About Forum Ranks And Voting

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Alan Kirk
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About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by Alan Kirk »

Edit: The voting method has changed slightly from October 2012. See the notes below.

This post provides an outline of what the ranks in the forum are, and how they're assigned. There are currently four ranks:
  • Site Admin: Part of the team of administrators who founded the forum and keep it ticking over. These are people drawn from the old Applix forum who have long experience working with TM1.
  • MVP: These are people who have a lot of training and experience in TM1, and have often worked with it in a number of different environments over many years. Their knowledge of the product is both wide and deep. They frequently help other users with technical, detailed advice. Although everyone is wrong occasionally you can almost always rely on advice from an MVP. Certainly if two give you the same advice, you can take it as law.
  • Community Contributor: These are people who have a good grasp of TM1 and its technical aspects, though they may not always be as experienced or have the same depth of technical knowledge as an MVP. They regularly answer other users' questions as well as asking any of their own and, just as importantly the answers are usually correct.
Both of those ranks are intended to recognise people who "give back" to the TM1 community by helping and assisting others, and possibly devising new tools or methods of solving problems.

Regular Participant: In recognition of the fact that questions stimulate discussion within the community and that if there were no questions there would be no point in people answering them, people who regularly post to the forum are assigned this rank when they hit 150 posts. (With the proviso that the bar may be raised for anyone who only seems to be posting only to build their post count.)

It's important to remember that the absence of a rank or a rank of Regular Participant doesn't mean that a member's answers have no value. It may simply be that they have yet to receive a quorum, for instance. Also some very highly skilled people have a rank of CC rather than MVP only because while they participate, they may not meet the "frequently help other people with technical, detailed advice" criterion. The presence of a rank should be seen as a positive, the absence of one shouldn't be seen as a negative.

Who Decides On The Ranks?
Regular Participant rank is assigned automatically. MVP and Community Contributor are peer-voted.
The original MVPs and Community Contributors were assigned by an informal vote amongst the site administrators. With the community continuing to grow, from October 2011 that system was changed so that it's now decided by a poll vote amongst the site administrators and existing MVPs. The votes are anonymous, but the voters are entitled to state their case for a particular vote. Discussions are held in a forum which is not available to the public to allow voters to speak freely. Once a user becomes an MVP and is eligible to access this forum any discussions previously held about them will be deleted.

How Does The Voting Work?
  • Voting is normally tallied at the same time that the month's final database backup is done. (Backups are usually done weekly, on Sunday morning western Pacific time. There may be occasional exceptions.) NB: This has been happening far less frequently of late because we haven't had as many people hitting the voting threshhold. We'll try to get it back to at least once every 2 months.
  • To be nominated, a member needs to have made at least 100 posts. (In exceptional circumstances, posts across more than one account will be considered.)
  • To be considered for a new rank in that month's vote tallying, the member needs to have received a quorum of votes. Under the old system that was set at 40% (to the nearest integer) of eligible voters for that month, eligible voters being any site admins or MVPs who had logged in during that month. Even with the 40% value we were having difficulty getting a quorum because of admins/MVPs who lacked the time/inclination to vote, and calculating the quorum number was tedious. From October 2012 the voting was changed to an "opt in" system where admins/MVP are asked to nominate themselves as electors. The quorum is now 60% (to the nearest integer) of those who have opted in. In other words if there are 12 electors, only members who have received at least 7 votes in total (12 * 0.6, rounded) will be considered for a new rank during that month's tallying. (The votes do not have to have been actually cast during that month. The purpose of the quorum rule is simply to ensure that there has been a reasonably representative voting sample before a rank is assigned.)
  • Voters can cast one of three votes; MVP, Community Contributor or Wait. The votes can be changed at any time.
  • Votes are counted from MVP down. As soon as the total votes received exceeds 50% for that rank or above, that rank will be assigned.
For example
Member A receives 1 vote for MVP, 3 for Community Contributor, 1 for Wait. They don't receive a rank because they're 2 votes short of the 7 needed that month. (7 being based on the example above; the number will vary as electors drop in or out.)
Member B receives 4 votes for MVP, 4 for Community Contributor, 1 for Wait. They have enough votes to be considered (9). They have only 4/9 votes for MVP, which is < 50%. But they have 8/9 for Community Contributor or higher, which means that they get that rank. Had the "Wait" vote not been cast (meaning 8 votes cast, 4 for MVP and 4 for CC), the outcome would have been the same; the MVP votes would have equaled 50%, but not exceeded it.
When Member B demonstrates more advanced skills, some of the voters may change their vote to MVP and Member B's rank will be reassessed when that month's tally is done.

Can A Person Be Demoted?
Not through the voting method. Once a person is designated as a Community Contributor they stay at that level regardless of any future Wait votes. (However Wait votes can prevent a Community Contributor from progressing to MVP, of course.) Once a person is designated as an MVP their poll is removed from the forum, and no further voting can be done on them.
Demotion would only happen if someone regularly violated forum rules, though that could involve suspension or termination rather than demotion.

When Are Votes Tallied?
Originally that was done every month but there wasn't enough interest (or changes) for that to be worthwhile, which is why the system was in abeyance for several months in 2012. Tentatively counts will now be done every 2 months, though that may change depending on the level of interest / activity in the voting.
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by Alan Kirk »

The votes have been tallied for October.

