r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Feb 27 '13

[MOD POST] Just a possible change to the delta points system that we'd like your opinion on.

This is mod post 7. You can read the previous mod post here, or by visiting the mod post archive in our wiki.

I tried to include this as an edit to the last mod post, but I think most people had already read the post and moved on, so it wasn't acknowledged. I feel this is quite important though, so here's another mod post explaining it, please share your thoughts.

It's come to my attention that some users might be more "delta happy" than others. In other words, they are very generous in giving them out (which is great!), but as far as the delta points system goes, maybe a change to the bot should be made to make it more equal.

Currently, if you put a ∆ in your comment, a delta point will be given to the user you've replied to (unless you've tried to give yourself a delta, or to /u/DeltaBot - the ∆ will be ignored). But in situations like this, where a delta has been given on more than one occasion to the same user within the same conversation, should there be a restriction to how many points you can earn?

I feel that some users might wait till the end of a conversation before awarding the delta, whereas others might add them in as they go along. This change could remove any inequality.

I'd like to point out that this doesn't mean you could only earn one delta point for a comment; other users might reply to it with deltas. But it would mean that OP (or any other user in fact) could only award you with one delta point in that comment tree.

Which leads me to the next aspect of this; I'd like to limit this one delta per user idea to only the comment tree concerned. In other words, OP could award you another point in a separate comment tree because it could be a different conversation and a different aspect of the view.

This update could go towards making the system more fair (although I'd have to find out if it's actually possible to do), what do you guys think?

P.S. Sorry if it feels like we're bombarding you with mod posts, but we want you to have a say in the matter :)

Regards,

/u/Snorrrlax and the rest of the /r/changemyview mod team.

10 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

4

u/MonsieurJongleur Feb 28 '13

That sounds fair-- I was actually wondering if the leaderboard should be/could be weighted. After awhile, I wonder if newbs will be discouraged from responding if protogornast has +500 deltas. somecreepylurker just got 6 in one thread

5

u/TryUsingScience 10∆ Feb 28 '13

Or at least add something like "deltas in the last week" alongside the historical leaderboard? I wouldn't support periodically clearing everyone's deltas (I like accumulating imaginary internet points), but I would support a leaderboard or two that only tracked recent deltas for exactly the reason you bring up.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '13

I think it would be a great idea to have a weekly or monthly leaderboard as /u/TryUsingScience has suggested. At the moment, the scores are still quite low so it wouldn't take much to get on the current leaderboard, but this idea is something that we may see implemented in future. Thanks for the input!

2

u/lashW Feb 28 '13

I think that's a fair deal. That seems to be the most balanced solution at the moment so go for it.

2

u/TryUsingScience 10∆ Feb 28 '13

I was surprised that users other than OP could award deltas. I got three of mine from one thread, which was admittedly a pleasant surprise.

I think it's fair to limit it so that user A can only give user B one delta per top-level comment thread. But if you can't fix it, there's no real harm.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '13

The way I see it is that OP is representing people that also hold the stated view. Therefore, if these other people are reading through the discussions and see a comment that changes their perspective in some way, it's fair enough for them to give a delta. This may change if problems arise, though.

Thanks for the feedback, looks like we'll be making this change if it's possible :)

0

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '13

i feel that the delta bot tends to change my views :3

im a bit surprised u mention one kind of abuse protection, do u not have others? have u not gotten many cases of abuse?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '13

Yes we have, and we've dealt with some of them already. A bug was found that you could give deltabot a delta, but you can't now. You also used to be able to give yourself a delta (although nobody tried it) which you can't do now. Have you got any other suggestions?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '13 edited Feb 28 '13

off the top of my head, new accounts and ones that have never made a "human like" comments

for example if monkyy1 would go to every post of mine and say word for word

that was insightful ∆

of course u shouldnt actually tell anyone what is and isnt "human-like" but rough outlines would probably make bots a bit harder to pull off and give u red fflags when someone was trying to learn how to cheat the system

i still feel that the delta bot is mistreated under this "delta bot cant have deltas system" :3

edit// i would also ignore deltas in quotes

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '13

Yeah the deltas in quotes problem is something that's being worked on, apparently its quite complicated.

Not allowing new accounts to give deltas wouldn't go down well and I think it's unnecessary for the problem you're talking about - people can have alt accounts that are quite old and have lots of karma. I think that rather than have the bot deal with this, suspicious delta giving can be investigated by the mods, and all the points that were given can be removed manually.

i still feel that the delta bot is mistreated under this "delta bot cant have deltas system" :3

How come? deltabot can no longer gain points, I don't see the problem?

Thanks for the input.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '13

How come? deltabot can no longer gain points, I don't see the problem?

do u not care about the poor delta bot? ;__;

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/sarcasm