Discussion point: "Results threads"

[pi]

This has become a talking point of late (especially within the Moderator Team, with varying views), but has always drifted through the forum as an issue every year: the need for Results Threads. This discussion encompasses ATAR/Study Score threads to UMAT results to University threads.

This thread is not about having your scores in your forum signature, and whether you may know users from here who post their scores on Facebook, twitter, the PagingDr forum, Google+, Snapchat or w/e. This about scores being posted to ATAR Notes, so keep it on-topic and productive.

What are your opinions on these threads? Do we need them? What purpose do they serve?

No poll on this thread as I'd like written reasons, not numbers.


My personal stance is that (and I'll write what I wrote to the Moderator Team to maintain my consistency) "When was any results thread (uni, VCE, UMAT, whatever) on AN ever constructive in any way? Just smart people telling everyone they're smart and everyone else feeling bad about it "

ie. I feel it's justa lot of people having the old humble brag (eg. "did ok, got 85 for <x>, should have studied more I guess") or fishing for compliments ("omg there's NO WAY I'll get an H1/HD/40+ study score for this subject, I totally slacked off and it wasn't my favourite subject, will be so SHOCKED if I do omg <insert all these variations of sad faces>"... aaaaaand then they pull out an amazing score).

I really don't think we have a need for any of these threads:
1) The aforementioned humble bragging
2) The aforementioned compliment fishing and ego stroking
3) The fact that some people have incredibly high standards and then seemingly lack the social understanding to keep them to themselves (I honestly think it's a highly douchey move to publicly complain about getting a HD regardless of your standards, take it to Facebook chat with a mate that cares and if there's no one who would care about you being a bit disappointed in your "only 85"... then yeah the message is quite clear.)
4) The fact that people get a very warped view of what is expected from them in school/uni with only the top students posting results
5) To add to 4), when they don't meet this expectation they can become quite depressed
6) A lot of people see the Results threads as out-right bragging (and I mean guest users who may only come on during ATAR season or something) and it's not a good look for AN tbh (my personal view)

I'm well aware of the "no one is asking you to click on these threads, so if you don't want to see how smart I am then gtfo"argument, but I don't really think that's how we should run the forum (if so, bring back Sweet Nothings biatches! lol). I'd be in favour of no results threads and no "build-up" discussion treads either.

If people, for whatever reason, still want the world to know their scores, why not chuck them in your sig for a week or two, or comment them on your own forum profile, or make a blog dedicated to your results and achievements and link it on your sig, or make a subreddit dedicated to your results, or why not print them out at Officeworks on A3 paper and stick them all over traffic light poles in the CBD and your local suburb? .


So yeah, the Moderator Team would be interested to hear your point of view

[EspoirTron]

I'll say the same thing I have said to fellow moderators.

I think the results thread is both a good thing and a bad thing, and here is why.

Not all people are 99.95 students, nor are they straight HD students. Let's speak hypothetically here, say person X opens there results and they see they received two HDs, say 85 and 95, and they also received two distinctions. Most people in University would be really pleased with these results probably over the moon. Say person X actively uses AN, for them to come onto a thread where people who are getting close to 100 and are being upset about it, well person X would feel soul crushed. The thing is I am not going to say people who get say 99 H1 have no right to feel upset, because they may have put the work in for 100, but to make a scene out of it eludes to two things: one you're fishing for compliments to justify to yourself that you're good, and two you're being a bit inconsiderate. I'll also say this, I don't really have anything against people who say prior to results that they think they did bad, because well even really intelligent people have this common fear. So for person X they would feel like they're not good enough and that can have detrimental effects on their mental health and motivation.

I like the results thread because it is a way to share your achievements in a mostly constructive way while getting the support from your peers. It feels good to know that others share your happiness. I think more so people need to be diligent and mature about what they post on a public forum. I accept that it is each person's decision to get into the forums but when it becomes the hot spot of AN for almost a month then it's a tad bit difficult to ignore. I mean every time I go on that thread for UoM there is an average of 10 people looking at it.

Just some food for thought I guess.

[alondouek]

From the moderator thread:

I think we're making too big a deal out of this; we've removed respect from those threads (which is a big plus imo), and as someone said earlier, there is an element of 'click here at your own risk' with those threads that people on this forum are smart and responsible enough to know not to open the thread if they're going to feel demotivated by other people's results (which I feel is kinda silly in and of itself but understandable nonetheless).

As for the results threads themselves, I don't see any harm coming from them. Hey, if I got 90+ results for any subject I'd be crowing about them too, and fair enough! It's best just to keep them consigned to a single area on the forums, which is what we've done.

[vox nihili]

I think the whole thread is a bit demoralising for people. It's meant to be about celebrating people's achievements, and I think that for many people it does quite the opposite. I don't think it's fair to necessarily hate on people who complain about getting an H1 and not doing better—everyone has their standards—though perhaps they are being a bit self-serving and careless when they do make those complaints.

The threads need to go.

[hobbitle]

I think the threads need to go too. And that publishing actual percentages in any thread eg UoM chat should be discouraged.
I don't hate on people who get 90+ for everything at all but it's really f*cking demoralising for a lot of us who work really really hard and can't match those grades.


(mod edit: fixed up title of post, it has replaced " with &quot)

[hobbitle]

For some reason it's kind of different in the sigs. It's like the results thread can hurt because everyone's seeing their shit at the same time and it could be good or bad and there's a lot of feels going around. It's very in your face. You can't even see sigs if you use Tapatalk. It's less in your face.



(mod edit: fixed up title of post, it has replaced " with &quot;)

[walkec]

I agree that the threads need to go. I'm all for celebrating peoples' achievements, but I sometimes get the impression that people are wanting to be complimented on their efforts and their results, which I don't like. Another forum user might have worked harder or just as hard, but might have not got as high a result, so does that mean they don't deserve to be congratulated on their efforts?

