A Suggestion For Astahost

[Arbitrary 0]

I rather like many features that Xisto provides, and it's been a great two years here. There is one proposal that I'd like to make concerning the credits. And no, it's not about getting more credits per word or anything like that, but rather that an email reminder every time my credits fall below a certain number. (Say five or ten credits?) would be really, really nice. I think it'd be easier to post on time that way as my current schedule is very tight and I often end up estimating my post/check cycles on Xisto to be slightly off.Just a suggestion that I thought of after I saw a reminder system on another site. (Granted, this site is for paid hosting, but its payment is dependent on the amount of bandwidth and server space you use)EDIT: Sorry! I just realized that this post might not fit in this category. I looked through all areas of the forum though, and I wasn't sure where this would go under, and since it was related to talking about the good/bad points of Xisto, I decided to put it here.

Edited January 12, 2008 by Arbitrary (see edit history)

[OpaQue 15]

Hi,I will add this to my task list. Its a good feature indeed but I was then worried about tons of spam being sent to members who just make 1-2 posts just enough to keep their credits up.-Shree

[Mordent 0]

Just a few personal thoughts on this idea for you. I know I haven't exactly been on the forums for as long as some, but I figure my two pence is worth giving.Firstly, I'm all for the idea being generally implemented, as all too often I've glanced back at and realised I've suddenly got a matter of a handful of credits left, which gives me two (well, technically three) choices: work on writing a fairly decent, detailed and lengthy post, or a number of shorter but at least as well thought out ones. Choice three is, of course, buy some credits from people, but I just can't see that happening when earning them is so simple.So, building on the idea of an email when the credits drop below X credits as a friendly reminder to have a look back certainly wouldn't go amiss. However, I can happily understand OpaQue's post, as I for one often hover with my credits in single figures (or just in to double figures), and the resulting number of emails coming my way wouldn't be overly welcome, especially as I know my credits are reasonably low a fair amount of the time.My little suggestion would be making the emails optional. If people didn't want to be warned about their credits running low, more fool them. Secondly, the idea of having a threshold level that you can change (a drop-down box with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 etc. in it, or just a box where you can enter any integer) is the crux of my notion. Where these little options would be placed could either be in the forum control panel (although that would involve tweaking the forum software), or perhaps a little more likely, as part of the relatively new credit system panel (Credits -> Credit System v2.0 Login), as it relates to that nicely.In my case, I would happily sit the number at 5 credits, and turn the box on that enables the email notification (presumably to the same account I used to sign up with / have stored in my profile)The main problem I can see with that would possibly be the load on the server every time it decremented the number of credits in everyone's account. An additional check to see if the number of credits was an integer first, before looking to see if email notification was enabled and whether the credits had dropped below the threshold number would, to me, be a more efficient way of doing it, but clearly I'll leave the coding up to the creator. ;)Any thoughts/comments on this notion? It stops unwanted spam, and gives people a chance to decide when they want to be reminded to come post.

[skedad 0]

I think that would be a good idea, but I have pondered something. Lately, I have been keeping credits around 20... There are times that I can only really post one or two with my busy schedule. So there are days that it will be above, and the next day like a little over 19... I guess if there is a credit reminder for under a certain number, I wonder if it will continue to send over and over. Let's say our reminder is 10. I am just thinking that if there are others, like me, that do enough on average to keep to their goals, will be over and under their goal every day or every other day.I am thinking, that as long as you wouldn't mind having email hits every other day or so, then it would be a success... But I guess I am not thinking what it would be like to be in and out of suspension territory. I would definitely would want to know of it...I am keeping active as much as I would check my email, because it is all like a process... I check email and check the forum credits around the same time. So I would think if it was really important to keep up with the credits, to make it part of a process... That is just my opinion...- skedad -

[altimit 0]

Hi OpaQue and skedad,If it is alright, I would like to make this suggestion. Instead of having a single threshold value, what can be done is have two thresholds, a low-threshold and high-threshold.The algorithm to decide whether a notification will be sent then, would be to notify if the user falls below the low-threshold. The user is then placed in a specific status, say, "Warning". As long as the user is in this status, the system knows that a notification has already been sent. The "Warning" status is changed to "Normal" only once the user meets the high-threshold.Hence, under this system, assuming that our low-threshold is 10 and our high-threshold is 30. Our user currently is 35, which is still well into the safe zone. It falls to 25, which is still alright (as it has not crossed the low-threshold yet). Once it falls to 9 (which is below the low-threshold of 10), the system sends a notification and the user is flagged as "Warning".Say, the user has read the notification and is working to sort it out and get to the safe zone again. Say, it has risen now to 15 from 9, the user is still under the "Warning" status as it has not met the high-threshold yet. And even it fluctuates below and above 10 (the low-threshold) for a while, the system will no longer annoy the user with multiple notifications since it sees that he already is under the "Warning" status---a notification was already given sometime ago. Only once he reaches 31 is the status changed to "Normal". For the user to receive a notification again would require him to essentially fall from the high-threshold to the low-threshold. This gives him a buffer to work with and smooths out any fluctuations he may introduce into the system.What do you think of this?

Edited January 12, 2008 by altimit (see edit history)

[Mordent 0]

I think that would be a good idea, but I have pondered something. Lately, I have been keeping credits around 20... There are times that I can only really post one or two with my busy schedule. So there are days that it will be above, and the next day like a little over 19... I guess if there is a credit reminder for under a certain number, I wonder if it will continue to send over and over. Let's say our reminder is 10. I am just thinking that if there are others, like me, that do enough on average to keep to their goals, will be over and under their goal every day or every other day...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my intention was to set the threshold number of credits below what you personally regularly fluctuate about. The warning email wouldn't be there as a reminder to post every day, just a little nudge if you've been letting it drop too far from what you normally do. In your case, setting the threshold at 10 would mean you've got a week's grace (or even more) with not posting - assuming you start at 20 credits - before the reminder email arrives, letting you know your credits have dropped below the threshold you set.

 

Admiteddly, in the process of building your credits back up to above your threshold level and back to your normal level you might have a little problem with it dropping below the level again, but the whole point of the warning would be to make sure you boosted your credits back up. While having the second threshold level - like altimit suggested - wouldn't be a bad thing, it's an extra little bit of programming and a few more checks. If the extra little tweaks wouldn't affect the server that much, I'm all for it. Again, personal opinion and preference on that one.