I critisize the point system not because I want to be on top of it, but because I want to have my blog as part of a site witha  good ranking system.
 
If i'm rated 30 on a scale of awesome blog writers, thats' great!!!  Would be proud to be part of such a site.  But if I'm ranked 15 on a scale of people pasting joke emails, and throwing up poorly thought-out articles on controversial subjects, just to get attention....not so proud.

I'm not terribly satisfied yet with the point system yet. But we're working on it. Let me outline some of the things we've seen with what we're trying to do about it.

1) Article spamming. This is where someone simply takes someone else's article and reposts it all in full or in part. Because someone else did the work, it's really easy to crank up ones score. What we're doing about it: Admins will be able to nullify articles. That is, articles won't get points for either the user or the blog if they have been nullified.

2) Angry User Syndrome. Idealogues have repeatedly gone around and sabotaged their political opponents scores by finding every post and choosing "trolling". And we know who does this because the system logs every trolling rating (just like the system knows when someone modifies their post so that they could submit a "interesting" rating with 100,000 points). What we've done: Only 1 rating allowed every few hours.

Those two things should help quite a bit.

I'm with Dynosoar. I'm not in this for points (although I do look to see where I'm at). I'm in this because it gives me the opportunity to write, self-analyze and generally spout off my opinions. If people want to respond, fine. If they don't, that's fine too.

I have noticed that the articles that get the most attention are usually politically motivated, full of mis-information, or contain statements that are so inflamatory or contraversial that people feel they just have to reply in order to perhaps 'set the record straight'. (I wonder sometimes if these things aren't done in order to get responses....)

I have not much of an interest in such things, to me this isn't a debate forum, it's more of an interactive on-line journal...

...and that's the beauty of it. It can be whatever the individual blogger wants it to be.

Thanks, Brad.

Thank you all for your responses, I see my points climbing already;)
Nice little addition with the icons too, certainly seems to help when a pun or inuendo is implied, yet not understood by the audience
As to the rankings I see that for the most part those that were here before me are still "in the lead" with a few additions to the fray, most that I have visited seem at least aquianted with communication skills, if not some strange ideas ( gay marriage;p, Liberal,Agnostic,and anti-American:-||) it's all pretty interesting, if for no other reason than the knowledge of what some crazy folks are thinking
Nuff sed.

Since I have yet to post a single blog entry, all my points are based on my (ultra-enjoyable) comments in the Forums. That somehow doesn't seem equitable (unless the points are somehow redeemable for cash, in which this system is perfect).

WOW! you've never posted? That's commendable. You just go around reading our article wanting nothing in returen. That deserves a hug, friend!

Dyno, I feel ya bro. People on this site are a little obsessed with their rank. Just ignore it though, they'll get bored with it soon...hopefully.

Trinitie

This is what I've seen:

I used to post for points. Over a couple months, I learned exactly what people wanted to hear, and I wrote about it. Unfortunately, that gets old, so I stopped. You can just guess what happened; my score dropped like a brick. But people who had consistantly read before and liked the style of the few good articles I wrote came back and read me even when I wasn't popular. Since I was posting quality stuff, I started to develop a following, and so now my site, "A Plethora of Thought," is back on the charts, albeit not as high as before. But that's okay with me; my site is there for the long-term, not some irritating joke site.

I'd rather make brilliant business decisions to make money than win the lottery. That's just who I am, and I think many would agree. Long live the true bloggers.

~Dan

hmmmm...I thinks I'd rather win the lottery....guess I'm not a true blogger. Or, you know, maybe I'm just lazy. IT could go either way.

Trinitie

hmmmm...I thinks I'd rather win the lottery

That needed a BAM!!!

Its good, my site is staying high in the top ten, and i am pretty much only posting thoughts and antics!!!

People are interested in me!!!! i had better not get boring eh?

BAM!!!

I have not much of an interest in such things, to me this isn't a debate forum, it's more of an interactive on-line journal... ...and that's the beauty of it. It can be whatever the individual blogger wants it to be.

well said Dharmagrl

it can be whatever the individual blogger wants it to be... why can't more people accept this fact?

Be damned this infernal rating system !
I have muddled thought, therefore I blog.......
( it's 5 points for a comment or reply, right?)

i had better not get boring eh?

That's the thing.. the point system shouldn't exert pressure... I dunno I don't think there's any helping that.

Yup, Dyno, 5 pts.

~Dan