InkofDeath

We don't know if it exists, is folklore, or has been destroyed, so it is good to discuss things.

Hate to burst your bubble but they've released tons of major updates on Wednesdays or Thursdays, I bet you 3k, k? Will be next week though, as it's every two weeks now?

If you haven't been kicked off yet, just log out now. Anything you do now probably won't count or will be deleted off of your profile. Still first server crash since like March?

Guess I 'assumed' wrong, and people don't mind the extra click or sometimes middle click.

Thanks for the info Nadril, gonna wait and see how Darkfall is though since the beat testers were just quoted and posted in a topic, and it sounds great with minor bugs. Don't really want to get into Warhammer and miss out on Dark Fall since I've been following it for 4 months so, full release is suppose to be in December, but they aren't quite out in Open Beta at all yet, but those that are in with ave said great things about it. But I will look into the forums of WAR more though, you've convinced me to. =P

How's issues like Gold Farming, or general annoyance from the immaturity ingame? What are the 'social norms' like in-game? What kind of community is playing right now? A good one, happy one? If so just explain from your server/what you usually do and who you interact with for examples? I've done some research on the game itself, but it's more about the in-game experience that I want to know about. Thanks if you can supply any knowledge. =P

However long ago we switched board versions, this was one issue, and there was tons of feedback that it should get fixed. I'm probably not the only one to have clicked a link, then exited the tab because I'm used to: 1) All forums have a general standard to open it in a new tab/window, thus I would 'assume' the same here. 2) Old forums gave a hyperlink, so I'm used to it anyways. Why hasn't this been addressed? I can only imagine how many users are getting freaking annoyed from it, and it's such a small little thing as well. I think Errdoth posted something that would have fixed it, or it was someone else, but c'mon, it's one of those things that should have been fixed within a month of the switch. Also it's putting the forums behind forums like RSC, RuneHq & such. I don't know of a single forum, or site that doesn't hyperlink links when it's not putting you through the site map. It's way too old fashioned, or there's no reason for it. I'm talking about links users post, not every single link, but user links in posts. Just wanting to know where the admins are at with this, or when they plan on doing something about it.

I've read every article at least twice, except for the newer ones. I just love reading them. <3 Love any kind of topic as long as its well written!

You can look past through all the mumble jumble and just think: Partyhats will always win in the end.

I look away for three weeks and you guys have gained like 110 pages. I love the Death Note 'Just As Planned...'. Totally relevant, lol!

Nadril, been following along with the topic, and I finally have the opportunity to buy this. Opinion on if I should or not? Almost everything sounds great about the game,and the vids I've seen have been pretty nice to watch. Do you think it's worth buying this game - and other considerations?

I saw a race track at first. But yea pretty spiffy.

Grats on 96, didn't know you played on a 800x600 resolution or what? Like a 15" monitor with a 1200ish resolution? Cause your bars are squished in those pics, lol.

It's not pures asking 'str lvl'. It's newbies to the game, and those that are deciding if they should hop, or not at a crowded spot. If I have 90strength, and I see a level 60 there, I'm definitely going to try and take the spot from them without hopping, however if they look similar to my combat, I'm going to ask and get info instead of just hopping, or charging in and looking like an idiot when they have 99 strength and some of the best strength boosting gear. Another thing, combat, or melee is the most common thing in the game. Everyone basically does it, and asking for strength levels is something that is fairly common when you're meleeing, or training a skill. Also, when you're out skilling and such, the most familiar skill people know is strength, thus they are going to start with 'str lvl' to start a conversation. Another thing is cooking/fletching is far too easy to level, while strength takes a lot longer and is a bit more 'difficult'.

You know it's funny how there's always a constant cycle of topics that regard the current 'generation' of forum users. I think I've seen about 20 or so topics regarding this spell, how many have you seen since 04 or whenever the darn spell was put into the game? The 300-400 kill count...I don't even know why you'd bother.

Im still waiting for wilderness tag And I'm still waiting for the 5 or 6 things that were never implemented or discussed any further to the public. Meh, if they forgot anything it was being able to put the enjoyment of such things to the players, more so than players wanting to point out their flaws.

F2P needs to pick the slack up that the members leave behind. However you can't put an update in because of the ever changing economy. Sure members don't use them now, but what if in 3 months an update is released and the items are in high demand then? Or the update puts them as useless items? The basis for this is something (economy) that is always changing (supply & demand) based around far too many variables.

Grats on the 95. Good luck with the money gap.

