Board Thread:Guides & Idea Board/@comment-2089817-20151120231810

Alright, so, as I had proclaimed during my... less than pleasant discussion with Serk and the later involvement of Simbah and others, I stated that I had an idea that would work to help promote quality in NF. Since you guys clearly did not want my RPCQE idea, since either you let your hatred of me cloud your judgment, you fundamentally disagree with its concept, or you think it is a good idea but not suitable for an environment like NF, I had a number of ideas that would address a place like NF specifically, so that's why I'm here now to propose it.

Keep in mind, I'm already anticipating a lot of negative feedback on this thread. Mainly because I know how you all feel about me. So before typing out those hate messages, understand that the only reason I decided to go through with this is because I talked the idea over with Serk and he did believe it was a good idea and that it could actually work on NF. This is the same person who sided with you lot and also opposed my RPCQE idea as well in the past, so considering that he's on board with this, should be enough incentive to all of you to consider this idea carefully and to make a fair judgment upon it.

So let's get to it. I call this the Degree System.

Now, I want you to consider why it is people tend to make really powerful characters; borderline OP. Of course, it is to have fun and to express their ideas, but when you get down to the nitty-gritty of it all, everybody wants to have some acknowledgement. Some people want to be recognized more than others, but everybody on some level wants to be recognized for their work; even if it's just a tiny bit deep down. Otherwise, why would you be writing articles on a community site like NF? Why not keep it all jotted down on notepad or Word? Yeah yeah, it's also so you can just chill and have fun with your friends. And I'm not debating that, I know most everybody's primary directive here is just to enjoy themselves.

But the fundamental problem with NF's quality is that there isn't any reasons for people to want to push themselves and work harder on their material without having the initial desire themselves. Some people need to be pushed. And the admins have taken multiple approaches toward addressing this; restrictions, applications, and so on. Sometimes even weekly challenges, which Ash has tried to do as of late. The problem, however, is that nobody wants to feel restricted. And the problem with challenges like the ones proposed by the Mizukage is that they offer no incentive. Rather, they offer no long-standing reward for doing that work. It doesn't stick with you. You don't feel like you've accomplished something. Deep down, everybody wants to feel like their hard work means something; whether it means being recognized or whatever.

That's what the Degree System is.

Those of you familiar with the belt promotion system in martial arts should understand this very well. The idea of this system is that there will be 10 ranks, organized from 1st Degree to 10th Degree. Everybody who first starts on the site would be a 1st Degree user.

Now, what does this mean? They can't do stuff? They're limited to something specific?

No, not at all. That'd just be rehashing the restrictions stuff.

Rather, there are two goals that I want to accomplish with this system. The first is to give users a clear form of attaining higher levels within the community. Think about it. Looking back from your younger days and seeing yourself now as a 5th Degree user.

It's not just an ego boost though. It serves as an excellent guiding system that will point users in the direction of those who they should look toward as a role model. Obviously, those with higher degree ranks will be viewed as the more experienced and most likely more skilled, and thus, they will be the people looked upon as the example to follow. Think about it. If NF is as big as you believe, and new users frequently come here, they won't know from first glance who the examples are. They might come on an unlucky day and see fellow newbies instead, creating... Naruto Uchiha, Sage of the Ten Paths. That's definitely not the example to follow. Rather, upon arriving here, they'd be able to learn about the degree system we have here and those who are higher ranked are clearly those who the community sees as the more experienced. Those will be the examples to follow. In this sense, we eliminate newbies mimicking other newbies and creating a literal craphole on NF, but rather, the exemplar users become the obvious example to follow.

But there are other perks to reaching higher ranks. Incentives should also come with the ranks as well. For instance, an FC site-wide project may start up again. People who are... say, Fifth Degree and Higher, would not have to use the apps to reserve and get approved for their material; within reason. But lower degree users still have to go through the old channels. This creates incentive for users to reach higher ranks so that they can also receive the same perks, without creating an atmosphere that limits creativity or tries to impose restrictions. Rather than negative reinforcement, this is a method of positive reinforcement. Perhaps Ninth Degree or Tenth Degree users can even be given special deletion rights by the administration. There's a lot of possibilities there, which can be discussed in full detail if you guys actually like this idea.

The ultimate purpose of this system is to, not only promote higher quality standards, but to also create a long-standing system that will help to push people away from the Uchiha and Otsutsuki trends. Obviously, I've accepted the fact that we can never completely stop this; it'd be naive to think it. But with this system, we begin to show that NF praises originality and straying from the standard overpoweredness of the canon. Rather than a site that simply restricts people from making characters like this, we create a system that instead rewards and praises those who DO create unique characters. Does it get rid of the Uchiha problem entirely? No. Nothing can. But this will cut down on it considerably I believe. Enough that it's worth to give this system a chance.

Now you may be asking: how does one rise in rank?

Well, just like the incentives portion, this is also up for debate and can be changed/altered after the idea is accepted (IF the idea is accepted, actually), but here is a rough draft of what I think may be a good set up:


 * Promotion from 1st to 2nd: Creating at least three non-Uchiha characters. Must each be a minimum of 20,000 bytes.


 * Promotion from 2nd to 3rd: Creating three characters from any Konohagakure Clan from the Anime or Manga, excluding Uchiha and Senju. Must each be a minimum of 25,000 bytes.


 * Promotion from 3rd to 4th: Having participated in at least two roleplays with two different users, each being at least a minimum byte count of 20,000.


 * Promotion from 4th to 5th: Having created at least two characters with a minimum of over 50,000 bytes. (Cannot possess any form of Doujotsu.) And must have created at least ten original jutsu articles, each having a bare minimum of 3000 bytes a piece.


 * Promotion from 5th to 6th: Having written a blog or thread post that offers advice that you've derived from your experiences on the site and the skills you've developed in your writing.


 * Promotion from 6th to 7th: Having created at least one character with a minimum of over 100,000 bytes. (Anything goes.) And must have, in their possession, at least twenty original jutsu articles, each having a bare minimum of 3000 bytes, and cannot be directly related to Doujutsu whatsoever.


 * Promotion from 7th to 8th: Having created, by this point, at least ten characters with a bare minimum of 35,000 bytes a piece. They cannot be Uchiha, Senju, Hyuga, or Otsutsuki characters, nor possess any of their Doujutsu. Other forms of Doujutsu and Kekkei Genkai are okay.


 * Promotion from 8th to 9th: Having created at least one character that is over 100,000 bytes and is regarded as a master specialist of a specific elemental nature or skill within the Naruto universe. (A good example of this would be Njalm's character, Fuyuki.)


 * Promotion from 9th to 10th: Being approved to have a character of yours serve as a Kage in a site-wide FC project.

Now, if you happen to have accomplished, say, the requirement needed to be promoted from 5th Degree to 6th Degree, but haven't completed the requirement from 3rd to 4th Degree, this means you are probably still at the 3rd Degree rank and cannot advance until completing it. What this means is that you cannot do any rank skipping, but any accomplishments made premature will still count. Which means, if over a month ago, you completed the requirement to advance to 7th Degree, and you just recently completed the 6th Degree requirement, you will still be able to be promoted again to 7th Degree. So while you cannot skip ranks, your past accomplishments will not go ignored just because you did them in the wrong order.

I think it will be wise to let an admin, or a small team of admins, be the one who approves a promotion from the previous rank to the next rank. But that is another thing that can be discussed after you first consider everything I've outlined above.

So, what do you all think? 