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Frequently Asked Questions | Lottery Post

Membership Features

1. What do the blue bars next to my name in the forums represent?  There are a total of eight possible blue bars, representing 9 levels of member experience ratings.  (The first level — "New Member" — has zero blue bars, making nine levels total.)The Lottery Post system is programmed with an automated system that once a night looks at all the members to see if any have qualified to be promoted to the next level.  If a member is found to be qualified, they are sent a Private Message by the system, and one more blue bar is added to their profile.The precise formula is secret, because the last thing we want is for people to be posting in a certain manner solely for the purpose of being promoted.  That would make a poor rating system.The one thing we can confidently say is that posting lots of messages will not get you promoted quicker.
2. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  The formula specifically rates well for quality and consistency, not quantity.  People who consistently participate in the forums are more valued by the system than someone who checks in to say hello here and there.The ratings do not say that one member is "better" than another, but the ratings do help quite nicely when judging the reliability of a reply, particularly when conflicting responses are given.  Someone with a high rating may have discussed the same topic before, perhaps multiple times, so their answers have the benefit and wisdom of previous discourse on the subject.