by Worker Bee (originally published December 2004)
There has always been quite a bit of speculation about many of the segments of this site... And I rather like speculating about them. Anyhow, somehow it got suggested that I write an article on the status system.
So by status system, I mean the way that everyone has a status... Currently those statuses would be Serf, then Commoner, then Bard. Eventually there will be levels above Bard, but Four has not created them yet.
At this point in time, most people that will read this article will either be a Commoner or a Bard, because it is now set up that people become a Commoner within somewhere between 6 and 14 sign-ins... You know, when someone gets full access to all of the boards.
The point of this article isn't to explain what the statuses are though, because at this point there really isn't a difference between Commoner and Bard... And the difference between Serf and Commoner is quite obvious, it is difficult to miss going from approximately 5 boards to hm, I think over 40.
So if the point of the article isn't to describe the different statuses... Then what is the point? The point is to speculate on the different factors that influence where we status.
First off, the status system is completely automated. Nobody looks at a person and says "This person! They are now supreme king of the world!" or even "This person is cool, let's upgrade them." Nope. It is completely automated, done by a secret formula. The result that comes out of the formula is someone's status (serf/commoner/bard) and... Though only premium members can see it, where they rank exactly compared to everyone else on the site.
So the goal to figuring out what raises ones status is to figure out what the variables in the formula are... And how much the various variables are weighted.
And it should seem that... EVERYTHING is a variable. Just some thing more than others. And everybody has their own separate theory. It should seem though, that there are probably a few major things... And many minor things.
And this is all speculation. To the best of my knowledge, Four has never granted any interviews on the status system... And therefore we don't know if things are right or wrong. It is of my opinion, that the things that are of the most importance are the things that are most important to forming a good community. But yeah, I have no way of knowing.
Major things:
Be Signed In! Obviously if no-one is ever online, it isn't going to be much of a community... Write Posts! Once again, this is an integral part of having a community... Things need to be said. Whether it is starting a new topic, or responding to other people, it wouldn't really be a community if nobody ever said anything.
Read Posts! What would the purpose be for people to write posts...? Whether chatty or long and thought out, if they thought nobody was going to read them... Not very many people would post.
I think that most people with relatively high statuses do spend quite a bit of time signed in... And I think most of them either read or write quite a few posts (And some do both). I know you don't need to both read and write though... Because I have a fairly high status, and I probably make fewer posts than any other active member. Maybe 10 a week at most. But they are all just variables... Having one variable that is low won't hurt you, if you are good at other things.
Then of course, there are many more minor and trivial things (Any of them might actually be more major, I really have no way of knowing. to me they seem less important though).
I think these would include...:
Getting decent ratings on posts
Rating other peoples posts
Buying/Selling things
PM'ing people
Getting PM's
Probably anything else you could think of.
The point of this article isn't to help people trick the system though, I would be fairly sad if people used this to trick the system. Fortunately, I probably don't even have the system right, so it would be hard to trick. But beyond that... A good portion of these things really aren't fake-able I think.
And why should people really bother to think about it all that much anyways... Just be a good member, and your status shall reflect that fact. It isn't always flawless... Some people became Bards much earlier than people that many felt were better qualified. But overall, it is a pretty good system.
And yeah, at the moment none of it even matters... Though I suppose it shall matter a bit in the future, as soon as we have more things beyond Bard really... For beyond Bard, the path shall break into three sections... Merchant, Wizard, and Noble. People will get to choose which section they want to go into... And each section will have its own advantages and disadvantages... But since they don't exist yet, nobody really knows.
So yeah.
Just be yourself.
And realize how silly it is that a) I wrote an article about the status system, and b) that you actually read it.
Because this site is just for fun, and knowing how the system works really would do nothing except raise the possibility for people to cheat it. And that wouldn't be fun at all.
But for now, we can know at least that most of what we do is valued and counted and reflected into a status that means nothing at all.