Hey all.

As you are well aware we have a user ranking on the forums that is somewhat vestigial. Now while it does have some purpose in limiting new users' abilities to post to the forums (to avoid spam), for many it seems confusing. Many experienced pilots are labelled "beginner" or "student pilot". About 8 months ago we added the ability to sync your forum account with your flight logs to display what aircraft you own and how many meters you've flown. Although not perfect, this is a little more reflective of users' experience than the aforementioned labels.

I'd like the community's opinion on this. Should we get rid of forum ranking, rename the ranks to something innocuous, make fewer ranks (beginner, active user, forum veteran, etc.), or something else?

NOTE: User groups have been adjusted. The following changes have been made:

• Renamed user groups to be more innocuous. "Second Officer", "First Officer", and "Captain" so users can have at least some prestige for having earned so many points
• Changed points rules. It is not a lot easier to rank up.
  
  

Group	Icon	Points
New		<10
lvl.1		<100
lvl.2		<300
lvl.3		<500
lvl.4		<1000
Second Officer		<2500
First Officer		<5000
Captain		>5000

Other ranking..., there are some guys on this fora that deserve special ranking because of their experience and clear and right explanations, also for the efforts they do to post some clear video's and links, thats my thought!

...and make video's, and add good links.., that is my thought!

Dear DJI Joe,

I would say that all forums have this discussion about who is better than the other!
It is impressive on how persons kill each other by being “higher” on status.
I, personally, think that the rank is linked to the forum activity. It is not linked with the pilot ability. So, for me, everything is ok and will be if you decide to change it.
We must focus our thoughts and actions to help each other and to increase the technical power of the threads.
To increase everyone’s knowledge and to become partners; friends.
Everything else is just loss of time.
Thanks for the interest on listening to us.

I've been flying for almost 1.5 years but I don't think I had my account linked or my old phone wasn't saving my flight data. Either way I should have WAY MORE hours/miles than whats listed. But whatever, its just a fun game like an achievement or a level up. Does it really make a difference?

I think it's fine the way it is.  If we're gonna change things, make me an Admiral please.

Oh, btw, I have over 1200 miles distance but my flight distance is blank.  Not fair!  

(I am joking)  

Life isn't fair.  It's fine.  Leave it.  MHO

Mark The Droner Posted at 2017-9-19 10:52
I think it's fine the way it is.  If we're gonna change things, make me an Admiral please.

Oh, btw, I have over 1200 miles distance but my flight distance is blank.  Not fair!  

Added a new option "Leave it".

Flight experience should prevail instead of forum activity and posts.

I wish showing the flight distance and the aircraft flown would work actually. Sometimes they are shown in my homepage, sometimes not and never below my name in the posts, as you can see.

https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=105541

15matjan Posted at 2017-9-19 11:05
Flight experience should prevail instead of forum activity and posts.

How would you describe flight experience? By years? By distance?
Maybe it should be determined upon how many drones someone has crashed yet :-)

Leave it alone..... My displayed flight distance is a fraction of what i flown and for some reason not all my craft are shown but a really don't care.....

No doubt about it, the Captains are the smartest and most experienced.   Leave it.

I like flight experience, but we need the ability to log it all in.  Even DJI's Ground Station Pro won't sync.  and thats the professional tool that you would EXPECT to be used more.  

I would like to see a system that reflects the competence and relevance of a user's replies.
A user whose replies are helpful and solves problems deserves more points than someone who supplies wrong and/or useless information.
But this would require a method to give points to the forum members who supply valuable information.
Perhaps the already existing Upvote and Downvote could be revamped for this purpose?

Add the country where we flown, add other devices to display like Matrice 100, Matrice 600, Crystalsky, cendence i own these devices and are not sync with my account, also a Beta tester badge.

R&L Aerial  Posted at 2017-9-19 11:48
Leave it alone..... My displayed flight distance is a fraction of what i flown and for some reason not all my craft are shown but a really don't care.....

I agree, my flight distance shown in the forum does not correspond to what DJI GO 4 is showing me.
On top of that, the flight distance of my second Mavic is not taken into consideration either.

Eric13 Posted at 2017-9-19 11:20
How would you describe flight experience? By years? By distance?
Maybe it should be determined upon how many drones someone has crashed yet :-)

I don't know how, but collecting points on a sign-in daily basis, or publishing irrelevant topics should not mean to become an experienced captain...
By the way, I agree with all complaining about flown kms which were not credited. I'm in the same party...

Perhaps a more accurate system would be the users to give/assign points or likes to the posts or replies they find useful or interesting.

Or we can leave it as it is. Don't need stars and stripes, I'm happier to fly without crashes or incidents.

MARSAN Posted at 2017-9-19 12:25
I agree, my flight distance shown in the forum does not correspond to what DJI GO 4 is showing me.
On top of that, the flight distance of my second Mavic is not taken into consideration either.

I own 2 mavic as well, i don't know why i need 2 its just that i like my quads.

