New Member of the Month

[nara~kavi]

I was thinking it might be a good idea to have something called the "New Member of the Month Award" and this could be something that you give out once a month to a new member (who joined that month) who has really stood out among his peers as a great new addition to the community. I don't think this should result in a new badge or trophy or anything, but I think that they should be rewarded with Premium if they do not have it already. You could also have a runner up who just gets acknowledgement.

This would encourage quality posting on the behalf of new members to the website and could help rebuild our community which has been kind of broken down a bit lately. We need great new pillars of the community to emerge to replace people that have left or been banned. I think something like that could help create these pillars and make them stick around on the site, holding it up for years to come.

To be clear, this would just be a stickied thread in Announcements or something that announces a new member of the month every month, and then there could be an archive of past winners in the second post of the thread or something. There could even be a community poll to decide the result of who wins - to ensure that it isn't a matter of staff favoritism.

 

[Ajdin]

There could even be a community poll to decide the result of who wins

Would be a popularity contest.

I don't like this idea simply because people would ask for it. "Hey, I've been really useful this month, can I haz member of the month."
I'm not sure if there's anything positive attached to this suggestion.

 

[Devon]

Would be a popularity contest.

I don't like this idea simply because people would ask for it. "Hey, I've been really useful this month, can I haz member of the month."
I'm not sure if there's anything positive attached to this suggestion.

she said new member silly! So no, it wouldn't really be a popularity contest

 

[Ajdin]

she said new member silly! So no, it wouldn't really be a popularity contest

Oh wow. I guess it's time for me to sleep. 5AM.

 

[nara~kavi]

Would be a popularity contest.

I don't like this idea simply because people would ask for it. "Hey, I've been really useful this month, can I haz member of the month."
I'm not sure if there's anything positive attached to this suggestion.

I think a popularity contest is fine when it's a matter of new members. If someone is a popular new member, then there's probably a reason for it. I'm not saying popularity goes hand in hand with quality, but being well-known in the community is an important thing and it usually happens that way for a reason.

People wouldn't ask you for it if it's a community vote. Or you could just put a rule that asking to be the new member of the month gets you disqualified.

The positive thing would be honoring new members who bring something positive to this website so that they keep coming around. As it is, a new member might come here, spend some time on the site, sell their things, and move on. Or they just get bored, or get turned off by the community. But, if these people are honored with a reward, and are given a free Premium as appreciation, then they might stick around. The incentive of winning and getting a free Premium rank might also encourage new members to act on their best behavior and to work hard to build themselves up as a quality new member.

Free stuff can be a powerful motivator and anything that encourages new members to improve the quality of their posts is a positive thing, in my opinion.

 

[TellingMom]

How do you quantify something like this? Could turn into a popularity contest. Also, why just new member? If anything, it should be like "Member of the month", so everyone can partake in being a kiss ass.

 

[nara~kavi]

How do you quantify something like this? Could turn into a popularity contest. Also, why just new member? If anything, it should be like "Member of the month", so everyone can partake in being a kiss ass.

Well, the main reason I think it should be "New Member of the Month" is because if it were "Member of the Month" it definitely would be a popularity contest if it was a community vote, and if it wasn't a community vote then people would just say staff are choosing their friends.

There can't really be a popularity contest for new members because I don't really thing somebody can become "popular" on this website in less than a month. They can establish themselves, sure, but if they do that, then honestly I think they deserve to win the award. The point of this is to encourage new members to become invested in the website and to work to achieve the free Premium, and then to stick around after winning it.

I'm suggesting this only because I've noticed a lack of quality new members joining the site lately.

 

[TellingMom]

Well, the main reason I think it should be "New Member of the Month" is because if it were "Member of the Month" it definitely would be a popularity contest if it was a community vote, and if it wasn't a community vote then people would just say staff are choosing their friends.

There can't really be a popularity contest for new members because I don't really thing somebody can become "popular" on this website in less than a month. They can establish themselves, sure, but if they do that, then honestly I think they deserve to win the award. The point of this is to encourage new members to become invested in the website and to work to achieve the free Premium, and then to stick around after winning it.

I'm suggesting this only because I've noticed a lack of quality new members joining the site lately.

I think new member of the month, or even member of the month is just begging for problems. People will cry about it being a popularity thing. It really is just a can of worms waiting to be opened.

I'd suggest something better... like... Monthly contest for a prize. You can only participate in said contest if your warning level is below a certain threshold. This punishes people who are constantly breaking rules (because they can't participate), and at the same time treating all good standing members the same by letting them enter the contest. Having said that, I think they also need to create a system for someone to prove they are changed for the better, and shed warning points.

Also, you probably see a lack of quality new members because they are really most likely old members who got banned making new accounts

 

[Walrus]

Neat idea, but hundreds if not thousands members register every month, it'd be tricky keeping track of all of them...

 

[Adrenalize]

Neat idea, but hundreds if not thousands members register every month, it'd be tricky keeping track of all of them...

Agreed
This, like everyone said, might cause beggars, etc.

 

[Overlord]

Would be a good thing to have on MC-Admin... if the thing still existed and wasn't merged into a marketplace due to sheer laziness. It's like merging a CS:GO forum and a cooking forum. It doesn't go...

Could've made it something like you answer questions and based on quality they're voted up/down. The top answerers of the month could get put into the hat for the award, or polled from there, and then it's not a popularity contest. Or just give the top 5 the award.

I'm sure such an add-on exists on XenForo to allow answers and whatnot. If it's forum selectable, you could use it here and make it only work in the MC support forums... But it'd be more ideal to have it on a separate site I guess.

But sure, it encourages quality content.

You can whore for likes, but you can't whore answers out of your own account (unless you share your account, that's not gonna work well).

Use the established users system I suggested ages ago that's somewhere in the trash in this section in combination with this.