You know, you could just PM a mod, and ask them if they'll get an admin to make you your own personal permission mask (no not a new rank, or whatever it is that allows people to make polls, it can be kept similar or exactly the same as a member so there's no difference), and then you're able to create polls, only though, for your tournament or whatever. Though you'd probably only be allowed to make polls for the tournament thing, and nothing else. I also don't know how popular or useful this tournament thing is, and all of that would need to be decided by the staff. Just a solution.

Grats on 99 summoning...little late but oh well. =P Have fun finding the time for the smithing. =P

Those reasons are useless, and aren't sufficient enough to be given to any 'honoured' or even respected members of the community. The only real use of one I can picture is the 5 people per minute. One thing that can be added is a decrease in the wait time of the time you must wait before you can make another post. Honestly, Tip.It you need to either make it so that topics that contain only 5-10 lines of text are locked, or posts must be longer than 4 lines, or reduce the flood control time for those with X amount of posts, or X time of registration. It is too frustrating abiding by the rules, not spamming, hardly one-line posting, and being stopped by the darn flood control. When you're replying to a post in a topic, you've already read the topic, regardless if you can read the main post and the three replies in under 30 seconds, and form a good solid post in the other 30 seconds, and trust me it's not hard to do, and since you've read it, all you're doing is waiting for someone to reply and then you can read their reply, and reply to it. All to much I've been replying to one post, and then three other people reply to my own post, or bring up another opinion that I must reply to, and every single time I get stopped by the flood control. The most I've ever encountered the flood control was 10 posts in a row. This happens to me every day and it just keeps building up my anger towards it. Tip.It is punishing those who don't spam, and post constructively through it, and it's not fair to us (who can type fast and accurately, or actually know how to use forums for discussions). But yea, this is just one thing that could be a benefit to those 'respected' or 'honoured' or whatever name could be given. Don't let members create polls, it's horrible to go and see what was made with polls. Perhaps enable polls in the Questionnaire forum, but that's about as far as members should be able to use polls, there's too many idiots who would abuse it on Tip.It. And yes, these idiots are easily identifiable and most likely wouldn't get any kind of rank in the future. If anyone wants to bring up the old discussions from the previous topics regarding polls, then link us to them, so we don't have to repeat the same thing three times over again. If you're new to this forum, I highly suggest you go and read the topics regarding polls, before you post about them. Darkdude just hit the icing on the cake with his reply about polls. There already is an elitism community on Tip.It. Whether you want to call them the atheists, the university members, or those who actually can post intellectually, there is one here on Tip.It, and it will always be home to Off-Topic. I realize I'm stepping on toes here, but that's how it is. The elitism community has evolved from knowledge to wanting to mock/make a joke out of someones post for the fun or popularity of doing so to the OT regulars who read the same topics regularly. The admins & mods can't really do much about it as it's just a natural thing that occurs within any forum, because forums actually require you to use your head, and some people are just better at that then others. It is in our nature to form a competition with others, whether we know it or not while posting we are wording our posts or sentences to feel superior than others. Post counts add to this, but they are hardly the majority of the cause. Post counts are motivation to the members to post. I know when I hit 3000 posts I'm going to brag about it to people on here, and to other people else where. I'm also proud to have 3000 posts that are relatively good quality, and not much trouble has come from them. This is what the majority (yes, even the elitist members) do strife for, but are side-tracked. I'm not glorifying myself, I'm just using myself as an example, and I've probably flamed someone several times and enjoyed it. So post counts are irrelevant and it doesn't count for much to continue to bring them up if Tip.It won't disable them. This only says that the admins support Post Counts to keep the activity flowing in (or that the forums don't become too much of a money sink). So until they are disabled, Tip.It needs to use them to increase activity, and by creating a rank as suggested, will most likely do this. So yes from a post count view this new rank is in the best interest of Tip.It. Just because someone has been here since 04, and has 6k posts, doesn't mean they deserve anything. I'm friends with someone people on TIF, but whose to say they are nice to everyone? Killerred may be friends with QueenValerie, but whose to say QueenValerie would deserve a 'Honoured' rank when QueenValerie has been ignorant to those that believe in certain ideals? There is no way Tip.It can be non-bias when choosing the people to promote for the rank if they do not check at least 3 months back into the post history (and let's not forget the rollback, and how many members have probably tried to act good now since then). I'm creating the story of Killer & queen up by the way if you hadn't processed that...>.