(Aug. 12, 2011 8:07 PM)Sparta Wrote: (Aug. 12, 2011 6:23 PM)Raigeko13 Wrote: I say we just drop the subject and say that this suggestion wasn't good enough. I'm sick and tired of seeing every hateful response, it only worries me more about this fight.
Isn't this what I said 4 hours ago?
New topic:
I suggest that the WBO has a stage just below A.M., say...I don't know, but something that says you go on and post a lot. OR better yet, we have ranking systems! Like, newest members will have a small subtitle that says: rookie blader. Then, when you get better you become a "Moderate blader". And so on.
When we first discussed the idea of Advanced/Veteran Status, we actually wanted General and Customisations to be a place for anyone to stake a claim to post. Beyblade is actually one of few hobbies where it's quite clear from your posts what sort of understanding you have of the game. As a result, I don't think it's necessary to have a "ranking" system as such.
I have a bit more time to address some more general points now from my own point of view, and although I'm not going to say I speak for all of Committee, I'm confident they'll agree with me to some extent.
Advanced Forum is slow.
This has been brought up a few times here and in the past. I don't think it moves slowly at all. Yes, posts are sporadic, but discussion takes place. I don't think this is about activity either; a lot of Advanced Members are actually very active, but there's nothing particularly pressing to discuss. Most of us post prominently in Customisations, where most of tiering actually gets decided. I see no reason for Advanced to move that quickly anyway.
Criteria for Advanced is too vague.
I don't agree. Generally, people who are knowledgeable will know that their contributions are valued and respected; in turn, they will get noticed. This isn't something where you fulfil certain stone-set achievements on the forums, and you'll get access to Advanced, because let's face it, that will honestly never work. The sad reality is that not much in the world is concrete like that, and while this isn't an off-handed way of saying "Deal with it!", I am saying that it's just something you have to persevere with, and you'll eventually earn you reward. I realise that this is in serious danger of glorifying the Advanced Forum, and that's not my intention at all - which brings me to my next point.
Advanced Forum is the only place where opinions are heard.
This is untrue. As I mentioned before, we always had the intention of opening up discussion to everyone else at some point. That's not to say we are blocking any discussion at the moment. The BD145 ban discussion thread was locked because it did not present good arguments at all, and when people started to discuss this in Random Thoughts, we stopped it because we did not want such a mishmash of opinions in quite a fast-paced and generally disordered thread. Everyone's concerns about this has made us realise that we certainly made a bad call with that, but that's not to say we can work to a good solution for everyone - we will accelerate the creation of a thread for the discussion for a Basalt ban right now.
I appreciate that the discussion about Basalt and the Advanced Forum isn't the sole reason for a lot of grief on this thread, but I think it's a good issue to start with and to put to bed. We're all really happy to hear what other issues you might like to bring up, since this is an appropriate thread to raise it, so if you have anything else, please post. Otherwise, it would be much appreciated if we stopped with inflammatory remarks, mudslinging, and misguided peacemaking.