R&L Aerial  Posted at 2017-9-19 13:42
I own 2 mavic as well, i don't know why i need 2 its just that i like my quads.

In case one flies away or lands in a tree...

Mafia16 Posted at 2017-9-19 12:24
Add the country where we flown, add other devices to display like Matrice 100, Matrice 600, Crystalsky, cendence i own these devices and are not sync with my account, also a Beta tester badge.

I agree I also fly Matrice 2 days a week not mine company owned, but I have some serious hours up on it.

Maybe stars for technical, flying, photography, etc then users may know who to tag for answers.

I prefer it the way they do it at Phantompilots.
They list the date someone joined the community, how many messages he posted AND how many Likes he got. That says it all.
Look at member "msinger" there. No one knows his mileage but he is a true Pro. Very profound knowledge.
In a forum the experience level cannot really be determined. Distance flown or amount of messages are a way to try but it doesn't work.

And I find ranks or medals always suspicious - maybe because I'm German ;-)

Maybe make it just simple use a star system , let upvotes and downvotes create the stars and be done and get rid of upvotes and downvotes.

Maybe stars for flying, techies, photographers, general use, app, etc.

Apologies double post (lose a star)

15matjan Posted at 2017-9-19 13:24
I don't know how, but collecting points on a sign-in daily basis, or publishing irrelevant topics should not mean to become an experienced captain...
By the way, I agree with all complaining about flown kms which were not credited. I'm in the same party...

Maybe some points should be given as to your job discription or life experience such as Electrical Engineer, Software Engineer, Pilot and so on and you have experience with questions or hardware being asked about. Flight distance and flying experance should count SUCH as knowledge of GPS or Radio receivers and transmitters in uhf and vhf and a LOT OF OTHER THINGS RELATED TO THE QUADS.

Maybe there should be a check box for first hand experience and one for work related experience.
Just my worthless opinion (1.333 cents worth)

Great insight, everyone. You all have some good ideas. To start, the choices I've given are going to some of our only options since dev resources are limited. I like the idea of  [upvotes] - [downvotes] = [level], but it's important to avoid malicious actions by users with a score to settle.

DJI Joe Posted at 2017-9-19 14:04
Great insight, everyone. You all have some good ideas. To start, the choices I've given are going to some of our only options since dev resources are limited. I like the idea of   - [downvotes] = [level], but it's important to avoid malicious actions by users with a score to settle.

Sounds great!
It even looks like a won a phone or what does the sudden overlay on my avatar mean:

It takes me to this site:

Eric13 Posted at 2017-9-19 14:16
Sounds great!
It even looks like a won a phone or what does the sudden overlay on my avatar mean:

It's some kind of bug that happens. It has something to do with posting from mobile. Ignore it, if possible.

Eric13 Posted at 2017-9-19 14:16
Sounds great!
It even looks like a won a phone or what does the sudden overlay on my avatar mean:

There is one on mine, but I didn't use a phone,

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-9-19 14:20
There is one on mine, but I didn't use a phone,

Again, it's a bug regarding the mobile version of the site. Ignore it if possible.

Lets not let this get off topic.

Think a combo of these are worth considering...distance/experience logged on copters and amount of time/posts on the forum.

Sportbike_Pilot Posted at 2017-9-19 14:49
Think a combo of these are worth considering...distance/experience logged on copters and amount of time/posts on the forum.

Is this not what we already have? Did you have anything specific in mind?

DJI Joe Posted at 2017-9-19 14:54
Is this not what we already have? Did you have anything specific in mind?

Just a couple of ideas:

1.) Distance logged defines maybe a Title for pilots. (now it's # of posts defines title)
2.) # of posts, member receives some kind of DJI icon cool badge?

Flight distance.

Sportbike_Pilot Posted at 2017-9-19 15:03
Just a couple of ideas:

1.) Distance logged defines maybe a Title for pilots. (now it's # of posts defines title)

That's a great idea. Thanks!

Voted #2 . How would it help others if I sync my data to get higher ranking (which have not worked for few months). Lets credit the people which have earned it, it's less than 50 members that assist most of the people which need help. Anyway if I ask for some help its always the same few members which help.

What would happen to the DJI credits?

ALABAMA Posted at 2017-9-19 16:29
What would happen to the DJI credits?

It depends on what option the forum team and the community decides is best. I'd want to keep the functionality as similar as possible.

15matjan Posted at 2017-9-19 11:05
Flight experience should prevail instead of forum activity and posts.

I disagree, DJI flight experience doesn't reflect the many hours flown using a third party app like Litchi or GS Pro. If it did, my meters flown would be much higher.

I'm thinking hours in the air like the real world.  Then added point as in login, posts, etc...

I think it's ok the way it is... Show forum contribuition with ranks, and experience of the pilot showing the drones and distance... The only thing is the point system... there are some guys who clearly like to say anything stupid, trolling  threads, and posting useless comments just to rank up... this point system encourages more people flood threads with those useless comments...