Phoenix Network Forums

As some of you may have noticed, I've now implemented the non-forumy signup system, you may have also noticed there is a test at step 3 you need to pass before you can signup. Well we need more questions for it, so I want your suggestions. These questions should be relating to Phoenix, its policies and TOS and if the information isn't already on the website then I'm sure we can get it on there.

Put your suggestions in this format:

Question: Is the sky blue?
Option1: Yes
Option2: No
Option3: What are you smoking?
Answer: Option1

Option3: What are you smoking?

Hi there,

To be perfectly honest, I think you have nailed it with the questions, however...
I was having a think, and thought that maybe a question or two as to the purpose of Phoenix Network might be a good thing...

Something like:

What is the main objective of the Phoenix Network:
Option1: World domination!
Option2: To create a unique community based on helping, knowledge and learning.
Option3: No reason whatsoever, we just like to give stuff to people for free.
Answer: Option2

OR:

Is the Phoenix Network completely self-sufficient:
Option1: Yes, completely self-sufficient!
Option2: No, all our funding comes from advertising.
Option3: No, we accept donations from our users.
Answer: Option3

While these questions are simple to answer (and could possibly be worded better), they are designed to provoke a few brain cells to start working and take on board the fact this the whole purpose of the Phoenix Network is to help users by building a unique community, and that there is no money made by doing this. It's done out of the goodness of the Administrators' hearts and does require/appreciate/need a little bit of giving on the users part too.

Hope this wasn't a wasted post

Best wishes.

Fuzzy

I could have sworn the answer to your first question for option 3
Also, your second question is kinda iffy, right now we are self sufficient and when we can, we rely on advertising and donations. All the same I'll look into them when I have some time.

Cute-N-Fuzzy wrote:Is the Phoenix Network completely self-sufficient:
Option1: Yes, completely self-sufficient!
Option2: No, all our funding comes from advertising.
Option3: No, we accept donations from our users.
Answer: Option3

Hi Tim,

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post, I really appreciate it.

I know that last question was a bit vague, but it was about 4 O'clock on the morning when I posted it so I was a bit tired. The question was supposed to make users think and also understand. The key word in option 2 was the word "all". I agree the the last option may need a tiny bit more work, but option 2 is not the correct answer because not "all" of your funding comes from ads. I have to admit, I like this place a lot and I am keen to do anything that I can to help as most of the people I have seen posts from seem like very good people. If there is anything I can do please let me know. I can script for mIRC as it is something I enjoy, I would like to learn TCL though which is one reason I am also keen to get a shell account. I am going to put a link on my home site today (http://thefuzzyone.co.uk/) with the larger graphic I found on this site. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of traffic at the moment, so if you can give me any advice on the best ways to promote my site in order to get a few more users to click the link to this site, please let me know.

Is there a forum for IRC scripting help? I haven't seen one and I would be happy to support it if there was one. Once again, if there is ANYTHING I can do for you guys, let me know.

Regards.

Fuzzy

You should get in touch with funman, he'd love you, hes really into the whole mIRC scripting thing as well

I understood where the question was going but when the signup system wasn't working correctly we had a couple of complaints about questions which could have alot of different answers which could still just work, so from now on I think we should probably try and word questions so that they may be difficult but they can't be easily confused (sure the signup system didn't work anyway, but the question was still a little screwy

I know I seem to have completely ignored alot of your post but its been an awful, long day and I'm a bit tired right now

Tim

The questions shouldn't be related to Phoenix Network directly. This makes giving the right answers rather easy (by lookup). I'd rather recommend something like this pair of questions:

Do you use Linux/Unix at home?

1. Yes, mainly.
2. Yes, secondarily.
3. No, I don't.

XFree86 and X.org - which one do you prefer?

1. XFree86
2. X.org
3. I love the VT.
4. Can't answer this.

If those two questions are far enough from each other, then the user might cause a contradiction here. If he doesn't use Unix/Linux at home, then he can't answer "I love the VT". This way, you would know for sure that the user is lying. If you create a whole network of such relations, then you can find almost any lie. Imagine 15 questions and 3 possible answers each. Then there are more than 14 million possible combinations, but only a tiny little subset of them don't cause a contradiction.

By the way: this pair of questions is just an example and it's not even good. You need at least 10 questions with 3 answers each for this method to be effective. And the answers need to be related a lot - even if the questions themselves are not (if he answered C to question 14, then he can't answer B to question 8. If he answered D to question 2, then he must answer E to question 15, and so on).

mm_freak,

I feel you may be straying off-track a little. Either that or I have the wrong idea about the questions. I think the idea of the questions isn't to see how much a user knows about a particular subject, nor to know whether they are lying or not, but to make sure that they are aware of what is/may be expected of them by accepting the TOS. I don't think it's meant to be an interregation.

Once again, it might just be me, but that's the way I see it.

Fuzzy

I think the Pirate or Ninja question would do.

Cute-N-Fuzzy wrote:I think the idea of the questions isn't to see how much a user knows about a particular subject, nor to know whether they are lying or not, but to make sure that they are aware of what is/may be expected of them by accepting the TOS. I don't think it's meant to be an interregation.

Very correct you are, that is the point of the questions. We're only looking for a basic understanding of our policies and rules, his way the user cannot claim to be neglegent of our rules.

I understand. But then I'd still not ask such questions too directly. Otherwise the user will be going to look the answers up.

How is the user ever going to know the answer without looking it up?

Fuzzy

Cute-N-Fuzzy wrote:How is the user ever going to know the answer without looking it up? :wink:

By having read the rules and FAQs first, before even attempting to sign up for a shell. =)

If you ask "Are ircds allowed on our shell services?", then one can at that point open the FAQs and look the answer up. This makes the test worthless, and is just annoying for serious users, who really want to be part of the community.

The test exists for one reason and one reason only, so that when I hit the suspend uhh...command, I can happily say that the moron read the rules and policies because my test made them read it, there can be no unclearness about anything, by answering the test correctly it showed that they were aware of how I want things to operate.
I don't want to trick users, I don't want to irritate them but we have had too much irriatation with "negligent" users so this is enough for me to be able to say that they aren't negligent as they filled out a bloody questionaire.

Well said Tim!

*hands you a beer and a chill pill*