So now have the bells and whistles back. What’s the state of affairs now.
What are the chops and how do we get them ?
Still have a lot of things to bring back here. But my time is crunched, so expect these changes to happen slowly this month.
With the Guanxi system in place, please report any loss in speed/performance. These scripts run pretty independantly of the board (except for using the same user data, of course) – so I’m not sure if there should be ANY difference. Then again, things did fritz out last time after these were put in place.
Chops
To get Chops you need to have done something we can stamp our seal of approval on (or disapproval, as the case may be). This is completely subjective, on the part of the team here at forumosa.
Here’s how the process works: a moderator will make a case for why someone should get a chop (simply posting a message in our Private Area about a cool or uncool thing that they noticed). So long as there’s no immediate disagreement from another member of the team, the requested chop is stamped onto a member.
The chops haven’t been finalized yet. I figure there ought to be at least two kinds: one to identify certain kinds of people (I call them Title Chops), and one to reward people (Reward Chops).
For example, if you start a thread that eventually generates a lot of replies or views, someone will probably say, “Hey, that deserves some kind of recognition.” Another example, Chops may guide new users about who the managers of this forum feel are especially noteworthy or unworthy. Maybe this will cut down on bans as well – although bannings seem to have quieted down lately (then again, I’ve been away for 2 weeks, what do I know?)
You can earn more of one kind of Chop. There’s no limit, although the display on the left will show up to eight at a time.
Chops can be taken away as easily as they are given.
Please post more questions and comments here.
Cheerio,
Could you post an explanation of how the Guanxi bank works and also the lottery. I saw the Guanxi bank has a 10% interest rate, but is this per month or per year?
Thanks 
Guanxi Bank
It’s set at 10% interest compounded WEEKLY
It’s purpose is to encourage registration. Then, again, with the possibility of a Prune Purge in the next few weeks (to whittle down inactive, non-active registrations) it might run counter to our purposes.
It’s other purpose is to be another way to accumulate enough points to do neat things with your account (title colors, custom titles)
Guanxi Lottery
G$ 50 a ticket. It’s a weekly pay-off of G$ 500
Let’s see if this thing really works.
Purpose: a way to accumulate enough points to do neat things with your account (title colors, custom titles)
What can I do to make the chop things stop flashing on the screen? Is there any way I can still see them without the flashing?
Yeah, the flashing is kind of annoying. Remember, functionality first, then decoration, as long as it doesn’t detract from functionaluty. Still getting ‘invalid_session’ messages about 1 post in 4.
Brian
Now that the guanxi system is working again, I’d like to suggest my idea for a better guanxi system. I just don’t know if it’s technically possible.
The way I see it, the problem with the guanxi system is that it’s supposed to be a reward and identification system for those who contribute the mist etc. However, what it means is that whoever is the nicest and always gives away guanxi will always have the lowest ‘score’, whilst those with stacks of guanxi are the ones who never reward anyone.
So, my suggestion is this. Whenever you post you earn one guanxi point. You also earn a point of ‘giveable guanxi’ that doesn’t show up on your total. Thus the more you post, the more you are rewarded, but you still have a stack of guanxi to give away that won’t effect your ability to buy effects etc.
Brian
what is that hearttrobe and yinyang things… how come I don’t get one…
ax
Chops
The chops aren’t final – does the movement bother you that much? There are static versions What I really want to use are images that really look like name chops – squares, ovals, octagons, etc.
When we get around to working on the FAQ, a comprehesive guide to the chops will be there. (which reminds me, can anyone remember who sent in the FAQ the last time I madea request? I need to search my pile of e-mail for it. Let me know who you are and I’ll give you Guanxi and chop you (woo-woo) )
Anton,
the “heartthrob” is actually supposed to be a shield – these indicate whether you are a moderator (blue) or an administrator. Expect this to change – do you like paw prints?
The yinyang chop indicates that someone remembers that you posted something really special.
Why didn’t you get one? Well, I’ve just put this thing in place. Easy ka lang, pare. Tignan natin muna kung effective ang bagong sistema to, OK? All in good time 
Now, if anyone feels someone deserves one, they ought to bring this to the attention of anyone on the Forumosa team. Assigning chops requires an administrator to manually do it. I’m hoping our moderators can use this to reward or discourage members (one of those “behaviour modifying” thangs that someone once posted here). Ultimately, this makes being a moderator easier and more interesting.
