I would like to consider changing our XP requirements for each level, as laid out in the chart below. I received an overwhelmingly positive response to my Editor Log: November 2014 writeup; not a single person opposed the change (except, perhaps, whoever gave the lone downvote) the only complaint I got, if any, was that XP requirements were not lowered even *further*.

I've also being playing around a bit with resetting myself to lower levels, which really drove home for me how even well-established users with dozens of quality writeups have relatively few level powers, something that is easy to forget for longtime Editors and people at very high levels.

I would imagine we can all agree that given the precipitous dropoff in active users, we have a pressing need to try to get what few new users come our way into the system of voting and feedback sooner, which will help them get invested in our site and also get more votes into the system for everyone else.

I actually have a lot of confidence in jaybonci's plan to get the site on a modern footing and (eventually) get a lot more new users, but until then, I'd like to make the XP system gentler on new users. It is stunning to look at Everything's Best Users and see how almost no new users have made it even to Level 1 in the past two years.

This site has been around a long time - forever, really, at least in internet terms - and when we first started, it was a fantastically amazing notion that someone would let you enter text into *their* website and it would immediately appear for all to see. So people were willing to put up with much longer waiting times or effort required to get "powers" that today, more than a decade since blogs and social networks became widely known and easily accessible, most people take for granted and expect from the get-go.

All that said, I do think that to maintain the integrity of our voting system (which is far more robust and meaningful than votes on most other sites, because you do have to put forth some effort, and thus cannot easily game the system) it is still necessary to have at least some requirements before people get 50 votes. Otherwise it would be too easy to just create a bunch of accounts and have them vote up yourself or vote down others, and also, there is great value in keeping the XP system at least somewhat because the idea of a number that keeps going up and gives you new powers is a simple yet powerful form of gamification that works on people's rat brains to encourage them to keep writing new stuff!

Anyway, below is the new system I propose. It starts at 100 XP required for Level 1, and then smoothly ramps up by 100 extra XP required each level until maxing out at 2500 XP required to reach Level 25 (2500 is also the max out under our current system). After Level 24, each new level consistently requires 16000 fewer XP to reach under the new proposal than under the current system.

This means that all current users will jump up a few levels if this change is implemented, but I don't see how this is in anyway a bad thing, really. Lower level users would jump up less - around two levels at the low end - while the very highest level users would jump up more (a maximum of seven levels at the very top end), but these users are so high up that increasing their level doesn't really give them significant new powers anyway.

Simultaneously, I would also like to propose reducing the number of writeups required to reach each new level from 10 additional writeups down to 5. In combination, these two changes would mean that a brand new user would need to write 5 writeups that earn an average of 20 XP each to reach Level 1 and get votes.

Let me know your thoughts!


LevelCurrent XPProposed XPCurrent WriteupsProposed Writeups
Level 1400100105
Level 29003002010
Level 315006003015
Level 4230010004020
Level 5330015005025
Level 6450021006030
Level 7590028007035
Level 8750036008040
Level 9930045009045
Level 1011300550010050
Level 1113500660011055
Level 1216000780012060
Level 1318500910013065
Level 14210001050014070
Level 15235001200015075
Level 16260001360016080
Level 17285001530017085
Level 18310001710018090
Level 19335001900019095
Level 203600021000200100
Level 213850023100210105
Level 224100025300220110
Level 234350027600230115
Level 244600030000240120
Level 254850032500250125
Level 265100035000260130
Level 275350037500270135
Level 285600040000280140
Level 295850042500290145
Level 306100045000300150
Level 316350047500310155
Level 326600050000320160
Level 336850052500330165
Level 347100055000340170
Level 357350057500350175
Level 367600060000360180

and so on...

Ok folks, besides trying to figure out the fairest way to conduct the first annual Node of the Year Awards it’s been quite a busy month for yours truly. So, it’s time for what I hope will be an ongoing thing here and that’s to keep you all informed of what I’ve done this month with regards to keeping the site up to date and in some instances, easier on the eyeballs .

Let’s start with some w/u’s that were in need of mending in the form of formatting and fixing some grammar/typo issues or as I like to call it:

Clean up in aisle five

F-Zero X (thing) by Servo5678 - Fixed formatting

Jackson Square (place) by piq -Fixed formatting

Blood, Sweat, and Tears (thing) by pingouin - Fixed formatting

DJ Tiësto - Firmlinked

Tijs Verwest - Firmlinked

Night of the Living Dead (thing) by Ahab - Changed some wording to make it more coherent

Automatkarbin 5 (thing) by Pelle - Fixed formatting

Steve Bell (person) by sunhill - Fixed formatting

Old and in the Way (thing) by NothingLasts4ever - Mended a few typos

M*A*S*H - Firmlinked

M.A.S.H. - Firmlinked

Creed of a US Marine - Firmlinked

All Saints Day - Firmlinked

I Before E Except After C - Firmlinked

Insomnia (idea) by Flechette - Fixed formatting to make this easier on the eyes to read and fixed some grammar

dream-catcher - Moved w/u to dream catcher and firmlinked

Led Zeppelin (thing) by Orange Julius - Removed references to a w/u that no longer exists within the node

Go on! It's got raisins in it! (place) by heyoka - Removed reference to website that no longer exists

This next section is one in which I added the date of death of people for which we have w/us and where I expanded on a certain topic to make it more up to date. I like to call it:

Lost and Found

Joe Cocker (person) by RubenAzarja - Added date of death

Clifford the Big Red Dog (person) by LadySun - Added date of death of the author

Joe Cocker (person) by RubenAzarja - Updated discography from 2002 on to bring current

Robert Altman (person) by nexxus - Added date of death and replaced the partial filmography with entire body of work

Uwe Boll (person) by shannonhubbell - Updated filmography from 2005 to present

Golden Raspberry Awards (thing) by borgo - Updated to bring current

Mark Strand (person) by ceylonbreakfast - Added date of death

Mad Frankie Fraser (person) by Teiresias - Added date of death

P.D. James (person) by Jaz - Added date of death

And finally, these are the w/u’s that met their demise and the reason that I thought they weren’t up to par. I call it:

The Killing Fields

Gentleman Soldier (thing) by Layora - I'm removing this in accordance with E2's policy regarding unexplicated song lyrics

William F. Buckley, Jr. (person) by zTox - Superceded

Night of the Living Dead (thing) by Triune- Superceded

Galaxy Corps (thing) by SabreCat - The website you reference no longer exists, removing this to your drafts

Witness Protection Program (thing) by Sylvar - Superceded

crack cocaine (thing) by mullakamakalaka - I'm going to remove this as it sounds too much like an advertisement/endorsement and you seem to be urging people to try it. If you feel like re-posting it, I'd turn down the rhetoric at the end of the w/u where you question people's willpower

That’s all for this month. Here’s wishing you all a safe and Happy Holiday season as well as a prosperous New Year!

borgo

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.