried about it.
Take care yourself.
Derek 
The best rating system to have is one that rates posts, not posters.
Building some sort of bias (what else do you do on knowing a rating?) for
a person seems a poor endeavor. Applauding particular remarks, as I said
before, signals readers to give attention to them (in the (humble) opinions
of the rating community)–and that seems a worthwhile rating (albeit, yes,
one that is also biased).
We can see the desired system at work, by coincidence: Jeff Wyatt,
whom we all actually detest as a ruler of the Guild raising our dues
and the like ;D --okay, maybe not!–
has a “+4” rating; because this is shown with his post total at ONE,
we can see it as a rating of his particular remarks there.
And that has some worth. Good comments could come from anyone,
and it would be a shame were they tarnished by some negative expectation
(or ignored).
“+2/-1” (=1, still single, not plural), over & out,
Perhaps the best rating system at this very moment is NO rating system at all.
Good greef my fellow knot tyers…I started this thread more or less as a funny remark. Now I wish I’d never done so when looking back at all the messages …
What I want to say is I think this conversation is leading to nothing, it’s upsetting people or even making them angry or irritated. So please let’s quit with it and let’s get back to knotting
take care
André
In reply to Dan’s comment, I would like to point out that subs did not go up during my reign ;D, although it was discussed then, and I actually voted against the increase. You don’t really detest me, do you??? 
Jeff
Welcome to the forum Jeff,
Although you are not really a new member, isn’t it.
Willeke
Sorry - I’m afraid that’s just not possible under the current system. In fact, I’m not aware of any php/MySql forum system that allow users to rate on a ‘per post’ basis.
Because Simple Machine is a pre-packaged forum system that simply does not include any scripts that calculate a given member’s registration period.
Creating bespoke scripts would be:
a) extremely expensive
and
b) would make future upgrading of this forum difficult - if not impossible.
Any way to fudge the system if the KnotSymbols come only by some
automatical way? --but still retain the numerical posts-count correctly.
The idea of showing [i]longevity[/i] of participation is of some value, yes?
How? Is a someone who has posted 5 posts in 3 years more valuable than someone who has posted 30 extremely interesting posts in 6 months? Software cannot make these kinds of value judgements. Only readers can.
The software informs readers how many times a given user has posted. It is up to the readers to determine whether this has any bearing on the value of any one post. Ultimately, no automated system can replace a discerning reader. 
It is possible to limit specific forum priviliges to certain member groups (eg. the uploading of attachments). However, at present, there aren’t any special priviliges for Senior Members - or any members for that matter.
Well I just posted for the first time in a long time I like the new format .
Marty
Why not?
It seems to me that having the KnotSymbols indicate what is already stated
explicitly–i.e., the number of posts (given in detail)–is no great benefit. It
is like coloring that number, even (numbers below X in plain black, X to Y
in blue, Y+1 to Z in red, and so on).
Any way to fudge the system if the KnotSymbols come only by some
automatical way? --but still retain the numerical posts-count correctly.
The idea of showing longevity of participation is of some value, yes?
The “karma” system seems worth a try; it being a way to assess quality
by the community. Readers are free to disagree and take with salt as needed,
but there is some belief on evidence that such wide-community feelings or
opinions are often better than few-experts advice, even. And in any case here
it is only informational, not attendant to some special privileges (as all posts
within guidelines can be made and read).
knudeNoggin