> I already feel pushed around and isolated from the different member groups here on TIF. I only feel at home with the regular members. I don't feel connected or in tact when I discuss something with someone who is ranked. This is because they have influence and power over me. This is because when you are promoted to any of the current ranks, you are no longer a member, but a staff of Tip.It. There is a barrier made between the staff and the members, and it will always be there. So in fact you are just saying that your or other staff members groups are doing a lot of harm than good. So for that reason if you aren't an admin, then your name doesn't need to be coloured, all you need is the text and the picture (or scrap that too). Notice how useless, and meaningless things are when you take away the things that actually create your or others ranks are? Sure some ranks advertise what you guys do, but that's irrelevant when you start thinking about the harm ranks do. Basically I'm saying if you truly believe what you are saying, then you would be putting in topics to get rid of coloured member groups, get rid of staff related signatures and avatars, and only have the basic necessities that would inform the members of who and what the certain usergroups are for. Am I right or wrong here? The coloured text is to make the usergroups stand out. They do that for sure, but of course it'll create an elitist community between members and staff. How do you combat this to actually implement a 'Honoured' or 'Respected' rank? First off, you start by getting a usergroup name that doesn't: 1. Claim that the staff has decided on the person. 'Honoured' means that those members have appealed to the staff, and are basically one of the staff since they probably share the same ideals. Basically the name can't create a connection to the staff in any way. This will allow no barrier to be created between the regular members and the promoted members. 2. The rank name needs to imply that they are still members, and do not control or overpower regular members in any way. It almost needs to be unappealing to regular members. 3. The rank name must imply that the usergroup or individual has person responsibilities. Names that may fall in these categories, but are subject to whatever are: Entrusted Member Promoted Member ... You also want to make it so that the promoted member gets some work to do. Most obvious choice is to help answer questions, or help out members on the forums for any reason. The benefits? You mods get to spend more time cleaning the boards instead of answering the same variation of a question 3 times in a week. And because there will definitely be 50-70 worthy members to promote the highlighted member name in the 'Whose Online' box will definitely attract more attention than a few single purple, or green names. Well yes, if you want to think that moderating, and receiving intense duties (or so said by the staff), and having to do work and keep the boards clean, as well as helping out members, giving input on changes and the direction of the boards, and tolerating annoying idiots, or receiving hate PM's for no reason at all, is totally equivalent to a simple promotion, and that there aren't miles separating what a mod is and what a 'promoted member' would be. Getting a promoted rank is to me only 1/20th of achieving a moderation rank. There is such a huge difference in the requirements and how you have to be personality wise for each rank. Not to mention that with your logic, there's over a hundred people who have gone unrewarded. Responsibility earns you the colour, the sig/avatar, and the influence. Good, so thats apply that logic to whatever rank above members will be, and all arguments will be irrelevant. The only way a rank will come out of this is if there is responsibilities given to the promoted members. A huge one would be helping members out daily, and the admins advertising greatly to PM these promoted members for assistance rather than moderators, so that these promoted members are really pounded down with questions to take the load off of the mods. I think this in itself is just enough for a few 10-20 people to receive such a rank to help out or assist users wherever possible. This is flawed when you have over 100 people who are able to moderate at the same exact specific level of expertise, yet you can only hire 10 of them. They all deserve it, however they all can't get it. This is why I'm behind a 'Retired' rank for ex-staff members to have, if they want such a rank. They deserve it for the work they've put in in my opinion, and deserve some recognition for it. There should be no debate on this rank here. It should have already been a Tip.It rank a long time ago, with a page on the main site where the Staff List is, and have their own little 'Retired' area. I don't know why Tip.It is so ingrateful to the past contributions of retired staff. Ah, I've also been on numerous forums where the ranks actually benefit the new, or regular users, and there's no conflicts between them, or very minor ones. But I would be ignorant to not state that I've seen the ego-maniacs that you're talking about. If you've read above you'll know that I strongly believe that giving the promoted members responsibilities, and of course encouraging members to report those abusing their privileges for a demotion are two things needed to create such a rank, but keep it healthy and a positive thing. One thing though, DO NOT CREATE THEIR OWN LITTLE FORUM THAT THEY CAN SEE ONLY, IT WILL CAUSE TONS OF ANGER. It will also put them as an enemy in front of members. Nope, but browsing off-topic as a regular you pick up on the indirect accusations of people saying they are better than others because of some of their status in real life, or for statuses on other forums and such. Not to mention some people will say someone else is better than person X because of post count or reason X. No one is going to be seen in plain sight picking a fight with someone right under the nose of a teacher/authority figure. 1. Create a list of requirements to be promoted to rank X. 2. Let the community members vote on the requirements. 3. The staff selects the members based on the requirements voted on. 4. Only 5-10 are promoted each month, or less. 5. At least a paragraph of reason & evidence are provided with each person getting promoted in the topic announcing the promotions. 