Congratulations to jstrygner and QML, both elevated to Community Contributor.

A reminder to all eligible voters; the voter turnout is still relatively low compared to the number entitled to vote. Remember that ultimately the community is defined by the people in it, and your vote can have an influence on it.
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by qml »

This is the 8th happiest day of my life! I would like to thank my wife, my son, my friends and everyone who voted. :D
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by jim wood »

The role comes with great responsability my young MVP. Use your powers well!!
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by qml »

Not yet an MVP, Jim, but one day, one day...

In the meantime I will be using my powers to promote beauty, love, peace and excellent TM1 modelling. :ugeek:
Last edited by qml on Sun Nov 27, 2011 12:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by lotsaram »

They are a tough audience these admins and MVPs. Keep up the good work.
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by Alan Kirk »

There's less than a week until the November tally is done; this is just a reminder to all eligible voters that if you want your voice heard, it's worth doing a quick review of the votes that you've cast previously to see whether they're still relevant or need to be changed.

Also, there are new some candidates since last month. who not everyone may have looked at.
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by Alan Kirk »

It's that time of the month again, and the votes have been tallied.

New MVPs
Congratulations to three new MVPs:
  • rmackenzie;
  • jstrygner; and
  • QML, who will doubtless find this the seventh happiest day of his life.
(Before any correspondence needs to be entered into, Robin Mackenzie's post count shows (just) below 100 as at the time of writing, though that probably won't be the case for long. However for reasons that I won't go into this is misleading and his total post count is substantially in excess of the 100 admission barrier.)

New Community Contributors
Congratulations also to four new Community Contributors:
  • Marcus Scherer;
  • Jeroen Eynikel;
  • MCE; and
  • John Hammond
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by qml »

Alan Kirk wrote:QML, who will doubtless find this the seventh happiest day of his life.
You've got that right, Alan. I'd like to thank the members of the Academy for this privilege. There's a great deal to say, but I'm not going to say it tonight.
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by jim wood »

You see my slip earlier in this post was a predicition of things to come!! :D
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by qml »

jim wood wrote:You see my slip earlier in this post was a predicition of things to come!! :D
If a slip like that is what it takes to get your vote then I can't really hold it against you! :lol:
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by jim wood »

I'm guessing the $2000 dollars you sent me may have helped as well..... erm........ what was I saying.......... I mean...... :twisted:
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by Alan Kirk »

The votes for December have been talllied, but there are no changes to report.

A reminder to the Electoral College (for want of a better term); there are some new candidates who have yet to receive a quorum of votes.
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by jstrygner »

Alan Kirk wrote:It's that time of the month again, and the votes have been tallied.

New MVPs
Congratulations to three new MVPs:
  • rmackenzie;
  • jstrygner; and
  • QML, who will doubtless find this the seventh happiest day of his life.
Good morning everyone.

It's been a while now since I was informed about receiving an MVP on this forum.

It took me so much longer to get to this post among full pages of other unread posts though. I recently relocated and my presence here suffered a lot.

I just wanted to say that this is an honour for me. I am not able to estimate which exactly happiest day of my life it was (I am sure QML counted them very accurately), but I am very, very glad and grateful and I want to thank everyone you voted for. :D

Regards.
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by Alan Kirk »

Just to let everyone know that this hasn't been forgotten... however there have been no changes since December. In the case of March, it's primarily because most of the newer candidates have yet to receive a quorum of votes.
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by Alan Kirk »

The tally for April has now been done.

Congratulations to Christopher Kernahan, our latest Community Contributor.

Note that there has been a slight change in the terms and conditions of voting. MVPs and Admins can make a request (via a posting in the voting forum) to permanently abstain if they don't feel that they have enough time to review other members' postings. They are thereafter excluded from the quorum calculations.
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by Alan Kirk »

After several months in abeyance (see the main post for changes to the voting system that occurred during that time) the votes have again been tallied.

Congratulations to the following new MVPs
  • DuncanP
  • Moby91
Congratulations also to the following new Community Contributors
  • Garry Cook
  • Kyro
  • Paul Segal
  • James Webber
  • DeclanR
Well done all.
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by Alan Kirk »

The votes have been tallied for the first round of the new year. So by popular acclaim:

Congratulations to the following new MVPs
  • Garry Cook (A Legend Of The Fallen, which is to say the old Applix Forum)
  • Declan R
The keys to the MVPs Lounge and the executive washroom (which is to say the voting forum) have been left under your metaphorical mat (which is to say go to the main page next time you're here) and remember to nominate yourself on the electoral roll if you want to participate in future voting.

Congratulations also to the following new Community Contributor
  • Lazarus
As always, well done all.
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by Alan Kirk »

This has been in abeyance for a while for various reasons, but it's now been resurrected. Congratulations to those who have been recognised for contributing to the TM1 community. (Though again, this doesn't mean that others haven't been as well, including some who are still short of the 100 posts needed to be nominated.)

New MVP
Gabor. Well done. Don't forget to nominate yourself in the voting forum if you want to vote on new MVPs. (If you can't see it, drop me a PM and I'll check your access.)

New Community Contributors
Macsir
mvaspal
EvgenyT
PlanningDev
Olivier
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Re: About Forum Ranks And Voting

Post by jim wood »

Congratulations guys,

Jim.
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