Guanxi Revamp
Brian,
your ideas for a better G$ system are sound. Unfortunately for me, I lack the technical know-how and the amount of time (a vast amount for my skill level) to hack the G$ system as you describe.
Why not look at Forumosa Guanxi NOT as an indicator of excellence or status, but as a “means to an end”? For me, Guanxi is the grease that allows The Bureacracy or The System to work a bit faster. Sure, there’s a downside if there’s too much of it, but its purpose is to facilitate things.
Certainly, it is also based on gratitude. With Forumosa Guanxi, you can customize your account (or change someone’s title!), and you can also express your appreciation when someone does/says/posts something that puts a smile on your face.
I’m still surprised at the strong reaction of some when I took their Guanxi away one time. I recall thinking to myself, “Yo! This stuff doesn’t even mean anything.” Well, now it really does. Let’s see if it helps
Guanxi Lottery
The Lottery winnings start each weekend at G$ 500. As people “buy” tickets, they put G$ 50 in each time.
I guess this means that if 100 tickets are purchased by Friday, the pot has risen to G$ 5,500! Hmm, that could be a problem (I mentioned the challenge of “too much Guanxi” in a system). Is there any utility in there being G$ millionaires?
Let’s give it a roll, and see how the first Lottery works out. We could ultimately decide to lower the ticket prices.
Too bad there doesn’t seem to be a way to tell how much is currently in the pot. You could try to bribe an Administrator. Or, just drop us a line via e-mail, we’re easy.
thanks pare, now I feel like a young throb…
pero hindi lahat ang throbbing ay dito…
ax
Hey, Gus, where’s the Guanxi FAQ? 
forumosa.com/3/viewtopic.php … ght=#56492
forumosa.com/3/viewtopic.php?p=57278#57278
Hi Jeff,
I’ll be looking for the FAQ you sent me and then I’ll give you G$ and an extra chop this week.
Cheers
[quote=“In a PM reply to a member, I”]The chops are assigned when a moderator recognizes a member for contributing something particularly worthwhile to the forums.
We should be able to easily recognize why certain people “earned” or “deserved” them. Ideally, a moderator will post a link to the post that warranted the chop in our Private Area
Using chops, we hope to indicate what kind of behaviour we like, and what kind we don’t like.
Do not expect this to be a consistent, comprehensive matter. After all, this is a volunteer website. Like most features added to this website, this function is grounded in helping make the moderators’ job easier
Please note: we don’t have a final set of chops yet. So it’s still early. We’ll get this done this month – and see if enough moderators really like the idea[/quote]
:shock: How does it work? :shock:
Is it just that for every ticket that I buy my name gets entered into the pool and then names are drawn out at random and the lucky name gets the prize?
Less complicated than selecting numbers I guess!
Do I really increase my chances by purchasing more than one ticket?
Is there $G tax to pay on my winnings?
I guess calling it “Lotto” is wrong – becuase you are not picking numbers 
The actual mod is called “Lottery”
Boss, I don’t know exactly how it does work. This is a first run, and I didn’t want to try a 1 day version as the trial run.
I expect it randomly chooses a ticket and whoever is assigned that ticket gets the winnings. This should mean that buying more tickets WILL increase your chances.
Now, when someone wins, I expect TWO things to happen:
- the winner’s G$ total jumps up (here’s a teaser, the pot is close to G$ 1,000 now)
- the winner’s name will be posted somewhere. Where? I don’t know yet.
If these two things do NOT happen, well, I guess i can take a peek at the underlying data table to see who among us were suckered into this thing. It’ only a 3 field table – and one of the fields is user ID, it can’t be THAT hard to track all the players down and credit them the amount they wagered
As far as rigging it (didn’t somone mentioned this?) – I don’t have the programming skills (nor the interest) to do it. Since Admins and Mods have access to the G$ money tree anyway, there’s no point in our participating anyway
I’m sure we could make it worth your while 
I checked the total just now and the pot is at G$1,000. We’ll know by this weekend if this thing really works