I think we need to keep in mind that everyone has different abilities. However, I do think it's perfectly reasonable if people want to publish their results in their signature. As BasicAcid said, it can give more weighting to what people post and I don't see what's wrong with that.

[pi]

The reason I don't mind sigs (although lol if people just keep all their results there) is that they're there in plain sight and by themselves with no where to comment on them (hence can't fish for compliments, etc etc). There's also an option for every user to not see any forum sigs, so you can avoid it altogether if you wanted to.

The reason I don't mind user page comments is that no one will see them unless they really care and go out of their way to look at your profile and scroll down and then read them. Comments possible here, but it's better than a thread.

[Reckoner]

I think the uni results should go. I've no real issue with results being posted, as this may be the only place to discuss results for some users. However I'm against it because the results seem to just get drawn out for so damn long (the particular institution that's responsible shall remain nameless...). If it were all over in a few days then its pretty easy to ignore the threads, and we all could move on quickly. But when its near the top of "recent unread topics" in bold for weeks, it sticks out like a sore thumb and makes the thread seem more important than it really is.

I do believe that the forum needs the VCE results section though. Simply because if it were gone, results would likely get posted all over the forum. At least as it is its possible for people to avoid the discussion as it would be all in the one place.

As BasicAcid said, it can give more weighting to what people post and I don't see what's wrong with that.

I personally think it discourages users with not quite as high scores from posting, and perhaps feeling intimidated.I think the real benefit of this forum is for every student to have their say and to be able to discuss the material and various issues as more or less equals. I in no way think that the advice from someone who got an ATAR of 92 is worth less than that of someone who got 97. I think the best way to add weight to your posts is by making useful and helpful posts.

However I do get that with the tutoring, posting your results can help you get students. And that in reality, the users who post with higher scores seem more authoritative. So I don't know, I'm probably being a bit idealistic here.

[vox nihili]

In places like the subject reviews they definitely have a place though. The reasons for that are pretty obvious. Gives you a bit of breadth in the reviews if you've got people coming from different grades etc.

[pi]

In places like the subject reviews they definitely have a place though. The reasons for that are pretty obvious. Gives you a bit of breadth in the reviews if you've got people coming from different grades etc.

To be completely honest with you, I'd much prefer that people in their reviews put just their grade (HD/H1, D etc etc without the numerical value), this is two fold:
1) You still get that breadth, I don't think a 95 HD is going to tell you too much more when compared to a 85 HD in terms of how the unit works and what resources were useful etc
2) The uni or a lecturer is less likely to catch you out and have a stern word to you about it off the forum (I believe this happened with a UoM user last year or so?)

[Crystall97]

I understand perfectly where you guys are coming from. Threads dedicated to posting scores are wrong and purely people looking to be told how amazing they are.
I think the exception to this is people posting results as a one off statement on a thread or two, when giving advice as 'proof' for others to believe you. Many people o  AN, me included are culprits of this. If scores are being used as anecdoctal evidence to help other members I dont see the issue. Once it becomes bragging it should go.

[Russ]

If you want to remove threads that are not constructive, you've got much better places to start than results threads.
Now that they've been confined to their own subforum and not in other threads, I see them as a basically self inflicted problem. You can hide those subforums and never see another posted result ever again if you don't like them. I really don't see it as a problem that merits being banned, there's no need to make sure that absolutely everybody is not offended by anything posted on the forum

[alondouek]

I totally agree with what Russ says. You always have the option to 'opt out' of seeing the results boards, which is a great feature and one of the reasons I'm glad they got their own board instead of being in university subforums.

Are these threads generally an ego boost? Yes, of course! But I personally don't have any problem with people seeking praise for their efforts (I know that if I 'do well' this semester I'll damn well need some gratification hahahaha).

I do however believe that people becoming demotivated by the threads is a genuine concern; I personally don't experience that so I find it hard to relate to but I can see where it comes from. It's important to note a few things:

1. That people are more likely to post their grades if they've got utterly spectacular, holy-shit-is-that-even-possible marks; if you're getting decent, "more normal" marks then you're certainly not being left in the dust by any stretch of the imagination.

2. If you're getting perturbed by these grade posts, try to switch your view. Instead of thinking "how could I ever get that?!" Try to think "I reckon with a sustained and solid effort, I reckon I could match that!". It's all about positive thinking!

3. If you really, really can't stand those posts, Nina can engineer stuff such that you don't see that subforum at all, which is fair. (Not sure if you can do this yourself to an extent)

[MJRomeo81]

Personally I would prefer everything to stay. Who is forcing you to read these threads? If you have worked your ass off and scored a ridiculous grade, then you deserve your 15 minutes of fame in my book. I tip my hat to the warriors who walk away with 100s. Don't like it? Ask to have the subforum hidden on your account. It's that simple. I know I will be slammed for this but I can't believe people in university (who are about to enter the "real world") get upset because they scored 85 and someone else scored 95. And how many of us are taking the same subjects? I mean if user X scored 98 in calculus and user Y scored 70 in philosophy 101, who cares?

Is it not demoralising when you go to post your ATAR in December and most people on AN have 50 study scores + 99 ATAR? Or when you just bombed a SAC and everyone else is saying "I have A+ for my SACs but I'm stuffed for the exam". Will results in sigs also be banned because every page on the forum creates an intimidating atmosphere? Where do we draw the line on posting results? Will AN become a result-free zone?

What really needs to go is result build up threads. This is where the BS happens. People stating they doubt they'll get a HD and then later on you see they scored 99 HD. These posts should be removed. Just keep a result thread and only the actual subjects + scores are permitted. No conversation / circle jerking.