Stopping to say thank you (points system)

I would like to remind everyone that through replying to another's post, you are greatly helping them. To promote this you may notice the "merci" button next to several usernames.

If that user's post has helped you in a significant manner, just click the "merci" button. This will feed into points/reputation system of each user.

Of course, we are monitoring for corruption. (As in it won't give you anything to randomly pressing the "merci" button again and again.) This system is meant to award those who ACTUALLY try to solve the problem and take out their time.

Right now I'm going through posts and giving these "merci" points, when I feel right. Of course, I don't give merci points to myself.
(It's for you to decide if I'm helpful or not.)

The first post of a topic (which is generally considered as posing a question) does not have the merci button. You will only be able to see the "merci" button if you made that very topic.

Sometimes (if you have sufficient points) you will notice a +, --, and a - at the right of the user's message. + being for a positive response, the longer dash (--) for not having voted, and - for a negative reply.

This is based on a voting system: After having placed your vote, different levels of green and red will show depicting the "usefulness" of that post.

(Note: If the majority of your posts, are deemed red it may be time for some changes. )

I think this is a really great system for determining mods and ensuring that posts remain on-topic. But it should probably also be encouraged that some posts shouldn't be voted on, such as someone stating their answer to a problem, unless they have a hint or something useful along with it.

And on a side note, is the new interface for everyone, or am I just seeing it as a mod?

I believe its for everyone (of course you can't vote for yourself though.)

The voting system is also to eliminate any form of SPAM messages. Please if you notice any off-topic messages, vote negative immediately.

As Ben said, do not vote on solutions whether be right or wrong.

Oh, and I meant the actual look of the forum. But still, I think this will be very useful. I wish I could vote for all the times you've been helpful, Archis, but I think finding all of them will be hard.