I like this too!

I don't know if anyone mentioned this in the new EoC thread but would it be possible to make sure everyone reads the EoC? I mean there's a chance people won't look for it even if its right in front of them or check the threads referencing it. I don't want to sound pushy of anything but maybe when they make an account part of the process could be to go over the EoC? I know this doesn't mean they will for sure but at least so it's confirmed that at one point, it was right in front of peope. Just a suggestion

This will be helpful, also I know that sometimes titles can be confusing which is why they get passed over.

This is good for those who do not know about the search features. But the search itself should be fixed up a bit. Take the part below about building confusing thread titles. What if my question was asked before but the context was all off and it doesn't come up in a search? I've had difficulties in the past with this feature and had to remember who started the thread in order to find it because it wouldn't come up by the subject/keywords.

This will also be good for someone who is new to the community to know. I don't post as much as I lurk but I do enjoy reading the more detailed posts and I'm more likely to reply to them.

Ok, we hear what you are saying loud and clear. We are discussing all of your ideas and brainstorming a few of our own. Please stay tuned.

I know you guys are working hard to come up with solutions. I'm just trying to point out where I see problems in the hopes that it may spark an idea in someone. The only solution I have is to remove points, but my understanding is that is not an option. Barring that, how can we give incentive for people to follow these guidelines and not simply post, post, post?

Other contributors have expressed similar concerns. However, if we are in the minority and most people feel the forums are fine, I will discontinue my efforts because I seem to be one of only a few voicing my concerns. I would rather EF not waste time and resources if a problem doesn't exist for the majority of contributors.

The best thing that you all can do is particiapte in community planning, subimit ideas and suggstions, and report suspicious behavior to us.

This is great! I don't know if this addresses the issue in the case of those that know and choose to post for points. But for the newcomers who don't know how to use the forum I think this would be a great help.

I'm sure you're not alone in your feelings. As I am sure the majority of folks on the forum probably don't know what's being talked about. I mean I have no idea how many people are on here any given day but I don't think all of them are aware of the problem. Maybe that's just me.
You have a lot of good ideas and valid concerns! Maybe it's not my place to say it but I appreciate that you're looking out for the well being of this community and I'm sure others are too. We just have to trust that in the coming days or weeks (?) these ideas will be taken into consideration and hopefully implemented.

The plan is post a number of these 'resource' style posts, so that we can refer people to them as needed. We will specifically be referring people who appear to be posting spammy posts in the hope of teaching them how to be more affective.

People who are innocently posting that way, will hopefully become more affective. The rest will stay on our radar, be investigated, and then handled accordingly.

We the staff, mod, and admin, will specifically be using this as a resource tool, referring people to this as the first step when there is questionable activity.

There is no single solution to solve all problems, this is one step.

Great thinking... this is totally inline with a 'down-the-road' project I hope to get to where we sort of create a 'map' for new users to guide them through the programs and features. Ultimately what would be great is if one day we had a system the tracked your level of account completion, and suggested the next logical steps for you.

I'm not sure if others have noticed it or not, seems like there are far fewer spammy posts since this thread was up; I think most people are paying attention to it.

I think overall, most people like the points. Our hope with the points was to make all the activities you were already engaging in a little more fun, but also to show our appreciation for your support. It is a shame, but you know the saying about rotten apples. Yes there is abuse. However, I think there is lot more activity that looks like abuse once you begin to put everything under the microscope.

A great example: On every product page there is an option for your to start a forum discussion. This is a great feature because it directly puts customers in contact with a community of experts, who generally know the answers to almost anything product related. Now the reality is, that some customers have never been on the forum, and know little to nothing about our community. So they test out the feature and create a poorly titled thread, asking a simple product question, that is answered in the 50 product reviews on the same page.

So is this spam? Is this person guilty of abuse? Is it a bad decision for EF to allow customers to interact with the community? Is the community too intolerant? I guess it all depends on who you are asking. I do feel like the points get abused, but I am starting to feel like the intolerance of anything less than a certain standard is automatically dismissed and labeled as spam.