gajop wrote:You are twisting things. No one is saying that having titles makes one "correct" or anything, but it DOES show authority which is something new users can rely on.
You call it "titles shows authority", I called it "titles make post gain weigth", forum rules call it "Your E-Resume does not make you right" - imo it means all the same thing.
gajop wrote:1. Engine devs can be considered an authority to all-things engine-related
2. Game/content devs can be considered an authority to all-things related to their game/content.
3. Old (and especially post-heavy) users are likely to have detailed knowledge regarding most things.
4. Mod/admin titles implies that this person has to be listened to in terms of enforcing forum rules/behavior.
1) "Engine devs" is the only usergroup with actual meaningful criterica where membership is not random.
2) No, there can be modders who do not know much about their own game except the part (say "balance") that interessts them. It is entirely possible to have stuff in your mod where you have no idea how it works.
3) Maybe. Sometimes it really is a matter of just
"Trust me, I have experience, just believe me.", simply for sake of keeping post short.
But nobody should be more likely to believe something simply because it was written by an old user with many posts.
As soon as real facts appear (test case/link to wiki/code etc) saying
"it was fine two years ago" or similiar stops being a valid arguement and titles or registration dates (should) go out the window.
Sometimes titled XY-devs seem to confuse the authority (as in competence) that their title SHOWS with the competence that they actually HAVE.
Silentwings wrote:Not to say its never happened, but I don't remember a single case of any one person on this forum refering to their "title" to justify their views (successfully or otherwise). The idea that a little line describing "what you do in Spring" is somehow a status symbol that you can hide behind is afaik without evidence
I do remember people trying to use their "title" in arguements.
But that is rare and usually just makes them look silly.
Other thing is how the status is a protection to bans. (moderators clean up offending posts but give no warning, or nothing happens despite being far over warning limit, while "common people" get perma-banned for less.)
That is sad, but can live with it.
The most annoying abuse of titles is the most subtle and most common one:
Using the authority that the title shows to get away with posting things that otherwise would lead to being labeled as incompetent and trolling.
As an XY-dev one can make wild claims, present them in unacceptable ways, argue about things where everybody can see that peopleperson does not know what is speaking about, but it STILL must be taken serious, because it is "an actual XY-dev" who says it.