6. Encouraging members to report the promoted members if they are failing to abide by the original requirements, or are abusing their rank in any shape or form, for personal gain. Hate to burst your bubble but the community structure isn't fine, nor perfect, nor anything short of 'a true internet community,'. Look at the Runescape Area, look at Off-Topic, look at Video Games & Consoles, look at The Gallery, look at the Varrock Library. I think I just named 5 sub-communities of Tip.It. I could then of course name the most popular users of each of these forums, and then continue to crawl down the social ladder of each forum, down to the members and then to friend groups, but then again friend groups probably change everyday...so I really don't see why splitting the forum into little groups is a big deal when it's ALREADY HAPPENED. A forum is just a collection of interests with members posting about the interest or multiple interests sometimes, to start discussions with other members, creating a group. The community is already broken down into small little groups, and as long as these groups aren't flame warring each other, or saying that 'OT is better than GD' (Oh crap, that happens everyday!! I think something about being superior in IQ or intellect...or something...?), things should be fine. Exactly, so create a rank above member, that has responsibilities, and contributes more to the community to compliment the other ranked staff, as well as the regular members, and there you go, you haven't separated anything anymore, or are we assuming that introducing a new rank would separate the community more, without thinking on how to mould this rank so that it benefits the staff, and the community, as well as being a positive role model for others and just writing it off as bad so we don't need to spend time on it? *I would have replied to your second paragraph Turtle but I've replied to it in various parts of this post already - but I first must say that post count wasn't suggested to be a reasoning behind the promotions...* Exactly. Moderators have to do a lot of work as stated all the time by the mods and admins. Why not create this rank in the attempt to drag the user-support burden off of the mods so that they can focus on moderating or give input in the behind the scenes discussions? I'm pretty sure there's at least 5 moderators who would love to see a reduced amount of member-help PM's and such. Also those that get promoted will probably be acting 'positive' and all that does is give regular members the thought of 'so if I act like that, I get rank'. Boom you have probably a decrease in flames or vulgarness on the forum. In my opinion though Tip.It has always had the potential to do many great things that would evolve the Tip.It community to higher and greater things. However for some reason none of the Tip.It staff ever want to take a risk with things. And unlike real life, if the risk starts to turn sour, you can immediately get rid of it. And repair the damages (if any) pretty easily. Tip.It has never been one to go out on a limb and try something new. Tip.It has always waited for others to do something, and then after a long while, Tip.It finally does it, but usually it's a lot better, but it's too late and those that would've used it have already left, or become loyal to the other 'place'. People come and use the internet to get a sense of belonging. When you are offering a rank to people, you are offering them what they want. There may be side-effects of the ranks, but it only takes 30 seconds to realize a way to counteract such a side-effect from happening. If Tip.It seriously considered this, and then took all the cons, and thought on them, Tip.It could easily create a pro-only update to the forums. It's not hard to realize ways that can make any negative update into an update that would benefit others. A promoted rank would benefit so many people, not just members, but the staff as well, as I've stated already. A promoted rank would increase activity, and with the community voting on the requirements, it wouldn't be spam posts. It would be quality posts for those who truly want the rank. If people know what the requirements are, they will abide by them. You'll be able to set a better standard for the members. When someone acts out, they are looked down upon by the others. They probably won't act out again unless they want the attention, and thats when mods can step in. Tip.It will benefit greatly if this is done properly. I'm not saying my way is the proper way, but it is a start to think about ways to implement such a rank. Tip.It can't remain as the same dry and boring place forever, and there needs to be things to spice it up every once and awhile, and this is certainly it! *I didn't mean to step on anyone with this post, I was just getting my points across, so don't hate me. <3*

Exactly what I was thinking when I read about it. :thumbsup:

Why not have one centered around Christmas, or the 'Holidays' for December. Could make a sig, poem or caption that describes what the Holidays are like to that individual person. Appeals to everyone except for those too ignorant to join in on the fun because it's a 'religious' holiday in real life, even though they take the benefits of it anyways. Regardless if they believe in Christmas or not, 'The Holidays' can still be a 'what you think the holidays are', and not related to religion at all.

Or when 'runescape' is in the link name, Tip.It checks or verifys that the link is an actual, or official runescape link. As every official page on Jagex's site have either runescape or Jagex in them, so it wouldn't be too hard to verify that it is a true or false site. I think it's even possible with Javascript, with a few simple if statements...right? I don't know what you'd have to check for, but it would have to be there on every page, and not be linked to another page that the scam sites could link to. Perhaps setting something up with Jagex might work if the issue becomes a huge deal. This would only work if Runescape or Jagex was present in the URL. Then the code checks if it's an official or a scam site. For sites that aren't scam sites, and have runescape or jagex in them, you could 'exclude' them from the censor that would block out or potentially auto-ban the user that posted the link.

FoG & Barb village are our major hotspots currently.