Alright.
I'm not gonna name any particular users, because I don't want to anger or offend anyone, but there's been a lot of users (or more than there used to be) that have taken advantage of their followers in a way to get them more upvotes and points. By posting many times a day with either incomplete or inadequate builds, or just useless gags, users can basically cheat the system and gain points to climb through the ranks very quickly.
For example, by posting three times a day with one mediocre 30-minute build and two gags or "experiments", with each post getting 6 upvotes each to appeal the their followers, the user easily clears the single fully-functional airplane with 12 upvotes to appeal to the community as a whole. Consequently, the user gains more points and climbs to a higher rank.
A great way to judge a user's build isn't in the upvotes, but the downloads. The amount of interest people have in the user's build directly influences the number of downloads the build recieves. Nobody wants to fly a blocky, messy pile of parts that you throw together in 20 minutes. Even though it gets upvoted, it still is the same forgettable, mediocre airplane. Now, I could further discuss the problem of people judging planes by their upvotes (which is often seen blatantly listed in airplane challenges as a merit of value), but that'd be a whole different post.
In conclusion, to be an honest, respectable user, don't use the "more planes = more upvotes" mentality. Put time, effort and vision into your builds. One great airplane would get you more credibility than a thousand useless gags would. Thanks! :)
-bsk
i remember that i'm surprised that i didn't win the plane that won lost to my plane 2/3 times when i made them battle as the ai
So it's not impossible @clayman0 but I was very lucky to have gotten to where I am now
The weird thing with me is that my growth accelerated exponentially over two periods @clayman0 first, after I made an anti-Jelly forum post two months ago, and second, after I hosted a huge dogfight tournament one month ago.
wait.... could i get ahead of you???? it's unlikely but i have a few follower i think the normal amount for a silver
@bskngshrk It depends because I play Simpleplanes for hours on end and sometimes I might post 4 planes within a minute but they took 2 hours to build.
lol @clayman0 you've gotten farther than I had after a month ;) but yeah, great points, man. People should upvote based on the airplane, not on the popularity
Also my robot has 5 upvotes my most popular plane has 6 and I have 5 followers so I'm not that popular
I had this sort of thing happen to me I was messing around with the rotator and I made a terrible robot and it got lots of update and one person commented that if other people are upvoting then they will too I try to make good planes but right now I'm not posting that often because I'm trying to build bigger and better I'm working on a larger plane now and it took a while to build the cockpit well so now I only have to build the tail but I'm getting off topic I Don't think that people should update because other people are it gets rid of the hard work that is normally required to get the higher ranks and people should stop this I think this is my longest comment ever lol
This 'fiasco' was indeed created by both parties, @bskngshrk
whenever I make a plane, I always spend 1.5 hours on it minimum.
You must be sure to acknowledge all sides of the argument @Ilovesthecheeses2 you shouldn't go wildly supporting someone just because they typed something sad on the internet. I'm sure PlanesofOld and the Colonel have had their quarrels, but I refuse to believe that only one of them is at fault for this huge fiasco.
lol thanks @Warbrine
@DatWalrus no, i was sick, so i had nithing to do but play video games, my uploading has slowed dramatically since i have gotten better
yes, there are some builds I up vote because something about it is good, but builds I download and spend a lot of time with are real treasures. For example Kimo's latest ship the black star.
Brings tears to my eyes (jk) well said m8 well said!
@Ezri Don't say that. you work hard... Usually I only post 1 every other day, but today I posted 5. They aren't the best quality, but that is NOT what I do. I have 1 follower, @grizzlitn and he Upvoted my creations since I joined... when I commented on his Amphibious plane
@Phantion
@Phantion -_-
for example @SimpleTechAndResearch and The Impossible, just an example no offence
i post a lot just because i have no life.
my planes also don't get a lot of downloads, but i put a lot of work into them. I wouldn't call them a blocky, messy pile of parts that you throw together in 20 minutes though.
@Squirrel PlanesOfOld was Temp banned by Skua
@PlanesOfOld I wouldn't word it like you did, but I've seen him/her say some unreasonable stuff. I don't think I've ever called him out for it though, but then I'm more the type of person who sits back and watches over things until they really do get out of hand.
I think people sometimes forget that toxic behaviour only breeds more toxic behaviour, which is clearly the case here. If the mods have already dealt with him multiple times, then that should be enough grounds to ban him/her from the site, like a three strikes and you're out type thing.
As a side note though. I did always wonder what happened to LordOfLego, he was one of my favourite builders on the site. And his disappearance seemed pretty sudden and out of the blue. If everything you say is true, it does seem a shame that other people are no longer posting/being active because of one person being toxic.
And yet I still get 1 upvote when I've worked on a build for quite some time.
@bskngshrk I agree with you 1000 percent