# Spreading XP around



## mach1.9pants (Jul 13, 2014)

Do we have to? I mean when we have [MENTION=9849]Echohawk[/MENTION] putting out such awesomeness as  the ENCyclopedia, I think the spreading of XP is a bit annoying. Not many posts deserve the XP like those, so I find myself giving XP for lesser posts. Can the numbers be tweaked? Or can that be turned off? How many do I need to spread before I can  XP again?


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## Umbran (Jul 13, 2014)

There's an unfortunate tendency for folks to form cliques that consistently give each other XP repeatedly.  We are using XP to demonstrate how broad an appeal a person's posts have - a second and third and fourth XP from one person doesn't mean as much as a second, third, and fourth from other people.  Thus, the need to spread it around.


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## mach1.9pants (Jul 15, 2014)

Fair enough


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## Echohawk (Jul 17, 2014)

Umbran said:


> There's an unfortunate tendency for folks to form cliques that consistently give each other XP repeatedly.



While I sincerely appreciate [MENTION=55946]mach1.9pants[/MENTION] 's kind words, I'm not terribly fussed about XP.

However, I am now interested in how to go about joining one of the above-mentioned cliques. They sound like they could be fun, and I'm clearly missing out! Is there some sort of application form?


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## Thaumaturge (Jul 17, 2014)

Echohawk said:


> While I sincerely appreciate [MENTION=55946]mach1.9pants[/MENTION] 's kind words, I'm not terribly fussed about XP.
> 
> However, I am now interested in how to go about joining one of the above-mentioned cliques. They sound like they could be fun, and I'm clearly missing out! Is there some sort of application form?




Today's your lucky day! There is an application and interview process in the /ragequit thread right now! 

Thaumaturge.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 18, 2014)

This is always a good place to spread the love around.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?299244-Operation-Power-Level-Gary


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## Echohawk (Jul 18, 2014)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> This is always a good place to spread the love around.
> 
> http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?299244-Operation-Power-Level-Gary




It appears that the links in Wik's first post in that thread to Gary's old posts no longer work


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 18, 2014)

I up didn't check them all, but I KNOW some of these are still viable.  Thanks, Mark CMG!



Mark CMG said:


> Q and A with Gary Gygax Part I
> Q and A with Gary Gygax Part II
> " " Part III
> " " Part IV
> ...


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## Nagol (Jul 18, 2014)

Another simple way to find his posts is to use the functional board search -- go advanced search, choose posts and enter the user name of Col_Pladoh.


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## Echohawk (Jul 18, 2014)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> I up didn't check them all, but I KNOW some of these are still viable.  Thanks, Mark CMG!






Nagol said:


> Another simple way to find his posts is to use the functional board search -- go advanced search, choose posts and enter the user name of Col_Pladoh.




Sorry -- I should have been clearer! I had no trouble at all locating one of Gary's posts to XP, but thought it still worthwhile to point out that the initial post Dannyalcatraz linked to now has broken links.


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## Big Mac (Jul 21, 2014)

I agree totally with mach1.9pants.

Echohawk's awesome posts (lists of monsters and stuff like his Monster ENCyclopedia articles) are a bit part of the reason why I surf over to ENWorld.

And then when I want to reward his awesome work, I get told to go away and give someone else XP.

Alzrius, The ENWorld Kitten is another person I often get blocked from giving XP to.

I find the entire system very very frustrating. I really don't like it.



Umbran said:


> There's an unfortunate tendency for folks to form cliques that consistently give each other XP repeatedly.  We are using XP to demonstrate how broad an appeal a person's posts have - a second and third and fourth XP from one person doesn't mean as much as a second, third, and fourth from other people.  Thus, the need to spread it around.




The problem is that your system does not work.

I don't actually want to give Echohawk XP, I want to give Echohawk's specific awesome posts XP. At the moment, the only way to do that is to go off, read some other threads, try to find some posts that actually deserve XP and then attempt to find my way back to Echohawk's awesome post, so that I can give him XP for it.

That is far too much trouble. By the time I've found enough posts to give Echohawk XP again, I can't find the post that deserved the XP.

I suppose I could bookmark all of his cool posts, and then come back to them later, give him the XP he deserves and then delete the bookmark, but that amount of bookmarking (just to be able to use your system) would be absurd.

I have tried to work with your system, but then when I find 10 cool posts and give XP to people I've not given it too before, I start thinking that I really should be reverse-engineering your system (via trial and error) to work out what your "spread XP" number is and then going back to Echohawk, Alzrius and other people I might have been blocked from giving XP too. (And please bear in mind that I don't just want to give Echohawk for any post that he makes. I want to give him XP on his best posts. So if I can't give XP on the spot, it is not going to happen.)

Right now, if I spread a _lot_ of XP and then try to give someone like Echohawk two XP in one go, it just annoys me that I didn't click the XP buttons in a different order, so that your forum software would not be blocking me. Because your system doesn't seem to look at the total amount of XP I give someone like Echohawk. It just seems to dislike me liking two of his posts in one go.

But if Echohawk posts two awesome posts in one go, that isn't my fault.

The other way to deal with your system, is to give people "spam XP" - XP they do not actually deserve, but which I am giving them just so that I can bypass your XP filter limit. If you check the thread for giving XP to Gary Gygax, that is exactly what is happening there. People are bumping up each other's XP, in an attempt to be able to give Gary XP faster. Rather than avoiding cliques, it seems like you have created a "Gary Gygax XP swap clique".

Those Gary Gygax fans are not giving each other XP to cheat their way to higher XP counts - they are doing it because they like Gary Gygax and your system is standing in their way.

If the "spread some XP" message at least told people how many XP they needed to give to other users it would be a bit less frustrating.

If you need to keep the spread some XP system in place, would you at least be able to have a private staff discussion about the number and see if it can reduced?


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