Adding a Skill Testing Question to the Login Process

That question doesn't test intelligence in any way, and is also Googleable. You can't Google the answer to an algebra question.

Honestly, people, some of the older members (me) have had this idea for years, but it hasn't happened because the administration is fair weak and must be purged.

 

The problem is none of these really test your cognitive reading ability and/or your ability to post properly, and such a test would be fairly complex.

 

Making math questions would just mean only autists could apply. Just because a guy is good at math doesn't mean he isn't a retard or a douche in other aspects. In fact, even if he isn't the sharpest fellow but knows how to talk to people (>implying social skills matter online) he'll do just fine.

The ability to communicate with other members is far more important than raw intellect. Testing this is tricky however. The only thing CLOSE to testing something like this would be making new users go under trial-mode. Nothing too extreme though.

Who would judge these new users?

The mods and admins? Too much corruption.

Other users? Perhaps. But that would be too much hassle. It would take too much time and new users would be discouraged by this form of "oppression" (check your cis privilege).

Perhaps we could combine both of these ideas. The autistic way of Captain Fabulous, and the soviet way of woodenrat.

 

An easy math question tests your education level, not your social functionality. That's the best we can do to filter out everyone below a certain maturity level.

Making math questions would just mean only autists could apply

Yes, because only autistic people can do grade school math.

The only thing CLOSE to testing something like this would be making new users go under trial-mode.

We already have that. When they fail the trial, they're banned. If they pass, they don't get banned.

The mods and admins? Too much corruption. Other users? Perhaps.

Can't let the people appointed to ensure everything runs smoothly ensure everything runs smoothly. We have to let the people decide. The people we're trying to get rid of because they're too retarded. Make the 12-year-olds the jury, I'm sure we'll see a drastic reduction of 12-year-old members in that case.

Too much corruption.

I've been paying them all off.

Perhaps we could combine both of these ideas. The autistic way of Captain Fabulous,

I can't believe how autistic I am.

and the soviet way of woodenrat.

Democratic choice is what the Soviets are best known for.

Sorry Woodenrat, but this post was too stupid to let slide.

 

Who said math

I just want people to actually be able to speak when they join the forums

 

I said maht. Speling isn't teribly important, realy. U can still hav an intelicutal discusion with evey second word speldt wrong. The mane reasin I sugested a mat queschin is tat u cant google teh answer vry easely.

 

Dats da gewd querstin

 

If we are going down this path there needs to be a You're/Your question in there as well. Because those words seem to trip people up just as often.

 

If we are going down this path there needs to be a You're/Your question in there as well. Because those words seem to trip people up just as often.

The problem with that idea is that it conflicts with two good points that have been brought up in this thread. One being that it shouldn't be something that can easily be Googled. And the other being that the test shouldn't be a test on English grammar, because there are some members here who can't speak English very well, but contribute valuable things to the discussion.

 

^Also we'd have to retroactively ban GIR and Matt

 

English isn't everyone's first language, friend.

English isn't everyone's first language, friend.

 

The problem with that idea is that it conflicts with two good points that have been brought up in this thread. One being that it shouldn't be something that can easily be Googled. And the other being that the test shouldn't be a test on English grammar, because there are some members here who can't speak English very well, but contribute valuable things to the discussion.

and even if they look up the answer they'll still learn the difference between the three terms a little.

 

even if they look up the answer they'll still learn the difference between the three terms a little.

Has, say, knowing the difference between your and you're been the only problem we've ever had with 12-year-olds? No. Just because they'll learn that one single thing doesn't mean they're ready to participate in these forums. That's like saying you've made a dumb person smart just by teaching them the meaning of one vocabulary word. 12-year-olds will be looking it up just for the sake of being able to register, and it's not even guaranteed that they'll retain that information, since they'll be focused on registering. And I most definitely don't think looking one thing up will have any influence on how eager said 12-year-old will be to learn how to be more mature in the future. Having an easily-Googleable question would defeat the purpose of this test.

 

It's not like it would bring MORE twelve year olds would it
I'm not saying it would eliminate the smart from the stupid but it would certainly help if only by a small amount

 

An easy math question tests your education level, not your social functionality.

I never even implied math questions test your social functionality you auschwitz survivor . The point I was trying to make that a simple math question wouldn't be enough to guarantee anything.

That's the best we can do to filter out everyone below a certain maturity level.

Except it wouldn't solve anything. There would be countless ways to cheat, so this would make a miniscule change. Also knowing a bit of math doesn't mean you've reached a "certain maturity level" either. It takes more than a fucking MATH TEST to find out if a person is mature.

The point I'm trying to make is that the way you communicate with other people (your social skills) is far more important than your education or intellect. This is the thing we should be testing. How? I don't fucking know anymore.

 

How about we just look at the maturity level I'm at right now and take that as a standard for 13-year-old maturity, and then actually enforce rule 1?

 

Except it wouldn't solve anything. There would be countless ways to cheat, so this would make a miniscule change. Also knowing a bit of math doesn't mean you've reached a "certain maturity level" either. It takes more than a fucking MATH TEST to find out if a person is mature.

See though even if they cheated, if they were capable enough to know how to cheat, that would at least show some intellect, which some members seem to lack (some don't seem to know how to google basic things).

And dunc, the maturity rule is hard to enforce because it's so very objective, so that's why we just use it when someone is very, very cleary not mature enough to be here.

 

Has, say, knowing the difference between your and you're been the only problem we've ever had with 12-year-olds? No. Just because they'll learn that one single thing doesn't mean they're ready to participate in these forums.

I'd like to add that most "12-year-olds" will reject almost any attempt to shut them up. If you go and play any online game with voice chat, they won't shut their traps no matter what you throw at them.

My solution? Forget that they're there and continue posting, until they leave or learn what not to type.

On another topic, this is my first post. I've been lurking anonymously for quite some time now, and finally decided to join with this bold statement.

I know that some of you don't give a hoot.

But I felt that it was important

 

how is "12-year-olds are annoying as hell" a bold statement
I think that's the consensus among most non-12 users here

Or is it the "ignore them" part cuz that's no fun, I wanna hit people with my hammer!

 

Talking about the questions being Googleable and Algebra, maybe you should totally check out this algebra solver I just literally Googled up less than a minute ago, with no prior knowledge of its existence. That should be proof enough that algebra is not Google-proof. I'll bet that there's an algebra solver out there that can deal with calculus as well. But I suppose that WoodenRat had already explained why math is not a very good gauge of intelligence already.

I suspect that the problem about this requirement some of you are trying to implement is that you actually have no idea what the end result you actually want. All you just think is "filter out people I don't like." I daresay you won't be able to actually use "filter out immature idiots" since some of you here *are* pretty immature in your own way, but that's just my opinion.

While I don't really care about "immature idiots", since it's not like they're murdering my family and burning down my house by being a horrible human being, and I don't really care about any changes to this forum, I suggest a solution:

We get a "Guest forum" for people that signs up. They can not post in any other places. They have to apply to the moderators to be a "Forum Member". But hey, that would be kind of annoying to Noxid (who I think is the only moderator here? Or at least the only moderator who does something.) for him having to read through PMs and deciding whether to accept new members or not, plus, it would likely murder our site traffic. (but it's not like any of you here want new members anyways?)

So ultimately it's up to Noxid, and I think he is fine with the policy as-is, and probably doesn't want to sort out applications. That's what I think he thinks, at least.