Monday, July 10, 2006
New Proboards Ranks
I just logged into the Proboards support forum (located at support.proboards.com) to check on one of my recent posts, and upon viewing my profile, I noticed that something was different ... my rank! Now, this wouldn't have been a bad thing if my rank had gone up. However, it had gone down. And not down just one rank level, but two. So whereas I was a ProMember, I am now only a Full Member. In addition, the two extra stars that came with my old rank are now also gone. So now I only have three stars.
My initial reaction to seeing my new rank was that a mistake must have been made, and that after sending a message to one of the forum administrators, the mistake would be corrected. But then I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach which said that this probably was not a mistake, and that I was stuck with the rank. So, I made my way over to the General Talk board to see if this rank-change had occurred to anyone else. Sure enough, the first post on the board was about it. As I read through the nine pages in the post, I learned that one of the administrators of the forum had come up with the brilliant idea of raising the number of posts needed to reach the different rank levels. So now pretty much everyone who was a ProMember is now at least a rank lower (in my case two ranks).
By now I was furious. I've been a member of the Proboards support forum since April 4th, 2005. I have a post count of 681. I've done everything from helping people with general support questions to filling out graphics requests. I have worked extremely hard to get my rank of ProMember. And just because some admin decides he's getting tired with the old ranks, he has no right to take away what so many of us dedicated Proboard members have worked for. I decided a long time ago, back when I was a New Member, that my goal was going to be to achieve the rank of ProMember. So I posted, and I posted, and I posted some more, knowing full well that with each new post, I was one step closer to achieving my goal.
And now, everything that I had worked for, has been stripped away. If one of the Proboards admins happens to come across this blog (in the event they search Google for terms relating to new ranks and Proboards), I hope they take a good look at it, and that they reflect on what they've done. I wonder how they'd feel if they logged onto their account one day and saw that they had been demoted to just a regular member. I bet they'd be pretty upset. And in a way, I'd like to see that happen, just so that they'd get a chance to feel the same way so many of us Proboards members do right now.
In conclusion, I now have to make one thousand, eight hundred and nineteen more posts in order to reach the rank I previously had. After what has happened, I am seriously questioning whether or not I should keep my account on their forum. I may just delete it altogether. In fact, I may even delete the numerous forums I have through their hosting service. Finally, as I said near the beginning of this blog entry, I know I'm not the only Proboards member who is felling appalled. So if you're reading this and you do happen to be a Proboards member, leave a comment, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this matter.
My initial reaction to seeing my new rank was that a mistake must have been made, and that after sending a message to one of the forum administrators, the mistake would be corrected. But then I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach which said that this probably was not a mistake, and that I was stuck with the rank. So, I made my way over to the General Talk board to see if this rank-change had occurred to anyone else. Sure enough, the first post on the board was about it. As I read through the nine pages in the post, I learned that one of the administrators of the forum had come up with the brilliant idea of raising the number of posts needed to reach the different rank levels. So now pretty much everyone who was a ProMember is now at least a rank lower (in my case two ranks).
By now I was furious. I've been a member of the Proboards support forum since April 4th, 2005. I have a post count of 681. I've done everything from helping people with general support questions to filling out graphics requests. I have worked extremely hard to get my rank of ProMember. And just because some admin decides he's getting tired with the old ranks, he has no right to take away what so many of us dedicated Proboard members have worked for. I decided a long time ago, back when I was a New Member, that my goal was going to be to achieve the rank of ProMember. So I posted, and I posted, and I posted some more, knowing full well that with each new post, I was one step closer to achieving my goal.
And now, everything that I had worked for, has been stripped away. If one of the Proboards admins happens to come across this blog (in the event they search Google for terms relating to new ranks and Proboards), I hope they take a good look at it, and that they reflect on what they've done. I wonder how they'd feel if they logged onto their account one day and saw that they had been demoted to just a regular member. I bet they'd be pretty upset. And in a way, I'd like to see that happen, just so that they'd get a chance to feel the same way so many of us Proboards members do right now.
In conclusion, I now have to make one thousand, eight hundred and nineteen more posts in order to reach the rank I previously had. After what has happened, I am seriously questioning whether or not I should keep my account on their forum. I may just delete it altogether. In fact, I may even delete the numerous forums I have through their hosting service. Finally, as I said near the beginning of this blog entry, I know I'm not the only Proboards member who is felling appalled. So if you're reading this and you do happen to be a Proboards member, leave a comment, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this matter.
# posted by Answerthis @ 10:38 PM 
