Mycents (a Question For An Admin) Is it really automated?

[Jonnyabc 0]

I'd be interested to learn more about myCents. It sounds like it is a programmed system, and if it is, I would love to learn more about it! Being partial to programming myself, I would understand if I'm not let in on the company secrets, but a better understanding of how my posts are rated would be helpful (the length of a post makes sense, but how easily does a computer rate quality?).

[anwiii 17]

this question has been asked many times. a long time user just decided to up and leave because one of the problems he had was not knowing the algorythm trap uses to determine how much mycents a user would get by posting. the admins have never said specifically. yes, length of post and quality of post has been mentioned by the admins, but aside from that, it's anyone's guess.

personally, i think the title, and the keywords from the title spread out throughout the post will make a difference in quality and relevancy.

best way to come close to knowing is by setting up an experiment. post, record information about the post and how much mycents you recieve after it updates, then do the same thing with another post. do this 30-50 times, and you might have a clear idea after using many scenarios and experiments. personally, i am too lazy and don't care enough about it to worry about it. although it takes a little bit to finally get hosted with a tld, after that, people will find that the credits are very easy to come by after that and more than enough to keep up hosting and the renewal of the domain.

now if you want answers from a programming perspective and questions about what kind of code and how the code works, you can always post in the programming thread

I'd be interested to learn more about myCents. It sounds like it is a programmed system, and if it is, I would love to learn more about it! Being partial to programming myself, I would understand if I'm not let in on the company secrets, but a better understanding of how my posts are rated would be helpful (the length of a post makes sense, but how easily does a computer rate quality?).

[rvalkass 5]

It sounds like it is a programmed system, and if it is, I would love to learn more about it!

It is all automated. I've got visions now of OpaQue sitting down and working through every post, counting the characters, judging the quality, adding them all up, bits of paper flying everywhere, calculator in hand Somehow I think he'd get a bit behind! As far as I know it's written a bit like an extension to the forums and is heavily integrated so that it even works to recalculate posts when they get moved, edited and deleted. Put simply, OpaQue is a programming genius!

Being partial to programming myself, I would understand if I'm not let in on the company secrets, but a better understanding of how my posts are rated would be helpful (the length of a post makes sense, but how easily does a computer rate quality?).

Post length is an obvious factor. Everything else is just wild conjecture, but I'd guess BBCodes would be fairly easy for a script to parse and work out if they're right. That way, posts that are well formatted and well written would also get a boost to their myCENTs. Other than that OpaQue keeps it a closely guarded secret - it is a major part of his business after all, and if it was revealed exactly how the script calculated myCENTs, people would find ways to boost their myCENTs without posting good quality content.

[Jonnyabc 0]

best way to come close to knowing is by setting up an experiment. post, record information about the post and how much mycents you recieve after it updates, then do the same thing with another post. do this 30-50 times, and you might have a clear idea after using many scenarios and experiments.

interesting idea conducting an experiment...only problem is if I try too hard, I may be flagged as spam if I don't post something relevant (they ought to create a separate non-moderated section in the forum for testing out the site).

It is all automated. I've got visions now of OpaQue sitting down and working through every post, counting the characters, judging the quality, adding them all up, bits of paper flying everywhere, calculator in hand tongue.gif Somehow I think he'd get a bit behind!...Put simply, OpaQue is a programming genius!...Other than that OpaQue keeps it a closely guarded secret - it is a major part of his business after all, and if it was revealed exactly how the script calculated myCENTs, people would find ways to boost their myCENTs without posting good quality content.

I know exactly what you mean. I can see him too, burning the candle late into the night slaving over the code. And I totally agree that it's programming genius! Wonder if he's hiring any time soon?...that's too much to hope for.



I should have noted when I wrote this that the script could easily tally up the words and calculate a percentage (or bell curve) to determine how many varieties of words are used. Although unlikely, who's to say whether or not OpaQue uses a database of words and each word is rated by popularity. Words like "a" and "the" are very popular. So if you make a single thread that would include an entire paragraph consisting of a single word over and over again, that word's percentage is 100%. This in turn would earn you very few points compared to if you were to list in a paragraph all of the words starting with the letter "q" in the alphabet.
Edited February 14, 2010 by Jonnyabc (see edit history)

[-Sky- 0]

It is all automated. I've got visions now of OpaQue sitting down and working through every post, counting the characters, judging the quality, adding them all up, bits of paper flying everywhere, calculator in hand Somehow I think he'd get a bit behind! As far as I know it's written a bit like an extension to the forums and is heavily integrated so that it even works to recalculate posts when they get moved, edited and deleted. Put simply, OpaQue is a programming genius!

I can see that happening soon when we get over a million members on the forums etc. The way you described that Rval, it sounds awesome. Personally, I think OpaQue is doing too much, his brain will shut down, or even worse...explode!

 

@ Jonny: This article made by OpaQue may help you in understanding the whole MyCENT system. Clickity click click.

[BuffaloHelp 24]

myCENT calculations includes all the ideas discussed above plus the duration from the activity of the forum. The last credit system gave generous "hosting credits" for people who fell below zero. Or, if you returned from a short break the first post made were given larger hosting credits and then down graded to the normal calculation posts thereafter.I believe OpaQue carried the similar idea with the Credit System V3, myCENT.BBcodes certainly give different myCENT compare to straight out post. And believe it or not spelling matters with myCENT, as it was with hosting credit system. Slangs may not be credited to your myCENT earnings because OpaQue simply hates slangs for SEO reasons.